Sunday, February 24, 2013

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Introducing: The Sousaphone Cam

After having watched only the first 20 seconds of this video, I had it figured it for the World's Worst Idea, simple in concept yet pointless in reality: stick a video camera in the bell of a sousaphone and film a Great Lakes bootcamp graduation ceremony.

But after sticking through it, I changed my mind. The Sousaphone Cam serves a valuable purpose. This video accurately portrays what it's like to be be the poor slob in the back of the band carrying 30 pounds of plumbing supplies on your shoulder. You have no idea what's going on. Most of what you hear is yourself. When playing in a drill hall, hanger or other acousical monstrosity, the sound of the actual band arrives after a five-second delay.

Watching this evokes vivid recollections of my days as a junior MU. I'm 64 years old, so I suppose that having bad memories is better than having no memory at all.