Jofus

Absolutely. Ultimately, it's the Scouts' decision to make, and we all have to just see what happens like it or not. I hope the corps succeeds and provides the same awesome experience I had regardless of co-ed status. Glad we can have a respectful debate and stay out of the mud. Love to you, brother!

I'm not so sure. This is completely anecdotal, so take from this what you will. I did Marine Corps recruit training in an all-male platoon, and I made significant deep bonds with those guys. We ate, ####, showered, and slept together, and in that we got the opportunities to share some deep emotions and thoughts. I went through combat training and embassy security training in co-ed units. While I formed similarly strong bonds with the male Marines I was quartered with (many of whom I still keep up with to this day), I did not form the same kind of relationships with the females. I feel the same way about the phenomenal women I marched next to in the Cadets, who all have my deepest and sincerest respect, but the relationships are not as deep as the men I grew close to.

Some suggest health and social benefits of male peer bonding including increased pain threshold, lower stress, increased altruism, social bonding with others, and increased loyalty. Interesting article below talks of "bromances" but it's extrapolated from studies on rat group "stress-bonding" producing increased oxytocin levels in the subjects. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201604/the-surprising-benefits-the-bromance

Are you implying that there are no benefits to intrasexual peer bonding?

Don't disagree with you on your last bit there at all. I mentioned public vs private because if a private club wants to be exclusively available to men for the purposes of forming fraternal bonds and whatnot through (insert activity), they can and should be able to do so. The military serves to fight wars, not for social or character-building reasons, so discriminating based on sex rather than ability is stupid and wrong. If you are to see the Scouts solely as a competitive musical performance group, and not also a fraternity, then discriminating based on sex rather than ability is also detrimental to the organization. My sticking point is that, at least in my opinion, brotherhood was a fundamental aspect of the Scouts ethos.

In my opinion, yes. It once was a fraternal order, championing the bonds formed between men. This was one of the major differentiators between the Scouts/Cavaliers and the rest of the corps out there. You're comparing apples and oranges. The Scouts are a private group, the Marines are publicly-funded. The Marine Corps doesn't exist solely as a character-building brotherhood (using music as the medium) for young adults, either. It's a warfighting organization whose high standards exist to increase their ability to kill people. I don't care if women serve in the combat arms, so long as they're physically fit, mentally sharp, and just as lethal as the other Marines around them. If the Marine Corps allowed fat people, slobs, and conscientious objectors, that would change the espirit de corps.

Well, I'm not pleased. It feels like a desperation move to increase the talent pool, which I can understand, but at a heavy cost. I hope it pays off, but I can't help but feel the 2020 Madison Scouts will break the continuity of fraternity, brotherhood, etc. that made the Scouts special since 1938. I've worn a lot of uniforms in my life, and those uniforms/badges/symbols represent the values and traditions of each organization. You can keep the uniforms and logos, but if you fundamentally change the espirit de corps , are you really the same group?

I flew back from Japan a few weeks ago with a pair of tickets to DCI finals waiting on me. I hadn't actually seen a show live since I marched in 2008 since I had joined the military in 2009. Going into finals with eyes an ears untouched by drum corps in several years had me pumped, but not really sure what to expect. Here are the slightly biased, mostly uneducated, rusty opinions I came up with last night! Spirit of Atlanta: In all honestly I don't remember too much of this show other than the fact that I was so excited just to actually watch a live show. I wasn't disappointed, but not blown away either. Not sure how I feel about the uniforms. Blue Stars: Cool show, and holy drums batman! Those guys were throwing out a lot of notes, which makes sense once I heard Tom Aungst was over there. Their new uniforms are pretty cool looking too. Madison Scouts: Really good to see them back in finals again. In typical Madison fashion they went out with the "blow your balls off" mentality. Visual execution still had some dirt, but they entertained and played very well. Blue Knights: A difficult music selection to make entertaining IMO. It felt like a real struggle to turn English folk music into a contemporary American marching music show. Though, I did really like the old school drumming with the pit along with some other moments. Boston Crusaders: Without trying to sound like a jerk, I really don't remember Boston's show. Nothing really sticks out in my mind. Bluecoats: Sick drum parts! I couldn't stop following the drumline around the whole show to catch the rest of the corps. Overall fun to watch! Vanguard: I really liked the show concept. The visual design was easy to follow and made perfect sense to me. It was funny hearing Brandt Crocker say "imagine you're in hell, and you want out" almost anticlimactically. Phantom Regiment: Loved the brass. Really. A very powerful show, but I did think it was funny when everyone started cheering when Juliet stabbed herself on stage! Crown: These guys really did go out there like "Rach" stars. Definite crowd-pleaser! It was an all around challenging and extremely fun show. The guard definitely deserved their win! They had my favorite drumline of the year, too. Cavaliers: Some of the message was lost on me, unless I was trying to dig deeper than the concept of doing stuff that's literally extraordinary. Finally got to see the upside-down tenors I've heard so much about. Great show, and it lived up to its name. 2nd place IMO. Blue Devils: Uhhhh... What? Execution was great, don't get me wrong. But, I had no idea WHAT I had just watched once it was over. Maybe it's one of those "you have to see it more than once" shows. Cadets: It was pretty clear they were going to be the winner. I loved the visual design and execution. The show made ME tired just by watching it, because they were booking it as usual! It was a good night to be a Cadet, for sure.

