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Statler wrote:Word has it that several in folks in the SMU community want the M Band to be like Rice..."a scatter band." because it will "make the band bigger." Well we see what quality of pile of stuff the MOB was yesterday.

Word has it that several folks are stupid

Back in the day, they were quirky, biting and funny. Now they're just acting like a bunch of dumb, uniformed kids. Sad really.

Re: Their atletic teams. Rice almost dropped football about five years ago--expenses, fan interest and size of their alumni base. I don't want them to disappear, but if they have two or three winless seasons, those alumns that wanted to kill it will reappear. I thought the band was extremely small with a poorly executed program, and a program that made no sense. It acted like they had practiced in someone's backyard an hour before the game. When they first took on the "Blues Brothers" stick they were clever and could still play good music. Now they look like a summer camp skit.

To be more specific, their parting shot was not only that Texas would leave Dallas behind, but would "leave Dallas to Oklahoma, where it belongs."

Not only is that not funny, it doesn't make sense. Dallas and Oklahoma don't have much in common, stereotypically or otherwise.

I like the concept of a "scatter band" a la Stanford and Rice, but the reality of it leaves much to be desired. When it works, it can be hilarious and entertaining. When it doesn't, you get what the Rice band did on Saturday.

And transforming the Mustang Band into a scatter band won't make it any bigger. Just goofier.

Mexmustang wrote: It acted like they had practiced in someone's backyard an hour before the game.

Actually, that is pretty much what they do. They get there a few hours before the game and learn the show. Since they take any and everybody(don't have to be enrolled to be in the M.O.B.) that shows up, it makes for interesting fare.

Scatter band would actually make it smaller.

The band is small because 1. who wants to watch bad football? and 2. Band is a middle class activity, and 3. band membership doesn't exactly increase your social standing.

Scatter band is both middle class AND for extreme goofball nerds. That makes problems 2 and 3 above even worse.

That is, unless you let the scatter band be extremely insulting, vulgar, dirty, etc. But I don't think they'd allow that.

couch 'em wrote:Scatter band would actually make it smaller.

The band is small because 1. who wants to watch bad football? and 2. Band is a middle class activity, and 3. band membership doesn't exactly increase your social standing.

Scatter band is both middle class AND for extreme goofball nerds. That makes problems 2 and 3 above even worse.

That is, unless you let the scatter band be extremely insulting, vulgar, dirty, etc. But I don't think they'd allow that.

UVA's old scatter band got replaced by a high school-style marching band after they got themselves banned from playing in North Carolina and insulted the entire state of West Virginia in a skit at the Tire Bowl in Charlotte a few years back (what was that - 2003? It was the year UVA and WVU played in that bowl).

You can see some of their old scripts here: http://scs.student.virginia.edu/~pepban ... arent.html

And SMU would not allow a scatter band to be funny. But who cares, the Mustang Band should never be a scatter band. We have the most unique band in the country (and any band alum can tell you why) - let's not change it.

http://mob.rice.edu/history/scripts/

They don't have the script posted from Saturday yet.

Lets all leave the school traditions of others alone...thanks Mob for the...um...show?...see you next year.

Agreed they were much more clever in the past. They crossed the line of pathetic this year.

Mexmustang wrote:Re: Their atletic teams. Rice almost dropped football about five years ago--expenses, fan interest and size of their alumni base. I don't want them to disappear, but if they have two or three winless seasons, those alumns that wanted to kill it will reappear. I thought the band was extremely small with a poorly executed program, and a program that made no sense. It acted like they had practiced in someone's backyard an hour before the game. When they first took on the "Blues Brothers" stick they were clever and could still play good music. Now they look like a summer camp skit.

This one time, at band camp.........

All could think of during their show was that there must be a lot of empty parents' basements in Houston on Saturday night.

SmooBoy wrote:Agreed they were much more clever in the past. They crossed the line of pathetic this year.

People are finally seeing the light. But as an aside, they have NEVER been funny.

I don't think I have ever appreciated our band until football dropped out of sight here at SMU. For a long time they held together what ever sprit many of us still retained. Secondly, when I take newcomers to the game, they are really complimentary of the band, their uniforms, their music, their marching, they refer to it as a "class act", something we have been taking for granted because we don't have a cast of hundreds and guady military style uniforms.

Yale has a scatter band which of course got itself in trouble on ABC back in the sixties when they formed a Y formation for Yale and a V formation for Vassar and um merged the two.