Mini 500

While the Ramblin' Wreck Parade is one of the premiere events of the Georgia Tech Homecoming weekend, another activity has gotten more recognition as the result of a PSA being aired during Georgia Tech ACC football games.



While that video involves some Hollywood magic, the real race is just as bizarre. Teams are given an unassembled stock tricycle which they have to put together and paint. The teams consist of four riders and three in the pit crew. Here is the team from my son's fraternity with their tricycle:



The racers have to push the tricycle around the course. The most common posture is to put one knee on the trike seat and push with the other leg.



Although some people take fancier poses.



The other common technique is to sit on the tricycle backwards and push with both feet.



The race is between 10 and 15 laps of Peters Parking Deck which is easily a half mile around. This takes an enormous toll on the trikes and the riders. Wipeouts are frequent.



The front tire in particular is prone to blowouts and many trikes run on rims.



As the tricyles fall apart beyond repair, the teams just give up and resort to silly stunts.



Or just run around with the remaining parts.



The event draws a huge crowd and I was far from the only photographer grabbing pictures of the racers and wrecks.



Eventually someone comes up with enough laps to win. I have no idea if this team won, but there sure are showing some enthusiasm.



For lots more (perhaps too many more) photos of all the wackiness, check out the Flickr set. And if you are ever in Atlanta for Georgia Tech's homecoming check out the race itself.

Join The Parade

On of the cool features of the Georgia Tech Homecoming is that they encourage alumni band members to come and play. They are the motley crew behind the main band.

Georgia Tech Marching Band Homecoming 2009 from yellojkt on Vimeo.

Look for my son. Hint: He's in the saxaphone section.

Ramblin' Wreck All Day Long

Back in October we went down to Atlanta for Parent's Weekend at Georgia Tech. As you might recall from this post or this one, my son is in the marching band. Game days are busy for the band and for this game my son also drew roaming band duty which meant he had even more performances than usual. I decided that I would spend the morning shadowing him and see what a game day involved.

For a noon kick-off, the players all enter the stadium at about 10 am with a big parade that includes the Ramblin' Wreck, the cheerleaders, and the band. As soon as all the players are in the locker room, the band breaks up and the two roaming bands go marching around campus hitting all the frat parties and tailgate areas and alumni events.

As I followed him around, the stopped to play about a half dozen times. The would usually do the official school fight song and then the Ramblin' Wreck Song, one of the most distinctive college songs ever played. Another signature GT Band song is the old Budweiser theme song (not in my montage, but you can see it here). When the two roaming bands met up, they played a round of Dueling Buds before heading off to reform the entire band.

That's when I took off for the parent's picnic and catch up with my wife. While I was eating, the band continues to march towards the stadiums stopping at three or four more places. I missed it, but here is yet another YouTuber with great video of the final stop before entering the stadium.

And then at the game, they play Ramblin' Wreck after each score and at the end of the game. By the time the final whistle blows at about 3 pm, the band has been playing straight for nearly five hours. Watch the video again (and I highly recommend clicking through for the hi-def version) and check the time hacks.

For the longest time I didn't quite know what to do with the footage I had shot. I had nearly a half hour of raw film (if digital video files can be called film) that had at least a dozen snippets of various pieces.

Finally I decided to edit it down to a montage of the various Ramblin' Wreck pieces. Besides, this gave me a chance to test out the ease of use of the new iMovie '09 which is supposed to make movie making as painless as possible. It took me a while to get used to the paradigm, but I kept trimming it down until I got it under four minutes. I even got the lyrics to crawl under one of the shots of all three verses. Now you can all sing along.

A fair amount of stuff ended up on the cutting room floor because hi-def is rather unforgiving of camera shake. But as I have conclusive proven with visual evidence that if I had a son, sir, he'd yell 'TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!' like his daddy used to do.

Macy's Parade Screen Caps

As faithful readers should know by now, I was up in New York to catch my son march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We knew that the Georgia Tech Marching Band was the second band in the parade. My game plan was to go up to Columbus Circle and get some video footage and then call my wife with the heads up that they were on the way. As you can see in this picture, I never really got very close to the parade itself.


I actually had a pretty clear view of the parade route but as soon as the Snoopy balloon passed, the crowd started jostling and pushing and the video footage was crappy. At best I saw some plumes and tubas go by.

My wife had a much better view. We were staying at Crowne Plaza in Times Square which is on the parade route. Their restaurant was holding a brunch during the parade so we made reservations and she went before the parade to get our table. In the picture below, the restaurant is just over the Hershey's Store on Broadway and 48th Street. The NBC camera just cuts off the window in this view.


