Centerfold by J Giles Band

It was the fall of 1995 and I was down on Edwards Field with the Cal Band.  If you ask a Cal Bandsman what they majored in, they will often joke that they majored in Band.  In the Fall, our lives were consumed by the Cal Band.  We had rehearsal 4 afternoons/week. On game weeks, we rehearsed 5 afternoons/week, plus Saturday morning prior to the game.  We also had section rehearsals (by instrument and rank) once a week.  There were group bonding events.  Evening events.  We generally socialized together and ate together.  If we had classes together, we studied together.  We were one big (mostly) happy family and I truly cherish my time in the Band as well as the memories and friends I made. 

The Cal Band is incredibly organized.  It is completely student led and run.  Thinking back, I think it's better run, by a bunch of college students no less, than some of the companies I have worked for in my career.   As a Newman (first year Bandsman), and a latecomer at that, there were so many people eager to welcome me and bring me up to speed on all of the traditions and rules of the Cal Band.   The most important of course was the complete and total elimination of anything red in my wardrobe.  I'm not kidding.  You would get pantsed if so much as the red Levi's tag on your jeans pocket was exposed. I learned quickly.  We all did.  To help ensure that we looked and sounded great on the field, we had both DAs (Director's Assistants) and TAs (Teaching Assistants, which were really Marching Assistants, but I guess TA sounds better than MA?). The DAs led the section music rehearsals and the TAs roamed the field and made sure we were in the proper formation, marching in perfect form. 

One of those TAs was Michael and he was also in my section, the 2nd Clarinets. He had an infectious, fun personality and I was always so happy to be around him.  I don't know if he was responsible for putting me in a dance number for the 80s show, but he certainly coached me on the choreography, of that I am certain. The dance numbers were always a hit and I know you non-Cal Bandsmen are all laughing right now, but they absolutely were!  There was so much cheering when we suddenly busted out with a dance routine.  The 80s show featured a dance number at the end of Centerfold.  I would never, ever claim to be the best dancer, but I will learn those moves and perform with enthusiasm. Michael is a person with an undying positive spirit, always full of enthusiasm, and I wanted to make him proud. I only got to enjoy his friendship and fun memories for 2 years.  I spent my junior year abroad which meant I missed his year at the Drum Major, which was also his last year at Cal. Thanks to Facebook, I still get to see what he's up to and thanks to this song, I think of him when I hear it, although my blood doesn't run cold.  He's not a Centerfold.

This is Me from the Greatest Showman Soundtrack

What are you doing, eating, drinking, wearing?  I'm not being nosy, but Gavin is.  The thing about Gavin is that he is genuinely interested in the answers to those questions and he will always share his own situation in response.  I first met Gavin over 3 years ago when I was in Carmel, Indiana training his company on our software.  I only spoke to him for a few minutes, but he left an immediate impression on me. He had completely embraced the product and enforced adoption with his vendors and users.  I was so excited about him and his enthusiasm that I told my Marketing team that he would be an excellent candidate to record a testimonial.  When he told me years later that he once ran for office in his town, I wasn't at all surprised.  I was however surprised that he didn't win the election.

Several years later, Gavin took a more active role with my product and before I knew it, he had found me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and someone even found my cell phone number.  Again, I know you are thinking this guy is super nosy and possibly a little creepy, but I assure you he isn't!  A couple years ago I texted him Merry Christmas.  He responded with a picture of his family in their matching Christmas jammies.  I responded with a picture of me and the kids wearing the EXACT SAME JAMMIES.  They are from Target, so this isn't totally farfetched, but to quote a movie that I haven't actually seen, but somehow still know this:  "Did we just become best friends?!"

If friendship were a superpower, Gavin would be known as SuperFriend.  He truly cares about his friends and he has quite literally become one of my very best friends, which is funny because I haven't seen Gavin in person in over three years.  He has been doing video messages and FaceTime calls before those things became mainstream.  He checks in on me regularly and sends me funny memes or tags me in funny posts. One day he happened to check in on me when I was especially down in the dumps about something.  Or someone.  It was probably a guy. I am always in the dumps about some guy.  Gavin sent me a link to a song and told me to cheer up.  The song was This Is Me and it did cheer me up.  Thanks Buddy!

Release Me by Wilson Phillips

It was early freshman year.  I was sitting on the quad eating lunch with Mikhaela, Emily, and Katie.  We didn't have open campus, but you were allowed to sit pretty much anywhere you liked at lunchtime.  It wasn't exactly like the movies where every group had a specific table or a spot. At least, I didn't think it was.  There were some big groups of kids, but it was mostly seemed to me to be little groups of 3-6 kids sitting together in various places on campus.  In this story, we were sitting in the northwest corner of the quad, eating our sack lunches.  There were 3 or 4 boys who sat right across from us.  The boys were in the band, like we were, but they were worldly juniors.  I almost certainly had a crush on one of them.  Trumpet players were typically my type.  Sometimes we would talk to them, but we mostly talked ABOUT them.  We were all under the impression that they were talking about us, of course.  

