Callawyn
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Posts posted by Callawyn
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My first performance ever with a Drum Corps, '82 Arbella, doing a standstill in a gym pre-season. We played a Bill Chase tune for our opener and had a screaming sop soloist, Mike Pantinella (sp?). Hot as all h$ll in that gym, he finished his solo and blacked out, fell backwards without bending or breaking his fall in any way, like a dead tree, hit his head pretty hard on that gym floor.
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You really think no business has ever done this?
I didn't say they don't do it. I said its illegal and unconstitutional and they're under no obligation to do it. Despite this, businesses hire/promote on the basis of race/gender all the time. Universities are worse and government agencies are infinitely worse yet. That doesn't make it right, legal or even good policy. We've become a nation of racist bean counters with Diversity Nazis keeping track of who's employed in every occupation by their race, and then making blanket accusations of racism whenever they find a 'disparity'. Not bothering to find out if any particular cases of discrimination ever occurred.
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This kind of racist bean counting, with the clear implication that there's racism (with zero evidence backing up the accusation) involved in excluding minorities (which is also not happening), is outrageous and incredibly insulting.
Further, no business, school or any other entity is under any obligation to 'seek out' people to fill positions in its organization based on their race, gender or anything else other than their ability to fill the position. In fact, doing so is both illegal and unconstitutional.
Here's an idea, why don't you ask why more minorities/women haven't stepped up and applied for or simply assumed these positions? I assure you, there are no barriers preventing it and they'd be more than welcome.
I've been involved in the activity nearly my whole life, and I've never witnessed a single occassion when anyone was made to feel unwanted on account of their race or gender.
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Outstanding post, thanks for the story!
For me, it was the 27th Lancers.
I joined a Class A corps in '82 (Arbella) before I even knew what a drum corps was. Didn't get much of a chance to see any open class corps that summer until finals. Olympic Stadium, Montreal, August '82. I was completely blown away by how the 27th Lancers entered the stadium. Don't even remember who was performing on the field, I was mesmerized by how classy the Lancers were silently marching around backfield, no cadence, perfectly in step, at a VERY slow tempo.
Had an offer to join them in '83 but I was already committed to another corps and couldn't bring myself to jumping ship just before tour (still feel strongly about this: you change corps between seasons if you're going to do it, leaving a corps after going through a winter program hurts that corps, and all of its members).
Finally joined 27th in '85. First performance in uniform was a parade, St Patrick's day, we played Danny Boy, a LOT. I got the whole speach about how there "are 27 parts to your 27th Lancer uniform" and learned the mnemonics that helped us remember just how to peice it together (the garrison belt / citation cord interaction was tricky and easy to get wrong). The change to the red tops didn't come until mid-season.
Being in that uniform, marching with the corps, playing Danny Boy, it really hit home that I was a member of the 27th Lancers, in a powerful way that rehearsing in winter camps did not.
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Very excited for you guys. Can't wait to see your show this year. With the talent and momentum you have, write a show that can win, the kids are certainly capable of it.
Bluecoats: DCI's next new champion.
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Message me your email address, I'll send you an mp3
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2010 Crown was better than any on that list except, possibly, 2009 Crown
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I have it Bob, on my machine at home, message me an email address to send to.
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How about a combination of the 2? Need to be a veteran, but let all who are interested audition.
Drum Major is much more than a conductor, its a leadership position. You are part instructor, part disciplinarian and always lead by example. REALLY needs to be someone the rest of the corps will respect.
I've seen a lot of DM's picked by staff because they're relatives of someone on staff. Bad idea. Sometimes it works out, but more often than not a better choice has been overlooked.
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My father-in-law marched in a NYC corps back in the late 30's until he left for the Army in WWII. My Dad marched in a L.I. fire department corps in the 50's and in the Sunrisers in the 60's. Him and my Mom started the L.I. Kingsmen in 1964. My brother marched there 1964-1977, I marched there from 1965-1980 and my wife marched there from 1972-1980. My sister marched L.I. Kingsmen 1977-1980, Avant Garde 1982, and 27th 1983-1986. My folks volunteered at Avant Garde 1981-1982, 27th 1983-1986 and Cadets 1987-2005. My wife and I volunteered on and off with several corps from 1981 thru 2004. My son marched in Revolution in 2005 and in Blue Stars 2006 through present. He ages out in 2013, but my wife and I will probably continue to volunteer until we're too old to do it.
Other than that, our family is normal
.I saw your folks at Clifton, glad to see they're still doing well. Saw them last summer too, at Giants stadium, as I was marching in with the Bridgemen. Couldn't stop and chat so I saluted them on the way by.
I marched with your sister in 27th in 85/86, lost touch though, how's she doing?
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Bridgemen.....it's a shame so many people bolted. Musically I felt the show was good, and the drill looked good. But....despite the clever intro abut the G7 chord and the Amazing Fall From Grace...it missed the Bridgemen Schtick. during the glory years, the calling card wass well time humor with a solid drum corps behind it. Well, there was a solid crum corps, but the schtick was missing, and I know several around me felt as I did...we clapped, but not like we wanted too. I will say this...very interesting treatment on the tune I call "Bolero of Make believe".
now please, for the Love of God, will you PLEASE do the Civil War Suite.
