Food, Flags, and Frustration

Capital Classic

Friday, July 8, 2022

Sacramento State College - Hornet Stadium

Sacramento, CA 

Good news!  Bro's car was still in the same parking space when we woke up in the morning.  We went downstairs for breakfast, and the cook came out of the kitchen to let us know that he was still making the crustless quiche and sausage biscuits, and asked if we would like some.  We ordered one of each for each of us, and got our drinks while we waited.  There were firefighters in the breakfast area, too.  I wonder how long they're staying, and if the menu is different enough every day so that they don't get tired of it.  The cook came to our table with our food.  I guess he was making them to order?  

Hot Breakfast Items

We drove to Auntie Milda's house, stopping along the way at almost all of the Targets we saw because Bro was looking for some puzzles that were sold out everywhere.  He did not find them.  Auntie Milda wasn't home yet by the time we got there, but we had a key and lounged until she arrived.  Once she did, we headed to dinner at a place that Bro found on Yelp, and Auntie Milda had heard of but not tried yet: MasaLatina.

I ordered a Pisco Sour, which was quite tasty.  Bro had a beer, and Auntie Milda ordered Jamaica agua fresca.

Pisco Sour

Chips and Drinks

They had different ways of eating their masa:  as a puffy taco (2 styles), empanadas, or arepas.  They also had other dishes, but we were interested in the puffy tacos, and I wanted to try their arepas.  With each style, you also had a choice of meat, or a veggie option, or plantains.  I ordered a veggie puffy taco and a carnitas arepa.

Mmmm...arepa!

I also ordered plantains.

The next day, Bro did some work around the house for Auntie Milda while I blogged.  We went to dinner at Ichiban, where I enjoyed my filet mignon roll.  Afterward, we got drinks from Kung Fu Boba, and I had a Mango Snow slush.  I would have had something else, but they were out of boba.  I mean, it's in their name!  Oh, well.

Filet Mignon Roll:
Vegetable tempura, filet mignon, seaweed, and rice

Mango Snow with Mango jellies

With two days of rest done, we were more than ready for some drum corps.  Before we headed up  to Sacramento, we looked up the stadium info and I realized that this is the same stadium we went to in 2013, when there were only portapotties on our side of the field.  Sigh.   

We stopped at my favorite place to eat dessert in Sacramento:  Vampire Penguin.   Bro was going to get his dessert to go, but I wanted to still be near a restroom until we finished.  I ordered a Mango Frutilla, and Bro ordered a Mango Splashy.  

Mango Frutilla:
Mango snow with strawberry jellies, 
strawberries, and mango popping boba

Mango Splashy:
Mango snow with
 mango popping boba and mango jellies

Sacramento State was not far away, but it did take a little while for us to park because of the line to get in.  There was a parking structure that I didn't remember being there before, so I guess it's new.  There were actually a lot of newer-looking buildings around the field, but none of them had restrooms with plumbing accessible to us.  So irritating.  I mean, it's been NINE YEARS since we were last here, and they didn't build any restrooms for the spectators?!?

The seating was General Admission, but we were in the VIP section, so we had seats with backs, as opposed to the others, whom had regular bench seats.  The only thing about the seats is that they do not fold at all, so when you need to get by somebody, they really don't have any room to go anywhere.  I should have taken the seats on the aisle so we wouldn't have to worry about that, but I hoped that I wouldn't need to go to the restroom after the first  time, so we kind of stuck ourselves in the 3rd row of the VIP section, between the 40 and 50-yard lines on the right.  People changed seats a lot so it was kind of like being in the row where the drum corps staff would sit.  So there were 3 strikes against this stadium for us: bathrooms, GA seating, and stiff seats.  The only good thing about the stiff seats was that we could step on them to get around people, but I'm not as nimble as I used to be, so it wasn't very easy.  

The Star-Spangled Banner was performed by the hornline from the Mandarins Alumni Corps.

BLUE DEVILS C

Repertoire: "It's About Time" -- Doctor Who Theme by R. Grainer; What Time Is It? by M. Gerard & R. Nevil; Don't Stop Me Now by F. Mercury; My Life Would Suck Without You by M. Martin, L. Gottwald, & C. Kelly

They start the show with their arms positioned like clock hands.  They are such cuties!  The lady sitting in back of Bro didn't know the Kelly Clarkson song, but I didn't feel like starting a conversation with her.  Maybe she's figured it out by now.

Little Color Guard Girl

Dan Acheson, CEO of Drum Corps International was there.  Welcome, Dan!  I wonder if he has to use the portapotties.  The announcer told us that the stadium is under construction, which I noticed in the back when I went to the portapotty.  I hope they're building restrooms.  Bro said that I should donate money to build restrooms and I could get them named after me and we could use them.   They couldn't raise the money themselves over nine years?

There wasn't any room around the stadium to put all of the props for upcoming corps, so they were all on the track, waiting their turn.  See that field house in the back right of the picture?  I hope the corps gets to use the restrooms in there.

BLUE DEVILS B

The color guard has their uniforms and flags now.  Good dancing!  They need to use those gold flags more.  Bro wanted to know why the soloists were playing behind poles, and realized that there are microphones in them.  Nice drill when they are in inverted V forms and pass each other.

