AwesomeDude

Ok, Been going through the other topics and i have seen a lot of negative feedback about the rowdies so far. Whats the honest opinion on how we have done this year so far since a couple people have hinted at the fact that we suck, for lack of a better term?

For all of you who are fans of the University of Akron Marching Band then today is your lucky day! At 3:00pm today in E.J. Thomas hall the marching band will be performing all the shows it has done to date. Also the Concert and Symphonic bands will performing as well. Admission is completely free!!!!!!! So show up to E.J. Thomas at 3:00pm and watch the great musicians we strive to be.

Here is the bands website http://www3.uakron.edu/bands/marching/. Although looking at the site there doesnt seem to be anything on there about shows that we do. Ill have to make note of that to tell the director, but there is a email address in there i believe so email your ideas and what not!

Ok heres one for everyone to chew on. How about coming to some of the events the band does and cheer us on? We just went to a high school band show this past weekend and all of the high school students were pumped to see us there. The band does an annual Band-a-rama in EJ Thomas for free where you get to see the symphonis band the concert band and Ohios pride marching zips. I think it would be sweet to see tons of people there. Just a thought.

Yes we do have a new director as of right now. His name is Mr. Beard. Our old director Mr. Karriker decided to go back to school and get his doctorate from Michigan State. From what we understand he is doing well up there and is missing being around the band and the zips. By the way not to sound egotistical or anything but does anyone have apic of the band member that was carrying the Ani-Cant flag from the game?

Yeah i would say so. The band actually just started working on our next show which as a latin show with songs from Maynard Ferguson and Chuck Mangonie (or however you spell it). The songs we recieved are Maria from west side story (flugelhorn soloist), Children of sanchez, Conquistdora, and another still to come.

Thank you i try to be as awesome as possible. If there are any other ideas that are out there we are very open to them just as long as they are reasonable.

i will totally pass the word along and see what can be done. Because i do think that would bring alot of class to Akron and its fans. Not to mention starting a great tradition.

I love that idea! I will talk to the director and see if he can't JD and the team to do that instead because like you said that would be pretty sweet. Good Call!

Thank you everyone for your praises about the bands performance! i do believe that this is the first time in the 5 years i have been in the band that we got that loud of a resonse for the product we put on the field. When Akron played OSU, i went to the game and i was amazed by the reponse of the crowd when their band came out to do their pregame. The whole stadium was standing and clapping and signing the fight song along with the band. The fans there stood the entire pregame, when carmen ohio was being played every person in that stadium was singing the words while the band played. I thought that was the coolest thing i had ever seen in my life and wished that our fans would do the same thing for us. Well you guys did do it and i am very grateful and would like to thank everyone for making the first game of my final year one to remember. Keep it up throughout the rest of the year! Thank you again!Lets Go Zips!

Im not sure how the Band CD is being run and how you go about getting one, but i will say that this is a CD that was really needed for the university as a whole. It has all the new versions of the fight song and the cheers that we do as a band. If the band cannot be at a sporting event (which we try to get to as many as we can) then they will be able to play the versions of the songs we are playing to date instead of the old one from forever ago. Basically im saying its worth the money to get considering we dont have the money to make one every year so it may be a long time before we can make another one.A-WOOO! SCREW CANT!

"Bardo redshirted last year and should have developed that strength to battle under the basket. Bardo can step outside and hit the mid-range jumper and his year in the program is expected to have him ready to make a contribution."Glad to hear that someone outside of the akron area thinks highly of my home skillet bardo.

Ok they move Aroma coffee shop into a new building or whatever, where does mannys and chopsticks go? This isnt all about the coffee shop its about that whole area(Aroma, Mannys pub, Chopsticks). Do you really think the University will find property for all of them to be near each other? Just wondering.

Ok so basically everyone knew that he was going to get a shot with the cavs, and if you didnt your dumb. But tearing him a new one before he has done anything at the level is not cool. We dont know what he could if he and lebron were on the same court again at the same time. The last time they were playing on the same team was when they won the state title. They have a chemistry that most players have to work a long time to have. Im not saying he will make it, i hope he does, two hometown guys on the same team, thats money, But dont rule him out before anything begins.

