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More memories from 31 years ago. (As anyone who has marched the Rose Parade knows...the memory of it lasts forever). We played Crown Imperial, English Folk Song Suite, and something else which eludes me right now(it WAS 31 years ago!) We'd been told we should not stop playing for the entire 30 minutes it would take to get through the US and International TV zones. If we stopped playing, cameras would turn off and go to commercial. So we had 15 minutes programmed and played it through twice for that stretch. Then did the 15 minute program intermittently through the very long route. There's a turn in the route that I think is the last official turn and you end up facing the Sierra Madre. For a bunch of flatlanders, this view is nothing short of amazing. Our director was "There's the Sierra Madre, we're in the home stretch now, almost done." Of course there were like 2 1/2 miles of parade route left. This too became a continual joke for the next year whenever we were tired on the road to somewhere and had a long way to go, "Oh look!! There's the Sierra Madre! We're almost there!" Toward the end of the parade route, we played progressively worse and worse because of the fatigue and looooong day (we'd been up to get to the staging area since 4:30 AM). At some point toward the end, the parade escort for us told the director we weren't obligated to play for the rest of the route., so word went down the ranks we just had to march it out. A bit later, our director noticed that the entire crowd route was wheelchair users and hollered to us, "Hey, they've put the disabled folks at the end here, what do you say we play one more time for them?" "Yaah! 9from us, and the crowd)". We get counted off and play one last time, playing pretty darn well from the motivation and knowing it was our last step off. The folks in wheelchairs were loving it and clapping along to our beat. It was great. We reached the park where we end before we'd finished the set so our DM just marched us into a circle in our designated spot and we kept playing to the end. Some other bands and volunteers from floats came over to listen and cheer too. It was a fantastic end. Looking forward to Pacific Crest's debut in this grand parade! The experience they're having with all the appearances and events as well as the parade itself will be with them forever.

Edit: I've made the line! I'm incredibly excited and will tell y'all now you guys are in for an awesome year from Crown.

wearing a distinct hat

https://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-nda-hollywood-20181231-story.html This should be policy among DCI member corps as well. A staff member or administrator's bad actions with a corps should never be allowed to be hushed up by a signed agreement - period.

Is anyone on here going to the big DCI pow-wow (aka Januals) later this month? Would be good to have a report that is not filtered through DCI. Would be even better to have someone there asking the hard questions

I hope they enjoyed their apple brandy .

The Press release from DCI is nothing more than.... print. Only time will tell if DCI's new procedures/ policies they'll further explore at DCI's Annual Congress later this month, then vote on, then implement, will provide an added layer of safety to MM's in the future. Its too early to determine what effect this will all have on issues relating to the innocents protection of their fundamental rights to privacy either, imo. DCI HQ also has remaining unresolved issues with current Corps apparently operating with personnel that seem at odds with their press releases on " misconduct not being tolerated". If DCI HQ still has people in leadership positions in membership Corps that have ( for just one example )reportedly paid a firm to hide a staffer's bad behaviors with youth in the past from others, then no amount of DCI HQ press release verbiage is going to persuade many people that DCI HQ has a real handle on the gravity of the situation, nor is really committed to the furtherance of policies designed to increase MM safety. Words are mere words. Action by DCI HQ explains the true reality far more than mere words from their press releases does, imo

Watching on the Hallmakr channel and a bit disgusted that the “commercial free” broadcast put a big advertising banner for their Winterfest in the middle is the screen for the bulk of FloMo’s screen time. Sigh.

My guess is that the FB page is essentially this:

This tells me that there must be many more guilty members of Congress. Once again founding fathers, you blew it with no term limitations.

Dam it, now Terri is going to have some fun. I underestimated his ego.

I hear the pitter-patter of tiny feet running over to check Facebook...

Another reason why I’d like to see the breakdown on what will be discussed at the meeting. Along with who will be leading along with the the leaders credentials. Really hope DCI realizes this will always be an ongoing training as things change almost year to year. If anyone thinks this is once and done they are sadly mistaken. that reminds me... need to check what online training I have to take at work over the next quarter. Past quarter was info security (2 of em) and active shooter. Due for sexual harassment/sexual assault.

