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Word on the street is the first Crown brass block of the summer just leveled part of the Gardner Webb stadium.

For the record, the 2024 edition of the Boston Crusaders arrive in Vermont this coming Friday 5/24 with rehearsals beginning this Saturday, 5/25. Their first show is exactly 30 days later, on 6/26 in Rockford, MI. It's about to get real!

Ok. I'm probably gonna trigger some people but I just had to make this to play along at home this season...

If you have 28 days of ST to learn 10 min of show, it is around 22 seconds of show that they need to learn each day. Members of Marching Music’s Major League should be able to handle 22 seconds of new material in a 10 hour rehearsal day.

Hopefully Scott already has his successor identified and attached to his hip, so when he does decide to retire, the new person can step in and keep the BD train rolling. Same with ScoJo, Glyde, Meehan, TJ Doucette, and the rest of the awesome BD staff.

This one should get an honorary degree. .

Corps is officially moved in to GWebb. Announcement time soon?

Slotting is now favoring the Blue Devils because of their show announcement video? That's a new one.

I loved Djibouti Camp Le-mon-Yay ! They had a great pizza place right outside of the French camp. They had a Tuna Black Olive and Onion pizza that was amazing. It was a literal hole in the wall and no indoor tables but even in 120 degree heat that pizza was great. Then they had the French pastry shops where we had to stop every day on our way to do out thing. We beat the French Foreign legion in the TinCat fitness challenge which surprised them and earned us some good respect. I set up a band program in the local arts school and the people I recruited to help formed a Jazz band "the Horns of Africa" I got to plan and execute multi national training exercise, train with Legion De'tanger and go out with the Fench marines. I got to go to Seychelles during William and Kate's honeymoon. Got to hang out with IOG. I got to go to great beaches in Somalia that I had all to myself. I took the last ride on the old narrow gauge railroad before the Chinese built their new train to Ethiopia. They also had lots of Ethiopian Coffee houses that were good. Also got to sing with Mercy Me. I did 3 tours in Iraq, none were as fun as Djibouti. In 18 months in Djibouti no one ever shot at me, never had to write up a soldier for a Purple Heart. Never had to wear body armor in Africa. Though I did come home with mysterious tropical diseases Djibouti was a great time.

I won’t worry about the meat of a new show after Chandler retires. Glide, Meehan, et al will always produce top level sound. I will worry about the small details that always set BD apart from everyone. The movement “flourishes”. The minute details in the uniforms that tie each member so fully to the themes. I don’t know how much of that is Scott and how much is others.

And furthermore, if the Corps stands still to play closer just to meet timing requirements, then the GE/Visual score should take a hit. I don’t expect all the nuance & execution of an August performance. But BITD we had the bones in place each June. Yes execution was sketchy and we added stuff as the season progressed. But, if we did it, then today’s members can do it.

well as move ins begin 6/7 weeks before the first show, how long til corps start begging for money then come out without the shows done?

22 seconds a day seems reasonable if you’re doing company fronts, circle drills and playing Battle Hymn of the Republic. I usually only see corps live in CA around the third week of June. It doesn’t upset me when a corps doesn’t have their full show ready as I see how much harder shows are in 2024. Also, are you considering the possibility changes are made while learning a show? Maybe what was originally intended didn’t quite translate and provide the desired effect and entire changes are made early, thus pushing back endings or a certain part? That happened to us almost every year.

Events have occurred. You may want to go back to bottom of page 5 & start reading from there.

Great to point that out. I wonder when he says I have this idea for a show. Glide , Meehan and Johnson plan out the music selection? They are best of the best.

DCI needs to enforce minimum time requirements from the start of the season. I suggest 1 point penalty for every 15 seconds (or fraction thereof) under 10 min World Class or 8.5 min Open Class. Fans are paying to see a complete show, not just opener and ballad. Absolutely zero excuses after 4-7 weeks of ST to show up unprepared.

I may be in the minority, but I would take Arkansas over New York every time.

Jim didn’t like Saudi Arabia much. They couldn’t leave the temporary base and they had walls built around it like a fortress. He was in the reserves then and got called up to help set up a communications center.

Only in Vermont would a cat receive an honorary doctorate! 🐱🎓🙂

Way to go, Dre!!! Love this!! You raised a great one, Chief!!!

His contributions are significant, but as has been pointed out many many times, year after year, BD programming is a long time long established collaborative effort. There is a lot of creative talent within that org and each component helps each others success. Very possibly not possible in areas you’ve mentioned just because of a very different competitive structure. More individually ego driven.

A repertoire full of melodies? In Drum Corps? How positively refreshing! That Shanefield guy will crush this, and the Crossmen will be a crowd favorite.

Sorry y’all, the 4-peat is about to hit.

I couldn’t find a topic strictly dedicated to their ‘24 show. I’m thinking last year’s placement was an outlier. Their talent was top six imo. Hopefully their always talented guard is given a book that is achievable or surpassable on Saturday, August 10th. Happy 60th Anniversary, Blue Stars!

