So Long, Brighton

Today I leave Brighton for good. It's off to London, then Jill flies in on Tuesday for our self-guided tour of (mostly) southern England. I don't really know when or if I'll ever return to Brighton, though, and I can't help feeling a little nostalgiac. It's not necessarily the place itself, but the finality of it. There's more to write about my time here, but this will be my goodbye.

So long, pier. So long, rocky beach. So long, Lanes and Royal Pavilion. So long, Dave's Comics and all you second-hand bookstores. So long, Al Forno and The House and Gourmet Burger Kitchen (although I intend to look you up in London, GBK). So long, buses of Old Steine and stores of Churchill Square and assigned seating of Odeon.

So long, Brighton.

Interlude

I'm working on a post about the field trip to Dublin, but in the meantime I can't resist posting this picture. This was taken in Raffi's dad's backyard, when I met up with him, Charles, and Lori in London about four weeks ago. It nicely sums up, in a single image, the essences of Charles and myself.

Final Final

So I stayed up all night writing this paper, finished it at about 9:00 this morning, printed it at IT, then waited around there with Sateary for Sinmi to finish typing her bibliography, then we turned our papers in at Mantell (approximately six hours earlier than I did so four weeks ago), then went by the library to return some books, then to the Mace in Bramber Hall, then to the store in York House to get (and immediately eat) a couple croissants, then we split up and I came here to type this and now I'm so very, very tired and must sleep.

I'll either get a 95 on this paper or a 20. It's a little out there.

This DCUK Thing

It has come to my attention that my post regarding the DCUK show I attended in Aldershot nearly a month ago has, unbeknownst to me, created quite a stir in the DCUK community. Why my blog entry has been singled out of the thousands and thousands of other comments about drum corps that get spewed out onto the landscape of the Internet every day is, frankly, baffling, especially since I have no connection to DCUK (or even much of one to DCI anymore, apart from being a drum corps fan) or interest in the success or failure of any corps connected with it. It is truly unfortunate that individuals unknown to me have chosen to take the remarks I made on my blog -- remarks intended for family and friends back home -- and irresponsibly distributed them on Tim Robson's public DCUK forum with which (again) I have no connection. I did not go to Tim's website to share my views on the show in question, nor have I even shared my blog with other online drum corps-related communities such as Drum Corps Planet, the Sound Machine, or RAMD. If I had, I could understand the outrage, but that is not the case. I am truly sorry that there are those who have taken offense at my comments, and it should be stated that nothing I wrote was meant to be malicious, insulting, or even negative, but merely my honest thoughts and opinions. I have no agenda or ulterior motive. I am not an evil man, nor do I thirst for chaos in the DCUK ranks, and it is regrettable that I have been portrayed otherwise by a community of strangers who have chosen to cast me in the worst light possible. I don't necessarily blame them, as I see myself as an easy target at this point, but it is nevertheless regrettable. There is probably nothing I could say now to sway anyone's opinion in my favor, or even closer to it, and it saddens me to know that there is essentially an entire continent of drum corps fans among whom I am not welcome.

For the record, from what I saw the Black Knights are a fine organization, and director Emma Weir and her staff do a fantastic job with them. There has been the suggestion that what I wrote about Eoin was somehow insulting, but certainly it wasn't meant to be. In the short time I knew him, I found Eoin to be knowledgeable, talented, and about the nicest guy I've met in the past two months. What's really made me sick to my stomach the past two days is that these people now see me as an enemy, which I am not.

I maintain my right to say what I like on my own blog. If you find it inaccurate, offensive, or even just boring, I encourage you to not read it. If I don't know you, it's not really meant for you anyway.