TRacer

Any updates? Should be intermission about now….

I once heard Swedish Chef in a critique define General Effect as “Bluh herdy snurrbl devestehoodt jkeverda floon a ver— Bork Bork Bork!” It made so much sense after that.👨‍🍳

My understanding is that a half dozen or so SCV ‘23 brass went to Crown this year; I’m helping sponsor one of them who also marched SCV 2022. On the influx of SCVC vets into Mandarins, I wonder how many were cut during A-corps ‘23 auditions before the SHTF.

Ah yes, the “let’s give away the title” memorial run because someone failed at their ONE job— keeping track of time. The ‘82 vets around me definitely swore in uniform when GR’s voice shrieked over the walkie-talkie. Hilarious times…not.

Another DC alum and racer…excellent. I pretty much followed that formula as well except I was driving my race car to the various NHRA tracks up & down the West Coast / Southwest where I competed. Lots of prep prior to and no stress the day of until I hit the starting line. Side note: the car had my SCV Alumni license plate frame the corps used to sell on the back; I met another DC alum in the staging lanes because of it.

It’s been awhile and I just finished reading the previous 23 pages in one sitting….whether it’s a school of fish praying to the heavens or being shot in a barrel, the end result is the same: holy mackerel. Similar to what Martha (whom I marched with) posted earlier, I had to “consciously uncouple” from the alumni FB pages because I view what has taken place less as an alum and more as the parent of a performer who spent three fairly recent seasons in that org and won but whose overall experience was very much less-than-fulfilling. Not to be shellfish but I paid almost all of his tuition during that time, and I can’t help but think I should have encouraged him more to follow his section leader at RCC to Concord instead. Like a love-smitten eel, when the world starts to shine like you’ve had too much wine, that’s a-morrr-ray.

I saw the fundraising appeal and “unjoined” the various alum pages as the discourse in my mind has cemented why many alums (including “royalty”) are no longer involved and/or their drum corps kids marched elsewhere. I am also reminded of my own unpleasant age out year, the “less-than-glowing” review my son gave of the org after spending 2016-2018 there, and I’ve been second-guessing whether I should have encouraged him so hard to head north after his 2015 season.

It is also headed by SCV’s former ED who (IMO) was unjustly let go by the BOD….karma.

I’’m trying to convince a long time friend of mine to think about applying; he has experience having started a drum corps in his living room, helping it flourish and yes it is still around.

Are you sure? Phantom played Firebird in ‘07, culminating in their “running like hell out of the block” move during the 2nd half of the push played in halftime. I was there with KAC too and the Phantom age-outs went nuts in front of me, especially when we rushed over the front sideline and in their face.

I would have thought Cavaliers’ “voting protest fight” featuring opposing members beating each other with HRC and DJT campaign signs would have made this list. Someone mentioned Vanguard 2011…for me, it was only controversial because they didn’t play the climax in The Planets/Mars nearly loud enough. The first time I saw it, I thought half the hornline had dropped out. As long as we’re here….SCV 2005 attempt to redo SCV 87’s RCM was a blunder of epic proportion and should have placed 11th.

Did he age out with you in BD?

I taught Impulse in 2014 for free (and have done other DCs for free as well because I loved it) ) and would do the same for SCV if it came up. Unfortunately I’m a dino (gasp!) who marched only two years (double gasp!) under Gail (triple gasp, catch me as I faint!), which renders my decades of experience moot to those who like to polish their year patches. My accurate snark aside, many alums have gone on to great careers in design, professional performance, higher education, etc. Like a trombone player that still wears a pager, the optimist inside me hopes that a cadre of creative alumni will assemble and donate their combined talent.

…and their current director used to be the ED of SCV….in my view they should have kept him.

She was the architect behind the Argonne Rebels’ powerhouse hornline of the early 70’s, including the legendary line of 1972. A lot of us “marched elsewhere prior to SCV” vets knew who she was and getting to meet and be cliniced by her was a highlight of my DC career. She basically brought the concept of “full symphonic sound” and TQ&I to DC; indeed, if you listen to Argonne’s ‘72 Finals recording the hornline easily sounds ten years ahead of its time. Tim S. was a disciple of her teachings.

I totally forgot that; thanks for the reminder. I also had a flashback to his “please don’t mess up” speech when Sandra Opie did that clinic with us that summer.

I gave my jacket (with stars in the pockets) to my son for safekeeping as I wanted him to have it; it resides in the same garment bag as his jacket which has his rings in their little boxes stuffed in the pockets. His “go to” choice is his Blue Stars ⭐️ jacket (Call of the Wild show) which he wore at Finals a few months back after aging out in 2021. The patch culture was an “in the line” social pecking order thing too in The Days of Yore (labels were “rookie”, “2nd year nothing”, “vet/Yr 3”, “vet/Yr 4”, “super vet”) and I’d really hoped the corps had outgrown it. Sadly, the stories my kid told me of his 2017 SCV Rose Parade Corps experience indicated that it was very much alive and unwell 30+ years later. To quote SGhost, “It’s complicated.” In other news, it’s sunny and 80 degrees here in the Hawaiian Islands, and the USGS says the Mauna Loa 🌋eruption (aka Madame Pele) has subsided. 🤙

The skinny baritone player with glasses clearly visible in the field cam closeup of the hand clasp at the end of drum solo on the Legacy DVD thanks you. 😉

Bruckner8 and I performed that show the summer you were born. Heck, we stood pretty close to each other in the hornline. 😊

Just heard as well…holy moly.

As an A-corps alum, former DCI instructor and VC parent I was very disappointed to hear about concepts like “being patched out”, “1/2 years” and other BS. My kid never wore his member jacket again after he left. A few BD-A 2022 MMs were VC alums.

As an A-corps alum, former DCI instructor and VC parent I was very disappointed to hear about concepts like “being patched out”, “1/2 years” and other BS. My kid never wore his member jacket again after he left. A few BD-A 2022 MMs were VC alums. EDIT: Sorry for the double post.

Sad but necessary…they were a great training ground for other WC corps; it isn’t the natural progression feeder it used to be where kids were promoted into SCV-A. My kid spent three years at SCVC, did the Rose Parade, won OC twice but got tired of the “you are less valued” atmosphere and went to Blue Stars in 2019. He had a blast.

I prefer to have been drinking before I start reading posts on this board. 😝