After 17 seasons of FMA2 the organization cire "Certified Incredibly Risen Epicness" will be heading overseas for most of the duration of Season 18 to promote their new book and movie being released on July 22nd of this year. The 4 groups "Blue Deviled Eggs, The Marching Marchers, V, and The Drumming Dummers" will be returning to the US on July 18 to participate in the Season 18 finals.

The tour will be a promotion of their upcoming release "Top 5 - A look into the history of 4 groups" which will commemorate the history and accomplishments of the four groups in an exciting, interesting and provocative way never before seen in print or on screen. While not promoting, the groups will also be practicing, competing and holding clinics in preparations of the Season 18 Finals.

The world is no stranger to these 4 groups as they have been participating in competitions and exhibitions in over 30 countries in the past 15 seasons, winning numerous world titles and breaking several records in the process. The 4 groups have just returned from a mini tour during Season 17 visiting numerous cities in Canada, Singapore, South Korea and Russia.

Each of the 4 groups have never been out of the top 5 in Division 1 of FMA2.. which is a feat in itself considering the massive talent and competition in Division 1... not in just one season, but in 17!

Day 8 - The world wide tour is officially off! After a week of grueling practice at our world class facilities, all four of our groups have left this morning and boarded several planes to the first stop of our tour. The groups are expected to arrive in Toronto, Canada tonight. We will spend a few days practicing and have exhibitions and a Summer Solstice parade lined up. More updates to come!

Day 11 - Disaster strikes and lessons learned: Today the marching band thought it would be a good idea to do a morning block on the frozen lake. Against better judgement the staff agreed after every member signed a release of liability form. Two hours into a very sloshy wet marching practice the melting ice (melting ice in June?) broke and 6 members fell into the icy waters and found Davey Jones' locker. While this is sad news, all of the instruments were saved and the group is covered from the liability forms. In other news, V had their fist exhibition of the summer and did exceptionally well, as long as you don't count the 2 members in the audience who were impaled (and killed instantly) from tossing sabres and a strong gust of wind. Our guard uses real sabres with paper cutting blades to add to the realism, along with nano technology space age gloves that protect the hands from even the sharpest of blades. However as we found out today, eye sockets and rib cages are not as strong.. yet the show must go on!

Very..... Very..... Interesting lol

Day 23 - Happy 4th of July! Two days again the corps landed in Heathrow Airport in London. What unexpected findings! For 3 days the staff had been preparing the members to the trip by drinking nothing but tea and watching Austin Powers. It turns out not everyone in London sits around drinking tea 24/7 and we have not once seen any Austin Powers or anything shag related at all. What a disappointment.

We had a great practice yesterday and in a few days we will be doing a cultural exchange with some nice folks from Amsterdam who said they were great bakers and wanted us to try their brownies. Sounds like a fun time for all.

Today we are holding an impromptu 4th of July parade... but for some reason I am feeling a bit of resistance from the locals here. We might need to bring some tea to ward them off in case they try to attack.

The members are having a great time though and are enjoying the constant non-stop practicing and traveling. It seems easier as we go deeper into this tour to motivate them with false hopes of having a free day, hopefully it lasts. I know they are looking forward to coming back to the states and finishing off their tour at the FMA championships. How ironic would it be if none of the groups make the Top 5 while on their Top 5 Tour?

Dada for now!

How goes the tour? Show coming together ok?

Day 30 - Tomorrow marks our 1 month journey into our Top 5 Tour.
Here is a recap of what we have learned:
- Life Insurance
- Do not hold a 4th of July parade in Europe
- Brownies are filled with marijuana
- Do not perform while high
- Do not hold marching rehearsal on a frozen lake in July
- Research how 20 females can be on their period at once
- Bring extra "toiletries"
- Bring alternates to replace dead members
- Bring replacement instruments
- Do not listen to students who say a brothel is like a hotel for kids

The trip has been a huge success (let's not count the deaths and other misfortunes). The shows for each group are now completed and everyone is already in cleaning mode. Marching Marchers held a 6 hour clinic yesterday with 800 members from various schools around the country. V held a bikini-only car wash fundraiser and raised $280,000 over a 2 day period. Drumming Dummers got lost for 2 days while practicing marching basics and were finally found 30 miles away. Blue Deviled Eggs held 3 clinics and performed 4 shows this past week and has been blowing away the competition.

