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Maybe he was just jealous that the bands were getting more applause than the football teams.

Troopers - Blue Stars 2009

None. Ever. Let the classics be classic.

And that's all good in the world that lives in your head. You are better off starting something new...without capital...than you are with an idea to alter the course of a 40 year old business model. And it's more than just capital, so I'll grant you that. I could come to DCI with $250M and buy the whole thing, but I don't believe it would be a wise expendature on my part. And neither did Bill Cook after he walked away from DCI. So, I think two guys in a garage have a better shot at developing something new and big than reforming a not for profit or a series of not-for profit. Too many stakeholders to appease. Much of the effort will be fighting intangibles and political/emotional objections rather than those formed from logic. In short, too many people to please or move out of the way. What you suggest is not impossible, but the core (all puns intended) has to be rigid, solid, set in stone, unwavering in order to build. New Co. has to have the blessing of 4-5 current organizations' hierarchy to work. Jettison one...perhaps, but if two move out...decide their cost to benefit ratio isn't exciting enough and the house starts to collapse. Then, the whole thing could end up worse than the early 1990s of DCI...its toughest era to date. I get it. You have time to dream and be creative. That's terrific. And if you have the ear of the DMs near the center of this entity...good for you. I just haven't seen your ideas in any format where I go, "Eureka!" And without that...without the "It's made of stars!" moment...I'll pass. But keep formulating. There may be that golden nugget in there...in all of this. So far, not seeing it. And New Co. could be "The City of Indianapolis." They have as much large convention, special events, etc. experience than most cities their size. Most likely tons of expertise to leverage with them.

My soprano player is showing. . . 1981. . . jazz. . . screaming. . . awesome! :worthy: Favorite one to arrange? 2002. . . though I have this feeling that 2012 is going to replace that vote shortly.

It probably would never happen but I'd love to see Madison do Jesus Christ Superstar again. Imagine what their current design team could do with that!

That looks calculated to me, he jumps to his right to catch the marching member. Totally uncalled for.

Blue Knights = Triticco

Don't shoot me, but I always loved BD's "Tommy" show. The horns were just awesome all show long, particularly during that ending.

Club Blue: A Gangster Chronicle

Thanks for the kind words everybody. And it's okay to laugh, if you don't have laughter in your life than you are taking it too seriously! Joe Stork

Some of this has been said, but here's my list: - Lots of socks, and some more socks. - 2 pairs of shoes, for those mud pit fields that will leave you cherishing your second pair of shoes. Make sure you break them both in and give them both equal wear-time during move-ins. - A hat you will be able to live with. Make sure you wash it on laundry days... But also make sure you don't dry it if it has plastic keeping its shape, as it could mess it up a little. - Fewer shirts and shorts than you think you will need. You can wash them in the shower with a little bit of your soap and they'll be fine. It's drum corps, no one cares. - Purex 3-in-1s & quarters. Keep a couple on the bus all the time to: make sure you never forget one from the gym, and to keep things smelling fresh. - Febreze! Your uniform may not get washed as much as you would like. It can smell pretty... musky. Also good for keeping clothes/blankets/everything smelling a little better, yet still smelling bad. - Bungee cords - you treasure the space above your head to keep things like gatorade, under armour after shows, towels drying, anything. I hung a pouch type thing last summer to store things like my phone, DCT, headphones. - Suction cup holder for windows - some buses allow this, and you can also keep phone and all those good things there. - DCT/chop saver - Your lips are your life in drum corps. - Ziplock Bags. You never know when you will need them, but trust me, you will. I use them to keep shirts I buy from the souvie stand away from all of my other clothes, so they don't smell or anything. - Ibuprofen/pain killers - you will want some during move-ins most likely. - Sweatshirt & athletic pants - it can get cold/rainy at rehearsals sometimes, and the bus is likely going to be cold. Also for nights your sleeping area is colder than a freezer. - Shower sandals & microfiber towel - microfiber towels are so great, and they dry very fast. - Toiletries, shower stuff - self explanatory (please don't be the person who forgets to wear deodorant) - Nail clippers - You will want these. - Band aids - not really something you absolutely have to get, since the corps should have some in stock. Up to you. - Power strip - make sure your name is on it. - Phone charger - along with the power strip, make sure your name is on it. These can get passed around the corps if you are not careful. Always charge phone at night and try to avoid leaving anything out in the open when you are not in the sleeping area. - Blanket for the bus & sleeping - self explanatory - A couple bus boxes that will fit under your seat - for bus snacks! Oh, and everything else. Always keep a pair of clean gloves and show socks in here!! You will save your own life or someone else's at some point or another if you always do this. - Wright's silver polish (or whatever the corps uses) - keep your horn clean - Small towel for polishing - I have used a little microfiber towel and it works great. But old t-shirts and other cloth-materials work just as well. - Shoe polish - just depends on the corps. - Sun screen & aloe - if you want to not feel like you are in hell and want out during move-ins, use sun screen. Some people stop wearing it after a certain point, others don't. Depends on your skin. You should know what you need, but everyone gets the same amount of sun exposure. Just be smart. Aloe for when you think you don't need sun screen and get inside and feel like an idiot. - Sandals for after shows & for bus - It is nice to get out of shoes, and also you can slip them on when you arrive at a housing site at 4am and not hassle with shoes. Plus bus feet sometimes make shoes difficult to put back on. - Fitted sheet for bus seats - optional, but is nice, and you can wash it to make your seats not smell so bad. - Some nice shorts and shirt - it feels good to feel normal again on laundry days and free days. That's all I can think of right now, I'll add more if I think of it. But right now, focus more on your audition and making it into a corps, rather than what you will need. Good luck!

