Leaderboard

Risk and balls come in many forms and sizes (pun intended). I spent 20 plus years on active duty in the US Army and spent a week one day in various #### holes as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea. No offense to those who have visited and enjoyed these places under different circumstances. I put myself out there more than once. I believe I know what many things "feel like". I assigned you a negative. Well, because I can. Daave 1SG, (Ret) USA Now... back to my Lazyboy.

As a general rule, you'd be right . . . but not in this case. You're backing the wrong horse here. Kid's a goofball. Wouldn't matter if he had Warren Buffett giving him advice. He's gotten plenty of good advice from very smart people (no I don't mean DCP), all for naught. The only thing to do is to sit back and watch the train derail.

i noticed. they also turned off commenting if you haven't liked their page. this was after i was told "no, next week, LOL" when questioning the release date of the new partnership. i called them out on the classy (minus CL-) behavior of lol'ing at me and pointed out their information was confusing and had CHANGED since i posted originally, and then asked why the new camp dates weren't released as promised by the "end of this week." I asked at 8:30 pm EST. about 5 comments have since been deleted. sketchy mcsketch.

Anthony should have the scores posted on BHOF website soon. Great day and a packed house! Now we start planning for next years show. Jimmy scored well; very well actually, considering he's sick as a dog but made the trip anyway. Probably infected aver 200 people this afternoon. A good day's work! Seriously, he did a great job and scored well above 5'2". Ray

No seriously, he's a goofball. True enough goofballs will sometimes hit paydirt. Not this one though. He's not the prototypical entrepreneur with a dollar in his pocket, a gleam in his eye, and an idea in his head. He's not the hero of a Horatio Alger novel, just a plain old goofball who keeps sticking the fork in the toaster, no matter how many true entrepreneurs trying to make their mark in the marching arts have told him not to. And rest assured that I'm not basing this judgment on what I've read on DCP.

You arrogance in which you believe that you know better than the majority of people, and that those who disagree with you should "keep quiet and get back to the sidelines" is rather pitiful in my opinion.

actually, you can no longer comment on their facebook page - period. i "liked" the page for a few seconds to ask why they were deleting comments and found i couldn't post anywhere. seriously, WHAT THE ####? you can't handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen. "oh, wahhhh, i don't like being held accountable for what i say, so i'm not going to let people SPEAK to me." really mature. that and the "LOL" at me show me the level of immaturity and petty behavior linked with this organization. incredibly unprofessional.

One thing that not been discussed much is that even within a single corps, the "atmosphere" (for lack of a better word) may differ from year to year. Most years everything clicks and most of the members have an "amazing, wouldn't miss it for a million dollars" experience. Some years just don't seem quite so positive. And it doesn't seem to necessarily correlate with the corps' finals placement that year. 2010 seemed that way, to me, for a lot of the kids in Crown. Expectations seemed to be so high- as much from the members themselves as from anywhere else, and a lot of the kids just seemed to be uptight and not having as much fun as normal. 2011 seemed to be the polar opposite. The atmosphere was truly amazing. So someone auditioning in 2010 may have gotten a totally different impression of Crown than somebody auditioning in 2011. To the OP, if it's possible, attend camps at BOTH Crown and Cavies. In a couple of camps, you should get a pretty good picture of how things work and what the atmosphere is at each corps. You will also get a pretty good idea of whether you have a chance of getting a spot. And even if you don't happen to be a prodigy, sometimes you get a spot because the staff sees the POTENTIAL in you. My son auditioned for Crown for 2006, when he was 15. He turned 16 right before they went on tour. He aged out this past summer after marching his 6th season. He would probably be the first person to tell you that he was NOT a prodigy. I think the staff saw the gleam in his eye, saw how great his desire was to march Crown, and saw how willing he was to work hard to improve. Best of luck to you! Above all, march SOMEWHERE !

If Boston and Madison keep putting out the kind of shows they've put out lately, I don't care if they rehearse on Pluto. Keep it coming.

apparently "in the next two days" means "in the next nine days" https://www.facebook.com/accentmarching/posts/309403409112886?notif_t=feed_comment_reply not that i was digging.

