Cathie Wiener

Soaking clothes in Coke or Pepsi or other similar cola for a bit and doing just a wash cycle without detergent and then a regular cycle with detergent should get the smell out. I did that when I marched and when I was in the military we used to do that to get the smell of jet fuel out of our uniforms. Today I do that to get that musty smell out of the load of laundry I forgot was in the washer and sat there for a day. Edit: To clarify, I let the washer fill up with water and then add either half a 2-liter of soda or the whole thing depending on how bad the smell is and let that soak for 5-10 minutes and then let that wash cycle finish up as normal without detergent and then just wash it again as normal with detergent.

Yes.

SO glad to see the name changed to just Shadow. Having an organization with the initials SA is probably not the best idea. May not be that big of a deal in the Midwest but you start saying those initials on the West Coast and some other places and you could get yourself into some hot water.

Thanks Kevin and Charlie for your wonderful commentary. Charlie's here's hoping you don't have the rental car/airline nightmare going home this year like we had last year man.

Kevin, Thanks so much for doing this liveblog. Love hearing/reading about the corps.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write out your thoughts on the show. I know the performers love to read reviews and it's really nice to read about the performances for those of us that couldn't be there.

Not the official answer, but the show order of those mini corps that didn't play the year before or did play the year before but missed the initial deadline to keep their previous year's placement (though I don't know that this has ever happened) has traditionally been based solely on the order in which the fully-paid applications were received. The corps go on in reverse order of the date of the received application.

Class A is very vital in recruiting and, I think, motivation for the A corps. Would you rather be known as Class A Champion or "throw down" thir/four/fifteenth place? Champion, second or third sounds a hell of a lot better to me and potential members as well.

LOVE being part of "the regulars". Edited for proper smiley face.

Thanks for the info Tom!

Hey back Frank!! :) I'm a big fan of the convention center, too. I get why some people don't like it, but I think the pros outweigh the cons. I'm just asking because we had someone mention that they read something about the mini corps maybe being outdoors for the celebration and whatnot and I was just trying to get clarification. It'll obviously affect whether we practice indoors or outdoors as we get closer to DCA weekend. I'm sure we'll eventually get an answer through official channels, but I told the guys at rehearsal on Sunday that I'd throw up a post here at DCP to see if anyone knew.

I was just curious with DCA's return to Rochester if the Mini Corps competition is still going to be held in the same venue on the indoor stage? Thanks.

Also to clarify for those who don't know, when I mentioned dual participation with those of us in Freelancers Alumni, it's important to note Freelancers Alumni does not do the full-fledged marching field shows like Cabs Alumni or Bridgemen. Therefore, I would assume it's not quite the same commitment as the Alumni Corps on the East Coast. That being said, our two guys that did Freelancers and Renegades simultaneously did have fully "staged" mini corps shows to learn and try to perfect with two shows' worth of music to memorize each of the years they did this. It was still incredibly hectic for them.

We've had some Freelancers Alumni do that for the entire season including DCA Championships. I marched SoCal Dream and Freelancers Alumni simultaneously for three years. During the season Dream rehearsals and performances took priority but, luckily, there weren't all that many conflicts. And at DCA Dream took priority, but they knew I was with Freelancers on I&E and mini corps night. Since Dream was also at I&E at the same time, no rehearsal was lost. Also, Freelancers didn't do the Alumni Spectacular the year both were at DCA so, had Dream made Finals, Sunday rehearsal wouldn't have been a problem. Even more hardcore than that were our members that marched Renegades and Freelancers simultaneously and they were both located in Southern California so they would have 4 1/2 to 7 hour drives one way for every Renegade camp weekend. We had two active members march a full season of both (each in different years) and, in addition to that, we also had two Renegade contras "step up" and help out Freelancers Alumni in one of our first mini corps years. The two members who did Renegades didn't have as many conflicts as you would think because, except for once-a-month weekend camps (or twice-a-month as DCA comes closer), all of Freelancers rehearsals are on weekdays. And, except for one DCI show, when Freelancers performed it was at all the same show as Renegades so those guys would just pop in for the Freelancers performance real quick and then head right back to where Renegades were warming up. DCA Championships were another story. Both those guys were running around like chickens with their heads cut off because they were in both I&Es and mini corps for Freelancers the years they marched Renegades. It was hectic for everyone involved and one of the guys has vowed he would definitely never do that again. Plus the mini corps itself takes a beating because you don't have all your members there for all the rehearsals right before the one performance you've been practicing for all year. For me, it was hectic, but not as hectic as the guys who did Renegades. That being said, if I still lived close to Dream and my health was better I'd do it all again in a heartbeat. I miss marching drill and playing and I miss my Dream family.

