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My first post! I have been a lurker for years and although I stay abreast of the activity through DCP I have to admit the time I enjoy the most is when the season is in full swing. I have paid attention to the GH debacle from the onset. Some on here say they had connections to prisons and correctional facilities. I served for 25 years with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in a variety locations and capacities. At one facility I chaired the Discipline Committee for three years. In another capacity I conducted discipline hearings mostly cleaning up other peoples technical and judgment errors. I would have the inmates Central File which contained the Presentence Investigation and the FBI "Rap Sheet". I can't tell you the number of times I had to suspend my feelings and had to just deal with the matter at hand. What I can tell you is that it is no secret that inmates detest the behavior (allegedly)exhibited by GH. I had a situation occur that involved my daughters. I took a day off after the incident to insure they were OK (divorced myself from the process). I returned to work and stood in the dining room the next day at the noon meal. A good percentage of the population indicated their displeasure and said we are "SORRY". An inmate who was the leader of the group the individual was from caught me off to the side and asked "What do you want done to him". Obviously I told him I couldn't condone any reprisal. The inmate had been transferred across the country. There was no Federal Statute covering the incident and State I was in categorized it as a class three misdemeanor. I agreed with the US Attorney and the FBI Case Agent that it was not worth subjecting my daughters to a trial. I had become a liability and at that time I could no longer chair the committee, that was part of my job description. I was transferred to another location. My life and my families life changed completely and not for the better. I guess what I am saying is that GH (alleged actions) ruined so many peoples lives, in so many ways. We will never fully understand their grief and loss. Terry is right "Sociopathic" behavior at the very least!

I know where you're coming from. I worked as a volunteer in college at Camp Hill State Prison. There were guys who were very straight up with me who said they were there because they did something massively stupid when they were under the influence of some substance. Any young person who tells me that messing with adult substances, legal or illegal to an uncontrolled extent... I tell them that. There were a couple of cats that were legit psychopathic cases, did some pretty heinous stuff and had no real remorse for what they did other than maybe that they were caught. Some individuals are truly off the rails and beyond human and societal norms. They're scary. It's why learned people study them seriously- and from what I know, they haven't found out a whole terrible lot for all their work so far. It's really unfathomable. Not sure what to tell you encouraging, more if I hung out with you I'd buy you an adult beverage and just hang out and talk about something better in the activity.

Irony! As Garfield commented (I hope I'm right Garfield) pertaining the 2002 Championship at Camp Randall Stadium and the siren/red lights from the Madison Fire House across the street. I was in the 2nd deck, 3rd row up and slightly to the left of the Press BOX. It was my first show in quite awhile, I had no idea what I was about to see. It was also the year after 9/11. When BC did Appalachian Spring, Tis a gift to be simple - Tis a gift to be free and then formed the American Flag for the closer, I got teary eyed. I have to inject I am a VN C Vet. Each performance got better and better, I was amazed. When the Cadet's did BWBB, wow the house was rocking and the 2nd deck was vibrating! I had a straight view of the Madison Fire House through the stadium entry way. When the Iwo Jima flag raising occurred in the front followed by the Firefighter 9/11 flag raising back field and then ALL THE UNITS at the Madison firehouse went Code 3, someone began cutting onions in my section. Some people have referred to that as cheesy. Not where I was at and the standing "O" seemed to go on and on. It was clear to me the Cavies' had won with Frameworks, but I'll never forget the Cadets. None of the current tribulations regarding GH have been able to take that moment from me.

That distinct, rambling writing style.

Yes indeed. In 2006 my mom read the HopBlog during the season and his self-righteousness completely turned her off of drum corps. Hop was a wannabe cult leader. "Choose your attitude" and the rest of his self-help "philosophy" was an example of a classic cultist strategy for stifling dissent.

Growing up, I worked retail: a drug store, major department store, a book store, a record store, and a deli. I also had stints as s bank teller. No one who got caught with their hand in the till ever stole a large amount of money. Why did they throw their job away for something so small? Why does a loving father and husband throw everything away for a one night stand? There are as many reasons why people do stupid and harmful things as there are people. Regarding crimes of a sexual nature, psychologists and criminologists site all kinds of reasons: a desire for power, a tendency toward violence. in the case of adults abusing children, they may be victims themselves, and hosts of other reasons. The reasons are important, but as to why some people show no remorse and have no problem looking themselves in the mirror, there does seem to be a common factor, namely the rules do not apply to them, or so they think. Not everyone who believes the rules do not apply to them are predators or criminals, but it can be a big factor. Another is denial. Never underestimate the role denial can play in people’s lives.

