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What a great night at the IAM Take 6 event last Saturday night. Take 6 was terrific (great group of guys) as were the kids from HYPE & Denny Drums, one of IAM sponsored community (inner city) based music programs. Kotoko Brass was excellent as well. A fun and successful night for IAM. And for the DCP crowd; some very limited info about Boston was "shared". Nothing about the show itself, but more of a progress report on the brass line from Gino Cipriani and how the camps have gone so far. I believe there is one major camp remaining in April, then into Spring Training in Castleton, VT on May 19. A few very brief snippets were played, so nothing about the program for this year could be gleaned (purposely). Suffice it to say the brass will be much improved with a sound, IMO, a bit more mature than even last year as advanced as last years line was for Boston from previous years. This admin team and instructional team have a solid plan and are on track. Truly Building A Champion.

There’s a lot of parking at Mason. The campus is HUGE. At Hamilton we had to park at all those nearby grocery stores and restaurants but Mason will easily accommodate everything with their high school parking lot. Plus the middle school is right next to them with more parking and the intermediate school is across the street which is also enormous. I’m excited because I live close to 5 minutes to the high school so I could walk if I wanted to!

Definitely not enough Liszt in drum corps. I'd support a drum corps show called Bucket Liszt.

MIchael is an ok guy, but he shouldn't be brought in to settle any ties, imo

Looks like Dublin WAS a great venue. Centerville isn't a bad location and their boosters do a great job...they have a great lineup this year including the Bluecoats :-)

I agree with @N.E. Brigand, Centerville is not bad ... I have been to much worse (*cough cough* Port Huron). Though I also agree with @garfield ... Dublin is a great venue.

Interesting. Remembering that Hamilton and Fairfield are also pretty big schools (for Ohio), I decided to look up exactly were Ohio's largest among the states 800+ high schools. Using the state athletic association figures, which admittedly only include grades 9-11, this is what I found. Curiously, seven of the top ten, which I note below with an asterisk, are located in southwest Ohio. All seven are in Cincinnati or Dayton exurbs, which I find interesting because Cincinnati is only the state's third-largest city (100K behind number two and almost 500K behind number one), and Dayton is only the sixth-largest city: Mason -- 2,661* Fairfield -- 2,369* Lakota East -- 2,087* Centerville -- 2,030* Hamilton -- 1,397* Beavercreek -- 1,893* Canton McKinley -- 1,890 Lakota West -- 1,864* Gahanna Lincoln -- 1,847 Brunswick -- 1,837

No, he's referring to Centerville. He and I were both there at the same show a couple years ago. I've been there a few times, a don't think it's as bad as all that.

You snooze, you lose.

Thanks for that update, LabMaster.

Yes, I'm always for marchers moving faster. Seems like a dying art. What I meant by pacing was the design of the show's moments. With the exception of some drum breaks that (to me) dragged the momentum down a bit, the show is always rocketing forward. As an audience member, it goes by quickly and with little distraction or boredom on my part. Compare to Boston's 2016 show, where there was a wonderful build up to the opening hit, which was good. The hit felt a little long and predictable, with an enormous PAUSE after it. By that point I was already playing on my phone. Good pacing would have tightened that moment, and transitioned better into the next building moment. Boston 2017's show kept the momentum going almost constantly.

Is that the person who buys the mead for office parties?

Personally, I think Doug Thrower is the most underrated arranger in DCI.

I figure the only way I can criticize the Commandant’s Own is when I survive boot camp. I’d probably survive five minutes.

1. 2003 harmonic journey 2. 2008 spartacus 3. 2010 into the light 4. 91 phantom voices 5. 2006 faust

On the field, from Allentown Pennsylvania, The Cadets! Drum majors (names here) is your corps ready? Drum Corps International is proud to present The Cadets! Really that's all that's needed.

01. SCV 02. Crown 03. Blue Devils 04. Bluecoats 05. Cavies 06. Boston 07. BK 08. Cadets 09. Madison 10. Blue Stars 11. Crossmen 12. Regiment

That is true, but the initial Toy Soldier idea was pretty cool. I know this from a friend of mine on staff that year. The show turned into a mess when George had his ideas incorporated...just saying.