[Cathie Wiener]

Alumni Spectacular

Lancers Alumni – I absolutely loved your arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that arrangement before and it was just lovely. You had a wonderful show and I loved the change of pace with the singing. Nice work by the guard. Also thanks for the info regarding the battery drums. That’s going to be a great help.

Freelancers Alumni – We performed selections from Jesus Christ Superstar with the Naval Hymn as our warm up. The audience seemed appreciative of the show. We love having the additional performance opportunity of the Alumni Spectacular. Makes the corps’ trip all the way out from Cali that much more satisfying being able to perform at the Alumni Spectacular, which is my favorite show of the entire weekend, by the way.

Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights Alumni, Toronto Optimists Alumni, Yankee Rebels Alumni – You guys were my Jolesch picture-taking, pit equipment pushing/loading, hurry back to the stands corps so I didn’t get to see you.

Mighty St. Joe’s Alumni – I get excited just typing that name! Really amazing show. Georgia. Goosebumps. The end. I don’t know what else to say. I love you guys. Oh yeah, the single tenors were neat and picking up the shakos… very funny. Hopefully your drummer was okay after the show.

Yes I know I use the word “love” too much in these reviews. I don’t care. It’s the Alumni Spectacular. Lots of love going around.

Preston Scout House Alumni Band – It’s no secret. You guys are my favorite Alumni Corps AND it turns out I was sitting in front of your cheering section during the show. Yay!! I’m always amazed by the glock player. How do you play that and march at the same time? It doesn’t seem possible. I’m in awe. Of course your DM is my favorite DM of the entire weekend and my corpmates are sick of me telling the story of how I got to meet him at the hotel last year. I don’t care. I’m telling that story forever. Oh yeah, back to the show… It was awesome. More awesomeness. Even more awesomeness. TOY SOLDIERS… my favorite part of the whole weekend again this year! And then you ended with some awesomeness. I may be a little biased in my review. P.S. I was told the 2013 calendar wasn’t available yet this year. I need my fix so someone tell me when they’re ready.

Reilly Raiders – Strong, strong guard. Amazing job weapons line. Whoever wrote that guard book deserves a medal. So simple (as in old school, not necessarily easy), clean and effective. The corps as a whole made some huge fans of Freelancers Alumni at the show. They absolutely went crazy over your tribute medley with all the uniforms and corps references as did the rest of the audience. It was all just a little before my time but my corpmates were out of their seats hooting and hollering. Don’t get me wrong, just because I didn’t quite know the significance of some of the songs doesn’t mean a darn thing. It was still so much fun. Your show was the definite favorite of all the guys I was at the show with. And the bottle dance into Bridgemen. Very nice.

Park City Pride – First, kudos to guard again. I mean the cymbals, I mean the guard. Gosh, I don’t even know what else to say. I was totally enamored by the guard and they had some beautiful silks to boot… oh and the backfield DM. Very entertaining. I love the philosophy of how this group was formed and I’m so grateful I get to see your wonderful shows every year.

New York Skyliners Alumni – Oh Skyliners, Skyliners, Skyliners. You guys. No, seriously… you guys. Starting with Aquarius. I don’t know what it is about that song but it always moves me and with the Skyliners sound... perfection. And Summertime and New York, New York. Love it! You guys are always my favorite “sound” of the Alumni Spectacular if that makes any sense. I am truly desperate for you guys to do a mini corps show again in the vein of this show and the mini corps show you performed in 2007. Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top?

Bridgemen Alumni – Yay. I’ll say it again. Yay. Just so you know I’m stealing the backing up beep “bit”. Every time I have to back up for any reason for the rest of my life I’m going to beep and then of course I’ll think of you guys. I did miss the city sounds of the car horns and whatnot from last year’s show, but I guess I’ll let it slide if you promise to put it back in next year. Don’t know what else to say except you rocked.

Hawthorne Caballeros Alumni – I was so excited. I never got to actually see the Call to the Bull before and I was sitting right next to the group when Mr. Ponzo played it this time. So exciting! I love the fact that the competitive corps takes to time out to support the Alumni Corps. It must be such a blessing to have such an active, large, supportive organization as the Caballeros. Now on to the performance of all you swishy pants alumni. Two words; loved it. Did you think I was going to say anything else? I was tearing up at Don’t Cry for Me Argentina. So beautiful and a bit haunting actually. A very nice moment along with The Prayer and beautiful, beautiful silks. Amazing job tonight.

I did want to do a special shout out to all the Alumni guards. You’ve all improved so much over just the last three years and I love it. You all are so much fun to watch. I am also including Boston in that statement even though they weren’t here this year because they, too, have a wonderful guard.

Also, huge thanks to Kevin Gamin and company with the Live from the Pressbox blogs to help refresh my memory to write these reviews so many days after the fact.

Lastly, I know these Alumni “reviews” are pretty useless and offer no true substance as far as a review goes… but they're fun and I don’t care. So there.

