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They're way ahead of where they were at this point in time last year.

No more easy shows. No more nostalgia. They need to be aggressive and competitive with NEW music.

I guess the tragedy in Waukesha on Sunday should hit deep for all of us. We all marched in a Christmas parade with our High School bands. 40 years ago drum corps were regularly in Christmas parades to. I hope that people are not afraid to march in the streets to entertain the people after this horrible event. Please keep the people of Waukesa in your prayers, or if you do not pray think a good thought for them. Please keep this non political.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

They are custom-made 3 valve G bugles hand made by the Horn Doctor (https://www.coolisbac.com/). And yeah he got all the tooling from Kanstul. B.A.C stands for Best American Craftsmen.

For those with concerns about Center Parc Stadium / DCI Southeast: The area surrounding the stadium is rapidly being developed, with multiple student and luxury housing developments going up in the past few years. There's street-level retail and restaurants now, with a new Publix going in next year and basically continual construction and streetscape improvements. https://summerhillatl.com/ https://reporternewspapers.net/2021/07/01/rediscovering-summerhill-community-is-undergoing-a-dramatic-renaissance-after-decades-of-being-ignored/ I'll avoid getting into the politics of gentrification since this isn't the place, but the bottom line is that this area is massively different from what it was when any of you would have last visited for a Braves game in 2016. The stadium itself has undergone a lot of improvements. And while it's true there's much to be done still, the field is excellent artificial turf, there's good sight lines from the entire home side (if a bit low in the 100-level), there's ample concourse space, and there's plenty of room for lot activities. Listed "capacity" is in the neighborhood of 24,000-25,000, but that's a figure for the lower bowl. Close off the visitors sideline + end zones and open the 400 level, and the figure is likely still about the same. Big images below, so I hid them to avoid taking up a ton of forum space. Click the "spoiler" to expand.

I’m not interested anymore. The email that we received from this Megan person was pretty offensive. Very elitist. Give us more money $500 to friends of DCI and we’ll put you at the end of the list. You’ll take what what we give you. Screw that. I marched, my kid marched, volunteered, Jim taught, gave tens of thousands of dollars to individual drum corps through donations and sponsorship of members. I’m not giving DCI any money. Their Human Resources is terrible. That’s not how you deal with people. I’ll probably buy the flomarching crap. I have my sofa, a big tv, I’m close to the bathroom, no one is going to steal my seat, but most importantly, I have the mute button.

Fuller analysis to come soon like I've done each year since 2018...some quick stats Average # of shows (including day 1 at Indy) is 21 down from 26 (2018) and 25 (2019, 2020) On average, corps decreased by 4 shows from 2020 Bluecoats decreased the most at -8 Just 1 corps (The Cadets) increased from 2020 to 2022

Holey moley....that's a terrible way to attempt to improve your brand. Good on you, Terri.

Give us more $$$$ not that it will help eh? Sounds like when my one college started sending multiple donation requests each year. Told them “send me ONE a year or I’m done donating, your choice”. Yep days “of you owe us so fork out” is over.

I just want to see Phantom do as well as possible competitively while holding onto the powerful classical music grounding.

Your point could not be more clear. Blue Devils are rehashing 2006 next year.

I hate it,too. But I keep my head on a swivel everywhere. Even down here in Hooterville.

How far have we fallen to where we need to find a solution for cars plowing people over in a parade. Is it too much to ask to live in a high trust society?

That’s true but some of the storms…. 😳. We really get lightning down here. Plus, I have tropical forest all around me. You wouldn’t believe how many layers of surge protection are on this house. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I’m preparing my first turkey ever with 75 degrees weather outside. It should really be weird grilling ribeyes on Christmas Day. 😂

It’s nice to know that the area around the Braves’ old stadium is better than what it once was. Unfortunately, as others have stated, I don’t think I’ll be making the trip to ATL this year. If I’m going to book a flight to see a show, I need the possibility of a rainout to be at just about 0%. And from my days living in that part of the country, I know just how rainy summers in the south usually are. I’ll definitely be watching on Flo though.

