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Dr. Craig Callen

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  • Your Drum Corps Experience
    marching and instructing in several corps in the 60s, 70s, and 80s; Founding member and instructor Spokane Renaissance 75-77, RCR 04-07
  • Your Favorite Corps
    Troopers
  • Your Favorite All Time Corps Performance (Any)
    86 Sky Ryders
  • Your Favorite Drum Corps Season
    1973

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  1. Hey- to all of my drum corpse friends out there. To get off topic a little bit. Here in México- the Spanish station showed the entire event- showed every skater- in fact- showed every Olympic event in its entirety on three separate stations. No blabbing during each skaters routine- only evaluated the performance while waiting for the score- no Johnny & Tara BS- very professional. No up close and personal things. The only negative thing was that it was a live telecast- so it started at 4 in the AM here in Puerto Vallarta, and the commercial that they played at the breaks was the same commercial over and over- sort of like Flo Marching!! That and we still feel like alot of the skaters need some help from drum corps designers. They need to enhance their difficult routines to fit the music. And a big shout out to Donovan Carrillo from Guadalajara who made Mexico skating history at the Olympics- we are proud of you man!! OK- back to your regular scheduled program
  2. I contacted DCI a few days ago. I was told DVDs/Blu-rays are a no go this year. They are still on the fence about a 2021 CD.
  3. OK- I am surprised that nobody has made a comment on this. We now have a replacement for the iconic wink at the camera from the 2016 Bluecoats soloist. We now have the Bluecoats member over and over picking his nose on camera and flicking his nasal excrement onto the field. Cracked us up. After your show- I think that I will have a hit off of the bong or drink a really cheap bottle of wine and make a candle holder out of the bottle. Ah the good old days when we were young and beautiful (and did high knee lifts and lots of mark time) Go Blooooooo!!!
  4. OK- Dumb question of the day. How does one send a private message to a fellow DCP subscriber? Gracias
  5. I contacted DCI. They told me that the audio would be available for sale to the public around Thanksgiving Did not ask about the Blu-rays
  6. I have to admit- last night the streaming quality compared to the last few years was- how do you say it- crappy. At our end- Bluecoats looked like blue blobs on the field, until you got to extreme close-ups. Interesting side-note. We have a villa on the beach in Puerto Vallarta. A few years ago we were down there during Drums Along the Rockies. For some reason, we were able to get the stream of the show (probably before Tresona got ahold of everything.) It was in the middle of a huge tropical rain storm. Our internet dish was basically duct taped and bailing wire to a tree. Perfect reception- no interruptions. Video quality was great. Up here in California- we have the best of everything for this area that we live in. Video quality- ehhhhh. Go figure.
  7. Thanks for all of the info. OK- oldie moldie here (I finally got the hang of my fax machine!!) I may try the Roku- how does one get the Flomarching app for Roku? We live high up in the Sierras here in California- we are on satellite which the company has assured me that it is a best speed connection available for satellite. No cell phone service where we live also.
  8. It sounds like several people are having the problems with the webcasts like we are. Something new this year- even though we are using the same equipment as the last three years. 1) The video and sound will freeze for an eternity during a performance. I have to actually log out and back on to get the telecast with no sound. Then wait for the Flo Marching icon to come up that says: click to unmute. Yea- that's right- I want to watch a corps show with no sound. And the icon has the Flo Marching sign on it- so the problem can't be at my end. 2) or the video and sound will go blank for about a minute. Then the Flo icon: click to unmute will come up. Click on it and about 30 seconds later the telecast will come up. Of course, if you were watching the multi-cam, you may now be in high cam, or visa versa!! It originally started out with maybe one corps per telecast (never their commercials of course!!) over the summer it has been increasing to now it is about every other corps. If it is a bug in their new system- gees- you have had over a month try and fix it. How about sending out a text or E-mail to your customers explaining that there may be a problem and you are trying to fix it. I have contacted Flo Marching twice about this. All I get back from them is a form E-mail saying this is the equipment that we recommend for the best experience in watching our telecasts. Which we have. No addressing the problem at hand. Any ideas out there? Very frustrating.
