[color=blue][b][u]Adding More to the Drumline[/u][/b][/color] --------------------- Hi; this is Corps Coon speaking. I figured I’d go ahead and narrate this one because Cripto’s in the middle of filming some more episodes of the game shows he hosts, and also, marching music isn’t his forte. He respects it, however, because Wildcat City couldn’t and wouldn’t exist without it. He demonstrated this with the one and only Foot Parade he marched in (and remember, the parade is all animals, no humans, all marching barefoot), because he and Super Slash raised the flag as part of the grand ceremony upon the parade’s conclusion. (In more recent years, while the animals still do this, the parade is taking on more of a general patriotism theme, and not so much acknowledging the bizarre beliefs of William Gurdetha, Graham Gurdetha’s twisted ancestor.) After the rabid Philadelphia Eagles rioted in response to the Super Bowl victory, only to get punished with a full decade of community service in every way, shape, or form (and then have a deadly tornado trash their town on top of that), I vowed to leave my home state of Pennsylvania. The humans wept all day and all night long upon discovering this, but it wasn’t so much losing me forever as it was their excessive fear of what the Lord would say to them, because the scriptures teach that all of us will one day stand before Him and give Him an account of our lives. I did the logical thing, though, and moved to Wildcat City, which, let’s be honest, was the place I really belonged, given my history of percussion. Shortly after I arrived, the decision was made to make me a resident of Patriot’s Village, a special neighborhood located next to Drumbum Village, and built for the greatest lion that ever walked the face of this earth—Leo the Patriotic Lion—and those who served under him when he was President of the United States. (These include Tom the Patriotic Tiger, Judge Marcus, Super Slash, and Leo Clarkson.) The neighborhood will be expanded as needed, but it follows the same pattern as Drumbum Village, and because of that, every house is built entirely on a concrete slab, with no grass or trees, and they all use the same floor plan. The size of each house is also large enough to accommodate music rooms, in order to allow us to practice our music and record our YouTube videos for the musical payroll system. -------------- While I had seen them perform before as part of “Cripto’s army,” today was my first official interaction with the real-life animal mascots that make up the All-NCAA All-Star Drumline. If you need a refresher on which mascots were chosen to perform in that drumline, here it is, prior to today: ----------- [b]Drum Major:[/b] Bully the Bulldog (Mississippi State) [b]Snare drums:[/b] Rufus the Bobcat (Ohio), Aubie (Auburn), Truman the Tiger (Missouri), Mike the Tiger (LSU), Willie the Wildcat (Northwestern), Joe Bruin (UCLA), Champ the Bobcat (Montana State), Wolfie the Seawolf (Stony Brook University) Tenor drums: Shasta the Cougar (Houston), Scratch the Wildcat (Kentucky), Smokey (Tennessee), Rameses (North Carolina), Big Red (Arkansas), True Grit (University of Maryland, Baltimore County) [b]Bass drums:[/b] Willie the Wildcat (K-State), Bruiser (Baylor), Benny Beaver (Oregon State), Marco the Bison (Marshall), Griff the Bulldog (Drake), Big Al (Alabama), Hink the Bulldog (Butler) [b]Cymbals:[/b] Mario the Magnificent (Drexel), Boomer and Sooner (Oklahoma), Bevo (Texas), Hairy Dawg (Georgia), Jonathan the Husky (Connecticut) [b]Auxiliary percussion (when needed):[/b] Jack the Bulldog (Georgetown), Timeout (Fresno State), Spike the Bulldog (Gonzaga), Cosmo the Cougar (Brigham Young), the Duck (Oregon) [b]Cheerleaders/Spirit Squad:[/b] Sasha the Cougar (Houston), Belle the Bulldog (Mississippi State), Josephine Bruin (UCLA), Marigold (Baylor) [b]NOTES:[/b] Mario is a dragon. The real Mario is also a dragon, but with magical wizard-type powers. Because his name is Mario, it isn’t uncommon for folks to jokingly ask him, “Where’s Luigi?” (Mario himself sometimes adds to the jokes by dressing up as the Nintendo character of the same name.) When the situation calls for Bully to play the drums himself, he also plays a snare drum. In addition to that, the animals on tenor drums are experts at playing a drum set, and are training the others, including Bully, on playing those. The females in the spirit squad are a female counterpart to each mascot in question: Sasha with Shasta, Marigold with Bruiser, Belle with Bully, and Josephine with Joe Bruin. (Sometimes she goes by “Josie,” however, since there were several people that mistakenly thought her name was Josie. She’s always polite about it, though, and once commented, “Josephine is my real name, but it does sound a bit old-fashioned, doesn’t it? You can call me Josie.”) To clarify some other animals, Boomer and Sooner are cream-colored