Current student went to Spirit's camp this past weekend... anxiously waiting to see how it was! 🙂 Great kid.

Honestly, I was placating Jim. He wanted to go. I’m having fun down here seeing the state of Florida. So much to see. I’m not interested in going to Indianapolis. But, I was being a trooper and said okay, we’ll go. So thank you, Megan, whoever you are.

I've always felt that DCI was "tone-deaf". (all pun intended) They continually "shoot their self in the foot".

With my blunt ways (getting worse as I get older 😬) I’d send a copy of the email to DCI with “remove me from all mailing lists INCLUDING DONATIONS, the enclosed email explains why”. Friend felt an organization wasn’t doing what they were supposed to with a HC family member. She almost sent the yearly pledge card with $0 back but it got worked out (so far).

I buy tickets for plays, concerts, sporting events….never have I gotten an email like that. For a music based organization, they’re amazingly tone deaf. She did me a favor.

I never heard of him either but I only listen to Sirius classic vinyl or classic rewind in the car.

Didn’t they do a show about the olfactory? No, wait, I think that was Blue Stars.

I didn’t want this takedown to get lost amongst your informative post. So brutal. So deserved.

The interesting thing here is that the Crossmen actually did this once already. Look at the uniforms with the 4 triangles around 96-97. Its not widely known, but the Crossmen's decision to go with that was a direct result of wanting to distance ourselves from the Maltese Cross. In fact, I remember Jim Coates (Crossmen's director at the time) stating that they did this as a result of wanting to distance ourselves from Nazi symbolism. I mention him by name because I distinctly remember that he was the one that said it. I don't know who else in the admin at the time agreed or disagreed. This was around the time that YEA! took over the corps, so Hopkins might also have had a hand in this (can't confirm this though). My own opinion is that the Maltese Cross is not a Nazi symbol. Germany, going back to the days when they called themselves Prussia, used the symbol extensively For that matter, modern-day Germany continues to use it, especially for their military. Honestly, most folks these days don't even think of Germany (Nazi or not) when they see that symbol. If I've ever worn something in public with the Maltese Cross on it, (and no text) people tend to think I'm a biker. If they do this, I think the same thing will happen as back in the 90s; they'll eventually go back. We have too much history with that symbol to just give it up. kcpack - Xmen 93-96

We certainly killed the "concert" era with it!

Hope the weather is swinging more to your liking. If you see him, tell Arnold Ziffel I said hello

I’ll see your Zack Galifanakis and raise you a Dianne Wiest.

I liked the Dome and location. I'm not discerning enough to get upset over indoor drum corps. And when travel and a hotel stay is required, I don't want the chance of ugly weather.

There was a Bottle Tree in the new Ghostbusters movie. It was in the background a few times. The bottles were hanging not slipped onto the branches, but still made me say out loud, “hey it’s a bottle tree”.

i'll buffer through Flo and Rocket Mortgage

I bet they have notes of diesel, sunscreen, Gatorade and BO.

Ditto, I'm a PR donor merely for the long time respect and admiration I have for the organization. Having been lucky enough to compete against them many times BITD, they always just seem to ooze the whole meaning of drum corps and that has been reflected in their membership, staff and support teams.

Perhaps the point of the candle is when it's lit, you can look "Into the Light."

They were barn finds! The American Pickers guys found them in an old shed in Rockingham, MA, along with a 1967 VW Variant and two Plymouth Satellites that had under 100 miles on the clock. Jalopnik is going to add a drum corps section to their barn finds because of this.

I'm just glad that they didn't make one called "Bus 2 Funk."

As long as it smells like OFF and freshly mowed grass I’m in!

Here's the winner of last night's BOA Grand Nationals with a record score of 98.25

Yeah, I’m really curious how they would’ve fared. (I’ve often wondered the same about my kid’s band, Reagan, in 2019. They edged out Vandergrift in SA but it wasn’t a planned Indy year for them either.)

DCI please come to Atlanta! Please , please, please...

Grandpa took him out and then took his bling.

