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1956OPR

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  • Your Drum Corps Experience
    1956-1960 original member of Phantom Regiment
  • Your Favorite Corps
    Phantom Regiment; Blessed Sacrament; Holy Name Cadets; Madison Scouts; The Cavaliers; Santa Clara Vanguard
  • Your Favorite All Time Corps Performance (Any)
    2010 Phantom Regiment; 2006 PR; 1996 PR; 1957 Cavaliers; 1957 Holy Name Cadets; 1960 Blessed Sacrament; 1965 Royal Airs; 1988 Madison Scouts
  • Your Favorite Drum Corps Season
    1956
  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Glendale, AZ

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  1. Although I am utilizing the Bluecoat's 2022 program as a framework for my discussion on Narration, I do not wish to have my comments adversely impact the efforts of the MM and most of the staff of this admiral corps for which I have always had great respect. The MM do what they are taught to do. My commentary is directed at the Bluecoat's design team and DCI's tolerance of narration. In another thread in a recent DCI World Class forum, a contributor whose thoughts I respect (Poppycock and his indomitable crew) said about the Bluecoat's 2022 progrqm that " The more I see them, the less I like them ". I agee with their conclusion. His crew may have their own reasons for their conclusions but here is mine : the godawful use of narration. The Blue coat's design team's use of narration is an insult to Drum & Bugle Corps. The DCI judging community's tolerance of narration of the scale and scope used in the Bluecoat's 2022 program is unfathomable. Consider the Bluecoat's program presented at Kent, Ohio on July 2, 2022. First, you have this enormous paper-mache head, and its accoutermonts, planted on the 35 yard line of one quadrant of the field, effectively blocking perhaps one fifth of the field and artificially reducing the demands of field coverage. Second, you have an electronic narration by Lou Reed or Dennis Hopper or Lou Hopper or Dennis Reed or Jack Kerouac or Joe Schmoe rambling on about ?????.. Third, the show at Kent, as viewed on the You Tube presentation took ca. 12 min; I calculated a start time on the YT presentation of 3 minutes, 55 seconds and an finish time of about 14 minutes, 52 seconds. Of that 12 minutes of "Show Time", about 21.7 % of the time was spent on narration, 60.8 % on Music and 17.5 % on Other Stuff. I grant you that, during that 21.7 % of the time spent on narration, there were judgeable movements of parts of the corps but there was little or no music to be judged. So, what to do? One option is to allow drum corps to continue to use (in my judgement, to be corrupted by) narration. Another is to take a stand and say no to any electronic narration on the field. A third is to say yes to narration but your corps will be, e.g., penalized .1 or .5 or 1.0 point (you choose) for every 5 or 10 or 15 seconds (you choose) the corps' designers utilize this technique. In the case of the Bluecoat's Kent, Ohio presentation, they used ca. 156 seconds ( 2.6 minutes) of narration. That might not make any difference in some of their early season competitions (e.g., they beat the Crossmen in Kent by 6.65 points) but come San Antonio and Denton and beyond, it would. To do nothing re this narration intrusion into D&BC competition will resort in a parody or travesty of our beloved marching arts : in a lighter measure, as a parody, t will be a satirical imitation of D&BC competition in the future or, as a travesty, it will become a grotesque imitation. What do you want?
  2. Thank you. I'll try to track that MR episode down.
  3. To our enigmatic friend from Cookeville, to which Chandler are you referring? IN 2005, Scott Chandler was the Blue Devil's Program Coordinator and Color Guard Designer. If it is this Chandler, what do you mean by stating "Chandler helped with that show as well"? How would you know? Were you on BD's Guard staff or on the Regiment's staff in 2005? And what exactly was this "help"? Thank you.
  4. kdaddy. I think the existing admin page is instructive in terms of a plan of succession at this level of the organization. Michael
  5. Re the Regiment, I noticed this morning that the Staff pages @ regiment.org were taken down. Perhaps we are closer to an announcement on the 2020 staff. I will be particularly interested in who is selected as Program Coordinator, who is chosen as Visual Coordinator and who comprises the Visual team.
  6. Rocketman, Thanks for your ongoing contributions to our discussions re the Regiment. Within the context of financial support for our corps, one of your suggestions has been to move from Rockford. I have also thought about a change of address but in terms of settling in a city/area which might be closer to our prospective MMs. I may be wrong but I believe the majority of our MMs come from Texas or the southeast, primarily Georgia. Does this make any sense to you? If you had to choose from among Denton, TX, Athens, GA, Rome, GA, Bloomington, IN, Louisville, KY, Oklahoma City, OK, Norman, OK, Columbia, SC and Knoxville, TN, would you have a preference or alternate choices? I suggested these choices because each is closer to where many of our MMs may be and because most of these choices host major universities with schools of music. Would appreciate your insight after you have had a chance to absorb the coming staff change announcements. SUTA, Michael .