  9. OK- Mr. Old-ie Mold-ie here 1973- when the Boston Crusaders were on the field, a MAJOR re-build year for them, one kid sat behind me and boooded though out their gutsy performance. When I asked him to be quiet and enjoy what those kids who were working their rears off were doing on the field, this *^$%#@@ kid said- they are finished, they should just fold and give it up. I would like to see what he says now----- 1973- the Bleu Raiders were having a difficult year after making finals in 1972. The parents in the stands during their prelims performance screamed at the top of their lungs for everything- oh my god- look at the perfect right turn- I have never seen such a perfect skip- you are beautiful Jenny!!!!!!!!!! OK- you are trying to hype the performance, but gees----- my ears hurt---- 1977- I corps that I was a guard instructor with a corps that was performing at Class A championships. A kid behind be screamed sarcastic remarks about everything my corps did. When I asked him to please be quiet, he told me- I hate every corps west of the Mississippi and want all of them to fail. Of course, the corps that he was in did not make the finals like my corps. 1977- the old days when we could line up outside of the stadium at three in the morning for DCI prelims and bond with other drum corps crazies- i.e.- no assigned seats- a couple sat behind us and told us that everybody needs to be seated as they did not want to have their view obstructed during every corps performance. Of course, everyone around us stood up and applauded every corps, with those two people screaming out at the top of their lungs- DOWN IN FRONT PLEASE!!!! Gees- get off of your fat rear ends and stand up and applaud what the kids are doing out there. Literally this was for every corps at prelims. OK- enough #####ing for now. We live in Puerto Vallarta and we need to get our villa ready for the hurricane that is going to hit us soon. Hasta luego amigos!!!
  10. Here's one more about the Flo telecasts. Previous years, we had problems with what we call sticking of the telecasts- picture and audio fine for a few minutes, and then stopping for 1-2 minutes, no matter what we did. This year, the first three telecasts- no problem at all. Great quality video and audio with no interruptions. Even one telecast (Rose Bowl) was at our villa in Puerto Vallarta- during a tropical rain storm- our satellite rigged up to a palm tree- using an old Dell lap top. We thought- great, Flomarching has fixed the problem. Well--- we get back to the United States. The last two telecasts, using the same computer that we used for the first two telecasts and the same internet- now we have big problems with the video. Basically the picture is stopping every 3 seconds now for about 5 seconds. We found that if we paused the telecast right before the drum major's salute for about 2 minutes, we got great video until the last minute of the show, then back to the stopping every three seconds. Nothing like getting into the Bluecoats show and then having it stop the last minute every 3 seconds. The other weird thing now, is that all of the male voices sound like Mickey Mouse after he sucked on a helium balloon. Women's voices are normal, the drum corps sound normal. Anyone else having this problem?
  11. One word about buying the 1973 DCI DVDs- YES!!!!!! For what Scott Gordon had to work with- the video and sound quality is excellent. Watching these DVD's brought back a lot of good memories of DCI in Whitewater- going from practice field to practice field by the stadium and watching all of the big wigs rehearse- sitting with a lot of drum corps nuts in the middle of the Argonne Rebels horn arch between two buildings and watching Sandra Opie bring out that incredible horn sound that they had. Peeled the skin off of our faces. Watching the Blue Stars guard practicing, and then going to the next field and watching the Bridgemen rifles practice their work on the 50 to look like one. I forgot how great the corps were that year. SCV- a monster on excellence on the field. Trooper's rifles were to die for. I forgot about the quality of the Blue Stars show that year (I was sitting with a bunch of Madison alumni at the show- so we were rooting for the Scouts to overtake the Stars.) 1973 Madison- the year they developed that balls to the wall horn line. The Kingsmen opening guard work is worth the price of the DVDs alone- WOW!! Muchachos rifle work was great. And of course- the Commodores- I really miss shows like this that they put out onto the field with JIM Ott's horn line and arrangements, and seeing a young Bonnie Ott and her fantastic solos. I marched with Bonnie in the 2008 Renegades- and that woman is still fantastic. I have watched the 1973 Finals DVDs a lot more than the 2014 Blu-rays. It is also interesting- as they have the full retreat and scores on the DVDs. The scores seem like an afterthought- corps come on the field- they read the scores quickly- and then get them off the field. So yes- I say buy the 1973 DVDs- along with the 1972 DCI finals. It is really a miracle that these tapes survived like they did. We have lost a lot of great shows from the past- as we did not think to record them, or the tapes have degenerated or disappeared. It is great that we have someone like Scott Gordon to preserve these fantastic shows from the past so that they can live forever. I can't wait to see what else he and Steve Vickers have in store for us old die-hard fans!
  12. Hey Gang- For us out of town members- is there a cheap motel near the practice site- some guard members need to stay at one Saturday PM. Thanks!! Dr. Guardamn
  13. Hey- For all of the ex-RCR members (including myself) that were at the camp last weekend and joining up with the Renegades- maybe the show (or Act IV) should be called Eulogy For A White Chef's Jacket. By the way- the guard work for Act I looks great already!! Alisha- are you going to be joining us this year?? Miss ya
  14. Hey fellow RCR gang-- Hey- about about going 4 hours out of your way and coming up to Butte Meadows and picking me up for the open house so that I can check out the guard. I'll even provide the beer for the drum line- no wait- I don't have THAT much money!! Miss you guys- hope that we can all be on the field in black this year!!
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