itsstephenyo

cristiano ronaldo is one of the best in the world at drawing fouls. he's just so quick that by the time u try to tackle him he's five feet behind u. easily one of the most talented young players in the world. i rank him in the top three of young players. him, messi, and rooney are some of the best young strikers. now i really think rooney deserved that card. i love england, don't get me wrong. i really wanted them to win that game as well, but wat he did was uncalled for. jostling for the ball and then DELIBERATELY stepping on the guy's crotch. then pushing cristiano ronaldo right in front of the ref. rooney is just way too hot tempered. that red card was rightfully given. and while im on topic... i really don't care who wins the world cup. i'd like to see zidane and henry win another one but i also really like the italian squad with cannavaro, inzaghi, and nesta. i swing my vote to italy tho. germany over portugal in the third place game.

i actually thought the reffing was pretty consistent... though sometimes a little off. what he wouldn't call one way, he didn't call the other. not bad. not good either, but you can't say the reffing lost this game for portugal. france played tremendous soccer and henry's drawing of the foul was textbook. second half belonged to portugal, no doubt but they just couldn't score. it was a great game nonetheless.

wow two excellent matches today. rooney's stupid, stupid foul on the portugese midfielder costed england the match. A) he shouldn't have stepped on the guy's crotch. he shouldn't have pushed cristiano ronaldo. after he left the game england's attacking game just couldn't get anything going. and YES!!! FRANCE BEAT BRAZIL! i knew it could happen because brazil wasn't playing well as a team. france completely owned brazil through most of the game. now bracket time... germany vs. italy- wow... uh italy 2-1 france vs. portugal- france 1-0 italy vs. france- oh i don't really care who wins this... i'd be happy.

haha sorry to disappoint you, but your bracket is messed up. france and brazil are playing each other in the quarterfinals tomorrow. thus, they cannot both advance to the semifinals. also, germany plays italy in the semifinals. the other half of the semifinal bracket is determined tomorrow. england vs. portugal and france vs. brazil. i think portugal is going to beat england. france has a shot at beating brazil if they played the way they did against spain. italy beats germany in semifinals. france beats england. italy wins world cup over france. germany beats england for third place.

numbers wise, i think you're right. this world cup had 116 qualifying round goals. 2002 saw 128 while 1998 saw 124. nevertheless, one certainly could not call this year's world cup boring. the style of play from all the teams in this year's competition has changed so much from years past- biggest change probably coming from the germans. in 2002 the germans loved playing the long balls into the box and hope for a header. they've completely revamped their once utterly boring style of play into much more entertaining soccer. i remember watching the 2002 finals and being completely bored. i think i actually fell asleep during it and not only because it aired at lk 6am or something; it was just boring. even with the less number of goals, this competition is amazingly more enjoyable to watch. the only teams i think that haven't completely changed their styles of play are brazil, netherlands, and italy. brazil is always so patient on the ball, because each and every single one of their players has the skill to be. it's no wonder that italy has the best defense in the world with starters like alessandro nesta and cannavaro. their defense stops and then they give the ball to one of their dazzling strikers- be it luca toni, gilardino, inzaghi, or in past years, christian vieri. the netherlands always plays their "total soccer"... the idea that each player, be it forward or goalie can play any position on the field at any time. the netherlands always like to lose playing pretty soccer rather than win playing dirty. their game against portugal kinda went against this idea but 99.99% of the time they play this way. one man has the ball, three options to past to other players. i love the netherlands soccer.

double tonguing takes a bit of work. i started learning when i was a freshman and now, im a double tonguing fiend. i think i maxed out at about 16ths at 220 something. however, always start slow. i personally prefer tu ku tu ku. i've used di ga di ga and even some weird ones my friend and i made up (try guacamole.) anyways, start slow. set your metronome to 100 and tongue quarter notes on only tus first. then do kus. so it'll sound like this. "TU TU TU TU" rest "KU KU KU KU" start on G and move up chromatically to the octave. after that, subdivide it lk this. "tu ku tu ku tu ku tu ku" rest 4 "ku tu ku tu ku tu ku tu" remember, you can use any syllable you want. find the one that works best for you. after you do the second set (the subdivided one) you should work on doing pentatonic scales. double tonguing is dead simple on one note. changing notes is the hardest part. do this and in a while you'll be whipping out double tonguing skills like crazy. double tonguing on a saxophone is apparently one of the easier woodwind instruments to do it on. i've heard its incredibly difficult on a clarinet, but i had no trouble doing it when i tried a clarinet. maybe its easier to learn it on one instrument and move it to another.

