CVQuesty

CV Men's Chorus has applied and paid. Ready to doo-wop for you another year.

Saturday night's recap is perched in my hot little hands at the moment, and I see MCL with a 79.375 and Alliance with a 79.175. If you add back in the 0.8 penalty assessed to Alliance for under-time, I read that to be a squeeze win over MCL in scoring, were it not for the penalty. Or, am I missing something there?

Because it was similarly subjective. Not in the same *way* that buildup is subjective, but similarly. Reward for achievement is always a better educational system than penalty for lack thereof. I, personally, have always thought a combo of both buildup and tick would be a good mix to help get things right. tick on field, buildup upstairs, or some mixture downstairs and upstairs. I don't have all the answers, but that would make sense to me. On the topic of judges in any of the circuits.. These guys are great in both circuits, folks. They have a very difficult job in front of them, ESPECIALLY on first-read situations. We're in a strange place in that as staff we get to build relationships with DCI judges like the NE does with DCA judges all season long. They look at what we're doing, try to discern our intent, critique what they're looking at from a *very* fair, objective standpoint, and then give excellent commentary on where we are, and how to move forward. In the last two years, DCI judges have been REMARKABLY accurate in their assessment of *us*. (not commenting on the read of my MCL brothers & sisters, as I am unfamiliar with the circumstances of the situation). I can recall when I first joined CV the humorous exercise in trying to decipher a DCI score and adding 16, holding your right hand on your left ear and singing "Am I Blue" while dancing the Watusi on one foot. In just the last two years, the DCI judges have been falling right in the progress curve between DCA-judged performances and have been giving amazingly insightful and helpful commentary and critique. I know how hard that job is. I know that I wouldn't want to be the guy in the green shirt trying to tell the difference between a 93.4 and a 93.5 corps or caption. Regardless of score or spread, I have rarely seen where I've disagreed with ranking. Oh, and Crown should've won Saturday night. LOL

Way #214 to beat the long ride to Connecticut!

As a newcomer to the staffer side of things, let me see if I can opine without embarrassing myself with my "newness". I think the onus is on a creative staff to build a show that works on many levels. If you have a concept show and you wish to tell a story, then those who are searching for the deeper story-line and the clear indication of what you're telling should be able to do so. THose who come and are just there for the show should also be able to receive the enjoyment of hearing good music and seeing a good show. If you fail in either of the two arenas, then you fail. You should strive to hold accessibility in balance with artistic value. Push both to their limits! But if one damages the other's ability to be "gotten" then you should rework your program to bring both back into balance one with another. But then again, what do I know? I'm new. B)

Perhaps you should include how the Houston show has been on the same day as other REALLY BIG events in other corps' home towns. This particular song is getting rather old, dude.

Hey Barb.. Might wanna add CV to that list of corps up there... And when did Racine become the "South"? :D

Yeah, let's keep this civil. DCA South is all good.

not to mention some of us staffers that so beat the crud out of the corps that they're all sleeping to the very last second ;)

Some other issues at hand you might want to think about... These evaluations usually carry some sort of cost to the corps in the form of fees to DCA and possibly the region. To have a local come instead of a person from out of region, that saves Sun Devils the cost of flight, hotel, possibly meals, etc. and for a just starting corps, that can be SO helpful to the bottom line. Good thoughts, but I think DCA is thinking in the best interest of the corps in this case.

allright, that banner has to go. I spent a good 15 seconds figuring out I didn't have a bug on my laptop screen. :D

Saved TWC roughly 10-20 million by switching everything from Sun/Sparc to Intel/Linux. We never looked back. The platform is sound enough now that you can get a lot done with these little "toy boxes" as some like to call them. All I know is that my fridge stays full because of Linux. :D

