2011. What happened? A lot of stuff.
I seem to remember things fairly well. But, it’s tough to remember all the things you’ve done throughout the year because you were overwhelmed with so many awesome things. Here are some highlights, hopefully you were a part of them in some way!
- Hangovers
- Karaoke (which could very well be the reason for the hangovers)
- The Get Up Kids releasing a new album
- Becoming a part of The Minnesota Brass Inc. family
- My face forever becoming immortalized in Rochester Magazine’s April edition
- Finishing 5th place in “Independent Marching Open” class with Minnesota Brass Indoor Drumline at the Winter Guard International’s Percussion World Championships
- Jam sessions
- Teaching phatty drum beatz
- Seeing The Get Up Kids live (for the fourth time) and talking to Matt Pryor at the merch booth
- Weddings/dressing my best/traveling/drinking/dancing/eating good food/making new Wisconsin friends/Hennessy/witnessing love
- My “Band Jammin’ Jamboree Birthday Bash Extraordinaire” also known as my 23rd birthday
- Growing out my mustache
- Leaving my position at The Kahler Grand Hotel (possibly related to growing out my mustache)
- Minnesota Brass Drum and Bugle Corps taking 1st place at the Drum Corps Associates’ World Championships
- Seeing friends that have been away from my life for far too long
- Having someone I haven’t seen in many years throw up on my favorite blazer
- Seeing friends that are always near
- Moving to Minneapolis
- Getting a bed for my empty room
- Starting a new job/bartending in Downtown Minneapolis
I look back at my Facebook photos for the past year and it’s filled with pictures of me carrying a snare drum. And that makes me very happy.
Minnesota Brass is definitely one of the greatest things I’ve ever been a part of. I’ve made so many friends and countless memories with only a year of being a part of the group.
My favorite memory of the entire year was when Minnesota Brass traveled to Rochester, New York to perform in the DCA World Championships.
The entire season playing in Brass was actually very stressful. At least once a week I would have to travel a round trip of 3 hours for rehearsal. On certain weeks with weekend rehearsals, I would have to make the drive twice, plus sleep on a couch over the weekend. Because I was on the road for so long, I always ate smelly fast food. So all of the gas for traveling and greasy food did not make my wallet feel very full.
There was actually a point in the season I wanted to quit because I felt like I was the worst player in the entire ensemble and I felt like dead weight. Luckily, my superiors thought differently and encouraged me to stay.
During the summer rehearsals, I would simply hate my life. Instead of being a typical young adult that can be lazy and drink a bunch of booze, I would be carrying a heavy drum, under the hot sun, marching, getting yelled at, and doing push ups for all the mistakes I made because I was thinking about drinking a cold beer rather than executing my music and formations correctly.
The drumline had a lot of drama and we were actually pretty bad. But with about three weeks left of the season, we finally had a good show and the momentum started rolling. Along with that, our confidence finally came.
Our main rivals within the activity was The Buccaneers from Redding, Pennsylvania. Before the finals competition, they were undefeated for six years straight. This was the year our organization felt that we had the best chance to beat our rivals.
So on the preliminary competition night, we beat them by less than a point. We heard the news while we were getting our group picture taken. Excitement mixed with yelling filled the skies. At the end of the night when we returned back to the hotel, we were greeting by all the other drum corps folk staying in the hotel with applause and cheering. All I could do was smile and wave to everyone.
So on the night of the finals competition, we were warming up past all the other group’s equipment trucks. It was the first time we had a big crowd watch us warm up and it was a great feeling to feed off that crowd.
After our warm up, we got into full uniform and got into our marching formation that would lead us to our performance gate…
All that backstory leads up to this memory…
As we were marching to the gate, every single drum corps, every single group, every single person that was in a uniform stopped while we were marching by and cheered for us. People clapped, whistled, whopped, hollered, and gave their praise for us. People who I have never seen, let alone talked to, wanted the same thing I wanted. Everyone we passed wanted the same thing that we were fighting for the entire season.
To win. They wanted us to win as much as we wanted it.
Every time I heard someone yell “Go Brass!”, I was filled with pride. Every time I heard someone yell “Give ‘em hell!”, I felt like I belonged to something that was going to be big…
Every time I heard someone yell “Beat The Bucs!”…
…All the moments I had throughout the season that I hated… All the complaints I had… All the drama… All the sweat… All the money… All the push ups I did for messing up… All the thoughts about wishing I were home drinking a cold brew… All the hours of sleep that I loss… All of the negativity…
It all went away. And I was damn proud that I went through all that difficulty and hardship to wear that blue and black uniform and fight to create a new and beautiful history with an organization that I can call a family.
Minnesota Brass won the 2011 Drum Corps Associates World Championships that night. The first time ever in the history of the organization. And on that night, on that football field, in the middle of a storm, wearing the gold medal…
It was one of the happiest moments of my life.
—
2011 was a great year. But 2012 already looks amazing. The new Minnesota Brass season starts in a couple of days. A new music project with a bunch of wonderful musicians and friends is getting put together. And best of all, I’m in The City of Lakes now! I hope you had a wonderful 2011 and I hope this year brings you limitless happiness and joy.
-Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect
Latana
For All We Know. Minnesota Brass 2011 Snareline.
