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I'm Stu, this is my brother Stu, and my other brother Stu.

I agree. I don't understand the thought process in Rockford. We all have the examples right in front of us on what it takes to win, and Regiment is significantly behind on all fronts. They, and Madison, are being out designed by their peers and by corps that placed beneath them last year. I would think a lot of top corps would have been paying attention to what's happening with Madison and try to avoid it. Apparently, that's not the case for Regiment. Since 2012, their designs have gotten progressively worse - year by year, and their placements are reflecting that. When you look at how sloppy the entire design of the 2018 production was, musically and visually, it is very worrisome. There's not one second in that show where I am not questioning some design choice. Furthermore, the attempt to seemingly distance 2018 New World Symphony from 1989 New World Symphony is very troublesome. The 1989 show worked exceptionally well on all fronts, but the music was just triumphant - passionate, exciting, beautiful, moving.... They really transformed that piece of music into a pretty dull and boring one, which I wouldn't have thought possible. I do not expect Regiment to make finals in 2019. I'm not even quite sure if I agree with them making finals in 2018.

There were letters to the editor in the predecessor to DCP and the internet....Drum Corps News...that bemoaned the addition of the contra. NanciD's great project to place the old issues online shows some of them.

In the GSC there was a rule that each corps had to sponsor a show, to provide sufficient competitive opportunities. In the mid/late 70's when I was teaching and judging in the circuit, corps went to all sorts of efforts to host a show CHEAPLY. We had shows in parking lots, in parks, and in Havre de Grace MD on a pier. People would just wander by and sometimes stop for a few minutes. Very shoe-string sorts of things. GE judges would stand on top of equipment trucks. Some corps did have shows on real HS fields, but you could normally count the...ahem..."crowd"...on the fingers of your hands.

It would've been pissa if it had a place on the side of the unit to stick my Marlboro's on it back then too

I would have loved this when I was marching.

And those bells REALLY came thru on the recordings. Especially with the drum line elevator drill.

Makes me flash back to the Blue Stars guard in the early 70's. Best guard uni ever, when I was marching! 😎

Or Cayman Caydets.

There are fewer drum corps today than when DCI started, for sure. However, there are waaaay more competitive marching/music units when competitive HS marching bands are factored in, along with WGI winds. Also, most of the corps that failed through the 70's had little if anything to do with DCI. They were the small mom-and-pop local corps, a la the GSC corps, that no longer were able to attract members, raise funds in an era of huge fuel increases, new requirements for insurance, and just plain societal changes, not to mention the huge inflation of the late 70's. The churches had been pulling back long before DCI came along, and VFW/AL posts were in decline as well as WWII and Korean Vets aged. . It was no longer enough to stand on the corner and do a tag day every now and then to fund a corps in the new world.

he neglects to mention an overwhelming majority of the WGI units listed as scholastic units

I was going to reply to all this, then realized I already had: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/2012/06/inside-the-arc-its-just-not-drum-corps-anymore/

And that Stu made his “reputation” on ramd... ugh....🙄 And to respond to brasso, heard that ain’t drum corps in 1975. Something about marching bells and getting rid of Color Pre.

I'm only 15 minutes in...Man, I over-intellectualize drum corps as much as anyone (usually assisted by hella dank ganja). Indeed, it is literally my job to overthink music. I've even thought of creating a "Marching Bands and Society" course. But...this is a bit much even for me. As a friend would say, "Dude...there are some good ideas, but mostly...########." Now, about that ganja...

Why oh why must Regiment always go down this rabbit hole? There are tons of great pieces out there that no corps has touched, yet they keep rehashing. I love Fire, but there is no way it is going to live up to 1993. They are following Madison down that rabbit hole.

All kidding aside.. 'sounds like a very useful tool to me. I can see where it would provide instant feedback to an individual's off season development, allowing to chart one's own progress, and be helpful to instructors as well.

I agree. I am worried that “Fire of Eternal Glory” will get the same treatment “New World Symphony” got last year.

was that a Planar Analysis?