ponies, while True Grit is a Chesapeake Bay retriever by definition. Big Red is a razorback, of course. However, we would add some more mascots to this lineup, since some of them were just waiting to be discovered. -------------------- When the auxiliary percussionists aren’t using said percussion instruments, particularly if they are marching in a big parade, they’ll act as flag dwellers and rifle marchers. Sometimes, though, floats with them on them will be used. The Duck in particular plays timpani quite a bit. “I promise you I’m not Donald Duck,” he said to me when we first met, “but if you look at some of these older logos, thanks to a special licensing agreement with Walt Disney, you can see Donald’s face on there. However, you don’t see that today.” “I wondered about that,” I said, “because I remember the student portraying the costumed you once getting into a fistfight with the costumed Shasta, allegedly mimicking the routine of doing push-ups after the team scores.” “It’s not famous as the incident of Rufus tackling Brutus Buckeye,” the Duck replied, “but it went viral on YouTube. Sadly, CNG killed the student as punishment for that, just as it did the student that was in the Rufus costume tackling Brutus.” “Super C must’ve been caught up in the melodrama, because people were spreading rumors that the real me was doing that,” Rufus chimed in. “Many of us often speak about what our costumed counterparts do or did just to maintain continuity, and so he said to me, ‘A promise is a promise. Do not even think of doing something like that ever again!’ Shortly afterwards, we reconciled, and he clarified he was stressed from his job as G-52 commanding officer.” “Do keep him in your prayers and thoughts,” I said, “because when you have that many recruits serving your organization, and it’s still growing, of course you’re going to get a headache over it.” ----------------- Upon seeing these mascots, Snare Soldier and the others also gave them a tour of Drumbum Village as well. Super C also answered any questions I had, since he was there, about his interactions with Rufus. “The university as a whole also apologized to me for confusing me,” he said, “because I didn’t understand at first it was just a comedy act as part of the pre-game festivities. The act, however, was the real Rufus undergoing the bass drum marching punishment I had given to some others, G-52 or ally, and he went across the whole field and back again. It should have been the costumed Rufus, really.” “No hard feelings, then?” Rufus asked. “Not at all.” The two shook hands. -------------- Today I got to meet the mascots and hear their drums and cymbals when they visited Patriot’s Village not too long ago, and playing my own snare drum, I helped Bully lead the others in the cadences they were practicing, which were not just being used by their respective schools, but also as part of an anti-drugs campaign in cooperation with MAD (March Against Drugs, co-created by Tom and John the Tiger). Each animal had either written the cadence himself, or re-used one that the school had previously used, and so this was the lineup of cadences in the order they were performed. (The cheerleaders did not write any cadences.) Some titles didn’t make sense, but it shows how the mascots sometimes struggle to think of a title, and only name it after they finish writing it. [color=lime]1. Aubie – Aubie’s Stroll 2. Rufus – Cat Attack 3. Truman – True Blue 4. Mike the Tiger – Striped Swagga 5. Willie the Wildcat (Northwestern) – Cat’s Eyes 6. Joe Bruin – Bear Feet 7. Champ the Bobcat – Paws on Parade 8. Wolfie the Seawolf – Seaworthy 9. Shasta – Cougar Parade 10. Scratch – Key Lime Pie 11. Smokey – The Volunteers 12. Rameses – Grabbed by the Horns 13. Big Red – Razorback Grooves 14. True Grit – French Fries 15. Willie the Wildcat (K-State) – Drummer’s Creed 16. Bruiser – Claws Out! 17. Benny Beaver – The Woodchoppers 18. Marco – Thunder and Lightning 19. Griff – Soldier 20. Big Al – The Big A 21. Hink – Go for Broke 22. Mario – Dragon Spirit 23. Boomer and Sooner – Horsepower 24. Bevo – Horns Up! 25. Hairy Dawg – Doggone It! 26. Jonathan – Ice 27. Jack – Five Card Stud 28. Timeout – Injured Player 29. Spike – Swiss Cheese 30. Cosmo – Six Camps (a variation on the famous drum solo “Three Camps”) 31. The Duck – You Quack Me Up 32. Bully – Major Bark![/color] -------- Bully, Mario, Boomer, and Sooner also collectively wrote a cadence entitled “The Birthday Boy,” to pay tribute to the various autistic children who made wishes for these mascots to be real, and played it for one boy on his birthday. Here, the mascots also played the famous “Jig 2” cadence. Shasta traditionally had first go at the tenor drum solo, while all the tenor drummers played the second go-round of the same thing, and today was no exception. ----------- “Wow,” I said upon the conclusion of “Major Bark!” “I’m impressed!” “If we