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if there's anyone that knows how to manuever around DCA it's Rich. good pickup for C2

Hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by starting off the new thread for them, but I'm just getting my son ready to audition with them this weekend. Would love this 25th anniversary year to be a good one for the Surf!

are coming,.................

Here's the link to make it easier for everyone. VOTE to help support PR! http://us.sungevity.org/gives-back

Gee, your posts and demeanor here speak otherwise.

I always made a point of it to visit Gun ... er ... Dennis when I was in CA and routinely visited the schools he taught at and attended some "unique" performances by his students ... I believe he moved to CA to teach The Dons of San Jose ... and if I'm not mistaken, he was one of the first (if not first) to used an amplified bass guitar with his band or corps because he didn't have a bass line in the drumline ... I chuckled when he told me he was going to be a teacher and reminded him of the the many times he went out of his way to cut class ... the pinnacle of our friendship was exhibited in Hawaii (believe it or not) when I visited a band camp he was running at King Kamehameha HS on Oahu ... he graciously invited me into their inner circle and said "take over the line for a while" ... the kids were stunned with my understanding of what he wanted to accomplish ... guess it was a Sky thing ... he finished the rehearsal by quoting Pepe: "If yer gonna make a mistake, make it as loud as you possibly can so that I can fix it now" ... :-)

Andy refers to Dennis Aquilina, who also was a soloist for Garfield, taught the Bridgemen , and more recently, SCV. He's now a music judge, and the instrumental music director at Thomas Hart Middle School and took them to perform at Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago. Not bad for a kid from Astoria who use to serve "soup" to the Skyliners.

Nahhh ... the Gunga Din I remember came out of the Hellgaters from Astoria and became "water boy" for the Skyliners drumline in 1971 when all his brothers joined ... he was a mere 13 yrs old ... and wore a pith helmet, hence the reference to Gunga ... great kid ... became quite a brass afficianado and was on Sun's staff in 79 ... moved to the Left Coast in 80 and roomed with Ironlips and Ralph for a while ... :-)

"an enigma wrapped in a riddle, stuffed in a burrito, wrapped in a blueberry pancake, and baked in a calzone." Winner of the Guess Who Best Descriptor Trophy for 2014. Nominees are judged on both style and accuracy. This one gets a 10 in both.

To narrow it down, ending it "t" calligraphist calorifacient calorificient campanologist catastrophist catechumenist ceremonialist chiaroscurist chirographist cinquecentist circumambient circumfulgent clavichordist climatologist cobelligerent commercialist conceptualist concessionist confessionist constrainment contemplatist contertionist contortionist contrabandist contrapuntist controvertist conventionist convulsionist correspondent corruptionist cosmetologist counterweight cranioscopist criminologist cyberneticist No proper nouns in that database. I feel that might the a problem. I'll be back.

Maybe it's Summer of Criminologist? A show looking back at all the deaths in previous shows?

Summer of Cosmetologist?

I ended up there because Brian Callahan ran away from home to Texas in the middle of the 76 season. There's some parts of that season I don't think a lot of people know about - Brian was an enigma wrapped in a riddle, stuffed in a burrito, wrapped in a blueberry pancake, and baked in a calzone. For an amazingly good season there was a lot going on behind the scenes.

Was just thinking of something like that. Thinking there were posts end of this season or last saying that C2 has problems moving up because their staff is DCI oriented and doesn't "get" DCA. No idea if true just passing what I think I remember. Boy does Rich "get" DCA.......

Agreed, and I also think that it was the fine execution of an excellent design that resulted in Bluecoats scoring above the Cadets with the finals night panel, since the design itself did not get Coats that result on any other night in 2014.

Yep....it almost felt like the old Holiday Parade around the Capitol Square! I couldn't believe the change in weather. I had flown into Newark on Monday night - it was 68 degrees....then, next day in Suffern, it was like 15 or 20. And what did we get, like 8-10 inches by Wednesday night? It was all worth it though....that was an awesome experience performing with all the Brothers in front of that insane crowd!!!

A reason why you, and later Tony, ended up on the DM podium for Sun???