Congrats guys. Looking forward to seeing you this summer.

I also think they'll be a huge jump in the number of mini corps back in Rochester next year. Especially with the switch to Saturday night. I know that's personally going to help with a few of our members being able to finally swing the trip because they have to miss possibly only one workday instead of two or three days as previously needed. And though we're grateful for the kudos for Freelancers, I'll also throw a HUGE shout out to Impact of Orlando. They did an awesome job with a huge score jump from last year. I know we only had four corps, but it is worth noting our point spread from top to bottom was only just over 8 points. That's outstanding!! On a personal note, I apologize to the members of Impact for thinking they were MBI in the beginning. It's those uniforms man. But it was all straightened out later as myself and members of our corps' management were able to talk with members of Impact/Sun Devil's management team. Besides just being great guys, it was obvious that really good things are going on with those corps! Can't wait to see you all next year.

I'd really like to know the answer to this as well. I had really hoped they would get to perform in exhibition as "International Champs" or the like in front of the finals crowd. I know scheduling is super tight but it seems like a missed opportunity for everyone if they weren't offered that chance to perform.

I'll tell you right now, Skyliners 2007 Mini Corps was, and is, still one of my favorite mini corps performances ever. It was down and dirty and awesome! Was it particularly clean and competitive? Nope. I don't care!!! For me, you can bring performances like that to mini corps any day. As long as you try your personal/group best and play for the crowd, I'm cool with mini corps showing up knowing they're probably not going to win but they're going to play a hell of a show anyway. Amoskeag Sound was another great mini corps I love that was there for the crowd. In fact, I think they took a penalty for having only 10 members instead of the required minimum 11 members and played for us anyway that year, and I'm grateful they did. Basically, only one mini corps can win and only so many mini corps are truly "in the hunt" for the win. As a mini corps performer I'm aware of this and totally okay with this. But, more importantly, as a member of the crowd I'm okay with ALL the mini corps, "in the hunt" or not. Bring on the performances.

Four of my five DCI years were in all female guards and I don't recall any potential members being upset they couldn't march in those guards. A big part of that was there were other options very nearby that did have male members, Blue Devils for Freelancers and Troopers for Blue Knights. And then Blue Knights did have males in the guard my fifth year, so it was a moot point. I think "tradition" has a big part of how the guard memberships are made up, especially for PR, but of course show design comes in as well. I'm not going to lie, I still can't get over the fact SCV has males in the guard. It just doesn't seem, for lack of a better word, right. The years I marched had SCV, PR and Freelancers with all-girl guards. It's just how it was. The thing that bothered me more than boy guard/girl guard was how sometimes some of the guards would only have men spinning rifles and women spinning sabers in their show. Cadets and BD, especially. I am a rifle girl at heart and had a dream about trying out at Cadets, but I wanted to spin rifle so I didn't even try. We did have a guard member from 95 BK that did march Cadets 96 and she did get to spin rifle as it was a coed rifle line that year. It was just the luck of the draw/show design. Basically, as a prospective member you know what corps/guards you are "eligible" to audition for and go from there. I don't think it really is that big of a deal. I mean, I desperately wanted to march Madison's guard and that wasn't going to happen. So I had an absolutely kick butt time at the corps I did march.

This, exactly!!

I also NEVER saw anything that was abusive. Tough? Yes. Sarcastic? Yes. Crossing the line sometimes? Yes. But you have to break up the intensity of the summer with some jokes, sarcasm and other fun stuff or you're just going to explode. You can't be that intense and focused all of the time. It's just not possible. And not to be too graphic but I need it to make a point, when I was in the Air Force as a Search and Recovery Officer I led Recovery teams to recover pilot(s) and crew remains from aircraft crash sites. Part of the training for Recovery teams very clearly addresses the need in really intense situations like Recovery to know your team members are going to need humor, sarcasm and sometimes being a little inappropriate to survive and it'll come to them naturally because it's an innate human coping mechanism for them to have a lifeline to sanity. And that's exactly what happened on crash sites. I'm not saying drum corps is an equivalent to this situation, but it truly is much closer than one would think when it comes to the intensity, seriousness and overall focus of the members and staff of drum corps. That being said, like others, I also have found nothing in life was even close to being as hard as drum corps. I am convinced nothing will ever be physically harder than the hot-as-hades 93 tour in the South while wearing double layer, long-sleeve full body suits. It's never going to happen. I also know nothing will ever be mentally harder than the summer of 96 when I, an injured guard girl who kind of knew her musical scales, was faking it as a mallet player in a Ralph Hardimon drumline. Nothing. Four months of Air Force Officer Training School in Alabama had nothing on drum corps. Two weeks of survival training in Florida in the summer in the middle of a fire season while wearing chem gear or full firefighter gear... nope. 93 was harder. There's just no comparison. I LOVED my time in drum corps and it really did affect who I am and how I am for the rest of my life even with all the non-PC "feedback" from my instructors. In fact, if I was still instructing I can assure you there were quite a few items of that "feedback" I'd recycle from many of my instructors and I guarantee you they are DEFINITELY not PC, but incredibly effective (and memorable) nonetheless.

