Gafoo's Blog

Actually, that title is a little misleading. It should actually read…

1100 miles, 2 drum corps shows, 2 amazing lot warm ups, 2 drum corps parties, 1 surreal car crash, 1 lost and found cat, and 1 dead hamster in 3 days (with escargot and beef sticks)!!!

So this past weekend was So Cal Dream’s northern California tour. For those of you who don’t know, I got the opportunity to work with So Cal Dream’s percussion this season. I have been in several capacities since February…
1. Snare Tech
2. Center Snare
3. Battery Caption
4. Vibes player
It’s been an interesting and highly rewarding experience to try to impart some of my knowledge of percussion to these cats and to be with them on their various adventures throughout southern California. They are an excellent group of drummers and we are having a fun time putting together a show with percussion arranged by Murray Gusseck of Santa Clara Vanguard fame.
Anyway, back to the tour…
So our tour starts in Sacramento on a Friday show. If you are not in the loop, Friday shows are typically death for senior corps. Considering that everyone in senior corps has a 9-5 mon-friday job, it’s pretty much impossible to schedule a rehearsal before the show so Friday shows are typically sans field rehearsal and sometimes without a full ensemble runthrough. Luckily, Dream is on tour, so this Friday gig is not a problem since we are all checked into a hotel on Friday anyway. Or so I thought….
As I sit in the 110 degree parking lot at Natomas HS 15 mins before rehearsal time, I start to contemplate why the rehearsal site is so empty considering we have 15 mins until we start. Where is the bus??? Where is the motorhome with battery equipment? Where the hell is the drumline?!?!?!
So I start the car and drive around the block to the hotel where the corps is staying and I find a drum corps sitting in the parking lot with all there stuff out. It’s just after 11am and the corps has been here since 7am and apparently they still don’t have rooms!!! WTF!!! It’s times like these that I am glad I am not a part of the logistical team that has to deal fighting a hotel for rooms for 30+ people.
Anyway, we head to the rehearsal site shortly after that and it is HOT!!!! Although I am pleased that it is not quite as hot as the surface of the sun like it has been before. Nonetheless, the drumline still feels the need to do an underwear runthrough just to get some relief from the relentless heat.
Dream has been turning some major heads this year and suprising a lot of drum corps fans. They are taking a major step forward and starting to solidify there presence as a seriously competitive DCA corps. The Northern California tour was no exception. On Friday in the parkinglot, the drumline had their best pre-show warm up to date. There was just something in the air as parts were locking in and actual grooves were going on. It was enough to make me stop clicking time, throw down my sticks and just sit back and enjoy the ride. With our spotty attendance in the early season, a book that has been kicking our ass, and a drumline that wasn’t really “Set” until just a couple of weeks ago, it’s been one hell of a ride to put this show on the field. After our lot warm up in Elk Grove on Friday, I felt confident that this drumline collectively took a HUGE step forward in just seeing the possiblities. Even though they didn’t take the same caliber performance to the field that night, they now know that it is possible and they are gonna be very hungry for it for the rest of the season culminating in DCA.
Anyway, so that is drum corps show number 1. That also covers about 400 miles, at least for me since I was smart enough to drive myself up instead of taking the bus. On to party number 1, which started innocently enough with a trip to McDonalds for an ungodly amount of chicken nuggets. I mean, really, when was the last time you went to McDoo and spent 50 bucks?
At any rate, the party was starting with cheap greasy food and small but steady amounts of liquor when the mood changes completely as several members of the corps witness a horrific car accident at the intersection where the McDonalds was located. At first, it looked and sounded like someone was showing off their drifting skills as I saw the white Kia’s tires skidding and smoking but when I saw the car literally come off the ground and land on the median I knew it was more than just some kid screwing around.
I will admit that when I ran over to the scene that I just wanted to see it. But when I saw a frantic husband pulling his baby out of the broken back seat window, suddenly life flipped into slow motion and all I can remember are some recollections of scenes. I remember asking Mike to go get Young to check on the other car since he was an army medic. I can recall TJ pulling on the driver door of the Kia as hard as he could since the passenger door was jammed and the wife was still inside. I can remember smelling gas and watching Shaun argue with the tow truck driver not to drive anywhere near it since people were pinned in the second car. I remember Young running to the scene shorty after and checking the pulse of the people in the second car to see if they were alive, all the while there were people screaming at him to leave the victims alone, lest they go into shock. I can remember seeing at least 10 people on cell phones to 911 and several people complaining that they couldn’t get through. I stayed next to Young as he was checking the people trapped in the 2nd car. They were both unconscious but according to Young, they were both breathing and had pulses. After the fire truck arrived, I walked back to the curb and sat down with my hands shaking. I couldn’t help but imagine that the scene could have easily been anyone of the line of cars of Dream members that was sitting in the McDonalds drive-thru just minutes earlier. This was like watching my dad in the hospital after breaking his back in that I will never forget what I saw and what I went through and even though I had been awake since 7:30am that morning, I stayed awake the entire night just shocked and totally disconnected from all that was going on around me. The cars stayed in the intersection until 7 the next morning which leads me to believe that someone in the 2nd car died and the police were doing a full investigation of the crash. I still can’t believe how bad it was and how lucky I am that it wasn’t Valiant, Alyssa and I involved in the crash or any of the other Dream members for that matter.
After such a nite, we still had one more show to do in Sunnyvale and I hadn’t slept a wink all night (sans maybe 15 mins in my car after I got gas that morning). Luckily, Alyssa had crashed out in Valiant’s room and was rested enough to make the 120 mile drive to San Jose/Sunnyvale for the show that day while I slept peacefully after a night of physical and mental exhaustion. As per my insane trip planning, we were right on time to get to the Sunnyvale hotel with enough time to get lunch and head to the rehearsal site. However, GOOGLE FAILED ME!!!!! We were driving around in circles for at least 15 mins trying to find the right street and being dumbfounded that we followed the directions to the letter and still ended up on the wrong street. Apparently the street name changes at a certain point but the mightiness of Google maps didn’t know that. Let this be a lesson to you travelers…BUY A THOMAS GUIDE. Luckily we have the Thomas Guide for all of California and we quickly plot a new map to the hotel.
We head out to the rehearsal site and after what I can only describe as the shortest rehearsal in the history of time (45min?) we head back to the hotel for showers and changing. Hopefully one day DCA will be solidified on the West Coast and we can allow some leeway with DCI shows to allow senior corps to have us on LATER IN THE FUCKING DAY!!!!!!!!
At any rate, the show was especially fun because for the first time we got the So Cal Dream Drumline and the Renegades Drumline together and played our warm-ups.

