Welcome to the section of the SI site that makes everyone wonder how Tim and I managed to make it through high school, let alone college. This is the weekly excursion into the weird that we call the Contest Journal.
This week Tim and I "returned home" to our alma mater, better known as F.J. Reitz High School, on Evansville's west side to cover the F.J. Reitz Marching Festival, followed by the North Posey Field of Dreams Invitational in Poseyville.
As most of you know, we listen to music on the way to the show so we can clear our minds and prepare for a full day of shooting photos. A lot of thought goes into choosing just the right tunes so we will be at the top of our game when we get to the stadium. Because Tim and I live pretty close to F.J. Reitz, we had to pick something quick and to the point. That way we could hit the ground running (so to speak) when we made it to the show. After a short session of brainstorming, Tim and I decided that there was only one CD that we had that would work.
During the 1960's a ukulele master took the world by storm. His name was Herbert Khaury. Some knew him as Tiny Tim. His music was as insane as the times. Hard hitting, brutally honest lyrics and blazing ukulele riffs were the hallmarks of Tiny Tim. This is exactly what we needed to get us ready for the show at F.J. Reitz.
Here's a clip from his multi-platinum anthem about anarchy called Tiptoe Through The Tulips.
There's nothing like taking photos in Reitz Bowl! I couldn't wait to get started, so I took out my camera and went nuts shooting the first two bands. Only then did I realize that I left my lens cap on.
The best part of every marching season is that we get to link up with many of our old friends.
For instance:
Here's our old buddy (and Evansville Central guard director) Dean DeKemper making the point that he may be skinny and blurry, but he's not transparent.
...and of course the folks from Har Go Rio made it to the show. They are always a lot of fun.
The show at Reitz continued on until the conclusion without incident, for once.
After the show, Tim and I jumped in my car and sped to the first place we could find that had WiFi access so we could update the site. After lunch and a nap we made our way to North Posey for the evening show.
North Posey is one of a few contests that have two award ceremonies. The first ceremony is after the first two classes and the second one is after the other two. There is also a break between the first awards ceremony and the second half of the show. This allows for people in the audience to take a break, or leave, and the fans of the second set of bands to get seated.
A new feature this season at the North Posey show was "open mike night" during the break. The crowd was getting restless because no one was stepping up to the microphone, so I decided to give everyone a sneak peek of my upcoming stand up comedy act.
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| "How do you know when a drummer delivers a pizza to your house? He bangs on your door out of time and he doesn't know when to come in!!" "Thank you, thank you!" "I am here all week." "Try the veal!" |
Apparently everyone thought I looked thirsty because they starting lobbing bottles of water and soft drinks at me.
Soon the second half of the show started and we were shooting photos again - for a few minutes anyway. Then we realized that it was too dark to shoot, so we spent the rest of the evening sitting in the hospitality room, eating way too much and harassing the North Posey band boosters.
What a great day! What a long day! Tim and I had lots of fun, took lots of photos and met lots of people. I would list them here, but I forgot to write any of their names down. I'll try to remember to do that next week.
