[bksvol-discuss] Re: OT: Ohio School for the Blind Marching Band heads to Rose parade; and ACB Radio World to provide coverage.
- From: Cindy <popularplace@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:26:40 -0800 (PST)
Cool. I'll look for it. thanks for the head up
Cindy
Wish List (i.e., books wanted added to the collection) and books-being-scanned
list available at sites below
Wish List: https://wiki.benetech.org/display/BSO/Bookshare+Wish+List
Books Being Scanned List:
https://wiki.benetech.org/display/BSO/Books+Being+Scanned+List
--- On Wed, 12/30/09, Lynn I <lynnskyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: Lynn I <lynnskyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [bksvol-discuss] OT: Ohio School for the Blind Marching Band
> heads to Rose parade; and ACB Radio World to provide coverage.
> To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Wednesday, December 30, 2009, 2:58 PM
> FYI:
>
> I sent the following the the BKS discussion list by
> replying to the original
> message I received and putting in the new recipient
> (Bookshare Discussion
> list). What I discovered was that it changed the font. The
> message is in
> it's original font, but words I inserted are in my e-mail
> programs choice of
> font. Bet that looks pretty weird. This time, I copied and
> pasted. *smile*
> Hope this looks and reads okay.
>
> Below is an article about the Ohio School for the Blind
> marching band which
> will be performing in the Rose Parade.
>
> ACB Radio will be streaming the Rose Bowl Parade on January
> 1, 2010.
>
> The coverage will begin at 15:30 UTC which is 10:30 A.M
> eastern and 7:30 A.M
> pacific.
>
> The coverage will be streamed on ACB Radio world.
>
> Ken Metz will be providing the coverage from the home &
> garden TV booth.
>
> Also there will be full audio description provided on the
> stream so you
> won't miss a single movement in the parade!
>
> Date: Friday January 1, 2010.
> Start time: 15:30 UTC 10:30 A.M eastern and 7:30 A.M
> pacific.
>
> Where: ACB Radio World
>
> http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_p
> age&PAGE_id=57&MMN_position=75:75
>
> Enjoy.
>
> Lynnsky
>
> block quote
>
> Ohio blind marching band
> heads to Rose parade
>
> COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - "I used to have an old car that
> sounded like that when
> it started," the marching band director says. "Urr, urr,
> urr, blatt."
>
> The players crack up, throwing their heads back and having
> a good laugh at
> themselves.
>
> Dan Kelley is always saying things like that to his
> players. They sound like
> an Amtrak train going off a cliff, they sound like a car
> engine dying, that
> note sounded like a giant, wet splat when it should sound
> like the surf
> rolling onto the beach.
>
> "It's audio imagery," he says. "I wanna keep it loose, too.
> I've got kind of
> a stern voice. If I say, 'I want this, I want that' all the
> time, I feel
> like I lose them because they feel like they're not doing
> it right."
>
> The 32 blind players, 36 volunteer marching assistants, two
> band directors
> and one music assistant really, really want to do it right.
> The Ohio State
> School for the Blind Marching Panthers are going to
> Pasadena, Calif., to
> march in the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year's Day.
> They'll be the
> parade's first blind marching band. The smallest band,
> too.
>
> The invitation to march came more than a year ago, giving
> plenty of time to
> practice. It's also plenty of time to ponder a tough
> question: Are we OK
> with being famous because we're blind?
>
> Kelley believes in gentle honesty, but honesty
> nonetheless.
>
> This is going to be hard. Six miles is a long way, longer
> than the parades
> they've marched in to prepare for Pasadena. In the past
> year, they've been
> playing and playing and playing. Performances in Lancaster,
> at churches, in
> Cincinnati, at the Ohio State University skull session and
> in the
> Circleville Pumpkin Festival parade.
>
> Practice has not made perfect. That's the honest truth.
>
> Eleven band members have perfect pitch (hearing them hum
> during
> marching-only practice is beautiful enough to make you hold
> your breath).
>
> But when they pick up their tattered and battered and
> borrowed instruments,
> not every note is hit just-so.
>
> Having perfect pitch "doesn't mean you have the finesse you
> need. It doesn't
> mean you have the articulation skills you need," says Carol
> Agler, the blind
> school's music director and co-director of the band. She
> turns no one away
> who signs up to play at the beginning of the year. No
> auditions are
> required, just desire.
>
> It hasn't made a lick of difference to the audiences who
> have heard the
> blind band play.
>
> The typical response: They leap to their feet, clapping
> wildly, some with
> tears in their eyes. Amazing! Unbelievable! Inspiring!
>
> For the players, though, the experience is different. They
> want perfection,
> or near it. They are teenagers, after all, and they
> occasionally have bad
> attitudes and bicker at one another. So-and-so shouldn't
> get to go to
> Pasadena; he hasn't tried hard enough. He's playing the
> wrong notes. She's
> spreading rumors.
