year1buick

Dude. Quit trying so hard to, um...help. Just relax, enjoy the show (I sure as hell do) and let the summer take its course. All will be good.

It was also home to one of the crash victims (non-survivor) of Oceanic flight 815. "Judith Martha Wexler from Denton, TX, guess she was going to catch a connecting flight. Um, she wore corrective lenses and she was an organ donor, or at least would have been."

Less than 5 miles from C.H. Collins. . . (they were brutal that day- had to come in early) edit- fyi that's an illusion; forced perspective from camera

Jealous. ^0^ (couldn't go afterall...) Here's hoping for Sunday.

When I saw this, I thought it was from 93, with Grant on the left and Nikk on the right. I know they used the old guard unis a lot in 94, Nikk was DM that year. :P (I didn't get any field shots that year either.)

Any idea if any decent seats are left? I might be able to head out and attend (depends of a few things...), but I wouldn't be so nuts about sitting on the 15 yard line. :)

Heh, that same book is in a box somewhere at my parents house.

I feel your pain. I live about five minutes from the Denton show site and probably won't be able to make it either. ^0^

Yeah, it wasn't quite the Napoleonic look I'd imagined. But what do I know-- maybe he really did have blonde highlignts! :P

Yeah, they were black on the underside. I really liked our look that year, including the guard uniforms. (Though I’m pretty sure most of the girls hated dealing with them, because they frayed so easily.) Remember, in 92, what a pain it was having to fold those black shrouds and hide them in our baldric before the show? All so we could unceremoniously (and inconspicuously) plop them on the ground near our "dead" color guard...

So, for "the record," are you flat-out calling their director a liar?

This Cowtown might disagree. :)

You know, I suggested Peter Cullen for announcer in a previous thread but, if not for the age-out limit, he would be a great fill-in narrator.

Maybe they just support Negotiable Order of Withdrawal accounts. (For a corps, every cent counts, you know...)

I also don't think it's fair to label all of the members as classless, as the thread title does. You're describing the actions of a few individuals. During my marching days, I saw individual gaffes like this from most of the corps we went up agianst. (It came in all flavors, not just in-the-stands talk.) This isn't an apologist stance for the behavior you saw but, rather, a request to not paint an entire organization based on the actions of a few.

How 'bout getting Peter Cullen? :P I'd love to hear his voice over the PA just once.

Nope.

No, I realize that. (Film major :) ) But you're talking about interconversion between formats. In terms of shooting, however, 16:9 does not give you more information than 4:3-- but, as you pointed out, when you later convert from one to the other, some form of cropping then has to occur--and you loose stuff. To carry your analagy further, you could think of that theatrical movie filmed in 1.78:1 (or Cinemascope or whatever) as a cropped 4:3 image (top and bottom--next time you're at the movies, imagine that there was additional image continuing up from the top of the screen and down towards the floor. In terms of drum corps, you wouldn't be gaining extra yard line's worth of viewing, you'd just loose stuff from the top and bottom. Not necissarily bad, I suppose). Every once in a while, I've run across films that weren't shot anamorphic but cropped 4:3 and the theater didn't have the mask set up properly. You could actually see a boom mike in the shots. (This happened when I saw the Costner flick Thirteen Days). I also remember reading, in one of my old textbooks, about a cantankerous critic back in the 50's (I think), when widescreen was becoming popular, that said he was going to start writing his reviews with the paper loaded sideways in his typewriter. Not a fan of widescreen, apparently. His point was (and he was correct, in a way) that the newer ratio wasn't really "better," it was just different. (I, personally, like the look of widescreen and am glad that the switch was ventually made, but I do see his point.)

It was both years, actually. In 94, there were 3 pit groupings on the field.

I realize that widescreen would look better (hi-def or not) on 16:9 TVs (like what I own), I was only pointing out that 16:9, in of itself, doesn't offer anything "more" in terms of available image. I was more refering to the common misconception (that I've seen on this forum) that widescreen=wide angle-- in other words, that you're getting to see "more" of the field with widescreen. That's simply not true-- you're just cropping the top and bottom of available image. Since many TVs (again, mine included) have this wider aspect ratio, an anamorphic DVD would great. It would allow me to avoid having to watch it with a smaller image, surrounded by black bars on the top and bottom. (Or rescaling it to fill my screen, which looks crappy, as someone has already mentioned, I believe.) However, a non-high def, non-anamorphic broadcast doesn't really do anything for anyone--both groups are going to be stuck with black bars and cropping. So, if they're going to go widescreen, it only makes sense if there's going to be some verson available available for purchase later on in either hi-def or anamorphic DVD. Otherwise, it's a waste of space.

High Def and 16:9 would be cool. It would definitely find a welcome home on my DVR. However, I don't think 16:9 in of itself is needed as it's only a benefit to those with similarly configured sets. (it's a misconception that a wider aspect ratio actually shows you more of the field--a wider lense does that.)

Oh lord no, not PB&J. I think that's all we ate at Sky Ryders--it took me about 2 years to manage stomaching them again. (I'll never forget the taste of those "poured" ones we had to make in the Texas and Arizona heat Yech. <**> ) Regiment was a different world--they fed us great (not to knock Sky, but boy was there a difference...)

At Regiment, we were always reminded to still be as polite as possible when dealing with the outside public on this issue. Obviously, it wouldn't do much for the corps image to knock a grandmother on her butt for breaking rank. In other words, always use good judgment. Under no circumstances were we to get into some kind of brawl in uniform. (Frankly, it's hard to imagine such a thing...) Still, I remember having to get a little more, um, persuasive with some reporter who insisted on going through our line one day. I asked--politely, mind you--for him to please walk around. He gave me a quick look and decided to try and push through anyway. There was just enough room for me to perform a snap horns up. He grumbled and walked around. I recall another incident where a group of us, out of uniform, were walking from a stadium and quite unknowingly broke rank between a drumline and the rest of their corps. (Who shall remain nameless.) They weren't tapping or giving audible "huts" and were way back from the rest of the group, like maybe 30 or 40 yards, and pretty much out of our line of site. This was also directly behind the main seating area, with a lot of foot traffic. We didn't see them at all (I'm sure it was obvious) and were already on the other side when the center snare flipped out and started screaming at us. Not a good show on their part IMHO.

Guessed wrong. I also think that Dan freakin rules (my story wasn't a slam either, but I'm pretty sure it reads that way...)

No more retreat.