David Rodeback's BlogLocal Politics and Culture, National Politics,
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Thursday, October 15, 2009A Non-Post Post, You Might SayAbout last evening's meet-the-candidate event, sort of, but this week all rhetorical roads seem to lead to a certain marching band . . . I attended last evening's meet-the-candidates event in American Fork. It was long enough to allow some discussion of numerous issues, and it was well-attended. I sat on the front row, took copious notes, and made a non-production-quality digital recording, which I will review before blogging substantively about the event. Some of you told me in advance that you are looking forward to my reports, which pleases me; I do aim to be useful here, not just verbose. One of you who couldn't attend even had me submit a question. But where details are concerned -- you probably have already gathered this -- I have to put you off for a couple of days. This is due to the utter lack of time this week to blog, tweet, or whatever. I should be able to get back to you soon, however. You might wonder about my claim to have no time for blogging, given that I have blogged three times already this week, not counting this non-post post, and one or two of those three posts clearly took some time. But in one case I was merely announcing the details of an event, which doesn't require much blogger time, and in the other two cases, when I blogged about the community and the marching band, I did so during hours that even I (to say nothing of sane people) must normally use for sleep, because I was moved to try to do prompt written justice to what I had witnessed. About those two wee-hours posts . . . The response of numerous readers, to both but especially to the second, written after Tuesday evening's marching band competition, has been just one more moving strand of a remarkable, heroic, tragic week. Thanks for reading, and, yes, I do enjoy hearing from my readers, all of whom are above average. (I actually have some statistics to support that claim, more or less, but that's a topic for another day.) About that glorious marching band and the vast community that loves them, but especially the hometown they define, if you haven't seen this Deseret News photo essay by Jason Olson, you should. (Don't miss the audio.) The whole thing is fine, but for me two specific images capture the experience by themselves. One is a close-up of member of the color guard -- I think that's right, but they look like dancers to me -- dressed in white, with the conspicuous track of a tear on one cheek. The other, I think, is four drum majors saluting. It has a shallow depth of field, so all but the nearest are deliberately and increasingly out of focus. The first holds her salute, despite clearly being overcome by emotion. Someone asked me last night, referring kindly to my "Pride and Grace and Courage and Some Tears," "How do you do that?" Watch the photo essay, maybe even twice, then come back, so I can answer . . . How could I not?
Copyright 2009 by David Rodeback. |
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