Whatever level, HS, college or pro, and whatever sport (which seems to have most of the bad behavior people) these incidents always remind me of the saying where you can take the person out of the neighborhood, but you can't take the neighborhood out of the person.

I'd like to see Blue Knights go back to dark music - I know their recent selections are making a lot of people happy, but I've always preferred their darker side. 2006 is one of my favourite years from them.

I was on staff with a corps that was waiting for thier rehearsal time in the stadium when the NIU football team plowed through Capital Regiment. I saw the entire thing, and it was pretty surreal and quite sad. However, seeing NIU players and the coach that was responsible in handcuffs being led away by the campus police was hilarious. If I recall, some of those players were suspended and/or kicked off the team and the coach was fired.

For those who've never heard the originals from New York Voices, the '90 show all comes from the same album - http://www.amazon.com/New-York-Voices/dp/B000W1SAV8/ref=sr_1_4_digr?ie=UTF8&qid=1320353909&sr=8-4 Well worth a purchase if you're a fan at all of vocal jazz. Mike

Cadets2 marketing wagon is in full circle. Everywhere I turn on the WWW and social networking sites I run into a video or recruiting tool. Some other corps need to reconsider the whole stealth thing if they expect to keep up with their marketing.

Now or Never from 1990 is probably one of my favorite DCI moments... yes... it is one big moment. Awesomeness.

Well, I went to school with a horrible football program. Perhaps bad football = good personality? Whatever, this tool from NIU is partly responsible for the huskies' defense giving up 60 points. He won't be going anywhere in football or life.

Total D-Bag move. "We may never know if he intentionally threw his shoulder into the band member on purpose," but anyone with decent vision can clearly see that #6 certainly did nothing to not slam into the bando. Not a surprise, but disappointing none the less...

Wow, when I saw this on Rockford's news last night I was stunned. NIU does it again! Football players in full gear and helmets plowing thru another group of musicians. You would think that after the DCM problem, the Huskies would teach the team not to do it again! Thanks for finding and linking us to the articles from 10 years ago, Mike. I was at NIU the weekend the first event happened and remember that the drum corps kids did a pretty good job of standing up for themselves until several more football team members joined the 'occupation'. It put a big stain on NIU and DCM, with DCM taking the biggest fall (even tho it was the football players and coach that took the legal hits). Miss those competitions at Huskie Stadium, but with episodes like this continuing to happen I doubt if DCI will ever consider going back to the NIU campus.