One day they definitely were talking about us or at least they were trying to get our attention.  There was typically music playing over the loudspeakers in the quad, whatever was popular at the time.  The song Release Me by Wilson Phillips was playing.  The boys across from us had created their own lyrics to the song. Instead of singing "I'm just trying to make you see, that baby you've just got to release me" the boys loudly sang:  "I'm just trying to make you see, that baby you've just got to have sex with me".  We giggled of course, but mostly rolled our eyes because it was textbook dumb teenage boy behavior.  It wasn't even clever, it was just dumb.  They certainly got our attention though and that was the point.  What they probably don't know is how memorable it was, since I still cannot listen to that song without hearing their alternate lyrics.  And now, so will you!  Please release me from these lyrics!

You Learn by Alanis Morissette

All the Jennifers

It was my second year in the Cal Band and we were in LA for the annual road trip.  Every year, the full band travels to LA to play either U$C or fUCLA.  Every other away game during football season was SHB (Straw Hat Band) only.  I had oddly decided to do a hot oil treatment for my hair the night before the trip and as a result, I was very uncomfortable with my oily hair for the next few days.  I have never done a hot oil treatment on my hair again.  The first stop in LA was the SoCal Benefit, which is a fundraising event where we would play for generous alumni and eat a fancy dinner.  That year there were six Jennifers in the Band.  To avoid any confusion, no one called any of us Jennifer or Jen(n) or Jenny.  We were JenStout, JenKlein, JennyHo, etc.  My last name was such a part of my identity that when I got divorced, several of my friends said that they never changed my last name in their phones....even after 9 years!  Is it any wonder I switched back to my maiden name.

Part of the LA trip is the excitement of staying in a hotel.  I was rooming with Jen K and possibly Melinda M and Kristin W, although I cannot remember.  I remember we had just settled into our room and turned on the radio to get the party started.  An Alanis song was playing on one station, so we paused because we all recognized the song.  We then started singing along to the most boring, depressing, un-party-like song of all time. At one point we all looked at each other and collectively realized how lame it was and promptly changed the station.

I cannot remember if we won, but I do remember the game being a bit of a disaster because someone threw an apple at the Trojan horse.  U$C fans and students aren't the nicest people, make no bones about it, but I draw the line at intentionally antagonizing an animal.  I must also confess that I do not remember going to a party in someone's hotel room, but I do know that we did because there is photographic evidence of a party in a hotel room with hideous mid-90's artwork.  There is just something fun about being jammed into a hotel room out of town with your friends and the Cal Band was very good at having fun.  So much fun in fact that the trip left us worn out and exhausted, as evidenced by the picture at the end of the trip....the picture that was completely staged because I wanted to wrap up my photo journey of the weekend.  I'm almost positive Jen and I were giggling behind those pillows.

Hangin' Tough by the New Kids on the Block

I have seen the New Kids on the Block in concert 4 times.  I saw them back in 1990 and 3 more times when they came back as grown men (on the block). My sister has of course seen them with me each and every time.  My curly girl Karen has seen them with me twice. Before you ask, yes, they are absolutely the kind of band you need to see more than once.  You may be wondering what makes a New Kids concert so much fun?   I'll tell you! 

Camera phones weren't as sophisticated in 2008

Back in 1990 I was quite literally obsessed.  My room was covered in New Kids posters.  I listened to their albums on repeat.  When I finally saw them in concert, I started crying when they came onstage and didn't stop crying throughout the show.  I was on emotional overload. In fact, when we got to our seats in 2008, my sister turned to me and asked if I was going to start crying again.  I said maybe.  I didn't cry, but I did stand up and jump around and wave my arms back and forth.  It turns out that watching the New Kids in your 30s is a lot like watching the New Kids when you are a tween.  It's all the same people from 1990 doing all the same dance moves and screaming at approximately the same level of ear piercing decibels.  We were even wearing the same clothes.  I had dug out the tshirts I had saved from the 1990 summer tour and the three of us proudly wore them.  After the concert, we spent the night in Karen's guest room in her apartment.  When we woke up, my sister was horrified to find out she had spent the night in a room with Karen's snake.  I could've warned her, but she had teased me about all of the crying.  All's fair in love and sisters, right?

