The Journal...
Welcome to the portion of the SI web site that proves that if literary content laws were ever enforced, I would receive a life sentence without hope for parole. This is the weekly train wreck we like to call Contest Journal.
This week Tim and I stayed close to home and attended the Castle and F.J. Reitz shows. District was only a week away and the level of competition was rising very quickly. Tim and I were amped to get out on the road and go to the show; however, due to some "technical difficulties," otherwise known as "Mexican food for dinner last night" we got a late start to the show.
Choosing the right music for the trip is important because it helps us stay at the top of our game - from a photography standpoint. I was a bit loopy from the medicine I had to take to counteract the "unpleasantries" caused by the grande caliente salsa y enchilada festivo from the light before, so I had to go for something intense. After a brief discussion, Tim and I quickly decided that we had the perfect CD for the trip.
True metal mavens know that Pat Boone can rock harder than any other metal act. You don't believe me? Check out the following track. This is Pat Boone's remake of Deep Purple's 1972 classic "Smoke on the Water."
Click here to listen to a clip.
Once we arrived, we were greeted by some of the Castle parents, who had a special welcome waiting for us:
As we walked through the gate a Castle band mom smiled and said that she loved the web site, so I asked if she would mind being in a photo with me. She agreed and then Tim took the picture. Soon after the picture was taken, the band mom noticed the SI logo on my shirt and said "oh, you're from THAT web site!" and then walked off shaking her head and mumbling something about being kicked out of the booster club. I didn't catch all of it.
Once we got down to the field we were treated to some outstanding performances. We even took some photos of them!
The show was divided into a morning and an afternoon session with a pretty long break between the two halves. About half way through the break the crowd started to get restless, so I decided to entertain the crowd with a magic show topped off with my famous levitating end zone marker trick.
The kids from Vincennes Lincoln loved it!
...well, maybe not.
Anyway, the rest of the show continued without incident.
After the conclusion of the Castle show, we hopped my car and headed west through Evansville to F.J. Reitz. While traveling to F.J. Reitz we ended up behind Pike Central’s equipment trailers. Neither of us was really paying attention, but we caught a glimpse of something small and black that jumped from one of their trucks. I locked up my brakes to keep from hitting it and Tim jumped out to see what it was. It turned out to be a shako. Tim immediately reminded the wayward hat that "there are seatbelt laws in Indiana, buddy, and if it would have buckled up this wouldn’t have happened."
Later Tim returned the shako to the tearful, yet happy, Pike Central equipment manager.
The Reitz show was going quite well until North Posey’s performance. Then I saw them - they had clear rifles!! I was stunned. I mean, where do you find transparent wood to make them?!? I spent the rest of the evening trying to figure that out.
Fortunately Tim took up the slack and finished shooting the show.
It was a great day! We got to see a bunch great performances, talk to old friends and even save a hat from certain death! Hopefully next week we will have as much fun as we had today. Tune into the next edition of Contest Journal and find out.
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