Looks like I picked the wrong year to age out nobody really liked us (madison) in 06 either. I must be bad luck on design teams lol. I honestly don't care that much, but it does kind of suck to have marched only unpopular shows in my drum corps career. I know nobody means to discredit our hard work and all that jazz though. I still got to wear the uniforms and got to be part of two fine corps with great traditions and history. I wouldn't trade that for anything, except maybe to have marched both cadets and madison 05. :) that would rock

I picked grass for rehearsal only because of its temperature and ability to be painted without remorse. I would of course prefer a dry, well-kept field with no holes or bumps but that rarely happens to be the case. I hate parking lots. Way too hot, makes the drum sound different and terrible for the knees of a quad player. Performances, definitely some kind of artificial terf. dinkles, wet grass, quads and Jeff Saktig's drill are a combination that makes me afraid to march.

Squares and rectangles. All squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares. When you see a four aided polygon with 4 right angles and four equal sides you call it a square. Its more than just a revangle. Same with corps vs band.

As Adam from Mythbusters would say, "I reject your reality and replace it with my own." HNC!

Cursed DCI age limit!!

I always wonder who started the game and when. I almost forgot about the game until I read this. How long has the game been around?!

Wish I could be there! I always loved when everybody in the corps was complaining because we were in Alabama and I couldn't have been happier!

The back of the bus for sure. It seems like all the crazies sit back there, so more crazy stuff happens.

I was so happy when Sevierville got rained out last year.

Other than sleeping to various movies... Rookie fight night (every Monday), bus-ups, play the game, sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" starting on a different word but keeping the same melody, perform our rookie duties such as "chameleon boy" or "gay masseuse boy," throw trash at those who didn't play the game, hype songs before shows, and avoid the bass line as they traversed the bus in the nude.

We would scream at the front of the bus to "PUT ON A MOVIE!!!!!!" until they did, and then we would all fall asleep.

We played a show in a baseball stadium in Buffalo in 2006. I was horrified to see that there was still a pitchers mound out there, but relieved when we found out that we were doing a standstill due to rain.

Madison 2006 and Cadets 2008. Most memorable Scouts moment was definitely singing "Never Walk" with the alumni corps at our home show, followed by a 13-man quad jam with them. My most memorable Cadets moment would be hearing the words "Conratulations, you made it" come from Tom Aungst. Second to that would be going as a quad line to get our "QB" tattoos.

"JOE CAYSE!!!!!" pause "..SUCKS!!"

I left Madison after 2006 because of the huge staff change. Only one vet was returning to the drumline, and I was pretty nervous about the new staff. I took 2007 off for financial reasons anyway, but I felt more at home at the Cadets in 2008 because it was most of the same faces I saw in the percussion at Madison in 2006. I knew I had a shot at Cadets, so I took it and loved my experience. Too bad I had to age out. I still LOVE Madison, though. I wore my Madison jacket even after marching in the Cadets. Nobody said you can't have tons of pride in more than one corps.

Colin and Iain are a great team. Remember what they did with Madison from 04-06, or Magic in 2002? Cadets will definitely climb their way back up. This year may just be because of a lot of new players and some new staff members.

Any use of the word "Mojo."