jimott01

I just think its interesting how in the last few years, due in very large part to the failings of Brian Hickman and the poor design and lack of leadership by Sal, the corps is in a worse place than it has been in the last 20 years. Financially, Brian could barely keep the wheels on, having to borrow money from a local Indiana band director just to get the busses to Indy to WATCH finals in 2011. Various staff decisions by Brian and Sal have left certain parts of the corps in very poor quality, and if it weren't for the amazing volunteer corps that Glassmen is lucky to have, I don't know if anything would get done. Kudos to the veteran instructional staff members and the volunteers for holding the Glassmen together despite the efforts of others. I hope that the Glassmen can now move on to much bigger and better.

The Blue Devils uniform that was worn from 1994 to 2003. That was my "THAT" uniform. Couldn't believe the first time i put it on. Felt indestructible.

Wow, didn't realize that Cavies won that many in a row. I remember that the streak started on Quarterfinals in 2001, and ended in 2003 in Minnesota, but 61 shows in that amount of time is crazy. I think BD breaks that streak, and if not for that crazy night in 08, we would be talking about a 100 show win streak. Crazy.

I know a lot of BD people, and other folks that will tell you that 2001 was perhaps the best BD guard ever. 09 was a great group with a lot of talent, and 99 is one of my personal favorites, but not only did the 2001 guard win, and spin their ###es off, but if you watch closely, there are segments of drill that the hornline is doing that the guard also does, while spinning. The tank tread portion at the end of the third production comes to mind. Anyway, I would agree with all the other folks on here that there are other BD guards and other guards that top 99 and 09.

That George Mason show was one of the worst managed and put together Drum Corps shows ever. I can't believe that they are going to allow another show there. Parking was a mess, the corps were so far away from the gate its a joke, the event is held in a track and field stadium with about 10-15 row bleachers, and the front sideline is literaly 35 yards from the stands. Please, oh please, don't give them another show.

GMEA is a joke. They protect the good ole boys in Georgia, and stonewall anyone who wishes some sort of progress for the marching activity. I'm sure that they will present Spirit as one of the premier groups in the activity, instead of what they are, a tragic mess. Sorry to be so negative, but when you live in GA and have to put up with all this garbage, it can get really old and annoying. Flame on.

First of all, its way cool that Time Magazine did a piece on Drum Corps. But I have to tell you that that list sounds like someone who knows very little about the activity and the shows that are out there. In fact, it sounds like the guy who put this thing together had a buddy who is a drum corps fan, and that buddy was like 'oh, yeah, put in this show and use that show, it was really cool' and 'oh, guess i will include a couple of old shows for the old school fans'. Problem is, that any doofus who really knows drum corps could put together a pretty all-encompasing list that would pretty much sum up the activity. I am ok with the first few: Spirit 80 is absolutely on the list, but where are three-peat Cadets and 89 Vanguard? And before 95 Scouts, which is a great pick, I agree that 93 Star has to be on there, and if your going to recognize Cavies for being the corps of the 2000's, then there should also be something about Blue Devils winning 4 out of 6 in the 90's. And you can tell that this was kinda just thrown together, videos being wrong, Cadets show taken down, and also that the last five were all from the past couple of years, and the only one that should have been on there was the Phantom 08 show. All the 07 stuff was junk, no offense. So, thanks Time, for letting one of your mail boys do a piece to fill your website. Remember, opinion.

Sorry, but I have to go with Magic 03. Gino and Colin led that corps through the summer and kept every body together fighting to the end. This should be the best 11th place show just because they made it all the way to Finals, that was one crazy summer. And way better than the 02 show.

Maybe you would have been ok with any one of 5 corps winning it all, but I don't think there were 5 drum corps that could have won, or should have. The Blue Devils were so far past everybody else, and it took so long for Crown's show to get complete and clean enough to come across right to the judges, and Cadets show was just not going to win. They couldn't get that show clean enough visually, and that was pretty much it. Cavaliers absolutely should not have won, and the same goes for Vanguard. Cavies were a dirt sandwich and Vanguard's visual rep. was barely box 5 until it was too late. So while you might be ok with 5 different champs, a lot of other people definitely would not have. As for 16 corps deserving to be top 12, thats where this thread really gets absurd. Listen, I know that your just appreciating what the kids and the corps put on the field, but I have a hard time thinking that anyone who could not beat the Troopers deserves to be in finals. Troopers show was barely a finalist show itself, and groups like the Colts(band show) and the Academy, were nice, but those aren't finalist quality shows, plain and simple. They weren't finalist quality shows all season long and finals was no different. And I hope that by 16 corps, you are not including Spirit, Madison, or Crossmen. Those are shows that I was embarrassed to watch all season long. These formerly great drum corps finalists stooping to this kind of crap was hard to watch. None of these three shows should have ever been considered finalists. I know that this is just my opinion, but there were not 5 possible champions, not from day one, not all season long, and not on finals night. And there were definitely only 12 finalist drum corps this year. Thats why they put the rest on another DVD, because they aren't on the same level as the top 12.