Purple drums standing next to crazy fire-bombed drums. 9 snares, 5 tenors, and 9 basses. It was quite a site to behold and the sound coming off of 9 bass drums just hits you in the chest. We played just a few of the exercises that we all collectively know but it was a great time for all. The funny things were the different tuning of the 2 sets of tenors caused some interesting harmonies as well as the different around the drum patterns. Plus, the Renegades bass line puts a split into the accent-tap exercise in a different spot than Dream so it was like they were taking turns doing splits. Be prepared to see this happen again at DCA prelims in Rochester, New York.

Anyway, back to the show. The show was FANTASTIC!!! Easily the best show of the entire season. The crowd was really diggin the music and the corps was really having a lot of fun on the field. Those are the perfect ingredients for a great show no matter what the judges say about you. With that being said, we jumped 4 whole points at this show and So Cal Dream is now the highest ranked corps in Class A. I know that scores don’t matter so much since we are all the way out here on the west coast being judged by DCI judges and not DCA judges and we aren’t being seen side by side with our competitors but it is still a nice small milestone.
After the show we clean up, eat and head to Gilman’s house for the West Coast Party of the Year. Crazy amount of liquor, all 3 west coast senior corps partying together, getting to see all my old Renegades friends, meeting some members of RCR, watching the old shows, listening to people make asses of themselves at Karaoke, posing for pictures with an inflatable penis on my head…the list goes on and on. This is what drum corps is all about: the friendship, the fun, the common bond.
So after all this, Lys and I planned to spend the last day of the 3 day weekend with her parents. We stayed at their house in Pittsburg. We went swimming and then went out to a nice dinner with her family and her grandmother who I was so happy to see. It was at this dinner that I tried escargot for the first time (snails in case you are wondering). It is very chewy and only really objectionable if you think about what you’re eating which, unfortunately, I did. I had to fight hard to keep from gagging on it and I tried to pass it off as too much garlic and butter but honestly, it was the wierdest thing I have ever eaten. And I have eaten fucking cookies with bar-b-que sauce before. WTF!!!!
On our drive home, I was thinking about the fact that we left the house with our cat, Chompers, missing. We left a dish of food outside for him but he had been missing for a week and a half so we were starting to assume the worst and maybe checking out a kennel. After getting home and putting up flyers we get a call from a woman in our complex who says that Chompers has been living under her apartment for about a week and she has been putting out food for him. So now we have our Chompers back (and he is grounded for staying out too late).

Though on a sad note, upon returning home from the trip we found our hamster dead. We left out plenty of food and water for her but I think she probably died from the intense heat we get in our apartment. We left the windows and left the fans on for her but to no avail. So farewell Hamzilla Ostero (no one ever really got that name except Lys and I) and may you rest in peace.

That’s all for now.