Puppet

Interesting. I've always thought that that Star was more innovative (especially in their last couple of years than anyone before or since) but combined with (God help me!) the Cadet's precision would be stupid great. Puppet

Not me but if I were to go on about Carmen, Hy, Eric, etc. ...but for you - here's this: :tongue: :worthy:

BTW, there are no all girl corps presently. Sorry to say. Puppet

Hey, people. I know I haven't been around for a while. I voted St. Iggy's for obvious reasons. Same instructors, etc. in the seventies they were the ###t! Ray, they were from Long Island, where is your pride? Oh, St. John's was on the list. If you're going CT - The Trumbull Troubadors probably had more girls than the whole Notre Dame all girls. (kidding- but 45 in the guard?!!!) Before 1970 Audubon, during the seventies The Girls From Long Island! Because a lot of you didn't read the whole question, I forgive you. Puppet

Hmmm. "Team" stopped me dead in my tracks. I like Santa Clara. Season so far is "interesting." As in the Chinese proverb. I'll wait. Puppet

Could you do us a favor and slow down a bit. Your arguments might have more weight if you allowed us to read what you are thinking instead of guessing at your meaning. Read before you post. Please. As to you first point ( I think ) The only corps in my memory from the halcyon days of the sixties and seventies who marched 50 to 60 members were "C" parade marching corps or feeder corps. And if there were over ten thousand drum corps during that period, I may be only counting the Northeast. I believe there are more people on these threads here to discuss rather than say who is right or wrong. BTW, intelligence has nothing to do with right or wrong - even a dummy can fall down and prove there is gravity. (that was my use of an example to make my point - hope you laughed) Yes, for years horn and drum arrangers have struggled to create balance within their lines and many have achieved that balance beautifully. With the advent of Bb, intonation is not the hurdle it once was for horn lines but that did not stop those lines from back in the day to play music of every age. I've heard Contra lines that sounded like string bass sections in an orchestra, mellophones and French horns fill up mid sections with seemingly other-worldly passages and many more "colors" that perhaps your imagination won't allow you. Electronic sounds by their very nature (or lack thereof) are not anything more than facsimiles of original sounds ... ie: "Synthesized." But hey, I can't hear the Chicago Symphony orchestra on my iPod without the use of electronics. So I guess you're right. Learn more at: http://www.ihatesynthsindrumcorp.com/ Puppet

I got coerced to go to my first in 1985. I can hear it now: "...c'mon and go," she said. "It's Madison, you love Wisconsin. Garfield will be there." "I hate Garfield, don't you remember who I used to march with?" "OK, Santa Clara." "Where's my bag?" That was the year I was pretty much stunned by a cheesy little Corps called Star Of Indiana - I was at the Finals for the next 10 in a row. Saw the awesome Blue Devils and Phantom shows in '06, '07 and last year. Been sick this year so I'll miss but you will see my face in the place for Star Alum next year! Puppet

I am already on record as an opponent of the synthesizer within the context of Drum Corps, but "latest" has me thinking. Isn't this technology over 40 years old. I seem to remember Walter (now Wendy) Carlos' Switched On Bach back in 1967! I believe it was the biggest selling classical album (yes, I said album!) ever. Heck, this technology is older than the mechanical hand crank our guys used to use on their tympani! New this technology is not. The microprocessors are newer and faster, but the way the thing works is just as when Mr. Moog invented it in 1965 or so. All I'm saying is that spinning the "new" thing won't work. It's not a new idea for Drum Corps, IMHO it is a bad idea for Drum Corps - It's like playing a Cello in a parade band. It's Ketchup on Chateaubriand. It's a GlasPak Muffler on a Rolls Royce ... it's just wrong to me and what's worse is that I keep having this dream where near the end of Phantom's show this year, (not to give away any ideas on how to make anybody's show better or anything) somebody plugs that darn violin in and actually plays the thing - arrrrrghhh! Puppet

Tongue way in cheek! If this were Face Book, I'd be pushing the "like" button." Puppet

