From: valdis@spica.usc.edu (Valdis Kalejs)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: STANFORD/ARIZONA TRASH
Date: 9 Nov 1992 15:10:34 -0800
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: spica.usc.edu


 
>> Oh well.  Fun was had by all, particularly with the announcements of
>> the "USC Band Stats" during halftime.  I never saw a final tally, but
>> at halftime they had done Conquest 25 times, Fight On 19 times, some
>> other random song 6 times, and (the announcement that got our crowd cheering)
>> had played immediately after a USC score 0 times. :-)
>> 
>> Seriously -- why is it that the USC Band plays the same music over and
>> over again?  It's not just Conquest and Fight On (although those are
>> pretty bad) -- I heard them playing the same song they played for
>> either pregame or halftime during the third or fourth quarter.
>
>Has anyone ever met anyone in the USC band?  [pause]  I thought not!
>My theory: the "band members" aren't people at all, but rather the
>band is composed of motorized mannequins wielding prerecorded 
>instrumentation triggered by any of a number of carefully programmed
>stimuli: changes in barometric pressure, wind speed, crowd noise,
>deficit in score, etc. with a minimum delay between outbursts such
>that the strains must come forth every, say, 3 minutes.  My theory
>is based on my understanding of musicians and their aversion to
>uncreative monotony.  Actually, any person with reasonable intelligence
>and a little self-respect has this same aversion.
>
>Why the robots?  Why short delay on the trigger?  Well, perhaps
>the AD and Larry Smith felt that the constant droning would
>make the team feel the same on the road as they do at home
>(namely, irritated and thinking to themselves, "can't those clods
>shut up for more than 3 minutes!?"), thereby negating the opponent's
>home-field advantage.
>
>> Most college bands I know of try to vary our song selection a bit,
>> except for the fight song(s), which are generally only played in
>> their entirety after scores.  You will rarely, for instance, hear
>> the Stanford Band play the same song twice from the pregame rallies
>> to the postgame tailgaters, again except for our fight songs.
>
>Or maybe the USC band is made up of classless dopes who love to
>hear themselves play, but don't know how to play more than 3 tunes.

>Steve Matheson   Program in Neuroscience   University of Arizona
>sfm@neurobio.arizona.edu



Usually I try to refrain in getting into a flame war dealing with worthless
jibberish such as what is mentioned above but just can't help it this time.
It has become very evident that all what USC opponents seem to care about
is to do thing like count how many times our band plays a practicular song
and such, instead of showing any intrest or pride on what their own football
team is doing. But after seeing the Stanford and Arizona bands, as well as the
rest of the bands in the PAC-10, there's no wander that opposing schools seem
ashamed to talk about their bands accomplishments, because we are surely proud
to talk about ours. Which band would you be proud of? 1. A band that has made
numerous TV and movie appearances, or one that had done a halftime show some-
time back titled "A Tribute To Abortion" with the band in coat-hanger formation
2. A band that has been exposed on a Grammy-winning album, or a band that likes
"exposing themselves" in a diffrent way in public. 3. A band that has had such
artist perform with them during halftime such as Neil Diamond, Diana Ross,
Chuck Mangione,Lionel Richie to name a few or a band that has been reprimanded
so many times by the NCAA, has been a total embarassment to the school. Now as
far as Stevie's comments, when the little kittys come to town we'll see who the
"classless dopes" are. Most likely they'll sitting in the Arizona section, with
Curtis Conway's footprints up one side and down the other. Besides if look 
above you'll see he's from something called "The Program in Neuroscience" or
better known a "The Program of the Braindead"

Fight On, Crush The Cats!!

Valdis Kalejs














Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college