This post has been edited by Cathie Wiener: 04 September 2012 - 03:52 PM

[Andyroo]

Cathie Wiener, on 04 September 2012 - 03:51 PM, said:

Alumni Spectacular


Lastly, I know these Alumni “reviews” are pretty useless and offer no true substance as far as a review goes… but they're fun and I don’t care. So there.

You're absolutely right, Cathie. Reviews of Alumni Shows are pretty useless. But there are a whole helluva lot of people who belong to corps the names of which end in "alumni" who are happy that you took the time to mention them, and grateful for your words.

Maybe the alumni corps can't offer the same level of polish in their performances as do the competing corps, but their level of pride in what they do is no less. And the totality of the drum corps experience that was displayed on that field Sunday for your enjoyment is simply staggering.

[rattadiddle]

Thank you, both of you. As usual, we practised last winter 1 to 2 times per week indoors, depending upon if you were musical, colour guard or drill team. Early spring, we rented an indoor soccer dome twice to get the drill going early and hit the pavement. With this terribly hot summer, we've sweat rivers like every other drum corps, and the final Alumni Show was Oh So Worth It. 13 1/2 hours on a bus to get there and 13 back. We are so proud of all of the participants in the Alumni Spectacular. A job well done by all.

Thank you for reporting Cathie. It's the only report on the Alumni Show that I've found so far. Yes, Gary our DM does look great in shorts. Even better when he takes his shirt off, lol.

We were disappointed that we couldn't buy DCA T-shirts at the Alumni Show. The lady told us that the Alumni Show was not considered a DCA Event, so they weren't selling them until the night show. She said that they would sell out at the night show, so it wasn't necessary to sell them in the morning. Well.... Couldn't get Navy ones either, dang it.

You take care Cathie.

Thanks

Val
Scout House 2002 to 2012 - Drumline
Etobicoke Crusaders 1969 to 1974 - Drumline

[Jeff Ream]

Cathie,

as someone who always reviews Alumni corps when I can, I thank you as I wasn't able to attend the show this year.

[Fran Haring]

Cathie, I think you should be made the "Official Reviewer" of the Alumni Spectacular.

Another great job!!!

[Fran Haring]

BTW,I didn't get to the stadium early enough to catch the Freelancers on Sunday... but I saw the Freelancers mini-corps Friday, and that horn line was smokin'!!!

[JimF-LowBari]

Cathie Wiener, on 04 September 2012 - 03:51 PM, said:

Lancers Alumni – I absolutely loved your arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that arrangement before and it was just lovely. You had a wonderful show and I loved the change of pace with the singing. Nice work by the guard. Also thanks for the info regarding the battery drums. That’s going to be a great help.

Arrangement by Jay Bocook(sp?) on the National Anthem so guessing Cadets might have it in their book but no idea.

Thank you on behalf of the corps. I'mnot marching this year and man oh man was eating my heart out.... But did sit up in the Handicapped Access row an could watch the crowd.

[OrlandoContraAlum]

Actually Cathie, I would disagree with you 100%. Reviews of Alumni shows are FAR from "useless". Competitive corps get scores as their feedback. We do this for two reasons: for ourselves and for the fans. When someone like you goes out of their way to provide us feedback in the form of a review, it is SO appreciated (at least by me!).

So, THANK YOU for taking the time to write down a couple of your thoughts. And thanks for enjoying the shows. My only hope is that you were able to enjoy our show as much as we were able to enjoy putting it out there for you! (The royal you)

(p.s. - Yours was an excellent review!)

[chasgroh]

Fran Haring, on 04 September 2012 - 06:51 PM, said:

BTW,I didn't get to the stadium early enough to catch the Freelancers on Sunday... but I saw the Freelancers mini-corps Friday, and that horn line was smokin'!!!

...you'll enjoy the recording/vid, Fran, 'cuz they knocked it out of der park at the Alumni show. I saw 'em three times during the weekend; The Dock, the mini corps competition and the Alumni performance...they got better and better!

[Cathie Wiener]

OrlandoContraAlum, on 05 September 2012 - 09:38 AM, said:

Actually Cathie, I would disagree with you 100%. Reviews of Alumni shows are FAR from "useless". Competitive corps get scores as their feedback. We do this for two reasons: for ourselves and for the fans. When someone like you goes out of their way to provide us feedback in the form of a review, it is SO appreciated (at least by me!). ...

Oh gosh guys. Let me define what I meant by "useless". I meant it in the way that a review can be helpful to a group to make changes, improve or keep amazing things based on some info in the review. When I write, "It was awesome, and then more awesome, etc." That feedback is useless as far as a traditional review. WHAT was awesome? WHAT should we keep? I don't mean taking the time to write down what I think about y'all is useless. I'll always give feedback to you all for as long as I can see the show. I mean, come on. We already know I love you guys.

chasgroh, on 05 September 2012 - 11:12 AM, said:

...you'll enjoy the recording/vid, Fran, 'cuz they knocked it out of der park at the Alumni show. I saw 'em three times during the weekend; The Dock, the mini corps competition and the Alumni performance...they got better and better!

Thank you Mr. Charlie. We had SO much fun this weekend!