BoyWonder1911

1 or 2 tractor trailer combos won't cost $50k....a brand new truck by itself would run 100-120k...not counting the trailer, which would be about 25k brand new. Of course you could buy used, then you're looking at about $150k for 2 used trucks and trailers. But I still really like that idea.

? What do you mean by troll? I don't understand.

Southwind had yellow uni's, I believe...Mandarins I think are orange, Bridgemen wore yellow... And I think Impulse has yellow.

If you want to vote for a cancer research charity, there might be one in there to vote for. Go ahead and do it. BTW, drum corps is an activity ENTIRELY funded by donations and member fees. I'd say about 70% of the activity is funded by donations. Maybe we should make DCI illegal and take all the money and give it to cancer research? Better yet, let's make cancer research illegal and give all the money to the starving people in Africa or wherever, they are in more immediate need, I'd say. Are you some kind of communist, or totalitarian minded person, liebot? Maybe Chase Bank should be punished for just not giving $2.5 million to cancer research or orphanages. We are a democracy - Chase is letting us vote. So far, Petfinder.com is winning. Petfinder must have more fans than drum corps, I guess, or at least better fans. For someone with over 5,500 posts, I'd expect something a little more tasteful than what you just wrote. Oh - and stopping rehearsal for one evening of fundraising? At least GH is teaching his kids that sometimes something a little more important comes up that needs attending to - along with working as a team to achieve a desired result, that also goes along with drum corps, don't you think? Or are you worried that their show might be a half a point less entertaining? Get real.

HAHAHAHA! Ummm...none of them have ever won the world championship? They all have or have had their own corps facility for band camp?

I'd also like to mention that our drum corps are having a harder and harder time finding housing sites each year for our numerous competitions... I think it would be a great thing for the drum corps activity if we showed that we appreciate the use of schools and their fields for rehearsals - we need to make DCI's public image as squeaky clean as possible - and that will help grow the activity - not just the drum corps activity, but for all of music education in our nation.

I'd like to mention that Santa Clara Vanguard is only 162 votes away from 25th - they are 27th right now, and in order to get any more money, they need to be 25th - please let's get them the 200 or 300 votes they need to get a little bit more cash. You can vote for 5 different organizations, and there happens to be 5 drum corps organizations in the voting. Cadets, Blue Devils, Glassmen, SCV and Drum Corps International. Earlier today I felt too lazy to do any voting...but then I just went ahead and did it anyway - and it LITERALLY took me LESS THAN 2 MINUTES to complete my 5 votes. Come on, guys, just freakin' do it...if we are really that fanatical about drum corps, which I know we are, then go take 1.8 minutes to click that link above and just vote. BoyWander, a drum corps fan since 1999 and truck driver for the Blue Stars.

Someone needs to win the lottery and just give DCI like 50 million dollars to spread out around the corps.

Hmm....perhaps the old topic got buried for lack of interest, maybe?

As a truck driver for a top 10 corps, I can tell you that the most annoying thing to have to listen to is the percussion. Don't get me wrong - I love drum corps! But when driving at night and then pulling the equipment trailer as close to the field as I can, then unhooking from the trailer, and I go find a nice quiet corner to sleep in - doesn't matter if I can get 100ft away for 600ft away, it was still the percussion who woke me up. The brass isn't really all that loud when you're not in front of it - the bells face one way - but percussion, and the Dr. Beat, the sound goes everywhere. After a couple of weeks, I got used to it, and was able to sleep 7 or 8 hours at a time. And I think what really woke me up the most was the front ensemble - they always seemed to have chosen a place by my truck to rehearse. But hey - when given the choice between an alarm clock and a few marimbas to wake me up, I choose the marimbas :-D Anyways, just my 2 cents.

And that Madison Scouts article is pretty darned cool! Kudos to that guy for donating that store's profits to the corps.

Businesses are in the business of making money for the owners - in this case, the owners would be the corps itself. You don't have to sell public stock in order to be a business. In fact, most businesses are privately owned. Something like starting a busing company, or trucking company, the ideas are really limitless.

