"I'm an idealist, not an illusionist." ~ One of John F. Kennedy's speechwriters, 1917-Nov. 22, 1963

DCInternational corps are gearing up for a tour that will end in Indianapolis and the year after also in Indy, precisely Indy for 10 years en todo. DCI finally made the championship trek out to the West Coast for the first time last year where the Blue Devils won essentially on its home turf. Next year, when it appears diesel will cost even more than any other summer, the championships will be in a more central location.

Many a corps nut has perused for any news, relishing with glee that Scott Stewart plans to adorn the DCAssociates Kilties in XL sporrans in aught eight as the new blue-face warrior boss. Many Empire vets plan to return, a reunion of "We're getting the band back together," if you will. Dream plans to go where no SoCal corps has ever gone, launched from Dream's superb '07 "Star Trek" show. All-age hopeful, Gasparilla, down in Tampa, needs 60 brassy bodies to toot the 60 King horns already purchased.

I'm betting that Scott Stewart will pipe on 60 horns in '08, which will rouse haloed smiles from Joel "Lothar" Magnuson, Bill Semeyn et al. Tweaking the percussion and increasing the size and talent of the guard will make the English and Americans wary of the Scottish plaid. We'll see after Scott Boerma's brass arrangements are played at the Dec. 2 open house in Racine. Stewart is a Renaissance man who was in toe-tapping tune with the 20th Century and quite relevant in this the 21st Century.

Peering at autumn leaves, one's thoughts fall back to the memorable season that just elapsed, 65 years after "The Summer of '42." In 1945, when American and Canadian vets returned home from Hitler's and Japan's wrath, North America, Europe and more wanted to get back to life, to enjoy, to thrive, to procreate baby boomers. Drum corps multiplied, providing relief from miserable memories of Iwo Jima, Enola Gay flown by Tibbets et al., The Battle of the Bulge, breaking fingernails while riveting top-secret self-sealing wing tanks in Gadsden, AL, machining secret specs for Thompson machine guns in Dayton, OH, donating nylon hose for the war effort, rationing sugar and gas, or recycling parts while broken down in Ohio searching for employment.

In the 50s, grandiose shows were reached in gargantuan Rocket 88s; in the 60s, flower power meshed with the Casper Troopers' starburst; in the 70s, bell bottoms adorned the field and the stands while the Madison Scouts and the Chicago Cavaliers introduced themes; the 80s bloomed with Appalachian Spring; the 90s and early 2000s pitted visions of...you fill in the blanks...

...In '07, multitudes of DCI corps rediscovered spine-tingling melodies. Carolina Crown was at the apex of entertainment. CC came out of the gate raring to trot and stretched it out to the finish line. Every CC tweak of many was aimed at maxing the applause meter further.

The Buckeyes opened a cornucopia, a treasure chest. of GE gems. The Bluecoats, like Carolina Crown, figured out how to make narration an extension of general effect, as the Crossmen had done in 2006 with The Radio show. Larry Hershman and the entire Bluecoats staff made the gangster and the cops both look like heroes. (Should be "heros" but English is more complicated than drum corps. Oxford University Press has recently decided to allow "vocal chord" to be an alternate spelling for "vocal cord," as 46% of polled folks use "chord.") Brian Hickman's Glassmen rolled a gypsy caravan into Pasadena and helped to sell even more tickets at the highly successful championships.

DCI's Division II/III corps, now known as Open Class, hold promise for entertainment. According to Charlie Groh, an impulsive honcho on the Left Coast, the smaller corps are considering out-of-the-box ways of tweaking GE. Let's hope they stay on course.

That's entertainment and these corps fulfilled. Truly, this is where tickets are sold -- Satiate the reason you perform, the fan$!

Of late, I've come to see what a teeny twinkling orb I am in the overall galaxy of our niche activity. Yet, I plead from the Appalachians. What I do know, to revive past years' rants, is that drum corps' leaders need to step back, look at the entire corpsdom canvas, then rollstep up to the easel with some gesticulating brushstrokes of clap-worthy genius. 'Tis satisfying to see the positive progress numerous DCI corps have made by analyzing how to satisfy the backside of the scoring sheets, thus earning high points from the judges, while pumping up the entertainment, a win-win for fan$ and corps. Meanwhile, 'tis frustrating to find that some DCA corps are choosing to venture away from their personalities, the genres that have endeared them to the ticket buyer$, and chase after the adjudicators. As more repertoires are posted, I do hope that others will continue to chart "That's Entertainment."

I don't get it. One would think it takes me 1-1/2 hours to watch "60 Minutes," but why wouldn't a design staff not think of putting butts in the seat first? Entertainment, the impetus to encourage ticket purchases, is not a simple gift; it must be created at off-season Round Tables, based on what the talent level is, the personality and history of each corps...but always with GE as the powertrain.

Corpsdom has evolved by leaps and in-bounds since "Sweet Georgia Brown" back after The Great War, World War I. Fun shows don't always have to play "Caravan," "Malaguena," "Slaughter on 10th Ave.," et cetera. Entertainment can certainly be molded from the other genres, even from forgotten oldies; por examplo, the 2003 Kilties' jazzy "Miss Otis," featuring Jim Sobacki's soprano solos, a Michael Bouble show or rockin' songs from Queen.

If I were the king of corpsdom, I'd make it so -- All corps would consider how to make the fan$ smile while incubating their show ideas this off-season.

A thread posted regarding inducting famed photographer Moe Knox into the hall of fame has had scads of interest. To my knowledge, no photog has ever entered either the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame or DCInternational HoF. Moe Knox is unique in the circle of corpsdom's photographers in that Knox has been at it longer than any of the regular photogs, and Knox has been extremely active both photographing from the sidelines and busily offering his shots at his commonly seen booth...I see Knox has been a common sight, but he has slowed down somewhat, especially in operating his booth.

Let me add that, if one thinks photogs make a lucrative living off selling their photos, one is totally out of the picture. Like most of drum corps roles, clicking photos is done for the love of the activity.

Moe Knox is a man that I have written publicly should be inducted into both halls of fame. Virtually every corps member who has been active in junior, all-age or alumni corps in the Northeast or at championships has been framed by Knox's lens. The performers, staffs and fan$ constitute the main focus of corpsdom. However, our summer season would suffer without our volunteers, photographers, writers, et cetera.

Fred Windish, DCA's PR and marketing director in 2006, certainly understood Knox's value. Windish filled up four pages of the aught six program book with DCWorld staff writer William Aldrich-Thorpe's superb biography.

I have contacted influential folks in the past about inducting Knox. Those contacts were private and will remain off-record. Actually, I did not want to belabor the oversight in print as it is an embarrassment to our niche activity. It's Knox's time.

2008 is corpsdom's time to gleam and make the audience jump up with glee.

Satiate: to satisfy fully or to excess.

Publisher's Note: Cozy's Corpsdom features updates from the world of drum corps as only Cozy Baker can deliver ..... in his own unique style and presentation. A featured Drum Corps World reporter and contributing columnist for many years, Cozy travels the country as a competitive marching member, instructor, observer, and commentator on the state-of-the-activity. The opinions expressed in this column are strictly those of the author. (Cozy mug photo by Christina Mavroudis-Dempsey.) You may write to Cozy directly at mailto: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .