Friday, August 26, 2005

My Girls

This past week I have had rehearsal with one of the color guards I work with. (In case you don't know, the color guard are the ones with the flags, rifles, and sabres on the field with a marching band). This is the guard that I'm completely in charge of. I have no other staff with me. I have four girls this year (last year we had three, and one of them moved, so it's an improvement!), and they are great girls. Two are sisters, so that can get interesting. I have one senior, two juniors,and a sophomore. They get along really well, are almost always on time, and they work their butts off without complaint.

So far. We've only had one week of rehearsal, and school hasn't started yet.

The marching band show this year is "Aladdin" (yes, the Disney one). I've picked out their uniforms, and the girls are going to have a more modern, edgy, Arabian look than a Halloween costume. Not so much Princess Jasmine, more of a harem. And there lies the problem.

We had a band parent meeting last night, and I mentioned we were going to be the harem. Apparantly that is "politically incorrect" because it implies prostitutes and sex or something. Did I mention that I no longer live in a small, conservative town in Idaho?? I'm not having the girls show off their bellies or anything. We are just calling ourselves "Mikey's Harem" (Mikey is the drum major. He's a good friend of all the girls, and [oh yeah] openly gay, so it's not for real anyway).

So now I have to come up with a better term to call the look of my girls. The parents like the uniforms and the band teacher likes what we've done so far in choreography. It's just the name for my color guard. What should we call ourselves?

9 comments:

Proud Mum said...

What about something along the lines of Sheherazade? There's a woman that used her whits to circumvent her untimely death and beguile and (dare I say) manipulate one of the most powerful men in her life. It may be less likely to cause an uproar among parents who are really just concerned about the welfare of their girls.

Jen said...

Not a clue but I'm anxious to see what other peoples' ideas are.

Sariah said...

I think I should have mentioned, also, that the parents with concerns are not the parents of the girls. And it was mentioned later that their concern is more about the idea of submission, or male dominance over women in that part of the world. The parents want more of "I Dream of Jeanie" than Harem. I can have a scarf wrapping down around (underneath) their chin (like Jeanie), but they prefer not to have their faces covered because it is too reminiscent of a burka.

Sheherazade is an excellent example! I can't believe I forgot about her. One of my favorite stories and pieces of music (thank you Dr. Call!).

Philosophical Karen said...

I like proud_mum's idea. The only thing I could find was the phrase "Rabat el bayt". This is what women are called in Arab culture. It means "Rulers of the House" (in a domestic context). I just thought there was the potential to put a more urban twist on "rule" and "house." You know, women RULE! That sort of thing. Of course, it's a little too obscure to be useful as a name, but I thought it was interesting.

terrierchica said...

I think you should tell the parents that you're the one in charge, and if they have a problem, they can use their fine knowledge of colourguard and teach the girls themselves.
At least, that's what I would do.

Anyhow, maybe if you had something really smart-like the name of that chick someone mentioned but I'm too lazy too look it up and copy and paste and I definitely can't spell it. For example, most college mascot names SUCK. One reason (minor, minor reason) I liked BU so much is because the name of the mascot, the terrier, is Rhett. Why? Our school colours are scarlet and black. And no one loves Scarlet more than Rhett. :)

Anonymous said...

Mikey is openly gay? I like him already! As far as a name goes how about Mikey and the muffins (Like Martha and the Muffins (band from the 80's)

ABQ Mom said...

I think Sheherazade would be a great name. I also like the name someone else suggested. the "Agraba Dancers". It has more of a connection to Aladdin I think...

Alyson said...

I vote Sheherazade, In fact I like it so much I'm going to call myself that. I 'm sorry I don't have any other ideas but my knowledge on Arabic culture is very limited.

Proud Mum said...

Habibi is also a nice Arabic word; it means beloved. Maybe it would be too obscure of a reference, though.

Now I think we have exhausted everything I know. (pathetic, eh?)