Another topic on this forum got me thinking about this particular subject, one subject that I find intriguing and that I don't think is pervasive in drum corps at the moment, at least not to my knowledge, and that is the subject of funding through business models. I believe Star of Indiana got their start by setting up businesses up for the purpose of funneling money into the corps. I don't believe, to my knowledge, that any corps currently follows this model, or has gotten their start by this. I certainly believe that money, in any relevant society, is the lifeblood of economy, and that having more money will thus help our activity by providing lower tour fees, thus more students may be able to march, and with those two forces combined, will 1) raise competition levels and 2) having more corps founded. Of course this is elementary, but money doesn't grow on trees, and the question has always been "how to get more money"? And I know that corps sell souvenir merchandise, but this normally goes right towards fuel, and isn't really all that effective. Bingo helps, but 1)isn't really a bona fide business, and 2) some states don't even allow it. I was wondering how others may feel about corps getting into the business of business...starting a business for the purpose of garnering money for their corps? BW

Let me ask you this - if you took all the best horn players, percussionists and guard in the entire country ages 16-21 (whether they have marched or not), along with all the best staff in the entire country (whether they have taught drum corps or not) and put them all in 20 drum corps, they'd each score at least 90 points. The fact is, not everyone marches. 150 marchers x 23 WC corps = roughly 3,500. There are a couple hundred thousand band students that play horns or drums or guard in the US. It's just that only a small % of those who could make a drum corps choose not to, for various reasons, not being able to afford it being one of those reasons. Not enough interest in the activity would be another. Those would probably be the biggest two. A lot of band students really don't know about drum corps either. I think if member fees were reduced somehow (more donations, lower fuel prices, etc), then that will probably spur more interest in the activity. Another thing is if DCI were able to become a more popular thing in the US (ESPN broadcasts were tried, not enough advertising interest). Also another thing is that there are more than a handful of HS band directors who don't like their marches marching drum corps. Another point I want to make is that even if interest in the activity grew, doesn't mean that there would be more drum corps. Member fees only cover about 30-35% of the cost of touring a drum corps for a summer. Donations make up the rest. And in this economy, donations are harder to come by. So if there were more marchers, we really wouldn't see more drum corps emerge, there would just be tougher competition to successfully audition for a corps. Money is key to everything. What I would personally like to see myself is drum corps starting to earn money through business models. Star of Indiana was founded on the fundings of 4 businesses created for the purpose of funneling money into a drum corps. They were successful because of this, along with the fact that they were in what may be arguably the best part of the country for a drum corps to be in. But money is key. I'd like to see more of this happen. BW

...now just because you may have a license in a couple weeks, doesn't mean you are qualified to drive a semi truck... When I got my CDL-A in July of '05, the company I partnered with to get my CDL put me in a month-long training period with another driver. Even after driving a truck since 2005, I still consider myself a novice. There is a lot to learn about driving a truck. Driving down a clear interstate under good conditions is easy - then you get into heavy traffic, construction zones, snow, ice, and even mountain passes - and how you should drive is also dependent on the kind of load you are carrying. The hardest part about driving for a drum corps for me, was the 4th of July parades - and I think the Blue Stars were the ONLY corps who decided it was a good idea to have their equipment semi there for the parades - I think everyone else just had their percussion equipment on the buses. So I had to maneuver around narrow residential streets, dodging cars parked on the sides of these streets, running into low-hanging branches from trees, etc. I'm glad I didn't hit anything - but came close on a couple occasions. Anyways, I had fun, and am doing it again. Make sure you get good training after getting your CDL - you will need as much as you can get. Regards, BW

