The Jake Report

Jake will be marching with the UNT Marching Band, at Royal Memorial Stadium(above), tomorrow morning. The Austin game is a road trip hors d'eouvre. The real meat comes in trips to Akron, Lafayette, and Monroe!

Note: ESPN II will broadcast tape of the DCI Finals on Tuesday, Sept 5, beginning at 7:00 PM CDT. Jake marched with the Concord Blue Devils, who finished in Third Place, out of 24 Division I Bands.

Jake is in a weird marching band place. He loved his summer, but he doesn't have the competitive band drive to do drum corps again next summer. Meantime, he is accustomed to the precision marching which is achieved by practicing 8 to 10 hours per day, and he is impatient with the UNT Marching Band's inferior level of excellence. So, Jake doesn't want to practice 8-10 hours a day, but he wants his band to display that level of excellence. He has set himself up for dissatisfaction.

Jake says it's difficult to explain to people what he did during the summer. They tend to think he is exaggerating his storytelling. He's left to protest: "No, really, we travelled all over the nation, and we played in front of tens of thousands of people. It was major cool. I swear." Audience: "Suuure it was. We believe you. Suuure we do." Jake: "No, really, we had high school groupie girls and everything!" Audience: "Suuure you did."

Jake's backpack, containing his MP3 player, was stolen during a tour stop early in the summer. As he travelled all over the nation, playing his drum corps instrument: Euphonium, this is what he missed the most:

1) His trombone
2) His guitar
3) His music(CD's + Computer/MP3 collection of music)

Oh, and wait, his Mom, his Grandmothers, and his family!! Wouldn't want to leave those out! Whew.