A memorable day was a show near St. Louis, before Tennessee. I had pulled my hamstring repping the percussion feature dance the day before in Enid, OK. I could have sat out, but I didn't. To show you the mood of the corps at this point - during basics block, the staff was really hammering us. Continuous box drill at 196 bpm. One of our 4 year vets put his horn down and said "This is ####### stupid!" in the middle of the exercise. I ended up taking some perscription painkillers another guy in the section had, and powering through. That night's show was the first time I did the new ending drill right, and seeing my tech jump for joy on the track gave me a huge sense of accomplishment. At Atlanta, we were getting ready to go on - Crown or BK were performing - and the Georgia Dome broke! Anyone remember this? The end of the season was really sour. I got in a fight with my section because some of them were catcalling a high school girl as we walked back to the buses in uniform. Hop got into a screaming match with a trumpet player in the shower before the Massillon show. The next day in Allentown, he and Marc Sylvester had it out, yelling at each other behind the food truck. That day was also a full rehearsal day in J Birney Crum, and I sweated more than any time in my life - Allentown in early August. It was so humid that night that the air was a haze, we couldn't see the press box from the field. It was the first time I really felt like I did everything right in the show, and it was a massive feeling of accomplishment. The constant of the last few weeks of the season was Hop telling us that we weren't trying enough, that we were "giving up out there," and we just needed to perform better. Even though Hop said we rehearsed like crap and weren't trying, Giants Stadium was a good show. Music is Cool and it being the home show gave us bit more time, which I used to shovel brisket and sweet potatoes into my body (one of Hop's wonderful chums from the YEA board made some great food). I realized that the quality of my performance was mainly based on how much I could manage to eat that day. I had gone from 185 pounds to 150 in 2 1/2 months. Madison was fine. Our housing site was way west of Baraboo, so it was a long ride to the stadium. We rehearsed until 11pm in the rain the night before quarterfinals, for some reason. Quarterfinals was bad, Semifinals was good. Zero crowd response. People said ###### things to my mom in the stands because she had a Cadets shirt and they didn't like our show. On finals day, Hop told us he would take the "Mad Tea Party" and ballad of our show over any other drum corps show ever. Okay. Bluecoats beat us in finals by a tenth. No one really cared. Coats were jerks about it. I didn't march my age out. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk

My arch nemesis may have had one but I never got a clear look before he shot me down.

The winter was kinda weird. There seeemed to be a lack of focus. The design "evolved," but a lot of it was wild ideas that were total dead ends. For example, at one point the lot warmup was supposed to be an integral part of the show. Another camp, we were given brass parts to go with the percussion feature, which we learned, cleaned, and then never talked about again. We spent an enormous amount of time working on encore/extra tunes (Back to the Future theme, Flintstones theme, Sing Sing Sing, some Beatles medley). Hop and Marc Sylvester explained the show, but it really did come across like a bunch of weird ideas rather than a coherent package. We were told we would not be wearing the traditional uniform, and also told that it was dumb to want to wear it. In general, George was dismissive of almost all traditions. We also spent a few nights at winter camps doing the famous "Hop Talks" late into the night. I believe a fuller accounting of Hopkins' activities that offseason can be found in the Lehigh County court records. We did Spring Training at West Virginia Wesleyan University, which is really in the middle of nowhere. It was okay, but the quality of the fields was poor, and the 20 minute walk between the food truck and fields really cut into productivity. Time wasn't spent efficiently - We once spent an entire evening block learning and practicing a more balletic, toe-first movement style... and never talked about it again. We also had events such as a local parade, the Bunker Hill parade in Boston, and a YEA concert in Allentown (the video posted earlier with us on a stage is from that). One thing that started happening, and didn't really ever stop happening, was injuries. I remember one veteran trumpet player whose knee swelled up so badly it had to be drained with a needle at a hospital (he did not complete spring training). Hop's response to injuries was to blame us for getting fat in the offseason. In general, there was a lack of urgency in spring training. Half the hornline hadn't memorized the music before coming. There was increasing tension between veterans and rookies, and a bit of a culture clash with the large contingent of members who had come from Magic of Orlando. We got fitted in our uniforms, but the psychedlic-patterned panels for our backs were delayed. They ended up being the exact same uniform backs from 2005 with the psychedelic patterns sewn over them, which made them attach to the velcro poorly and look bad (worse than they already did).

