BKTy

Waverly 50 years ago, I was a seventeen year old there to watch the Skyliners for the first time. SRO, we had to sit on some ground level bleachers at about the 40 yard line. The WOW factor was a 10 on a scale from 1-10. Two years later at Waverly, we walked passed a school on the way to the stadium and there they were the Skyliner sopranos, very relaxed, practicing or jamming "Old Black Magic", The WOW factor was a 15 on a scale of 1-10. Its time to listen my 1964 Barnum Festival and 1966 American Legion CDs

Poet Sir Thomas Moore's spin Oft, in the stilly night, Ere Slumber's chain has bound me, Fond Memory brings the light Of other days around me; When I remember all The friends, so link'd together, I've seen around me fall Like leaves in wintry weather; I feel like one, Who treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed! Thus, in the stilly night, Ere Slumber's chain hath bound me, Sad Memory brings the light Of other days around me.

Plenty of Genesee Cream Ale was quaffed at that stadium

A lot of drum corps talent passed through the doors of the Black Knights and the Warren Cornplanters

Long time WNY Drum Corps/marching band/color guard....activist/leader/participant...passed away this morning after a long illness

1968 DCA prelims Rochester, 18 competing corps, 13 corps from 6 states and 5 from Canada and all within a 6 hour drive to Rochester…..2006 prelims Rochester, 16 corps competing from 9 states which includes 9 corps within a 6 hour drive. In 1968 all the major “senior” shows were held within a triangle whose points were Rochester, Baltimore and Boston and in 1968 DCA controlled the kids and the block. Those days are long gone. There are new kids on a bigger block and they share the same burning passions that have driven drum corps for decades. They have talent and want to entertain but more importantly they have organizational skills. To see corps from Texas, Tennessee, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota and Georgia, during DCA’s Championship weekend, speaks for its self. Nurture and it will grow.

The "fox in charge of the chicken coop" approach is worrisome but, will the institutions accept creative solutions?

The creative/technical philosophy of today’s DCA drum corps is such, that the talent levels to accommodate this philosophy moves DCA out of the neighborhood to at least regional levels. The key is inclusion and not isolation. DCA is a goal and to impede any corps in its efforts for achievement sends some very wrong messages. Call it evolution or maybe it happened unwittingly but, the regionalism of all age drum corps is a fact of life and the survival of this activity depends on the willingness of the drum corps institutions to use a creative approach to problem solving. A “think tank” if you will, the deep thinkers are out there.

New poster here but a frequent guest. Ambassadors played some cool charts by Ed "Cozz".