DCI ORLANDO 2009

Headed to Orlando

I awoke around 2pm saturday July 11 to attend DCI orlando. My plan had been to rent a vehicle and drive east from tampa to orlando, arriving around 4 pm. By “plan”, I mean that I wasn’t going to do any prep work what so ever, not even call the car rental place until saturday. Some chick I made out with in college runs the Enterprise rent-a-car down the street, and I figure I could drop her name, get a discount, all that good stuff. I ended up running into her about 3 months ago while returning a rental car, and she said I could rent/get discounts, ect any time.

Well, it turns out the car rental place closes at noon, and rather than search for another one I decided to borrow my neighbor’s car. I had driven it the night prior where I went to see Perpetual groove at a local ybor music venue. It was quite a show and about 1/3 of the people in attendance were associates of mine in some fashion. Ex-girl friends, friends, enemies, the works. My buddy and I got a ride from his wife, and I was able to convince two chick friends of mine to give us a ride home, which was sweet cuz we felt like we had picked up chicks at the bar. We all had that excited/anticipatory conversation on the ride back, the conversation you make to try and keep your mind off the fact that you both are going to be balls deep/doing disgusting things to one another in an hour or so. But alas, it was only a ride/convo, as they dropped us at the buddies house to continue on toward their beds off yonder. I did end up repaying the driver for her kindness though.

I drove back home from my buddies house, arriving around 3am saturday. I decided that I needed to drink more beer for some reason and eat string cheese, which has been my custom lately. I awoke at 7am on my couch all wasted, and zombied my way to bed. Awoke at 2pm, ready to rent a car. No dice, but I had a car in the lot, so I decided to take the neighbors car and be very careful with it.

After a standard breakfast of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and coffee, I gathered my video camera, clothes, I-pod stuff, cooler full of beer, and other essentials. I drove east on I-4 for about 2 hours, making all the appropriate moves except for the final exit, which I passed. I used my recently purchased I-pod touch to get directions, stealing wi-fi from some neighborhood (or as I call it, living off the land). That thing is not to be used while driving though, as I discovered after fumbling with it.

When I got to the citrus bowl, excitement permeated through my body. I could hear the lines warming up as I drove in, and my first thought was to grab some beers, my camera bag and book for the corps staging area. 10$ to park was weak by the way, but I didn’t give a damn cuz I was preoccupied with seeing/videoing good dci lines.

Drum Corps Mania

I was excited to go see Megan (of Crossmen fame) so I immediately went to where they warmed up last year. On the way I ran into an old tech I had when I marched. He actually flagged me down, and I spoke to him for maybe a minute. I just wanted to know where crossmen were, and he wanted to catch up. I guess I blew him off a bit, but whatever I can see him anytime he lives around tampa. He directed me exactly to my spot.

I came upon the Crossmen semi, discovering it was inside a gated area. The pit was wandering around the truck so I asked one of them where Megan was. I told them I was here to video, and they immediately knew who I was based on last years vids. They were friendly and inviting.

I eventually found megan, and watched them set up for a minute. She told me a story of how the corps took all the members cell phones away, which was corroborated by her mates. This ended up being a real pain later as we could not seem to find each other and could not get in touch. Rain clouds seemed to be converging, so the front ensemble tech started warm ups. I made this video before the rain started. The rain cut the rehersal from about an hour to 12 minutes. Once it started, I ran over to the adjacent gas station, ate bbq and drank beer for about an hour.

The rain came down in buckets, then slowed, then buckets again. I was posted up with a bunch of black dudes underneath the overhang. DCI people were coming back and forth to the store, and I met these two on a beer run in one of the lighter rain periods:

I was unprepared in the sense that I had no real rain gear. I brought a plastic shopping bag, which I wrapped around the camera and put in the camera bag for added protection. Finally, after watching the rain for a long time, I decided to make for the car and regroup. The rain slowed, but remained steady on the 3/4 plus mile walk back to my car. Luckily I was alone, as anyone I was with would have been pissed that we got so wet. At the car I drank more beer and listened to DCI on my ipod. I spent about an hour there.

