This Week on Another Brother:

In episode #008, The Drill Down Deadlock, the brothers introduce their second GHOST, the podcast’s biggest fan and Jacob’s firstborn. What superhero name would you give Josh, is Jacob ripping off DC’s Flash, and what does Henry think of the brothers’ chosen super powers? Plus, stay with us to hear about one of Alex’s greatest marching band moments!

Visit our website for merch and other brother goodness.

And don’t miss this episode’s Alternate Reality…

Episode Links (***Spoiler Alert***):

• According to DC Comics, the Flash is pretty rad. He has the superpowers of not only super speed, but also: intangibility, superhuman agility, time travel, creates and controls lightning, multiversal knowledge
• Is Henry a mere [insert measure word here] science away from being able to achieve invisibility?! Let’s get educated together from this Ted Ed talk by Joy Lin!
• I never new comicbook superheros could be so cool. Seriously, look at the superpower of Electromagnetism Manipulation (seriously the best superpower).
• Alex might just want to fly, but come on, superhero flight via jet pack? Astral projection?? And power rings???
• Drum Corp International (DCI). What some people have surely been quoted as calling “the Olympics for musicians: a chance for them to flex their muscles and show off, while the rest of us wonder if we’ll ever be that coordinated even just walking down the street.”
• A pretty cool 12-year old YouTube video by Jeffrey Roy showing McNary’s marching band competing at the University of Oregon.

Transcript:

The following transcript was created using the OpenAI Whisper API:

[00:00:00] This Week on Another Brother

[00:00:37] Another Brother Theme Song

[00:00:57] Stewnerds Segment

Jacob: We have our second ghost on the show. I want to introduce the show, my oldest child, Henry!

All: Yay! Woo!

Jacob: Today, the day of recording, is actually Henry’s birthday, so I figured what better way to surprise him than to bring him on the podcast? He’s been asking since day one to be on the podcast, and here he is.

Josh: Should we sing happy birthday in our three different languages? all: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Henry, happy birthday to you.

Jacob: Not impressed.

Alex: Not a great review.

Jacob: On a score of 1 to 10, what do you give us, Henry?

Henry: Uh. I don’t know.

Jacob: Okay, that’s a 2, I’d say. Solid 2.

Henry: I’d say a 5.

Jacob: Oh, dang.

Alex: We should have you rate all of the superpowers we’ve chosen for today, too.

Josh: Oh, mine is gonna blow you guys away.

Jacob: He didn’t know what we were doing.

Josh: Oh, spoiler!

Jacob: Oh, no, you’re good. We’re picking what superpower you would personally want to have. Should we start with Henry, since he’ll then rate ours?

Alex: Sure, yeah.

Jacob: Okay, Henry, what superpower would you pick?

Henry: Invisibleness.

Alex: You’d want to be invisible? You creep.

Jacob: Yeah, go ahead, Henry. Tell them why. What’s your reasoning there?

Henry: That I could sneak and look at stuff. Without getting seen!

Josh: So, okay, as a superpower, what things would you sneak and look at?

Henry: Uh, presents.

Josh: Okay, okay.

Jacob: Henry.

Alex: You’ll just watch them hide the presents and you’ll know where they are.

Jacob: What else did you tell me and Mom today?

Henry: That I could steal stuff.

Jacob: Steal stuff.

Josh: You’re talking like bad guys’ stuff, though, right?

Henry: No I’m not.

Jacob: This sounds more like a…

Alex: Super villain.

Jacob: Yeah, you’re going to be a villain, Henry. That’s not what superheroes do.

Henry: No I’m not.

Alex: What are you going to steal as a superhero?

Henry: Money from bad guys.

Jacob: Oh, he just flipped the tables on us.

Josh: Like Robin Hood.

Alex: So once they rob the bank, you steal the money back?

Jacob: There we go.

Josh: Okay, so then what would you do with the money?

Henry: Give it to the bank.

Josh: Oh, give it to the bank. Oh, so you’re a capitalist superhero.

Alex: Well, it did belong to people already, so…

Josh: It’s insured. It’s FDIC insured.

Alex: He’s not robbing from the rich to give it to the poor. He’s robbing from the people that stole it from other people. To give it back to the people.

Jacob: Yeah, yeah. That’s justice.

Josh: All right.

Jacob: What other good things can you do with it?

Alex: I give that superpower a 7 out of 10.

Henry: Eh. Eh.

Alex: It’s pretty cool.

Josh: It’s pretty cool. Who has invisibleness, Wonder Woman?

Jacob: Well, her jet does.

Alex: But there is the invisible one from Fantastic Four.

Josh: Have you seen Teen Titans?

Henry: No.

Josh: I wonder if any… Oh, X-Men. Doesn’t the monkey dude go invisible?

Alex: Monkey dude? There’s two monkey-ish dudes.