But my son had the best view of parade since he was actually in it. Here is the band captured crossing the Macy's star at Herald Square.


And I'm not completely certain that the person I'm pointing to is him, but he is one of the saxophonists. I've sent him a picture for him to try to identify himself in. We'll see if it can be done.

As I warned you, I have plenty more pictures and stories and celebrity sightings to come. For now you can look at the Flickr set that has some of our pictures from before and after the parade.

BlatantCommentWhoring™: I'm taking questions to be answered either in the comments or future posts.

Disclaimer: The pictures in this post are photographs of screen shots from the DVRed broadcast of parade which probably violates various copyright laws a good half dozen ways. To the NBC/Macy's lawyers, I say "Tough." My kid is only going to march in that parade once in his life and I'm going to document it nine ways to Sunday.

The Creeper

Being a morning person and having nothing better to do, I headed two blocks over from our hotel to the Fox News Building where Fox and Friends is broadcast from. They had the Georgia Tech Band set up outside and would cut to them during commercial breaks. After the show, the hosts Steve Doocy and the pretty blond guest host I didn't recognize came out with country star Trace Adkins to schmooze with the band in a web-exclusive post broadcast segment.



If you paid very close attention you would have caught a stalkerish looking guy in a navy blue GT baseball cap taking pictures. That was me. I show up on the far left part of the screen with 2:15 left on the clip and again with 1:10 to go. Go ahead and watch it again.

My son has nicknamed The Creeper because I spent the entire morning taking pictures of the pom squad. In my defense, the majorettes were set up between the sidewalk and the saxophone section. My son does his best to hide from my camera whenever I am around. That leaves me to to take pictures of what I can.

When I have the photos culled and uploaded, I think you will find that I have plenty of pictures of the drum line, tuba players, and flag wavers and not just the pom wavers, even though they are pretty photogenic.

After the camera crews left, the band director released the band until 2:15 a.m. Thanksgiving morning when the band has to show for final rehearsal before marching to Macy's. That is a mighty long time until the 9 a.m. start time. Those kids will be marching zombies by the time they reach Herald Square.

And we will see if The Creeper makes a return appearance. After all, what do I have to do other than sleep?

Macy's On Peachtree

Updated: 11/26/08
I am headed to New York to chase my son down somewhere in Times Square. He called me Monday asking me where Ollie’s Noodle House is but I had to warn him it had moved to 10th Avenue. He and the rest of the Georgia Tech Marching Band are painting the town red trying to get as bleary-eyed as possible before they have to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This is the 100th anniversary of the GT Band and they wrangled an invite to New York out of the occasion. It’s been a big season of prep work for them. When I was in Atlanta for Parent’s Weekend, they had coaxed the city officials to close the section of West Peachtree Street next to the Civic Center MARTA station.

The band needed to send the Macy’s folks a video of the performance so the talking heads could have a script written on what to blather on about. So the street closing doubled as a dress rehearsal. The event went so far as to paint a star in the middle of the road, measuring it out as meticulously as a freshman drafting class.

We had to catch a plane home before the big video production commenced, but I did snag this snippet of practice.



So, wake up early (or set the Tivo) and keep an eye out for my kid marching down Broadway. He’ll be one of the saxophone players on the left side (as they are marching). And wave to him if you are in the crowd. I know I will be.

Update: The band will be on Fox and Friends this morning (Wednesday, Nov 26)

Carolina Cookie Mission

I may have mentioned it once or twice, but for those that don’t recall, my son is in the marching band at Georgia Tech. The full band plays at all the home games and selected away games (To Hell With Georgia!) but sends smaller pep bands to the more distant road games. Each year one road game is an all-freshman road trip. This year that game was against North Carolina.

Since Chapel Hill is roughly half-way between Baltimore and Atlanta, we decided to road trip down and see him play. We lollygagged around making arrangements and had to buy tickets in the visitor’s section from TicketScalpingWebsite for a significant by not exorbitant mark-up over face value. We also had to book rooms in nearby Durham rather than Chapel Hill proper which was completely sold-out since this was the Tarheels homecoming game.

Part of our mission was to deliver to him two boxes of Girl Scout cookies that my wife had brought along. Gametime was noon and he called us about 10 saying that he had about 45 minutes to kill, but we were still at the hotel. By the time we drove into town, parked at the local mall, boarded the Tarheel Express shuttle bus as the only passengers not wearing Carolina Blue, and got to campus, it was 11 am and we had missed the window of opportunity.

Our strategy was then to go find our seats in the stadium and wait for the band to arrive. But first we had to make it through security. The gate checker was strictly enforcing the “no outside food” rule as applying to our plastic grocery bag of cookies. We appealed to the chief of security who must have had kids of her own and she let us through.