yea, personally, i don't agree with that either. over the christmas break this past year i started learning my solo for solo/ensemble. i would do about four to five hours continuously everyday. after the second day, i had a page and a half of the music memorized. and i promise you, it wasn't anything easy. check out dubois concert for saxophone third movement. i prefer practicing in long sessions cuz i memorize things pretty easily. at the end of the first week, i could play the entire six page movement by memory. not cleanly, but i could.

i agree about england being an all-star team. however, with the loss of michael owen, england can't push forward owen and rooney to the forward positions. instead, england will have to put in peter crouch. now, personally, i think crouch is the most useless player on the england squad. despite his towering height, his vertical jump sucks, allowing shorter defenders to win the headers against him just because they jump higher than he does. he's not fast and he doesn't have any ball control. if owen didn't tear his ACL, england would have owen and rooney up on the front, two of the brightest young strikers in the game. they'd pretty much be unstoppable. instead, they have to put in crouch and serve up useless balls to him. now about owen, it's horrible that he tore his ACL. he's such a promising young star that one just hates to see something like that happen. more often than not, tearing one's ACL usually leads to the end of a career. shame shame shame. also, since i'm speaking of newer strikers, what about the tevez-messi lineup. the two of them did wonders for argentina's offense and would draw almost the entire mexican squad back to defend them. i'm thinking about changing some stuff about my bracket. argentina looked really good today.

its been three years since i've done spanish and oh, how it shows. i suck now. anyways, with the end of the qualifying round the following teams play each other. germany vs. sweden argentina vs. mexico italy vs. australia switzerland vs. ukraine ecuador vs. england netherlands vs. portugal ghana vs. brazil france vs. spain i think thats the right bracket. here are my picks to advance... germany argentina italy ukraine england netherlands brazil france from there... i choose argentina italy netherlands france (only cuz i don't like brazil) there it goes to netherlands italy netherlands to take it all. now that's what i'd like to happen. if ghana didn't lose michael essien to yellow cards for their game against brazil, i'd pick them over brazil. now that he's gone, they've got no chance. truthfully, as long as brazil doesn't win it, i'll be happy. oh yea and also watch for spain to upset france. quite a possibility. man this world cup has some big teams in it.

i've gone just about all day once last summer. i woke up around ten, pulled my sax out around 10:30 and practiced until about 9 with a few short breaks in between. needless to say, i've never done that again. it was a little weird. i just really, really wanted to play my saxophone.

not me but one of my friends made a couple of band movies that are pretty excellent. you can see a lot of his videos along with the trailer from this year's video. it's freaking amazing www.sydewinder.com and then click on fused

i haven't missed a single game thus far. quite an interesting world cup this year. personally, i'd like the US to take it all. realistically, im hoping for the netherlands or italy. i don't like brazil, though you really cannot deny their talent. they're so patient on the ball and have such great skill. i'm just tired of them winning all the time. i think in 2010 it's the US's turn to win the world cup. with players like clint dempsey, eddie johnson, and bobbie convey on the rise, the US is going to be carried on the backs of these young players. heck, clint dempsey pretty much owned the italian defense one v. one in their game, and italy has the best defensive line in the world. four years of maturing from these young players and the US is going to have an excellent world cup in 2010.

thanks man. im here to help. saxophone isn't too difficult of an instrument to learn considering the fingerings are dead easy. two months of steady practice on the instrument will definitely get you off on the right foot. good luck, man... though i know you won't be needing much luck.

there are multiple things that you can do to improve the lower register of your saxophone. most of these, however, just come from plain experience. since i can't see what your embouchure looks like, i can't exactly comment on what you should do. however, if you're switching from bass clarinet, you should probably take MUCH less mouthpiece than you're used to. your teeth should be about half an inch from the opening in the mouthpiece. you're probably used to rolling your teeth over your lips so that's no problem. try to maintain a firm, yet very relaxed embouchure. too tight or too lose will result in little to no response from the saxophone. really try and find a medium ground. also, here are a couple of generic tips for you. 1. really make the inside of your mouth open up. think of saying the word "HO" backwards . 2. blow really fat air. the more air you push, the easier the notes responds. now, this doesnt mean to blow slow air. just because you're going to be moving a lot of air doesn't mean air speed suffers. keep the speed of your air up. 3. don't tighten your embouchure. if the note doesn't come out, take a breath and reset your embouchure. but always keep it relaxed!!! this is extremely important. in actuality, your embouchure should NEVER change at all. everything should be controlled with your throat and the back of your mouth. but that's very advanced voicing stuff. for now, keep your throat open and your embouchure relaxed. also, don't expect a Bb to come out miraculously clear and pretty. until u get really used to playing in that register, you're gonna sound like a lawnmower starting up. plain simple facts of beginner saxophone playing. everyone sounds really honky in the lower registers to start out with. concentrate on your low register playing all the time. usually when i warm up i start with double whole notes starting on Bb and work my way up to D and then back down at a really slow tempo. This gets your control up and also helps you to open up your embouchure and throat. after a while Bb's will pop out as easy as G's. there are a couple of other little tidbits that you can do with your sax to make the notes speak a little easier. it doesn't do a whole lot, but i usually can tell by the feel of it. u can key pop the notes to sort of jump start the air in the saxophone. while fingering the low Bb, the instant before you actually play the note, lift up the key with the pointer finger and pop it back down right before the note comes out. this actually works for almost the entire register. k yea i know this is long but *shrugs* oh well. good luck learning saxophone.