Gosh no. It's all good.

Oh gosh guys. Let me define what I meant by "useless". I meant it in the way that a review can be helpful to a group to make changes, improve or keep amazing things based on some info in the review. When I write, "It was awesome, and then more awesome, etc." That feedback is useless as far as a traditional review. WHAT was awesome? WHAT should we keep? I don't mean taking the time to write down what I think about y'all is useless. I'll always give feedback to you all for as long as I can see the show. I mean, come on. We already know I love you guys. Thank you Mr. Charlie. We had SO much fun this weekend!

Alumni Spectacular Lancers Alumni – I absolutely loved your arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that arrangement before and it was just lovely. You had a wonderful show and I loved the change of pace with the singing. Nice work by the guard. Also thanks for the info regarding the battery drums. That’s going to be a great help. Freelancers Alumni – We performed selections from Jesus Christ Superstar with the Naval Hymn as our warm up. The audience seemed appreciative of the show. We love having the additional performance opportunity of the Alumni Spectacular. Makes the corps’ trip all the way out from Cali that much more satisfying being able to perform at the Alumni Spectacular, which is my favorite show of the entire weekend, by the way. Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights Alumni, Toronto Optimists Alumni, Yankee Rebels Alumni – You guys were my Jolesch picture-taking, pit equipment pushing/loading, hurry back to the stands corps so I didn’t get to see you. Mighty St. Joe’s Alumni – I get excited just typing that name! Really amazing show. Georgia. Goosebumps. The end. I don’t know what else to say. I love you guys. Oh yeah, the single tenors were neat and picking up the shakos… very funny. Hopefully your drummer was okay after the show. Yes I know I use the word “love” too much in these reviews. I don’t care. It’s the Alumni Spectacular. Lots of love going around. Preston Scout House Alumni Band – It’s no secret. You guys are my favorite Alumni Corps AND it turns out I was sitting in front of your cheering section during the show. Yay!! I’m always amazed by the glock player. How do you play that and march at the same time? It doesn’t seem possible. I’m in awe. Of course your DM is my favorite DM of the entire weekend and my corpmates are sick of me telling the story of how I got to meet him at the hotel last year. I don’t care. I’m telling that story forever. Oh yeah, back to the show… It was awesome. More awesomeness. Even more awesomeness. TOY SOLDIERS… my favorite part of the whole weekend again this year! And then you ended with some awesomeness. I may be a little biased in my review. P.S. I was told the 2013 calendar wasn’t available yet this year. I need my fix so someone tell me when they’re ready. Reilly Raiders – Strong, strong guard. Amazing job weapons line. Whoever wrote that guard book deserves a medal. So simple (as in old school, not necessarily easy), clean and effective. The corps as a whole made some huge fans of Freelancers Alumni at the show. They absolutely went crazy over your tribute medley with all the uniforms and corps references as did the rest of the audience. It was all just a little before my time but my corpmates were out of their seats hooting and hollering. Don’t get me wrong, just because I didn’t quite know the significance of some of the songs doesn’t mean a darn thing. It was still so much fun. Your show was the definite favorite of all the guys I was at the show with. And the bottle dance into Bridgemen. Very nice. Park City Pride – First, kudos to guard again. I mean the cymbals, I mean the guard. Gosh, I don’t even know what else to say. I was totally enamored by the guard and they had some beautiful silks to boot… oh and the backfield DM. Very entertaining. I love the philosophy of how this group was formed and I’m so grateful I get to see your wonderful shows every year. New York Skyliners Alumni – Oh Skyliners, Skyliners, Skyliners. You guys. No, seriously… you guys. Starting with Aquarius. I don’t know what it is about that song but it always moves me and with the Skyliners sound... perfection. And Summertime and New York, New York. Love it! You guys are always my favorite “sound” of the Alumni Spectacular if that makes any sense. I am truly desperate for you guys to do a mini corps show again in the vein of this show and the mini corps show you performed in 2007. Pretty, pretty please with a cherry on top? Bridgemen Alumni – Yay. I’ll say it again. Yay. Just so you know I’m stealing the backing up beep “bit”. Every time I have to back up for any reason for the rest of my life I’m going to beep and then of course I’ll think of you guys. I did miss the city sounds of the car horns and whatnot from last year’s show, but I guess I’ll let it slide if you promise to put it back in next year. Don’t know what else to say except you rocked. Hawthorne Caballeros Alumni – I was so excited. I never got to actually see the Call to the Bull before and I was sitting right next to the group when Mr. Ponzo played it this time. So exciting! I love the fact that the competitive corps takes to time out to support the Alumni Corps. It must be such a blessing to have such an active, large, supportive organization as the Caballeros. Now on to the performance of all you swishy pants alumni. Two words; loved it. Did you think I was going to say anything else? I was tearing up at Don’t Cry for Me Argentina. So beautiful and a bit haunting actually. A very nice moment along with The Prayer and beautiful, beautiful silks. Amazing job tonight. I did want to do a special shout out to all the Alumni guards. You’ve all improved so much over just the last three years and I love it. You all are so much fun to watch. I am also including Boston in that statement even though they weren’t here this year because they, too, have a wonderful guard. Also, huge thanks to Kevin Gamin and company with the Live from the Pressbox blogs to help refresh my memory to write these reviews so many days after the fact. Lastly, I know these Alumni “reviews” are pretty useless and offer no true substance as far as a review goes… but they're fun and I don’t care. So there.

