karuna

1997 is perhaps my favorite. I still remember being gobsmacked first time I saw it. The rest of DCI was standing still in comparison. OTOH Cadets shows I didn't like are few and far between.

This is not accurate. The only #### was from the idiot "in charge". Nearly everyone else there was doing good work in SPITE of him. Firmly convinced YEA would still be around if the d###head had stayed out of the way. Instead he was poison to everything and everyone he touched. USBands was growing incredibly well despite the irresponsible draining of it every season to please the whims of a rapist. The glassdoor stuff is almost entirely about the rapist and his abusive mismanagement.

He also posted the audio 🙂

Apparently someone zoomed in on an image from Mackey's social and re-entered by hand into a score program to try to get early access to Mackey's work for Crown. Mackey saw it and just posted a bit of the full score!

Not off topic as Crown represents the single largest DCI source of current membership of the unit!

Reading an interesting thread on Reddit. Lots (most? all?) top 12 corps try to carry some alternates into spring training to avoid starting from zero when the inevitable spring training holes appear (due to injury or just bailing out for other reasons). Alternates are contracted, are full members, and frequently get the opportunity to fill a hole either in the spring or during the season. But I had not heard of contracting twice the "normal" number of alternates, bringing them into spring training, and then cutting half of them. That's...crazy. Effectively locks those talented performers from marching elsewhere that season (other corps have already filled holes and the cut alternates have already paid up their contract(they couldn't afford to march elsewhere even if they found a spot).

18 May to 16 June at Gardner Webb University in Boiling Springs NC. Rehearsals are open.

Musically both design and execution have been consistently excellent for a very long time. RHRN, Spacepants show, choose your "miss" : they were all visual blunders. Hell 2010 was a design blunder (spend massive amounts of time of unjudged part of show and then put performers in impossible listening positions. Musically that show was fabulous but was undercut repeatedly by frankly ridiculous staging. Visually under Rick Subel they were ... what's the word ... amorphous?. The visual design was there but no one was quite sure what it was. Also (just personal opinion here) Rick doesn't "get" outdoor the way he does indoor; and that's no indictment of Rick's abilities. There are a LOT of indoor designers who just don't seem to get outdoor (again IMHO mostly because they can't stand to "lower" themselves to being obvious. Football fields need obvious.) And so Crownies are repeatedly left hoping and praying that this year the visual design excellence will match the musical design excellence. Heck even the "old" visual team missed as often as they hit.

While this is technically true, it's not quite how it happened. Even after the acquisition, things were very tenuous with USBands. Judges, bands, show hosts -- there was a lot that could have gone wrong. In any case the Cadets were literally run by USBands. The Cadets income didn't begin to cover their expenses. Despite this financial reality, the people running the program received no respect or recognition from the clown supposedly in charge (or for that matter from the entire drum corps side of the house).

seen on the interwebs Mackey will write the closer after seeing (hearing?) the rest of the show. Now THAT'S interesting as it provides the opportunity to both tie together concepts and recapitulate motifs from throughout the program. So it's not just a Mackey piece commissioned by Crown -- it's a Mackey piece written specifically for this show and these other pieces.

This is pretty cool! (for reference)

All I can say is -- wholeheartedly agree. Crown fans should book their hotel rooms for Indy. Don't want to miss this one!

I share your excitement. Was just listening to some audio and was struck with the sophistication of the arrangements. There's no one out there doing what they're doing. Yes there are other excellent drum corps performances out there -- settle down people. But Klesch's skill at arranging is aging like fine wine and the percussion writing last year was phenomenal. Kind of scary to think what things could be like in 24.

Pix from this weekend's camp 15-16-17 DEC 2023 @ Clover HS. (from facebook)

What a thrill for the performers to hear such a reaction.

More from instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0KXNtHpB6-/

Well Crown shared a little on insta: https://www.instagram.com/stories/carolinacrown/3244062079990615529/

What a strong year for the People's Front Ensemble and CrownDrums. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzFhdUwMLdo

It was of course a tongue-in-cheek response. Uncle Sam put me in the system as well. But I respect that you're ready and willing! Sadly unless the corps themselves were advocating for this sort of program, it's a non-starter. It might also be a challenge to implement it in way that was not very disruptive. There might be a continuous line of complaints outside your door.

Where do you think his salary was coming from?

It's a pro forma response that sounds good to school boards and administrators but has not been shown to be particularly effective. In the band and drum corps world, many (if not most) of the instructors are already educators in their real jobs. The training is mostly online courseware which is often considered more of a nuisance than effective education. And most people who are "mandated reporters" in fact fail to report anything at all. It's a start -- but like most well-intentioned starts its falls very short of accomplishing much.

There's truth in what you're saying. Up to the legal system to determine what responsibility today's Cadets (Cadets A&E) may have for the actions of the Garfield Cadets so long ago.

Maybe. Please submit a DNA sample, fingerprints, retina scan, professional qualifications, resume with cover letter, background clearance, 200 personal references, power of attorney and a $100000 application fee and send it to....