Josh: Oh my goodness.

Jacob: Nightcrawler?

Alex: Nightcrawler is one of them. No, he just blinks. He like teleports.

Josh: Oh. Bummer. So he couldn’t sneak and watch invisibly. He’d have to poof and poof and poof.

Alex: Yeah, I mean, but he could poof himself into the shadows. Poof.

Jacob: There’s gotta be a few that we’re just missing. But I don’t think there are many who haven’t. That’s true. So, it’d be pretty unique.

Alex: It’s creepy.

Jacob: Would you scare people like Mom?

Henry: Yeah.

Jacob: Sneak up on her and pop out at her?

Henry: Yeah.

Josh: Man, adolescent superheroes are the worst.

Alex: Okay, who’s next?

Josh: I’ll go. Okay. I thought long and hard about this one, and it’s not a traditional superhero power that I’m aware of.

Henry: I think I know what it is. Okay.

Henry: Chokes.

Josh: Chokes?

Henry: Jokes.

Josh: Oh, jokes? To tell good jokes?

Alex: Super jokes.

Henry: You’re talking about jokes.

Josh: Stitch. Get people locked up in like stitches like, and then you tie them up? No. My superpower is the power over electromagnetic waves. So, the ability to create, beam form, beam steer, and modulate electromagnetic emissions. So, think about it. I could directionally communicate. If you had a radio, I could talk to you through your cell phone. I could, you know, modulate anything. So, I could basically communicate with any sort of radio-based system, to include like nuclear triad stuff, you know?

Henry: Like walkie-talkies?

Josh: Like walkie-talkies. And because of the magnetic properties of electromagnetism, I could have like magneto-type powers too.

Alex: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Produce light?

Josh: I could produce light, infrared.

Alex: So, you could also be sort of like Cyclops? Laser eyes?

Josh: Potentially. But my ability to like beam steer is more like just in the radio realm.

Alex: Oh, okay. So, not all of the electromagnetism?

Josh: All of it, but I can only like really, if I create light, it’ll just be like pew, everywhere. Like an omni-directional just pew, point light source.

Alex: Oh, got it.

Josh: So, I mean, pretty dope. Pretty cool.

Alex: There is a Marvel superhero with those powers.

Josh: Get out.

Alex: So far, we haven’t seen much of her at all in the MCU. I think we’ve only seen her in WandaVision.

Josh: Is it Wanda?

Alex: No, it’s not Wanda.

Jacob: Hold on.

Alex: It’s the daughter of the friend of Captain Marvel from the movie Captain Marvel.

Jacob: Oh, really?

Josh: The little girl?

Alex: Yeah, but she grows up, you know?

Jacob: She didn’t have powers in WandaVision, did she?

Alex: Yeah.

Jacob: She did?

Alex: Yeah. But we only start to see them towards the end and she never really gets to fully use them, but like going through that barrier does something to her.

Jacob: Okay, see.

Josh: Well, fine.

Alex: I don’t know what her superhero name is.

Josh: She sounds like a pretty cool kid, though.

Henry: I’ll give that a 10 out of 8.

Josh: Yeah!

Alex: 10 out of 8.

Josh: Yay! I beat the scale.

Jacob: Wow.

Alex: Man.

Jacob: That is not gonna be easy.

Josh: Boom.

Alex: Dang. Okay. I would choose something that some people are gonna think is pretty boring, but I would choose flight. I just wanna fly. I just wanna fly anywhere I want, whenever I want. That’s freedom.

Josh: That is freedom. Yeah. Shana, when I was talking to Shana, she was like, why don’t you pick something like Ascend from Tears of the Kingdom? I was like, well, why don’t I just fly? Then I don’t need to wait for something to be above me.

Alex: Yeah, I would much rather just fly, for sure.

Jacob: Yeah.

Josh: I was thinking about those two too.

Jacob: We were just listening to episode 5.

Josh: Oh, it just dropped.

Jacob: Mm-hmm. Talking about aliens, right? And the semantics of flying versus controlling gravity.

Josh: Right. What kind of flight are we talking about?

Alex: No, I’d rather just fly.

Jacob: Okay. I mean, sensation-wise, it would be a very different feeling of actually flying versus manipulating gravity. So, I get that.

Josh: Here’s my question about superhero flight, though. What is it about whatever mechanism they’re doing to make themselves fly that they have to go horizontal?

Alex: I mean, they don’t have to go horizontal.

Josh: But when they’re going fast, they all go horizontal, right?

Jacob: Pretty much.

Alex: Oh, like their body?

Josh: Yeah.

Alex: Oh, okay. Like their orientation. Like their directional flight, right? Yeah, but like, it’s just aerodynamics. Help them go faster?

Josh: I guess.

Alex: Present a smaller target?

Jacob: Yeah, I buy it to a degree.

