ccarriero

True. When I joined the Shoreliners, I was a concert horn player. I knew nothing about marching and my style of playing was entirely different. They took me and others and taught us. It was entirely different way of learning how to play and to involve movement. To me, and others I have talked with, this was a true youth organization. Take kids who have an interest, not a lot knowledge, talent, or experience, but have a desire to learn and grow and teach them. While kids in DC, now, do have a desire to learn and grow, they come in with talent, knowledge and experience. Plus, all this travel to march a certain corps is crazy expensive. Bring back the local model. Grow Open Class. You can get the same numbers as some of the World Class corps today. Just my opinion C.

In 1974, when I joined the Shoreliners, there was no audition. I just showed up, told then I knew how to play a concert baritone and I was in. We practiced on Weds starting in early October from 7 - 10. The reheasals were held in the city couthouse. We would have to move all the chairs for reheasal and then put them back at the end. We had to be careful with the place, so no spit from the spit valves on the floor. After Christmas, we started drill rehearsals on Monday evenings at Yale University's indoor sports training facility. There was no heat in the place and it had a dirt floor. Occassionally, we would have to sprinkle the floor with water to prevent the dirt clouds from forming. During the winter, it was extremely cold in there, but there was no snow so we could practice M&M and start work on the drill. As April came, we increased the horn and drum rehearsals to Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Then, drill rehearsals moved outside to a parking lot behind the Stop and Shop on Mondays from 7 - 10. We had to stop at 10 because of noise ordinances. By May, we were practicing on Saturdays outside. If it was raining, our horn rehearsal moved under the bridge by the parking lot. We would also practice during the week. We started our season over Memorial Day weekend with a few parades (had to make some money) and a competition. We traveled with 3 old school buses painted in the corps colors. We had one truck for our equipment and uniforms. The start of the season, we didn't travel very far from home base, so you would come home in the evening. As the season progressed, we started overnight trips on weekends. Occassionally, there were long weekends. When we were going on a tour of 2 weeks, we had to pay $200. But since there were no dues to join the corps (you had to sell 10 raffle tickets a month), it was affordable. I don't remember anyone not being able to come because of money (that may be because the management figured out a way to help those individuals). Just like today, we slept on gym floors. We ate food that was okay. The season ended on Labor Day weekend. There were always a few holes that weekend because some folks were away at college. We would always take September off, but we were itching to start the new year. C.

It has to be Star's Medusa show (1993???). To me, it took drum corps to an entirely different level without changing the medium. It pushed the limits.

I would tend to think rifle lines have less demanding work now, with regard to the equipment use. You rarely see long term spinning of the rifles. There also use to be a double time spin. It was very exciting because it was so fast. No longer see it done. Reason: It's very difficult to maintain the speed. Just look at the rifle line of 27. If they were able to combine todays movement with the clean, demanding equipment work they did, it would have been even more incredible.

Not counting the MBI Show in mid-August, 3 DCI shows in MN.

DCI posted 4 PM start. Is that Central or Pacific time?????

I wrote to DCI two days ago, but it's still not corrected. What's with that?

I just noticed. Pacific Crest is not even listed. That's strange.

Thanks for the help. I'll keep an eye on the web sites to see when camps will be taking place for him.

Recently, I took my nephew to his first drum corps competition. He loved it. He is now expressing interest in joining a color guard. He is 11 going on 12. In Minneapolis, where can he start? Where can he learn? I would not want to throw him right into Drum Corps.

I was in Stillwater last night. Stillwater is traditionally a very PRO Scouts town. That being said... There were very few boos when the score for Scouts was announced. While I enjoyed the Scouts, truthfully, SW and PC were better. Scouts have a lot of work ahead of them. While Scouts have a difficult program, there were significant problems. DO NOT FLAME. It was obvious to me what was wrong. One thing I did notice... I was at the Mankato show the night before and Madison changed some things from the night before. And, the changes were for the better. I'm looking forward to seeing the changes over the next month.

Colts new unis were very effective in creating a wow factor in the stands. People all around us in the stands loved them.

Tickets say 7:30.

Not sure if all you CT Alumni remember Dennis Banks, but he was one of my favorite instructors. My dad, who worked with him for years, informed me he died yesterday at age 58. He taught Hurcs, Shoreliners, Bengal Lancers... I think there were more. Lately he's been working with marching bands and a Bridgeport based corps. He will be missed. C.

I remember back in 1977 Milford Shoreliners we combined form drills with hitting your mark on a yard line by a certain spot in the music.