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Yes to 1999 POC beyond the rainbow and Fantasia's Rite of Spring, a controversial ballet for 100 years. I'm enjoying all of the suggestions. We should promote drum corps and winter guard more. Controversy usually sells an obscure idea and once they're there, they'll keep coming back for more.

John Simpson and the Sky Ryders will forever be responsible for creating one of the most memorable periods of my life. That bio entry almost reads like a play-by-play of my summer of ’82. The Kerchner charts… The monstrous K-90… and that unmistakable Simpson Sound. I wish I was a stronger wordsmith. John Simpson deserves much more that the few lines of praise that my simple vocabulary can muster for this post.

The latest DCP classic!

who is the genius who said "maybe we'll just leave one person standing there, looking at the audience -- maybe that would be effective". dear god in heaven. made *me* want to scream :-) that show is also a great example of "to hell with the dvd and copyrights -- we HAVE to use this music". most times i agree with the posters here who complain about the DVD being ruined. but there ARE exceptions. NL Imagine is certainly one of them.

Let's see -- what's the old line? Something like "Power corrupts -- and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

The Stu-ges

I'm no sports authority, but it seems the NCAA has something that DCI doesn't, or that DCI doesn't use - a penalty system. NCAA maintains a litany of off-the-field rules from recruiting to financial to policy. DCI has rules that pertain to the field, and the age rule, of course, but are the two powers even remotely similar in the penalties that can be applied to direct the actions and activities of its member orgs and, hence, the direction of the activity? Still, DCI is not as toothless as you describe, and the proof is in the by-laws that were used to stop a takeover of the many by the few. There are protections that one can say benefit the activity as a whole more than the members. For that the corps themselves deserve some credit, even if no one had ever interpreted them as meaning what they did or anticipated that they'd be used as they were. Without those protections DCI would not be today what it is, the ED would likely be gone, and we'd have a bifurcated activity where any benefit derived would be enjoyed by the few, while the many would be cast adrift, even as they believed they'd "saved" the activity. I don't think the irony between now and 1972 is lost on many. The causes of the 1972 breakup were the same that drove the G7 - the desire to be master of one's own future. Human nature doesn't change even as the activity does. A significant difference between DCI and politics is that we elect what we get in politics, and the actions of politicians have the power to dramatically affect one's life in direct-impact (mostly negative, IMO) ways. Had the G7 been victorious I might be forlorn but, in the big picture, nothing else in my life would change. I believe the political system is the singularly best one and a benevolent dictator is not a better replacement. While the current structure of DCI is, by far and IMO, not the best one for "us", some of those of us on the outside looking in, it is the best one for the member corps, by far. Which is why replacing it with a more holistic approach to governance will be exceedingly difficult. A step in the possible right direction, IMO, is the recognition that corps are members, not directors, and that corps representation might be better placed in the hands of the corps boards instead of the directors. If I don't like my politician, I just pull a different lever.

Ever see "Eight Men Out"? Favorite line is Studs Terkel talking about Landis to the Ring Larder character. "He's a federal judge.... leads the league in reversed decisions".

Either bad memory or PBS cameras didn't catch that too well...... Oh wait... 1979... that was the year my Sr corps did a parade in a monsoon and then rode 80 miles to a show that was postponed until Sunday. Came back home (another 80 miles) just as the PBS show was starting.... Well just as Reliable Rondo was saying "After they age out they can't do drum corps anymore", Back out in the rain so I could yell not so nice words wondering if Rondo considered my day not doing Drum Corps.... Well I couldn't get much wetter anyway... That year I was drying out, grabbing food, getting stuff ready to ride back (again) first thing in the AM in between corps. All the time saying "this is called fun"......

Or, what year that your corps lost are you still struggling to let go?

Perhaps this thread should be titled, "What corps performance would you like to be responsible for getting yourself flamed?"

Starting at 57:14: "We have a little, uh, little sneak, sneak hint coming up. I will say we did drop a hint while playing those certain tunes, in and out, we did drop a hint with one of them ... I'll say that ... one of those performances that you just heard through the course of the show in the breaks, one of the tunes in that might make an appearance in the 2014 production. That's what I got." The selections that had been played were "Count Bubba" (2003) at 15:57-18:41, "Caravan" (1990) at 35:16-37:30, and "Russian Christmas Music" (1977) at 54:45-56:36. (Strictly speaking the program opened with "Some Nights" (2013) at 0:01-0:42 and closed with "Earth Song" (2012) at 61:01-62:30, but those are was presumably too recent to count.)

shave and a haircut...big ticks

Freelancers had some very sharp looking uniforms BITD, ... 'Loved those unis you had.

Any corps appears less than pristine from the end zones. Some just plain horrible; but the show is adjudicated from the box, not the end zone.

I'll throw a guess out there - the title of this thread is dirtiest champions since 1990. That might be why.

