ironlips

Whatever news there is seems to get adequate coverage here. The thing is, there hasn't been all that much happening in the wonderful world of drum corps lately, for obvious reasons; this compared to a "normal" year's activity. Besides, discussion and news are supplied here by posters themselves for the most part, rather like Wikipedia. I think some of the lethargy is driven by the screen fatigue we have all been experiencing. With the lifting of restrictions (slowly but surely) and the ramp up to a 50th Anniversary Celebration for DCI, I suspect things will begin to heat up a bit on DCP.

"What is Hip?" Getting back on the job after that ordeal. Stay healthy.

Just two words: "Greatest Generation"

I first competed against the Madison Scouts in 1962, as a member of St. Catherine's Queensmen. They were cool then. They are even cooler now. Wishing you much success, my friends.

$ 4.7 mil ? Good. Spend it wisely.

"that was Barbara's show. " A goddess.

Beyond the gutsy and emotionally moving performance, the real take-away for me is Jim Prime's exquisite brass score. As an arranger, he has always been in a class by himself.

As Jeff said, "if you followed someone not good then came out out and looked light years better...boom. " This certainly did happen, particularly with "B List" judges. The top adjudicators were hip enough to manage their numbers with more finesse. Some Prelims however, extended beyond 12 hours, or even into a second day. It was asking a lot to expect anyone to maintain the same tolerances that long. In a 6 corps show these days this is not an issue, but I do think groups should be assigned random performance times, months in advance. Always seeding the strongest teams later in the show provides them with several more hours of prep than their challenger competitors on performance days. Over the course of a tour, this becomes an enormous advantage in rehearsal time and mitigates against anyone closing the scoring gap.

Excellent points...both. We rehearsed on adjacent fields at '75 Nats. When Garfield wrapped, they were still at it and I walked over to watch and say hello to my friend Mike Moxley, BD drill wizard who also worked with Finleyville. It was clear they had the edge on my team.

All the best to our musical friends in the UK for another successful season. Cheers, mates.

It's a good bet that props and electronic enhancements, both musical and visual, will become more of a staple in drum corps shows in the next couple of seasons as groups begin to utilize these to compensate for the inevitable drop off in corps size and skill levels caused by a year or so of inactivity and lapse in recruitment. This could help the smaller and less capitalized teams to become more competitive vis-a-vis the major leaguers. "Lights. Camera. Action!"

I would suggest that the Cadet organization is an appropriate group to address these issues. Though it may seem like ancient history to some, it was quite common for many drum corps to display a marked tendency towards non-inclusion in the past. In their "Garfield" days, these things had to be worked through, and sometimes it wasn't very pretty. Not that they were alone, by any means. In the case of this particular corps however, I witnessed the often awkward transitions as the gender and color barriers were disassembled. There was push-back, to be sure, and some ties were severed, but they had to be. Like the Boomers we were, my generation assumed we had "fixed all that", proving that we could be both naive and smug at the same time. Even as recently as the late '70s and early '80s it seemed some felt that homophobic posturing (in drum corps and elsewhere) was still somehow "permissible". None of these prejudices can be tolerated in a civilized society, or in a drum corps which is, after all, just a microcosm of same. I applaud the Cadets and all who realize that the lessons of equity and inclusion must be reinforced for every generation. This is not optional and can be uncomfortable, but it is a necessity.

"Bette Midler does a great job on that number. " Indeed. That woman has both panache and pizzazz.

Re "Minnie", The St. Rita's Brassmen Alumni, for one:

"I was a Precisionaire fan in the 70s too." Me, too. The Osage Precisionnaires were probably the single most underrated drum corps in the history of the activity. One small example: Squib Cakes - They played it better than T.O.P., not to mention the other more prominent corps who tried to capture that Funk feel.