K2SMA

Jimmy, some of us DO remember... That could be a thread topic all by itself -- and putting a lot of those stories in print, which, in thinking seriously about it, should be done now. I'm sure John Dowlan (sp?) has a few, and Bob Mowrer up in Lansdale, too... (BTW, did you see my post/reply to you in the MCL thread?)

As I understand it, an expansion phase has been planned for the stadium which would add a mezzanine/press/superbox/restaurant (take your pick, or "E", all of the above) level and an upper deck to what was, this year, the back side stands. Some part of the expansion cost is expected to come from state funding, which has not yet been secured. Having worked in New York State government, I can tell you that, with all the studies, political appointments, greasing of palms, placating of labor unions, special interest groups, ad nauseum, required for anything built in New York, it's unlikely there will be any progress on construction (not to mention completion) prior to 2009. Sorry if I stepped on any toes, but I wrote enough state construction contracts to know what is entailed in projects like this.

The Oracle Speaks Verdi's Requiem Russian Sailor's Dance Ebb Tide Wow, good memories of the Bucs from the post Frank Ferraro era. Wonder if they would ever consider a program bringing back some of these "classics" from their past for their anniversary... And where is Red Winzer these days? 1972 was really a turning point for the "Balance in Blue". Perhaps it should also be considered that "Joe Popcorn" generally has less exposure to "classical music" than to other musical styles, which says to me that such a show would be a lot more difficult to sell. The Bucs have always done that well. Congrats on your 2007 Championship!

Oh good, now I have someone else to help lean on Tornado to study for his ticket! He would definitely be DCA's "MR. SKYWARN" after the Arnold contest...

Fred, it looks like about 248 posts, and nearly that many suggestions. You should be knighted for opening this and having the patience to review each item, take notes, and put the best suggestions into place for future years. It's taken me parts of four evenings to get through these... Most of what I would have wanted to say here has been. I believe the weather issues probably helped neutralize some of the neighborhood issues expressed by some, though I don't agree that the neighborhood posed any kind of serious issue for most attendees. Can't say enough about law enforcement; they were terrific. The whole city was terrific, even the cashiers in Wegman's... Friday was a total blast! Shame we couldn't have had that weather all weekend. There were some accoustical issues which appear to be already on their way to resolution for 2007. The stadium seating capacity issues won't be resolved overnight, but I know the "concert side" capacity stats were provided by Allen Buell's committee prior to the DCA members voting to approve the Rochester site. Perhaps you can refresh our memory on these versus the Scranton facility. These seats were actually comfortable, too. Tickets could easily be available at other gates especially if all the "good seats" were sold prior to game day. It should also be easy to better accommodate "special needs" spectators and parking without being a drain on stadium or volunteer DCA personnel. Many conventions and events I attend provide special parking and/or guides for those providing advance notice of their need for assistance. Weather is not within human control, so issues resulting from inclement conditions won't hunt. HOWEVER, advance planning for next year could make WX less of an issue for the photo vendor and corps members. I am sure both lost out as a result. Audio/visual sales may also have been affected. But the big improvement this year WAS, without question, the program book! I hope copies were saved for future sponsors, advertisers, and posterity. I know it was a lot of work on your part. You know my jaw dropped upon seeing the proofs. I hope DCA saw profit from it and that the costs did not raid anyone's wallet. Year #1 at a new venue ALWAYS has its crises. Year #2 will be bigger and better thanks to your efforts. Congrats are also due to Gil Silva, the DCA Board, and staff, the Empire Statesmen, Allen Buell, and his legions for pulling this off! Still, with memories of 1975, 1987, and 1993, I was only sick until Thursday last week, LOL! Congratulations again!

It's Tornado's thing, and I think it's pretty cool. It's a great tool for his use at rehearsals, all science aside. It bears out the principles and physics of wave theory. And besides, we all know that "he who dies with the most toys... is still dead." MCL is lucky to have him on staff!