Let me first state that I don't even like most of John Mackey's music. Anyways. He is obviously open to marching bands and drum corps using his music; and one reason is simply because he probably just enjoys it when people will actually play his music. A few posts in the SCV thread reminded me of this funny blog post from Mackey a while ago. Even though this blog is mostly about Band vs Orchestra music, I thought it was applicable to drum corps since I'm sure he's aware how much of a great advertising opportunity it is for his music. Original link below http://ostimusic.com/blog/even-tanglewood-has-a-band/ _____________ "If you’re a composer who grew up wanting to write orchestra music, and you listened to Barber rather than Grainger, you probably start with the attitude that you should be writing orchestra music, and band somehow isn’t the goal. So, you marry Orchestra. Orchestra is hot. Okay, maybe not hot, but at least she’s the kind of hot that you know you should like. At the very least, she’s very pretty. And she’s really, really smart, and speaks, like, seven languages, and she knew everybody (but she only ever wants to talk about Beethoven). But you quickly realize that Orchestra thinks she’s better than you, and she acts like every minute she spends with you is come kind of charity work. You get her gifts, and shower her with attention, but you soon realize that she doesn’t appreciate you at all, and she’s neglectful, and at worst, abusive. And then one day, you meet Band at a party. “What do you do?” she asks. “Um, I’m a composer,” you reply, expecting little reaction, but Band lights up and exclaims, “oh my God, that’s HOT! Do you have any music I can play? The newer, the better! Let me get you a drink!” Band is loud. She’s not quite as pretty as Orchestra, and she’s a bit, shall we say, bigger-boned, but she has that truly “hot” aspect to her that Orchestra never had. And most importantly, Band loves what you do. Whereas it was like pulling teeth to get Orchestra to look at your new music (and if she looked, she was generally not impressed, often comparing you unfavorably to one of her many ex’s — like Dvorak), Band thinks it’s awesome. Band tells you things like “you’re special and perfect and I’ll appreciate you and your music like Orchestra never has, and never will.” What is Composer supposed to do?! Did I mention how loud and boisterous Band is? (Let’s say she’s a screamer. Totally your type.) You have a blast when you’re with her, and your friends agree that she’s a lot cooler than Orchestra, and they see how she treats you much, much better. How can Composer not be expected to stray? Luckily for Composer, he figured this out around the age of 30, and not much, much later. He just feels bad for all of the other Composers who haven’t yet caught on and left their dysfuncional, abusive relationships." _____________ as a side note I just noticed that Nikk Pilato commented on this blog back in 2005 haha

Not really. The Kanstul Grande model runs in the $6000 range, actually very reasonable for a horn like that. Kanstul doesn't give away any product or do package deals, that's the reason they haven't established a bigger footprint in the drum corps world, and they aren't associated with a line of percussion equipment, so you can't be cool and have the same stamp on all your equipment. The Dynasty 4v contra lists at over $11,000, though no one really pays list price.

Agreed!!!! Mr Cossetti did a GREAT job today!! He was also sick last year and performed very well then too ... (maybe that's his secret.... perform at the BHOF I&E's when he's not feeling fell!) I'll let ya know if I start feeling sick Ray. LOL (Thank you again for the help with the parking spot!!) To ALL participants, Anthony, the BHOF, Ray, Rich and the entire Skyliners Alumni Organisation, THANK YOU!! Another GREAT BHOF show!!

Your comment also begs the question concerning the wisdom of those who are financially backing someone who continuously put forks in toasters.

Nice to know that, amongst other things, you are Omnipotent, All Knowing, All Seeing, and can claim without reservation that not one, not one single successful individual who takes business risks, would assign a red negative to you.

Just to confirm - We are only selling lower deck seats at this time. The goal is to fill those seats first before opening the upper deck. And, trust us - - we would love to open the upper deck! Tell everyone you know to get their tickets today. Bring a friend who has never seen or heard drum corps! DCA TICKETS

To all the folks playing Clue Club, trying to street view addresses and calling neighbors, etc. .. seriously? In this day and age, and particularly for a business like what these guys are doing, having a physical office would be highly unnecessary and a complete waste of money. Businesses do need to have registration and correspondence addresses. For a startup like this, it is a good idea to use one that isn't the home of any founders, as it adds a layer of privacy (who wants their house listed on everything???). Anyway, who cares if their address is Trump Tower or a Circle K in Des Moines? What really matters... will they provide solid educational experiences for kids and will it be priced right to be a good value proposition?

DCA FLASHBACK #3 Enjoy the 2005 Renegades! Flashback

One of the most entertaining drum corps shows... ever.

