The Ohio State Marching Band’s halftime tribute to video games is a must watch:
The horse at about 6 mins is awesome.
by John Cole| 90 Comments
This post is in: Gamer Dork, Open Threads
The Ohio State Marching Band’s halftime tribute to video games is a must watch:
The horse at about 6 mins is awesome.
Comments are closed.
TooManyJens
I went ahead and started that petition to Boehner and Pelosi asking them to set some goddamn standards for who can be on the House Science Committee:
http://www.change.org/petitions/house-leaders-establish-knowledge-standards-for-members-of-the-committee-on-science-space-and-technology
Brad
Driving across the country and I just saw this billboard in Missouri.
“Hope and change? How’s that working for you? Vote for the AMERICAN in November”
Yutsano
That blew up my FB feed of band geeks like no tomorrow. It’s an excellent show to be sure.
TooManyJens
@Brad:
“Not too badly, thanks for asking! And I will! You do mean the guy who was born in Hawaii, right?”
Sigh.
Soonergrunt
That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.
Arm The Homeless
Just getting around to playing Mass Effect 3. I decided the first go round to import my ME 1 & 2 character as an Adept. Wow is all I can say, they finally got around to making Biotics useful, instead of just an after thought to your firearms.
I have also seen the tidal wave of butt-hurt over the ending, and while I have been careful not to delve into spoilers, may I kindly offer some advice to the kvetchers: Suck it up folks
Persia
I’d give five American dollars to anyone who asks Romney how we identify Syrian rebels who ‘share our values.’
Yutsano
@Persia: There are Mormons in Syria? Who knew?
PurpleGirl
So, JG, are you now back among the living? Have your guests gone home? Was the weekend a success?
How are Tunch, Lily and Rosie?
Maude
@Persia:
I know, let’s send Romney to Syria and he can find them.
Shawn in ShowMe
@Brad:
What part of Missouri?
Jewish Steel
Last night:
Thank God Cisco warned us in time! He balked and ran into me, hackles up. For there on the sidewalk directly in our path: The Shaolin Assassin Basenji! So serene and centered, he will bite you 100 hundred times before you can open your mouth. So still and calm, he will pin you with one deft swipe of his paw. So watchful and silent and…a traffic cone.
Canadian Shield
Some NFL humor
http://imgur.com/a/9H0Hv
Yutsano
@Canadian Shield: Down for maintenance. Boo.
JenJen
OH! IO!
Yutsano
@JenJen: An ‘Eer posted this. That’s how amazing it is.
Svensker
I swear I spotted Cole in the stands during the WVA game this weekend. Wearing a straw hat.
It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Also, marching band is awesome. Completely pointless and silly but completely awesome. Humans do weird stuff for fun.
blingee
That video is a tribute to all the stupid shit Americans waste their time on when they are not voting and therefore letting any stupid moron with money run things.
Amir Khalid
@Persia:
“Iz Rebel! Down with Bashir Assad!! Up with Angel Moroni! I can haz weppins?!”
gbear
Update on cat Edward. He threw up last night. He didn’t destroy his room. I may try to make some changes to his food. That it for now.
Canadian Shield
@Yutsano: Strange, works on my machine…oh well
Yutsano
@Svensker:
Yup. And those that do it love it.
@blingee: Herp.
Brad
@Shawn in ShowMe:
It was on I44 east about an hour and a half from St Louis. That’s the best I can give you
? Martin
Very cool. I’ll show that to my son. His school won their marching band tournament on Sat – he’s a freshman so it was his first. I didn’t go to the tournament, but several parents noted how much smaller the other marching bands were and seemed to be getting compared to previous years. The cuts in K-12 funding, particularly around music, are steadily killing high school marching bands. My son’s is still large (about 240 members – almost as big as Ohio State’s there) but it’s due to a LOT of parent commitment, and more than a few students switching schools to the one HS that didn’t cut funding for marching band.