Glad to hear you're on the mend my friend.... Miss seeing ya! (Freddy says hi!! He was looking for you in York, PA last Saturday)

I'd say Crown 2013. Drums were a mess and visually probably the dirtiest in a decade to win Cadets 2011 was their dirtiest championship show out of their wins - especially drill BD is typically very clean Phantom was fairly dirty Spartacus year - probably put them right behind Crown

The man is a musical pack rat. A few years ago at a show, he approached and said, "So, you collect old recordings?" "Some", I replied. "Well, here you go", says JAG, handing me a CD dub that turns out to be the Massillon Post drum corps from 1955. "Who are these guys?", I ask. "Oh, you don't know? That's the gang that convinced the American Legion that it would be OK to use valves on bugles." I couldn't wait to slap that disc into the player, after which I thought, "They'd have sold me, too."

"...many thanx to all who have contacted me or sent cards or dead birds.." Your Compactness, We send all possible good vibes (as well as marimbas) your way to ensure a rapid return to eye level, such as it is. Though your view may be closer to the surface than most, all here regard you highly. Your faithful imitator, Francis

jim watch that CHF. i have it and it can sneek up on ya. all of a sudden ya can't breath. be will my friend.

As much as I love the show, I'd have to say Star '91. The show gets a lot of respect, and it deserved to win, but that drill was awfully dirty. Worst horn line to win the title? Probably '98 Cadets.

Because you've been around so long, George, your humble honkishness for Cadets is well known. It is funny how people can see things so differently - probably part of the beauty of the art. Subjectivity is the realm of the individual. I've been around since the beginning like you, and Crown's show last year was one of the most inspiring I've seen in a long time. We each have our own, personal top-5 list from our histories in the activity, and Crown's 2013 show made it into my list. Up there with venerable standouts like Angels and Demons, Spartacus ('08), App Spring and others, BD among them. [begin sarcasm] Jeesh, more narration? Yuck, triple-tonguing. Again? Whole-corps unison ripple body movements are so passe. 16 person rifle lines throwing perfect 5's are done, well, every year, aren't they? I'm sure I've seen 12 tympani across the front sidelines some other time... ummm.... let's see.... If I see another 5-yard line to 5-yard line single file blowing FFF resonance for 10 measures to finish the opener, with the guard all flags in perfect unison spread across the entire remaining field, I'm gonna puke. I hate when the rifle straps all snap at the same time like that. Jeesh, irritating! Rhythmic narration counting the off-meter notation of the drum solo is so 2013! Come one people! This is...well, 2013! Still!.... Unison horn line sixteenth-note triplets at 230bpm? Seriously?! They're standing still! Spread only over 50 yards? Jeesh, and they could only pull off 12 measures? I remember when... hey! I'm hungry! "Familiar" story of legato, choir-sounding-like chords that actually do connote a warm, chocolate bath and, WHAT?, another love story? Man, DCI should tell these directors to stop doing love stories. I mean, the last love story on the field we saw was.... someone help me out here. You know, love stories, right? They're all over the place! And that drill design, good GOD. It's drawing the eye and pointing, YES POINTING! from the 15 on one side of the field all the way across to the 5 of the other side, right down, exactly, to where two guard members are performing near-professional ballet movements of two lovers kissing on a park bench! OMG, I swear, Cadets did that... no, wait, maybe it was BD, or maybe Spirit. I KNOW I've seen that chart before! And, of course, EVERY corps has an irritating girlfriend that doesn't know when to stop asking stupid questions when her boyfriend is trying to proclaim his love! I mean, jeesh girl, get a clue! Here we go! Back to more sixteenth-note triplets at 230 in the horn line. Please! Make it stop! Uggh! A rotating 3-D pyramid? Really? Is that the best they've got drill-wise? Ughh. And there goes the guard again, all 38 of them, with unison flags, perfectly timed, only this time they're using color! Oh, really? Color? BORING! I know I've seen that disappearing-through-the-bass-drum routine somewhere else. Really, didn't...umm...you know, who did that before? SCV? NOOOOOOOO! Slow motion! Not more slow motion! Didn't Crown JUST DO slow motion, like, what 3 years ago? Four? What, ANOTHER PERFECT attack on a 20-count Sfz with 18 counts of nearly perfectly linear volume progression? Good GOD, I don't think I can take this blatant, sheer repetition! Oh, and seriously, only 8 scientific references to Einstein in the drill? That's the best they can do? (After the cutoff, while the crowd is giving its FOURTH standing-O of the show...) Seriously, that show was so OLD and everything. I didn't see ANYTHING new at all! Uggh. They surely didn't beat BD with THAT performance! (end sarcasm)

Hmmmm...."Bondage" program?

You talking Walter White or Walt Whitman?

Chuck, Went back and read my original post - horribly written - see why you took it that way. Humble apologies. I'm actually one of your fans. Maybe I've started to write too much and think too little. Best of luck with whatever teams you're writing for. I have to go get my foot out of my mouth. Sincere apologies, Ray Fallon