You don't have to miss any of these things you loved about drum corps, they're all there today and better than before... The great shows, every weekend, hundreds of miles from your home The drum major on the podium wowing the crowd with their metronomic prowess The synthesizers The twirlers The interpretive dancers The pit and the endless tinkling The pit taking up the sideline and blocking your view The vocals The amps You don't have to miss it. It's all there in DCI today. All the things you loved about drum and bugle corps is there today, better than ever... You see, Keith. It's not the joke, it's how you tell it! Puppet

I love a good euphemism. Makes what's been going on the past 20 or so pages come together. But my NPR affiliate is off the air tonight. Puppet

Lance, please see post #2012. It's not a hate letter - it's a love letter. Puppet

Darn, I thought Garry was just being condescending and there I was being smug knowing I already knew the word. Sigh! That said: We are all subjective beings. We cannot help it. To me, an orchestra with a synthesizer is anathema to the orchestra's reason for being - it just sounds wrong. I once argued this point when someone responded: "Well what about the organ, isn't that a mechanical instrument?" Not the same, I responded. It's wind and bellows and the mixed metaphor doesn't work because all modern instruments are mechanical. I bristle at the electronics because of the sound. It changes the sound. But that's just me. It's not the politics. It's not DCI or the rule changes. I'll be good to go as long as someone on the field is bashing on something or blowing through something and the sound is the result of a human interconnection with said instrument. Three marimbas playing in unison ... I can still wrap my head around that because it takes skill. To press a single key and reproduce an entire 8 bar run to "accentuate the soprano line" when it took those men and women weeks of grueling practice to learn and then learn to play as one while on various parts of the field and usually not within sight of each other is skill; and when they hit that run on the run there's a reason why people in the stands flip their collective lids. Fans, players and former players know that was hard! Hard to learn, hard to perfect, hard put together with a section, hard to put together with the rest of the line and even harder to put it into the drill set. To me, the synthesizer takes that away from them. One more example and I'll get to my real point: When you have a line of 90 or more people including the pit and a couple of dozen more in the guard all rushing about in a seemingly random fashion blowing into a tremendous crescendo of chords and all that madness and stopping stock still to complete silence for one single beat and all you hear around you is the sound of all those people taking one single breath and then blowing into the next riotous passage and the first timer in the stands says how do they do that? You can turn to them and say: "Because those are humans out there." It is the sound that humans make that make Drum Corps so special. Even when they're blowing pop bottles or whatever the heck that was. But that's just the subjective, people loving me who loves the sound of Drum Corps. Won't change anything, but that's how I feel. Puppet

Nice note, there. Hy was one of the first to understand the power middle voices gave to a horn line. He was a stickler for control on that little mouthpiece - great life lesson for me. If our instructors like George didn't give us that important work ethic, we would not be talking about them decades later. Bravo Puppet

Oh, good. I can take this brief hiatus - here's the results from this morning's medical follow up: Email to my friends and family of which you all are a part. Well, Here's the deal: The guy tried to scare me. Made me wait over 2 hours and then said this pretty much: My motor skills are good - I can hear, walk, see react normally blah, blah except that my lower face numbness will continue to dissipate so my speech will get increasingly better. Congratulated me on working on it this weekend - Thank God for "they might be giants!" Don't worry, only a few people will get that. Really medically speaking, the occlusion in my Cartoid is completely unblocked. I may not have a recurrence if I continue to keep talking and laughing, if I get support from my family and friends, continue to read and write and listen to music (who was he talking to anyway?!) stay positive and continue with mild physical activity. After talking a while longer, he asked me why I pretty much gave up drinking but not smoking. Apparently I should do it the other way around - not to excess. Of course, I should eat better to which I said: You're kidding right?! I even eat chicken, now. You had to be there - oh yeah and know me all these years. I'm 165 pounds, so I need more weight ... why? Because he was like 280 and he had all his clothes on! So that's it. I'm good, will get better and I should get over m-m-myself and just laugh along when people hear me talk for the next week or so. Still might learn a lesson about thinking before I speak, though. Because while it might have taken me only a couple of minutes to write this, it probably would take about 15 to say it. OK 10. Give me a call for a g-g-good laugh, send an email or IM at DCP (I left all the Whoville crowd a message this morning and I'll repost this there and the Brassmen message board in a little while) and as you know, I now am on Face Book, too. Thanks for all your messages and posts and well wishes. Puppet is good to go.