Alex: Smaller cross-section?

Jacob: Okay, yeah, that’s fair. For Iron Man, I mean, that’s his propulsion. He has propulsion. But Superman, we don’t know what’s propelling him. Yeah.

Alex: Oh, boy. I mean, we could get into all kinds of stuff.

Josh: I’m just curious. How would you be propelled?

Alex: I don’t know. However Goku is propelled.

Josh: Pure anger.

Jacob: No, Goku’s the good one.

Josh: Righteous anger.

Jacob: Oh, okay. Deal.

Alex: Righteous indignation.

Jacob: Yeah. So, Henry?

Henry: I’ll give that 10 out of 9.

Alex: Ah, ha, ha! Woo! So close. That was a good score. Well, I said 10 out of 8 for you. Yeah, you did. Say that again.

Henry: I said 10 out of 9.

Jacob: Henry, do you mean 8 out of 10 for Josh and 9 out of 10 for Alex?

Alex: Oh!

Josh: Sad face.

Alex: I win for now.

Jacob: For those listeners at home, Henry nodded his head yes. That is what he meant.

Josh: Yeah, he did it in a very, very punkish way.

Alex: Ha, ha, ha!

Jacob: Okay, I mean, mine’s a little bit of a cop out as well.

Alex: Super speed?

Jacob: Of course, man. Come on.

Josh: I don’t get it.

Jacob: What? What’s not to get?

Alex: Do you want super speed or do you want a harnessing of the speed force like the Flash?

Jacob: I want to be the Flash. I don’t care so much about like the arm tornadoes.

Alex: Those are pretty cool.

Jacob: You know, vibrating your atoms molecules so fast that you can phase through other matter. Like, oh, yeah.

Josh: He moves on a molecular level?

Jacob: He does. He can excite his molecules to that point where he can pass through other solid objects.

Alex: To really get it, you probably need to read the comics or watch the show because this is all about this weird force of nature that’s also intelligent called the speed force.

Josh: Oh, my gosh.

Jacob: Yeah, it’s true.

Josh: Wait, and he harnesses? It’s an entity?

Jacob: Kind of sort of, yeah.

Alex: It has intelligence.

Jacob: But he also kind of might have created it.

Alex: Oh, boy. Yeah. That sounds like a season I haven’t watched yet.

Jacob: Well, that’s in the comics as well. And I still don’t. Not necessarily that he created. I don’t know. I don’t understand it.

Alex: Yeah. There are a lot of people that… It’s kind of like the force in that lots of people are sensitive to it and can utilize it. And thus have different powers from each other also at the same time. But, yeah. Actually, it’s a lot like the force.

Josh: And if you think about each of our individual powers, if that’s the only super power we have, it’s pretty funny. Because like, I mean, Henry can sneak and stuff, but he got no muscles. So, how are you going to… He’s going to take a lot of trips to get that money back to the bank.

Jacob: And he can’t phase.

Alex: Are you going to take that laying down there? He just called you a weakling.

Jacob: You’ve got to defend yourself Henry.

Josh: So, then Alex is going to be flying around. But then what are you going to do?

Alex: Fly for the fun of it. I don’t want to be a superhero.

Josh: You’re a superhero!

Alex: I don’t want to be a superhero. That’s just the power I would choose. If I could choose a power, I would choose that.

Josh: Fair. I’ll be running around on my feet super slow, talking to people on my mind radio. Also not super hot. I’ll be like a really slow mobile command station.

Henry: What is your’s again, I forgot.

Josh: Basically, I can just create radio.

Henry: Oh, yeah.

Josh: Like, I could broadcast this podcast wherever I want.

Jacob: Through his brain.

Josh: By my brain.

Alex: Could you, though? Or could you just do your part of the podcast?

Josh: I’d have to like listen to it and modulate it over my radio.

Alex: That sounds difficult.

Jacob: Maybe you should focus on the magneto-like qualities of it.

Josh: Dang it. You got to wear a helmet and everything.

Alex: Under the right circumstances, you could levitate with that power.

Josh: If I was above metal plates.

Jacob: Hey, we were just talking about Link. Link does it.

Alex: Like if you were in New York City. All those steel structures. Kind of like you’d be a little bit like Spider-Man.

Jacob: Heck, manhole covers.

Josh: But they’d also be resonating off all those radio waves. It’d just be bouncing and reflecting and like, oof, that might hurt my antenna. But Jacob can be super fast. And so as long as he doesn’t just run headlong, like really, really fast into something, he can still knock people out.

Jacob: Heck, yeah, I can.

Josh: He can do damage with super speed.

Alex: With enough tachyons, he can travel through time.

Jacob: Mm-hmm. Also, I heal super quick. Speed read.

Alex: Can’t get drunk.

Jacob: Can’t. Your metabolism’s so high, which is probably actually, honestly, his downfall. They never focus on it.