Mini Corps Only got to see 1 ¾ mini corps, but I’ll recap them anyway. Centurions – I loved the uniforms and had a blast listening to the music. I can’t quite remember what it was right now, but I know I was groovin’ in the end zone with you guys. You all seemed like you were having so much fun performing. I wish I could have seen the whole show. Also loved the two young gentlemen performing. I congratulated them on the way off the field and they seemed very excited. I love to see stuff like that. Freelancers Alumni – We performed selections from Jesus Christ Superstar. We were darn happy with that performance and thrilled to see the audience so into it. It was a bit of a risk for us but I think it was worth it. As the announcement said, this was to be our show music in 95 when we had to fold and I was a member of that corps so it was an amazing feeling to finally play that music 17 years later. On an additional note, we did get chastised by a fan or two for not saying, “Live from Sacramento, the Freelancers.” Didn’t quite fit in with our Jesus Christ Superstar theme this year. “Live from Sacramento, the Crucifixion” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. Next year. Minne Brass – Didn’t see a lick of your show but you receive a huge honorable mention for helping me and Bo with the pit equipment and drum cart up the tunnel hill. My corpmates were so excited, deservedly so, that they forgot about that part where some of them are supposed to grab those things making noise behind them all show long and take them off the field. But you guys were awesome and, like the cool cats that you are, helped us get that stuff up the tunnel hill. Thanks for the help, and now that I’m home I can’t wait to see your show and all the other groups I missed as well. Ghost Riders – Caught the very last tune standing in the tunnel waiting to go to my seat. Couldn’t see a thing, but you sounded beautiful and amazing as always. Star United – As always excited to see you guys. First off, love the DM’s new uniform. She looked beautiful! She also got some stellar compliments on her conducting from a few Freelancers who had never been out to DCA before. Liked this show a lot. I liked last year’s show a bit more, but I also have the nostalgia of being on tour in 93 and seeing that show over and over again. Also, what do you do after scoring 100? No pressure. I say this again, and I’ll say it every year, watching you makes me mad because your playing skills are so out of this world and to know I’ll never be that good only perturbs me. Regardless, great job and congrats on the win. General Note: I know as a competition the mini corps part of I&E has outgrown the ballroom type facility we had in Rochester but I don’t know if putting the mini corps on the field was quite the way to go. It seems the sound gets a little lost and washed out. I don’t quite have a solution, maybe a theater or amphitheater, but the field doesn’t seem quite intimate enough. Some people have mentioned trying to utilize the Dock area next year. I don’t know logistically how you’d do that. At our At the Docks performance on Thursday I didn’t see an area that could accommodate our performances, not to mention the distance from the first part of I&E. All that being said, I know the DCA Admin has to work with what they’ve got and since we had to be on the field I loved the decision to put us at the end of the field facing the stands like that. I think it was the best choice with the venue options we had. Can’t wait for next year.