Trina's page of Blogginess

WGI Finals - streaming to you LIVE from Dayton, OH!

Some of you may know that I usually make an annual pilgrimage to Dayton, OH to attend the Winter Guard International Competition. I've been going since 1986 (watching since 1983) and up til last year, had only missed going twice.

I think it was three years ago that WGI started to offer a streaming-video options for a subscription fee, which allows you to watch the entire competition (yes, that's three days chock-ful of color guard) LIVE.

I watched finals live, by myself last year. (long story, but I wasn't really up for any crowds last year) I really enjoyed it, but I have to say, my experience this year was so much better!


Nikki, Chad, Philip and Mom

Yesterday afternoon, through evening, I had over a few of my dear local guard friends. Chad (who marched in Miller's Blackhawks and San Jose Raiders), Nikki (San Jose Raiders and taught at James Logan HS), Philip (Cavaliers, Generis, and WGI writer) my Mom (she's my Mom first and foremost, but she also used to judge in our local circuit) and Miguel (who was the brave soul of the group who had never actually seen color guard, but has many friends, including his boyfriend, David (Miller's Blackhawks) who have been through the winter guard and drum corps activities). Freddie (Emerald Marquis and Cadets) was supposed to come, but unfortunately for us, was a no-show.


Mom and Miguel
I'd like to point out that my Mom is wearing her/my WGI sweatshirt, circa 1989 for the occasion!

Watching Finals Live, from the comfort of my own house, surrounded by a bunch of friends of like-minds was just fantastic! We had so much fun! For once, we were able to watch a show and say things in our "out loud" voices that we would otherwise have to keep mum if we were actually there. :)

Some of our favorite quotes of the evening:

"Wonder if those dresses will become chain flags?"

"OMG! They're spinning Jesus!" (an image of Jesus was ON the flags)

But nothing could prepare of for the shocking results of the evening! We were little screaming at the TV in disbelief as they announced the placements and scores for the top 3 guards in IW. In all my years, I've never seen an upset like it!

Oh, and let's not forget to mention WGI's major flub-up: after announcing all of the scores and placements of all of the finalist, and while the top three groups were receiving their medals, the announcer announced that a mistake had been made. Apparently, they had mixed up the fourth and fifth placements, and asked the two groups to please switch their plaques. How tacky.

...oh, and lest we forget - the other flub-up of the night, when the announcer spoke too early during the middle of Pride's performance. Crazy.

Congrats goes out to all of the SW and IW finalist. I thought it was one of the strongest IW competitions ever. Special personal mention to some of the groups that my friends teach who had amazing performances: Pride (loved you!), Santa Clara Vanguard, Mayflower (my friend, Rob's guard from the UK!), Carmel, Logan, Arcadia and Little Elm (who won SA, where Mykail teaches).

A great and memorable WGI!

I definitely watched more color guard shows at home this year than I ever have when I actually went to Dayton. I have to say that the WGI Fan Network was such a fantastic option and a great way to partake in the excitement of the weekend.

Labels: color guard, friends, wgi

This is my workout set-up this afternoon:

I'm watching WGI Prelims LIVE (via the wgi fan network online) on my
computer, which I connected to the little TV in front of my elliptical
machine.

This is all kinds of geeky goodness! :)

Labels: color guard, geeks

I had a really fantastic afternoon/evening today in Union City. Today was the local WGI Regional, held at Logan High School, where I helped teach the color guard many moons ago.

I saw so many old friends - some of whom I see once a year or so, but some that I hadn't seen in over 20 years, and only recently reconnected with over Facebook!

Here are a few photos:


Esther, Trina & Aki

This reunion was most amazing - I haven't seen either of these girls (women? ladies?!) since 1985. That's almost 25 years! Esther and Aki marched in an Elementary School Prep guard that my friend, Milton, and my sister used to teach. They were in 5th grade (or so) back then! We got reacquainted last year on Facebook, which has been wonderful. When I mentioned on my Facebook status recently that I was planning to go to the regional, they decided to come - neither of them had been to a guard show since the mid-90s, or earlier. So wonderful to see these two again!

update
I just found a photo of when Esther and Aki marched. I think it's from 1985. They are the first two on the left side. Look how cute!


Vinci Park Pirates Color Guard, 1985


Chad, Nikki, Scott & Trina

Here's a photo of most of the Logan HS Color Guard staff from '94-'95. I don't think the 4 of us have been back together since then. Wow. 15 years.


Chad, Trina, Josie and Teri

Josie and Teri were in the guard while we taught at Logan. They both started at Alvarado Middle School in the early 90s when Scott and Nikki first started the program there. Amazingly, Teri's oldest daughter is in her second year in Alvarado's guard!


