Cozy’s DCA Planet – January

Nattering nabobs of novelty to powwow in Newark

Tuning in to a recent Tennessee Titans football game, four cameras, high and sideline, were broadcasting the game with raindrops drenching the lenses, which oddly reminded me of DCAssociates. The biennial Rules Congress will meet in Newark Jan. 13-14. While Lee Rudnicki, Renegades marketing maestro, will be program coordinating at the sort of nearby Skyliners camp, corps honchos like Frank Gerris, J.C. Caspers, Gavin Burnham, Dave Bruni, Greg Gilman, Dr. Dave Stollberg, mini-corps staff et al. will be huddling to thrash through rules changes. Any approved modifications will take effect this season.

One would have to have been slumbering like Rip Van Winkle ascending “Stairway to Heaven” since Labor Day weekend to not know that the most publicized rules proposal in DCA history is the one to change the voting membership status. Membership status changes have been conducted in the past but never before an Internet audience as experienced recently. It would reduce the number of voters, which has been a common complaint of past DCInternational rules changes.

In a nutshell, this rule proposal reflects the growing pains of DCA, at least as perceived by more corps nuts than can fit in PAETEC Park – Should control remain on the East Coast or should DCA think outside the Northeast box and morph into the future that is exploding with growth like 14 contra players on steroids. Corps from Hawthorne to Rochester to Minnesota to “Tejas” to the Left Coast await the debate.

My opinion? Scribing here as a quasi-representative of DCA, I’ll pull a Terrell “T.O.” Owens and drop this sizzler. I’ve expressed my opinion elsewhere.

Watching the Orange Bowl, a FOX sideline camera worked the entire game with a huge smudge centered on the lens. Reacting like Pavlov’s mutt, I thought about the fact that the near future of DCA is crystal clear – DCA corps are sprouting all over North America. Music City Legend will host the DCA South Championships for the first time. Derby City Knights, Louisville, North Coast Rock, northern Ohio, and Masquerade, of Ruston, LA, will bolster DCA as new entries if they can successfully enter the fray. The Austin Stars hope to flank the Alamo along with the current Gulf Coast Sound and Frontier. I hope to hear encouraging news from Shenandoah Sound, Mon Valley Express, Cincinnati Tradition, High Country Brass, Jackson Generals, etc.

It’s a delectable delight to have Heat Wave and the Kingston Grenadiers back in the fold, www.heatwavecorps.org, www.kingstongrenadiers.com . The honourable Grenadiers will feature “The Legend Returns” – the Music of Chuck Mangione. Best of luck to each.

Brian Tolzmann, the quintessential DCWorld writer, is considered by many to be the ultimate statistician maestro for corpsdom. After each season, Tolzmann’s number-crunching article in DCW is a highly awaited read. My observation is that – no subjective intent implied, positive or negative – with the current movements in corpsdom, the all-age corps, competitive and alumni, will possibly outnumber the junior corps in the next five years. Who would have “thunk” it? This shift in balance hasn’t occurred since decades ago when the prevailing senior corps started junior corps to serve as feeder units.

I highly recommend that you peruse Tolzmann’s past summaries that list the remaining active corps and his analytical comparisons to past decades, www.drumcorpsworld.com . These stats will improve the history knowledge of tenderfeet and corps aficionados alike.

President Gil Silva and staff, using their ex cathedra, have selected Joe Geswaldo as the new Class A Coordinator, replacing the retiring Jim Minster. Geswaldo served in recent years with Syracuse Brigadiers management. Kudos to Minster for a job supremely well done.

Rich Templin, DCA Judging Coordinator, returns for 2007. Also remaining onboard as judging caption chairmen are John Stauffer, percussion, and Bob Cardaneo, brass. Sal Adamo will head up the visual caption.

Preceding the NBC Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, five cameras aired the street festivities, all lenses totally drenched in dripping drops, sans Texas Instruments DLP HDTV camera quality. Salivating reaction: I pondered Rochester. All of us, including Baker Video Productions, were tested severely during Ernesto’s end-around from the Caribbean, destroying finer mornings in the Carolinas, roaring out into the Atlantic, only to cross New Jersey, Scranton and over DCA Rochester before reversing lake effect into “Eh!” country. All of us, fan$, competitors, staff, souvies, admin, alumni and city/county officials experienced a weekend that easily rivals the 1987 DCA Championships. We can never thank the fan$ enough for persisting through the most exacerbating weather I recall any championship enduring. ‘Nuff said.

Regarding the column title – ‘Tis no big deal. Barbs have been flying of late. I choose to fluff, to lighten the air and propose civility. Is discussing rules proposals in public, prior to the meeting, “bass ackwards”? That’s debatable. DCA has been accustomed to discussing matters at its off-season meetings. Others view airing proposals here on DCP as an “inalienable right.” Surely we can all agree that the requirements for voting status in DCA stir the passion of corps aficionados coast to coast in North America and beyond.

Comparing perspectives, the recent DCI rules proposals are also being discussed with fervor here on DCP, polls proliferating, and elsewhere. ‘Tis a sign of the times.

Time to tune in Craig Ferguson’s late-night show. No kilt is required to catch his Scottish wit. Ferguson’s humor clears the smudges from my brain, like a Key Poulan “Toccata” chart that slips in a 5/8 measure above high C. The best way to clear the sinuses is to play your fave tunes, like “La Fiesta,” above or below high C. Cya!