Penguin

I was wondering the same thing.

I voted Cadets, but I'm honestly not sure. I enjoyed the Cadets more, but BD was noticeably cleaner.

In 2006, the median household income was a little over $48,000. Spending $3000 (over 6% of household income) a year (especially for more than one consecutive year) is a lot. World Class drum and bugle corps, for the most part, is already for the financially "above-average".

Wherever you get the aussies from, you can probably get plumes there too. If not, contact the company that makes the aussie to make sure a certain plume will fit.

Not too much adjustment is needed. If you wear the aussie right (down and foward), and just stick the plume in the eyelet, you should be good to go.

A Celtic theme. Interesting.

If it's not clean, it's out.

Corps do it because corps membership is scattered these days. Kids need to fly in to camps or atleast drive a decent distance. If you put the banquet on the same weekend as the first camp, more people will attend because the vets will already be in town.

Actually, many corps distribute a handbook that coves every detail of movement. So, said handbooks already exists. Since each corps moves differently, an all-encompassing visual book would probably be rather long...

You would have to have 2 categories: highest note on a soprano (G bugle) and highest note on a trumpet (Bb). You can't really compare the ranges of the two.

Interesting. I think a lot of people will resent this idea because it's been done as top 12 for so long. However, I think the inclusion of 13-15, as proven by this year (IMHO), would make for a very nice show. Even though they didn't make it, I'd consider those corps "finals caliber". Of course, with the amount of World Class corps dwindling around 20 now, that would leave only a handful of corps out of finals.

Both Patriots and Esperanza had outstanding shows in 2003. It was fun watching them duke it out for the top spot.

Yes. :)

Chairman Dances = ^OO^ Can't wait to see what they do with it.

Candy is harmless.

One smart thing they did is make arrangements with upper echelon corps (or atleast one that I know of) to send kids who didn't quite make the cut their way.

It hurts to think about taking any of last year's top 12 out of finals; they were all incredible. It also hurts to think about the fact that once-perennial finalists such as Madison and Crossmen as well as deserving and hard working corps such as Blue Stars and Academy did not make top 12 last year. I think there are too many great corps out there, and there's just not enough room in finals for all of them. I really do think Semifinals is the new Finals... that top 17, especially from last year, was a great show from top to bottom.

There are so many stories as to the origin of Bones that you might not ever hear the real one.

Agreed.

I found it "clever" and humorous given each corps relationship with the Bridgemen. The early Raiders administration was built upon the ashes of the Bridgemen, and Surf has now taken on a "Bridgemeneqsue" persona. :)

Crossmen in finals. Bring back early 2000esque programming and kick ###... even if it means playing Birdland.

Clever. B)

Each corps breaks down their fees differently, and you have to calculate personal expenses depending on what the corps provides. Really, it would be nearly impossible to get a flat, honest rate for each corps. Let's just say that most of them are approaching 2000, many of them exceeding it.

I'm a pretty tolerant person, and I don't worry about political correctness too often, but I find this tasteless.

w/Stp: Establishments like the ones mentioned usually already have a jar... it's called a tip jar. I think they would need to have a very good reason to put another jar out to detract from their own income.