Grumpy

You only liked it because you were "up close and personal" with the skunk that got into the stadium!!! LOL I didn't mind Syracuse, personally. I'll pass on Allentown, thanks...the lighting was terrible, the wooden seats were falling apart and filled with yellow jackets and there was no parking...and THE HILL. I know that Lackawanna County Stadium in Scranton is no longer drum corps friendly...but what about the facility that currently hosts the single-night show? Would it be able to accommodate the championships? As for Annapolis, if you were sitting under the overhang, the PA system was super terrible-we couldn't hear/understand ANYTHING. Nearly missed the 50/50 winning number on Saturday, missed all announcements of prelim scores (what happened to the "good old days" when scores were announced as we went along, so that we were only "held hostage" to the last three or so scores?) and pretty much anything else that was announced. I never flew to Rochester, only drove so not sure what the airport experience is like...but I could certainly do without BWI. Every time I've flown into/out of there, there are ALWAYS delays. We actually left yesterday, sticking around for an extra day to sight see in DC...and were rewarded for travelling on a non-holiday with a three plus hour delay. It had nothing to do with weather in either Baltimore or our destination, both were calm and clear. I also had the same complaint this year that I had last year-there were NO ushers available to help people find their seats-so people would end up coming all the way up the aisle only to realize they needed to be on the opposite side of the section. With all the cadets available, couldn't we have a couple at the exit of each tunnel to help direct people? The big problem we are bound to have no matter where we end up, is the fact that football teams play on drum corps fields-and there are a lot more of THEM than there are of US. It isn't as big of an issue with DCI because their season ends before football season starts. As long as DCA holds their championships on Labor Day weekend, it will be an issue. While Rochester is not the most beautiful city to host the championships, it really has most everything that we need-a great venue for I&E/mini corps, tons of restaurants and hotels, lots of parking close to the stadium, a decent stadium with a great concession variety and plenty of them, and no restrictions on corps getting to play their championship encores. The only drawback to the Rochester stadium is that the seats don't fold-so when someone is entering/leaving a row, it's always an adventure. No matter where they're held, there will be some who will be ecstatic and others who will swear there's no way they're going there and they'll watch on FN, and others who will reluctantly attend live anyway. And there'll be some guy announcing it all wearing an extremely wild shirt.

Gil knows....

I'm staying there too-what time does the corps plan on eating?

I was a corps director for an alumni corps and we had two styles of jackets that we had, and used depending on the season. One was a lightly lined nylon windbreaker, with the corps name/logo silk screened on the back. Anyone that does silk screen printing for t-shirts, etc. should be able to produce these. They also had a contact that was able to embroider a name on the front breast pocket area for a small additional charge, but that was a separate deal. IIRC, these jackets cost +/-$25. The second was a much heavier wool, lined "varsity-style" jacket with the corps name and logo embroidered on the back, and the option for the members name and section to be embroidered on one sleeve if desired. These cost in the neighborhood of +/-$90. One of our members had worked with a local sporting goods store to order these same type of jackets for their high school athletes and they worked with us to get these. The winter jackets could be "earned" by members participating in various fund raising activities and parades/performances, or purchased outright. I would also check with souvie people at any shows you attend and ask them if they would be willing to share contact info. for their suppliers.

I recall seeing the feathers on SCV Cadets during the semis.

I didn't purchase this, primarily because at the late date this was announced I had already been scheduled to work last night...but I found pretty much the same problems with ALL FN feeds this whole week. The TOC show in Buffalo was doing the same things on Monday; quarters on Thursday I had a lot of these same issues with the early corps. I was using a tablet and a wifi hotspot though, so I just chalked it up to that. I was happy to see that after shelling out $20 each for the theater, that seemed to be free of any problems. Friday night during the semis, the same thing was happening although not as frequently as Thursday. At that point I was thinking to myself that they had better get their #### together before the Saturday broadcast. I was not able to watch any of the other live feeds this year, but were these problems going on all summer?

True, at least according to the commentators at the cinecast. The guard came onto the field with baby powder coming off of them to simulate dust. Guess it's better to find out at quarter finals than at finals!