Philip & Chad

Two of my dear friends. They haven't seen each other in years. We all live in San Francisco. Hopefully, we can all get together more often.


Diana & Chad

Diana - my "oldest" color guard friend. (and when I say old, of course, I mean in the number of years that we've known each other - not our age!) Diana and I met when I was 14 and she was 15. We met at "try-outs" for Sparks - the color guard that we both marched in the mid-80s. Diana is a dear, dear friend.

I'm so fortunate to have so many wonderful people in my life. It's quite remarkable to me how long our friendships have lasted, and how we still are in each others lives. Who knew so many great friendships would develop from learning how to spin a flag. :)

Labels: color guard, friends

Michael & Leilani

Tonight, I had a wonderful evening with two friends that I hadn't seen in a very long time.

I taught Michael and Leilani way back in 1994 and 1995 when they were both sophomores (and later juniors) in high school! I was one of their color guard instructors at James Logan High School. I can't believe that was 15 years ago.

After I finished teaching, I moved to San Francisco, and they finished high school, went to college, started their careers, etc., Oh, yes, and during that time, they also started dating (they were friends in middle school and high school, but didn't date then) and they got married last year!

Through the wonders of the internet (blogs and Facebook) we have reconnected over the past year and a half or so. It's been so wondering reconnecting with them, and learning more about them and their lives.

Michael and I ran into each other in January of this year at MacWorld. We figured it must have been at least 10 years since we'd last seen each other. It's probably been about that long since I've seen Leilani.

We've been trying to figure out a time to get together since then, and we finally managed to do that tonight! Yay!

I really loved sitting down and chatting with them for a couple of hours. It's funny how we've all stayed in touch now via blogs and Facebook, but there's nothing like seeing each other face-to-face.

Thank you for the visit, Michael & Leilani. What a wonderful treat it was. I'm looking forward to seeing you both again soon!

Labels: color guard, friends

State Street Review Alumni
1978-1993

Oh, my - what a weekend! I'm only now recovering, and finding some quiet time to post photos and jot some thoughts down.

The reunion was held in Madison, WI - home base of the guard. The guard was started by the amazing Sal and LuAnn Salas in 1978, and continued through 1993. (with a hiatus in 1990 and 1991.) Sal and LuAnn are two of the most talented, dedicated and nurturing people that I know. They taught hundreds of "kids", (teenagers through early 20s) throughout the years. They were, and still are, pioneers in the activity. During the 13 years that the color guard was competing, they made finals at WGI (top 15 in the world) 12 times, winning 5 times in a row, as well as 1 second place finish, and 2 third.


Sal and Lu Ann Salas


We've been planning this reunion all year, and all of the hard work paid off this weekend.

We held the event over 3 days: Friday evening, Sal and LuAnn hosted a social at their home, Saturday night, we had the banquet, and Sunday afternoon, we met for a picnic at LuAnn's school, where we used to rehearse. It was a wonderful three days of reuniting with old friends, meeting new ones, laughing, reminiscing, and remembering. Personally, I stayed up very late each night, hanging out and having so much fun - I hardly slept at all!

I was SO happy to reconnect with so many friends. I had two friends in particular who I was very close with during 1992-1993, but we fell out of contact years ago. The three of us got back together this weekend, and it was as if no time had ever passed at all. I know we'll be seeing a lot more of each other now.


Christy, Adrian, Barb, Henry & Trina
Together again!

I really love this photo. Of course, I love all of the people in it, and I'm so glad we were finally all together again! But the other thing that cracks me up is how tall I look in it! I never look tall in photos! I'm always the short one. :)'

As happy as I was to see my old friends again, the guard geek in me was just as thrilled to meet lots of people who were in the guard years before me, and who I had watched for years and years on video. Guard Geek Heaven! :)

One of the projects that I worked on prior to the reunion was a DVD with three different presentations: a compilation of 1-minute video clips from each of the 13 years of shows, a slide show presentation of over 200 photos collected from throughout the 13 seasons, and an "In Remembrance" portion, which honored each of the 15 friends and family members who are no longer with us. We were able to project the presentations onto a large screen to share with everyone during the event.


The DVD presentation

I think the "In Remembrance" portion of the evening was particularly moving. We played a slide show with a photo and the name of each of the individuals, shown to music. As each of the names were put onto the screen, we lit a candle with that person's name on it at the table. It's so sad to think of each of those individuals - most of whom died so young. I'd hope we honored them well.


"In Remembrance"

We had about 50 alumni attend the reunion in total - not bad, considering it's been 20 years since the last reunion, and over 30 years since the first year of the guard. At the end of the evening, we took group photos of members from each of the years. I thought it was so cool that we had members represented from every single season! Way back to 1978! I was surprised when we realized that my last year, 1993, (and the last year of the guard) had the largest representation of 10.