Without becoming embroiled in existing discussions, I believe the tasks performed by the City of Rochester, the city's public safety department(s), Allen Buell and his staff, and DCA officials were exemplary! A new venue is always a bit bite (in any context) and I believe Saturday's weather has tainted opinion on some levels. The police were where they needed to be when they needed to be there. A welcome change from Lackawanna ("In fact, Lackawanna is a sin all by itself!") County. Don't expect the proposed additional construction to be done by next year. Ain't gonna happen...! The field surface during the worst of the storm was outstanding. That much water had to affect even Sunday's accoustics. Excellent, balanced lighting without apparent hot-spots. The customized, to-order French fries took too long. Hard to get good help over a holiday weekend. Upper deck seat seams get a zero because of water leakage. Parking was adequate if you had a pink or blue pass. Those who rode shuttles from the hotels to the stadium found them adequate but not frequent enough. Certainly did miss having a club or restaurant on-site. This led to cheese and pepper loaf sandwiches aboard MCL-1 for dinner. Being able to store souvie stock ON-SITE was a god-send! Thanks to Charlie King and the GREAT stadium staff who made this possible and eliminated a lot of muscle strain on a night when everyone was cruising for a date with the linament bottle. Friday night downtown was STELLAR, with the exception of the mini-corps venue accoustics. Great party and the weather was perfect! Will look forward to '07 in Monore County, without the monsoon. How about Lincoln Financial Field in Philly for '08? Can you imagine South Street or even 2 Street for I&E? I could gain another 10 pounds just thinking about it!

For the first time in my life, I think I finally understand the difference between a "dry" run and a "wet" run...! (Not to be confused, of course, with a "cold, wet one".)

Yes and no, Jimmy...! That was Janey and me, but my mother didn't attend the show. Neither did my late wife... LOL! Was so good seeing you folks over the weekend. Funny how I think of YOUR dad whenever I go out with the "A" section. Maybe some day we'll measure up to "Pop". The alumni show performance was a hoot, no doubt, and the corps performed it's best performance of the season. Going out at finals with Brigs Alumni in the new "old" uniforms was great, and those guys have a lot of love for Janey and me. These things always remind me what a wonderful activity this is and why I keep coming back. Perhaps only guys like us who have spent so many years doing this can truly understand. And no, those weren't raindrops on my cheeks. My only wish is that the knees, feet, and hips would allow me to do more in the way of marching. I look forward to getting back east more frequently over the coming winter! See you then...!

Carl, you might even find a few alum of Ohio Brass Factory out there within easy driving range of Cleveland (heck, even I was there just a few hours ago). Bet a few of them got tired of driving to Pittsburgh or Erie or even Reading or Rochester and would give it another go if something was close by! Very good luck, and please keep us in the loop. I am sure Amber Roeker (the DCA Central coordinator) and many others will be interested in your progress!

Matt, thanks for mentioning MCL. Good luck to you and to Star United (I still gotta root for the home team)! Someone earlier in the thread had asked about a corps from Tennessee who appeared in the mini-corps contest a couple of years ago. Gene mentioned The Presidents, but the person was probably thinking about Music City Legend, which competed in class "A" last year and has entered open class for 2006. A few members of MCL participated in I&E in '05, but the full corps did not attend due to a last-minute performance opportunity. I believe some of our individual members will be performing in I&E again this year, but not in the mini-corps division. The corps will be there this year en masse... Had the opportunity to see Minne-Brass at the South St. Paul show Sunday afternoon. They are awfully good and will challenge to retain their championship. Looking forward to seeing EVERYONE there Friday night!

Hmmmm... Beats a cage match between the two drum majors...

Somehow I envision this as... as... No, Lee, I can't even think about it. No...

There used to be a cheesesteak and sub shop in a little strip mall on Brooks Avenue at the foot for the ramp from southbound Mt. Read Boulevard circa 1973-76 (maybe next to or just east of the Holiday(?) Inn). Was better than anything I ever experienced in South Philly. Oh Lordy...! Probably long gone by now. :(

Hey Fran, there's something I'll bet you've never done -- announce your own corps while on the competition field ready to perform (without the ugly shirt, though)! Rick Morey nearly had a cow. Talk about nerves...

Hmmm... I think I have edited out the known inaccuracies in my initial post. Please add the info shared by others in subsequent posts. But I believe Empire did not drop out of ICA until its demise sometime post-1990. Drum Corps New York had a senior corps division in 1991-93 but I cannot recall corps other than Crusaders and Capital Brass participating in those. A lot of those years run together... Someone commented on the 1985 ICA Championship in Erie. Yes, it was monsoon season, but one of the top three best drum corps parties I ever attended (or was alleged to have attended). I could write another four paragraphs just on the party and the subsequent "Great Marigold War of 1985". Details can still be found (I'm afraid) elsewhere here on Drum Corps Planet... Perhaps if I attend next year's G.A.S. Reunion, I might be able to spend some time researching scores and champions from old issues of Drum Corps World. And if I ever finish unpacking the garage (after three years here in the Midwest), I might find some of the DCW articles I wrote from that era, though I think most will apply to DCNY. Please feel free to contact me at k2sma@earthlink.net if you have any further questions. P.S. - Doing a quick read of your Wiki post, I see a few minor corrections that need to be made. Looks like simply a case of your mind getting ahead of your fingers, which happens to me all the time. Will review and get these to you later.