Alex: How can you eat that much.

Jacob: Exactly. He would never be able to fuel himself. If his metabolism is that fast acting, he’d run out of calories and die of starvation. But we’ll ignore that.

Josh: Let’s go back to that.

Jacob: Super speed, Henry. What’s that rating?

Henry: Ten out of ten.

Jacob: Yes.

Josh: Oh, come on. He didn’t even think about that.

Jacob: I knew it.

Alex: I’m keeping those Legos for myself.

Henry: No you aren’t.

Josh: Wait, what did you give your own superpower?

Jacob: Alex rated it.

Josh: Oh, Alex rated him?

Alex: Seven out of ten. I guess that’s what I get.

Josh: He low-balled you.

Jacob: Angry face.

Josh: Yeah, he low-balled you. And you still give me an eight? All right. All right. Fair.

Jacob: Although, if I weren’t to do a cop-out power, I think, actually, after talking with Alex now, manipulating gravity, that would be a crazy superpower. Yeah, you could bring anything to you. You could crush whatever you wanted.

Josh: Well, gravity doesn’t go this way. I guess it does.

Jacob: Sure. I increase my own personal gravity.

Alex: But that’s the thing. As far as I know, gravity is a wave that is emitted non-directionally, but omnidirectionally.

Jacob: Well, but all this UAP stuff we talk about, if they travel by…

Alex: You can beam form any kind of wave, I suppose.

Jacob: Josh concurs.

Alex: I think that’s a property of wave mechanics, but I’m not totally sure about that.

Josh: But there’s certain waves that are also, say, photons, for example, that also are like matter, like they’re quasi-wave, quasi-matter. What’s gravity wave? I don’t know.

Alex: I don’t think we even know that yet. We’re still figuring that out.

Jacob: We certainly don’t. Some physicist out there might have a better…

Alex: Maybe. I honestly don’t think anyone’s figured that one out yet, which is weird. It’s like how many apples has to fall on people’s heads before someone figures it out?

Josh: Okay, so now we have five minutes to add a secondary superpower. That complements your original superpower.

Alex: I was not prepared for this.

Jacob: I’m just going to go with my gravity manipulation. Could you imagine that punch coming at you? Super speed and gravity. Wham!

Josh: All of a sudden, you’re super heavy, so they’re coming towards you, too.

Alex: Oh, boy. Yeah. You’d really be able to control time with speed and gravity.

Josh: Oh, snap. Oh, yeah. Acceleration plus… Yeah. That’s pretty… That’s an epic combo.

Jacob: All right, Henry. Number two power. What you got?

Alex: You would be able to turn invisible and…

Henry: Strength like hammer. Like hammer?

Josh: Captain Hammer?

Henry: No.

Jacob: The Hulk?

Henry: Thor.

Alex: Like Thor. Thor’s? Thor-like strength? So you sneak up behind someone, then pick them up and throw them away? They fly like a mile away?

Henry: And I can get the money and give it to the bank!

Alex: You really want that money.

Henry: And give it to the bank!

Josh: Okay, my question, Henry. Before you punch them with your super strength, would you reveal yourself to them? Or would you just stay invisible and just punch them?

Henry: Stay invisible and punch them.

Josh: Oh, man.

Alex: Yeah this isn’t a video game.

Josh: I mean, that’s just kind of like…

Jacob: Henry, would you… sneak up on them invisibly, pull their pants down, reveal yourself and then punch them?

Henry: Reveal.

Alex: Okay, Josh.

Josh: Crap. I’m not ready for this either.

Alex: Okay. Then I would choose laser vision.

Jacob: So you want to be Superman?

Alex: Well, I wouldn’t have the strength. I would just be flying around shooting everything. I’ve been playing too much Tears of the Kingdom, I guess. Those are my favorite builds that people make. Little flying machines that have lasers on them. You just fly over everybody real slow and just laser them.

Josh: That’s pretty awesome. Oh, crud. I would say… Isn’t there like a… Because of physics, I’d say like… I also like a nuclear power plant.

Alex: What?

Josh: So I can create a high power energy for my radio waves. Because then I can go further. I can’t communicate across the world like this. I’m pretty low power. I need to up that power, and then I can talk further.

Alex: Okay. So I assumed that part of this superpower was the ability to power the superpower.

Josh: Oh, no. That’s crazy. I mean, that’s like so many different fields of science. You can’t wrap all that into one superpower.

Alex: I mean, the super speed?

Jacob: Yeah, that’s just power over the speed force. With additional implications.

Alex: All right. Sure. Whatever you say.

Jacob: So… What?

Josh: And then the bottom line is I can talk to aliens.

Jacob: I was just going to ask, so what’s the real goal and purpose here?

Josh: It’s to save the earth from aliens.