1993 - 10 members, with 4 of our instructors

I cannot express how thrilled I was the entire weekend. What an amazing experience - everyone was so happy to be there. We know we won't wait another 20 years before the next one!

For those of you who may be interested, here are videos of the two years that I marched.

1992 - Country Western

Find more videos like this on The State Street Review Alumni Site


1993 - "State Street's Adventures in Wonderland"

Find more videos like this on The State Street Review Alumni Site

Labels: color guard, friends

I spent the late afternoon and evening catching up with my 'ol friend, Cody, today. It was great.

Cody and I met way back in the late fall of 1990. We were roommates (there were 5 of us in total) when we marched in the Anaheim Kingsmen together and lived in Garden Grove, CA. I was 20, and Cody was 17 - he graduated from high school early (in Illinois) so he could move out to CA to march the season with us.

Cody and I haven't had a chance to spend much one-on-one time together in a very long time. Since our years of marching together (1991-1993) he's lived in Newport Beach, Madison, Atlanta and now San Diego. We see each other about once a year when we both go to WGI. (Cody is a judge now)

Cody is in town to judge the big power regional this weekend in Union City. My parents and I picked him up from the San Jose airport this afternoon, we all had dinner together, then I drove Cody to his hotel in Newark. Once we were there, we went down to the bar and had cocktails and chocolate cake while we chatted and caught up.

What a great evening. I love those special friends in life who you can pick up with immediately, even if you haven't seen each other for years.

Labels: color guard, friends

things that make me laugh...

"Trina is the wikipedia of guard"
- as said by one of my former students.

There are several old photos from when I used to teach a local high school color guard floating around Facebook, and someone asked what the name was of one of the guys. Someone else remembered his name, but I swooped in, and mentioned that this guy had moved to another state after high school to join another guard, then I proceeded to say which guard, and which years he marched. :)

funny.

Labels: color guard, geeks

About a month ago, I set up a private social networking site for all of the Alumni of the State Street Review - a color guard from Madison, WI which I was a member of in 1992-1993. (They were around from 1978-1989, then again from 1992-1993)

The site has been a tremendous success so far: we already have 100 members!

People have been posting photos and video footage from our shows, rehearsals, trips, and miscellaneous adventures.

Two of my friends posted this great clip from our 1992 show, which was Country Western themed. We referred to this part of the show as "The Boot Dance". It was a really fun part of the show. And yes, I'm in there somewhere. Just look for the girl with the big hair!


Find more videos like this on The State Street Review Alumni Site

Labels: color guard, wgi

I just rented and watched "Dreamgirls" last weekend. I actually really enjoyed it.

I never saw it live on stage, and I never even listened to the full soundtrack. But, I did know quite a lot of the songs. "How?" you ask?

Why, through my old days in color guard, of course!
(no surprise there)

The reason why I'm most familiar with the songs was by one color guard show way back in 1983. That's right: 1983 - 24 years ago. I was watching it, even then! Back then (from 1983-1985) WGI was broadcast on PBS stations. They had these horrible TV commentators. We taped them on VHS, and I watched those shows over, and over, and over again. I went to my first WGI in 1986 - it was the first time in 3 years that they didn't air it on PBS.

Bug, I digress....

In 1983, The State Street Review from Madison, WI did a show to parts of the soundtrack of Dreamgirls. I didn't know anything about the broadway show at the time. But, oh, did I love this color guard show! It's still one of my "old school" favorites.


State Street Review, 1983: Dreamgirls

In my mind, this show still holds up. Check out the rifle line. This was back when equipment work and precision went hand-and-hand. I secretly wanted to be in the short flag line - look how cute their uniforms were!

The State Street Review went on to win WGI for 5 consecutive years, from 1985-1989. They decided to "fold" (not have a guard) after that season.

That could be the end of my story, but lucky for me, it's not. In 1990, I moved to Dayton, OH to join another color guard, called the Miller's Blackhawks. The Blackhawks had always been a WGI favorite - usually ranking between 2nd and 5th or so, but never capturing the gold. 1990 was supposed to be that year. The staff hired on Sal Salas, who, with his wife LuAnn, was the director of State Street Review. Sal had quite the reputation, of course.

Lucky for us, Sal took an immediate liking to both me and my sister. It could have had something to do with the fact that we were both born in the city where he grew up: Stockton, CA. The 1990 season didn't end terribly successfully for the Blackhawks (a surprise 4th place at WGI) but on a personal level, I learned a great deal in life lessons, and life-time friendships.

Sal would become a mentor, and one of my closest friends - His Soul Sister that's what he calls me.

Sal talked me into moving down to Southern California to join another guard that he was designing for: The Anaheim Kingsmen. This was the year that Mykail and I first marched together (we had become friends, and competed against each other in Ohio in 1990.) We had a great season. It's too bad there aren't any videos on youtube from that show.