Last year the New Kids went on the Mix Tape tour with a group of artists from the 90s.  The three of us naturally couldn't resist all of the nostalgia.  The show didn't disappoint.  It was like listening to a mix tape.  There were no sets - there were multiple stages and the artists would mix in, even overlapping and mashing things up.  It was as much fun as you would imagine, especially our nostalgic outfits and of course, closing out the show by enthusiastically waving our arm back and forth, blissfully Hangin' Tough with my sister and my curly girl Karen.  

Wonderwall by Oasis

It was the first week of college or maybe it was even the week before classes officially started.  I had walked down to the campus computer store to pick out my computer.  This was in the early days of the internet, pre-online shopping.  I think it was actually the student store. I bought a Mac, or were they still called Apple Computers in 1995?  I bought it, the whole kit and caboodle, and then hopped in a cab to transport several thousand dollars worth of equipment back to my dorm.  What I did not account for was getting the heavy boxes out of the cab and into the dorm.  I wasn't naive enough to think I could leave them in the cab as I ran them back and forth to the dorm.  I was starting to panic, when I saw two people pushing a cart up the street towards my dorm.  The cart was loaded down with the exact same computer I had just purchased!  This person had put some thought into this computer purchase. She graciously helped me transfer my boxes onto her cart and into my dorm room.  That's the story of my meet cute with Pam. 

Pam and I became really close friends for many, many years.  She was (and I'm sure still is) one of the most independent, driven, fiercely motivated people I have ever met.  She became an ambulance medic while going to Cal.  I cannot remember her major, but I want to say it was something in the sciences.  I remember taking an elective or two with her, most notably Music Appreciation.  She was in the Orchestra at Cal and I was in the Cal Band.  We had a ton in common and always had enormous amounts of fun together, complete with so much laughter.  She was in love with the Oasis hit Wonderwall.  I remember walking arm and arm up Bancroft, singing and harmonizing at the top of our lungs, likely embarrassing anyone who knew us.  It was our song and I always think about her when I hear it. 

After graduating from Cal in 4 years, she then got a job with the Oakland Fire Department and became a Paramedic.  We lost touch, but I do know she later moved to SoCal to attend med school and is now an ER Doctor.  I cannot imagine her working in any other capacity.  The song says it better than I ever could and I think anyone she treats should sing it to her: 

Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me

And after all, you're my wonderwall

Another Night by the Real McCoy

The Koelner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) is a sight to behold.  You truly cannot comprehend its splendor and height until you are standing right outside, craning your neck up...up...up.  It stands right outside the train station and as you approach, you catch a glimpse, but you literally cannot see the top until you ascend onto the plaza.  There are plenty of buildings that dwarf the Koelner Dom today, but imagine being the designer, in 1322, of this beauty that took well over 200 years to complete, with a 400 year pause until it was finally completed in 1880.  You never lived to see even a fraction of your masterpiece built.  Imagine that this masterpiece was built completely by hand with none of the safety, machinery, and technology available today.  It is a true testament of Catholicism and intimidation.  When you stand next to it, you feel the power of the church, which was entirely the point.  When I saw the Dom for the first time in the summer of 1993, I fell in love.  When I learned that our junior year class trip was to Koeln, I was thrilled!

There we were, 2 classes of German 16-17 year old students, and me, packed into a train, garnished with streamers.  Think school bus, but the actual Deutsche Bahn (German Railroad), aka public transporation.  We were all surprisingly well behaved and arrived in Koeln together and in one piece.  The field trip was a combination of chaperoned and unchaperoned events such as the theater, the art museum, and a trip to a brewery.  That alone speaks to how different this was from an American field trip, but also the freedom we were given throughout.  A few things stand out in my memory. The first was gathering in the famous Frueh Brauhaus (Brewery).  It was a group of boys from our class.... and me.  There was a toast made and it was sweet and I was happy.  There was also an unspoken contest called "Who will end up with the most Koelschglaeser (Koelsch glasses)".  To clarify, these are glasses we stole.  There are 26 varieties of Koelsch, which is a beer brewed in.... you guessed it, Koeln.  It is served in a 0.2ml glass and each variety has their own logo on the glass. The servings size is so cute and perfect, really a tasting.  They continue to serve you until you put your Bierdeckel (coaster, also branded) on top of your glass, indicating you are done.  I ended up with at least 3 glasses, all now sadly broken.

The other memory and purpose of today's story, is of scaling the Dom with my classmates.  There are 533 steps to the top and they wind up a circular staircase with no windows.  It's intense.  We came up with a song to entertain ourselves to the tune of a big hit of 1993:

Another stair, another step, but always down

It's like a vision of circle that seems to go round

Another stair, another step, but always down

In the Dom I think we'll reach the ground.

....And eventually we did!