Corps uniform

Color Guard in pink

Pretty gold layer added to the costume at the end

VANGUARD CADETS

The color guard has their uniforms, but still doesn't have their flags.  That one girl is just pretending to have a flag.  I did not remember the opening as percussion only.  It sounds good!  Actually, all of the music sounds great.  Bro does not like how the gray color of the pants below the knee kinda looks like it is their boot.  He calls it "feet delete".  Did that triangle open up last time?  The show is not yet done yet.  The other triangle is still not open.  

SCVC Drummers

Opened Triangle

She is not holding anything.

GOLD

S: "What is THAT?"

Bro: "It's a tarp."

This corps is like, lost or something without a tarp?  They were doing just fine without it.  Part of the tarp rolls out and has writing on it: "Memories" and "Fear".  The guy actually fake plays 3 notes on the fake piano.  Bro said that the piano almost tipped over, but he saved it by adjusting his body to fix the balance.  I thought that the show was finished the other day, but it wasn't today.  Like, where's the costume change?

Bro: "Usually, we don't go backwards in time."

Did the tarp throw them off that much?

Pretty blue flags

<Intermission>

We stayed in our seats.  Someone behind us said that when they went to a line for one of the food trucks, people there had been waiting for an hour for their food.  Strike 4.

PACIFIC CREST

Ouroboros is back!  The number on the Cadets' door is 1313, which I think is the same as in their 2005 show.  I did not remember the colorguard uniforms, but Bro remembered the cheerleader look.  One of the songs sounded like it was from "Ouroboros" during the Depeche Mode feature.  Their show is done!  Nice silent flag drill in the last piece: great unison!  Go, drums!  The horns are sounding better, too.

No longer the beginning of the show

Cheerleaders and Flags

Finally got a decent pic of this
From the Academy's "Drum Corpse Bride" show

I like the dripping look on the uniforms

BLUE DEVILS

The corps is wearing different uniforms!  Are they trying to be the Blue Boy painting?  The pants seem to go with that style.  Then they just threw off those coats like they were nothing at the beginning of the show, and didn't put them on again. I think I took pictures of Cooper.  Or at least someone that looks like him.  Oh, wait.  It's blurry.  Never mind.  I like that 3rd movement the most, especialy with the drummers getting into it, and the sparkle just emphasizes it.  Too good, man.  The tuning of the piccolo trumpet still seems off, but I do like the trumpet ensemble feature that goes with it.  

Pre-show

This looked like a Hidden Mickey from far away

Stained Glass Flags

Artsy drum wraps

SANTA CLARA VANGUARD

I like seeing the Vanguard Cadets drummers in front of us shake their heads incredulously during the snare drum feature.  The show is DONE!  Aaaaahhh, what a relief.  Good flag work overall, but they need to clean up the unison in the last piece.  

Flag Toss

MANDARINS

I told Bro that my boyfriend was going to sing soon, and that maybe I should know his name.  He said I didn't need to.  Then someone yelled out "Mitchell!" during his song, so I guess that's his name.  Bro was asking if the headbands were new, but I think they just look different at night because the shiny stuff is shinier.  They played great for their home crowd!

Boyfriend

Encore

• Mandarins Alumni corps played the ending to their 2015 show, "Paper Sons".  I remember that one!  I liked that show.
• Current Mandarins played a selection from this year's show.
• Current pit members played the opening song from their 2018 show, "Life Rite After".  That was way cool.
• A bunch of people yelled, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAYA!" to one of the drum majors.
• They played a classical piece that is familiar to me, but I don't know the name.
• Then my boyfriend walked to the center, and I heard people yelling out the name "Charo", or "Taro" or something.  Ohhhhh...it's CHARLES!  Go, Charles!  They played "The Other Side" and he sang wonderfully.
• Mandarins and Mandarins Alumni Corps combined played their corps song, called "The Year of the Dragon".  Very nice.
• Next year is the 60th Anniversary of the Mandarins, so I'm expecting to see something special at their Sacramento show.  We might not see it, though, because we're always unhappy with something at their venues.  But this one is closest to Auntie Milda's place, so we'll probably end up coming anyway.  Maybe if we come to this venue next year, there will be proper restrooms on the Home side.  I won't sponsor them, though, and it's already been 9 freaking years, so I'm not holding my breath.

Scores

Open Class:

4) 41.90 -- Blue Devils C

3) 58.40 -- Vanguard Cadets

2) 60.85 -- Blue Devils B

1) 60.95 -- Gold

World Class:

4) 62.70 -- Pacific Crest

3) 73.30 -- Mandarins

2) 77.75 -- Santa Clara Vanguard

1) 79.60 -- Blue Devils

We exited the stands and walked over to the other side of the field to use the restrooms under the visitor stands.  So the visitors get better restrooms?  Anyway, we had to take a detour when we left because they were working on the onramp to the freeway.  Sigh.  Well, at least we got to Auntie Milda's place fairly quickly and were able to eat snacks before going to bed.

We have a free day until the last California show for the World Class corps.

Next up:  DCI West