So Many Eclipses!!!

*Disclaimer*  If you don't want to hear about the marching band, don't read this post.

So hows this for a connection!!  I just stared reading A Connecticut Yankee in King  Arthur's Court and within fifty pages I've made a relevant, if cheesy, parallel to my life!  This book, like Frankenstein, is a bracket book - the plot takes place inside a fictional book that a character is reading.  The story begins with a man visiting a museum with artifacts from King Arthur's Court.  While he is there, he meets this stranger who claims to have been there for real!  This mysterious gentleman gives him a copy of the diary he kept while living in the days of the knights, and the first man begins to read of the second man's adventures.  In this book within a book, the main character is accidentally sent back in time to the insane period of the Middle Ages.  There, almost immediately he is taken captive due to his strange appearance and held prisoner.  Because of some outrageous claims concerning his apparently ferocious nature, he is sentenced to burn at the stake (Monty Python anyone?)  To escape this fate, he uses his knowledge of the past.  Somehow, he realizes that the only recorded eclipse during that century occurred within a few days of his arrival.  He uses this knowledge to his advantage, telling the mob trying to burn him that he will stop the sun from shining if they continue.  There are a few misunderstandings about dates, but luckily, the timing ends up perfect.  Right as they start to light the brush at his feet, the sun begins to disappear.  TAHDAH!!! Suddenly, he is a great magician and the kings right hand man.

Now, here is the connection.

If only the Homestead band could have that effect on the crowd when we do OUR eclipse.  This year's show is entitled "Children of the Sun" (I don't get it either), and during the climax of our show, we flip a giant tarp in the center of the field that represents the sun over so it becomes dark, then dramatically flip it again during some epic music.  Its actually really fun.  However, this year our show has been much less inspiring than the display of "magic" in the first few chapters of The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  We are known for being an amazing band, but for the first time in years, we didn't receive the highest score at regionals.  Tragic.  With semi-state and state remaining, we all hope that somehow we can improve our performance so that we can be at the top again.  We haven't been too optimistic this week.  Honestly, practice has sucked.  We have been outside in forty degree weather, wind, and rain.  Hardly ideal conditions for improvement.  Tonight, however, during practice I was actually inspired.  Once in a while, the music, energy, and crowd reaction combine in just the right way and create this weird, complete sensation in the pit of your stomach (cheesy, but true) and for the first time in months the show actually got the students, directors, and crowd excited.  The band had an fantastic run and, like the eclipse in my book, I hope that kind of energy will change our current situation.  Metaphorically, we could go from being burned at the stake to being in control of the whole kingdom.

I'M ON THE FIFTY!!! Dancing on the Practice Tarp (Our Sun)