Why SUNY Buffalo's mascot... is a bull...Due to the length and outta-lineness (it's a word, f'real) of this story, it is best to do it in timeline form. Imagine that typewriter sound for each time mark.
March 5, 20055AM - We leave for Buffalo.
12PM - We arrive at extremely tired from riding in a cramped car.
12:20 - We register at the front desk of the show location with the Buffalo Squad (BS) ...psst that's a pun.
They tell us the following schedule: 1:30PM - Stage Practice, 2PM - Food. 5PM - Show.
Cool with us, we just want to know if we can put our stuff down in the hotel, and then come back.
They scramble together some kind of a stall and then change the subject.
12:25 - They show us to our dressing room and tell us they will be right back.
12:35 - We leave the room and go back to the front desk asking if we can just go to our hotel (we're tired remember, we wanna sleep).
12:36 - "WHY HAVE YOU LEFT YOUR CAGE?!"... OK, they didn't say that, but they basically did. As well, told us to hold on while they found someone who knew what the plan was for us.
12:40 - We return to a vending machine room, cus we'd be d*mned if we were going back to that lil' *ss room.
12:50 - We ask another of the SUNY crew if we can go to the hotel. She says, hold on, let me find [main BS puppeteer].
1PM - We ask a different person of their crew if we can go to the hotel. She says, hold on, let me find [head squad person]. Before she left we asked her what hotel we were staying in. Her reply, "The Continental Inn".
1:01 - We ponder if we can get there without them, but then figure that they would need to check us in since they are paying for it.
1:05 - We bother yet another person and follow and make sure she goes to [main BS puppeteer].
1:06 - [Main BS puppeteer] tells us that they have moved our stage practice time from 1:30PM to as close to now as possible. And that right after it they will take us to the hotel. "What's the name of the hotel", we ask, just seeing if they would flip the script on us. "The Sheraton", i think. Astonished by this pleasant abode, we calm down, cus we were 10seconds from getting crunk. (Except for me, who had quickly realized the BS and was now just laughing at how much they could dish out.)
1:13 - We realize she lied, we begin to assume we will get on stage at 1:30PM.
1:20 - They let us on stage where we soon find out that we aren't allowed to do lights, nor sound, because either people aren't here, or they just don't want to let teams do that before the show (cus letting teams prepare makes baby Jesus cry).
1:30 - We say f*ck it and just run through transitions and work out our spacing.
1:45 - Our "10mins" of practice time are up and we leave the stage and return to our vending place, cus ... cus... cus f*ck that tiny-*ss dressing room, though it did have an internal bathroom w/ shower. Not that we used it much.
1:55 - We ask if we can go to the hotel, as well how the whole lunch (pizza, chicken, water, soda) they promised us would work out.
1:56 - The girl tells us that the person who was bringing the pizza got in a car crash or something. We feel horrible.
1:57 - She retracts the story and explains that she just meant that she doesn't know where the girl is. We joke about the f*cked up-ness of her explaination. She leads up to the front desk, where we negotiate with underlings of BS, until... bom-bom-bommmmm...Queen BS makes her appearance.
2:00 - We learn that they aren't taking us to the hotel, because they are waiting for Cornell. We enlighten them on the multitude of their crew and the ability they have to make trips. It goes over their heads.
2:05 - After more of the same, we get them to agree to take us to the hotel. They go get the team that was sharing the dressing room with us. Oh yes, we are SHARING the dressing room w/ a fifteen member team; a dressing room made for 4-8 people.
2:07 - After a long pause of "OK" in which we just waited for them to backtrack, we went out to our cars, at which point they told us to WAIT while they went to get their vans.
2:15 - We start joking that they are hustlin' us... like how they trying to stall and get Cornell in the cars, or how they probably saying "Dang, these n*ggas really showed up!! Shoot if we can keep them here till the show then just say 'Fend for yourselves!' what they gone do? Get mad and go home?" (a 7hr drive that we pulled non-stop, shoutouts to Greg and Ike, Uchenna's brother).
2:20 - The pizza arrives and we are like "Ain't this some sh*t?! Say mayn, these MFs is workin' my last nerve mayn." "Ey, we should just wait till ya boy goes inside to deliver the pizza then jack a bag of boxes.
2:21 - The delivery man must of heard us cus he looked at us and then DID NOT MOVE! We were rolling.
2:25 - Some underling of BS pull up in their student activity vans, at which point Queen BS hops in the driver seat of one of them and the story becomes 'The Fast & The Furious'. Ya girl, BURNT OUT (in a minivan). You couldn't have told us she wasn't trying to loose us. You see her and the 5 cars from the two schools that are following her (Tufts - 2 rides, City COllege - 3 rides) weaving in and out of traffic at high speed. We were bustin' jokes that she was trying to pull some James Bond mess so that BS didn't to pay for Hotel.
Joke1: "Ey, bet this [bizl] find a light turning yellow and burn through the thang so the rest of us get caught at a red light."
