MHSmirage

Welp, Michael nailed it on the head......I got diagnosed to day with tendonitis. Should make for a fun season for sure :)

Ok, let me start by saying I've now had a rifle/sabre/flag in my hands for the last 15 years. With that.... I'm starting to notice I'm losing strength in my right hand due to a pain when I squeeze. The pain shoots down from my wrist to elbow with sharp pinlike presure. It's also more so with a rifle (obviously) than a flag. I hate to say what I think it's the start of, but at 29 yrs old, I was hoping to be strong enough for one final season next year. Have any of my "more seasoned" folks on here had this problem and if so what recomendations for pain relife? I've been supporting the workers at "Alive" the last couple of weeks by the amout of gel tabs I've been taking.

This is the reason I got fed up and just use Elites with my hs guards. By the time you ship back and forward the sabres *multiple times* in our case, it would have been cheaper to just get the Kings. Last year I thought I would give Excaliburs a whirl and ended up with a bunch of sabre carcasses. NEVER AGAIN. You have to contact the dealer you got them from first and make it thier responsibility to get you replacements.

Serious names: "Decibel of (insert city)", "Kismet Motion", "(insert city) Velocity". Silly names: "PB&J D&BC" co-sponsored by Skippy and Smuckers, "The Smell from (insert city)" sponsored by Fabreeze, "The incredible shrinking corps!" cosponsored by Weight Watchers and ShrinkyDinks.

My high school babies are putting "Clair de Lune" mixed with "Angelica" by Lamb on the floor this season. Although I did see that Clair de Lune makes an apperance in the Twilight soundtrack.....hope this isnt the year of "Lune". Our show will be called "Duality" and obviously is a play on light vs dark, mirror effects and so on.

Sad thing is it's not just our community. Let's not play the "It's happend with so-and-so" game. "Oh, Rocky!"

Sad thing is, the company is not in Texas. It's slightly north. Also, the entire time, the guy was giving me a guilt trip about how he's a 'praying man' and that I had answered his prayers by helping 'em out. Should have smelled the poop then. (sidenote: I am not a praying woman.....I think it's all stories and fables)

<---Sees Ms Kathy in two weeks :)

After being broke doing colorguard and going to school for years I FINALY got a gig here in Texas that pays throught the school district. These positions DO exist, but are for the extremely competitive programs and honestly you have to build your resume. Get your dance teaching certification or phys ed. or anything. You more than likely will not make a living being a guard teacher.

In late July, I took on a position with what I thought was a reputive drill design company as the head designer for color guard choreography. In three weeks I wrote for 9 shows in what little free time I had from my own program, being summer band and all. I was told at the time and have a contract that I would be exclusive to this company and have done everything on my end to get paid (contracts and saved emails). I was told that payment would come Oct 1. It's now pushing Nov. 1 and still no payment. Now I have been removed from access to the site that I was uploading videos of work on and can't get a hold of anyone via email or by phone. I'm a nice person, but feel that the line has definately been crossed. I'm owed $2700. Do I have a legal leg to stand on? Should I notify all of my DCPeers about said company to beware of so you know where your money is going and not to work with them? Should I contact the schools individually to notify them that the company is shady? Thoughts?

Alliance of Miami's "Insanity" show....I think it's 1995 or 96. But now that I think about it, there were SEVERAL 'wtf were they thinking' moments with my beloved Alliance.

My scholastic kiddos: Had mixed the music, designed silks and so on. Start drill the week after the state marching contest in Nov. Show will be called "Duality". The independent: Due to the hurricane pushing back everything, we have auditions this Saturday. Kids are coming out of the woodwork and it's super exciting. Made the flip from A class to Open, and will be presenting the music and show design this weekend. Details to come later. Can you smell that? Smells like strapping tape, tears and painted tarp.

Sad that I can't vote for Union's Mannequin show.....actually there's ALOT of 80's faves we can't vote for. Boo Hiss.

Tate's been struggling with finding their identity since the major staff changes a year or two ago. I hope they will have a better run in Open. BTW it's not a terrible thing to drop a class. Many others have done the same for the same reason.

That explains alot. Wonder if he and Joe have bad juju...Tim's home guards don't have the same look that they usually do.

As a former member, I saw it comming.

Final Alliance of Miami production was 2003. All I'll say is the music selection that year was appropriate for the reason why Alliance folded.

Geaux Tigers Lots of corps kids in that band. Lots of former students too :)

Characteristics? The diva in me, some say my inner drag queen, loves the make up, costuming, and design of silks to floor. I like to see the drama unfold behind the scenes of show parents arguing with eachother over who's show is better....also love seeing catty directors being "nice" to eachother before critique, just to talk smack once the other person leaves. The teacher in me loves to see shows progress from the start of the season to championships. To see that kid nail the toss she/he dropped at the first of the season....something is to be said for that. Why do I attend winter guard shows? First and foremost, its due to the fact that I am a director of a couple of guards I go to other circuits' shows to see what others are doing and to study drill design as I find it to be my weakness. I also like to find the gimick in shows. That moment where you as another designer go "Now THAT was clever". Example: Avon 2007 ending drill (for that matter Avon anything in the last 10 years). Soundtrack? I loath sad sappy. Let me make people, who pay to watch in general or their kids perform in other sad sappy shows, sit through the 10th show in a row about death of a loved one. On the same note, let us also make them listen to "Hide and Seek" and "Wild Horses" in every version 20 times. I get it, the list of music that we CAN use is getting smaller and smaller. Also, the A class forces you to design shows that the village idiot would understand so you can get credit for it, but it doesn't hurt to look for new music. There's a pleathora of indie artist out there and up in coming composers itching to get their music out there.

I guess WGI is going to try to sell DVD's of the Power Regionals. Glad I caught that being that we aren't going to championships, but get the pleasure of trying to find out if our music is ok to use. ACK.

I think it's PERFECT for a drum corps to have an 'A' guard. Let's face it, world guards are mostly 22-28 year olds.....not exactly the age group for a drum corps to recruit from. Yes a world guard attracts attention, but corps are looking at winterguard as a recruiting tool for the summer. Remember, one of the reasons that Phantom Regiment and Paradigm (Teal Sound D&BC's winterguard) folded was because of the age of folks in the winterguard...... they couldn't pull kids fromt the pool to march in the corps.

Tis official :) checkout bluestars.org

To youngsters coming into the high school wanting to continue twirling : "Oh, so you twirl baton?......oh....well here's your sabre" It's not that I'm opposed to it, it's just so small school and so dated. There's just way to many twirlers out there that don't write/spin musically.

*passes the baton to someone else to come up with a topic*

Not talking about UIL at all. The problem has to do with the other marching contests....hosts hire judges with little to no training or real colorguard background (mostly dance teachers). UIL: your not mentioned at all untill the end of the tape....largely because the 'colorguard comment' is on the last line of UIL judging sheets and even then the comment is like "oh, uh yeah the guard was nice."