nukeme70

I think a lot of the replies to that thread had recommendations for different valve oils, or other things, including some pretty volatile and not necessarily safe liquids. There is also the inevitable reply of using vodka or something similar. I think the general consensus of what really works (and I have used this successfully) is to get a set of "Hot-Hands" and attach them to the valve cluster. http://www.heatmax.com/HotHands/hothands2.htm

It's almost over, but for those interested, isn't this a pic-sop on ebay? http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

I thought that was the coolest visual - when the contras marched forward to flank him, crouched, then picked him up...literally kicking and screaming! I still tell people about seeing that...

This seems to be a resurrected version of a topic from not too long ago, but I'll play... I always thought the BD contras looked soooo cool with the Kangols/driving caps. I always hated wearing ill-fitting headgear that interfered with the playing of the horn. Nobody ever seems to complain about drummers without gloves, or without the same gauntlets that the hornline wears. They don't wear the same equipment, because it interferes with their playing. Same thing with most helmets/shakos/Aussies/etc. The Bluecoats helmets that we wore in '92 had the entire flare of the left side chopped off and covered with white duct tape. With shakos, the decorative pin that holds the chinstrap/brim chain thing can actually get hooked on the horn, making for a messy or disastrous horns-down. Most of the horns I've played on are already resting against your head, adding a standoff of an inch or two changes the way of playing, usually by forcing the player to lean their head even farther to the right. Add on a shako, plus a 14" plume, and now you have a body line that is far from verticle - which in my opinion is far worse looking than having different headgear. If the argument for them is that it makes the hornline appear more uniform, well, I hate to be the one to break the bad news, but all other horns have the bell directly in front of the player's face, and the hat is visible above the horn. Contras/tubas occupy the space that visually would normally be occupied by headgear, plus, it blocks off one side of the players entire face and extends behind the player. One might as well insist that contra/tuba players should carry their horns in front of them to match the rest of the hornline. That being said - I think I've marched wearing pretty much all the varieties of headgear out there - but when asked what I thought the section should wear, I went with the riding cap option.

My opinion...if you are out there to win, then use whatever resources you've got. If your goal is to have a great time and entertain the crowd, then don't have any expectation of placing towards the top. Either choice, you should be able to reach your goal. I think the SU folks know that they will be at or near the top - the only way they'll be disappointed is if they come in behind one of the groups that are only shooting for the second goal. I know we're going into the competition with the same goal that we have for the full corps - entertain ourselves, entertain the crowd, impress the judges...in that order. If we score well with the judges and come in ahead of a bunch of other groups, then we'll be ecstatic, but as long as we do the first two, we'll be completely satisfied. I'm not saying that SU is not entertaining, or that they aren't having fun, just that they have a different philosophy on the whole minicorps competition than some of the other groups that are entered. Would the discussion be different if it were (resurrected) FutureCorps? How much of the (apparently deleted) discussion is geared toward the professional resumes vs. the Star of Indiana/BT/Blast resumes? As mentioned earlier, it's nothing new for full-time professional musicians to make appearances at mini corps, or for that matter, on the field. Good luck to all, and hope to see a nice and appreciative crowd on that Friday! (I'm pretty sure I won't be disappointed...)

Wonderful, and welcome aboard! I don't know if you've received the music yet - I hope you enjoy playing it as much as we do, it makes it so much more fun to perform if you like what you're playing, plus it (hopefully) helps sell the program to the crowd (which is all we are there to do anyhow). Once again, thanks for helping out! BTW, I assume we won't see you at practice tomorrow? [/sarcasm]

Hey Bart! Don't know what they did in '93, but we did get the alumni jackets in '92...the classy Members Only jackets (notice the capitalization for the name brand...). I'd still rather wear the member jacket vs. the Member jacket, though for the most part I'm pretty much just seen in my GCS jacket, though I do have patches on it from all the other corps I've marched with...it has gotten me into several interesting discussions with people/alumni. If I had a ring...d**n straight I'd wear that at any and all corps functions...but I never marched with any intention or expectation that a ring would be in my future.

Had a similar problem with (ughh...gonna admit to this) my sousaphone in college...turned out that the spacer cork on top of the piston ended up being squished, so the opening in the tubing didn't line up with the openings in the valve - kinda like half-valving on the horn. Added the proper sized cork back in, and it was fine. Try whatever you were doing to make it sound airy, then push each valve down slightly one by one - if it goes away, then that's probably it. The water keys are a good place to look as well - the pivot screw on my horns tend to work their way out every once and a while and the key, while still in place, gets misaligned off the hole. Screw it back in and that should be it for that problem.

