Dinosaurs acting like dinosaurs in the age of dinosaurs

[2muchcoffeeman]

, this tidbit has me longing for the day when drum corps will again be a regular feature on the pages of a major metropolitan daily. In its time, interest and exposure like this would be akin to drum corps regularly appearing now on big city television news programs. Pretty cool, I think.

That impressed me, too. I've spent a career in newspapers, and I was struck by the idea that a major metro daily paper would provide space for such ruminations. That kind of thing -- giving space over to local columns about very specific interests -- was going out of fashion in newspapers right about the time this particular column was published.

[skevinp]

A common prehistoric cave drawing shows three groups of people. One is banging sticks on rocks. One is dancing. One has their hands over their ears..

[Ghost]

Dick Blake (the editor of DCN) in the winter of 70/71, wrote a scathing editorial about the themed shows of the Scouts, Cavies and even our (Garfield's) show...though he later retracted it after actually SEEING the shows, If I recall.

One would say that Herb Cole was referring to these corps in his 71 article after seeing them.

[BRASSO]

Actually, Drum Corps News printed letters to the editor bemoaning all sorts of stuff happening in drum corps...read NanciD's great website of old DCN stories. One person wrote about the addition of contras turning drum corps into band, Dick Blake (the editor of DCN) in the winter of 70/71, wrote a scathing editorial about the themed shows of the Scouts, Cavies and even our (Garfield's) show...though he later retracted it after actually SEEING the shows, If I recall.

So there really were complaints about something or other in Drum Corps in the 1960's.

But what about the period of time of the 1760's ? I mentioned above that its been reported in some quarters that King George wrote a scathing report printed in the papers along the East Coast that he did not like the rifles used in the Minutemen Drum Corps from Concord, nor their music selected, nor their theme of Revolution selected, nor their uniform, nor the flags flown in the unit. The Kings Men reported they disliked them even more when they saw them live too. For their part, it has long been rumored that a snare drummer in the very same unit complained that his uniform itched in both the groin and seat regions, he disapproved of the food, music selected as well., and was rumored to have contemplated cutting his tour short on around a dozen separate occasions . Also, the Tories purists in this era didn't like these revolutionary Drum Corps themes depicted back then in the New England Drum Corps units either, its been long reported. They did not like New England so much. They much preferred the old England more. Did you hear about these reports, and believe them, or were they just wild unsubstantiated gossip type rumors on the Drum Corps of the 1760's do you think ?

Edited December 15, 2014 by BRASSO

[2muchcoffeeman]

A common prehistoric cave drawing shows three groups of people. One is banging sticks on rocks. One is dancing. One has their hands over their ears..

Yeah, it's not exactly a revelation to discover humans expressing dismay over change. But I will say that Cole gave his angst a florid touch:

"Even in its most liberal interpretation, it was never meant to be flaunted and stripped threadbare of its precision-like quality."

You just don't see that kind of writing effort on the Interwebs these days. I read his full column in a scrapbook that someone showed me, and I didn't know whether to chuckle over the fact that dinosaurs know no era, or applaud the effort he took to make the point.

Edited December 15, 2014 by 2muchcoffeeman

[MikeD]

One would say that Herb Cole was referring to these corps in his 71 article after seeing them.

Oh, I am sure. I was just talking about other people making dinosaur-ish statements "back then" as well as this article...actually before this article would have been written. Not to mention the t-shirt of the day bemoaning these 1971 themed shwos as The Year Drum Corps Died.

[BRASSO]

A common prehistoric cave drawing shows three groups of people. One is banging sticks on rocks. One is dancing. One has their hands over their ears..

Archeologists believe the first 2 demanded that Hands- On- Ears leave the tribe, or be boiled alive, then eaten for supper by others.

Edited December 15, 2014 by BRASSO

[Cavie74]

"Why did the Midwest and, to some extent, the Far West, lower the status and stature of [the] drum corps activity with inane hijinks, impish shenanigans and infantile efforts under the guise of General Effect?"

I've had a fear of clowns since 1971.

[BRASSO]

Despite its constantly risking absurdity, this thread topic has win written all over it, imo.

Edited December 15, 2014 by BRASSO

[Ghost]

Yeah, it's not exactly a revelation to discover humans expressing dismay over change. But I will say that Cole gave his angst a florid touch:

"Even in its most liberal interpretation, it was never meant to be flaunted and stripped threadbare of its precision-like quality."

You just don't see that kind of writing effort on the Interwebs these days. I read his full column in a scrapbook that someone showed me, and I didn't know whether to chuckle over the fact that dinosaurs know no era, or applaud the effort he took to make the point.

My scrapbook of my three years with the BAC (64-66) which was donated to the corps, had several articles by Herb. I'm not sure if any of them were his opinion on the current state of D&BC.