Kevin Doherty

I wouldn't mind being in Toronto, but pigeon poop would not be my favorite score delivery method; and having some Greek heritage, I am not into pigeon innards. Perhaps someone who was there could report. I like the humor here. K

Why are there no Akron scores on DCI, DCP, YEA? Weather looked very good on Cadets rehearsal shots.

Tim, Give me the Bishop's number and I'll tell him you were the first one to do reconciliation for the week. One Hail Mary for the Kane, one Our Father for the Tom. Kevin I was going to just edit the post but I think I need to hang my head in shame. Between the last post and this, I was corrected by a past Boston Crusader that the announcer is Paul Cain not Tom Kane.

The Cadets 2000 percussion feature involved 5 bass drums that were grounded, but it wasn't a field drill weave because it involved the players rotating through the grounded drums about every two beats or so. But I think this is closer to what Blast did with stools, which did not move. Kevin

Glen, I did some safety work in huge Paper Mills and and we supplied Gatorade to our Employees. We warned them not to drink more than 16 oz. in an 8-hour shift because it can make you very sick. Also, no coffee, because as a diuretic it dehydrates you. All other hydration should be with water. Gatorade replaces electrolytes, but not water loss, so a combination of the two works well. Also, no salt tablets. They can make you very ill. Please tell my boss I did my safety talk for the day. Also, I hope you never experience what you had experienced in the past-life threatening. Next topic - heat exhaustion Joke - A mortician was preparing a body for burial and his assistant noticed the body had a plug in his rear end. The assistant asked what it was for. The mortician responded that every time he tried to work on the body it would say "wear your seat belt" or "stay hydrated". The assistant again asked what the plug was for. The mortician replied "because who wants to hear some a##hole lecture on safety". Kevin I was very much concerned in advance that the same thing would happen to me, and I wasn't rehearsing all day. I got there at 4pm, but spent most of the next 6 hours in the extremely hot and humid locker room under the stadium. When I got there, there were already two people at the stadium being treated by EMS - one went to the hospital. So, I came prepared. During the course of the evening, I drank nearly a gallon of Powerade Zero that I had on ice. And I made sure I had something in my stomach, but didn't overeat. Two years ago, I went to an arcade at the Jersey shore with my kids, and wound up leaving in the back of an ambulance, and an extraordinarily painful potassium IV. Not planning on that happening ever again, so I plan ahead. Water is not enough. You have to be drinking something like Gatorade or Powerade that's got potassium, magnesium and other electrolytes in it. If your potassium level drops too low, your heart stops beating, whether you're 20 or 70. I knew when I left the house yesterday that the weather was going to be a problem. PLAN AHEAD. I walked with Jomba out of the stadium when Sky was done, to get a pretzel. He was happy and busting my balls about the Devils, but he did look extremely hot in his uniform. He needed to get out of it immediately. But you know Jomba ... When the adrenaline gets going, Jomba sometimes thinks he's Superman, and he disregards his own medical issues. I love the guy, but he's been like that for decades. He needs to understand that being Super Skyliner should be a lower priority in his life than actually staying ALIVE is :) I hope somebody stays on top of him in Clifton in 2 weeks. I'll tell Evelyn to do it :) Glen

Kathy, Your statement matches my recollection. I only lived in Mass for 2 1/2 years, but I went to a contest in Beverly one year and Wakefield the next and he was the announcer at both and worked from the sidelines rather than the pressbox, so he had a lot of face to face interaction with fans in the stands. I don't think he worked shows only in Mass. I remember thinking his voice reminded of someone else. I finally figured it out - Robin Leach without the Brit accent. Kevin If it is the same announcer it has always been, it is Paul Cain. PC was on the Crossmen staff when I marched and we'd get the "you" announcement during the season sometimes at rehearsals for big shows. He's been doing that announcement for ages! I'm surprised the vets in Colts didn't explain it to the rookies. It isn't that easy to forget when a crowd yells like that.... At least they will know for next year, right?

Sam, I am interested in fencing my back yard. Will you come to Louisiana to give me an estimate? But seriously, my schools, Notre Dame, and St. Benedict's Prep have fine fencing programs. Best wishes with yours and our Olympics team. Kevin

Sam Don't give up, Get better. Are you talking to Bocook. the BD, the SCV, Crown, Cavies folks? GO. GO. GO KEVIN

Thanks Corpsband, You always come through. Just a reminder that we are all musicians or big fans and I hope we don't squabble. On a different note, hee hee bad unintended music joke, I just received a Woody Shaw six CD set from Mosaic - awesome for $44. Also check out the Woody Herman set. Kevin