I am wondering, for all the SCV 2010 show lovers, why did SOI place a close 2nd in 1993, while SCV 2010 only got 92pts and took 7th? And I do think that these shows really had not much in common anyway. I was one of those last summer who were really pumped up for SCV's 2010 show, only to see it and be utterly disappointed. I was really hoping for a 1999-like show. Instead, what I saw last year, well, I don't even know what I could compare it to...popcorn? I remember thinking about how the show was supposed to be about Bartok's music, when in reality, the music may have indeed been arrangements on Bartok's music, but it had in no way anything in common with Bartok's style, orchestration, theme, intent, etc. I really think it was a very good show idea gone awry... I'm not going to go into detail what I didn't like about their show, but I really don't think it was in any way revolutionary...in fact, the music almost reminded me of something the Blue Devils might have played...not much melody, but even the visuals were...well...symmetric? Didn't they get the Cavaliers' old drill writer? Oh well. I hope their show this year is a lot more entertaining for me. Their percussion should be better, anyways. Let's not forget though, when we argue with each other, that the drum corps activity is for the marchers, and in no way, shape or form, should we ever 'dis' the way the kids performed. THey work very hard out there. When I complain about a show, or a corps, it's always directed at the staff. LOL! But it's true, they are the ones who write the shows. BW

I don't see Pioneer on that list two posts above...I'm anxious to see where other people see them this summer. And that link just above me - I can't seem to get anything to move around like it says to.

As a truck driver who drove for Blue Stars last year and will be driving for them again this year, I would highly encourage anyone with a class A CDL to consider driving for a corps. The experience I had last summer was one of the best of my life, and I felt the calling to do it all over again this summer. These corps need drivers. You will be fed, you will get showers, you will get to sleep in your truck with air conditioning, and you get to see all the competitions for free!!! And most of all, you will become a part of something special, something more than yourself. I found a home with the Blue Stars, and I hope someone will share their summer(s) with Crown, and a couple of the other corps that need a Knight Of The Road. BW

I think these shows could have been appreciated a bit more: Blue Stars Academy Pacific Crest and the following shows were liked more than they probably should have been: Crown Glassmen SCV The only changes in actual score placements that I thought would be justifiable last summer was the Blue Stars surpassing SCV, Academy take 13th and not 14th, and Cadets in 4th over Crown. Every other corps placed right where I thought it should have placed, including Blue Devils, they were just that good but what can you do, they have mastered the art of having drill that is hard to judge. Especially when you use a lot of mirrors.

To everyone who has PR being lower this year than they were last year - don't forget who took 6th place last year but still won percussion...

1)Cavaliers 2)Bluecoats 3)Cadets 4)Blue Devils 5)Phantom 6)Blue Stars 7)Crown 8)SCV 9)Crusaders 10)Scouts 11)Blue Knights 12)Glassmen 13)Troopers

You know, I always cared about scores until I actually toured with one (driving the equipment semitruck), and after watching competitions all summer long, I no longer care about scores. I only care about what shows are entertaining to me. After watching SCV for the first time in Cypress, TX I never had any desire to watch that show again - but I would always try to catch the Scouts, or Academy, Bluecoats, Cadets, and the Blue Stars. No other show was entertaining to me, and I found myself thinking that I couldn't care less that the Cavaliers are taking the field in 10 minutes, or that Crown was going to be there, in fact I hated their show. And it was odd to me, because Ive been such a huge drum corps fan for the past 11 years. Maybe I grew numb...but I realized that scores mean nothing anymore, judges are biased, entertainment value means nothing to judges (If this was true, than SCV would not have scored as high on GE as they did - that show had no effect on me besides leaving me spitting with anger for bastardizing Bartok's music). As far as i'm concerned, the Bluecoats won this year - they had the best show. And no, I didn't drive Bluecoats' truck.

After being able to see all these shows multiple times all season being a volunteer for a top 12 corps, this is how I rank the entertainment of all the shows. Very Entertaining: Bluecoats Blue Stars Scouts Cadets Mildly Entertaining: Cavaliers Phantom Regiment Glassmen Blue Knights Not Entertaining to me at all: Blue Devils SCV Crusaders Crown in fact my top favorite shows this year for all 23 were this: Bluecoats Blue Stars Scouts Cadets Academy Phantom Pac Crest

I'm looking for SCV to be smokin' hot this year - they have the program to do it, if it's done properly, they could make a run.

Oh, I know who they are - they are from the Delta Quadrant. Their real name is the Borg of Borgen County. http://micromarching.com/corps/5ld/borg-of-borgen-county