Not sure about the tops, but I seem to remember that the Bluecoats' pants from that year went to Carolina Gold. One of our contra players (one of the larger corps members) in 92 had marched in those unis, and when we saw Gold that season, he pointed to one of their larger members and exclaimed "there's my pants!"

Back in '97 when Paul was still with Bayou City Blues, we were up in Racine for the Fourth of July parades and such. The entire corps went over to the Chaffee's house(s) and had lunch served up by Mom Chaffee and family. Many condolences to all the Chaffee family. Here's a picture from that day...

Good luck with this endeavor! This sounds similar to what World Gone Mad does - are you working off of the same model as them, or is it more of a parallel evolution thing? ...or nothing at all like what they do? As a for-profit, would you be absent at the TX drum corps preview, or would ya'll be doing "mostly" for-profit gigs? Too bad the commute is so far...

Gulf Coast Sound (DCA) actually started off as the musical accompaniement to an Independent Open Class winter guard. There was nothing in the rules saying that the music the guard used had to be recorded. We did drill on the court and everything - 15 horns and a drum set.

Northwind did this in 1991 - minus the electronics, of course.

I'd like to bring a little civility back to this corner of the thread. I think that many of the comments directed towards Shadow are pretty much summed up in the above phrase, and that might be the common view - that he wants everything to be handed to him and it's everyone's fault that he doesn't get to play. I believe that roughly half or more of the horns that AS played on the past year or so belonged to him. Each year he helps sponsor (some number > 1) marching members from other corps. I don't know how many seasons he's actually played his "native" horn, because the instrumentation needs were greater in a different section, so he'd switch. He's good enough to march anywhere he wants to go (and has), but he sticks around with the local startup, not for the glory, but to make something from nothing. So saying that "the corps he claims to have been a member of has continued to fight and hopefully thrive first despite him and now without him" is completely false and highly insulting. Claims to have been a member of? I'll vouch from the sidelines...he's been a member. With him: multiple TX performances, as well as a mini-tour last year that generated much positive buzz here on DCP and in the community. Announced this year, without him: no tour, possible appearance at semi's. These anecdotes are not necessarily attributable to him, but don't count him out as an influence in those events. We all know that "every corps started from scratch at some point and overcame odds real and imagined to make something of themselves". I think all of us accept that. What many don't understand, or aren't taking into account, is that we deal with geography in TX on a scale that the majority of corps just don't see. Shadow has mentioned many times the distances from one show to another, as well as travel distance from the shows to the corps location. I would challenge ANY corps to be successful and competitive when the closest venue for competition is over 600 miles away (Houston to Memphis). Add to that the fact that there is NO performance fee paid to the corps that compete at that show. The only financial compensation comes after the season is over when share points are doled out. I can definitely see the frustration caused when a group starting up under the above conditions gets to a point where the members are excited about performing and are looking forward to getting rankings with their peers, and yet the rules that are laid out for the majority don't necessarily take into account or make any exception for the special cases. We've hosted a show for several years now, and as the sponsors, never had a problem with corps of less than 35, but all we can provide them is a judged critique of their performance. Same with any of the other DCA-S shows. DCA-S used to have the A-35 class, but with the DCA rule change, that was eliminated. It seems that it would have been easy to have some clause stating that regions could have broader rules than the national rules. As for the actual thread: I'm just happy that we will have a venue to perform our show this year. Are we going to win? No. Not a chance. That's not why we're sending 25 people 1650 miles each way to participate. Will we entertain you? Pretty much guaranteed. Will we enjoy it? Of course. Will everyone that wants to entertain you get that opportunity? Well, that depends on how soon you sent in your paperwork. *As always, my views = mine and mine alone, but I'm happy to share!

Blue Knights '92 - acid washed denim clam-diggers and white button up shirts tied instead of buttoned... gotta agree with the poster that nominated '92 Bluecoats - 26 in the guard, and not a bad one in the bunch (ok, there was one...) I'll try to post some pics if I can find them...

In 92 Bluecoats, we had just finished up Hell Week in Canton and were on the busses waiting to head off on our first tour...and waiting...and waiting. Then we saw our 11th contra player hopping in a car and driving off. His member jacket was ritualistically burned later and we never saw him again. I gotta agree with the poster that doled out the "cold, hard truth" above. I kinda had a similar situation in '91 - I'd gone to the Bluecoat camps and passed my audition. I knew early enough though that I had to take summer classes, so was able to let the corps know early enough in the winter to let them fill my spot. If I had to back out this far into the season, I don't know that I could show my face the following year. I suppose it would depend on how the staff and section leader handled things - if they were completely understanding and sincerely wished you luck, and passed out the "see you next year"s, then you might not have a problem showing up again.

