DRAMA in the band world...

In my glass:Tropicana Orange with bits
From my iPod: Absynthe, by Ross Ainslie and Jarlath Henderson on their album Partners in Crime
From my bookshelf: I've been reading my way through a bunch of articles on depression for our Biomed project
Outside: The weather can't decide whats going on. Right now its bright sunshine, but it was hailing earlier
Todays hairstyle: JJJs Pretzel bun

I just got back from giving blood at the donor centre, with a plaster on my arm, because it won't stop bleeding. Think at this rate I'll have a bruise tomorrow. All par for the course, I guess.
So yesterday, after I left you hanging on the topic of Chernobyl, I headed off early to get my army kit back and iron it for parade. Since I wasn't in uniform, I had a quick look on Facebook, seeing as I always seem to miss the last-minute updates for the OTC. One very interesting private message, and one rather offensive post caught my eye as I was scrolling through my news feed. Oh the dramas of being in a pipe-band world.
The thing about the pipe band world is that everyone knows everyone, be it through someone else, especially in the top two grades or so.
We had a new tenor drummer appear last night who wanted to join, whos friend apparently knows my brother quite well. The band world is a small world indeed.
I discovered on drums|pipes that Tyler isn't playing with Shotts this year. Perhaps not mega-drama, but enough to appear on drums|pipes. Well, he is famous after all. I think since its to spend more time with his family, most people have been understanding - after all he has family and friends who live all over the place, and I honestly don't know how he kept up. Even though I'm only a student in Aberdeen, its hard enough to get to practices and such around stuff, and most students I know here who play aren't competing at the moment. I don't know how he managed it, but I think what he does is amazing, and I hope I'll see him playing again sometime soon.
Now the real drama happened last night too. There was a comment on a facebook page that it appears I wasn't the only person to take offense to. The band is, as a whole, a very tight knit community who work well together, and even if we don't get on with one person, we try to make it work for the good of the whole band and the people in it that we do get on with. In the army, you don't get anywhere on your own. So we were all very shocked at the post we came across, purely by accident. I won't mention the issue here, because we're trying to get things sorted out in the band without getting others involved (because although its unfounded but thats when the real trouble would start, and it could cause all sorts of trouble for the band as a whole). I believe the whole issue stemmed from one that occurred last saturday (remember how I mentioned an incident that I thought and hoped had been sorted out?), but something that should have been sorted out with only a three or so people involved, has now become a massive issue amongst the whole band because of  facebook comments that have offended even those who weren't there, and is now beginning to spread into the actual unit. This needs sorted out and stopped now. The actions of one or two individuals can massively change the whole appearance of the band, not only within the unit, but outwith as well. Words will definitely need to be had, not just with those one or two individuals, but with the whole band.  I think that the people involved have no idea the kinds of consequences to these things. I get that drama is a given in the band - we're a never-ending source of the stuff - but when it descends into this kind of nastiness, accusations, deep offense, and possible consequences for the band, theres a massive, massive, big black line thats just been stepped over.

Thats all I will say on the matter.

Tonight I'm going to go to Tai Chi, which could be interesting now that I'm missing that pint of blood, but I'm sure it'll be fun. Or at very least, calming enough to forget all this drama for an hour or two.