Soprano ... not so much. Puppet

I'm not saying I predicted this kind of season ... I was so star struck by the concept, I just couldn't ( and won't! ) say this year's INT would be a show stopper! Puppet

Yeah - Elitism... showing off your depth there, aren't you? Puppet

'87 - '02. Yep. Of course, that's given the choices. I'm so old I remember the funky uniforms BITD that kind of looked like police uniforms with the buttons, the slender white garrison sash and a shako. Puppet

Yes, it is quite humorous. But after 17 pages of bickering May I add this thought: I don't know what I'm missing and why? Because after I aged out in '72 I didn't see another show until 1990. By then it (DC) had morphed so much I had to unlearn everything and re-learn some things. I was a horn player so I learned to only listen to the horn lines at first. Never understood drumming anyway so I had to get used to the new sounds coming out of the snares that sounded to me like guys playing on tables, the "pit" (to me a complete misnomer because I come from an orchestral back ground and never played on Broadway) with all kinds of xylophonic (sic) instruments confused the heck out of me - and don't get me started on the blowing on the soda bottles this year - the "guard?" You see where I'm going so the OP question strikes a chord. Am I missing the symmetry? Not so much - though to my untrained eye, it was certainly easier to see if everyone was in unison. Am I missing great music - well since 1993 Star, more and more. Drumming - I still don't get it. I miss drum solos. Guard - sigh. So as an old guy who never won a ring - oh that's right, there were to rings to win BITD - I sit and am not distracted by the frenzied movement because I concentrate on the specificity of the interaction between the musicians (Drums and Horns) on the field. And I am mostly entertained. And I come back year after year hoping that some one Drum Corps will take that completely enthralling leap into the next level where the cohesiveness of Spartacus or the joy of the Roman Images show makes me open my eyes and my ears. Too much? Haven't had my DCP fix in a while. Puppet

Well, now I'm really confused because i remember our trip to Marion (second best weekend in Drum Corps) quite well! Blue Rock won that one! (They were pretty great that year!) Were the Magnificent Yankees a prelim placer? Because we rehearsed like forever for the finals and maybe that's why I don't remember seeing them there, either. Puppet

Hell-o Whoville! First Happy Anniversary in order. That said (and not to be a downer in anyway!) I am home, finally. I had another mild stroke. Ha. They say it's mild because you don't become completely raisin bran. I can't talk well - the synapsis are not talking well, they sent me to the VA in Miami they - it's called TIA Transient Ischemic Attack the brain equivalent of a Heart Attack, I'm told. But was made bad by a bad artery so I also had an Endarterectomy to restore normal blood flow through the main artery to the brain and prevent a a real stroke. Anyway, if I just relax and take it easy over the next couple of days - it's really hot - I should be back on my feet in a few more days.They want me back there for a followup this morning. So I'm gettng old and I can barely make noises that pass for speech. Something about connecting with my brain and the rest of my body. I liken it to when your computer is running slow and you type and you have to wait for the letters on the screen to catch up. Even peeing is interesting. That's a joke. but at least I'm home - rather be here in my own home taking care of myself and on line than not. If I missed anyone on my list, please pass on -sorry to all my friends here for being so close to the vest. I hate not sharing but I was actually awfully afraid! Hey ! are those guys in the current pic real drum corps guys. They look like sportscasters. I don't remember Wes Hobby ever wearing that kind of headgear. Be back later. Miss you guys and my DPC fix. G --

Has anyone noticed that throughout this entire thread the one repeating style has been the Cadet Style? Many different corps mentioned over a dozen by my count from the Queensmen to Royal Aires and Garfield Anaheim Kingsmen. Mostly only the color scheme changed. Just an observation. Puppet

I remember them from the '67 & '68 American Legion State Championship Shows. Yankee Doodle Dandy and a great version of Mas Que Nada - 1971, our 1st show of the year up in Poughkeepsie, NY The Vagabonds' Show. I remember seeing them but don't remember them from the World Open in '71 (which may not mean anything because I don't remember anything from that show) except not making the finals! No pictures in my personal archives, either. Puppet

Well ... not. But I did love this drum line. Puppet