Blueanon!

No. BD wins because they have the skeleton done and add layers and tweaks while they clean. Everyone else keeps putting in whole new ending ms that get performed maybe for two weeks, losing cleaning time while teaching all new material

Such a great guy. I had the good fortune to teach with him years ago before he headed to BD. Had a chance to work with TJ for a short time as well, before she headed to BD. Both great people joined up with other great folks.

https://www.dci.org/news/drum-corps-international-and-walmart-health-collaboration-provides-telehealth-services-to-corps

Well to be fair to the haters, we did ask them to stop regurgitating the same excuses year after year, so I guess we can't be too mad at them for rolling out the media team excuse lol.

They were small but good when I saw them back then. Their "indoor" Colorguard competed in the Southern California circuit and was VERY good.

Cal State Los Angeles also had a Drum Corps show that was very well attended back then. If I am not mistaken, those shows were during the same weekend.

We didn't had to deal with props, non-asymmetrical drills, body movement, etc. Their shows are much more difficult to learn. I believe that's why.

When I first read the article, it took me a minute to even make the connection that it was Boston's spring training site. I saw "Castleton" and spent several minutes wondering why the name of that town sounded so familiar. I think Dr. Max Dow needs to make an appearance at rehearsal this year. If Boston is doing another show based on a literary classic, maybe he can put his Doctor of Litter-ature degree to good use.😅 Okay, I'll shut up now.

I agree, especially considering they are starting a month later than we did and they have weeks of every days. We had Memorial Day camp before our first show to get it donw.. It's frustrating being in CA and only getting the earliest season shows and some being incomplete. In 2018, SCV didn't even play the closer in standstill (until the encore). They ended right after the dance.

I don't think any of us have met Max the Cat at Castleton. (As an aside its still weird to hear it called Vermont State, since when I marched it was Castleton University)

thats usually how it works.

It will be these two again. And we all win watching them go at it.

That was moi. And I mean it. They have a way of taking music you’re only vaguely familiar with or not familiar with it at all, and making it feel like you’ve heard it all your life. That’s what they did in 2014. That probably only makes sense to me.

I wish it were that simple. I think when they are referring to diversity, it isn’t just race. It’s also socioeconomic. I was a blue collar kid who marched with mostly other people like me. That just doesn’t happen anymore. There are no Don Warrens going to the juvenile detention center to fill his color guard. Or Sie Lurye giving kids jobs at his flat lots and recruiting them into RA. I had old guys in RA reunion tell me that they would be in jail if not for Mr. Lurye. A hundred other stories like this one. Plus I marched in some pretty racially diverse drum corps over the years. We’re not doing this on a large scale anymore and it gives me pause.

Not sure how true it is or what all goes into the process, but I heard it had to do with getting the rights to play the music. I have no clue how any of this works, just going off what others have said on this forum in the past.

It took three hours to learn one line of music that fall. I thought I was gonna die. I did teach one friend in RA Reunion corps to read music because I was tired of seeing his scribbled up page with fingerings all over it. He’s passed on now. He was a great person worth teaching and he was willing to learn.

https://www.facebook.com/CrossmenDBC/videos/1557986595131281/ The Crossmen are thrilled to announce their 2024 production: Lush Life. "Lush Life" Billy Strayhorn "My Favorite Things" Richard Rodgers / Oscar Hammerstein II "So What" Miles Davis "Round Midnight" Thelonius Monk "Night in Tunisia" Dizzy Gillespie "Blues in the Night" Harold Arlen / Johnny Mercer "La Creation Du Monde" Darius Milhaud Original Music by Drew Shanefield / Ray Ulibarri / Juan Arreguin

I would enjoy seeing your prediction for Troopers ( 7th ) come true . I had to check the last time they finished in the Top 8 and it was in 1974 ( 5th ). They were the very first Drum Corps to annually go on a national tour that took them from out west ( Wyo) through the midwest all the way to the east coast and did so every season starting from the early 1960’s . They were one of the very best Drum Corps in the country in the decade prior to the formation of DCI in ‘72 . The last few seasons the Troopers have had very entertaining and creative shows demonstrating it’s possible to bridge the modern with the traditional when in the hands of capable design staff . It would be great to see them continue to make that placement climb they have been on recently .

I drank bugs out of the water cooler. Protein. I had no idea at the time that it would trendy.

Dirt was food to us; not wasted on wounds 😎

We rubbed dirt on it.

This.

You guys had bandages. Luxury! We had duct tape.

That has potential to be so dreamy. 🥹 Okay holup. Just caught on that they're using Kaval Sviri. Beatles-shmeatles. First of all, most excellent, can't wait to hear it interpreted through a corps and I will make a point now to make show for this alone. Second of all, I was introduced to this piece at Vanguard by Murray Gusseck in 2003 after I asked him what he was listening to lately. I. AM. SO. EXCITED.

or, you know, they could be still selecting music and getting permission for licensing.....