Each year after the first few shows, once I've had a chance to see everybody, I "take inventory" so to speak and gauge how good a year it seems to be. I do a little comparison of each corps' current show to the previous year's show - better, worse, or about the same (hey, I'm an optometrist, so it's in my nature ). The quality and engagement level of show design of course fluctuates in this activity as in any creative endeavor. If most corps are better or at least as good as the prior year, it's a good year. I've often thought , particularly doing this comparison, "Wouldn't it be awesome if every corps knocked it out of the park with their show design and had their best show ever - all in the same year?" Of course, this would never happen and it would make the next year a pretty big letdown most likely. But it's fun to think about. Or, what if you could bring back any show from the past and see it live? What would your "Ultimate Finals" look like? There have been lots of discussion and polls over the years about the best or favorite shows, but I don't recall seeing one quite like this. Here are the criteria: pick twelve different corps (not different shows/years from the same corps) and the show from each that would be in your personal Ultimate Finals competition, as well as the performance order and venue. This doesn't necessarily have to be what you think are the "best" or highest scoring shows, but the ones that would make for the most enjoyable evening for you personally. And I'm not looking for scores or how you think the competition would shake out - just what would leave you the most entertained by the performances on their own merits. You can choose any Finalist show from any year in the DCI era. Here's my Ultimate Finals: Venue: Camp Randall Stadium - Madison, WI (packed to the gills) Weather: Clear skies, 79 degrees, calm wind, 35% humidity Before the Show - Future Corps outside the stadium 7:00pm - National Anthem - Al Chez 7:06pm - 2000 U.S. Marine Drum & Bugle Corps (Exhibition) 7:30pm - 1992 Crossmen 7:47pm - 1980 Spirit of Atlanta 8:04pm - 1980 Bridgemen 8:21pm - 2004 Cavaliers 8:38pm - 1993 Star of Indiana 8:55pm - 1995 Madison Scouts 9:12pm - Intermission - DrumLine Battle: The Old Guard vs. Hellcats 9:35pm - 2016 Bluecoats 9:52pm - 1987 Garfield Cadets 10:09pm - 2013 Carolina Crown 10:26pm - 2017 Blue Devils 10:43pm - 2008 Phantom Regiment 11:00pm - 2018 Santa Clara Vanguard 11:25pm - 1994 27th Lancers Alumni Corps (Exhibition) 11:47pm - Ambulance to nearest ER, possibly coroner

Four of the friends who left work to attend the verdict reading were people who’d met Escalon 10 years before his death, when they were all members of Concord’s award-winning drum and bugle corps group The Blue Devils. Escalon joined as a teenager, quickly developing friendships that lasted the rest of his life. Read the […] View the full article

Replacing their originally scheduled program "4.15"

By the mid-90's they were all at HS venues IIRC, but yes, the crowds were small for the most part, I remember the Mount Vernon show and Championships had some numbers, though. Then again, I've seen Pittsburgh area HS shows with less than 15 people in the stands, which made me pretty sad.

Also a Keeper Of Odd Knowledge.

This is tough, but I'll give it a shot. 1. 2010 Toy SOULdier - greatest show in DCI history Just kidding, sorry, I couldn't resist. Here's the real list: 1. 1987 Appalachian Spring - took my breath away. 2. 1985 - awesome. 3. 2000 We are the Future - just unbelievable. 4. 1996 The American West - good fun. 5. 1991 The ABC's of Modern American Music - so underrated. 6. 2005 The Zone - brilliant. 7. 2001 Juxtaperformance - underrated and amazing. 8. 1992 To Tame the Perilous Skies - grew exceptionally over the past week of the season. thrilling to witness. 9. 1997 Celebration - cool. 10. 1989 Les Miserables - ahead of its time.

Very salient. Usually the bells were banging away like crazy with copper mallets and denting the metal.

Except they were wearing short sleeved shirts. I don’t mind the shorts so much as the look of the Cadets jackets with them. It was kind of strange.

"Performing their 2020 program 'Offshoring'.... from the Cayman Islands, please welcome..."

Well said. The local-circuit junior corps where I marched in the 1970s... our director wanted nothing to do with DCI. But the corps was basically a shoestring operation, and was going away at some point whether DCI existed or not. And when various critics over the years have said "DCI officials did this or that wrong, DCI officials made bad decisions"... I wonder if those critics are aware that the voting membership, not the DCI front office, makes the vast majority of the decisions regarding the direction and governance of the circuit. Same with DCA. I lost count of the number of times I heard "Mickey Petrone (then-DCA president) did this or that... made this rule or that rule... at the last meeting"... when I was at that particular meeting, and nothing of the sort happened.