Trina & Mykail: Kingsmen, 1991
check out that BIG hair!

After we finished that season with The Kingsmen, Sal and LuAnn decided to bring back State Street Review. After a brief, and misguided stop in Boston, Mykail and I moved ourselves to Madison - for the first of our two years as members of The State Street Review. We were such enormous guard geeks back then, that this all seemed like a surreal dream!


Trina in the State Street Review, WGI 1993

Thank you for all of the memories, Sal & LuAnn. You changed my life, and helped make this guard geek's dreams come true.


Sal and Trina - at my wedding, 2005

Here's another one of my favorite vintage State Street Review shows. It's called The Four Seasons. When I watched this show, I dreamt of being in the sabre line in State Street (again with the cute uniforms!) - a goal I managed to achieve in 1992 (what?! no cute costumes for the sabre line?) Enjoy!


State Street Review, 1986 - The Seasons

Labels: color guard, friends, wgi

It's that time of the year again!

Time for my annual trek to the Mid-West!

I'm flying out this morning to chilly Chicago. I'll be staying at Tammy's place tonight, then tomorrow we'll be taking a road trip to Dayton, OH! It'll be pretty much the same itinerary as every year: Good food, a little color guard, some discount shopping, and great friends. We're both really looking forward to it!

Last year, I started to dub this vacation as my "girls weekend". Tammy and I have such a blast, and it's always such great fun to do a road trip together. While I'm away, Martin will be visiting Dick in San Francisco. They'll be having their own "boys weekend" while I'm away. While my weekend will consist of eating at Bob Evans (yum!) and Chicago Style Pizza, their weekend will consist of dining out at some of San Francisco's finest restaurants! This is the second year in a row that we all planned the "girls weekend"/"boys weekend" thing. It's a lot of fun for all, and no one feels like they're missing out on the fun.

I plan to bring my computer and my camera along this time around. Will try to post during the trip!

...and, oh, yes. I do plan on wearing my road trip t-shirt again this year! :)

Labels: color guard, friends, wgi

Mmmmmm....Chicago-Style Pizza. Just like being back in the Mid-West!

I had a great evening last night with two of my longtime color guard friends, Philip, and Mike Gaines (Mr. WGI Hall of Famer, himself!).

While in the planning stages, the evening was dubbed "Mid West Color Guard Night Out", and later "The Gathering of the Old Color Guard Dinosaurs". Way back in the mid-late 80s, we all used to march in the mid-west, and thought it would be fun to get back to our "roots".

I went all out, and proudly sported my "Friends Don't Let Friends Live in Ohio"t-shirt, underneath my dapper State Street Review member jacket. Philip and Mike both got a kick out of this.

We started out the evening with fruity drinks at the Orbit Room on Market. It's been a good long while since I've had a chance to hang out with Mike (he's' on the road so much nationally and internationally teaching guards still), but we all quickly found our way to talking about "the old days" and catching up on related gossip.

In true mid-western form, we went to a new Chicago Style Pizza restaurant in Hayes Valley. It didn't disappoint - Chicago Style Pizza the way it was meant to be: so chock-full of cheese, you're stomach (and no-doubt your arteries) are full after your first slice!

After dinner, we made our way to Philip's new pad for a few hours of complete and utter geekiness: we watched old WGI videos/DVDs dating back from 1982-1993. Oh, what a guilty pleasure that was: watching some good old fashioned color guards with two of my old color guard friends. Now, I admit that I've watched these shows a few times within the last year or so, but Mike and Philip claimed that they hadn't watched these in over 10 years.

The thing is, once we started watching them, it was if we'd gone back to the days when we used to do this as teenagers: We knew every movement, every toss, every break, every single minute detail instantly! All those years of watching those videos for hour after hour were still there in the back of our minds.

And the funny thing is, all the old emotions and memories came back too:

• Mike was still bitter about losing to being boo'ed during retreat for beating Sac in '89. (corrected on 3/5/07 WOW! How did I get that wrong!)
  
• I still had a personal grudge against the Raiders, and a certain amount of bitterness towards Alliance '91
  
• Philip was still (understandably) bitter about never having made finals, and thus, never making "the video". (yeah, that sucks)

Sure, we know we're old. We know we're "those old color guard hags" that still go to WGI each year. But, the thing is, those were our most formative years when we developed into the people that we became. That's the time when I developed my most close friendships. It's the ties that bind.

I love my color guard friends! I'm so glad that I still have so many in my life. We may be geeks, but at least we admit it! Say it loud, and say it proud!

Thanks for a great evening, guys.
Let's do it again soon!

Labels: color guard, friends, wgi