#rcc2014

Just recently, I aged-out of WGI with the RCC 2014 winter drumline. It was a great experience and an honor to be in. But this year the concept of the show was a little harder for me to grasp. I was able to relate to my other years with the group much more easily. Even as we flew to Dayton, Ohio for WGI Percussion Championships, I still had no idea what to think about our show. I did somehow piece together my own interpretation on the bus ride back to the hotel after our prelims performance and I would love to share it with you.

First and foremost, I am going to put an important disclaimer before I delve into my personal explanation. What I perceive the show to be does not mean that is the only possible explanation. Even if I was a member of the ensemble, it doesn't make it the "official" interpretation of the show. At RCC our designers approach our shows as artists, meaning that the show isn't meant to have a single meaning. Any viewer of the show is entitled to what they interpret based off their own observations. I always believed that art is like a small child. Parents can always control the environment the child grows up in, but who that child ultimately grows up to is not decided by the people who created the child, but the child itself. The simile is quite a stretch, but it is what I believe.

Now if you haven't watched the show, go and watch it. I wouldn't want to spoil the show for you, you should watch the show and gather your own thoughts first. And it wouldn't make sense for you to continue reading without doing so. 

Now i'm assuming if you're at this sentence you've watched the show. I'll begin my explanation of what I interpret the show to be. It'll be in first person perspective, since I was approaching the show as one of the aliens.

On the surface the show is about an alien civilization that stumbles across some radio frequencies that displays how humans on earth are. In our first movement we are curious and intrigued by this faint connection, and we are in the process of trying to establish a more solid connection. There are visual and auditory displays of our alien mannerisms to try to allow the audience to see how initially foreign we are to what earthlings are like. But even with how different we may seem, the signal was no accident.

In the second movement we finally establish our connection. We definitely are ecstatic about what we see. We imitate whatever pops up, which happens to be commercials for various earth products. The happiness we feel and portray is not genuine though, it is all a facade; we are tricking ourselves about this happiness. Even though it seems to be a fake, deep down we do feel a more substantial connection to these foreign humanoid earthlings, we're not sure what is is, but at this point we must know more. And I also get a cool little one note solo in here.

We get to the third movement, the media we are observing starts going crazy. There's an overwhelming abundance of information that is being forced onto us and we can not stop ingesting it. These images that we see now are much more amazing and deep than the previous superficial images, we see what humans are capable of making. Actual moments of greatness that people banded together to create. There are magnificent skyscrapers and astronauts in space and a rocket flying into the sky. And as we see that rocket, we are starting to piece together, not just a deeper understanding of humans, but of our true origins. That was us, and that is still us; we are watching our previous ancestors leaving earth generations ago. With our new-found knowledge we become overcome with confidence, satisfactions and true happiness. But then there is a deeper underlying question; why would we leave earth in the first place? This question does not linger for too long; there is a sudden change by the media. We are interrupted with erratic images of war, hatred, bigotry, and oppression. Just as how humans were capable of amazing things, we aliens started seeing the other end of the spectrum. And because of our realization that we are the same as the humans from earth, even though it is against our alien nature, we begin to imitate that as well; we do not even take a second to question it. We start emulating the conflict and the anger, and even seek to harm our fellow alien brethren, because apparently that is who we always were and that is who we currently are. But as things grow dim and somber, some brave aliens who still have a sense of their own individuality alter the connection. 

Movement five begins with the famous Charlie Chaplin speech in The Great Dictator. As he speaks, we immediately begin to feel shame, but a new sense of hope arises. We realize through the combined wise words of Charlie Chaplin and Edwin Starr, that humans encompass a whole spectrum of emotion and possibilities, but we can choose what that means for us. Something within us changes, we do not feel the need to imitate everything we see on the media. We cry out that war means nothing and we celebrate what is meant to be celebrated, that we now know who we have been and know what we can be. There is a reprise of the music heard earlier in the first movement, the native music of the alien race; then there is big ending finale where we look back at our new perspective of earth without losing touch of who we were when our journey began.

That is what I believe what our show is about. Now what I think why our show is, is why I had trouble relating to it. It may be obvious now, since I sat down and described each of the movements, but it wasn't obvious to me initially. The show, to me, is not about aliens at all. I think the show concept is "Who am I?". I believe that the show is about self-discovery, and personal perception.

The show describes how people perceive themselves. Again, I am going to explain this using myself as an example. People come in layers, and the outermost layer may be the one that most people view and think of us, but remember, it may be a facade. It tends to be superficial, erring on the side of consumerism. We base off our happiness by the latest new product, and we tell ourselves that as long as we have these things we are "happy". It may not need to be wanting a physical product like in the show, but it can be any type of medium that we may place our yearning for instant gratification. An example, one that I am partially guilty for, is that it may be our desire to want to be well perceived by our peers; we pick and choose certain highlights of our life to share on our next Facebook status, and we ignore the embarrassing moments. There may be nothing intrinsically wrong with this, but that is the definition of our character that people first see. Under that layer we have something deeper to us, our accomplishments. These are the ideas and values we really want to define ourselves as. The great moments in our lives that we think makes us special and unique, why we want to live our life. For me, one of my great accomplishments is how much my Fountain Valley cymbal line matured in the short span me teaching them for 2 years. It gives me great gratification and a sense of belonging in this world. Because even in a minor way, I helped give a little push to some great kids that have the potential to do amazing things. These type of experiences are what I wish my life was all about. And we all have so many positive experiences and accomplishments; it makes us feel very satisfied and gives us a sense of connection to each other. This is what our life should be defined as.

But what always seems to be the deepest layer in our minds is not the great positive moments in your life. The innermost layer always seem to be the negative thoughts in our lives. These are not just small little faults, but they are the most pessimistic and extremely detrimental ways that we always think about. We definitely do not want our lives to be defined by this, but it always seems to be the case. Even though we want to view our own lives as our positive accomplishments, the negative thoughts always seem to outnumber the good. We are insecure, unattractive, undesirable and weak. I don't like to admit it, but those are the thoughts that always seem to be pervading my mind. Thoughts that I'm nowhere near good enough, that I'm failing in my own definition of life, that nobody really would care if I were to cease to exist. These thoughts seem to be the closest to our inner core and it permeates through every pore of our body. Even if that may not even be true, we can't help but think about it. Sadly, for many people that is where the story ends, we've fallen too hard and we can't get up. We think it's too late.

But the show is not a depressing show, because in our journey of self-discovery we do not conclude at that point. We realize that we encompass many things, many attributes, many positives and negatives, but we ultimately get to choose what we want to define ourselves as. And that message is what I think is the ultimate message of the show. Don't just view the negative and think that that is who you were, who you are, and who you will be. It is very easy to let the negative control you, but never forget that we are in control of our lives. We should realize that we can say that "war" means absolutely nothing, and we have the power to define what we want to be. Answer the question, "Who am I?"; what you choose to say, is who you really are.

Yes, the show included aliens, but it was never about the aliens; the alien civilization was a literary device used to help portray this simple, yet important, message. I believe the show was about different perceptions of your life and the possible perspectives. The different movements portrayed how others view us, how we want to view ourselves, how we actually view ourselves, and how we should view ourselves.