contraBand

Regiment members parked at a local Rockford business that was in some way (not sure exactly how) affiliated with the PR organization.

Pay attention to the vets, both during rehearsal and outside of it. You can figure out a lot of things that will make life a lot easier by just paying attention to the way they act, the things they do, etc. Think "when in Rome." EDIT: But don't force it. Be yourself, and be open to suggestions from both the staff and the vets.

Two Crusaders in World Class, two Thunders in Open?

Phantom was pretty exclusively toe-first into halts. I can't recall a single instance we went heel-first into any halts, or anything other than very gradual direction changes at slower tempos.

Work. Lots of it. Or so I understand from a number of vets and staff...

There are a number of east-side schools that have a fair number of corps members as well- Central Valley, Mt Spokane, and Mead (Spokane) and Hanford, Chiawana, and Kamiakin (Tri-Cities) all had decent representation at various corps this year as far as I know. Also, while there are comparatively few "very strong" marching programs on the east side of the state, CV and Mead both have had exceptional success in the region, and schools such as Mt Spokane, Hanford, and Chiawana have all shown marked improvement in the last few years- at least, from my perspective.

Ummm.....

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Very enjoyable, thank you.

1.) Well it was way back in 2008, before I had any knowledge of marching band and certainly not any of drum corps, when I saw an excerpt of a show on the interwebs. My first thought was something to the effect of, "Whoah that's crazy, what on earth are they doing?!" and my second thought was, "Whoah, 'Phantom Regiment' is a really awesome name." And that name stuck with me for the next three years until I actually got involved in the activity (with a small open class corps, because it was close), and I knew that's where I wanted to end up. 2.) It probably helped that the video I watched was, specifically, 2008 Phantom Regiment...

May I point out that the second corps you mention is from the region of the most-dammed river in North America, and not a certain South American country...

My observation is that several corps seem to be on a three-year cycle with any given uniform or style of uniform. Crown had effectively the same uniform jacket 2007-2009, just with different braids and other details that changed; and 2010-2012 they had the same style of jacket. Bluecoats did the same thing, 2007-2009 they had the two-shaded blue jackets with the dark blue on the black, 2010-2012 they had different shades of blue with black on the back, and they are getting new uniforms for 2013. I believe Blue Stars may be on the same cycle, and from the looks of it Madison may be starting it as well. I heard a rumour that Blue Knights may be getting new uniforms, but I heard the same thing last year, so take that how you will. Phantom doesn't quite fit the pattern enough to make predictions, Cadets and Cavies don't seem too keen on changing their uniforms too drastically, and Vanguard I am not familiar enough with their recent uniforms to comment on. This all conjecture on my part, and may be entirely correlation with no causation. Just what I have observed and deduced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wXQvsbqu74

I discovered this floating around Facebook today. Given the proximity to April 1st, and the lack of any official word, I am extremely skeptical, but one can always hope... Thoughts?

Stop. Please.