Barbara and I were there for that. We and just about everyone else kept checking our watches. "OK... we'd like to hear the corps now..." LOL

Think the same year Cadets were in an exhibition show at Gettysburg. GH gave an introduction and went on and on.... People around us were wondering if he was clueless that it wasn’t a Cadets band seminar or he had a chance to be the center of attention and couldn’t let go.

NightBEAT 31...The Greatest Show on Turf!: Sunday July 28th Winston-Salem NC 11 of the top 13 corps...including 2018 Top 9! Quite possibly the best drum corp venue in the nation...BB&T Field at Wake Forest University!

👏👏👏

Wes was the Dean of Drum Corps Announcers. Standing on the starting line as he gave your corps' introduction was an uplifting experience. At that moment, he made you believe you were the most important people on the planet. You were what was happening. The confidence boost was palpable. It takes a special individual to achieve that. Wes Hobby was a Drum Corps giant.

George Hopkins Charged with Two Counts Sexual Assault, A Felony of the Second Degree According to the LeHigh County District Attorney Story just broke by Tricia L Nadolny Via Twitter. Trying to figure out how to Post a pic here. http://www.philly.com/archive/tricia_nadolny/

For anyone interested - the 2018 downloads are now available on the Marching Music Downloads website thru DCI...that means the CD's should be shipping soon.

Just got my FedEx confirmation for my delivery tomorrow!

Well don't try to fly there in January because #HolyPriceIncrease! Worth every cent though...I cannot WAIT to see what this year brings!

The irony....oh, the irony. Another thing that bothered me was the comments that he could hire better people with more money. From what I know about the casualties incurred there, he HAD good people, most if not all initially thought they were getting a great job at a great place, for a marvelous cause and that it was an opportunity of a lifetime at first. I do know from experience paying people more, even a lot more, doesn't mean they'll be happy with extended work hours, no personal time, and being subjected to the guff GH tossed out at his employees.

🤢 Pretty funny the first post is about $500k fundraising...

Wow... increase funding for YEA (from last year)... then count the number of times he uses “I”....

Just listened to the top 7 so far, but they're just fine. They fixed SCV's soloists so the balance is right, and you could hear a lot of details in BD's ballad that I hadn't heard before, both online and in person. Mike

Saw on FB the news that legendary drum corps PA announcer Wes Hobby has passed away. IMO, he was, and will remain, the all-time greatest. No one quite like him, before or since. https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/stamfordadvocate/obituary.aspx?n=milton-hobby&pid=190750993&fhid=3958&fbclid=IwAR1aSoTvUVR7t85clygDWHwpFe3rUXX9NLqPhTUva2pbALoEZNS4WwQu_HE

RIP

They’re called sociopaths.

The closest show for me is a 5 hour plane flight away (HI to CA) plus another hour of road time at minimum. At least I’ll be flying off the Big Island now and not have to deal with the nightmare known as Daniel K Inouye Airport.

I’m not a psychologist, but there has to be something seriously wrong with an individual that can go down this road and not have it consume them, whether it’s a priest, a teacher, or a corps director. How does one get up and look in the mirror every day? How does one go about trying to set an example? Even absent a conscience (or the ability to rationalize it, which is the same thing as not having a conscience), how does it not become torture to have that in the past, knowing that at any moment it could become public? It would be like a real-life version of “The Telltale Heart”.

I agree it is a smart move, but I wish one of the fewer shows was not Beanpot, especially where there is no show in Rhode Island this year, but I reserve the right to take back this comment if they break into the top three and credit extra rehearsal time in late June/early July!

I still wish they were in Florida in February. ::pouting::

For anyone “worrying” about a low audition number at a satellite camp don’t. Seen the same thing with other top corps and trust me, Boston will be loaded!

Not to fret, Ghost. Boston 's overall auditioneer numbers.. all sections... that have registered so far to attend one of the Corps newly expanded national site locations and/ or make application thru a video submission for staff's evaluations this off season, is reportedly going exceedingly well so far.

For me knocking off five shows from their normal season number may prove to be a smart move.

Hopefully had a good turnout at PASIC this weekend., I get the sense they are moving fast toward next summer.

The entire old website was much better. As for 2019, Winston-Salem and Flo for me. Maybe Lexington, SC. We'll see, I'm not a huge fan of driving four hours round trip for a 5 corps show.

PFFFFF!!!!! Was it a Shoebox card???

Sad news. I first discovered Wes Hobby’s voice listening to LP drum corps albums in 1965. Had never met him, but he seemed to be a part of all the major event recordings. I needed to have him! Years later, I had the good fortune to hire Wes to announce our Allentown event. I remember my initial telephone call to his home. I knew right away that was Wes on the other end of the line! It was surreal for me. Cool thing about Wes, he could also speak French. Came in handy with Les Diplomats and other Canadian corps who made the trip to Allentown. We had a good time during those earlier days. May he Rest In Peace.

