Who's Who Wednesday

This week features Matthew (Matt) Collins!

Age: 16

Description: Matt is in possession of short, dirty blond hair topping his 6 foot plus frame. This makes him about a foot taller than Sam, much to her perpetual annoyance. His baggy jeans, t-shirts, and ripped up sneakers are a constant. His hand-held gaming system and iPod are always stuffed into his pockets when they aren't in his hands.

Driving Status: Learner's permit. He's been too busy to take the driver's ed class so far.

Favorite Class(es): Physics and band- composition's the name of the game.

Instrument: Marches lead bass drum on the battery and plays any drum part he can get during concert season.

After-School Activities: Marching band keeps Matt pretty busy, but he's still managed to maintain a decent presence at the computer club meetings. There's nothing like web page design and learning java script and html code to pass the afternoons by.

Hobbies: Matt is a master gamer and a major computer junkie. Always up-to-date on the latest games, platforms, and software, Matt's the go-to guy for technology. He makes a decent buck helping teachers and small businesses set up web pages. On occasion, he has been known to enter himself in video game tournaments and delights in gaming online.

Weekend Stuff: Matt is either hanging with the others or is camped out on his sofa with his various gaming parephenalia. He loves poning his Sam and the rest whenever they game together, but is usually a decent sport. If he's watching movies, they're action and if he's feeling musical, it's usually classic or soundtrack instrumental. Or anything with a piano.

Next week will feature Alan, so don't miss out! And this Friday, meet Matt's beastly buddy!

Marching Orders...

No, it's not what you think. It's just that time of year again when my band directors are busy finalizing the music arrangements for our new marching show in the fall. This year has consisted of a battle between classical sixteenth-note craziness Henry V and amazingly cool theme songs in Video Game Suite. Hmm... not much of a choice says the high school students. There is a choice! shouts the band director. That much classical isn't very march-able says the second-tier band staff. Needless, to say, I'm very much in favor of the Video Game Suite.

You see, it isn't just Atari "beeps" and Pong "bloops". It's music. Good, solid music that is feasible for a marching field. (20 beat-long 16th and 32nd note runs are not!) First movement is the Halo Theme (from "Halo Suite") by Marty O'Donnell. Second movement is from Civilization IV: Coronation and Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin. And all of this is wrapped up by the epically awesome Kingdom Hearts by Yoko Shimanura. The whole she-bang is arranged by Ralph Ford. And it sends chills up and down my spine whenever I hear it. I just know this is the piece for my band. Problem is, the piece is almost 3 minutes too long for the limited time we have on the field.

So, today we were trying to figure out which measures (units of music) to cut from the music without comprimising the integrity of the arrangement itself. You can listen to a professional recording of the whole arrangement here. Tell me what you think. What you like, what you don't. It's pretty much a shoe-in for the show, but I'd like to know your opinion, since the whole point is to entertain the audience. (Please remember, we high-schoolers are far from being pros, will be marching on a field, and have only 7-7.5 minutes. So give a lil' grace.)

And tomorrow, don't forget to look out for Alan's Triple W interview!