Post Rain

Finally, after about 2 hours of rain, it stopped. It was muddy as hell and dark, but I knew the show would go on. I made my way back toward the crossmen truck when I came upon two drumlines who had joined up. The show had not gotten on schedule yet, so they decided to play together. Normally, this sort of thing is not a reality, as time and rivalry make it iffy at best. When I marched, other corps were the enemy. Although we never met them in direct competition (as in football or soccer), I still hated them. It was cool to see them joined up. Apparently these two corps (JSU Spirit and Crossmen) have a commerodery that extends to past years, as evidenced in youtube searches where they visit each others camps prior to the season.

A crowd gathered and we all laughed about how cool it was to see two lines joining up. I made the announcement “I’m putting this shit on Youtube!” loud and clear, which was met with smiles and looks from the staff. They started, and it was loud as expected. Clean too. The had to end pretty quick, which I caught on video as the show was restarted and they had to go to there prospective sites to warm up. The best was seeing the cymbal line do their thing.

I wandered into nearby Lorna Doone park to take a leak/open more beers. I was walking around with a 44oz Styrofoam cup filled up with coors light and smiling, which many people seemed to think was out of line. Others thought it was hilarious. Glassmen, a line who I’ve always liked, was warming up on a basketball court at the park. I caught this vid of the hornline and then a rare drums/horn rehersal. This was the highlight of the night for sure.

The glassmen were good; at the time I thought they were the crossmen (hence the bunk title). The techs were freaking out, as nerdy horn techs seem to do. Crown’s hornline was moving right behind them, making it hard for them to work I suppose. As a fan, I love that shit, corps piling on top of each other to warm up. All the noise is beautiful. They didn’t mind that I was taping though, and looked at me directly a few times. I credit my demeanor and respect for what they were doing, as any normal person talking or moving alot would be deemed a distraction and made to leave. I love marching band and was happy to act “correctly”, and to show that I knew how to act “correctly”.

I then moved over to see my former corps BAC tear it up! They are smokin this year. Some indian dude (I later found out he is Omar, the dude from BAC and TBT fame, and I’m pretty sure he’s not indian) is running it now, and if he is the book writer, then props to him. I recognized many of the dudes from last year in the line. One regret was screwing up the taping to completely miss the second run through of the drum solo. I guess I was so excited I pressed the record button one too many times. Freaking amateur. There was a quite a crowd to see them, as for some reason people who know little to nothing about DCI think crusaders are the best around (wierd). Maybe thats only in florida though.

I am currently editing the rest of the night vids, which i assure you are dark but heavy w/note ramming. Especially Crown; damn they play alot of notes. Later I went to stay at a special lady friends house in downtown orlando, which is a story in itself. I also had a final run in with Megan, which is worth repeating. All of this in my next blog after my second round of drinking beer and video editing.

Story of the Track

Track and Field Improvements

I decided to do a story on the new construction at the track and field complex (soccer stadium) at USF. I had no idea it would be as difficult as it was.

I noticed construction almost immediately as my mail route included driving past the stadium on a near daily basis. In June, I had published my first story. I needed another one. Alan suggested doing a story on the new construction, which at that point had existed for several weeks.

There was a sign posted out front, which detailed the improvements via blueprint media. I decided to call around to see what I could find out.

Interviews

At work on friday, I called the facilities planning department at usf, which we share a building with. I knew they were involved in the construction, over hearing things all the time.

One instance in particular stands out. I was delivering mail to Facilities, and 5 guys were standing in the lobby discussing seating arrangements at the soccer stadium. “is there a picnic table or anything?” I heard them ask. I saw the blueprint documents in there hands, wondering what was going on.

A week or so later, the track was torn up.

When I called Facilities, they sent me right to the manager. He suggested calling the media relations person at USF, lara something. I called her; she sounded like a milf/cougar chick. She couldn’t comment though, because it was an athletics matter.

I called the athletic department media relations guy, Our paraphrased conversation:

CF: Hello?

Broseph; Hey, Im broseph from the usf oracle, how are you?

CF:fine.

Broseph: Good. I’m doing a story on the improvements to the USF soccer stadium and I was wondering if you could help me out.

CF: What improvements on the soccer stadium?

Broseph: All the construction, you know, the new track and what not.

CF: uh, yeah. We haven’t prepared a statement on that yet.

Broseph: Well, I saw a sign outside the stadium, and it has alot of improvements listed on it.

CF: I haven’t seen that sign.

Broseph: Well its right outside the stadium, would you be willing to comment on some of the improvements?