Alex: You just send your mind out there through radio waves to find the aliens.

Josh: I basically become SETI.

Jacob: Well, why not harness the power of telepathy?

Josh: What’s the distance on telepathy? Like your traditional telepathic signals?

Jacob: Well we learn from…

Alex: Traditional?

Josh: You know, a normal Joe with telepathy. How far can he talk?

Jacob: You tell us.

Josh: I think it’s about the distance of a goat. From you to a goat. Cuz-

Alex: What?

Jacob: Okay, hold on. We just heard about Saryichna last week.

Josh: Oh, yeah.

Jacob: We don’t know where those aliens were at.

Josh: Well, that was one of their homes. Allegedly, right?

Alex: I’ve always assumed that when you talk about a superpower, it’s super. So, like, you, as part of having the superpower is over time, you just keep growing the power and keep learning how to make it bigger and bigger and bigger.

Josh: Oh, cool.

Alex: So, you know, telepathy, you would just eventually learn to get out there.

Josh: I mean, I think that’s pretty much what telepathy is then. I think it’s my superpower. They’ve just learned how to make, like, people’s brain antennae resonate.

Alex: Right, yeah.

Josh: Yeah.

Jacob: Yeah.

Josh: So I’m getting there.

Alex: It’s electromagnetic in nature.

Josh: It is. The whole system is. The whole biological system is just electric signals and chemicals. Boom.

[00:20:49] Interstitial Joke

Henry: What do you call a dinosaur fart?

Josh: …Mega…? No, I don’t know.

Alex: I’ve got nothing.

Henry: A blast from the past.

Alex: Ahhh grossss.

[00:21:10] Stewnerds!

[00:21:17] Storytime Segment Soundbyte: Hey, kids, do you know what time it is? Story time!

Alex: So, this is a marching band related story.

Jacob: Nice.

Josh: From high school?

Alex: From high school, yeah. I haven’t done any band outside of high school, unfortunately. So, I was drum major my senior year, but it wasn’t really, I don’t think, a great accomplishment on my part. There was some drama involved there, but I don’t want to get into that. That’s not what this story is.

Josh: Yeah, Ethan.

Alex: Ethan had nothing to do with it.

Josh: Oh, I just assumed.

Alex: I mean, he didn’t try out, so. He could have been drum major, maybe, if he tried out.

Jacob: Yes, probably Kurt anyway.

Alex: But there were other, I think, better candidates for what a traditional McNary High School drum major was before that year. There were better choices.

Josh: Like Qualifications? Like more qualified?

Alex: I was not a strong conductor.

Josh: Well, you’re a trumpet player. That’s your forte.

Alex: Sure, sure, sure. But, you know, everybody that becomes drum major is an instrument player.

Josh: Oh, that’s right. You’re not a drummer!

Alex: Right. Sure. In fact-

Josh: You don’t have to be a drummer to be a drum major!

Alex: In my four years, there was never a percussionist that became drum major.

Josh: So ironic.

Alex: Yeah, ironically.

Josh: They really lost it somewhere.

Jacob: Why is that the title? We’ll have to delve into that

Alex: I’m sure- Everything about American Marching Band goes back to military roots in some way. Our uniforms. Everything that we do is military.

Josh: You have the actual, like, pipe and drum.

Alex: Fife.

Josh: Yeah, the fife.

Alex: The fife and drum.

Josh: And probably the guy in charge was a major. Because that was part of the signal corps. You’re a drummer, you’re part of the signal corps. You were signaling actions on the battlefield.

Alex: And the drummer did lead. Yeah.

Josh: Yeah. Very important position.

Alex: So that’s probably why. But, you know, drum majors nowadays stand on a big stand in front of the band when they’re on the field for Field Show Marching Band. So I was drum major my senior year through some weird politics, I think, for the most part.

Josh: Ethan…

Alex: Not Ethan. So I needed to go to a special camp for training drum majors. And for the first time that I’m aware of, our section leaders went to the camp, too. So each instrument type had a section leader, like trumpet section leader, clarinet section leader, trombone, whatever, had a section leader. And, yeah, for the first time, I think, ever in McNary’s history, the section leaders went, too. I believe our drum majors went before this. I don’t know. But this camp was at U of O, University of Oregon. They had a very good DCI style marching band at their school. And their band director led this camp for high school drum majors and section leaders.

Josh: That’s awesome.

Alex: Every day. It was a week. Every day we would be out on one of their practice fields. Every morning and afternoon and evening, lots of marching. You would practice in what we called a block, which is just simple rank and file. Everybody spaced the exact same number of steps away from each other. And someone sits there with either a big plastic block called a glock and a snare drumstick just beating out the time on that thing. Yeah. Click, click, click, click. And then would give commands. Or they would have what our school used, and I think a lot of people used, is a digital metronome called Dr. Beat.

