Orpheus

Yeah, you know ... that's something that always surprises me. I always assumed that bands had to audition (via video, of course) for a spot in the Rose Parade, but there's usually several that sound kind of mediocre. On the other hand, though, the bands in the Macy's parade are almost always top-notch. What's the deal, then? Do the Rose Parade people just spend so much time worrying about the floats that they don't put as much effort into selecting the bands or what?

So you're saying that the Cascades front ensemble is made up of people who were cut from the battery? Cascades may not be BD, but that still sounds kind of weird to me, in this day and age, for any D1 corps.

Sure it should. But, like I said, what if the judge did notice the problem but thought that the rest of their show was considerably superior to PR and Crown? Ummmmm ... yeah. Did I say otherwise?

Hmmm ... Well, I don't think that'll be a problem. I can't imagine any college holding their band camp prior to the date of DCI Finals, especially since Finals are earlier than they used to be. It's not like HS where camp is in the middle of the summer, you know. Typically you just move in to campus maybe ten days before the semester starts. Something like that. Different schools will vary somewhat. There might be some college bands with weird schedules, but they've got to be pretty rare. ` Has anyone on here ever been required to miss out on corps because of college band camp? Or vice versa, for that matter?

That shows a major misunderstanding of Cook's relationship with Star. He didn't keep throwing money at them every year, you know. From what I'm given to understand, he provided an initial investment to get the corps started but then expected them to operate within their budget like any good business.

I don't think that was it's real title at the time, either. Like I said, I don't think it actually had an actual title at the time. The show name, from what I've been able to remember, seems to have been added retroactively.

Nope. I saw a little A-60 corps in New Jersey in 1991 that had apparently bought 'em off the Crossmen, and they'd tried to remove the white stuff but hadn't done a very thorough job.

And IMO, that's the #1 reason to join.

I don't think it was really as bad as you're imagining. It was probably terrible from the point of view of the members and staff, but for the audience (and probably the judges) it just wasn't as obvious as you might think.

AFAIK that was never really the official name of the show. I never heard "A Drum Corps Fan's Dream" until they came out with "Part Dos" the following summer. If actually you'd asked me in 1995, I wouldn't have even known that their show had a title, per se. Does anyone know different for sure? I think the title was sort of applied in retrospect, but I might be wrong.

Well said. Being in college marching band provided some of the best times of my life and (for better or worse) nearly all of the people from college who I'm still friends with ten years on are people I met through marching band. Of course, this is a non-music major talking, so my experience'll have been different than many of yours. P.S. Hey, MikeD, I always thought that Temple was a state-related university ... ?

Well, I was there, and I certainly didn't have any problem with the Cadets winning. Musically, I actually thought the Cadets were pretty much on fire for that point in the season. How much is one ensemble tear (as bad as it may have been ... like I said, I didn't even notice it ... I just thought the drum feature was sloppy, which is pretty good for me as I know virtually nothing about percussion) going to affect your placement if the rest of your show is (on average) noticeably superior to your competition?

Okay ... so what was the deal with those horns that the Crossmen used in 1989 (I think) that had the white lacquer inside the bells?

If I remember correctly, I believe the commentators on HGTV mentioned something to the effect that she had broken her foot after arriving in California but was determined not to miss the parade. - :D - Good for her.

Hands down -- Crossmen '91

If it's legal where you're located, it sounds like a great idea to me. But would the corps have any liability issues if some numbskull damages himself?

I was gonna bring this up if no one else had yet. Thanks! Love Martha Graham's essay, by the way.

Got cable? HGTV is the place to watch the parade ... uninterrupted, and you can switch to NBC if you wanna see something twice. They don't generally tend to blather on as much on HGTV, either, although they did have that one interview with some designer who has a new show and talked over one band's entire time on TV.

Yeah ... I didn't notice it either.

I agree. I think Glassmen '06 (and '05, too) was a pretty brilliant show. Well put-together and entertaining. I'm loving Robert W. Smith's arrangements.

Okay, then ... I'll tell you that I basically agree with what Jared_mello wrote. I, too, was singularly unimpressed by the '05 Vanguard. I don't think it was a great show and I certainly don't think their guard was much to write home about. Execution was significantly down for SCV, too. Like the man said, if BAC or Glassmen (for instance) had done this exact same show, probably nobody would even talk about it anymore.

This may seem like an obvious thing to say, but shouldn't your first step be to call or e-mail any corps you'd be interested in and simply asking them? :D P.S. Good luck!

Yeah, you should know by now that nobody but GMichael is allowed to have an opinion, especially when it comes to the '05 Vanguard.

Call me a geek, but I thought the whole Star Wars segment was pretty spectacular. Loved the Grambling band dressed as Imperial soldiers.

I just don't think that music from the Classical period would really work on the field, unless you fiddled with it and re-arranged it to the point where it scarcely resembled the original work except maybe for the barest outline of the melody. It would end up being variations on Mozart, which could be a fine show, I guess, but it would certainly leave a lot of purists complaining! - :D - Of course, Glassmen managed a pretty fine show of music by Bach and Beethoven, so maybe ... I just don't see it, though. The melodies they chose for that show seem a lot more adaptable than Mozart's. But what do I know, I'm just a fan.