The brass sound that we all connect to Phantom was missing for the past few years. The music has lacked the GE that other corps have. This definitely impacts the visual design, as well as the guard choreography. There is so much classical and contemporary music that the corps could perform and be successful with. I do agree that a consultant with much experience needs to come in and help guide the design team. As somebody posted earlier, Howard Weinstein is available. He has a proven track record. There are a few other corps trying to knock Regiment out of the finals spot (Spirit, Colts, Scouts, etc.), if things don't improve. Good luck Regiment! Make the correct decisions.

Great now I have “The Muffin Man” stuck in my head... along with the interrogation scene in Shrek that refers to it... 😫

Yup... nicely done too , imo

I was OK with last year's New World until it....well.

I know of a very well known brass instructor that taught several Junior/ Senior Corps for years... a Hall of Famer... that walked away entirely from the activity when he saw that a few of the Corps he taught had purchased an over the shoulder brass instrument called "the Contra Bass" in that 1960- 1963 time period. He, along with quite a few others, did not consider this instrument a " Drum & Bugle Corps " instrument... but instead a " Marching Band instrument ". Less than 6 years later, just about ALL the competing Jr. and Sr. " Drum & Bugle Corps " were utilizing this " Marching Band ", instrument, so logically, I guess some might say that Stuart Rice himself did not march in a " Drum & Bugle Corps ", as few " purists" " from the 40's-50's era considered the " Contra Bass " as a " Drum & Bugle Corps " instrument when it was 1st introduced in the early 60's in large scale to the Drum Corps activity.

Definitely agree but of course that’s the fun of it! A lot of these I had to watch for the first time so it was very interesting getting first read on them

WCU had a complete collection of the Casavant books. For the post WW2 era, utterly fascinating and groundbreaking, maybe more important then many realize. They were thin, roughly 8 by 14 books with photos of miniature bandsmen in the various forms on a model field. A couple dozen of those volumes IIRC were done. Any Band Director could pick one of the volumes which had 2-3 shows in them, adjust the sets for their group, pick music to play to the drill, and voila! Instant show for the masses at the Big Game. The thing was, the drill had no relation to any music, all things you could just plug into whatever one chose to do, which for that era made it handy. "Opener" for instance.... then some suggested counts between each set. It definitely wasn't corps style/presentational style drill. Very logical transitions, and not really set to any music per se. Once in awhile, I'd see a band or 2 from WV doing Casavant style material, one in particular was really good at it, very clean and precise on the evolutions, which wasn't exactly easy to do. I think, Jim, a lot of his Dad's style rubbed off on Charlie. There were moments it wasn't exactly Corps style to say the least when I'd see IUP off and on. Some head scratching moments now and again.

Rice marched late 70's/early 80's BD...not exactly military style

Or Clare in 2015. BORING!

I loved 77 even though they beat our ###. But those shorts with the Cadets jackets.... 😳

Ya... can't use " the dog ate my homework " excuse no more with this either.

I might switch some of them around given more thought, but these are my overall favorites 1. 1997 - Philip Sparke show is still an all time favorite of mine 2. 1992 -- Skies 3. 1993 - King's 4. 1983 - Rocky Point 5. 1971 - America, the Brave...amazing show for its day (plus I marched in it!) 6. 1990 - Mass 7. 2011 - Angels 8. 1985 - Candide! 9. 2005 - In the Zone 10. 1977 - A blast of a show 11. 1987 - Appalachian Spring 12. 2007 - Love that show!

It's a great tool and really keeps the performers engaged. It can be hilarious as a parent listening to a MM who is aiming for a high score on an assignment and hearing "WHAT?!", "Oh, c'mon!", "Ugh!", followed be "WOOHOO!!" 😄 😄

Ugh...Fire of Eternal Glory? Can it possibly live up to 1993, I don't think so. Such a classic PR piece, and to be honest, after 2018, I don't know that they'll have the same feel.

Reads like it's a great tool. Glad we didn't have this decades ago. Then again, none of us could read music so it wouldn't have helped us.

Well that's promising.

right now, if there is one thing that can kill them, it's trying to live up to expectations, which in some cases are un ####### achievable. Given everything the organization has gone thru in the last 11...ok lets say last 3 years, right now, worry about just making the product better, hope for competitive success...which lets face it, the 6 above them are a ###### far sight better than they were the last time the Cadets medaled....and go from there. if everyone and their brother keeps expecting a return to 82-87 level success instantly, they're out of their ####### minds. the game has totally changed in the last 10 years, and if people expect instant contention, you'll soon see Madison like wars internally. Just be patient and allow everything to grow.