Doesn't DCA still require each corps to verify the tabulator's results before they are posted to the recap and later announced? If, under that requirement, a score is posted to the recap incorrectly, I believe it's a done deal. Perhaps Fred Windish or someone else from DCA who is more in the know than I will provide the straight skinny...

Thanks Gary. I know there was some interegnum between the end of the T-birds and the time Excaliber came into being, but I was unsure whether T-birds had been in ICA or not. My exposure to, and participation in, ICA was limited to the years 1984 through 1990. I know Erie sure knows how to throw a party, no matter which corps was running it...!

Rumours persist that MCL-1 will be parked at Vice President Cheney's hotel. At an undisclosed location...

That would require a lot more mental exercize than I am prepared to do on a Sunday afternoon. But to get things started: International Corps Associates (ICA) was founded by the late John Collum in the late 1970s or early 1980s following the demise of the Red Carpet Association. The organization was formed, like RCA, to provide a competitive forum for those corps which were unable to compete at the DCA level. Vince Bruni was president of the organization in the mid-to-late 1980s. Among the competing corps that were members at various times were (in no particular order): Guelph Royalaires Empire Statesmen Erie Excaliber Steel City Ambassadors Bushwackers Capital Brass C.M.C.C. Warriors Archer-Epler Musketeers Milton Keystoners Ohio Brass Factory Pinetree Warriors Troy Defenders Lampliters (Smiths Falls, ON) Les Ambassadeurs There were also probably a number of other corps which had also competed in the RCA circuit that, at some point, became members of and competed in, ICA. Some of the contests were held in former DCA and RCA strongholds like Altoona, Butler, Midland, Williamsport, and Warren, Pennsylvania, and Guelph, Ontario. Other sites included Cape Vincent, NY, Towson, MD, and Quebec City, PQ. The first championship contests were held in Erie, where RCA had traditionally held their title shows. Later championships sites included Albany, Medina (NY), and Rochester. There was never, to my knowledge, any official or unofficial relationship with DCA. There were even times of friction between the DCA and ICA leadership, such as in 1985 when ICA proposed boycotting the DCA prelims. The proposed boycott resulted from what ICA perceived as unfair treatment and scoring of ICA corps by DCA and its judges at prior DCA championship events, and no appearance fees or sharing of revenues for/among the ICA corps from the championship. ICA believed that, without the participation of their corps in DCA prelims, DCA could not offer its fans a valid World Senior Championship preliminary contest. The boycott never took place (all but one ICA corps attended DCA prelims) and the Empire Statesmen achieved DCA membership for the first time (taking the spot vacated by Archer-Epler Musketeers, who dropped out of field competition following the 1984 season). On rare occasions, a DCA corps such as the Sunrisers or Buccaneers would compete in an ICA-sponsored contest. These contests often flew in the face of the DCA rule (at the time, and perhaps even now) that "two DCA corps constituted a DCA contest". ICA had some rather unique rules that included an "Entertainment Value" caption that was scored on a 6-point "must" system (6.0 for the top corps, 5.0 for 2nd, 4.0 for the 3rd, etc.) and allowed for an amplified electric bass guitar (often used by corps which did not have, or could not afford, contrabass bugles). For ICA Championships and contests of more than seven corps, the Entertainment caption broken down into half-poit increments (6.0 for 1st, 5.5 for 2nd, 5.0 for 3rd, 4.5 for 4th, etc.). The arithmatic emphasis of the scoring was on music and general effect, in opposition to systems in place elsewhere that more favored "M&M execution" and the difficulty and percussion captions. Perhaps this will get you started. If more comes to mind, I will post it later.

Good grief, those records were expensive! Do you realize how much $14.94 would be in today's money?

It's definitely not Archer Epler Musketeers. I'm not sure that the corps labeled as the Keystoners is correct, either. I believe (subject to being corrected) that Milton's uniforms were more predominantly pink than shown in this photo. My DCA program book from '84 is still packed away somewhere (perhaps in the blithle zone...)

Empire Statesmen became the first corps of the year to break the 90 mark. Any reviews?

I watch the stadium construction each day from my office in the Chase Tower, and I can tell you that this is gonna be a GREAT stadium for drum corps, open on one end and at the top. Top level seating will be high but not too high that there should be significant sound delay. The biggest problem is gonna be eveyone wanting to stay over here, LOL!

Ed, I'll second that. As this year's DCAS title tilt was only a five-corps show, I was surprised to hear that there was a DM-only retreat. We'll have to discuss this with Vic for when we host the show next year. Whaddaya think?