Hello Friends, No attempt here to be argumentative, and I apologize for repeating the thoughts of others. First - to squeeze a forty minute or more piece into eleven minutes requires arranging, Some are very faithful to the original, e.g. Cadets '87 Appalachian Spring, Star '90 Balthazaar's Feast. There are others. I just wanted to offer some examples. Second - when a piece contains string and reed parts they must be arranged around. Witness Phantom - Wagner and Shostakovich Third - there are arrangements of arrangements. The first Madison Malaguena was an arrangement of the Bill Holman version for Stan Kenton whiich was an arrangement of the original, that I understand was a guitar piece. I have not heard the original composer's version. Any suggestions? Fourth - Sam is composing and arranging. It is a shame that he does not appear to be getting any consideration. Kevin

Hello Friends, Having been around DC since the early fifties I have gotten the opportunity to hear a lot of Corps. There was a lot of fine music played in the seventies. BD, Madison, Bridgemen, Muchachos, Guardsman, 2-7 and others. One of my favorite years was 1978. SCV and PR were superb and the rest of the field wasn't far behind. The DVDs are available. Give it a try. Kevin

Great news Steve and Vs. I will continue to look for drummers in NE TEX. This is too rich a state musically to not fill out the drum line. Please help. Send us your children. They may actually return if your mac and cheese is better. Kevin Doherty

I agree we're talking about apples vs. oranges, but I witnessed many Dream competitions in the sixties (and earlier) where both juniors and seniors were in competition in their respective categories. In 1963 Blessed Sacrament was at the top of their game as were the Caballeros. Both were weekend Corps, so there's an apples to apples comparison. The Seniors were considered superior because of bigger lung power and horn skills and larger numbers. The Cabs were doing double tonguing, lots of trills, high note playing from the mellos and sops, and twice the power overall from the same number of contras as Sac. However Sac was considered to be be a much better executing corps in all areas. The Cabs could blow the roof off of Roosevelt Stadium, which no junior could do. However, the Cabs would typically have over 40 horns whereas Sac marched 32 until later on in the 60s and the Cabs marched as many as 54 horns at one time in the 60s, so now it could be argued that it was becoming an apple vs. oranges situation. However one area where Sac was clearly superior was the drum line and in my opinion, the juniors have been superior from the sixties forward. Just pointing out that one can find a close apples to apples situation, although it was a long time ago. If anyone is interested, check out DCW to see if the 63 Dream is available on CD. I will also check. Kevin

Charlie, sorry for being fussy, but your comment has no verb or object. I don't know what you're trying to say. I think Jeff has already said if there are twelve Corps in Finals, C2 would be there because, I assume there are only 11 competitors (as always I stand to be corrected). I stated over a month ago that it seems contradictory to have complaints about the decline in the number of Drum Corps and now there are complaints about a new one. Confusing at the least. C2 has deliberately set a differerent membership criteria than other all-agers. There shouldn't be much of a threat to other Corps about recruiting. I can understand that the Bucs might be the most concerned. So what if C2 makes finals or even wins. It's a weekend Corps like everyone else and I would be bothered that the abilities of the staff of all the other competing Corps would be deemed less capable than the Cadets. Don't forget the juniors are on the road for 63 days. Cipriani, McNutt, et. al. can only get spread so far. Just some thoughts. No criticism. Kevin

Jeff got it right. 12 positions in Finals. Will C2 be there? Yes. Where will they be? That will be determined on the field. As for predictions, they are only worth something of value if you either have a personal bet with a friend or you take it to Vegas. As for my personal experience, I've been to Casinos, Boats, Race Tracks, etc. I think I've lost $75 in 40 years, but my bets never changed the outcome.. However I've had some good food. The two-count Prawns at Oaklawn in Hot Springs are fantastic. I understand that Allentown has good food too. Kevin

Guys , did some research. Cherry Pink was written by Louiguy from France. A Wiki search for Perez Prado has links to numerous albums. A Google search of " Latin Colonel Bogey March Music" has numerous links. Jim, you know what you're looking for, so I will leave the rest to you. Good luck and let us know about the results. Kevin

Ray, On the mark as usual. Perez Prado did the original Cherry Pink. Let's not forget Don Angelica was the soloist for the Cabs on this tune. Jim, you didn't mention how you're doing your search for the Latin Colonel Bogey, but I usually start with Amazon. I'll try to help. Prado was pretty commercial, but he did some hip stuff, too. There used to be an old TV show in B&W that featured two bands on a revolving band stand and I remember seeing Prado on one of these shows. Other prominent Latin bands from this era were Tito Puente's and Tito Rodriguez's. A bit of a stretch, but don't rule out Desi Arnez. Kevin