Everyone is currently busy packing their bags and will be heading off to Egypt tomorrow! Later this week we will be having a huge group performance on a pyramid (not sure which one).

Stay tuned!

Hilarious! :-D

Day 32 - Well Egypt was a bust. Turns out they don't like 800 slinkys going down their pyramid. I'm not sure who thought of the idea, but it probably sounded good at the time. Our performance was cut off half way through once they realized what was going on. We were basically chased out of the country and banned for life. Not that I am very sad about it considering how hot it was. I also saw my first real camel toe! That was a lot different than I expected. Anyways.. we are currently on several planes headed to Australia! We had originally made plans to stop in Iraq and Afghanistan.. but apparently there has been some military conflicts there so against better judgement I decided to cancel that. So Australia here we come! Everyone is very excited about this trip! We have been watching Crocodile Dundee and Rescuers Down Under 24/7 so that we will get used to the very foreign land. Our translators have been teaching everyone the languages of the aborigines so that we will be able to communicate and everyone has been practicing hoping like kangaroos. I'm sure we can fit it into our shows.

Everyone is excited to come back to the states and perform in less than a week! We thank you all for the kind (and not so kind) emails, letters and YouTube videos. It has really helped the morale of the members and staff from our constant practicing and beatings if they mess up.

More to come!

I can't wait to see where you place when you come back. Maybe you'll pull your own version of Madison 1988.

"I also saw my first real camel toe! That was a lot different than I expected."

/facepalm

I bet hopping like a kangaroo will do wonders for your groups GE score. It's golden!

Day 36 - We need a better trip planner and tour guide. Apparently noone in Australia rides around in kangaroos and not everyone is a crocodile hunter. I did not see a single aborigine, in fact I didn't even see a kangaroo OR crocodile! We didn't get run over by a herd of elephants and surprisingly.. we saw cars, people in clothes.. and they weren't all convicted felons! I am completely speechless! Even the toilet water drained in the same direction.

In other news, our kangaroo themed performances were not a hit at all. Noone understood when everyone bounced while marching... soon a rumor spread that we were the Cadets. How horrible is that!? Anyways.. Australia was a big let down. We are all ready to come home.

We are all currently at the airport waiting to catch several planes home. Tomorrow we are allowing the members 2 hours to rest from their Tour (aka: practice individually) before we start practice again to get ready for this weekend.

Finals... here we come!

1st, 2nd, 1st, and 1st in Division I Prelims.

You turd. ;-)

Apparently... I need to go on Top 5 tours more often.. holy crap! I was definitely NOT expecting that! Of course... I'm not going to complain lol

I KNEW you were going to pull your own version of Madison 1988.

I give up! Haha.

Finals Night Season 18 - The season is over! and wow what an unexpected ending this was! All of our groups did exceptionally well (except for two groups taking 2nd) especially considering they had been gone all summer on their Top 5 tour. The members are ecstatic and they were all very happy and pleased with themselves for their hard work. The staff decided to give all of the members a full night off with no individual practicing required to celebrate, and more importantly to give them rest for next years season.. which starts tomorrow.

We look forward to next years season and competing against everyone again.

Until next time!

Don't you just mean one group taking 2nd? :-P I'll tell you what happened though, I got lazy during the last week and started sleeping later wasting some time because I was ahead of everyone else. I certainly can't take anything for granted anymore now lol. Despite that, it was a close race so congrats and good luck this upcoming season. :)