>
> They have a lot of questions. Practices sound like a
> bustling cocktail
> party, with everyone lining up with the marching assistants
> who will guide
> them through the 5.5-mile parade route and a 12-minute
> halftime show in
> which they'll perform their signature: Script Ohio, in
> Braille. The
> twice-weekly practices after school and three-a-week band
> classes go too
> fast.
>
> By the time Kelley scoots all the players through the side
> door at the
> school and into marching formation, the sun has set and the
> air is sharp
> with cold. His whistle tweets, and the band comes to
> attention. At his
> signal, they honk out Military Escort, one of two songs
> they'll play in the
> first mile of the parade.
>
> The other is Superstition by Stevie Wonder.
>
> Some of the marching assistants - they can see, because, as
> Kelley points
> out, keeping straight lines is a "visual thing" - stand
> beside their student
> and sling an arm across his or her shoulders. Others prefer
> to guide from
> behind, walking like Frankenstein's monster with one hand
> on each of the
> student's shoulders.
>
> This is seriously taxing work. A few of the students have
> limited sight;
> they can see shapes or figures or have some light
> perception. Many see
> nothing. So, once the Marching Panthers make their way onto
> the school track
> for a mock parade route, the workout begins for the
> assistants. Pushing,
> pulling, steering. This is why there are more
> assistants than band members.
> You wear out after a while.
>
> The two songs sound over and over as the band makes five or
> six laps. In the
> pitch dark.
>
> There are no floodlights around the track and field. Why
> bother with
> something you don't really need?
>
> The farthest the band has marched is 4 miles. The students
> won't make it to
> 6 until they're in uniform and in California.
>
> "If you can march 4 miles, you can march six," Kelley
> says.
>
> Excitement (and a heap of nerves) has been building in the
> weeks leading up
> to the trip. Hotel rooms and chaperones have been assigned;
> someone donated
> cool sunglasses, and those have been passed out. Rules and
> travel tips -
> keep a firm grip on your belongings, mind your manners -
> have been laid out.
>
> Kelley has reminded everyone, more than once, that they're
> representing the
> Ohio State School for the Blind, the Ohio School for the
> Deaf, and the
> entire darned state of Ohio while they're out west. People
> are about to see
> exactly what blind musicians can do.
>
> "Even if they don't want to admit it, one of the reasons
> people say it's
> amazing is because we're blind," says Whitney Hammond, a
> 15-year-old who
> plays bass drum.
>
> It's fair to say there's been a bit of discord among
> players as the band has
> become a public phenomenon. They put on their
> red-white-and-blue uniforms
> and march on, but the question of why they're so
> well-received really gnawed
> at some of the kids.
>
> News crews from CBS, a Los Angeles CW network affiliate and
> local TV
> stations have stopped in with their cameras. Writers from
> national magazines
> and just about every local paper have hung around.
>
> "It's really easy to say we're a unique story, a
> human-interest story. We're
> all that," Kelley says.
>
> At the beginning of this school year, with the Rose Bowl
> months away and
> months of sweat and tears and bickering well behind them,
> something
> happened. The players started to make peace with the why.
>
> "Now, we think it's because we're doing something good,"
> Hammond explains at
> the last practice before the trip. Every player and
> marching assistant is on
> deck to, as Kelley says, make the practice count.
>
> "We said, 'No, we're actually doing work.. We're working.'
> We have style,"
> she says.
>
> "There's nothing amazing about a blind person walking and
> playing an
> instrument with a guide," Kelley says. "I ask the kids to
> reflect on that
> kind of thing, and what they want to get out of it. And not
> focus on
> 'They're just taking us because we're a blind band."'
>
> Macy McClain, a 19-year-old who has played piccolo and
> flute for the band,
> thinks it is doing good by sending a message.
>
> "I just think there are some people who don't understand
> what truly blind
> people can do. Blind people go to college, have jobs - do
> things sighted
> people can do," she says.
>
> That's the right thinking, Kelley says.
>
> "My philosophy is there's never been a bigger audience than
> what we're going
> to go out and play for. For me, it's getting people around
> the country to
> see that these kids have talent. I don't care about
> abilities and
> disabilities, blindness or whatever. They're out here
> marching."
>
> The 32 musicians, 36 marching assistants, two directors and
> music assistant
> were scheduled to march onto a plane Monday. Then, they'll
> do exhibition
> shows, the halftime show and 2½ hours of marching.
>
> Kelley will boom, "We proudly present the Ohio State School
> for the Blind
> Marching Panthers!" and the banner with their name in
> Braille will start
> moving.
>
> The players won't see the crowd, but its reaction will be
> easy to read.
> Amazing. Unbelievable. Inspiring.
>
> (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights
> Reserved.)
>
> block quote end
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
> bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject
> line. To get a list of available commands, put the
> word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
>
>
To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to
bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of
available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
Other related posts:
