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For those who once marched, those who served, and those who witnessed by living in freedom in NYC, DC, and Shanksville, PA: may they not be forgotten.

I recommended that unlimited free beer should be served at all DCI events to help promote attendance and enhance the entertainment experience.

Madison Scouts "New York Morning". I still tear up every time I watch that show.

Remembering the Harrell brothers... Stephen and Harvey. Both NYC firefighters... both killed on 9-11. Two drum corps guys. Stephen was a baritone soloist with the NY Skyliners senior corps.

Ok. Tilda Swindon indeed! Too funny! Maybe Regiment could do “Orlando” for 2020????? Your comments about diversity in instructional staff has to start with the realization that drum corps isn’t financially accessible to many potential marching members. There are tons of gifted people who don’t have the $2800+ to play drum corps for a season. Let’s start with “financial diversity”. Get DCI to acknowledge that not everyone has the bankroll of the top 12 corps. DCI created the disparity between corps based on what X or Y corps can afford to put on the field. DCI is now rewarding how a show is designed over the sweat equity the marching members put out to refine and perform what they are given. Some call this idea old fashioned/irrelevant but it is a founding principle of today’s drum corps. I’ll take the flaming, I don’t care. DCI should reward accomplishment over design.

I was the Operations Officer on USS INGRAHAM underway in the Indian Ocean at the time of the attack. We were with the CARL VINSON battle group on the way to the Persian Gulf, so we just detoured to the southern coast of Pakistan and waited for everyone else to show up. We knew it was game on.

It’s an American flag. Is that still acceptable or is there someone I need to check with? I have one flying in front of my house every day, too. A Vietnam veteran and Marine lives here.

Jim and another volunteer drove out to Shanksville in 2014 when they were nearby while out with The Cadets. He said you could feel their souls. I felt the same way when we visited ground zero in 2011. May God bless them. 🙏

Just going to leave this right here...highlight of my time as a Madison Scout.

I was driving into DC that morning. It was a beautiful morning. The sky so blue. The heat of summer had finally broken. It was early in the semester and the campus ministers were to have our first Tuesday AM meeting. Such an incredible morning I'd left the TV off because who wants noise when there's such an amazing sky out there. I'm driving in and US 50 where it turns into town and becomes New York Avenue is in the middle of what must have been a decade long construction project. Traffic is light and while I'm after the bulk of the rush hour, there's usually more than this. But hey, that blue sky, the cooler air, light traffic, this is a great day. My pager goes off, it's one of those 'two lines of text' pagers of the time and about all that we deaf folk could get. I pull it out of the holster and look real quick coming down the Baltimore Washington Parkway but have to sort of hurry because my exit for US 50/NY Ave is coming up. TURN ON UR TV. THIS IS BAD. My heart skips a beat. Our campus had two murders happen the year before and the person I'm getting this message from was a graduate student working with campus security. Each semester, it was about three weeks into the semester that it happened. And...we're about at week three. Well. I'm on my way in. I guess I'll find out when I arrive. I take my exit, round the turn. US 50 drops onto NY Ave at a rise and there's a brief moment when you're a bit higher than the city before you drop down into the bowl. On a clear day, you can see across the city. There was an amazing blue sky that morning. Then a brown cloud rises up way across the horizon. I actually remember rationally thinking through, "Is this it? Nuclear bomb? Should I turn around and head out? Ok, if it's nuclear, I'm already dead. If it's not, there's a bona fide crisis and the campus needs the campus ministers who can get there, i'm going in. Besides, with the construction, I'd have to go wrong way on this side of the road to turn around, I probably could without the traffic, but nah." All this in the span of the few seconds it took waiting to see if it would mushroom up and have a ring and then realizing, "Oh, wait. right. No flash. Probably not nuclear." The things we grew up learning after seeing The Day After on TV. I get to campus. The Catholic campus minister is there and glad to see me because he knows I have a small TV in my office to use for showing VHS tapes of ASL bible verses. I've got no antennae but we rig a paper clip wrapped to a wire coat hanger that's twisted to a metal window frame and get a signal. He's telling me what's happened and we get the signal and no sooner tune in and...the South Tower collapses. We're silent. Stunned. I finally am able to say...I saw a brown cloud over the Virginia side of the city... There's a slight panic between us. They break in with news on the Pentagon. ---- Our campus at the time had a high number of international students. Being the only university in the world designed entirely for deaf students, we attracted people from everywhere. The student government wanted to do a vigil that Friday evening with candles and an open stage for people to share their thoughts. Administration was super nervous about the idea of an open stage. During the murders the year before, things that were 'open stage' tended to get high strung and out of control as emotions soared and tempers flared for various reasons. Students were adamant about the open stage, so... the plan was, two large tables with large black cloths on both sides of the platform outside that were way too big for the number of candles for people to pick up. I and a staff person were at one table, two others at the other table, if hate speech began, we were to pull up the cloth and cover the stage. The visual equivalent of "cutting the mic." We were ready for the worst. We didn't need it. First speaker up..."I'm from Belfast, I grew up with bombs happening in the streets around us and people marching through the streets every summer. You'll be ok..." "I'm a Muslim from West Bank, my girlfriend is Jewish from Jerusalem. We met at the deaf school because they didn't have separate schools for us deaf like they do for the hearing. Our families can't know we're in love. We grew up with ..." "I'm from Somalia, my family fled with ..." "I'm from Liberia, I grew up in a camp in Ghana..." Yeah, there were a couple of US students who stood up and talked about the strength and pride of America, including one distraught student from NYC who had just learned her family was OK that morning. But it was the world comforting us, and the world welcoming us to the reality of their world of uncertainty. As much as I remember 9.11, I'll remember 9.14 even more. I miss the feeling of that evening after the fear took over again and our international students began to feel more and more uncomfortable and have more and more trouble being able to get the visas and entry into the US to study here. It was a beautiful blue sky that morning.

