Rockapella; or, Experiments in linking

In college I was a member of the Pep Band. We played at football games. We were always a small group of students but we could usually get the crowd marginally more psyched than they would've been otherwise. It was fun.

My final two years I was a drum major. You may have certain mental images or expectations of what a drum major is.

Forget them.

We were, at most, 25 people. Our uniforms were blue jeans and a T-Shirt. The band didn't really need a drum major (indeed, they dispensed with them the year after I left. I prefer to think that they couldn't fill my shoes) but we had one (two, actually) mostly to queue up songs to play, start and stop the band, etc. Conducting was more of an afterthought.

(I'm rambling, so I'll get to the point. Hang on.)

We had "I Want You Back" by the Jackson Five in our playbooks. One time after playing it (I was conducting) I got pumped up and decided to try a spin like Michael Jackson. With the whole band and half the stands watching, I complete about 355 degrees of the spin, then get my foot caught on the bleachers and I fell flat on my face, parallel to the bleachers. It was awesome.