SiubhanDuinne
You guys see this? The wingers are getting nuttier by the day.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/08/charlie-fuqua-arkansas-candidate-death-penalty-rebellious-children_n_1948490.html
Sorry about the HuffPo link.
gbear
@Brad:
āHope and change? Howās that working for you? Vote for the AMERICAN BANK ACCOUNTS in Novemberā
Felinious Wench
That was freaking awesome. Anyone who ever marched across a parking lot in 100 degree heat to practice after school for a UIL band competition and wished they could do something cool instead of stupid interpretations of some 3rd rate Broadway musical will understand how freaking awesome.
Yutsano
@? Martin: Tell him to hang in there. If he’s enjoying it now wait until college. It’s a completely different (and infinitely more fun!) animal. Also: OSU marches 330 all brass (last I heard, that could have changed) and that makes for a more assertive sound.
Comrade Mary
Yes, that was great, and the horse was exactly what made me yell in glee (ca. 1 AM today when I first saw it). My neighbours already have some odd ideas about me, so that’s OK.
Maude
@gbear:
I look forward to updates on Edward.
catclub
@Brad: I was thinking, Vote for the AMERICAN, NOT THE MORMON!
Violet
@Soonergrunt: Hey there. How ya feeling? Did you get to the doctor today?
Violet
@Felinious Wench:
Ha! Describe my high school late summer and fall. Parking lots are HOT in the south in the afternoon.
Really cool. Marching band was a lot of fun. It’s a bummer it’s getting cut out of school budgets.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
The horse was definitely awesome, and I loved the castle take at the end. The boos when the Michigan flag came out, just before they realize what they’re doing with it, is priceless.
Also, John, that’s one hell of a hangover from Saturday. Celebrate the Texas win THAT much?
Corbin Dallas Multipass
http://bashfulglances.ytmnd.com/
best thing to come out of the debate that i’ve seen
Shawn in ShowMe
@Brad:
That’s Sullivan/Cuba country so, yeah, I can see a billboard like that appealing to the 98% white working-class enclaves that live there. A black man who gives orders to white men must seem like a space alien to them.
Amir Khalid
@SiubhanDuinne:
They let mental cases like that walk around free?
rlrr
@TooManyJens:
I went ahead and started that petition to Boehner and Pelosi asking them to set some goddamn standards for who can be on the House Science Committee:
Having such standards would disqualify most, if not all House Republicans.
rlrr
@Brad:
I’ll vote for the candidate whose father wasn’t born in Mexico…
James E. Powell
@Svensker:
I swear I spotted Cole in the stands during the WVA game this weekend. Wearing a straw hat.
The important question: what letter was painted on his chest?
Chris from Arlington
As someone who’s marched in a marching band, let me tell you that almost all of the moves they do in that show are tremendously difficult. That’s a real testament to the dedication of those band members. They hold the music together too, which is crazy hard to do when doing all those moves.
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: That’s not too far from the famous “Democracy! Whisky! Sexy!” article back in the early days of Iraq.
f space that
@Chris from Arlington: Ha, beat me to it. Was going to say the exact same thing. That was a really great halftime show.
Yutsano
@Chris from Arlington: There were so many times in college I was freezing my ass off in the stands but by the time halftime was over I was sweating my ass off I had worked so hard. Marching band is many things. Easy is not one of them.
scav
Weird stuff for entirely fun indeed, Animated Nazca lines. With brass. I’m so behind, I yelled at Tetris.
James E. Powell
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Maybe I missed the memo, but is ‘white working class’ now the accepted euphemism for racists?
? Martin
@Yutsano: He’s really enjoying it so far. I never did anything like that, so I don’t know, but his marching band has won national championships in recent years, so they’re pretty serious about it. I went to a football game on Friday and it was pretty clear most of the fans were there for the marching band and not the football team. The football team isn’t bad, but band is Cheerios and football is New Directions, not the other way around.
