Fran Haring

Cue the Billy Preston music.

Man.... I hear that, Jim. Never told anyone publicly about this until now... but late fall of 2007, a couple of weeks after Barbara got home from the rehab center following her stroke that summer, she suffered a significant seizure. Resulted in another trip to the ER. Scared the hell out of me... I thought I was gonna lose her right then and there. The folks who know me best know I like to joke around, keep it light, as much as possible. But stuff like this... it's not funny. On any level. You have shown remarkable restraint with the person you're dealing with here.

Good point. By then the commercials will be added. Seriously... you're right, whether those screens are a "one year wonder" or not could very well depend on how the show is performed, scored, and received by the fans. At the championship, where it matters most, when the show is completely fleshed out. One of these years I'd love to get out to the BOA weekend. Some wild stuff going on there with several of those bands.

Interesting thread. Lots of perspectives here. Some well-said stuff, some crazy stuff, some funny stuff, some "have you been listening or reading at all???" stuff. Sounds like Thanksgiving dinner with my family. Or just standard DCP. If a band or corps has the money to spend on props, video screens, jet packs, whatever (personally, I'd like to see jet packs someday... ) then hey... have at it. It's up to an organization as to how it uses its resources. Heck, if I hit last night's lottery, my corps would have Ruth's Chris chefs running our food operation. LOL However... (isn't there always a however???? LOL)... my concern would be, and has been, the "arms race" aspect to all this. The pressure to do this stuff to keep up, even if your group doesn't necessarily have the resources to do so. I'm not sure there's an answer to that, and I doubt there's a one size-fits-all "solution" to it. But it is a concern.

Quiet is good. At least compared to the three-ring circus of recent years. LOL.

The band shows I workers, especially the championships... it was like there were 20 different audiences in the course of a day. LOL. Audience members would come in for a group, or sometimes just their particular band, then leave. Next group or next band, in came the parents/fans, then they'd leave. And so on and so forth. Yet somehow, the announcer had to stay for the entire day. OK... not all the time... sometimes the day was split between two or three of us. Sean King in particular was good at making sure that happened. But man... those all-day grinds, with 40-plus bands and Air Grams... never again. LOL

Think of this possibility, with the use of these video boards: A show that has the current band or corps performing their show, interspersed with video clips of the same band's or corps' show from, say, 20 years ago. Show theme: "We've Gotten Better"

The show announcer... at first I thought it was David Letterman. LOL

Heck... if a corps wants to use me as the commercial narrator voice, sign me up!!!

Perhaps a drum corps could run ads on those screens to help pay for them. Good way to add vocal narrative, too. "We'll be right back with the second half of our show, after this message from Microsoft."

The U.S. Open in 1973... first time I ever saw the Blue Devils (at the U.S. Open parade that year) and the Charioteers ( at the class A finals). It's too bad the Charioteers weren't around longer than they were. Great small corps.

A stone lock. LOL. I hope neither one of us ever teaches a "Cause and Effect" class.

Yep... that was pretty much the reaction from most of us who saw that show!!! LOL

Interesting that the DCI and DCA champs both had marching cymbal lines in 2018. What this has to do with the Scouts, I have no idea. LOL

A buddy of mine in Sun saw that corps that year, at some show upstate I think, and came back to our bus swearing he'd never watch them again. "They just beat Christ on the field!!! I can't effing believe it!!!" LOL