Sorry, but to the original poster, but that fall was way worse than you can see from the high cam. I saw it live, before, during, and after the fall, and it was a tragic mess. The original faller missed a direction change and got his foot stepped on by the guy on the end next to him. Once the first guy fell, the end guy fell over him and then got back up and kept going. Bass 1 kind of tripped over the dude on the ground and Bass 2 pretty much marched over the dude. Finally, the guy scooted himself backfield and away from the rest of the bass line. Once he was back up he was chasing the rest of the snare line trying to get back into his spot, but the other snare guys had closed his hole and there was no where to go, so the guy followed the line standing behind where his spot is supposed to be. After maybe 10 more seconds of this, the dude literally put his hand on the arm of the end dude and moved him over and got back into his spot. For the remainder of the tune, intervals were everywhere, guys were bumping into each other, and I saw at least two breaks, one from center for at least 8 counts. Drum judge caught all those ticks and there was dirt everywhere, everywhere! I'm sure that getting dropped one point to 7th in drums had something to do with that, and something to do with 3rd place. But don't take it from me, I just teach drum corps.

I was going to dress up as Relampago for Halloween and go to this huge costume contest, but I want to win, not come in 15th place, so I have to figure out something else to wear. I guess I could just put on a scanty tight white outfit and seduce my way into the top 7, but everyone will say that I look like a dirty prostitute and therefore cheapen my actually "earning" my placement. Hmmmm....... I guess I could go as a mountain climber, wait, nevermind, that would never win. Well, guess I'll just have to go with my first idea, vampire. That way if I'm gonna suck like these guys, I might as well do it on purpose.

I think he will do fine, especially now that he doesn't have Cesario looking over his shoulder every five minutes. That was a major limiting factor on the drill he wrote over the past 3 years. I think some freedom to create and take risks is what allows drill writers to really flex their creative muscle. As someone who has been taught by him and taught with him, I wish him all the best.

If my memory serves me right, Ray Vasquez was the caption head for Spirit last year. And I saw Spirit pretty much all summer. And from what I remember, they were not very good. Entertaining, yes, but competitively successful, absolutely not. As a person who is with a competing drum corps, I will say that the Colts were way better than Spirit with Sarah and Chad as the co-caption heads. So now Colts are supposed to be awesome because the caption head of a drum corps that the Colts pretty much worked all summer is coming in. I don't get the logic behind that. I guess to me its like in the NFL when a coach who lost a lot of games and wasn't successful gets hired again by another team who thinks that because its their team, things will be different. And then when the same thing happens to the new team, everybody says "Duh, what did you think would happen." Just my take, but I'm interested to see what happens with this.

Sweet, thats my shirt. Go "Old School" shirt, whoooo!

Wow, so many people put SCV '04 and no one even mentioned that the SCV '03 solo was longer, harder, and straight up better. I know that the 04 solo was great, but 03 was nuts, and even Alan Christensen used words like Hot and #####in' to describe that line. All hail the Vanguard 03 line. Also: Cadets 1998 Blue Knights 2004 Blue Devils 2004 (also sick as hell) Blue Devils 2008

Sure you can, just look at this past summer. Hahahahahaahhaha. That shouldn't just be wrong, it should be illegal to suck that bad.

Hmmm....2002 was definitely a forgettable year, Blue Devils had to scrap half of their show, no Crown or Scouts in finals, and the ones that did make it turned out to be one or two hit wonders, Magic and Cascades. Yeah, 1999 was not so hot either. Besides the west coast battle for the top spot, everybody else was very forgettable, except maybe Boston for their return to finals. But their show still sucked. Also, 2005 anybody? Cadets, thats it. The rest of that year was filled with.....well I can't even remember. So yeah, there have been a few years that weren't tip top.