Ok yes i do agree that the students dont pay that much attention, and that most of the people that watch halftime are alumni. So if we play songs that the alumni likes and such then theres going to be students that come at us and say we dont play anything that they like. See what im getting at. Theres always going to be a problem due to the fact that everyone is so diverse. We do try our best.Give us some good ideas except for john williams, im planning on bringing that one to the table.

I didnt say that its only college kids that are listening did I? No i didnt. I just said we are trying to play things that everyone likes and that everyone can get into. No matter what we choose to do i could bet that there will be people that dont like it, and if we play something they like then theres going to be someone else that doesnt like that. To be honest its a lose lose situation and we are doing our best. Cut us some slack, we do only get a couple home games to play some shows we as a band think you will like. Throw more ideas our way.

We have done the 1812 overature before with the cannons in the end zone i think it was about 2 or 3 years ago. The only problem with the classics is that yeah everyone likes them but remember there are these college kids that have no respect for classical music and dont really want to hear it. Thats why we try our hardest to do shows that everyone will like.Keep shooting ideas this way and we will try to get them rolling for next year.

ok ok ok i did go off the deep end and i apologize for it. We as a band try really hard to pick music that the fans would like. I have been on the halftime show committee for two years now and the main focus is to play music that the fans like. Some of the show ideas that are running through my mind for the up coming season are a john williams show. Im also thinking about a RUSH show but not sure if that will work out. Maybe a Micheal Jackson show. See this is our biggest block on the shows, the fan base is so widespread that it is hard to know what you want to hear. Going to a style like OU wouldnt really fit in this band. It used to but not anymore. Either way i still will march for the university of akron marching band because i love playing and i love being on the field hopeing that we pull off a show that you like.

Find a new band director? do you even know the man personally? If not then why would you jump to something so harsh so fast? Oh wait i forgot people who have no idea what they are talking about always are the ones who make themselfs look like an @$$. Karriker is the second best thing to happen to the university of akron marching band (the cheif was the first, if you dont know who that is then go to the band website and look around a bit.) Im not to sure if anyone really remembers but i know that we have played songs and shows that fans in the rubber bowl can get into. We have played crazy train, welcome to the jungle, the family guy theme, simpsons theme, CCR show this past year as well as a Led Zepplin show, couple years ago we did a mardi gras show with the percussion studio, we played viva las vegas, copacabana, the list could go on. We dont play anything the crowd can get into? yeah ok we do sometimes do a dud of a show but thats not our fault thats not karrikers fault its the powers that run the world of the music building. We have been asked many of times to do Rap songs and Pop songs but think about those songs for a second and think about how it would sound on coming from a marching band. The SAME beat the SAME 5 notes played over and over again. Hmmmm not really a crowd catcher if you ask me. If you want to see us high step all the time then I invite you and anyone else to come to one of our practices and just try it. Karriker is always open to people wanting to experience how much hard work we put in. Another thing the band kind of takes offense when no one is in the stadium for pregame which is a tradition (i remember reading the traditions should be kept around or something like that.) so get your asses in the seats for pregame, no just for us but for the football team as well they deserve to have as many people there as possible for the opening kickoff. Sorry for going off like that but some of the things being said on here are just stupid. If any one has any questions just ask and i will be more than happy to answer them. Just send it in a private message would be the easiest since im not on here all the time.

26 wins13 home wins4 straight wins over Can't3 ncaa tourny teams we beat2 Mac award winning playersGetting Screwed by the NCAA/NIT Selection Committee...HEARTLESS!Hows that?

So i have been reading on different topics about how we need to make t shirt or something for our screw job this year. Lets put them all in here so it is all in one topic.i havent figured out what should go on the front yet but the back will be something like this:26 wins13 home wins4 straight wins over Can't3 ncaa tourny teams we beat2 Mac award winning players1 huge Screw jobWhat do you think?

Actually if my memory serves me right it has been four in a row dating back to last year. I do believe we beat them at home last season on march 4th and then three times this year. Akron 4 Can't 0. Failurewhen your best just isnt good enoughagainand againand againand again.

Height of my creativity? Do you really doubt the powers of AwesomeDude?We will see................

The whole F U Akron chant was a joke in itself. They cant come up with anything better than that? Oh wait i forgot we are talking about Cant State here. But seriously where were their cheers? they had what 2-3 and that was it. Also do they even know the words to their own schools fight song?

Props to my fellow rowdies for taking it to that lack luster of a student section and shoving it in their face in a classy way. Not to mention it was not a traveling call.