Local Student Seeks Career In Entertainment/Social Marketing/Something With Famous People

This is going to fail.

1. The project, as presented, does not sound like it's designed to replace "The Victors". An "additional thematic song" sounds more like "In the Big House" redux. This is less bad than replacing "The Victors", but only in the way that measles is less bad than smallpox.
2. The project comes across mostly as a way for the students involved to meet famous people. David Banner's name has been invoked, perhaps with his agreement, and the campaign's representative stated “The goal of this song is to get a lot of big names that are associated with the University.” Note that the goal of this project is not to make a good song that represents the university well.
3. As of now, there is neither a tune nor lyrics for this project.
4. Somebody "conceptualized" the project.
5. The Hail and Unite group is seeking $2,750, with $1,750 going toward producing the promo video for the crowdfunding campaign (Of course there's a crowdfunding campaign) and $1,000 to go toward getting a celebrity or two to appear in the video.

I would say it is NOT impossible that a project like this could make a positive contribution to the University. But I think that this project is going about it in completely the wrong way.

To put it simply to its backers, you're going about it backward. If you're interested in anything more than networking with famous people, you have to get the song right first. At least make a demo, bro. Every major piece of music in the MMB canon was written or arranged by a student. Yes, Louis Elbel wrote "The Victors" in 1898, and Lawton and Moore wrote "Varsity" in 1911. But Joe Carl and Al Ahronheim wrote and arranged "Let's Go Blue" in the mid-'70's, and it spread like wildfire throughout the country. My point is, maybe get some lyrics and music down before you tweet at Eminem or ask for funding from CSG.

Paralyzer

Nestled into Saturday's debacle was a brilliant halftime show by the Michigan Marching Band, including this arrangement of "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven:

Sorry, I couldn't resist. But seriously -- here's what I wrote on August 5th:

My one hope for the season is that, at some point, Professor Boerma Rickrolls the crowd.

Sometimes dreams do come true. Well done, band. Well done.

In a way, we were all Rickroll'd twice on Saturday. Once by the MMB, and once by fate. We all bought tickets to the Toledo game knowing that it was going to be a tune-up for a tough rest of the season, and a chance to give the starters some extra reps. We all knew what we were in for. This was the football equivalent of clicking on a link that says "RICHROD STEAMROLLS TOLEDO 48-7."

But instead of seeing the five-score blowout we all figured was coming, the link took us to something completely different, something campy, ridiculous, tacky, embarrassing and unexpected. It was a classic bait-and-switch. You really got us good.

MMB on youtube

Thanks to the magic of the intertubes, portions of the MMB's Saturday offerings are now online. Pregame: Note: The band began taking the field before Carl told them to. No big deal, but an odd occurrence nonetheless; this is usually timed perfectly. Halftime: Additional thoughts undoubtedly in WTI form later this week. (Anyone know how to embed the higher quality version of these videos?)