normy diploome

is this where we cue the video tape of the 27th Lancers doing the closing ceremonies on ice at the Lake Placid Olympics??? One of my first drum corps memories as a grammar school kid was seeing the Medford Grenadiers DBC of LI (the corps DCI HOFer Paul Litteau taught while in the service after he aged out of Cavaliers, doing an exhibition on ice at one of the L.I. Ducks minor league hockey games at the old Commack Arena. Now back on topic...

Michael, With special salutes on this your Dad's fifth anniversary. If the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, he was evidently stellar if we're to see the fruits he left behind. Blessings on your memories. NDP

Now we will have Brain vs. Brawn? Or at least Cats vs. Dogs...Bobcats vs. Bulldogs... Quinnipiac vs. Yale. HockeyDad, are those heads still spinning in Minnesota and North Dakota??? Even funnier than the Pioneer/Mandarin analogy is that Yale and Quinnipiac are less than five miles apart on the same street ! But it will be Southern CT U. on the other side of New Haven who will host DCI this summer,

True for the medalists to an extent, not always. Other corps often don't have that largesse offered or available. I think most corps directors might chuckle as they pull their remaining hairs out.

Like who? Name them. None in my recollection. I call your bluff.If you need a list you can check Cadets.ning.comor https://www.theholynamecadets.net/

playing the devil's advocate here (no, not those Devils)... Are you the starting quarterback or the water boy? Are drum majors at a different standard or merely another member?

And of course, some uniform changes aren't really changes. Cadets did change in 2005/06. Back to original 07-10 with pieces ransomed from 05/06 to fill in if a constant. '11 with the split unis and '12 with the all whites/traditional color guard captain's unis was enabled in part by the smart deal developed between the corps and the uniform company. This aspect is true with several of the medalist corps over the years. They wear the endorsed products on the field and become the poster boys for the company in the company's marketing. Crown does the same with a different uniform company. Also for 2012, Cadets loaned their traditional HNC uniforms to their new corps Cadets 2. This season as Cadets 1 returns to the traditional HNC maroon jacket, gold cummerbund, creamish white pants, we await to see what C2 will doff.

Not often enough if you have ever been on a corps bus after the first week of tour. :lookaround:/>

College/university bands are subsidized to a large part by the university mega-million dollar budgets and zillion dollar stadium programs. Many of the DCI corps benefit, if even in a small degree, from grants and possibilites because they are youth, not adult programs. If the age ups, then these doors are closed. Perhaps there should be two divisions, college age and non-college age as 18 is no longer considered youth in some quarters (such as we allow them to vote, serve in the military defending the US, marry in some States, etc.) However, at 18 they are not legally able to drink alcohol, cannot enter into many contracts, and need a co-signer to even rent a car,etc. So the age-bracket you speak of is caught between a teen-age world and an adult world. As the economy continues to be horrible, I presume that fissure will only become a wider chasm. Increasing the age may give a more developed performance from more devoloped marchers, but I contend that a large part of DCI has always been the culture of developing our youth. Something other needs to be instituted for the older crowd.

A lurker emailed me privately with these comments which I thought worth posting: 1. Will head chopper moves in these shows now be known as "le guillotine"??? 2. Cadets 2 announced their show on the Cadets website with the heading "Les Cadets Deux" 3. This needs some clarification from Space Park headquarters: For the 2013 season, what is the proper response of the audience/fans/alumni to shout mid-show: Les Vanguard!, Le Vanguard (a thing of strength and power), or is it La Vanguard (a thing of beauty and awe) ??? Well, this season is certainly looking like it will have this "Je ne sais quoi..."

Yesterday, kudos were deserved for the highlighting of the BD special needs color guard. Today, http://www.wgi.org/news/04102013-Sidney-Lanier-Drumline-Making-History.html

And by small steps, great journies are begun.

Good effort. Probably loads of hard work. But the reality is that $5000 is not even the tour costs of two members or living wage salary for a director or instructors. Here's hoping future funding sources can be found. Maybe DanielRay will donate his expertise.

and now, getting back to the OP topic...

Nit-picking here, but it's not the French Revolution (1789) but a later chaotic time in France 1814-1832. But I agree with your artistic stance. The Wretched (a literal translation of the French les miserables) might need to be so coiffed rather than the usual SCV elan.

Cadets Two are a separate and second corps within the YEA structure which also sponsors the Cadets. Cadets 2 fielded for the first time last summer (2012) as a weekend-only corps which competed in the DCA circuit, not in DCI. The age cohort of the corps is generally similar to the age parameters of DCI. The uniforms that C2 wore last season were the traditional Holy Name/Garfield uniforms but with a different side patch which said Cadets 2. Coincidentally the DCI Cadets wore a special uniform last season for the 2012 season, a uniform based on what the color guard captains and, later, the drum majors wore when the corps was Holy Name, then Garfield Cadets, then Cadets of Bergen County, then Cadets, then Holy Name Cadets, then Cadets. Yes, or should I say YEA, it does get confusing at times. :--)

Ditto for Cadets, Cavies, and Crown for head majors; different policies for the backfield and endzone conductors.

What he said!!! This is one of about ten such units nationwide sponsored and taught by various groups. I have seen one at a show in Florida one winter and another one in Ohio. The CT Tigers often give exhibitions at the various MAC championships for MB and winter guard. The BD group seems wonderfully advanced (of course!) I am imagining the patience and diligence of those who teach and the courage and perseverence of members and staff. I like the silks chosen too. First class designs.

Scheherazade was 2005, wasn't it? You may mean that Weber doesn't often use props like Myron and others did at SCV. yes?

What no SCV props? How about the Scheherazade tent? the chair for the Phantom of the Opera shows? the tunnel for the famous change of corps' pants mid-show? etc., etc. You may want to rethink that statement. And yes, I realize that different staffs did populate at different times. Same corps however.

In these “marking time” weeks while we await viewing first field performances of the 2013 season, imagine that you are one of the top visual design staffers of these corps. Both Santa Clara Vanguard and Cadets2 are riding the popularity of the stage show and film of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. Both have the challenge of taking this popular music, already done on the field by ’89 Cadets 1, Sunrisers, and DCE’s Clonmel Bluehawks from Ireland amongst others and making it come alive again. Speculate on what you might include in the show so that we feel as if we are experiencing Les Miz for the very first time EVER! For instance, will the podium people stay in character and give commands en francais? Will Santa Clara, at least in the pit, doff the aussies for berets, similar to the Cossack caps they wore for the Russian show? Would the guards use silks similar to how Bobby Hoffman had the Cadets’ guard in ‘89 use what looked like a French tri-color but also included a stripe of orange and another of yellow as to not disrespect the national color of another country? How might YOU present it? (Note however, one wouldn’t use the Eiffel Tower, either on a flag or even in a living drill formation like what Euponitone did so well with his young corps from Brittany, France previously. Why not? It would be anachronistic. Les Miz takes place in the 1840’s; the Eiffel Tower wasn’t built until 40 years later.) What would you do to tweak the presentation? Be imaginative! ... Weber and Sacktig might be listening!

:shutup:/> Well make him an offer! I think he goes by Yeaguy on DCP. Now about your wallet...