I am a Senior Linux/UNIX Systems Administrator for The Weather Channel, and a staffer on the Linux side here at DCP. I've been in UNIX Admin for 17 years, and if I wore a beard at all, it'd probably be a neck beard, partnered with a pocket protector. I'm in charge of all things website. Apache/Tomcat/Perl/Java, etc. I do all system builds which means that anything the 40 or so developers come up with to go into the site, I make sure it gets there, works right, and smoothly transition the site to the new code. I work directly with the developers to troubleshoot their code (apparently they can't do it themselves...not bitter much) and to make sure all things are resolved before deployment. Heavy on customer service, heavy on technology, heavy on geekery. I've founded two gaming leagues (one in Akron, the other in Baton Rouge) and helped out in the organization of two separate Linux users groups. I now belong to a Perl mongers group and a Linux user group here where I call home, Atlanta. After 17 years of coolness, the computer industry is starting to wear on me, and I've made arrangements to enter Georgia State University this coming fall to finish my college degree and do music for the rest of my life. Joined CorpsVets in 2003, liked it so much I moved to Atlanta from Baton Rouge. Became a field staffer this year.

I know that when weather permits, the CV show (and I believe the Heatwave show back when) did full olympic style retreat, every corps played themselves off, and at least on one occasion, Heatwave played to us in the retreat formation... "Time Warp" I believe it was. Good times, good memories.

Baton Rouge in '02 you guys were chased off the practice field by what seemed to be the end-of-the-world tornado winds. Just turned out to be a lot of wind and little rain at all. :) Hop cleared you guys out pretty quick.

Tom: Show Coordinator, Brass Arranger, Brass Co-Caption Head David Henry Staff Coordinator Bradley Hood Guard Caption Head Detrick Tilley Percussion Caption Head, Percussion Arranger Calvin Kelley Brass Co-Caption Head Bill Wear Visual and Guard Designer Rodney Bailey Drill Designer Chad Guess Guard Staff Brian McLemore, Tad Brannen Percussion Staff Steven Ellison, Keith Fletcher, Marcus Rayner, Shannon Lemon, Meshia Austin Brass Staff Alan Armstrong, Lewie Humphrey, Steven Palmer, Jerald Sheets Visual Staff Steven Palmer, Lewie Humphrey, Jerald Sheets, T.J. Maunder Drum Majors Marvin Fontaine, Vic Kulinski That's the current state of things. There may be a few more familiar faces popping up, but that's the lineup on staff "today".

I would argue in the case of the Brigs that since Wayne Downey was intimately involved in BOTH BD and the Brigs that there is no plagiarism involved whatsoever. The same writer, two different corps. Now, originality of the program itself is an entirely different debate, but it's not what was asked.

dang dupes.

Quote of the day...

That was Sr. Corps in the old days LOL! Now we have shows and demand that pretty much preclude any level of inebriation. It's not uncommon to find all-agers shows running between 150 - 200 bpm. Today's all-age is not your father's Sr. corps. If you get out there impaired in any way in today's All-age environment, you stand a very real chance of hurting yourself and others. (just in case this wasn't a troll-bait)

I got to spend some amazing time with Mr. Fennell and Frank Wickes in the late 90's. My introduction w=to him by Mr. Wickes was "Come here, Jerald, I want to introduce you to someone." An amazing man.

I think you're limiting yourself... But ANYhow, I've done exactly this since I started marching. The year's amounts are as follows: 2003: 6,216.44 (I travelled 8 hours one way for camps) 2004: 4,662.13 I moved to Atlanta, but flew to a lot of shows in the NE 2005: 3216.99 I worked off most of my dues. The rest was hotels, meals, etc. 2006: 3744.18 My son joined the corps, I got a discount, but now I was paying two of everything 2007: 4442.88 Last year I flew a bit, rented a car, hotel rooms, etc. Like I said, my first year included a CRAP-ton of gas. The lower amounts below as described. I've long since tossed the receipts, etc., but that is my totals for each year that I've kept track of.

I don't necessarily agree. Drum Corps staffers are indeed teaching. They cannot replace the local music program, but the caption heads I know (and I know quite a few as I'm sure you do) use the EXACT same teaching methods on the field that they would in the studio or the band hall. Teaching at it's purest element is DEFINITELY taking place in drum corps, but no it is not replacing local schools.

A broken record of incorrect statements is still incorrect. GO stand in front of ANY caption head that is also a DME or MME teaching Drum Corps, and tell them they're not serving the purpose of educating kids. I'd like to see how that goes for ya...

hee hee hee hee....