The Crossmen WERE from West Chester, PA. They are not anymore, which is pretty obvious. But they are still the Crossmen. Heck, when was the last time they were actually from West Chester. They've been from Wilmington/Newark, DE; Bensalem, PA; YEA; and Allentown, PA. And I might have missed one. Yes West Chester is still a "home" for the corps and Crossmen alumni are everywhere around here. I run into to people at Wawa all the time, haha. The whole East Coast is home for the Crossmen. And so is the whole state of Texas. The Crossmen are from San Antonio, TX right now. Trust me I know... I flew 2,000 miles to camps and spring training that were all in San Antonio.

Thank you. For those who may be able to take in this clinic, Clay marched with Madison Scouts and will be remembered by many as the baritone soloist in the 1988 rendition of Malagueña. He joined Scouts for the 1985 season and taught there until 1988. He's also worked with Phantom Regiment. After living in Argentina for a few years, he came back to teach in Wisconsin. Being that his clinic is tomorrow, Saturday, February 25 and it is free, it would be worth the time for anyone available to take it in. (Lunch is free and many will be excited to know that the parking is also free.) The clinic is focused on brass and will be held from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Greendale High School, 6801 Southway, Greendale, Wisconsin. It is open to all high school and college-age brass players and each should bring their own instrument, wear comfortable clothes and marching-appropriate shoes. It was requested that people sign-up by February 20, (perhaps in order to know how much food to order), but I suspect they wouldn't mind if more people showed up at the door.

If a corps doesn't have the rights secured, then they shouldn't tell anyone what they're going to play. Period. That includes members, potential members, camp attendees, and staff and instructors who aren't in on the decision-making and rights securing process (if the public is going to be disappointed when rights fall through on a piece, how do you think these guys will feel?). If you tell any of these people, and they spill the beans, they're not to blame . . . you are. You don't want anyone to know, don't tell them. That's all beside the point since I doubt there was any trouble with copyright on Holst, Whitacre, and Mackey pieces. And it doesn't seem like Vanguard gives two ####s about that post. Only a few people saw it, and we still didn't know whether it was true or not until the show was announced. And it would probably have been ignored if a "real insider" or two hadn't given it credence by attacking it.

1. Cadets- Cadets know how to sale weird shows! It's just too bad my favorite corps is playing music I hate! ( Christmas Music! Yuck!) 2. Cavaliers- They will be fine visually. A fresh visual approach will do the Cavaliers good. 3. Blue Devils- With the new judging system, visual content means something again! It will be great to see the Devils march a more difficult show. 4. BlueCoats- They have had to have learned a lesson from last year. 5. Vanguard- Drums will be better this year. I see them moving up! 5. Crown- One of my favorite shows last year! One of my favorite corps! But, So many staff changes! 7. Phantom- 8. Madison- New Guard Staff, New Drum Staff! could go higher! 9. Blue Stars- 9. Boston- 11. Blue Knights- I don't know! It's February 12. Spirit- 13. Colts- 14. Glassmen 15. Troopers 16. Crossmen 17. Academy 18. Jersey Surf 19. Oregon Crusaders 20. Pacific Crest 21. Vanguard Cadets 22. Devils B 23.Mandarin 24. Teal Sound 25. Pioneer Based on nothing!

I didn't think my trolling could get any more obvious. Guess you need some work in that retrospect.

-Shameless Bump- We know there are drum corps alums out here on the west! Come to our next rehearsal, You will probably reconnect with someone you've marched with!

No. The facts do not support my desired outcome, so I'm just going to stick my fingers in my ears and say LAALALALALALAALLALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU. Mission accomplished.

Any drum corps experience is better than no drum corps experience.

i'm a couple pages late with this, but better late than never!

Well, I can tell you pretty firmly... We are not going bankrupt. Pat61 - If I can give you any information to make an informed decision, please contact me.

1. Nothing says I couldn't make it at 16. 2. I have said multiple times that I am auditioning in a year or two.... anyway... thanks to everyone who posted.

I honestly did not get that impression from the OP. What I read in the message was a question about philosophy and/or teaching technique. This is a very valid question to ask yourself when choosing a corps. When I marched the question was do you want to have a laid back summer and play jazz with a great hornline? (BD) or Do you wanna get your butt kicked all summer but march great drill and be a part of a long tradition? (Cadets). One was not necessarily better than the other. My rookie year both groups had equal number of championships. It was a question of philosophy and preference and not necessarily about winning. I did not get that he was asking about what is better--winning brass or the title. That's where all of the other posters took it. Anyways, to the OP, why not come out to Bluecoats. ;)

Cavies still working on teaching class...