Id love to see someone try this

Crossmen 1992.

I'm sure that even if I weren't a bando I'd hate football players. So many retards. HH

84 for me....90 a very VERY close 2nd. LOVED "Now or Never" that year...and that was the BEST Xmen uni.

This gun's for hire... even if we're just dancing in the dark.

1992 for me. All around great show, but especially great from the drum break to the end. The horn re-entry after the perc feature makes me smile and feel like I'm floating instead of walking or running.

SCV: "Fiddler on the Roof: the Next Generation....this time with real fiddlers...and real roofs."

'92. Mike

The 2011 Troopers show to me feels a lot like the 1994 show. It's catchy enough at first, but the more you listen to it, the more depth you find in there - and there's a *lot* of technical sophistication lying just beneath the surface. Mike

Yep. Very few Bones shows come close to this.

Agreed, not only a favourite Crossmen Show but a favourite show period.

92 forever and ever Amen.

You see I thought he said Madison 3 times because that's how many times he'd need to watch their 2011 show to actually see a full 12-17 minutes of Drum Corps.... I now realise saying Madison twice should be enough.

Keep them on the field, if for anything, the fun in watching them early season run for their lives like a lion is chasing them.

I believe that Robin Menke from SCV created the fiberglass tenor harness at SCV in the early 70's. It was copied by many corps in that decade. I thought it was so cool that their drums could be folded up (so the drums heads were perpendicular to the ground and close to the player) when they were not playing so as to alleviate the weight distribution of being so forward heavy. Plus their drum lines were close to perferct visually. But when Blue Devils came out in '76 with the North Tenors I fell in love. Their uniforms made the harness completely disappear but the drums must have felt like carring tymps John

Right you are, Frank, but I have heard conflicting stories about who actually fabricated Jim's design idea. One was that someone in the corps or part of the support staff was able to have it made in a metal shop he owned or where he worked. The other was that Jim got in touch with Larry McCormick from Chicago and had him make the harness that he designed. I'm not sure which is the factual account. I do know that both the original timbale harness from 1961 and the original bongo harness from '62 (which I wore in 1966) were both used well into the early 1970's. That year, we added double congas for the first time, and I believe they were also a 'homemade' design, but I couldn't swear to it.

Harnesses were a Godsend, especially for snare drummers. With a sling my right shoulder would go numb at times because the weight wasn't equally distributed. Combine that with a leg rest (what a misnomer) and you have a recipe for physical soreness.

Well, of course it's not zero. But the point is that the savings out-weighs the cost as DCI gains scale.

Yes, that was called "Madison Scouts 2010." :)

Cali sends their corps to the Midwest and East every year at great expense. Please tell us the local shows you like to attend. Perhaps the California corps will make sure not to "bore" you with their pressence. Don't worry, it wont wont affect your attendance numbers because you have your house in order.

Maybe Boston will be treated to a rehearsal at Mars :) That would be cool. Good to see corps coming out west. SF is a beautiful city to visit. Whenever I travel (europe, asia, US), and people hear I'm from the San Francisco area, more often than not the response is that San Francisco was that persons favorite city to visit. I'm sure the kids in Boston will like it just the same. Kids can catch a Giants game, eat oysters at Hog Island, run across the Golden Gate, stand on the runners on a cable car as it goes up and down steep hills, catch killer views from Coit Tower or eat at Top of the Mark with their amazing views. Better yet, hang out on the beach, cruise through Golden Gate Park, hang out in North Beach (go to Molinari's Deli and get the North Beach Special). I'm sure they'll enjoy the city.

Shout out to my 1988 Scout brothers in the pit ~front ensemble~ They got dragged out onto the field and were beat into shape by Todd Ryan and marched the end of Malaguena~ 12 killer cymbals, High Mark time, the center of all the forms, excellent feet and all~

and it is official. It's the off season.

Any cavies front ensemble!

Madison - from start to finish (Music wise) and especially ESOM BK - the single tenor drums played by the pit Boston - the Bari solo from heaven Phantom - that Godly hornline - Should have won the Ott SCV's drumline - just as precision as it gets! Crossmen - I was completely feeling the groove again Crown - Bohemian Rhapsody Oregon Crusaders - What a corps! EDIT: Oh - and the freaking CADETS! Powerful, fast, amazing! They completely deserved the win.