Hoppy will announce that YEA is moving from Allentown to Ocean Springs :ph34r:/>

Sorry, double post deleted.

This is VERY welcome news, looking forward to seeing you back on the field!

This was exactly my sentiments when they announced the DCA FN. As was also mentioned elsewhere, I already have plans to go to Annapolis (and, for that matter, Mission Drums as well) so the "live stream" of championship prelims and alumni spectacular is meaningless to me.

The quarters live stream, at least last year, was all the corps up until the ones on the theater broadcast were live streamed on FN. Semis are live streamed currently on FN. The Finals score announcements are live streamed on FN, so I think the only exclusivity for Fathom Events would be the portion of quarters that is being shown in the theaters (IIRC, it was the top 15 corps last year).

Check out the Marketplace forum...just saw some listed on there, they do appear in that forum somewhat regularly. You can also post there that you are looking for some, that may initiate something from someone that doesn't check out this particular forum regularly.

It's been a couple of years since I've been to championships, but the last time I went, The Can was air-conditioned...

FWIW, I ordered the package and it arrived in the mail yesterday; however, there was a note included that they have done away with the "VIP parking" that was included last year, and there is no longer a program book included. They also indicated that tickets for Rochester 2014 will be on sale during this year's event.

Add Music City Legend to the list...I think one of the reasons there used to be corps all over the place, is because a kid with no musical background was welcome to join and would be taught how to play an instrument, how to march, how to read music. Today, a corps doesn't want to have anything to do with someone unless they already learned those skills (presumably, in their school's band). If the kid either didn't/couldn't join band, or their school doesn't have one, the kid's out of luck.

A few years back, there was a guy that attended the quarterfinals that had shirts from every corps competing that day-and changed his shirt for each performance, so he was wearing the corps' shirt for whomever was on the field at that time. I haven't been to championships the past couple of years...is he still there and doing the same thing? I used to have quite the collection of shirts myself a few years back, but most succumbed to closet shrinkage. These days, I usually buy a championship shirt (DCI and/or DCA) if I attend but other than that, I have enough "stuff" so I will just drop a few $ in random fuel funds as I wander the souvie area.

A Crossmen t-shirt, somewhere around '91-'93. My (now ex) wife bought a Troopers shirt at the same show. My shirt, unfortunately, was a victim of closet shrinkage around 7 or 8 years ago.

'94 Cadets WSS...in any other year, that show would most likely won...but BD's "My Spanish Heart" was not to be denied that year.

While his "name" may not have been on the letter, his fingerprints were all over it.

I wonder how many field judges would get taken out by adding trombones....

This was tried once before-and how Dan A. came to be in his current position.

FWIW, the hotel I stayed at this year (in Annapolis) allowed me to book for next year (at the same rate, even!!!!) when I asked at check out. There were two corps staying at that hotel, so if they asked like I did, then that eats up a good chunk of space right out of the gate...if other hotels were able/did the same thing, it's understandable that there aren't a whole lot of rooms out there. Most of the major chains will book up to 50 weeks in advance, so even those who couldn't book before leaving have probably gone ahead and reserved by now.

I respectfully beg to disagree. Many participants in the Alumni Spectacular (many of whom also bring along their spouses, friends or significant others) also BUY tickets to DCA prelims and finals. Some of these would most certainly have opted not to come were they not performing.

Back in the mid '90's, I was part of a relatively small alumni corps. One of our corps' members sons marched in Spartans (Nashua, NH) at the time and marched with us as well when he was available. For one of our parades, he "recruited" 3 or 4 of his friends to join us for the day. It was an early season parade so nobody had started tour yet. They marched in Spartans, Crossmen and another DCI corps that I honestly can't recall. Music was handed out on the way to the parade line up, as well as trying to put together unis for them as well. The tunes were practiced several times in the line up area, and these kids performed them better than some of the members who had been rehearsing them for the better part of a year. Another time, we learned a Christmas song for a Christmas parade in one rehearsal session-and every year when I hear that song during the holiday season, to this day I can still remember my exact drum parts.