I marched Cadets in 2006, if the last posts didn't make that clear. "Sometimes you learn more from a bad year than a good one." -George Hopkins "You've all heard the horror stories about The Cadets. You've probably realized now that many of them are true." -Our horn sargeant It was definitely a weird year. Weird doesn't always mean bad, but you can be weird and bad at the same time! The year before, I had marched Capital Regiment (see my posts in the 2004 and 2005 threads). Cap Reg was basically trying to be Cadets on a budget (emphasis on budget), with Jay Bocook arrangements, Jeff Sacktig drill, and our brass and most of the visual staff were Cadets alums. When I got absolutely sick of Cap Reg, about in the middle of the season, I decided to march either Cadets or Phantom. As one of our visual techs said to the whole corps right after our semifinals show, "If you can survive this, you can march anywhere." There were 5 or 6 of us from the hornline who went to Cadets auditions. I absolutely aced the marching portion of the audition, but I got really nervous and did a terrible job on my music audition for Gino Cipriani. I am a bassoonist, not a tuba player. Fortunately, the 2004 Cap Reg brass caption head, Chad Pence, was the tuba tech, so he knew that I would stick it out and I got a contract the first camp. Gino told me at the end of the camp that I would get a contract, and asked if I was "committed." I said, "Yes, I can make the financial commitment," to which he replied, "No, I mean spiritually." That was that, I didn't even go to the Phantom auditions. The YEA combined Cadets/Crossmen audition camp was kindof odd - maybe 70 brass total showed up. You would assume that after 2005, people would be flocking to Cadets, but if anything the opposite seemed true. Something very important to understand about 2005 Cadets was that they were extremely stacked in terms of experience - a lot of 3 or 4 year vets. Many many of them aged out, and some just elected to end their marching careers at the top - who can blame them? We had about 70 rookies (some with experience at different corps). For a comparison, the 2005 tuba section had 7 Cadets vets out of 10; 2006 had 2. The whole winter was a revolving door in our section; I think maybe 5-6 of us went to every camp. From a design standpoint, the 2006 Cadets show - especially as originally conceived - was a stunning monument to hubris. The opening music was "History Repeating," by The Propellorheads, which was sung by Amy, our special vocalist. As the pit and Amy played History Repeating, the hornline marched the END of the 2005 show, silently, at 192 bpm. The pit was playing at 144 bpm, so for every 2 beats for the pit there were 3 for us (I think?). We went off the DM's hands and designated "dut-ers" only. If that sounds very hard, it is! The idea, as Marc Sylvester explained, was for it to be cinematic, like credits music over a "Last time on... The Zone" recap of the end of 2005, before we plunged back into the madness. The message, as explained to us, was "In 1983, we redefined the whole activity of drum corps. Now, we're doing it again. History repeating." Did you get that from the show as audience members? Then, you have "White Rabbit," as the girl from 2005 is transformed into Alice in wonderland. That piece melded into music from the "Pollock" soundtrack, and then another accelerando into the opener proper, which we called "The Garden," supposed to be Alice discovering the psychedelic wonderland. Pollock had very exposed antiphonal entrances that took forever to clean. As The Garden began, giant black screens arranged into an arc behind the back hash turned in a ripple to reveal psychedelic designs. As far as the hornline was concerned, the rest of the opener was good ol' run and gun. Physically, it was pretty brutal - we did the end of 2005 drill silently, waited for Alice to ring the doorbell, and then it was constant drill for White Rabbit, Pollock, and The Garden. If you compare 2005 to 2006, Liquid in 2005 was, as the name suggests, very flowing drill, while The Garden had a ton of very sharp and hard direction changes. Difficulty was high. There were a lot of what I would call "representational" drill forms, carrying over from 2005 - remember the umbrella, faucet, and fish in Liquid? At the end of The Garden we made a big eyeball that morphed into a keyhole (for the door, you see). Another departure from orthodoxy, which has now become commonplace, was that the music and movement in the entire show never stopped, but blended into the next piece. We never ran around, stopped, played a long chord, put our horns down and enjoyed the crowd reaction - at the end of The Garden, we played a closing chord, then turned backfield to "fade out" as the pit came in. This is like really long