When the band came in, I went down and crowded through the saxophone section to let my son know that we had cookies for him and not to get on the bus without them. We even intercepted him for a quick picture as he made a brief foray out of the band section.

After the game our goal was to follow the band out of the stadium and catch up with them. And here we made a strategic error. As the crowd started clearing, we headed up and out instead of waiting around and following the band out at field level.

As we rounded the back of the stadium, I saw the band disappear into a parking garage tunnel, but the trail went cold when we got to the other side. We eventually spotted a sea of white shirts heading up towards the Dean Dome. A long uphill climb and two cell calls later, we made it to the bus and handed off the cookies. No word yet on whether they even survived the bus trip back to Atlanta.

So when you figure in the game tickets, two night hotel stay in Durham, and gas for the 600 mile round trip, it may be the most expensive care package ever. But as they say in the credit card commercials:

Chance to see your son play on the road: Priceless.

Uggh at Uga

For about two weeks now I have been grimacing (pun intended) every day at the comics. Mother Goose and Grimm has been running into the ground a gag about Grimmy being the understudy mascot for the University (sic) of Georgia’s inbred nuts-licking abomination of a mascot, Uga. Uga is the name of all of UGA’s (Uga – U-G-A, get it? Good, excuse me while I vomit) bulldogs. I think they are up to Uga VII, each one uglier thant the last. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the UGA veterinary science building is a breeding lab where only the drooliest, wrinkliest, and least intelligent puppies are allowed to breed. The ones that don’t make the cut are sold off to Yale, Georgetown, Mississippi State, and Gardner Webb as second-rate imitations.

Finally, Mother Goose and Grimm's nauseating sequence of lame fire hydrant jokes has paid off with a gag about the true role of a bulldog, a victim of yellow jacket venom. I end with a few bulldog jokes from various locations on the internet (including here):

How do you get a Georgia graduate off your porch?
Pay him for the pizza.

Q: How many University of Georgia freshman does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, it's a sophomore course.

Q: Why do they throw out a sack of manure at University of Georgia weddings?
A: To keep the flies off the bride.

Two University of Georgia fans were at the UGA-Tech game when Uga walked out to the middle of the field and started licking himself as dogs are wont to do.
The first Georgia fan says to the second, "Boy, I wish I could do that."
The second Georgia fan replies, "You better not, that dog would bite you."

What do you get when you breed a pig with a bulldog?
Nothing. There are some things a pig just won’t do.

The comic strip is woefully off schedule; Tech doesn't play UGA until November 29, but it's never to soon to start hating early.

BlatantCommentWhoring™:Go ahead. Tell a Georgia joke. Or one for the rival of your choice.

Buzz Around Town

I promised/threatened a while back more pictures of Buzz. These are the first half of the buzzes that I found. Here there are in order with commentary.

	Buzz is a Management Grad [sponsor] Gary & Libby Jones for the College of Management [artist] Samantha Mach, GT Student ‘09 The College of Management is on the east side of I-75/85 which makes it a leap from the traditional borders. This buzz is all office, but his tie has become unglued and I had to prop it into place for the picture.
	Buzz BuzzCard [sponsor] Georgia Tech Auxiliary Services [artist] Philip Auslander, Deana Sirlin & The Collision Company Buzz Cards are the combination student IDs and debit cards that all students have to carry. The yellow parts of this Buzz are covered in tiny pieces of Buzz Cards.
	The Buzz Around Campus [sponsor] Michael B. Randall, Randall - Paulson Architects [artist] Kristie B. Chamlee This Buzz is painted with beautiful vignettes of Georgia Tech including the Tech Tower. It's one of the most beautifully rendered and artistic buzzes, but the images are just a little busy to figure out without getting real close. I've gone and posted two pictures of this one so that you can see both sides since they are very different.
	Heritage Buzz [sponsor] Kimberly Davis-Blackstone, IE ‘86 [artist] David Boyd, Jr & Nicole Young I really don't get this rather abstract pattern. It must mean something to somebody.
	Bee Green Buzz [sponsor] Georgia Tech Foundation [artist] Helen Kwon To fit the recycling theme of this Buzz, his shirt is covered in small glass beads and his tail has some sort of fluffy fabric on it. And of course, his wings are green.
	COE Super Star [sponsor] College of Engineering [artist] IDSA Georgia Tech This is my favorite Buzz of them all. It's sponsored by the College of Engineering and they tried to make him a tough nerd. He has the buzzsaw mohawk and leather studded wrist cuffs but he also wears a white short sleeve shirt with a pocket protector. To see the welding glasses he had on before I managed to take the picture, see this other Flickr picture.
	A.E.K.Δ.Buzz [sponsor] Kappa Sigma Fraternity [artist] Rob DeLoach Missing In Action. This Buzz never got installed.
	Au² [sponsor] Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity [artist] Carl Wilson, GT Student '09 Another abstract pattern, but at least it is in the official school colors.
	I am an AIESECer [sponsor] AIESEC [artist] Donna Sammander I have never hear of this organization which stands for Association Internationale des Étudiants en Sciences Économiques et Commerciales and is some sort of student exchange program. Their Buzz is just as baffling as their organization. It seems to be some sort of globe covered with stamps.
	George P. [sponsor] Sigma Chi Fraternity [artist] Wendy Jackson This Buzz named after fictional student legend George P. Burdell has one of the prime locations on campus, right in front of the stadium. His GT pennant went missing by the time I stumbled across him.
	Sigma Nu is a Buzz [sponsor] Gamma Alpha of Sigma Nu Alumni Assn [artist] Tex Grubbs Another premium location Buzz, right in Callaway Courtyard. The guy that did this Buzz has pictures of it under construction.
	Egyptian Buzz [sponsor] Delta Sigma Phi Fraternity [artist] Jason Hawkins Another no-show.
	A Buzz Aquatic [sponsor] Peter Mocker ISyE '03 & Jennifer Hinkel INTA '03 [artist] Julia Berman Just as the name suggests, it is an aquatically themed Buzz with lots of fishies all over it. I assume the name is a play on that very bad Wes Anderson movie.
	The Hamilton [sponsor] Clint Padgett EE ‘95 [artist] Kristen Holden MGT '92 & Amy Johnson I have no idea what the "The Hamilton" is supposed to mean. It doesn't call up and Tech lore that I'm familiar with.

