Girls Rock Camp 2010!

July 11

Well here we go again. The second annual Girls Rock Camp. I’m a band manager again this year and I’m curious to see how this second year goes. The organizers have made some improvements over the last year. The camp itself is at a new place that has a better vibe, and there will be less moving of equipment from room to room. The showcase is also at a different venue: the lovely Oriental Theater...the site of the very first, and now legendary, Au Jus show....but that’s a whole ‘nuther blog. Don’t miss the final Girls Rock showcase Saturday, July 17. I think the performances start at 3 or so. (click here for info)

Today most of the volunteers met and loaded equipment, stuffed swag bags and hung posters to make the place a little more rock ‘n’ roll. I’m always impressed with people who can devote their time and energy to causes they deem worthy. They truly do make the world go round. There’s a great mix of volunteers this year that are ready to do what’s necessary to make the girls’ camp experience something they’ll remember throughout their formative years. And as we’ve often heard each other saying: I wish they would have had something like this when I was growing up!

July 12

First day of camp. There are 13 returning campers and 17 new girls. The only Trouble In Midnight member from last year (the band I managed last year) is Alexis. Kind of surprising that she’s the only one, but she brought her younger sister to the camp so I guess that kinda makes up for it. The first day of camp is quite different from the routine of the other days. It’s a lot of ice breaker events and getting to know each other. Today there seemed to be a lot of extra time for girls to run around and I think that’s because the volunteers were so efficient that there was extra time in the schedule. So for me today, it was a lot of watching. I felt like I was observing for a sociology experiment. Some things that ran through my mind whilst watching:

--leaders need followers

--I’m always attracted to loners and repelled by those who strive to be the center of attention

--girls can be catty & rude

--kids really do say the funniest things

--there really is a time of the day when focus is damn near impossible

--obnoxious people can indeed make seemingly normal people around them obnoxious as well

--it’s hard to feed a large group of tweens…when one doesn’t like her burrito, it’s a good bet the person next to her won’t like hers either

After lunch there was a songwriting workshop and then the girls were placed into two groups by age, Pix & Stix. Getting all the girls into bands was a very long process, with some breakdowns and lots of confusion. But as is typical, it all worked out. My band is of the younger sort and it started out as a trio (the best kind), but gained a vocalist at the last minute. So they had to start over with the naming process to be sure that everyone agreed. After what seemed like an eternity, they finally chose The Black Candles. So Marin (drums), Xelah (keyboards), Anna (bass) and Lily (vocals) will be working on their song all week. Anna already had lyrics written that she brought brought to the table, and amazingly, Lily wanted to use them instead of writing her own. So we’re so much farther along than where we’d be if we didn’t have lyrics. The wonderful Heather (who performed with her band the Blue Belles during lunch) is our band coach and she’ll be great at directing the girls, musically. Tomorrow, we’ll get into a groove and begin our journey as a band. I think I got the loner girls, the ones who maybe didn’t connect with the others as well as the rest of the girls during the first half of the day; the ones who didn’t feel the need to follow the alpha girls. Funny how we all found each other in the end.