mcjordansc

Hmm, I think their uniforms this year are awesome. Costumes these days, not uniforms.

I give the Blue Stars an A+ for their costumes this year.

Wish I had made it for the festivities.

It will probably be another hour or two before we hear anything. The parents who were there are probably hanging onto every last second with the corps until the buses pull out. The alumni are drinking.

Back in the day beer worked for us.

Nice to hear the Stars continue to improve. They have become a very dependable top ten corps and I would love to see them climb. It would be great to see another top six contender. That is a difficult group to jump in to, but Boston showed it can be done.

Blue Stars seem to play it pretty close to the vest year in, year out, so not unusual to hear little about the show. The good news is we know they have a very stable design team, with just the new percussion heads coming in this year. I do not expect any drop off from the Blue Stars.

DCI Hall of Famer Moe Latour was their director. Their drum major went on to be the DM for the Blue Stars in 1975. I am not sure how many people have led two different corps into finals over the years.

There are people I marched with that I did not know their real name. Nicknames include Bear, Moose, Boom-Boom (it could be the member on the largest bass drum, it could be a not politically correct nickname for a female member), Rock, various state and city names where the member was from (Iowa, Kansas, etc.). I marched with southern bastXXds, umbafugleys, Ronbos, Albos, Bubs, and many more I cannot remember. There are a number of nicknames I remember that are simply not acceptable to mention today. It seems almost every member had a nickname.

Fat Andy, Frankie the Wop, Freddy No Nose, Pete the Killer, and Johnny Echoes

There are states where it is a crime as well, but less than half.

Not in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

The article states nearly half of the world class corps have employed someone disciplined for misconduct with a student. In this article, six world class corps are mentioned, including Pioneer. I assume there is more to come?

Crazy. I was looking for the corps clown category.

No show in La Crosse?

Drum corps is a such a niche activity there will be very little national attention given this. Only drum corps and marching band fans are going to notice and care. It could have some impact on recruiting, but that remains to be seen.

Great that they have kept so many key design staff members together. There is no doubt the Blue Stars are looking to be a better corps next summer. Anyone behind them will really have to up their game to pass them in 2019.

I would slightly disagree. I know things happened back then with impunity that if done today would be considered criminal.

This is true and certain behavior was tolerated in the 70s and 80s. I am not advocating others be removed, just making the point that Hopkins behavior was not all that unusual 35 years ago. He simply didn't evolve.

More than one if we are serious about removing all deviants.

It looks like James Elvord pulled in a few people he hung with back in the 70s. It is going to be interesting to see what this team puts on the field.

Blue Stars have done a good job building their new percussion staff. I expect big things from them next year.