can leave a good impression on you,” said Jonathan, “we must be doing something right.” ------------- Now it was time for us to add the new mascots to the lineup, and Super C was present because he was taking notes; he would relay the news to Cripto afterwards, since the tiger of purity was his second-in-command (as well as the boss of his “army”). Scratch was the first to have the honor. “If you’re wondering why my jersey has the fraction ½ on it,” he said, “it’s because I’m actually a sidekick mascot, so to speak. It lets the kids in on the action, since some things are better if they’re kid-friendly. Now let’s introduce the main mascot.” Known simply as The Wildcat (and you always capitalize the word “the” in this instance), he came marching in tall and proud, wearing a football jersey with the number 1, and showing off his muscles. (He was padding, meaning he was barefoot, while Scratch preferred to wear shoes. Scratch also had a basketball jersey with a baseball cap he was wearing backwards.) “These guns are locked and loaded!” he joked. Then he said, “I heard about the drumline gig, and since I had taken a few lessons from being inspired by my costumed counterpart, I figured I’d want in on the action.” “We can add you to the lineup of tenor drums if your audition works out,” Bully commented. “So you’re also from Kentucky?” Super C commented. “So is the Flaming Cheetah.” “Oh, yes; I remember him,” said The Wildcat. “Best not to get in the way when he’s zooming around.” “I’m glad you got to meet him as well,” said Scratch. “He’s my best friend; he’s always got my back, and I work hard to have his back.” “And I am grateful for that. He’s like a brother to me.” The mascots and I then played another cadence written by The Wildcat. Although he used a friendlier title, “Wildcat’s Groove,” so that it would appeal to school’s more, his original title was the powerful but grammatically incorrect title, “STOMP OUT THEM DRUGS!” Upon conclusion, Bully barked, “Yo, Cat! You’re one of us now!” --------------- Big Red was next. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he announced, “my female counterpart, Sue E.!” We clapped as the female red razorback came forward, looking splendid in her cheerleader outfit and holding her red and white pom-poms tight. “Sue! So glad you made it!” Sasha smiled as she and the rest of the spirit squad gave hugs to the razorback. “Thanks for including me,” Sue replied. “I love what I do keeping the crowds hyped, and I can do the same here with the full spirit squad.” ----------- The last ones to introduce a new member were Boomer and Sooner. “While the real we, so to speak, do work with as many sports as we can, we primarily focus on football to allow our friend here to focus on basketball. It was him all the time, as a matter of fact, before we arrived on the scene. Now he’s made his triumphant return to the basketball court. Give it up for our top dog, Top Daug!” Everybody applauded as Top Daug, a tall Great Dane, entered the scene, wearing his basketball jersey. He didn’t have a cadence of his own yet, but we found another one for him to use as an audition, and upon its success, the decision was made to add him to the lineup of bass drums. It got a bit confusing at first since the cadences were written for just five different sizes of bass drums, and there were more than five animals playing a bass drum, but the mascots found out how to work it quite nicely. Top Daug spoke to Super C quite a bit as well, curious about how basketball was the national sport of Caticon, just as baseball is the national sport of the United States. ---------------- The next morning, the mascots gathered on the Oval at WU (Wildcat University) to film the PSA for the anti-drugs campaign. They were mostly recording the music, but when it was time to play “STOMP OUT THEM DRUGS!”, it was filmed, with Bully providing the narration. At the cadence’s end, the mascots all yelled out the title, and then stomped their feet in unison. All the bass drum animals hit their drums twice here, one for each stomp. The Duck also banged the timpani twice, and Spike hit a concert bass drum twice. The PSA didn’t premiere until the following week, and it proved to be a vital success. The animals later got congratulatory messages from Tony the Tiger (who was using drumline music as part of his campaign to keep sports in schools), Daren the Lion, the D.A.R.E. mascot (who played drums himself, and used them for the program), and on a different note, McGruff the Crime Dog. (The three also video chatted with them at various times.) ----------- It was the day after that when Cripto first met the new additions to the lineup. “Glad you guys could make it,” he said. “I wouldn’t want anybody to be left out either.” “No problem, buddy,” The Wildcat smiled. “There’s always room for another one in our lineup.” --------- [color=white][b]THE END[/b][/color]