🇺🇸

Disco Demolition Night

You left out the hint of urinal puck.

Of Course! Only the best, high quality Keystone beer. Love that stale/sour taste profile with hints of old banana and armpit.

Ten cent beer night... worked so well at Cleveland in 1974.... 😈

A few comments: DCA shows typically pay corps to perform, while DCI all-age events are without pay. Not that it makes a huge difference but getting $1-3K from a show to cover travel can make a huge difference. Marketing does not require a full-time office in the age of social media, and the gig economy. As proven by DCI's marketing initiatives, and marketing examples such as Jersey Surf you can have a distributed team of people in varied geographic locations that help support marketing efforts. WIth only tools like Spark, and Canva, and gig sites like fiverr you can get all of your design and promotional needs resolved cheap and easily. Most recently, I did marketing and promotions for a few years for a major Miami fashion event called "DiveSwimWeek" during Swim Week. This is a VERY high level and high end fashion event featuring new designers like chromat and more. 1.) I never step foot in Miami 2.) there were two interns who helped post content 3.) we developed all of our marketing content MONTHS in advance and scheduled it out so the work during the events was based on engaging the audience. Keep in mind - this is not my full time job and completely unrelated to my day job. I've done marketing for a major DCI show for five years; after the second year, they stopped physical advertisements and went solely to only advertisements. 8 World Class corps including BD and Bluecoats; a budget of $500, coupled with about 60 man hours over the course of 8 month and we helped grow the events ticket sales year after year topping off at 3600; with 1800 pre-sale tickets EVEN WITH THREAT OF RAIN. Content was generated by myself months in advance; scheduled; and I even went and built the website with updated data. We hosted a two corps show this summer with no physical marketing, instead using all digital marketing, in a market that hasn't had a DCA show in over 20 years. Turnout exceeded expectations by 20% even in high heat; areas we can do better - some physical marketing and direct contact with directors for group discounts. Better engagement from local musical ensembles and vendors for support of the show. The biggest success and comments we received were around our professional developed videos and posters... all of which were purchased on fiverr.com for less than $50 TOTAL. IMO - all corps and the circuit have to be more diligent about marketing. Ask for help; delegate it to others; develop a brand strategy and just go after it. DCA is such an expansive circuit it absolutely breaks my heart that the history of the circuit; market that's distinctly different than DCA, and more isn't being exploited. Fostering an engaged digital fanbase: The DCI Ambassador program is a good example of how to start cultivating a grassroots agency and engagement for fans. Special passes; discounts on tickets; instantly enhanced social media presence; along with fans that now are commenting in a semi-official capacity about each corps going ons. This has the benefit of organically aggregating news and content on corps and the circuit by engaging and rewarding active social media users. I wrote a plan for this a year ago that may work for DCA; I offered my assistance with no real interest.