As much as I loved and trusted the staff that just recently left the corps, I know they are in good hands. The show has not been publicly announced yet except for a few recent alumni like myself. I won't reveal and music for the show but I will say it's awesome, not over the top with the concept, the music that I know of makes sense with the title, and everyone knows the music that they are doing. I'm excited to see what they have going for them this season!

IIRC, when the Edge performed in Rochester, they weren't introduced as a drum corps...I don't remember exactly how they were introduced, but I clearly remember thinking to myself, "What is this?" before they came on. They weren't introduced as a mini-corps either, rather they happened to follow the competing mini-corps and used the same stage for their performance. My thought on this, is that this venue and this time period within the DCA championship weekend was probably deemed most appropriate. It also gave them great exposure, as the mini-corps portion of the weekend attracts a large audience. Personally, I don't understand some of the ill will that this post has created toward this group. They are a group of present and former drum corps members who put together a group and simply played to entertain. Somewhere along the line, it was suggested that they audition for AGT and suddenly they're villains who are trying to smear the good name of drum corps? There are plenty of instances in the past where individuals who were identified with corps, or corps themselves, have done far worse to damage the image of drum corps than a group of people with drum corps backgrounds playing to entertain.

Even though it was Hrothgar's idea first, Fleet Foxes would make a pretty cool drum corps show in the right hands.

If SCV makes finals it will be 41 years in a row for top 12 at DCI and their 46th year on the field.

Empire 1993...the end of the New Orleans Production with the GIANT Puppet of KING REX... That thing was heavy and difficult to work with so Vince found a guy that had just returned from Olympic bobsled training...and his weight lifter buddy to handle it. The response from that ending was considerable. Donny

Why are marching bands in warm weather climates, on the whole, better than marching bands, on the whole, from sub freezing regions of the country ? I simply can't quite grasp why this would be so. Its like Ice Hockey. How come the school participation in Ice Hockey in the South is not as strong typicallty as that of say in Madison, Wisconsin, Boston, Mass or Montreal, Quebec Canada ? How come McGill Univ. in Montreal doesn't have a great college marching band ?Its a good school and it has a terrific college undergrad music program. I could never figure this dynamic out either. I still don't understand why so many Corps want to recruit band members to their Corps from schools in Southern Calif, South and the Southwest either. Or why schools in the South look to northern USA climates and to Canada for hockey players and staff for their school and their Ice Hockey program. Its just all too confusing for me. opps.. I got a red mark, so at least SOMEBODY knows why things happen the way they do, and thats a start toward possible enlightenment as to the " why ", anyway. Even if I havn't quite been able to figure these eternal questions out yet.

I wouldn't call anyone on DCP necessarily a troll. What DCP is, is a group of people who are very passionate, educated and committed to the success of drum corps and their respected corps. You have to remember there are people on this forum who have been around drum corps longer then you have been alive and have spent countless hours and dollars to ensure its success/future.

True, but highly unlikely.

All based on the fact that they didn't update their website. Do you know how many startup companies roll out their initial website and don't even know *how* to update it because someone else wrote it ? You're hanging on to that website like it's scripture (most likely because that's all you have to hang on to) . As I said before, when kids, parents, or staffers start showing up and saying "Accent screwed us over" I'll be handing you the noose. But as far as I can tell, not a single person has levied a complaint against them (except DCP). ps. thanks including the phrase "broken promises and vows" in your post. you missed one earlier and I was worried

LOL . Stretch?? You say you repeatedly posted the same facts as Dapperpoet in this thread. You did no such thing. (had you done so I would have responded to you just as I did to dapper) That seems pretty non-factual to me. Prior Dapper's post your best "fact" was copying a sentence off their website which described their educational philosophy and (in a flash of unmitigated brilliance) somehow transposed that sentence into some phantom document describing their event cancellation policy (implying that they promised never to cancel an event). You posted no facts. The only other fact in the thread was posted by Dan Balash pointing out this company was run by Nagy. These guys are screwing up -- and they're clearly not coping with screwing up very well. If -- instead of withholding information from the thread -- you had simply posted what you knew, perhaps DCP might have seen that you have some justification for your rants. Instead you implied and inferred and ranted. My thanks again to Dapperpoet for making it public that these guys don't seem to be dealing honestly with the staff they contracted to appear at their events. Well done sir.