i graduated this past monday. lunch at pappadeaux... mMm.

haha gavorkna fanfare... my ex-youth wind symphony director claims that piece was his composing claim to fame... that jack stamp asked him if high school trumpet kids were able to double tongue well. he replied yes but a lot of them are only able to do it on a single sustained note. thus, the double tonguing trumpet parts of gavorkna fanfre.

I don't know... I find myself liking Whitacre's music less and less. At first I loved October. Loved Waternight. Now I'm beginning to just get bored with everything he writes. Lux Arumque isn't much different either.

haha... our show this past year was called Fused.

here is a leadership fact. if kids dont like u, they won't follow u. have fun with them, let them know you're not gonna be a bossy, snot-nosed jerk, and i promise that you'll have an immensely easier time gettin the kids to follow u.

marcus's drumline is sick. those kids can flat out play. i think last year they had two or three kids from their drumline on phantom regiment's line.

haha we actually had some saxophone altissimo moments in our show this past year... there was a hit where we glissed from an A to a C (in Eb). well he always complained that there wasn't enough of it so my friend and i finally went up to him one day after rehearsal and were lk "can we add this to the hit at 60?" and popped out the altissimo C. from then on, it was in. of course this was a completely unconventional way of doing it. we cheated a lot and just kinda bit down on the reed. now, though after doing some pretty extensive voicing and altissimo exercises i can work my way chromatically up to an altissimo D# well enough. it really really feels weird when u begin to learn it.

way to find pictures with really bad photoshop action.

no, it really isn't. i actually rather enjoy our rehearsals. i believe that having a set routine for a marching band is essential for rehearsal. if one kid doesn't know what he's doing or where he's supposed to go, then its the leaders' job to inform him without having to get the directors involved. putting a lot of responsibility into the hands of the officers is a great way for the directors to focus about what is happening with the drill and music in order to make art. having a set way of doing things easily gets kids understanding what needs to be done.

hmm... let's answer these section by section. 1. How does your band "get in shape" for the show? What activities do you do? Running? How much? Weights? Jumping Jacks? During summer band, we run a lot. The runs get progressively longer and more difficult as it goes. Usually we start out the summer with a light, 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile jog around the parking lot. Towards the end of the summer it goes to about a little over a mile. Also, there are days when we run about a mile with a stretch of our stadium's bleachers in the middle of it. Those are the days everybody dreads... During the actual season, we keep the running routine up pretty consistently. About a half mile run every morning to wake everybody up and get the blood flowing. That plus about 50 jumping jacks tends to do the tricks. 2. How does your band motivate its members? What kinda things do you do? Speeches, songs, etc.. Every band is different but at Hebron, during summer band we have different spirit days for the two weeks. It's a fun way to get the band and the sections close to each other. Random days such as "dress up as a super hero" or "dress up your section leader" always help to unify each other. Also, we have a ton of those little sayings that our directors say throughout the year that keep us motivated. We usually make signs and big banners before contests with those sayings on there as a bit of a memento. 3.How does your band run rehearsal? Who calls the band to set? How often do you take water breaks? Is there talking on the field? In the mornings, everyone gets out about 10 minutes early to set up their positions on the field in the morning warmup block. Each person has a designated dot on the field at which they stand. Section and squad leaders are at the front of the section's respective lines. The drum majors call them to set quietly. They just go to set and everyone follows suit. This is a new thing that we just instituted this year, but I really like it. Water breaks... sometimes come far and few. For our three hour morning rehearsal, we'll usually get 1-3 breaks besides the one after the run depending on how busy the day is and how hot it is. Hotter days obviously deserve more water breaks. Talking on the field is not allowed by anybody except officer type folk (section leader, horn sergeant, squad leaders). We always have a ton of drill techs out on the field so if a move is in need of fixing, the leaders usually just get the attention of the techs to help with it.

haha yea i've heard that piece. at first i thought something was wrong with it until i read up on it. very interesting indeed. does anyone have some recordings they could send me?