Cavaliers had all kinds of problems with the Blue Devils in 2001. In fact, they only beat BD twice before finals week, whereas BD beat Cavies like 12 times or more. So, that whole consecutive thing is totally out the window. Unless your talking about just finals. But thats weak. We're talking about sustained greatness, not just a fancy design staff and a finals week push.

Whatever dude, I love being touched by my Blue Devil. She's amazing.

A lot of people in the DCI community thought a lot of things with scoring were really FUBAR, but that doesn't mean that its BD's fault. They just did their thing all summer and won, thats all. Crown couldn't clean their visual program or color guard, so they finished second. Cadets drumline fell all over each other and crapped the bed so they finished third. Cavies beating Vanguard? I don't think so. There were a lot of head scratchers on Finals night, but that doesn't mean you have to show your "Cadets class" and boo a corps or a score. Thats ridiculous. The judges are crazy and they have their favorites long before finals week. BD was cleaner all year long, and when the corps got together in San Antonio that was very apparent. While I don't agree with their final score, they had as much to do with that as you or I did, so chill out and get a little perspective.

Crown is going to win. Ha. Boy were you off on that one. Check out that spread homie, ain't going to happen. In fact, Crown better hustle or they won't hold on to that 2 spot. BD wins, period.

Blue Knights will undoubtedly make finals without playing one single coherent melody and with the most flawed marching technique in DCI. Blue Stars will surely make finals again. Although their product last year was a severely over-hyped band -in-a-box show that they performed the poop out of, I think their design will improve and with a hard-hitting staff like that, they'll get in for sure. Boston- Haven't we been waiting for Boston to break into that upper crust ever since 2000 when they floored all of us with that amazing performance. Ahhh, the aroma of unmet expectations. Congrats BAC, your in again. Glassmen- so would you like your regular seat at the finals table, sir? Ahhhh, yes, placement #11, my favorite. I guess consistency counts for something. This is a corps that seems to find their flow sometime around San Antonio and then lose it around Allentown. If they can come out smokin' and keep some momentum going, there could be a change of seating at the dinner table. Madison- retread show, no thanks. Colts- who knows, this is the most bi-polar corps in DCI. One night they look like they are poised for true greatness, the next night they could pass for a bad marching band. They just swing so far, its hard to trust a group like that. And just because you play lots of melodies doesn't mean that the concept of your show is worth a darn. They definitely can make finals, but do they really want to? Crossmen- I don't even remember their show from last summer, thats the kind of impression that the X-Men had on a lot of people last summer. They have to have something for people to remember if they are going to earn a spot in the top 12, not just a decent show. Ultimate Bubble Corps- Spirit of Whatever it is this year- I don't know if the music of Kansas, which is great by the way, is going to "do it" for the folks in green, but there will be a lot of raw emotion and uncontrolled energy on the field which at least gives the impression of intensity. Oh, and what exactly is the marching technique this year? It changes about as much as the uniform. Now, please remember that I wrote this with a devilish smile on my face and my tongue in my cheek, so please don't think I'm out to ruin your corps, but thats just the way me and my homies see it, and thats it. Peace.

I have been emailing the support people for Fan Network for a month or so now, trying to get them to fix all of the 2008 Bloomington videos. When you click on one of them, the Allentown video pops up instead. I emailed them like six times, and only got a response on my second email. The videos still haven't been fixed and its been almost two months. With this kind of customer support and response to problems, what does that say about how much they really care?

Sorry, but none of those things is what I was referring to. You do understand that the thread is about whether the Colts will be a breakout group and climb to a single digit finish and be the surprise group of the summer. No one ever said that the Colts don't do great things for Iowa, or that they are a bad organization or anything like that. All of the things that you said about what the Colts do are great, but they don't answer the thread question. The Colts are a very solid organization with a lot to offer and with a lot of good things going on, but when it comes to their A corps field performance, there are things that have gone on with them that don't allow them to push through those walls that periodically occur during the summer, and that results in an early peak, or a plateau of the field product. So if we are addressing the thread, you aren't anywhere close, and your over aggressive defense is simply unnecessary.

Wow, I can't believe that out of all the BD guards that have been mentioned, none of you have listed the guard from BD 2001. I could run down a laundry list of things that make them the best, but I'll just say, that when your rifles, sabres, flags, and dance are all BA, and you really have no weak spots, and you score in the stratosphere all season long, you should be considered one of the best. Cadets that year were not close in guard. Also check out: Vanguard 2004 Glassmen 1998 BD 1996