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We were taught that it was a tenth of a point for falling down and another tenth for getting back up -- except for an injury. If a member was injured it would not be counted against you. If W* H* was carried off the field he saved you two tenths. (If he's who I think he is, he saved you even more tenths by not playing the last third of the show).

Where would you rather be yesterday, in Torrance with SoCal Dream . . . Or in New York City?

Here's a photo from today's rehearsal. Sorry to hear about the snow back east.

1. Edmonton Strutters 2. Los Angeles Chinese Imperial Dragons 3. Sun Country Wranglers 4. Montana Golden Skyliners 5. Bremerton Black Watch 6. Salem Flamingos 7. Stockton Commodores 8. Enid Valient Knights 9. Salina Silver Sabres 10. Seattle Imperials

Take no prisoners!

Nope. An harmonica vibrates an internal reed.

That's just the point - it most definately is not the only high school drum and bugle corps. There is at least one DCI Division III corps (Hawthorne Gold) that is a high school D&B corps.

Money. Our closest competitors are 400 miles away. And Nationals will always be a 3000 mile plane flight away.

I'd never seen the clubhouse forums until five minutes ago. (My computer's "favorite" page is the discussion board, not the main index.)

I've been around for three years and have never heard of a "clubhouse." What are you talking about?

All of you ex-Velvet Knights drum majors have something very Freudianly wrong with you. Every last one.

Darn right. Back in my day all we got was a fifty yard line.

Some senior corps (Renegades, SoCal Dream, River City Regiment) are members of DCI's Senior Division. They perform in DCI shows all the time.

Any group that wants to! I prefer the old "open" class.

In 1977 we (the Velvet Knights) chased Wausau Story all year. In Denver, Wausau Story ended up 24th and the VK were 25th. I'm sure Doug was one reason why we never caught them.

Phoenix Fanfare?

I agree that many corps would do an occasional dance step, but it was definately Mary Doolittle and the Seattle Imperials that caused modern color guards to become dance machines. Seattle was the first to feature a jazz-dance guard from off the line to the final gun. Around 1976-77 they came out wearing jump suits and dance slippers. Seattle had maybe 30 horns but a color guard of around 40. The horn line's job was simply to play music for the guard to dance to. Unlike most other guards, they were not broken down into flags and rifles, everyone spun a whole bunch of different things. But mostly they just danced. Unfortunately, instead of ticking them and saying "what the **** was that?" the judges just gushed about how creative it was. They would get mid-20's in GE while scoring in the mid-60's overall. After that, the big guys took notice and the race was on. I remember sitting next to some of the Trooper guard members during a show in Boise. They stood up and "boo'd" at the top of their lungs. "That's not a color guard, it's a dance team." Unfortunately, they were right.

You're in a senior corps in the west. You'll never go on at night.

The Death Valley Condors of Phoenix? Sounds kind of like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Geography lesson: Death Valley is in California.

The Phoenix Field Show? Phoenix Flames? Phoenix Fanfare? Sun Country Wranglers? (Oops, sorry. Taken.)

Phoenix Fire?

I have the same problem with "drum speak" as I do with horn lines singing -- its not drumming (just as singing is not horn playing). The corps should receive no "build up" credit for that portion of the show because they are not actually playing their drums. If the drum line spends thirty seconds "rappady rap sniggly goop"-ing, then it is not drumming for approximately four percent of the show. The corps' maximum ensemble and drum scores should therefore be 19.6 out of 20. Unfortunately, I don't see corps being dinged when they chant or sing. If the judges actually did their jobs then you would see this sort of gimmick disappear.

Montana's Golden Skyliners