Sunday, April 27, 2014
Hi everyone! My name is Ashkahn Shojaei, I am a third year Contra vet (’10, ’12, ’14) and Contra section leader of the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps for the 2014 season. I reside from Houston, TX, and am a nutrition major at the University of Houston. Here’s my recap from this past weekend’s full corps camp.
We just finished April camp, which is my personal favorite camp because it is when the most insight is given to us as far as what is going on this season besides the during summer itself, of course. When everyone got in on Friday, the hornline, color guard, and percussion all split off and had separate rehearsals. Although the guard was still rehearsing, they were also finishing up their auditions because they have not been at a camp since November. By the way, a big congratulations to all of the ladies that were selected to become Phantomettes, this summer! The turnout for the guard looked fantastic and from what I have heard the level of talent that was present was also stupendous.
After the rehearsal block Friday night, a meeting was held giving the corps some info about what was going to be going on for the rest of the weekend and the summer. Unfortunately, I was not able to get to camp until Saturday afternoon because I had a late exam Friday night, so I did not get to see the unveiling of our uniform for this season, which was fashionably modeled by our horn sergeant, Keaton. From what the members have told me about the uniform though, it sounds like it looks absolutely stunning and will model for our show, Swan Lake, very well.
Saturday was spent learning drill for Act II of our show with the drums; we got dots learned during the day followed by putting music with the drill at night. After some work on the drill, we capped off the night by splitting off again and practicing music.
Sunday, we spent the rest of camp working on music and then got the hornline and percussion together to do some ensemble work. So far, I have been nothing short of impressed with our percussion section. They brought a great amount of energy the whole weekend and their playing was, as I like to say, so hype (really good)! We finished the weekend with two runs of the show music and then packed up Beloit Memorial High School, my last time doing so as a member with it being my age out summer.
A lot of great work was done at this camp, and now the next time the Phantom Regiment will meet we will be thriving on the elements of the Midwest at Rockford University, growing together in ways that really cannot be described, but can only be experienced.
FRIDAY-
SNACK: Turkey sandwiches
SATURDAY-
BREAKFAST: Cereal, yogurt, granola, oatmeal, and a bunch of other stuff
LUNCH & DINNER: On our own
SNACK- Meatball subs
SUNDAY-
BREAKFAST: Cereal, yogurt, granola, oatmeal, and a bunch of other stuff
SHOWERS: Box 2 Decent pressure, but the water was really cold, or at least it was whenever I showered
QUOTE OF THE DAY (WEEKEND): From Mr. J, “I’m too old for this…” for the sake of this journal being family oriented, we ll just say that the word he used was “stuff”. We love Mr. J though, I’m pretty sure he’s got at least another 20 years of volunteering in him!
SHOUT-OUT: To all of our fantastic volunteers, because without them this organization would not be able to function! Also, to all of my sponsors, because without them I would not have been able to partake in this activity!
See you all at Spring Training,
-Ashkahn
