ranintothedoor

I will say, I'm thankful that Boston did the Animal Farm show. When "G7" came up, I got to explain to my students what happened that year politically. It's amazing how art preserves history... just like our hunter-gatherer ancestors. 🙂

lol oh... I was thinking... "That's MISTER Jeff Sacktig, thank you very much." 😂

Hoping Cadets weather this current storm in DCI land. One of my students was going to march Spirit this year, and a former student is marching Cadets, so my heart is churning right now. I'm hoping that Cadets have as hardcore of an attitude about abuse, from the top on down, as they do with their work ethic.

This, my friend, is exactly right. I've been thinking a lot the past week. One of my students was SO excited to march Spirit this season, but I'm SO glad he'll not be involved with them this season. I'm a band director. And I find myself thinking how I would react to one of these situations happening on my band bus during a long trip. I realized I would be 100% fine if my program was gutted of all bad actors and I was left with three or four kids if it meant that they were safe and they had a great learning experience going forward. Because... this activity is worth saving. But no individual corps is sacred; corps must earn the public's trust again. And trust takes time and hard work. If that means DCI goes away, fine. If 90% of the corps fold, fine. But the marching arts, and drum corps in particular, can be run well. We just have to get down to business and do it.

Cadets gon' win, bruh. 😉 (Biased, btw! Former student found out that he's IN!!)

One of my former students just told me they got a contract for Cadets!!! I'm SO FREAKIN' EXCITED! 😄

I ramd into a door once...

I dunno, Lance... we wore some shoooorrrrrrt shorts in rehearsal, buddy... had we been in public, the identity would have been officially tarnished. 😉

Current student went to Spirit's camp this past weekend... anxiously waiting to see how it was! 🙂 Great kid.

AAAAA!!! I LOVE IT! :-D

HA! We made this the 2021 Cadets thread! 😄

Resonance Trip? mmm... synonyms...

In 2005, I remember being disappointed that our uniform didn't have the curly-cues at the end of the white chest embroideries. I really enjoyed the 12.25 and Angels and Demons variations. I think that this variance on the traditional style is a fantastic design limitation that only draws "kids" into the Cadet ethos.

Yeah... couldn't find a "Cadets 2021" thread... Though I probably won't be shocked to find that it was closed. 🙂 Go Cadets anyway! Woo!

Yup. Nothing like the acoustic low reed sound. Tubas playing pedal tones just don't have the bite. Okay, contrabassoons and bari saxes are in. But nothing else, okay? ... okay? ... aw poop...

Yes. This. It took an 8th grade student of mine getting a terrible head injury in a football practice to snap me out my team-first mentality (this was about 10 years ago, now). These are kids performing on the field... and even in professional sports, those athletes are people. And competing against someone else in a job... rejoice not when your enemy falls. My experience in The Cadets moved me toward really understanding what the benefits of competition really are (about competing against yourself and not others), but the fandom thing was harder to see. And I think this paradigm applies to all races, all walks of life, all economic situations.

Me too 🙂

............ yeaahhh.... ... sad. 😕

I know you're probably being sarcastic, but when it comes to DCI's continued existence.... well, anything to get the checkbooks out, as Fred indicated. :-) (full disclosure: I am only 51% behind the statement I just made... and only in this specific case)

WOOOOOOO!!!!

I accidentally shed a tear. Dang it, Cadets! Now I have to re-up my manliness. *chugs protein shake and does some push-ups* ... *admits joke, continues sitting at computer*

... just kidding... I read more and learned more. My original post is irrelevant! woo!

Oh! Shoot, you could have each ensemble do a live production "at home" after a month or two of rehearsals! And anyone who wanted to watch them could come and see as the "live audience" and then every corps could submit their videos for tabulation. And have a vote/score to determine the "winner." That way there's no tour. (again, sucks for everyone who wants to see them live, I know I know...). I guess I'm really going toward a televised thing with no travel to provide the performers that high level experience... I really enjoyed watching "Hamilton" on Disney +, so I do think there'd be a kind of market for all this. Again, just spitballing to avoid the housing issues.

You know, all this talk about liability at housing sites makes me wonder about the future of DCI... and wondering if perhaps DCI might do something with less "touring" and more bang for the buck. Maybe 30 minute shows, hit 4 or 5 major sites (rather than 30) with only 2 to 3 corps (rather than 7-8) at each show, and the telecast on "Flomarching" is a voting/scoring amalgam for Finals (like the Masked Singer??) so more emphasis is put on the production value (give them an actual intermission between shows for set-up time so stages, multiple floors, etc.). Like an outdoor version of Blast but with a huge stage and 150 performers. I don't know... something to give the live audiences some meat to sink their teeth into, justify the long summer of rehearsal for the "drum corps" experience, and reduce the hubbub of constantly fighting for floor time every night or two. I also know this would limit smaller ensembles, and I'd hate for this to become a G7-esque solution. Maybe this is the dividing line between world and open class? Dunno, man. Just trying to think around the housing problem.

Well... there's always churches with property... a thought. 🙂