I didn’t think OSU was that big. Wiki says 225 and they march 192. My son’s marches about 190. But he plays wind, and OSU is all brass as you note. My son’s also has a very strong percussion front ensemble which reduces the brass even more, but then they aren’t playing 80,000 seat stadiums. They’re pretty damn loud in the puny football stadium we have. We ain’t Texas out here.
bemused
Amazing show. I can’t imagine how many hours of practice went into that.
Randi Rhodes is playing clips of the Jon Stewart-Bill O’Reilly debate dustup. Stewart got some great licks in and some of the things Billo said surprised me. Now I am going to have to watch the whole thing when I get some time.
Marc
@James E. Powell:
In the words of one of my favorite movies:
Salt of the earth.
The common clay.
You know…
Morons.
A moocher
re the marching band, you American’s have odd ways.
A moocher
re the marching band, you Americans have odd ways.
Soonergrunt
@Violet: Yeah–got some kind of streptococcal pneumonia. I didn’t know that strep does that. Learn something new every day, I guess.
I got the antibiotic Cefdinir for that, and she prescribed a cough medicine called Zutripro. The label says “take 1tsp by mouth. May cause drowsiness.” It ought to say “get comfortable, because you’re going to sleep in 3…2…1…”
EDIT–The Google tells me that Zutripro is made of a mix of chlorpheniramine, hydrocodone and pseudoephedrine. No wonder I feel like I could be on fire and I wouldn’t notice or care.
Elisabeth
I’m going to be seating in the ‘shoe in about a month likely freezing my ass off and having a fabulous time!
Shawn in ShowMe
@Shawn in ShowMe:
Oh hell, why sugar coat it? These folks are po’, alright? Maybe not East St. Louis po’, but pretty damn close. They’ve got plenty of reasons to be resentful. The presence of the Kenyan Usurper gives them a convenient target to focus their hate.
Felinious Wench
@Chris from Arlington:
I was drill team, and we marched with the band. The marching alone was hard enough. As Violet said, the Texas heat didn’t help either.
God, I don’t miss that. I do sometimes miss the crazy drummers and saxophone players. What is it about those areas that leads to sheer insane goofiness in the band? And the tubas would horrify the flutes every game.
blingee
Good to see Cole is doing what he does best. Blogging about anything other than politics or things that require a brain.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Gaming Question: Has anyone played Skyrim? I’ve been playing strat sims forever and I’d enjoy a change of genre. Don’t have the dedication for an MMORPG.
gbear
@Maude: I look forward to Edward not throwing up any more.
lamh35
Saw Looper today. I’m not really sure how I feel about. I liked it, but man my brain hurts.
Bostondreams
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Skyrim is great, but I still like Morrowind, one of the earlier Elder Scrolls games that helps set this one up, better.
You might consider one of the Fallouts if you don’t want dragon-related fantasy.
Gozer
@SiubhanDuinne: Double-you Tee Eff…
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Bostondreams:
Thanks for the suggestions! I just ordered The Elder Scrolls Morrowind Game of the Year Edition from Amazon. After playing Civilization, among other sims, since 1991 I’m ready for swords,sorcery and dragons.
SiubhanDuinne
@Amir Khalid:
And run for office.
McWaffle
Morrowind was great because it didn’t scale enemies to your level and it was way more open-ended, I feel. Plus it just felt really huge at the time, before most games did. Skryim and Oblivion both scale enemies, but I feel like it’s less obvious. In Oblivion you’d be running into stupid highway bandits with mithril armor or whatever.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gozer:
Inorite?
Cris (without an H)
Speaking of the Buckeyes, here’s an anti-Romney ad in the OSU student newspaper (via dKos).
“I have been a Michigan and a Wolverine fan for a long long time.” — Mitt Romney
Raptorfence
This may have come up already but anyway…
If Mitt Romney loses, does that mean we have to live through 4 years of bi-monthly exclusives with him on “Meet the Press”?
ThresherK
My streaming is broken now. Please, please tell me “PacMan Fever” is on that clip. None of these kids were born when that song was released, it made the Billboard top 15, and we need to warn these kids.