We're veering way OT here, but since it happened, I gotta say...that's impressive. I've never really watched much of marching band competitions. Obviously, I've missed out on quite a bit. How on earth do get that many high school kids to perform at such a high level? BITD, the only even semi-talented kids were all already in drum corps. Everyone else pretty much ....well, sucked. Even the woodwinds here were (dare I say) enjoyable.

THREE shows in the DFW Metroplex! This actually makes sense as this area is absolutely saturated with excellent high school band programs!

https://cadets.org/ron-lambert-named-director-cadets-0 RON LAMBERT NAMED DIRECTOR OF THE CADETS CORPS NEWS/ NOVEMBER 05, 2021 As the start of the 2022 season approaches, Cadets Arts & Entertainment (CAE) is thrilled to announce the promotion of Ron Lambert to Director of The Cadets. Ron has a long history of dedication and excellence as a music educator. For 37 years, he has served as a member, instructor, designer, and administrator throughout the drum corps community. "Ron joined The Cadets family as Assistant Director in the fall of 2019 and has proven to be an exceptional leader and educator," said CEO Denise Bonfiglio. "Ron and I were partners throughout the 2020/2021 season, and we worked together to ensure that The Cadets stayed healthy, supported the dreams and expectations of our 2021 performers, and delivered a program that had deep roots to The Cadets and the drum corps community. I look forward to working together for many years to come," she said. Denise served as Director of The Cadets from October 2019 to November 2021, and she remains the leader of The Cadets organization. With Ron's promotion, Denise will serve exclusively as the Chief Executive Officer for Cadets Arts & Entertainment, working closely with the Corps Director, Board of Directors, and Administrative Staff to ensure a high quality Cadets program. "I couldn't be more honored or excited," Lambert said. "The Cadets has an 87-year legacy of excellence in music education and pageantry performance, and I fully intend to continue that legacy. We are a small but mighty team, and this corps has a bright future ahead." Ron is an alumnus of the Illiana Lancers Drum & Bugle Corps (1984-5) and The Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps Snare Line (1986-9), as well as the University of Illinois Marching Illini. Before coming onboard with The Cadets, he was the Assistant Director of the Boston Crusaders from 2017 to 2019. He recently retired as the Director of Bands at Lakewood Ranch High School in Bradenton, Fla., where he taught from 2004 to 2021. He also previously served as the Director of Athletic Bands Percussion at the University of South Florida from 2000 to 2005. From 2008 to 2012, Ron served as a Director’s Track facilitator at the Music For All/Bands of America Summer Symposium Leadership Camp. He has arranged for marching band programs and drum corps around the country. He is a professional drummer with many recording and touring credits as well as over 25 years of private and curricular education experience. In 2007, Ron co-produced and arranged for the critically acclaimed touring and off-Broadway musical,  BattleDrum . He has been named Lakewood Ranch Teacher of the Year and Fine Arts Teacher of the Year, a Florida Best and Brightest Teacher Scholarship Award recipient (2016 to 2019), and is a GRAMMY nominee, finishing as a Quarterfinalist for the 2017 GRAMMY Educators Award. Ron resides in Apollo Beach, Fla. with his wife, Karyn. He has two children; Jessykka and Brandon; a granddaughter, Zoë; and two cats; Logan and Chadwick.

What I meant was , Jeremy updated a wistfully backward looking show, and he did it very well. Steven, on the other hand, is cutting edge. We will not see a Phantom retrospective from him. Maybe a kick out. Personally, I think that works for PR competitively.