CF: I haven’t seen the sign.

Broseph: Well, how about I email you a picture of the sign, would you be willing to comment then?

CF: Well sure…you should really wait until we have a statement on the construction. I told you guys this already.

Broseph: I hadn’t heard about that. Any idea when your statement will be ready?

CF: No, not really

Broseph: Well, I think I have enough info to do a story now

CF: Well if you want to do a story on a sign, be my guest.

Broseph: So you’re suggesting we wait….

CF: yes

Broseph: ok thanks for your time

Cf: yeah

end

Research

For some reason, I was furious afterwards. I guess I assumed he would be helpful, and when he wasn’t, I got mad. I went into full research mode that weekend, grabbing as much info a possible from the internet regarding the new construction.

Links included:

1) http://www.gousfbulls.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=507606&SPSID=36626&SPID

=2915&DB_OEM_ID=7700

2) http://blogs.tampabay.com/usf/track_and_field/index.html

3) http://usfweb2.usf.edu/ace/january%202005/

athletic%20land%20use%20agenda%20form%20complete.pdf

4) http://usfweb2.usf.edu/ace/

january%202005/ace%20work%20group%20meeting%201%2026%2005%20minutes.pdf

Staff Response

I went to the oracle office on sunday night, with my story thus far (nothing printed, just talking). Joe, my editor, had dealt with the CF guy before and had not printed his version yet. The senior editor, Amy, seemed to want the story. It was decided I should call the county and ask for information. The story was approved, and in my opinion, they were glad that I was undertaking the task of finally trying to get this printed.

More Interviews

I called the county and one coach, the cross country guy, who’s web profile was associated with the new track construction. The coach never returned my call.

Hillsborough county called me back, a PR guy, who was helpful.

He was a USF Alumni, ‘73 in mass communications. He actually wrote for the oracle back in the day. He confirmed the funding, just under 3 million, and said it was a mondo track.

I looked up the mondo website; damn good track we’re getting, an Olympic style track.

Story Submitted

I wrote the story tuesday night, I thought it was a bit overwhellming with info, but thorough. I sent it in midnight tuesday, after watching the celtics win the NBA championship.

Wednesday night, Joe called me asking questions. He asked:

1) what is FPC (Facilities planning)? I told him it was a department at usf, and a web site.

2) what is this mondo stuff? Told him I got the info from the mondo web site.

3) Whats the deal with saying athletics didn’t comment? I mentioned the earlier conversation, and that since the funding was approved in 2005, they’ve had almost three years to comment. He mentioned this was the same problem he ran into, and thus did not run the story.

I told him I trusted his judgment, and went on to drink with my bioethics class and celebrate the end of our class.

NO STORY THUS FAR

I went to work Thursday morning, waiting to see my story in the paper. Nothing, not even a clipped version. I was astounded, and a bit mad. I had worked pretty hard I guess, and just expected them to print it.

They didn’t print it, and I don’t know why.

Possible reasons for not printing it:

They are afraid of USF and USF athletics: I was not able to get comment from Chris Freet, thus the story will have “errors” according to him. In order to protect the oracle’s integrity, the story was halted.

They are waiting for monday to print the story. Possible reasons may include fact checking, ect.

I was not at the meeting wed night, of which I normally am. I was partying with my classmates.

The oracle has no idea what they are doing.

The oracle knows more than I do.

The oracle is “pulling the reigns” on me, so to speak, because it was such a extreme story.

some other reason(s) I haven’t accounted for

Conclusions

What can I really do? It’s not my paper. Also, I want to turn this into a paying gig, so I must play ball. What I can do is work on a new story. I can also lobby for the track story. I will attend to meeting sunday and find out, face to face, what is going on.

Sunday June 22

I went out on Friday night.  That night, my buddy Doug gave me one of those Heineken keg things.  This was a good gift.  I drank some of it Saturday night, and the rest Sunday afternoon as it was raining.  I ran out of course, and moved on to drinking a 40 of icehouse my roommate serendipitously purchased in GA on the way back from Bonnaroo.  By the time Oracle meeting time was here, I was pretty buzzed and I’m sure I smelled like booze.  I decided that going to the Oracle meeting, in that condition, was a real bad idea, especially since I was kind of pissed about them not publishing the story.  I decided to go on Wednesday.