As you well know, $500 means more to an all-age corps than to the corps with nearly 2 million dollar budgets. $500 buys a snare drum. He who shall not be named would rather that $$$ go towards equipment for the members.

Good point. How many of these types of conventions don't offer a reduced price for your Significant Other? We both dragged each other along would get a visitors badge for the social events so we didn't eat apart but no access to seminars/meetings. Didn't matter to us most of the time we were off to drum corps or concerts anyway.

In addition, I have no affiliation with any drum corps and I understand there are costs involved with these meetings. If a corps representative(s) is attending and voting in the meetings, of course they should pay the full cost. But I do believe the wellness and safety seminar should have been offered to all drum corps that participate in DCI events at a reduced price. Edit: I’ve been told that DCI is offering the health and wellness seminar at a reduced cost for any DCA corps who wish to attend.

This just got a mention on CBS national news as one of the changes in law for 2019.....

To quote “him”, he said he doesn’t need anyone to tell him what is right from wrong. He said he already knows to not hire bad actors and knows to dismiss them when or if they are revealed

Bet people who go won’t get a commemorative t shirt either.

Senator McCarthy would have been thrilled to have access to such resources.

Yep and have heard from more than one person that their opinion of someone known for years changed once they friended them. Started getting all the posts that friend made and scary stuff came to light.

I thought about it-can't really get into detail, but just by looking at various social media sites of a person, a lot can be found out just by what they present and say publicly without having to ask them for anything or hacking or knowing any passwords. Many connections can be made and dots connected.

That’s a lovely autocorrect. Some apple brandy would have been great after marching that. I had to settle for a Dr. Pepper. The only time in my life that Dr. Pepper was actually good.

Review of online presence may just mean search of persons postings on social media. Unless DCI demands the person change their SM settings so DCI can get a better look it is not invasion of privacy as anyone can do the same. National resource might be DCIs clumsy way of saying search engines built for SM checking or a company that does the work.

Ok. Towing the train float with a wrecker. And the grand finale is after. So it’s not too terrible.

Pacific Crest looked and sounded awesome!

PC looked and sounded excellent...nice foot phasing, too.

PC looked really good.

Good to know. We’ve got it going via the Roku though. So not sure we can do KTLA that way. Pacific Creat didn’t have the interruption! Yay.

Hallmark coverage is being provided by KTLA ... you can stream from their website (KTLA) without the stupid Hallmark commercial popping up for every band.

Overly pretentious obtuse social justice show themes being developed in order to pontificate to the underclass sitting in the stands buying the tickets that pay the costs for this activity.

The corps depend so much on outside support to keep going be it show sites, housing sites, sponsorships, donations and band directors willing to direct members to corps. BSA has taken hits in membership for various reasons and not as stable as it used to be. The individual corps don’t have the deep pockets that your other examples to be able to ride out a long storm. And the tone deaf responses from DCI does not make it sound like this will be over soon.

Why are we even discussing all these extreme vetting processes when the activity can’t even keep out the people who have documentation showing them to be unsuitable to teach, march, or volunteer with drum corps? They haven’t gotten past step one yet.

When SCV did the parade in ‘04 we trooped up Del Mar (that is the big freeway overpass) to Orange Grove where they “fold” you into the parade between the floats where Del Mar & Orange Grove intersect in a “T”. This is is a high-zoot residential area where lots of people are usually passed out in lawn chairs from the night before. The dudes on scooters monitored us as we got in the street, then the DMs took it up a notch. Full block right there at the T-intersection, tight dress, get some warm air into horns, hat brims down, feathers up, ready front (scwack!) SCV bad-assery on high, command given, 4-count “real” high mark time with horn up on 1, then nuclear bomb with 145 brass doing Procession of the Nobles at full “good” volume (not blatt) echoing off the houses. I actually saw (probably hungover) people fall backwards out of their chairs and heard some bystanders shout, “OMG, bands NEVER play for us this early!!” We did...the whole book...the drumlines was on, too. Gooooood Morning, Pasadeeeena...!!! We made a lot of new fans that morning.

Ah. A couple of floats and the Royal Swedish Cadet band got stuck.