MarkT-GCS

Hey Shadow....Jenny is headed out to TMEA next week in San Antonio. I am sure that King will have all of their marching brass there on display....as well as DEG and Kanstul and all the other manufacturers. If you wanted to come down for a day, she could probably get you in with a family pass or a guest pass. I have gone with her before but I dont remember what it costs. Let me know and I will have her find out....I want to say its around $20 but dont quote me on that.

Our winner was a gentleman from Pocono Summit, PA. I dont have his name handy at the moment but I will post it as soon as I get it from Dave. I thought that either he or Jason had already posted an official winner's thread but I guess they didnt. Sorry for the oversight.

Time for a little countdown bump..... Only 12 days left to register for Mardi Gras at the reduced rate of $35. Check out our website for details. www.gulfcoastsound.org Its gonna cost you $40 at the door so be sure to register early!!!

Bumpity bump......only 17 days left to register for Mardi Gras at the reduced rate of $35 per person. Remember its gonna cost you $40 at the door.

All I can say after this weekend is "Wow." GCS just completed their first all weekend camp of the year and what a camp it was. After extensive work on the opener and the drum feature, we busted out the new chart for the ballad. Simply amazing. I thought last year's ballad was going to be hard to top but I think we have done it.....and its only January. If you live in or near Houston and want to come out and join us please do. We still have spots open in all sections. Our next camp is Feb. 11th at Rittenhouse Baptist Church from 10AM to 9PM. Come on out and join us. We promise you will have the time of your life. See our website (www.gulfcoastsound.org) for details and maps. Also, 1 week after our next camp is the big Mardi Gras weekend in Galveston. We hope to have a lot of you join us for a weekend of beads and drum corps.

I got a response really quickly. In fact, an email today informed me that my euph was being shipped today. Which I am not sure happened or not being that it was MLK day and all. I know the Post Office was closed....not sure about UPS and Fedex though. This is the person I contacted: Brent Turner M.Ed Corps Director Minnesota Brass, Inc. Drum & Bugle Corps director@mnbrassinc.org www.mnbrassinc.org 612-743-8760 cell Give him another try....I am sure that he isnt ignoring you on purpose. Maybe he just missed the original email.

We drew the winner on Saturday and he was contacted by David Breitweiser. I dont recall his name at the moment off the top of my head but I believe it was a gentleman from PA somewhere.....Pocono Valley, Pocono Heights....Pocono something at least. :) I am sure Dave or Jason will post an official winner thread somewhere on here soon.

Sweet! I cant wait for it. Jenny and I missed it last year due to joining up the camp after the parade and unfortunately she is going to miss it this year due to TMEA being held on the same weekend but I will definitely be there! Dont forget to register early folks!

$800 ? <**> I feel the need to set the record straight here before this topic gets too far off track. Read the member guide again James. Specifically page 11....the paragraph marked "Discounts." And as far as the fundraising buyout, I already discussed this with you via PM in the past. I dont expect anyone to have to do anything that I myself wouldnt do. With that being said, according to my math that comes out to $450 for the dues and even if we did require folks that lived 4 hrs away to buyout the 2 mandatory fundraisers, they are only $75 each which comes to a grand total of $600. Plus the cost of uniform accessories (Dinkles and bibbers)....which I sure hope arent going to cost $200 because if they do I may not be marching either. Sorry for the hijack.

What?!?! But we wanted to play on the Riverwalk in the middle of a 100 degree day again!! Seriously, this sounds way cool. I can hardly wait to wow the crowds with the rockin' tunes we are playing for '06. And it looks like we get to do it in the evening this time so it wont quite be 100 degrees. :P

We had about 150 this morning in Houston in spite of the rainy cold weather. It was pretty cool hearing all those tuba, euphs, contras and baris playing together. Gotta tell ya though.....its not much fun playing music transposed to "G" in order to play my DEG bugle. 6 and 7 flats just gets a little hard to remember at times. :P

32 when I joined Gulf Coast Sound in 2005. Played trombone in high school....graduated in 1991 and hadnt played a lick since then. Took my fiance to practice because she wanted to join the guard and ended up with a baritone in my hand. Looking back over the summer and the friends we made and the fun we had on all of our tours I wouldnt trade it for anything.