But GH had to give the phone back to YEA

I like seeing where they have rehearsal days for layering the show but it is a pretty steady flow of shows. Eat em up Boston.

Please! please! please!...if you use props(and I assume you will) make them professionally constructed and non high school looking..thank you

Now that BDB and SCVC are out of the way PC should move up in 2019. “Not to be outdone, SCV will ground their entire battery, pick up more cymbals and wow the crowd with ‘The Super Viper.’”

My last year marching DCA was 1982... Wes was the announcer for the championship that year, in Allentown. It was so cool to end my drum corps competition career by hearing Wes Hobby announce us as the DCA champs!!!

RIP Wes Hobby": Fran has pretty well said it all. Wes Hobby set the bar for all the drum corps announcers that came after him We are very much diminished by his passing. RIP Elphaba 😢

Allentown and Flo for me

Somebody did a study once If I recall, it showed that Hop was, by far, the most highly-paid director. I remember discussion at the time focused on the other profit-making entities (primarily USBs) and Hop's responsibilities in "running" them as businesses for justification of his higher pay. Most directors that get paid make fractions of this, and many, very many, get paid little or nothing.

A great deal has to do with how typical George Hopkins' situations is in the activity. I would say in many ways he is atypical. Yes every director wants what is best for his/her corps as GH did. He did push the envelope during his time with DCI, but again that is not that different from other directors. He called all the shots, but again that is not that different from other directors. However, what makes a difference is that we may be dealing with someone who could be diagnosed with a narcissistic personality, which should be stated at the outset is not an excuse for criminal behavior, and this adds a different dimension. His rants were like no others. When people disagreed with him, he reacted in a way that differentiated him from other directors. He also believed rules did not apply to him yet he made sure every rule applied to everyone else. The fact that some of the behavior GH is being charged with takes place in a wok environment and some may involve spiking a drink may make this situation unique. I don't think we're going to hear of this kind of behavior from most corps that have an issue with sexual misconduct. This is not to minimize the seriousness of sexual abuse and misconduct. We will hear about boundary violations, perhaps some coercion, and issues we know are wrong but criminally may fall into gray area with the exception of cases involving minors, which are always criminal . We may hear of more wrong hirings. We will hear of cases which will demonstrate why we need written policies stating zero tolerance, and if appropriate involvement with law enforcement may be necessary, but GH's situation may be different. The GH situation may be at rock bottom, but of what other posters have said in this thread and others, we may not even be at the ledge yet since all we have are stories, rumors, and hearsay.

I got to watch drum corps evolve right in front of my eyes in early August of 1976. The Blue Devils came into Stillwater, Minnesota several days ahead of their back-to-back shows there. Those of us who closely followed drum corps had read and heard about the Concord juggernaut, and the Devils more than lived up to the hype. I spent literally 10 hours a day for 3 days watching them polish their show. You must remember than prior to 1976 Madison had won with basically a blow 'em off the field presentation (one of the 1975 DCI finals brass judges personally told me he couldn't even hear what Madison was doing, due to the volume level they were performing at).....but what the Blue Devils came up with was the first true melding of finesse, power, musicianship and showmanship. When we watched Blue Devils do a complete run through of their entire show in an empty stadium, we knew we were seeing the future of drum corps! And, for the people who claim Madison would have won DCI had they started out the year with the same show they ended up with....NO WAY! Blue Devils were head-and-shoulders above anything the Scouts could put on the field in '76. We also have to mention that some corps were gun-shy about showing up in Philadelphia for that 1976 DCI Championship, due to the Legionnaires Disease outbreak that hit Philly a few weeks earlier. Andrew Hornak, a 47-year-old bus driver for Pennsylvania's Keystone Kadets junior corps, died of the disease after bringing the corps to the state American Legion parade in Philadelphia the first week of August, so you can appreciate how corps directors felt about exposing their kids to a disease that at that time was a complete mystery.

More contras 🙂

After watching what’s happening with mics in DCI over the past few years: Amplifying brass/field perc not permitted on field proper. Up to 2 free-standing mics on stands in front of front-sideline are permitted for solos. Mic’ing the entire ensemble (shotgun mics) is not permitted. This experiment (free for all amplification) has failed. Most of the “creativity” has just been getting around bad staging for a visual effect or being loud without doing the work it takes to do that well. If we can’t hear you because of where you are on the field, you’ve failed to design appropriate staging. If only an IEM can keep you playing in time, you’ve failed. “Solving” these failures through in ear monitors and mics is really just laziness. If you want your soloist(s) mic’d then you will have to forego their visual contribution and plant them on the FSL (where most of them probably don’t need a mic anyway). You decide.