Diversity of competence is not tolerated, however. That’s not fair. I want to be a caption head.

You win the fan favorite award

From what I can see in most respects drum corps has been ahead of the curve in terms of diversity. In terms of membership we see lots of both men and women. People of all colors are widely represented. People from many countries come to the US to march in corps. There are rich kids and some pretty poor kids. And all of these corps now have a good number of out LGBT members - most likely more than we have in the general population. So certainly among the members it seems to me like drum corps is very diverse and I think that is really very important. The staffs are less diverse. They skew male, and they skew caucasian though there are certainly still a lot of female staff members in key roles and a lot of non-caucasian staff members as well. But clearly it is dominated by white males. My instincts are that this is mostly just the natural way that thing have settled out. Sometimes there are biases involved, and other times for whatever reason men will prefer some activities, women others, etc. I expect these staffs will slowly get more diverse. I don't think we should get too uptight about it or try to set quotas or anything because I think that with diverse membership we will - over time - have more diverse staffs. From what I can see - at least among the top tier corps - there seems to be a pretty enlightened group of people in leadership. I truly can't imagine the BlueDevils, or Bluecoats, or most any of the other top corps discriminating on the basis of gender or race for their staffs. I think they just look for whoever they can get that is the best in a particular area. So we're gonna get naturally more diverse staff over time and we will get that more diverse staff because those staff members will be the best in the respective fields. That's a very good thing.

Absolutely... all sorts of reasons back in the day. Perhaps even some excuses. LOL. Heck, even my local-circuit junior corps had overage members. But in our case, I can certify that it didn't do us any good.

Today I would agree. Many reasons some did it BITD. Maybe not good reasons but many of them..lol

None whatsoever, in my opinion. So many talented, dedicated 20-21 year-olds... why would a DCI corps ever need an overage member these days?

I went to a Target on my lunch break and joined about a half dozen or so people crowded around the TV section. We were all so horrified. When I finally left for home at 5:00, DFW international airport, which was only about a mile or so from our office, was completely silent. No overhead air traffic at all. It was so eerie.

We’ll be in New York this Thanksgiving for the parade and a visit to the WTC memorial is also on the week’s itinerary. I’ve never been before; I think it’s going to be pretty emotional but I’m really looking forward to seeing it as well. In 2001 I was working at a call center (in collections) and my coverage area included New Jersey and part of New York. We started work at 8:00 (central) and I remembered hearing a short blurb on the radio, just before I got out of my car, that there was a report of a small plane colliding with one of the towers. As I started making my first calls, I kept getting an “ all circuits are busy” recording. Over and over and over again. Then my wife called and said, “Are you hearing what they’re saying on the news?” It was a sickening feeling. We didn’t have internet access, and no TV’s either, so I had to rely on calls from her throughout the morning for more news of what was going on. I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like for people who lived or worked in that area or experienced it firsthand.

This is also WINNING for the audience! This 2 minutes will be remembered long after scores are forgotten.

This is winning for the Bluecoats. And the audience knew it.

WINNING....

I guess this is my day to cry. Every year since 2001.

Oh, that whole daggone show was a Pu-38 explosive space modulator. One Earth Shattering Kaboom coming up. Obviously Marvin wasn't at DCA weekend last year.

I like being on the naughty list. 😈

It'd be the first ever brawl in the stands over whether A Day in the Life or Hey Jude is better to end a marching band show with. Mike

ditto. they just look here and Facebook to see what we think ( or they listen to DCAF)

Heady, but with just a touch of mellow smoothness.