Joke2: "D*mn, I didn't know minivans could move that fast. She must got some nitro tanks on that [bizl] or something."
Joke2: "[Shoot], she act like she bout to squirt some oil from the back, sprout some wings and sh*t."
Joke3: "Say mayn, watch like 8 different identical mini-vans pop out and shuffle in the road."
Joke4: "They on walkie-talkies like 'Stop them mu-f*ckas right now!'"
2:33 - The light joke really happened. However, the car i was in made it too, so she circled in a parking lot till the rest of the folks came.
2:45 - We realize the hotel ain't a 10min drive from SUNY.
2:50 - We realize the hotel ain't The Sheraton, but actually a Super MOTEL 8 on Sheridan Blvd.; huge difference.
2:55 - We accompany Queen BS to the front desk, where we learn that they hadn't planned on us checking in until 7PM. As well, how they will open a side door so that we can enter without disturbing the other guests if you "know what I'm saying...", as the concierge said to Queen BS. Wait, this is Super Motel 8, it's just called a lady at the front desk.
3:00 - Abound with "Why the Black folk gotta go in the back door?" jokes we load in our hotel rooms put our stuff down. Forturnately since other teams pulled from the competition we get four(4) rooms for the 12 people on the trip with us. Do the math.
3:08 - Knock on the door, its Uchenna we all have a few laughs.
3:15 - We have a short meeting about how we will spend the time till 5pm. We know we aren't the first ones on stage so we don't have to be there exactly at 5PM. We arrange a food run since the food came as we left.
3:25 - We practice our intro to music in the COLD in front of Super Motel 8 until we are asked to move cus of the sleeping truckers.
3:28 - We practice our intro to music in the REAL COLD (cus we've been out there longer) air in front of some abandoned business.
3:40 - Our McDonalds arrives, much thanks to Jolanda & Rony.
3:45 - We knock out. Keep in mind this is the first time we've really rested since getting out that cramped car so when I say we knocked out I mean GONE.
4:00 - Same knock on the door, its one of the underlings. As she told us that it was time to go, I contemplated how wrong it would be if i just closed the door on her. I mean... I am a captain, but i really didn't want to deal with her. Anyway, she insisted that it was time for Blackout to go, or get left.
4:01 - She tells Uchenna (the other captain) the same, he's like... 'leave'. (Of course he said it in a nicer way, but essentially... yeah). I ask the girl if we REALLY need to be there now, or if it was gone be some more "ok, wait here" BS when we got there. She's like "No we need y'all there now."
4:30 - We head back to SUNY.
5PM - We arrive at the show. We head to the dressing room, which the other team is already dominating cus they was like "How high you want me to jump?"
5:10 - We get cameras set up so we can record the show for ourselves. And get ready to go watch the show only to find out there we must stay in our
6PM - We take over the dressing room when the other team leaves.
6:45 - The let us know we will be going on stage soon. We wake up a third of the team.
7PM - Are u surprised that we are still waiting?
7:30 - We step. We had a couple of boggles in the start, but eventually pulled it together.
7:45 - We negotiate us watching the rest of the show.
9PM - We win 3rd Place and Best Dressed. Considering the boggles, that's not bad. We know how much better we could have done so we are like, cool.
9:30 - We are glad the mess is over. We're singing, and bustin' jokes. We decide to hit up a liquor store (i don't drink, but want folks to unwind). Larry takes forever cus he orders a burger from some restuarant.
10PM - Ike and I make a run to Burger King.
11PM - We start watching a Nigerian movie and cracking jokes. (I'm not Nigerian, but that joint was funny. Everynow and then I have to ask about colloquialism, but still ... good times.)
11:30 - Some folks from City College (who won 2nd by the way) come by asking us if we are going to the party, we start BSing like we are thinking about it, but really all of the folks in the room I was in were bout 20mins away from knocking OUT.
Midnight - Watched
28 Days Later. And somehow managed to get an entire bed to myself for the night. :-)
March 6, 20058AM - Uchenna wakes folks up so we can hit the road.
8:15 - I'm ready. Except for a belt that i can't find. Turned out Uchenna nabbed it.
9AM - We in the car waiting for folks to quit jackstarchin' around.
9:15 - We hit the road.
11AM - We watch the tape in the car and realized WE GOT ROBBED. THERE IS NO REASON WE SHOULD NOT HAVE WON FIRST. I'm not mad though... nah, yes i am... a little bit. 1st Place team = I dunno, what they meant but somehow that equals a trophy. 2nd place team = They put on a play w/ a step about black pride. Folks ain't gone not give them something.
We realize that our presence sets a high bar for ourselves that we sometimes and sometimes don't live up to... which is why we always get sh*tted on even though we put on great shows. We should just start acting like we suck, then we'd win everytime, haha. Not going to happen. Dah well, but that was my weekend.
BLACKOUT!
Photos from the trip and other shows...
BlackOut!!
The bull is SO fitting!
