year1buick

I sent one in, just for the fun of it. I kept mine to just a title/treatment: "Unfinished Business," exploring the idea of unfished works, what makes a piece (be it music or another form of art) "complete" and how the corps could play around with this idea over the course of a season. (Examples of some famous unfinished creative works: Mozart's Requiem or Dickens' The Mystery of Edwin Drood) They could start with what's known and then play around with different ideas for endings to the unfinished works, but with change itself being the original intent, and not just an afterthought. I figured most corps just simply consider this part of the process (and a frequently frustraiting one, at that) so why not go ahead and make it intentiional, an obvious part of the show design--front and center. Keep the audience guessing. How will it finally end? Will it the show itself be "finished?" I thought of this when reading about Orson Wells, and how so many of his films took years to finish, or were never finished at all, because he continuously tweaked and changed them... Kinda reminded me of drum corps.

Yeah, I started the show near the backfield one, manned by the bass drummers. They had me cracking up on every run-through, putting words to the four count start.

You know, I do agree with a lot of what you say here and I have to admit that, had Sky Ryders not been so close to me, I'm not so sure that I would have made the trek to another, far flung drum corps. (I was that "out of step kid" in high school...) I don't know. As it was, I was a know-nothing trombone player who had to write fingerings over Camelot sheet music when I tried out for Sky in 91. (I later borrowed a concert baritone and taped the third valve down, so I could practice at home). I also had tons of help from friends and family. In the end, it worked out okay. Hopefully, the kids who call Crossmen home (no matter what state they live in) will continue to have the same.

Crap! There go my plans for the Plasma TV Bingo Fund... :(

I've marched in a corps that was an hour from home, and one that was a day's flight away. Location never "ruined" it for me. Sure, one was more difficult than the other, but hey--"that's drum corps." (1$ to Pat Seidling) To your question, "What about the kids from SE, PA?" ... Do you mean to say that the corps should be exclusive to kids from those states? Do you prefer that no one else march there? I doubt it. No corps could survive with that mentality, and I'm betting there have always been a substantial number of marching members coming from other states (as far as Texas, for instance...) I'm guessing you'd prefer to have as many people from those states march as possible, and hope to heck that kids from elsewhere are willing and able to travel to PA to fill in the gaps. I completely understand how frustrating it might be for someone who lives nearby. Even more so if their particular circumstances won't allow them to travel to the new location. (Heck, I probably would have marched another year or two--93, for sure-- had I lived close to Rockford) But, the corps' administrators have to make decisions based on what they feel will benefit the corps overall, not just the folks who live in the immediate area. I think your final comment is a slap in the face to both the corps and the kids that have marched, and will continue to march, there--particularly to those who have made the perennial trek to PA for so long.

I was going to guess that it meant something along the lines of "true sound." In biology, cells with a true nucleus are refered to as "eukaryotic" from "eu"= "true/good"and "karyon"="kernel/nut." Come to think of it, "nut" would have worked for most of our euph line as well... (How do you say "bat**** crazy in Greek?)

Hey Opus-- how's it going? (Haven't seen you since ...oh, well... Texas A & M Commerce was still called E.T.S.U. :P ) I always liked this show. Not my favorite of all (Regiment) time, but still a lot of fun. But, when I marched, I heard vets occasionally grumble about it as well. (Specifically, I remember Tim worrying that Rite of Spring--which we played in November of the 94 season-- was going to be "Carnival of the Animals all over again...")

That was Dan Farrell talking to Regiment. Boy, Cesario's were really something as well... I remember how his talks could get us going so much that we'd get standing O's just marching onto the field. (He was all about presence and making the audience feel as though you owned that stadium...)

According to the subtitles, The Vim and Vigor Drum and Bugle Corps makes an appearance in the parade taking place during Ferris Beullers Day Off. Never heard of it before.

Any chance that DCI will ever release recordings in DVD Audio or SACD?

That picture is hilarious! I've got to go find my pictures and scan them one day...(they're in a box somewhere in my parent's attic--hopefully not ruined)

Man, I'd forgotten about "Big Mama." Another legacy of Bill Peterson, who also coined the nickname "Buicks." He (and Albert Lo) would reserve it for the last 15 minutes of tracking--brutal.

That would be funny to see. That corps hall was something else-- wasn't it about a 1000 degrees inside that day (while it was about 30 outside--with snow)?

:) I was just lucky enough to have a bus seat in front of some 91 vets.

I don't think so, but I have to admit that my technical knowledge of it is pretty limited. I think the main "problem" you could run into is that the lossless files will probably only play on the program you used to rip them. (But, if we're talking about making an "improved" CD to listen to, this isn't an issue.) I think the main thing is, it offers the same fidelity of an AIFF or WAV recording (which don't use compression) but with using much less hard drive space. MP3 and ACC use even less space, but can start to mess with the sound quality. Even so, you can also adjust the bit rate on those, and lessen the deleterious effects. (The trade off is more disk space will be required.) I've always ripped my music at 192 kbs and have never really been bothered by the sound. But, if you want to try and get as close to CD quality as possible, you could go with lossless.

Select the "Edit" dropdown menu, then select "Preferences." Then go to the "Advanced" tab and then the "Importing" tab. Then click on the dropdown menu under "Import Using." There you can switch between mp3, aac, or Apple Lossless Encoder. The latter still uses compression, but much less than mp3 or aac, and is not supposed to impart any compression artifacts that can actually be heard. (i.e. it's still supposed to be "CD quality.") Windows Media Player has a similar option as well. [quick note: I've adjusted the volume and eq on mp3 files before-- I haven't done this with the lossless format, but I'm assuming you can still do the same with it as well]

Yeah, Bob knew his "stuff," as far as cleaning visual goes, but I thought that he could be a little petty and mean spirited sometimes. Even so, during my first year (92) I must have gotten on his good side, because he was pretty complimentary to me for the most part. However, 94 was a different story. He was on my *** all summer long, usually over really petty stuff. You could never tell which way the wind was going to blow. And, yes, Dan is The Man. By 94, he was mostly involved in running ensemble. In 92, however, he was still more hands on, as the brass caption head. Which meant the baritone section had more Dan time-- tracking, of course! We always sounded better after he worked with us. As a rookie, he intimidated the crap out of me (the vets started singing the Imperial March as he walked in to the rehearsal room in November.) He was also funny and an all around cool guy. [bTW, get Nikk to tell you the song they (he?) made about Bob in 91, set to the last part of Bacchanale... :P ]

You could try importing the cd into itunes (at the lossless rate). Right click on the song(s), select "get info" and then click on the "options" tab. There, you can adjust the volume and eq settings. Then, just burn another copy of the cd.

I remember that--I could hardly play it that night, because of all the emotion involved. We definitely played with more oomph that night! (Thanks for the kind words--glad you enjoyed it). In 94, we played Claire de Lune to CBC.

Can't argue with any of those choices!

Dallas--hoping it could be in the new stadium, about 45 minutes away from my home! here's some pics (linked directly from site)

Oops, missed it... (youtube, anyone?)

Do ageouts still leave their shoes (or other mementos) on the field?

I don't think it's too crazy for him to hire an assistant. Though I'm sure he would demand a lot out of whoever he hires. Still, I'm sure he'd be a great person to work for. Despite whatever drum corps philosophies and blog entries people may disagree with (I certainly have), he still comes across as a really decent (and funny) guy.

Did Cesario design the guard outfits? What role did he play in the show concept/design?--I'm curious. I vaguely remember something from the 94 season tryout camp where he mentioned giving everyone in the hornline a different looking uniform. (We started off the season with music for Rite of Spring).