Every corps in the country spends MOST of their time rehearsing outside the city of where their main office exists and it has been that way for years - as TOUR makes up the majority of time a corps spends rehearsing (thus it really doesn't matter where a corps has camps or spring training any more than what random school they rehearse at for the random show in Colorado Springs Colorado). But to take the tongue out of my cheek now and address your question. Interesting how you put it as "where they say they are from" (implying that a corps like Madison, Boston or Blue Stars are not really from their said cities anymore). Guess what, each one of those corps IS still from those cities. Their main offiices and corps halls still exist in the cities they are said to be from and is still where they get their mail (and people thought my Broken Arrow thread was...........never mind ).

Boston practices at Quincy Ma, right before going on tour. Quincy stadium is about 2 miles from the City of Boston itself. The Corps headquarters are in the Boston area, most of the Board members are from the Boston area, its current Executive Director is born and raised in Boston(and also marched in the Corps ) and the Corps gets the largest bulk of its funds to run its Corps from the generosity of fans and alums from the Boston area. And its 2 shows it sponsors each year is in the Boston area ( Quincy, Lawrence ) Like most DCI Corps, Boston gets marchers now from all over the country.No doubt this has allowed them to both survive and prosper in difficult times, and are grateful for this national and international draw for its members. Ironically, there are more alums from the Boston Crusaders that were from Hyde Park section of Boston that marched in the Corps in the 50's and early 60's that now live in retirement in Florida than live in the city of Boston.( ( or they reside in Heaven or that Other Place now ). But they wore the Red and Black. So they remain " Boston Crusaders " no matter where their bed and pillow resides these nights now. I think this topic is covered each year. Corps get their names now not from where the vast majority of their marchers come from anymore. The days of the neighborhood Drum Corps where 80-90% of the marchers were born and raised in that community went out with duck tailed greasers haircuts. Some people apparently havn't quite come to grips with Drum Corps INTERNATIONAL Corps, as this topic comes up on DCP each spring almost like crocuses, daffodills, and tulips pop up every year in the spring in the colder climates of the US. The Madison Scouts are the Madison Scouts too. One look should be enough to see it too.

The Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville has a Div. 1 College Hockey program. Why do they principally recruit in New England, Canada and other northern climes instead of Alabama for hockey players ? Do you know ? I could never figure this out. And I could never figure out why to my knowledge no College Hockey fans ever asked this question before either. Its kind of weird why this college in the south gets players from the cold climates to go play college hockey in Alabama, instead ofthe school mostly recruiting hockey players from around Huntsville, Ala. The college has 33 hockey scholarship players on their current roster. None from the state of Alabama. Half are from Canada. Its so weird for this Alabama state school to look north for hockey players and some hockey staff for their school don't you think ? Why do you suppose they do this ? It seems rather confusing to me why. Do you know however ? And maybe they should change the name of the school and its college hockey program while there at it if none of the players and staff were born and raised in Huntsville, Alabama. Do you agree ? Or should we conclude that this zip code silliness is just that.... silliness ?

Gosh - I thought you would have placed Crown a little higher.

DCI isn't an elementary school; it's a university. Get with the times.

Just a suggestion: Could we please stop letting the OP close a thread? I understand if they ask a question and it is answered, ie "What time does Cadets camp start on Friday?". But when they start a thread on a broad topic, and don't like the way it is going, they can ask for it to be closed. ie The kid that asked how how a BOA band would place in DCI, and a vigorous discussion took place. The OP quoted people and made comments, then asked for the topic to be closed. How can I respond to someone when the topic is closed? How can I defend myself? I am fine with a topic being closed if it gets ugly or personal, or if the discussion has run its course, but please don't close topics because the OP changes of gears. Once a topic is posted, please let it run it's course....most topics seem to do fine this way.

I think DCP has been just a wee bit more than skeptical !

"Due to Accent Marching's new partnerships, dates have been pushed back. Accent Marching is currently hiring more brass, woodwind, and percussion clinicians. Contact Accent Marching by emailing us at info@accentmarching.com for more information." I'm tempted to become a clinician and then when the dates come up be like "Oh, nevermind!"