I'm certain we've all gone WAY off topic from this person's original questions of how hard do we think it is to make BD... But ... I've have had many a conversation with guys who write and arrange, and all of those conversations came back to "playing the game". so to speak. And they're all trying to do that. right now, there's only ONE group consistently playing the game. (design + execution + marketability) The answer is BD. They are setting the standard and the evolution of this activity. If you want to be in that tier, you have to figure out how to bring your group's personality (sound, movement style...etc) to the game that they've established. Crown did that, 'Coats did it sort of, Cadets sort of... but to finish on top, it goes back to hitting all three of those items on the head. Now many corps members in the top 12 can perform to extremely high levels, but not all the corps' shows can provide something that satisfies the game's equation. I would say your finals corps members have the potential to pop the near perfectly executed show on finals night. But it's not necessarily all about that. Its not just a performance based score, and in many cases, it feels like one set of scores, follows the other boxes whether it deserves to or not. The idea that one score can't go up or down until the others do. Gone are the days when ticks count against, and in some cases, what execution is and isn't is now grey area. Heck, we can't even count a corps provided acoustic enhancement system's failure against a performance now. And that itself can remove an entire section of the show, or pivotal moment in the performance but yet still not decide one group's placement over another. This activity, in some cases, doesn't compare apples and oranges against each other, but more often apples and forks. Ok, can we go back to giving this person advice on how not to fall on their face during fundamentals auditions? don't fall on your face kid.

Send in the aliens

An up-coming segment of "Off the Record" will feature several excerpts of judge's tapes from the '70s and '80s when the process of recorded commentary was first developed. I think listeners will find it quite interesting. Stay tuned.

My mind is trying very very very hard not to rearrange the word order of this sentence for a joke that would be simultaneously immature humor and downright creepy.

Funny. I thought it was Concord.

No, we don't all agree with that by any stretch. What most of us have come to realize is that it's a combination of factors that win championships, starting with a successful administration. Design team, teaching staff, talented and dedicated members, and outstanding support are all necessary in completing the combination. Design team alone won't win squat, let alone a championship.

so a couple points from someone who actually participated in this event, and took it personally. thanks for all your feedback, good, and... well... seriously? sometimes, if you don't have anything nice to say, just... (comments censored) Hope you enjoyed your holiday. We sure as hell did. Anyway, we did it because well, why not. We have a corps that just celebrated 75 years, alumni who are very active in supporting the current corps, and three directors who wanted to "get the band back together" so to speak. I had the ability to hang out with guys who just marched, and guys who marched 30 years behind me and chat like we're all old friends. That's some magic if I've ever seen it. We couldn't do more drill than we could learn and clean in 12 hours (4 tues night, 8 wed, and practice time at the rehearsal site on our own), we had to make it accessible for everyone from the 15 year old current member to the 50, 60, and 70+ year old members, and to be honest, we have a boatload of participants, so it didn't leave room for much more than a park and bark. 2 step intervals just don't let you move around with a big old horn that easily. So yea, it was about getting everyone together under one roof, and trying to peel the paint off the wall. No, we didn't care about numbers of people for tv. We wanted representation. All of this was ok with all of the participants, directors, and yes, even Macy's and CBS and NBC who have to OK what goes on the TV. And no, no one cares about tv frame size or viewing angle. Not one single group. You as a ensemble cannot have any idea what the artistic director and production coordinator's are thinking and what they feel needs to be broadcast. I too, work in entertainment production, so don't talk to the masses here like they are stupid. They're not. It was out of our control, so we didn't worry about it. All decisions for your performance are approved by Macy's and the TV Stations. They have to approve everything you plan to play and do. If they don't like it, you have to change it. We had to cut music (we had all learned already) out of the performance last minute to make it all work in their time frame due to their proposed layout of performances during the broadcast. So seriously, as much as I enjoy the banter every once in awhile, shuddup. We jumped at the chance to go out and blow the windows out of the Foot Locker, and we did. We forced the recording engineer to ENTIRELY revamp his approach. haahahahahahah. Which was awesome. We went out and had some fun in the cold. For those of us who don't march anymore, it was a chance to not just put on a uni and pick up a horn, drum, or piece of gear, it was an opportunity to put on THAT uniform. You can say there are corps that change you when you put on a uni, but there's something different about being in the Scouts, or Cavies, Cadets, or BD or even Troopers. There's a history, and a tradition. I think that's why I have such a hard time thinking about forcing more injury onto my body by marching for someone else. It'll just never be the same. It's beyond inspiring to see gents from the 60s and 70s in the streets working on 5s till they were perfect. Gents who hadn't picked a horn up in 30 years to magically find a way to pull not just a buzz from their lips, but to pull together something presentable. And the guys who hadn't carried a drum in years to put on the harness (and a back brace) and hack until the wee hours of the morning so they felt it was clean enough to finally sleep at 3 am. I got a call from a friend tues night saying he's proud to be my friend, he'd watch for us, and there's not many corps that could pull off "pulling everyone together again". Even his own corps he aged out from he admitted they just don't have the support or pride from past generations to fathom making something of that scale happen. that says a lot. and it says a lot about the three guys who worked their butts off to organize this. housing, travel, busses, uniforms, horns, drums, flags, rifles etc etc etc. practice space and the family members who came out to help as support staff sewing unis last minute to make them perfect, dealing with food, checking people in and issueing horns and gear. So I hope you all had a happy holiday, if you enjoyed seeing us rattle the streets of NYC, you're welcome. This made the best start to a holiday season Ive ever had, and it bittersweet with this being the first holidays without my father, it became something my fam could really get into, Because Dad loved the holidays, and he loved the Scouts. I wish he'd have been here to see it. cheers.