Jacob: Love it.

Alex: I think it was an analog device that had different buttons on it so you could subdivide in different ways, do three-quarter time or four-four time.

Josh: Was this hooked up to a loudspeaker?

Alex: Yeah, it was hooked up to a loudspeaker. And I’m pretty sure we used Dr. Beat at the university. And, yeah, we did just a crap load of marching. And there were very specific drills that would be taught and then run through with us. Oh, I forgot. So eventually we weren’t using Dr. Beat or any glockenspiel. We were using Dave Matthews Band. Dave Matthews Band kept time for us. Normally when you’re running through drill stuff, you march in four-four time. And most pop music is four-four. So Dave Matthews.

Jacob: You know, they’re one of those bands, I want to like them, but then every time I go out and I listen and try, it just doesn’t stick for me. Other than like their few hits here and there.

Josh: All I know is the show Community is just running through my head right now. And I want to scream something that Garrett screams all the time.

Alex: The butt crack bandit!

Josh: The butt crack bandit!

Alex: I’ve been cracked! So we did a lot of marching. Summer days. I think it’s probably July.

Josh: What kind of footwear?

Alex: Just sneakers.

Josh: Speaking of marching, just sneakers?

Alex: Yeah, just sneakers.

Jacob: No marching shoes?

Alex: I mean, when you’re dressed in uniform. Yeah, no, there are no shoes just for that. Maybe there are.

Josh: You don’t break in these uniform shoes?

Alex: I wish I could say that that was the case. But for the most part, they were used shoes. Like the school had… the band had their shoes. And every year you would be issued a new shoe.

Josh: They’re pretty well worn by now.

Alex: For the most part, yeah. I think I got a brand new pair my senior year as drum major, but I don’t remember.

Jacob: Perks?

Alex: Yeah not so much. Because then they’re not broken.

Josh: I’m just thinking… Yeah. The heel blisters.

Alex: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That can be a real struggle for some people, for sure.

Josh: So you’re basically just marching a heck of a lot of time during this UFO camp.

Alex: Yeah. Yeah. U of O, by the way, not UFO.

Josh: And that is UAP now, by the way! But we’re talking about U of O.

Alex: Yeah. I don’t remember doing a lot of playing of our instruments in this camp. I don’t think there was a lot of music going on. Conducting, yes. Yeah. For drum majors, there was conducting. And maybe for section leaders, when section leaders broke off and did their thing, maybe there was some music involved to teach them how to take the section through their music. And yeah, again, for all I know, I played my trumpet while I was there, too. I just don’t remember it. But we all knew, doing all of this marching, that at the end of the camp, there was going to be a drill down where everybody in the camp was all in the same block, which I think we normally were. We were all in the same block, receiving the exact same commands. And as you messed up, there were people there that were, like, helping with the camp that would, like, come and tag you and get you out. And then every now and then, they would stop the block, we’d reform and continue.

Jacob: Like a Mario Party mini-game.

Alex: Yeah, I suppose it is, kind of.

Josh: Left, A, B, X, up.

Alex: There were very specific rules about some of these things. Like, if you’re being told to go from this specific move and direction to this specific move and direction, you need to do it in this way. And sometimes it’s not completely sensical why that is. You just have to know that’s the rule. I’m trying to remember the exact rule.

Josh: That’s a general rule for, like, for this block, for this competition, whenever you go from forward to right, you’re going to twist your torso to the left.

Alex: I mean, no.

Jacob: Or is it a marching band rule? Or is it a U of O rule?

Alex: I’m trying to think of the exact rule that I can make this make sense of, but no, this is a rule universally. Everybody that does at least DCI-style marching, this is the rule. You just have to learn it. Everybody does it this way.

Josh: Period.

Alex: Yes.

Josh: Oh. So there’s got to be some sort of reason.

Alex: Yeah. Yeah, there is. I just can’t—I’m really sad that I can’t remember the specific rule that’s going to come into play here. So we get finally to the drill down. And there’s, like, I don’t know—okay, hang on, actually, before I get to this little side story. In the middle of the week, I think it’s maybe Thursday, we’re marching in the morning like normal, and one of Eugene’s colorful residents of the streets decided to join us.

Josh: Nice.

Alex: This guy was absolutely crazy looking. Long black hair, a really long black beard, cut off Army Vietnam camo pant shorts. Like a green tank top.

Jacob: How short were they?

Alex: I mean, they were pretty normal. They weren’t short shorts or anything.

Josh: No thigh hair.

Alex: Something like a green tank top, and he had this really thick wooden walking stick with him. And I was at the very back of the block, so I could see all of this unfolding. None of us broke form at all. We just kept marching as this guy, like, walks straight out into the middle of this group. And he’s, like, he’s walking with this stick, and I don’t know how he’s doing it, but, like, the point of the stick goes down onto the ground, and, like, he’s, like, stirring with the top part of the stick as he’s walking. It was crazy looking. He got right up into my junior drum major’s face, and she didn’t flinch. She didn’t move. She didn’t do anything. Well, she moved. She was marching, but she didn’t stop marching for him. She just, like, ran right into him, just kept marching.