Reminder bump...just keep this on the front page. :)

That would be very cool.

Bump Dont forget to register early!!

No euphs?

Thanks for the support!! Received your payments and mailed your tickets to you this afternoon. Good luck!!

Thats right, its almost that time again. Which means its time once again for the annual All Star Drum Corps Mardi Gras in Galveston. If you have never experienced this event it is one that you have to make at least once in your life. Nothing beats combining the passion and friendship of drum corps with the party atmosphere that is Mardi Gras. Gulf Coast Sound is once again offering raffle tickets for a trip for two to join us for the festivities. You can read all about that here. The reason for this thread though is for those of you who dont win but plan on coming down anyway to join us for the parade and festivities. We would like to ask everyone to pre-register this year so that we can make sure to handle all the important details - enough seats on the bus, enough beer in the kegs, etc. Pre-registration price will be $35 per person. This fee entitles you to rehearsal and party Friday night, transportation to and from the parades on Saturday and a limited edition All Star Drum Corps Parade t-shirt. We will be taking pre-registrations up until January 31st. Late registration fee (after Jan. 31st) will be $40 per person. You may pre-register thru Paypal on our website at www.gulfcoastsound.org. Click on the "Schedule" link at the top of the page and choose the "Mardi Gras All Stars" link. There will be a link for you to use Paypal there. Please be sure to include names and t-shirt sizes in the comments section of your payment. If you are planning on just paying at the door, please let us know so that we will have some kind of head count and can plan accordingly. You may RSVP directly to mardigras@GulfCoastSound.org. Please include names of everybody in your group as well as shirt sizes required for all members of your group. We hope to see a lot of you here in February!!

Thats right folks, we are getting close to drawing the lucky winner in our annual Mardi Gras raffle. Dont hesitate, get your ticket today....its not too late. You can still grab a ticket by visiting our website www.gulfcoastsound.org and following the schedule link at the top of the page. That will take you to a page where you can pay for your ticket using Paypal. We are planning on drawing the lucky winning ticket at our corps New Year's Eve party so time is running short. You only have 19 days left to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. The lucky winner will receive the following: · Round trip airfare for two from anywhere in the Continental United States to Houston, Texas · Hotel accommodations for Friday and Saturday night · Use of a rental car for the weekend · Souvenir limited edition parade tee shirt and Mardi Gras beads to commemorate the event · All participation fees associated with the event waived This is an amazing weekend of drum corps fun and I am sure you dont want to miss out on your chance to enjoy it all for free.

GCS started working this football season at Reliant Stadium in Houston thru a company called CSC. They are the ones that do ticket taking, security, and crowd control at a lot of the stadiums around the country. If you are hesitant to get into the concessions stuff due to inventories and concern over meeting the staffing goal then look into them. No inventories involved...no minimum number of people required and no TABC certifications to worry about. You are paid an hourly wage per person in your group and the wage is adjustable depending on how many you have show up to work. We have done everything from pat downs and bag checks to taking tickets to security on the luxury box level. One drawback is we have had to suffer thru all of the Texans games so far this season but if you are lucky you may have an actual football team in your town that you may get to watch while working. :)

Actually the Celis line is still being made....somewhere up north though. Miller bought them out and shut them down but Pierre Celis has re-opened somewhere up north....Michigan maybe....? And as far as the St Arnolds goes....I will do you one better. How about I just bring along a couple of kegs of my homebrewed stuff? I am sure we could make room on the bus somewhere for it.

We ordered prelims and finals disks of open class and class A. Our prelims disks have this annoying little stutter thing going on where every couple of minutes everybody goes into slow motion for a second and then rushes to catch up. The finals disks however are fine. The stutters on the prelims disk dont affect the sound at all....its just a video thing and they also dont seem to throw the sound and video out of sync either.

Quit trying to steal St Arnolds from Houston. Their brewery was founded and is still located right here in Houston. Get your own brewery!! B)

Raffle drawing will be sometime between Open House (Nov. 12th) and the end of the year. We are trying to get all of those details planned out right now. We would like to get a few more tickets sold if possible so if you know anyone who might like to purchase one have them email me and we will work out a way to get it to them and get their payment.

I am trying to get those dates right now. I think it will be in February but not sure yet. As soon as I get them I will post them in this thread.