bearz

Wow, if I were Madison's staff right now I'd be pulling my hair in frustration. Their recap scores are all over the place. From a 6th in one category to 5 - 14s! There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of consistency in there at all.

:) His name is Kekoa (pronounced KEKO) and he's been with the Blue Stars for at least 2 years that I know of. I've met him a couple of times and he's a great kid. He was Houdini last year.

Actually Lucas Oil has a wheelchair section where you can just drive your scooter right in and sit in it for the show. I booked my tickets in this section and you are allowed companion tickets for the people with you to sit right there with you. No need to park and walk at all.

In past years I've seen several people at DCI who have problems walking like I do. I just want to tell you that I discovered there is a place that rents those scooters like you see in WalMart. For a 3 day rental it was $50, 1 week is $100, plus $30 delivery and the'll deliver it right to the Omni and pick it up. I hope its OK to recommend them here...benchmark mobility. Just do a quick search for them.

They are really adorable! They are only maybe 20 to 30 members strong and very young but they have such heart. 2 of their members are children of one of our hall of famers and the youngest one was probably 6 when she first marched. You would swear they were a TOC corps by the reaction they get from the crowd. They are so cute and a real fan favorite.

Does anyone know if it is a citywide outage or just at the field?

Yup, that is the whole and complete thing that is wrong with DCI. One person fell and there wasn't a bunch of other people on the field in seconds. Sheesh. I remember at least 12 people going down just in one show in Hot Springs AR in 76 or 77. I remember several shows in the summer of 77 where we or other corps lost people. It happens. If Cascade's Staff didn't see it at first or assumed those responsible for handling it would take care of it and they didn't, then Cascades will have to have a talk with that person or review their procedures or both. It happens. This is an extreme sport. Have you seen this happen all around the country, at every show, time after time, for the last several years that you have seen this scenario repeated numerous times? Have you been with every corps 24/7 to observe that they don't have any plan in place and they haven't done any training? If you're local and there wasn't a medical unit standing by then I suggest you do something worthwhile and offer to be on the part of the committe for that show that arranges med units.

Is it important to me? Not really. I don't get subtle things very well...it has to be pretty much laid out for me. Its nice to have it explained to me and I love it when I sit next to someone who has indepth knowledge of what the different aspects of a show are so I can get the inside scoop on all the stuff happening on the field, but I can be perfectly happy watching a show without knowing what its about. I guess I just enjoy the whole experience. For example, my Blue Stars. I've never watched a Bourne movie. The last 11 years have been dedicated to Pooh and Cars and, lately, Avatar. I love the show so far but since I know nothing about the movie I can't relate it to anything more than what people have explained to me. Yes, I love knowing what its about but I'd love the show anyway because I love dark, haunting themes and shows.

Geez, don't do that to me when I'm drinking a diet pepsi at 7am!

Yea, Appleton would either be an hour to Green Bay (I'm guessing..depends on where it is) or 2 hours to Madison or 2+ to LaCrosse.

Actually on a Monday night thats not an issue, which is, I'm sure, why DCI is doing a Monday night show. I've been to movies on early weeknights where it has been just my son and I. In fact, the Appleton theater, where I was considering going, was one of those. We saw a kid's movie and it was me, ds and another mom and kid.

Lets hope you're not headed to a cancelled show.

The article says to go to a different theatre near you. Now that is interesting. Nothing like last minute. Wonder how they are going to compensate those who drove long distances not knowing there isn't a show? http://www.dci.org/news/view.cfm?news_id=8c97eb3e-7e75-4674-8195-d4557f39290d

Edited to add: I sent the following email at 9:47 and got a personalized, sincere reply at 9:49 while I was posting it here. What a class act this lady is! Email sent: I just wanted to say what a wonderful job you did on that piece and to thank you for your support and continued coverage of the Blue Stars and the drum corps activity! You deserve every award you get! The support you give these members is beyond measure and value. It is obvious that you enjoy what you are doing and that you "get" the activity and its significance as both a musical outlet and a place where some of the best kids in our country today get both musical training and life training. These members go on to be some of the best and brightest in our country and their experiences with a top class corps like the Blue Stars carries with them to other areas of their lives for the rest of their lives. Thank you so much for all you do! Kathy Roeder Blue Stars Soprano: 1976 & 1977 Volunteer: 2003 to present Fan: Forever

I dropped out of the drum corps scene between 1980 when my corps stopped making finals and about 2002 when I discovered that it was still in action, so my experiences are limited to the 70s and 2000s. In the last 10 years, I'd have to say that The Factory was my favorite, although its close with a couple of others. From BITD, I'd say 1977.

