Marching Bands and History, Yay!

Yesterday Matt called me at work and asked what I was doing that evening. Well, I had an exciting evening planned: take out the trash and recycling, wash dishes, and make a grocery list. (I know, I live on the edge!). He asked if I wanted to go to a marching band contest in the next state (12 miles away). We both enjoy marching bands and were in them when we were in high school. Actually we both attended a national marching band contest in Indianapolis when we were in high school but didn't know each other then. (Neither of our bands were in the contest, we just went to watch and be impressed).

Anyhow, we went and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The bands all did a fantastic job. Before the competion, they had the participants of the color guard summer camp perform. Little girls (5-8 years old?) did a routine to Miley Cyrus. It was so cute!
However, the bands were great. The one that I enjoyed the most had a Spartacus theme to their show. The color guard all wore tunics and started the show in "shackles." About half-way through the show, one of the drum majors walked up to a guard girl and "killed" her setting off the slave rebellion which had to be coming at some point since Spartacus led a slave rebellion in ancient Rome before being betrayed by pirates (Never, never trust pirates, even if they look like Johnny Depp!) Next thing you know, the guard members all have spears and shields. Using their shields, they form a testudo, Roman defense trick to protect all members in unit by creating a "tortoise" shell with their shields. I clapped for the testudo and suddenly realized that I was the only one clapping.

Yes, I clap for historical accuracy. I can't help it, I'm a nerd. Well, as you might know, the slaves/guard were defeated by the Romans/band but it was still fun. The end of the true story has all the slaves crucified on the Appian Way because they all claim to be Spartacus and aren't willing to give him up to the Romans. Well at the end of the show, the guard was in the back of the band with their arms outstretched like they were on crosses. I hope someone else got the reference but I did! And I again clapped for historical accuracy.


None of the other bands had historical themes but I enjoyed them too.

Did I mention that we once had a dog named for Spartacus? Sparky was the best dog......

Weekend movie recommendation: Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, and Tony Curtis. Very good!!!!!!