To my knowledge, there is no Houston Stars. The Austin Stars have passed their DCA evaluation and are intending to participate in Finals this year. Shadow is no longer (unless things have changed...) associated with that group. Instead he is moving into the audio/video recording avenue. I have no inside information on what the numbers breakdown of Stars is, so I would have to defer to Shadow here, as I'm sure he still has contacts within the group. Houston's Gulf Coast Sound will be represented at Rochester during the minicorps performance only (maybe some I&E as well). Even though we had 2/3 of our show on the field, we made the decision not to do a competitive season this year and work towards next year.

I'm not a percussionist, but I can definitely sympathize with your situation. I've been playing contra since 1986, and I keep getting bigger and bigger horns (up to a 5/4 size, 4 valve now, 29lbs. Started on a 3/4 size, 2 valve horn at 18lbs.) Last year I almost couldn't march our home show due to a lower back issue. Had it checked out, sure enough, bulging disc. Went through 2 months of PT, and probably the best thing that they did during the sessions was hook me up to the TENS unit. It runs electricity through the muscles and is supposed to block out the pain pathways or something. Whatever it does, it worked wonders. About a month after I finished my PT, I ran across this on a shopping site and bought the thing. Whenever I start to have a low level pain start up in my back, I strap on the TENS unit and enjoy. Seems to provide relief for days/weeks. Most of my PT involved doing Pilates-type core-strengthening exercises. Oddly enough, I found that if my back was hurting to the point where it hurt to walk, I could get some relief by doing all those things I was taught in Drum Corps - pull up from your chest, roll step, tighten your hiney...all those proper marching techniques. *Insert typical disclaimers here...the above items are things that worked for me, and were started under the advice of a sports medicine Dr... Blah blah blah, YMMV* PS - the above site lists the unit at $150 - I think I paid $50, and you can find similar things by searching for "TENS unit" through any of your favorite search providers or Amazon-type sites.

We didn't do too many parades the year I marched Bluecoats, but I do remember at one of them the pit had set up at the end of the parade route (where we were going to do a standstill) and had put out a collection bucket and played for the crowd until the rest of the corps showed up. They had a bunch of pizzas delivered that night with their earnings...

First thing I do whenever I get a new (to me) horn is take the valves out, get an old t-shirt, and wipe off the piston very thoroughly. Use plenty of water and get all the crud and gunk off, including inside the hollow spots (passthroughs? not sure what you call the tunnels through the valve...). Scrape with your fingernail the crud that's built up on the bottom bevel of the piston, as well as the top. Do the same with the top and bottom valve caps - there's usually an amazing amount of crud in there. Get the crud out of the threads of the caps as well - an old toothbrush works good for this. Take the t-shirt and poke it through the cylinder of the horn - use the base of the toothbrush to get it all the way through. Grab it from the other side of the cylinder and gently pull it through until the thickness of the shirt blocks further progress. Start twisting the shirt from the outlet side until the whole shirt is tightly compacted and rotating inside the cylinder. "Floss" the shirt back and forth through the cylinder a few times. Clean the gunk out of the cylinder threads. Repeat on each of the cylinder/pistons. There's probably better stuff out there, but at this point I put a dab of vaseline on the threads of the valve caps before installing (keeps the caps from getting stuck on the horn). Put on the bottom cap, drop in the spring (unless it's like a sop/trumpet valve, where the spring is integral to the piston), and lubricate the piston with a light coating of your preferred valve oil. I myself (as Shadow alluded to...) prefer not to use valve oil at all, but do what works for you. Insert the piston: I tend to rotate the piston as it's going in, so as to coat the inside of the cylinder evenly. Make sure the valve guide is lined up nicely, put on the top valve cap, and start playing. If everything is nicely cleaned, lubed, and assembled correctly, and you are still having issues with things sticking, you're probably best off taking it to a pro. As mentioned, there's a chance that some of the tubing going into the cylinder is slightly off, twisting the cylinder just enough to rub the piston.

We had blue Dinkles in Bluecoats '92. I still have a pair, though the vinyl outer covering is cracking off.

We had a guy named Kenny Lehr that did 11 years with Black Knights, aged out in '87 I believe. I would've had a strong showing here, but my corps kept folding on me...7 years total.

my daughter showed me this from her math book - (Holt - Algebra 1 Texas edition 2007, p528) click to embiggen... Scroll down if you are actually curious about the answer... 15 rows

As long as we're throwing up pics...here's a couple of "glamour shots" that were taken... and one of my non-GCS favorite pics...

It'll be great to have Revo back with us for this event - I don't think they've been able to make it out since we've been doing it in Austin. This is always a great event - awesome venue on the Capital steps. If you are ANYWHERE in the area, this is an event to see.