Speaking of bad concessions though, I had only one thing at LOS. I was waiting with the age-outs by souvie tents late that Friday. I hadn't eaten since before Semis and my stomach was rumbly, so I decided to get something to take the edge off the hunger. I got a "soft" pretzel because I figured, how bad could that be? After a 5 minute wait the lady brought me a pretzel and said, "Well I had a hard time finding this and it's not very good, so...you can just have it for free...if you want it" The pretzel was cold and stale and had no salt on it. I later figured out that she must have thought I said "no salt" pretzel vice "soft" pretzel. I think she might have washed the salt off of one in the sink.

The only thing I’ve seen there is bad beer. I’ve never had one there but I do buy water and an occasional bag of peanut M&Ms.

Man that drumline was great

I’m on the pay-no-nevermind list. Never get a survey.

Maybe for just the tour fees, but with costs for auditions, travel to and from camps/auditions, camp costs, and spending money, I'd say the total costs for a year are 2-3 times higher.

One can not assume that whoever was successful even a few years ago let alone many years ago would stay the same, support the same things ,focus or prioritize the same, design the same. Plenty of examples

They were successful over all their competition at various times over the season. They were victorious over all their competition save one corps on the last two shows of the year and by the slimmest of margins. I would say that is a very successful season.

Without hesitation, I disagree. In the student ranks, and definitely in the design and caption management ranks. I have not found drum corps to be as diverse as the US population. But I'm really only referring to design and caption managers. And without hesitation, I agree with you wholeheartedly here. Of course, I in no way talked about increasing minority involvement of marching membership, but you're free to tangent however you please. I'm referring to inspiring current marchers to be the next set of designers and caption managers by enabling them to see themselves in those positions. Diversity is for them to witness and experience and learn from, not for you or me to write about on a website. But ultimately, I really don't understand how you can disagree with my premise: drum corps should be more intentional about getting a diverse body of people in design and caption management. Your argument is "hire the right people, not losers," and I don't see how I'm suggesting to hire incompetence. Nobody (except maybe Getoffmydot) is suggesting quotas, though that's the typical anti-diversity argument. Designers should do their best to mentor a diverse group of designers. Corps should embrace and encourage it. Empathy isn't easy when one doesn't have the same common experience (and I'm guilty of this - I'm so white, I'm like the ghost of Tilda Swinton). A lot of folks on here don't understand what I'm saying, and that's okay - I really hope corps leaders do. And my apologies for doing my small part to keep this topic alive. There isn't much on the merry-go-round these days, but I don't see any need in closing this thread.

Just give it a rest. Walking around with a diversity clipboard to see who measures up to your scores is insulting to people who have devoted their lives to teaching these kids out to do drum Corps.

Yeah 05 sucked, would be a shame to win again......

some of the best designers have been around a very long time...Unless you mean the poles..lol

They don’t send me a survey and I actually was in Bloomington and every year in Indy.

Or, apparently, at an academy!

No, that is not quite it. Some DCA corps already worked out participation with DCI many years ago, and have done so annually ever since. They can talk to DCI about adding one more show whenever they want. Frankly, DCA has no right (or reason) to interfere in DCI show scheduling, or to dictate what a DCA corps can/cannot do on weekends when they have no DCA commitments. The only reason DCA did interfere is because they thought that a DCI championship-week event might become a replacement "finals" for certain DCA corps who find Labor Day weekend increasingly problematic. Which brings me back to this... DCA is demonstrably aware that Labor Day weekend has become a detriment. Yet, as long as 6 out of 10 voting corps choose to stay the course, it does not matter how detrimental it becomes to the other 4 voting corps, the 4 non-voting entrants, or any other potential participants like MBI or Chops who have already dropped out.

I have just one, and it is based on Webster's dictionary. "be successful or victorious" One can argue they were successful if their own scoring benchmark is at play, but victorious is a no go based on their score, they were not competing against themselves.