Baby Seal Club Foot (So Here's To You, Mister Robertson)


This afternoon I took a walk, and as I started humming "Born in East L.A." to myself, I started with my right foot.

Therein lies a story.

Back when Tookie was sniffing glue and taking PCP, I was in a marching band at my high school, and in marching band, you always start marching with your left foot. So for years, I always started walking with my right left foot.

But a couple of months ago, we rehearsed an ensemble scene from the CTE production of "Music Man," in which everybody marches during "76 Trombones." Because it's theater, we started moving with our right foot. That's the way it is, and the director (Christopher Robertson) isn't going to change years of stage and dance habits just because some dude played flute in the marching band back in the Led Zeppelin era.

I only rehearsed this once (perhaps twice) with the ensemble. Because I ended up portraying the Mayor in the production, I didn't march with everyone; instead, I cowered behind a podium.

Yet those two rehearsals were sufficient to change over a quarter century of ingrained "start with your left foot" habits.

What would my former band director say?

[OE CORRECTION: third paragraph corrected. This REALLY messed me up.]

From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here)

Comments

Jennifer said…
dude. you played the flute? is that you singing there? nice voice.
Ontario Emperor said…
Played the flute for eight years.

I have to admit that the "riding in a chuck wagon" part is somewhat out of my range. Incidentally, after the Boys Don't Cry album came out, I established a rule that I had to like at least two songs on an album before I bought it. I loved "I Wanna Be a Cowboy," but hated the rest of the album.

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