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November 21st, 2004
09:48 am - Jubilee Throng
Harvard weekend was a blast. The Glee Club concert felt triumphant. Sanders Theater is probably the best hall I've ever sung in-- just perfect choral acoustics. We finally have a mixed sound as classic as their men's sound, and the much wider range that goes with it. Don't get me wrong, I love a good men's choir. It's always a sound that's done for me than a women's choir. But a mixed choir has a larger palette to work with than either. And this year's Glee Club is taking full advantage of that palette musically, while remaining our usual personable selves up there in a way Harvard never have in my time. Now if only they'd extended us the hospitality of their champagne reception instead of opening it only to their own alums. (Actually, I'd give up that complaint if they'd just play a proper prank on us during the concert instead of just encouraging their women's auxiliary to scream.)
After three years of enjoying the band's halftime shows at the Game, I decided to join in this year. They always need extra hands on deck among the prop crew, or Squids, for the ridiculously huge spectacles we put on. An Ivy League halftime show, you see, is usually a narrative affair, with the announcers making jokes at the other school's expense and silly props running around. The Harvard-Yale game gets the most effort in this department, especially from the Yale side, which always builds and operates an Überprop. Last year, it was a giant spider, complete with working legs and mandibles; two years ago, it was a hundred-foot cobra. This year's game featured not one, but two Überprops: a two-story battleship, Harvard's HSS Compensation, and a giant twelve-tentacled blue squid named Alain who tore it in half. Only the senior members got to operate the tentacles, each of which bore the arms of one of the residential colleges; I just got to move the boat. But it was terrific to be part of the show this time out. And as always, the Harvard show was incoherent and uncommonly mean-spirited, involving extended abuse of cute stuffed bulldogs. We make a point of mocking Harvard, sure, but we don't take one of their Cantab figures and mistreat it.
What's more, we were able to pull off two large-scale pranks. One made it into the NYT's writeup, when an illustrious fellow who shall remain nameless stole the Harvard cheerleaders' flag right from their hands and tossed it into the stands. The other, even more impressive, was organized by the senior class in Pierson. Dressed in crimson and calling themselves the "Crimson Pep Squad," they went through the Harvard alumni section passing out red and white papers that they said would, when raised, spell out "Go Harvard". In fact, they spelled out "We Suck." And since the full effect was only visible from across the stadium, they were induced to spell it twice before anybody on their side got wind of it.
I'll be the first to admit that some of our fans went too far. The campus figure who was yelling accusations of pederasty at the Harvard football team through a megaphone was over the top, for one, and I wish some of the band's cheers were less obscene. But on the whole, it was a splendid time, marred only by certain excesses and the regrettable performance of the football team itself.
Current Music: Modest Mouse - The World At Large
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Comments:
Hahaha. That "campus figure" link technique is brilliant.
Also, I initially read "ridiculously huge spectacles we put on" as a statement about giant glasses being used as props.
Ha ha -- I like the "we suck" prank. Very clever.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/6641311/958668) | | From: | ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) igorxa |
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| Date: | November 29th, 2004 12:10 am (UTC) |
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funny enough, i found your lj from this metafilter post. incredible prank. but more to the point, do you happen to know susanna t. moore? she's in glee club, so i'm assuming she was at that concert. sometimes it really is a small world.
Yep, she's one of our winter tour managers.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/52833952/1238243) | | From: | r0see |
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| Date: | November 29th, 2004 10:33 am (UTC) |
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hey, do you have a link to the new york times' article?
No permalink, I'm afraid. It's already in their paid archive. grr
| | From: | r0see |
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| Date: | November 29th, 2004 10:44 am (UTC) |
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paid archive? yale has an account... i just wanted to read the article. ;x |
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