Josh: She phased through him?

Alex: No, she’s not the Flash. That would have been neat. This was actually the first year McNary ever had a junior drum major, too. It was always two seniors before this year. So there were a lot of hurt feelings about that, too.

Jacob: Wow. A lot of politics this year.

Josh: Senior and junior meaning grade level?

Jacob: Class.

Alex: Right.

Josh: Not, okay, seniority. Gotcha.

Alex: Before this year, there were two seniors that were drum major, and they were both just drum majors. But this year, there was a senior drum major and a junior drum major. That way, the next year, there would be a drum major that had already had a year of experience being a drum major to hopefully make them a better drum major. Eventually, they did stop the marching and call the cops. Actually, I think they called the university security. That guy had had nine tabs of acid that day.

Jacob: Oh, boy.

Alex: He had already had nine tabs of acid that day. Now, we grew up in a pretty conservative place with some pretty conservative people, but my seminary teacher said that one tab of acid is usually enough to make you pretty messed up for the rest of your life. I don’t know how true that is.

Josh: Yeah. Acid is LSD, right?

Alex: I don’t know.

Jacob: I have no clue.

Josh: Hold on, let me look it up real quick. Yeah. Acid is LSD. PCP, LSD, any of these things, one dose, one take of that can completely rewire your brain.

Alex: I would say this guy-

Josh: Lasting effects for the rest of your life, like one instance of it.

Alex: This guy was rewired for sure.

Jacob: Well, having been on nine for that one day, it sounds like he was probably doing pretty well for himself, actually. Pretty kept together.

Josh: He kind of sounds like Eugene’s Moses. Just like parting-

Alex: He certainly looked like it. Partying the sea of high schoolers.

Josh: Parting the Band Sea.

Jacob: Can you imagine the imagery in his head as he’s going through? Waves!

Josh: He’s got the beard flowing in the air like stirring it up.

Alex: He’s parting the Green Sea.

Josh: They’re just phasing right through him. He’s untouchable.

Alex: Yeah. That was interesting. That was-

Josh: I love Eugene.

Alex: That was a Eugene experience that we needed to have. Where else would- Because we’d never left the university. How would we have even known we were in Eugene? Okay. So, drill down time. Everybody’s in the block. We’re going. I’m real nervous. I’ve got butterflies in my stomach. I feel a lot of pressure to represent our school because we’ve got people from all over the nation coming to this camp. I’m marching. Butterflies in my stomach like crazy. I feel a lot of pressure. There was a lot of pressure put on me by certain leaders at the school to represent the school well because McNary had a history of- We were famous for our drum majors. They were all usually very excellent. They won awards at pretty much every competition. Pretty much every competition, McNary’s drum majors took the drum major excellence caption trophy. So, there was a lot of pressure on me to continue that tradition, especially since a past drum major was now our assistant band director. He made my life really challenging as a drum major.

Josh: Was this Harman?

Alex: No. Harman was the band director for my first two years but was then replaced by Mr. Pham.

Josh: Oh.

Jacob: Of course.

Alex: This was- I’m not going to use his name.

Josh: But we’re looking at you, Ethan.

Alex: I guess that’s our running joke. Did I cut Ethan out of that other episode?

Josh: I haven’t heard it come up.

Jacob: I don’t remember.

Alex: So, I must have cut him out. Ethan, you’re great. You are an excellent friend. With all this pressure, butterflies in my stomach, I’m marching my heart out. I am laser focused on what is being said. Oh, man. Back in those days, I had crazy amounts of focus. I was a rock with my focus.

Josh: Oh, you used it all up?

Alex: I did, man. The other story I was thinking of telling today has an explanation for that, but we’ll get to that story another time. So, everybody starts- it just starts whittling down, whittling down. I can’t see everybody from McNary in the block around me, but as it starts to whittle down and then reform and whittle down and reform, I am eventually able to see we’re all still in it.

Jacob: Oh, so everyone.

Alex: We get down to the last 12 people, and the nine of us are still freaking in it.

Jacob: No way.

Josh: Are you wearing anything that says like, McNary?

Alex: No.

Josh: Oh, that’s okay.

Alex: I was so proud. I was so proud. I mean, it might have been like 15 or 20 people, but regardless, down to the small number, the nine of us were still in it. I was just so proud to be part of that group. Feeling a lot of extra pressure that all nine of those other people that probably should have been drum major in place of me were still in there. But this final block, 15 to 20 people, Kurt and I are right next to each other in the block. He is euphonium section leader.