None. More often than not they retread-type shows don't come close to living up to expectations or past glory. If I wanted to see a classic show from a favorite corps I'd take the ten minutes to watch the show performed on Fan Network. For every Phantom 2008 show that does a great job modernizing and re-imagining a classic, there are several others that fall short of past greatness (SCV 2005 & 1992, Cadets 2009, Cavaliers 1997, etc); I'd MUCH rather corps do fresh show designs than try to recapture past triumphs

nevermind... now that I can run the vid, I was looking at the wrong player.... As for the "r####d" label... how does throwing that around make us any better? s/ Guy who works with, is related to, neighbor of and is friends with mental handicapped people.....

Seems you know much more on this topic than I do, as I was not able to see exactly how it wouldn't work. Bummer.

A lot of back office functions of DCI and various corps would be infinitely cheaper if outsourced, rather than done in house. The idea you can do something cheaper in house than a company that is laser focused on that activity is completely wrong. It will never happen. I'll use a concrete example... Corps should not be shipping ANY merchandising (or much of anything, for that matter) themselves. It would be MUCH cheaper and effective for them to warehouse with Amazon and use Amazon Fulfillment Services. It is done on a pay as you go scale and is much cheaper than could ever be done in house. Reading in another thread about YEA mailing out info packets for Cadets2... MAILING?? PAPER??? if I was on their board, I would be livid. This highlights an issue of operations in many organizations... where money could be made (money saved is money earned) by simply changing habits. You can argue that it wasn't all that much money in postage or printing, or that it didn't take so long... that isn't the point... it isn't the actual cost of delivering this that is the issue, it is the actual cost plus the opportunity costs of that resource not doing something else productive. Why on earth would you be mailing something out which could be done as an automated download after a registration or even payment??? Many organizations in the activity wastes so much money on doing things they are just simply used to doing in a certain way. Another issue is the idea of saving money by hiring younger people at cheaper salaries. This NEVER works. You basically end up not training people for specific positions... but teaching people how to work.. and they bring no previous external experience to the job. In addition, younger people are less set in their lives... and see the opportunity as a stepping stone. So, you will end up simply training that person... they'll leave in a few years (or less)... and you start that process all over again. Hire fewer, but more experienced people at higher salaries... and you will get much more accomplished. As a simple comparison... let's take BD's administrative staff and YEA's administrative staff. BD's staff is much more mature and many have been with the organization for decades. YEA has a young staff that is continually turning over. While I would imagine that BD pays higher salaries for these positions, YEA ends up ultimately paying A LOT more for their staff... as there is little retained knowledge and a continuous cycle of retraining required in order to simply maintain the status quo... forget progress and improvement in efficiency. Anyway, my point here is that wherever processes can be automated or outsourced... this should be done. It saves money. Organizations should get out of the mindset of thinking that it is cheaper to higher younger, hard working, but less-experienced resources. It is never cheaper. One last point... directors out there need to stop publishing their mobile phone numbers and email address... and stay off things like Facebook. What this does is allows others, even people you do not know or have connection with, to have priority over your time. You are allowing anyone to interrupt your tasks and suddenly make their priority suddenly your immediate priority. Change your mobile number and assign the old one to voicemail for a period of time. Anyone that might need to urgently contact you, that is YOUR priority, send out a notice with your new phone number with a request that it is kept private. Do the same with email. Keep the old public email and give to an assistant to filter. Get off Facebook, Twitter, whatever!!! Maintaining personal accounts on those does nothing to further the goals of the organization and is nothing but a time suck. A few simple adjustments in mindset like this... and productivity and efficiency improves like mad. A 20% improvement in productivity and efficiency is a 20% savings in cost, the same as a 20% increase in revenue. So, if I were on the board of these organizations out there... I would be pushing for ways to change habits of operations... as saving money, but accomplishing the same thing, is actually the same as making more money.