Our off the line is called "Lombero", which you should be able to decipher based on your name for it.
I'd love to play the CW Suite, but I think we already have other plans for next year. We do play Battle Hymn as a parade tune (and occassionally break it out as an encore). Oddly, Yankee Doodle really should be considered a CW tune, it was the most widely played song on both sides. US Grant, who was completely tone deaf, once commented that he only knew 2 songs, one was Yankee Doodle and the other wasn't.
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There was a thunder storm semi's night, as Star Alumni was about to warmup. I saw several bolts of lightning pretty close to the stadium.
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At small shows, you do get more people sticking around for the encore by not having a full retreat - don't have to wait for all the corps to enter/leave prior to the encore.
At the big regional shows though, they really should go back to doing the full retreat. Its a great show for the crowd, and a wonderful experience for the kids as well.
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I said the band geek narration in '07 was like a piece of poop on filet mignon. Kind of hard to enjoy a nice cut of meat under those circumstances. I'd say a wart is an improvement.
'07 was like watching a Formula 1 race that's constantly interrupted by commercials for feminine hygiene products.
I get the Jeffrey idea, the corps is the toy soldiers and Jeffrey is playing with them, they're his toys. No problem so far. But he really looks creepy in that outfit, like child molester creepy. Couldn't they have found a smaller kid to put in the little boy outfit? He's like Popeye in Pinochio shorts. Very odd. Also, some of the stuff he's doing I don't like, he often seems to be mocking the corps rather than playing with them, though this did improve as the season went on.
Overall I really liked the Cadets this year, and for the most part was able to simply ignore Jeffrey. The '07 show was, and still is, unwatchable. The corps was awesome, tremendous talent, but the narration simply can't be tolerated.
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I know a bunch of guys that use gum, and swear by it. Personally, I can't do it.
Its probably the quickest/cheapest solution to test out. Try it at a rehearsal or two, it might work for you.
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If I was a tuba player, I'd be ######. Most of the corps double the entire tuba book on synth, and the synth often drowns out the entire section.
From what I've heard in the lot and the few occassions I'm not buried in mud from the synth, none of these tuba lines need any help.
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There was another big reason for not marching a drill: about 20% of our hornline are also current staff for DCI corps. Our Drum Major for Medea, Matt Harloff, and his brother Ben (played trumpet for us), are the brass gurus behind Crown's success. Frank Sullivan (trumpet) and Josh Talbott (mello) fill similar roles at Blue Stars, also Jason Buckingham at Blue Knights. There are at least a dozen more that I know of teaching other corps, and at least 3 DCI judges performed with us. Some of you may know that Jim Mason took over the Madison Scouts this year and restaffed with mostly Star people. Nancy Brown (pit) is tour manager for Madison Scouts, Lori Soules works for Phantom (and is married to their director), her brother Brian is on Visual Staff with Bluecoats (I think - he almost didn't make the show, was handed his uniform in the tunnel just before we stepped on the field). There are many more that I know of that I haven't named, and I'm sure there are even more that I'm not aware of.
It would have been unthinkable to have performed our show without these people in our line. Not just because of their contributions in the past but because some of them were directly responsible for putting the Alumni corps together. You can't march a full show when such a large part of your line is running back and forth between their competing DCI corps rehearsals and Star Alumni rehearsals. Most of them were only able to attend a few hours of practice time with us all summer.
Anyone who doubts Star's influence on the activity need only look at the resumes for current staff of the DCI corps, good luck finding a corps without at least one former Star member on staff. Crown, Blue Stars and now Madison, in particular, have a number of key staff positions occupied by Star Alumni.
Also, there's a big difference between an Alumni corps for a corps like 27th that was active for 20 years and inactive for 8 at the time of the alumni show, marching 70-s style drill, and a corps like Star that was active for 9 years and inactive for 17, with rotating boxes and cross to cross to recreate. Ask anyone in the Bridgemen Alumni - after 15-25 years off, marching/playing at the same time doesn't necessarily come back. The entire guard and I believe the entire drum line were all original corps members, the hornline was about 85% original members, the rest filled with ageouts that had been taught by Star Alumni, mostly former Blue Stars taught by Josh Talbott and Frank Sullivan. 27th in 94, the final tally as I recall, we had 42% was former 27th, the rest were recent age-outs from other corps. Personally, after a 15 year absence, my first performance back was a St Patty's day parade, playing Danny Boy, which I'd played a million times in 27th, I've known it by heart for most of my life. We'd practiced it a number of times, but when we stepped off to play it on the march I completely forgot the music, we were 3 phrases in before I figured out the whole marching/playing at the same time thing again.