When I marched, waaaay BITD, we sang a song from our show on the bus. I think we were trying it out as a corps song...If You Believe from The Wiz...but it didn't stick. It was, however, very appropriate and moving and got us in a great frame of mind.

Honestly, I think that while those of us who live and breathe drum corps look forward to the announcements, I would be willing to bet a member's tuition that if you took a poll at the gate of, say, the River City Rhapsody in LaCrosse, 85 to 90% of the people walking thru that gate wouldn't be able to tell you the theme of 3 of the corps shows on that day. I think that more important than marketing a particular show, we (us fanatics as well as DCI in general) need to market the concept and shows as a whole. Go to a hs band director and offer to take 6 kids to a local show. Do it now, before school is out. Give the band director the show info and maybe a DVD of your favorite corps to show the band kids. Keep in contact with the director and get those kids to a show. Word spreads if they like it. Thats the best marketing tool of all.

Actually that analogy works against you. In this case, the "restaurant" is drum corps and the menu consists of 23 items. If you don't like the restaurant you aren't going to like the items on the menu. May I suggest the MBI restaurant down the road?

I think I love you.

I would pick the DMs from both years. Both really nice guys and popular and funny so it would have made for fun rides.

**This is my own personal opinion and does not reflect the policies of the corps I marched with** I have always felt that you are a full fledged member and eligible for alumni status once you have completed a full season with the corps. The obvious exceptions (obvious for me anyway) are having to leave during the season because of illness or a family emergency. Alternates would be included in this IMHO because they participate in the whole season and are ready to step in at a moment's notice. Since the ultimate goal in every season is DCI and leaving a corps during the summer can cause huge issues with its placement and practice etc, someone who wimps out halfway thru because they just don't want to do it any more or it was more involved than they thought (insert other lame excuse here), I don't believe that the average person is considered a true member with alumni status until they complete DCI finals.

Without a doubt, Blue Stars 1976 first show of the season. That was the year (and my first in drum corps) where it was decided to recruit from the East side of the state. The idea being that we could hold winter camps in both sides of the state with a symmetrical drill and just bring the 2 sides of the corps together in the summer. First problem was that the "Sheboygan side" (my side) was all rookies, while the "LaCrosse side" was heavy on vets. Now imagine 2 different sets of instructors teaching all winter with 2 different levels of talent and then just trying to put it on the field when the time came. Somehow our drills were about 20 feet different from one side to the other and absolutely nothing matched. One side circles, one side ovals....you get the idea. Looking back, IMHO it was an amazing accomplishment by the staff and members that we actually made finals in 76. Personally, my biggest flub was in Sevierville TN. Funny how you remember these things. They added a halt to the drill in a company front. I was on the very end. Everyone else stopped except for me and the guy next to me. Yea, I heard about that one for a looooong time.

One instance where being colorblind is a definite advantage. There isn't enough bleach in the world to get that red glare out of my eyes.

Now see, I will never understand where these ideas come from. Maybe the very small, local corps had the majority of local members but back in 76 & 77 when I marched the majority of our membership was from far out of town. I know we had cars and vans filled with people driving up from the south for practices. We had cars and vans filled with people coming from the other side of WI and from Minneapolis area. I would say maybe 10-20% of the 128 members were local, and that would include the college students who in actuality weren't really local. I know alot of the other top maybe 25 were that way also. Why do you think they recruited from around the state? The only difference, IMHO, is the way they travel to get to practices. Instead of cramped, overly-filled vehicles they do more flying. This allows for people to join their favorite corps halfway across the country instead of joining a corps 4 hours away. There were never any local parades in the off-season that I know of because the corps members were required to march with their bands during the school year.

Now see, that just took too long. You people are getting slow.