Back in the lo-tech days of the sixties when I was tuning drums, we used felt strips across the heads taking into account avoiding the strike zone. Of course any time you're working inside the drum, you have to take the heads off-a major pain when making adjustments. I don't know the current state of the art, so I've contributed all I know about, but it appears that the current thinking is to mute the shell rather than the head. I agree with SFZ that the sound close up may be different than in the stands and although you may be able to run a trial in an empty stadium, the audience has a muffling effect. If the problem is that the bass drum ring is overwhelming the other sections, muting is an option, but unless you're in some kind of season-long score averaging situation (never heard of one), there's nothing to lose by experimenting in a live situation. Kevin

My SWAG on the difference in show numbers has to do with location and budget. I think historically BD, SCV and other West Coast Corps have tried to stay in the west for as long as possible, both to control cost and promote the activity, but there are fewer shows. There are more shows available in the midwest and east with shorter traveling distances. I'm also guessing that some Corps, that have the opportunity, want as much polishing opportunity as they can get by playing more shows - not a bad strategy. Surf may also be an example of staying home as long as possible, but playing in competive shows east of the Mizzipi. Mandarin, on the other hand needs to ride on the coattails (playing in the same shows) of BD and SCV for as long as they can to be able to afford Indy. Just my SWAG. If you don't know what a SWAG is, just ask. It involves a somewhat crude term, inoffensive to most, but offensive to some, but there is a donkey named Jack who is involved in one of the the letters. Kevin

Sorry for the delayed response. Chronos, I should have asked if the bottom of your pad has threaded screw-in capability for a stand. My Remo does and the stand is sturdy and versatile with tilting capability, a good adjustable shaft, and long legs with about a 27" spread from foot to foot. My Remo is a 12" with a 10" head and a 12" diameter. It has rims and a real head. I have tried mounting one on an early 60s stand-absolutely doesn't work because you can't tighten the arms and the pad flies off after about two strokes. Also tried it on a tightening stand and the fingers did interfere with playing because of their length above the top of the pad. Does your pad have feet?. If so, it could have been designed for countertop playing, not for a stand. I tried to get a bottom view on Firth's site. I couldn't find one. I looked at some stands including your link and they all seem to have fairly long fingers to get a good grip on the drum. If you have screw-in capability, consider Amazon, but you may need a shorter screw if the pad is very slim. I got a very good price on my new pad and stand. SFZ, I don't know what your experience has been with using a pad on a stand, but there is nothing wrong with TAMA equipment and I have a TAMA stool that's great. Must be 6" deep. I don't know if you play set or not, but one plays alot with the front of the foot on the pedals and before I got this stool there was much tailbone pain after a 4 hour gig. RE: regular stands, I play with about a 110 degree angle and the fingers on the stand, when trying to use a conventional stand always mess me up. I don't want to change my stick set, so I switched to rubber head-top pads for a while, but I did better playing on a pillow. In case the fingers on a regular stand are too long, what do ya'll think about going to a building supply store and asking them to create a build up for the bottom of the pad that allowed the pad on top of it to detach? The grips would have to be flat on the top so the didn't cause the same problem as the fingers. Don't rule out velcro. Let's say you needed the pad raised 6 " above the stand you already have so you could use your current stand. Have a 6" tall disk made, cover it with velcro and then velcro the bottom of the pad. Room for creativity here, but I like to see effective low cost solutions. One last thought, Chronos. Vic Firth has a Contact Us link on their website. Why not ask for their advice?

His name is East? His name is Nutley. Kevin

Buick, Being a Jersey Boy, I know who you you are talking about. I had met him when he was a DM and had friendly relations with him when he was Tour Director. I never saw him act out, but he didn't last long in his professional positions. Of course being a cash contributer he knew enough not to antagonize the gift horses. I never heard any stories about him being tyrannical, but it seems like he had some problems along this line and it perhaps was let go for this reason. Kevin Ha, ha yeah, he could be a little intimidating at first, I suppose, before you got to know him. (I witnessed the "salute" in person, BTW.) But he was nothing compared to Dan Farrell in that regard! At the first November camp for the 92 season, the baritone section (we weren't known as the Buicks yet) sang the Imperial March as he walked into the rehearsal hall. The man certainly demanded respect. (He was still brass caption head at the time.)

Geoff. I started marching in 1960, never in DC because of other priorities, I marched in a major college program-also concert band and jazz ensemble Like Bob, I was never hazed because it was unacceptable. Rather than Shh, we should be exposing this abuse and get it stopped. I hope you were not abused. but if so, I am sorry.

I have a feeling that if someone doesn't like the judging or the criteria, we will hear complaints. When has it been any different? No need to beat each other up, Friends. It doesn't accomplish anything. Kevin

H, I'm with you on this issue, although Cobb was known to sharpen his spikes. He may have been abused, but one doesn't try to hurt and retaliate against others who caused you no harm, and I still have a problem with going way out of the base path into second base with spikes up to break up double play. Likewise for bounties in football None of this accomplishes anything positive. Kevin