Josh: What?

Alex: Yeah.

Jacob: You remember?

Josh: No.

Alex: Yeah. For those that don’t know, euphonium is like a baritone. Some people call them baritones. How do I describe this? It’s like a mini tuba that fits in the range somewhere like a trombone. So it’s not as low as a tuba, but it has a different sound than the trombone because its pipes are more circular, whereas the trombone is really long. So that produces a different sound, different timbre. The euphonium in general is considered warmer and richer than a trombone. And yeah, he was section leader that year, his senior year. We’re next to each other. We’re moving. We’re marching forward. And I can’t remember the call. It’s going to drive me crazy that I can’t remember this. I really hope someone somehow that knows what this would be is listening and can tell me because I would really love to be able to unlock this memory. But we’re marching forward.

Josh: Assassin’s Creed. Got it.

Alex: “Unlock the memory.” We’re moving forward. They make this tricky call that they know is going to be tricky. They do it on purpose. Everybody else moves in one direction and Kurt and I move and only Kurt and I move in the exact opposite direction backwards.

Jacob: No way. Only the two of you.

Alex: And they come and tag us. And we’re like, what? No, no, this is no. Oh, yeah, that’s right. They didn’t make this call thinking it was like the super tricky one. They didn’t know because they thought we did it wrong. We’re like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is this situation. They’re like, oh, my gosh, it is. So it came down to Kurt and me.

Josh: Dang.

Alex: Those other 18 people were all eliminated all in one go. So we’re standing there. And for this part, he’s using the Glock. He’s using the block and the stick. He’s not using Dr. Beat.

Jacob: I wish it was Dave Matthews.

Josh: And he’s right next to you.

Jacob: Right in your face.

Alex: They hold us there at attention for ages. We’re just standing there waiting for the call. And eventually-

Jacob: Oh, no, wait, pause! Do you have your instruments with you this whole time? Are you actually playing?

Alex: No instruments. No, this is just marching.

Jacob: Okay, so you’re not even holding them in playing position.

Alex: No.

Jacob: Okay.

Alex: There’s a position that I don’t remember the name of, unfortunately, where you make a right angle with your arms, holding your right fist in your left hand in front of your face as if you were holding and playing an instrument.

Jacob: Okay, cool.

Alex: That’s the normal position for marching in the Glock.

Jacob: I just need the imagery.

Alex: But we weren’t in that position. We were just at attention. And actually, that’s something that they do all the time, like horns up, horns down, horns up, horns down while you’re marching. And they’re watching for you to do it on the right beat. They might have called it on a slightly weird beat, but you have to know exactly what beat to do it in time correctly. Anyway, we’re just standing at attention. Finally, after like it felt like 10 minutes, he starts beating out some time on the Glock. Forward. And Kurt flinches.

Josh: His foot shoots forward?

Alex: Not even his foot. His shoulders just start to move forward. He just twitches forward a little bit like he’s going to start moving.

Josh: False start.

Alex: I didn’t. They called it there.

Jacob: After just holding you. For a couple of minutes.

Alex: I mean, it felt really good. I don’t know how Kurt felt after that. There’s no reason for him to feel anything, but-

Josh: Kurt, put it in the comments. Tell us how you felt.

Alex: There’s no reason for him to feel like he lost that, because that was like the minutest of freaking technicalities, and they just wanted it to be over.

Josh: Oh, yeah, I’m sure. “These guys just won’t drop!”

Alex: You know, the sun was setting, you know, it’s the final countdown. And I got to, I mean, I got to. This felt like a punishment to me, because I never liked being the center of attention like this, but I was supposed to at attention in front of everybody on the sidelines, call my name, my school, give a salute. But, yeah, that was finally when I felt like, okay, maybe I do bring something to the table as a drum major. I guess I’m our best marcher. I got that.

Josh: Nice. And better than all those nationwide students from Idaho.

Alex: True. So that was the day I really became the drum major. I was the drum minor, now I’m the drum major.

Josh: Alex is… The Drum Major.

Jacob: So what would that superpower be?

Josh: Time. Something about time.

Alex: I developed a time superpower.

Jacob: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

Alex: I could always get 100 beats per minute correct. I directed one movement of our show that was at 100 beats per minute, and I always had 100 beats per minute in my head. That was my superpower. Slightly slower than counting seconds.

Josh: No, faster.

Alex: Slower.

Jacob: 100 beats per minute?

Alex: Well, you use 120 beats per minute to count seconds because it’s two beats per second.

Josh: Oh, “seconds”.

Alex: But 100 beats per minute is not going to help you count seconds.

Josh: “Seconds” because there’s two in one second, so “seconds”.

Alex: Sure, sure, whatever you say. And cut to outro. Thank you.

Jacob: Thank you.

Josh: Thank you!

[00:42:07] Another Brother Outro