Cal Band’s getting some virtual ass with this vid of video game songs. We heard it was No. 2 on Digg’s top ten for all topics, and it’s currently No. 4 on the front page of College Humor. When you search Cal Band on YouTube, it is now the top result. The video boasts well over 100,000 views and it’s been favorited almost 3,000 times.

Can we get a “Cal Band great”?

Thanks to Gordon Chien for the tip.

Cal Band - Video Game Show [YouTubeM]

Actually, she toots a clarinet–and 47-year-old Cal student Cynthia Erb doesn’t need to boast about being the oldest recent member of our awesome band. Today, the Contra Costa Times featured this former investment banker’s story, which should be an inspiration to all the broke Haas students out there who may want to actually chase their dreams instead of chasing paper.

Currently a student of the department of architecture here at Berkeley, Erb decided to go back to school after a career in banking because she wanted to “indulge her long-term interest in design.” With dream No. 1 well on its way to fulfillment, playing clarinet for the Cal Band was the second dream she was to act upon, even though she is more than 20 years older than her band mates.

We should note that in addition to playing in the Cal Band and being a student in one of the most overworked departments at Berkeley, Cynthia Erb is a wife, has three children and lives almost 20 miles away from campus. Compare that to those of us young’uns who can hardly manage to walk to Shattuck Avenue from campus–or those who would rather not try to balance a job, extracurriculars and midterms with Facebook-time and partying.

Can we get a “You go, girl?”

Image Source: Ian Buchanan, Daily Cal
47-year-old Retired Banker Follows Dream with Cal Band [Contra Costa Times]

In addition to spotting posters around Memorial Stadium, we also pricked our ears for the Cal Band practicing on Maxwell Family Field late this afternoon.From our attic room, we heard blasts of horns, 1980s style. Who knows? The marching band may play some (or even all) of the following songs for Saturday’s football game:* “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell,* “99 Luftballoons” by Nena,* “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” By Wham!* and even “Stars and Stripes Forever” by John Philip SousaOK, so the last one isn’t from the ’80s, let alone the 1900s. But we swear we heard it!Image Source: Deng-Kai Chen, Daily Cal