Similar to the television commercial comparing the Mac to the PC, corpsdom's "P.C.," Paul Collins, is the guy who has been around many years, no fancy bells and whistles, but a guy who just gives and gives to so many drum corps. Does he charge for his repairs? Of course, but Collins' prices are typically far less than storefront music shop repairs, based on quotes Collins gave me during an interview at the DCInternational Atlanta meeting in late January.

The first time I encountered Collins was at an Empire Statesmen rehearsal in the early nineties. Since then, I've run into Collins seemingly everywhere, from DeKalb, IL, to Centerville, OH, to Powder Springs, GA, to Orlando to Madison to Rochester. It takes all of us to make corpsdom click. Collins and BAC Horn Doctor Mike Corrigan, www.horndr.com, are the only two touring repair services. Collins and Corrigan are typical examples of the gypsy lifestyle so many endure on summer tour.

Attention! Rarely have the winter rules votes by both DCInternational and DCAssociates created such a tempest in a teapot, a hornito, as has occurred this aught seven. A few fan$ want to bail out on the corps whose directors voted on certain electrifying issues. Poppycock! You know the who of what and when of which I speak. The why and how is complex. Off the cuff, I'm almost into the realm of blog journalism here:

The passion is percolating over in both DCI and DCA circles. It shows that "we" care. DCA decided to tighten the circle of voters from 14 possible to 10 possible. Seemingly 1,400 to 14,000 fan$ disagree, some with horripilating vitriolic verbiage. Concerning DCI's rules voting last weekend, some have threatened that they and their wads of $50 bills will stay home based on parameters they oppose.

Dan Acheson, DCI executive director, said it best in his opening speech in Atlanta, "Learn from the past, and then get...out of there...Eighty % of people's energy is used to worry about the facts."