It holds its own next to any baby boomer’s most loathed hit of the ’60s. (I should know, my spouse has a special place in hell for “Yummy, Yummy, Yummy”, but that does qualify as an actual song.)
@Raptorfence: I’d say, No, we don’t.
Mitt has no core consitutency, doesn’t need to keep in “broadcasting trim” like Newt (sic), or requires a drip feed from the wingnut welfare spigot.
Should he lose, he will disappear like the Enron plane from tarmac photograph of George W. Bush during Campaign 2000.
Yutsano
@Raptorfence: My guess is not until Grandpa Walnuts is a corpse. And probably not even then.
Violet
@Soonergrunt: Glad you’re under a doctor’s care and getting the treatment you need. That’s stuff you don’t want to mess around with. Rest up and take care of yourself.
R-Jud
Ah, marching bands. Reminds me of my high school boyfriend, a sousaphone player nicknamed “the Hobbit” who was 5″ shorter than me.
Raptorfence
@Yutsano:
Good point. Hasn’t considered that they’ll have to pry McCain’s cold dead corpse off the set. (And even then he’ll get one or two more “exclusive interviews”…)
Bostondreams
@McWaffle:
Agreed. I loved the storyline far better as well, especially with the two add-ons. And the theological elements were simply fascinating to me.
Bostondreams
@Canadian Shield:
This was awesome. Thanks! :)
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
I’m stuck in Virginia Beach for 2.5 days. Should have been headed home by now but events intervened. I’d be out walking on the beach but it’s raining so all I can do is sit here on the balcony and watch it from 6 floors up. It’s still a cool view. It’s an ocean.
Some romantic has etched a huge marriage proposal to ‘Christina” in the sand.
Maude
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
There’s a liveblog test at nine tonight by mistermix and DougJ.
Whine instead of wine.
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Maude:
Thanky, Ma’m. I may drop in for a look. If the rain stops I’ll be off down Atlantic Ave to a joint called The Raven. It’s recommended by an old pal who insists I not mention his name.
IOW, I’m bored, and might look for some night life rather than another evening staring at pixels.
ThresherK
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Surprise proposal on an October beach near sunset?
That ploy has been known to work.
WaterGirl
@TooManyJens: Just signed your petition! I was #38, surely everyone here would sign it?
James Hulsey
@James E. Powell:
That’s the great thing about WVU. Any drunk can paint a squiggly line on his chest and call it WVU as long as it squiggles enough.
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@ThresherK:
Apparently. I just looked again and I see a ‘YES’ in the sand by the proposal. Good luck, kids!
ThresherK
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: Well, it worked again! Good luck, indeed.
Finn13
Why isn’t Balloon Juice talking about Obama’s plans to cut Social Security benefits in the lame duck? it says it right there on his campaign website.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
As a former high school and college drummer, let me just say…wow.
Suezboo
May I agree with whoever said Americans do weird stuff?
This was a brilliant display, to be sure, but my first thought was : These are students? This must have taken hours and hours of practice – when do they like, study?
Downpuppy
Perfect followup to HonkFest yesterday.
Dr. Squid
@Yutsano: There will be when Mitt goes there to baptize the corpses from the civil war.
Chris from Arlington
@Felinious Wench:
Heh heh. I was, and still am, a Sax player. My buddy and I used to have “Loudest single thing in the room” contests between his Bari and my Tenor (a very loud, easy-blowing Mk VI) at Basketball Games. Ahh good times.
I played a cruddy student model in marching band, and, to my great sadness, went to a school without a marching band (or football team). However GW did have two good basketball teams when I was there, so all the engergy that could have gone into marching band shows, went into basketball band. Man that was fun. The good horns didn’t go outside, too expensive to repair all the pad damage.
Chris from Arlington
Went to a college that is. I marched quite a bit during High School.
TBDBITL
No drill team, no woodwinds – just lots of brass and percussion. This band memorizes all their music, too. As an OSUMB alum, I would estimate they took about two weeks of rehearsal time to put that show together. And yes, they are also students! Go Bucks! WB!