Wouldn't that be a nice change. I agree that those are some of the best shows PR has done. But I suspect those days are long gone

I was thinking more along the lines of an even darker theme: "Into Hell and Back -- Dante's Wild Ride." During vacation in Maine last week, I read Dan Brown's "Inferno," and thought it would actually make one heck of a show idea. I know that BK did it a couple of times 10 or 12 years ago (At least the Robert Smith composition). My show would not use this piece, but assorted other pieces illustrating "inferno," "Purgatory," and "Paradise" of Dante's Divine Comedy. The possibilities are limitless for melding the old ("Peel your face off.") Corps power with the new (added visual awareness). I'd love to write it and try it -- but my own band doesn't do field marching. Oh well....maybe I'll flesh it out anyway, and contribute it when the "2015 show ideas you'd love to see" thread comes along this winter (if not sooner).

I fully concur. For BAC to take the approach of "THIS is what this means. THIS is the correct interpretation of what we are saying. THIS is the way, and the only way, you will see it." would ironically be supporting the very dictatorial practice that they, and Orwell himself, are attempting to satirize. Instead, I see it more as sending a message of "Here's the story. Take and learn from it what you will -- and let the chips fall where they may." In other words, extending a level of respect to the viewer as being an intelligent thinker -- not a mindless moron who can only understand something IF it is slowly and carefully explained to him (or her). And no, I am not calling the rank-and-file drum corps attendee a moron. I use that term more from a philosophical point of view.

That's a fair assessment, but I think part of it is intentional. The drill design is nothing like what the G7 groups are doing. Less focus on musical staging and body movement, more focus on overall effect and risky/exposed drill. Sort of a return to what was considered effective drill 15+ years ago, which I kind of like.

I found the parallels somewhat obvious after seeing it live then watching a second time on FN and looking for specific elements from Animal Farm (book). The G7 formation in the middle of the show was the clue to watch it again and look for the parallels between DCI organizing/politics and the show. Then again, I've actually read Animal Farm.

"Show" being superior to "Tell" is a common rule in any artistic medium. People often criticize shows like The Office and Modern Family for having a cheap effect of a talking head where characters can simply sit down and tell you how they are feeling, rather than just you watching them and having to figure it out for yourself. DCI of course is becoming that way, where if you're "telling" the audience something it somehow becomes more effective and typically gets you higher scores. Unfortunately I don't think it should be that way. I love that Boston went the "Show" route rather than the "Tell" route.