If you somehow stumbled onto this post and have pictures of your own, feel free to join the Buzz Around Town Flickr Group I set up.

I'll post the rest another day when I'm fresh out of other blog ideas. Meanwhile enjoy the pics.

The Ratio

Y'all are going to be sick of Georgia Tech related posts by this time next week, but this video is too good to pass up. It has great production values and really nails a particular aspect of campus life peculiar to Tech.



The Ratio is the number of guys to every girl enrolled at Tech. When I was there, it was 4 to 1. Two decades later, after major efforts at enrolling more women including recruiting and scholarships and other enticements, the Ratio has improved to...wait for it...3 to 1. And holding steady.

Back in the day, I used to eat lunch on Fridays with a group of co-eds that were friends of a girl I met in my freshman drafting class (yeah, with t-squares and triangles, that's how old school I am). They were all complaining that they didn't have dates. My jaw dropped. I asked how with The Ratio could they complain. They explained that half the guys at Tech you wouldn't want to date and the other half already had girlfriends from back home or at other schools. All-girl Agnes Scott College was and still is a major source of female companionship for Tech guys. And since I had met my girlfriend/fiance/future wife in high school, I had no room to dispute their explanation. These girls had a point.

The distaff side has this saying about how The Ratio does not always work in their favor:

"The odds are good, but the goods are odd."

BuzzTown

While at Georgia Tech, I noticed that the campus had succumb to the Fiberglass Animal Display fad. FAD-fad. Started in Chicago many many years ago, it has been trickling down to smaller and smaller locales. The last time I saw them was in Mystery Business Trip City Named After A Sport Played With Sticks. I have to confess that Georgia Tech isn’t even the first college campus to jump on this well worn bandwagon. Two years ago I stumbled across a flock of Hokies at Virginia Tech while my son searched for a decent bookstore in Blacksburg that would have made exile there tolerable.

Our favorite one was the one called COE Superstar, but we nicknamed his Buzzsaw Buzz because of the sawblade coming out of his head. And if you look real carefully, that is a GT logo on his gold tooth. Sadly, Buzzsaw also represented a disturbing trend among these silly acts of boosterism, random and senseless acts of vandalism. Any accessory on any of these sculptures was doomed. Buzzsaw had on a very cool pair of welding goggles when we saw him Thursday night. By Friday morning when we came back with the camera, both lenses had been snapped off.

As we wandered around campus hunting all the Buzzes, we noticed ties askew, flags missing, and worst of all, antennae broken off. Something about the fragile sensory apian sensory devices was irresistible to passers-by with poor impulse control. Like most of these silly stunts, the statues are to later be auctioned off and nobody wants an abused bee in their yard as a conversation piece.

You can see all the Buzzes on my Flickr set devoted to them or wait a day or so because I intend to put together a post or two showing all the Buzzes with some commentary.

BlatantCommentWhoring™:What silly F-A-D has or would your area use?