As for the disrespect shown the old corps, it didn't start in the 90's, it started from day 1 ("M-I-C, cee you at finals! K-E-Y, why because <insert nasty comment>". It didn't end in the 90's either, if you don't believe me go to Rochester and watch Star United perform. Over the past couple of years there has not only been booing but rude comments shouted during the performance to ruin the recording. I warned some of the Blue Stars kids that were with Star this week that they might hear some booing, "Wear it as a badge of honor" I told them. Barry Hudson, a tough kid from Boston that was our soloist in '87/88 Star who still plays hockey for fun, was telling us one night how he asked himself, back in the day, if he was tough enough to wear pink.
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Can I vote 3 times?
I've been fortunate to have been a member of the top 3 corps on this list. 27th and Star of Indiana before I aged out. Bridgemen Alumni and Star Alumni now. 3 very different families, I love them all.
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Hey, I'm desperately trying to find a video recording of the the Cadets' (Garfield Cadets back then) 1981 and/or 1982 show, mainly because my band director marched snare in them both. I can't seem to find them anywhere. If anyone could post me a link, I'd really appreciate it!
message me for links...
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You're going to give me nightmares of seeing some jackhole playing a synthesizer accompanied by another fool with an electric guitar, on a platform on the 50 yardline.
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Remember those corps that were so bad you felt embarrassed and wanted to slap the "so-called staff" around for putting the kids through the embarrassment?
What corps would you put on the list?
In the 30 years I've been around the activity, the only show that was so bad that I literally felt embarrassed for the performers was 2008 Cadets. I felt so sorry for all those kids working so hard to be in a top corps only to have that horrible narration inflicted on them. Talk about wanting to slap the staff around! I've never boo'd a corps, and I hope I never do, but I sure gave their staff an earful during retreat when they were standing around right in front of the stands.
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Our home practice field was actually a parking lot. One night we couldn't get a car moved from the forty yard line. One of the drill instructors had the job of keeping backward marchers from running into the vehicle.
Boo, there's a much easier solution. We used to run into this problem all the time. Depending on the vehicle size, 10-20 guys can bounce/drag it out of the way. Very first drum corps performance I ever did our bus got blocked in by a Pinto. We not only bounced it out of the way, we manhandled it right out of the parking lot and left it wedged between 2 trees.
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Is it the Malden, MA stadium that has the very strange field-to-stands angle due to it being a combo baseball/football field?
You're thinking Pittsfield, MA. Malden was a regular football field, admittedly in bad shape, with a subway line running above ground just behind the backfield. Pittsfield isn't a combo anything, its a Baseball field, period. To avoid pitcher's mound problems, for the drum corps show the football field is drawn on the outfield of the baseballe field. So, the 50 yard line/front side line is just behind 2nd base. No change to the stands at all, so the entire crowd is watching the show at some odd angle, excepting only those seated behind home plate (50 yard line) who, oddly, are the furthest away from the competing corps of anyone in the stadium.
I also competed on a baseball field somewhere in Connecticut where they made the 3rd baseline the front sideline. Worked much better exept for the odd transition from grass to dirt when crossing into the infield. Of course the pitchers mound was about 4 feet high and I nearly fell on my ### backing over it.
Surprised no one's mentioned Hamilton, Ontario. Nice stadium, and astroturf, but I've seen a variety of corps screw up bigtime by not realizing that there are two 50 yardlines. Its marked for Canadian football.
One of my favorite fields was somewhere in Maine where the stands were so close to the field that the front row of the crowd could stick their feet out and have them over the front sideline. When we played you could feel the crowd reaction.
Probably the oddest 'field' I ever performed a field show on was the front lawn of the Canadian Capital in Ottowa. A paved walkway served as the front sideline, no stands at all so the crowd stood, and they wouldn't let us paint yardlines, so we only had cones on the front 'sideline' to go by.
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Just FYI, 27th was staying at Saucedo's school (Carmel High) in '85 when I wandered over in the morning to watch rehearsal in all my wide-eyed bando awe. By mid afternoon I was standing in the horn line as a member of the 27th Lancers.
Hey, Stu, long time no see! I remember the day well: I saw you wander in to watch us rehearse, looking like you'd just rolled out of bed, turned to Scott Moylan and said, "I bet that guy plays French Horn". He thought I was nuts. I launched into a dissertation on how different types of people are attracted to different types of instruments.
French horns. what a sound
in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions
Posted
Not true. There's more difference between a trumpet and a bugle than valves. Putting valves on a bugle does not make it a trumpet, not even a 'trumpet in G'. There are trumpets in various keys, Bb, C, D, etc, none of them are bugles. You could make a trumpet in G, but it wouldn't sound like a G Bugle.
The difference is the bore. Trumpets have a cylindrical bore, bugles have a conical bore (cornets do as well). This is why they produce a different sound. Its also why bugles project better in a stadium, while trumpets project like a laser beam.
Speaking of which, I've always felt that a lot of the sound problems with DCI corps using trumpets would be solved if they'd use cornets instead. You'd still be in Bb and have the tuning advantage over bugles but you'd have the conical bore to help with sound projection.