  7. Interestingly, Alex Haddad (who started our corps after resigning as the Director of the St. Thomas Crusaders DBC - the "band" of the all-male high school in Rockford operated by the Augustinian order with an all-female guard drawn from the all-girl school nearby, Bishop Muldoon) originally chose Rockford Rangers as the corps' name. The Rangers was a reference to Rockford's image as the Forest City because of the proliferation of elm trees throughout the city. The all-female guard (which included Mr. Haddad's 2 daughters) was to be known as the Rangerettes. Some members of the new corps thought outside the box and approached Mr. Haddad with the name Phantom Regiment. The story is that Mike Gallagher and Jim Wren were listening to DBC recordings and discovered a Leroy Anderson song called "The Phantom Regiment" played by the Syracuse Brigadiers. . Alex agreed, the corps became Phantom Regiment and the guard became the Phantomettes.
  8. In 1963, the Regiment was an all-male corps, including the CG. In 1964, the Regiment converted to its original standard of a male and female corps with a return of the Phantomettes. As an aside, in one of our early years (between 1956 & 1960) a few MMs formed an all-male Color Guard and competed on the winter guard circuit; we called ourselves the Raiders; we lasted one year. These days, the Regiment's CG includes males and they are called Raiders.
  9. I would like the Regiment to do this show : A Classical Tribute to Marian Armato. In 1959, Ms Armato, a classically trained pianist, joined the Regiment as Brass Arranger. Among her arrangements that year were Chopin's Polonais and Un Bel Di. The seeds of a classical music emphasis were planted and, when Jim Wren became the Regiment's brass arranger in 1968, he nourished and grew that tradition. Ms Armato was always warm and friendly as well as a wonderfully patient person and teacher. My understanding is that, after getting married, she and he moved to Denver and at some point was involved with the Blue Knights. If anyone associated with BK can confirm or deny this connection, please let me know. I learned during my trip to the "19 finals that she has passed. ACTtMA would incorporate a program of classical piano music as a tribute and in her memory. P.S. When married Ms Armato became Mrs. Newcomer.
  10. Ghost, I was there in "65 when the Royal-Airs won the VFW title. It remains one of my favorite shows of all time. My recollection is that it was held indoors because the scheduled venue, Soldier's Field, was flooded. What I do not recall is where the semifinals were held. Do you? Michael
  11. x, Thank you for your commentaries throughout these forums on judging. Your comments above triggered these thoughts. What other captions or subcaptions besides Guard lend themselves to a strictly subjective evaluation of performance/content? Has the DCI judging community ever considered having separate judges for Content and Achievement sub-captions? For example, in the GE caption, have 1 of the 2 GE 1 judges assess only Content and the other only Achievement.
  12. Hello all! On Friday, I will be in Section 242, Row 10 and on Saturday in Section 141, Row 15. First time @ Indy so I am not real familiar with LOS but my understanding is that both sections are where the Regiment contingent will be. Too bad we will not have DCP placards with our code names on it. Have a great time and GO Regiment and Bloo. Michael
  13. WHOOPS1 SHOULD HAVE POSTED THIS IN "OIL CAN" FORUM. SORRY. On Friday, I will be in Section 242 Row 10 and on Saturday in Section 141 Row 15. This is my first visit to LOS so I'm not sure where these sections are but my understanding is that each will likely be filled with Regiment phans. So just yell out "Where's OPR1956?" Hope everyone has a great time and finds new friends. On Saturday, GO Regiment and Bloo. Michael
  14. When trying to assess a corps' success, I tend to focus on it's relative position in the major Captions. As of Aug 4, the top 4 ranked corps in GE are, respectfully, Blue, BD, SCV and CC. The top 4 in VIS are BD, Blue, CC and SCV. The top 4 in Mus are CC, Blue, SCV and BD. I went back to the championship results for the last 15 years, 2004-2018, to determine what the DCI medalist's placings in these 3 major Captions might suggest. Of the 15 DCI champions, 6 placed 1st in all 3 Captions ( "05 Cadets, "07 BD, "10 BD, "12 BD, "14 BD and "18 SCV. 6 placed 1st in 2 of the 3 Captions ( 06 Cavs : GE & Vis , "09 BD : GE & Vis, "11 Cadets : GE & Mus, "15 BD : Vis & Mus, "16 Blue : GE & Mus and "17 BD : GE & Vis. 3 champions placed 1st in "only" 1 of the 3 Captions ( "04 Cavs : GE, "08 PR : Mus and CC "13 : GE ) In these 3 cases, the Cavs and PR were 2nd in the other 2 Captions; CC was 2nd in Vis and 3rd in Mus. I forecast a 2019 finish of 1. Blue, 2. BD, 3. CC and 4. SCV. If BD wins, I will stand and cheer for Los Diablos and salute them once again for their excellence.
  15. CC, when the Cavaliers were at the Mesa, AZ show on July 1, they were sharing a souvenir stand with the Vanguard. The vendor there told me that was the plan for the '19 tour.. Maybe there is a Vanguard souvenir stand in Buffalo and they have the Cavalier gear. I recommend the gray show title tee with the Cavalier symbol on the back.
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