Bone-Tone Lord

About #### time. Pio's lack of regard for the health and well-being of its members has been an open secret for years, and more recently multiple members have taken to Reddit to confirm the horror stories and add even more. Even the ones who try to defend the organization actually reveal that it's even worse- there was a guy talking about how great their food program was because only one meal a day had to be purchased from McDonald's by the members rather than provided from the cook truck like every other corps.

Maybe if it wasn’t right during finals week, more corps would participate.

Wait, is it a grass field? That’s so weird. On a separate note, how can it take them 10+ hours to line one field when corps field liners can easily do three with 4-step ticks on the lines in 30-45 minutes?

Corps members generally have their jugs with them up until maybe 20-ish minutes before they step off, and usually either get back to the jugs, get water from show volunteers, get to Gatorades or similar drinks they keep on the buses, get to the cook truck, or some combination thereof within about 20 minutes of leaving the field. Bringing water on the field would accomplish nothing.

The electronics being out would have been the least of the issues with performing tonight. It wasn’t just rain, it was a severe thunderstorm. DCI actually has an organization-wide policy requiring corps to go either inside, on buses, or under stands if there’s lightning within 15 miles. Additionally, the kind of wind we had tonight would have made it completely impossible for guard to perform and really hard for everyone else. Finally, the rain itself was so hard that the scoreboard wasn’t visible from the gate. Ain’t nobody doing a show in that.

Or the point where DCI requires corps to submit proof of licensing for their music so DCI knows what licenses they need to get has passed, which means corps have now finalized their repertoire. I marched a show where a movement was replaced in May because Astor Piazzolla's estate took too long to get back to the staff about licensing and they replaced him with Bruckner, whose work is public domain.

I never would have wanted to march there anyway. Even before it came out that Hopkins was a rapist, they were infamous for eating and sleeping less than anyone else, and as a result having more people either getting hurt or burning out and leaving early than pretty much any other corps. And their lousy show design lately certainly didn't improve my impression of them. I do know people who left my corps to go there, but why you'd pick the Cadets as the corps you want to make finals with over literally anyone else is beyond me.

Muncie's pretty close to Indianapolis. In fact, it's close enough to be the Colts' finals housing site.

They claimed the women who marched with them in 1971 and 2005 weren't members. And my complaints were directed just as much at fans and alumni, including some on this exact thread, who claim the woman marching Madison now isn't a member as at the staff who claimed the women who marched before weren't members.

Anyone who pays fees and performs the show- at any corps- is a member. Claiming otherwise because she doesn't have the same thing between her legs as the other members is stupid at best, and outright misogynistic at worst (side note: interesting how the only corps that claim someone who pays fees and marches a show can somehow not be considered a full member are the all-male ones). Both Madison and Cavaliers should have fully integrated years ago anyway. The only positions in drum corps that actually require their performers to be a certain gender are some vocalist and actor spots. For any other position, there is absolutely no justifiable reason to restrict membership to only one gender.

As far as literally every other corps is concerned, if you've paid your fees and you're on the field, you're a member. The idea that you can somehow not be a real member of the corps despite having done that is absurd.

Parking's a nightmare for corps as well. All the buses park on one street in the park, and no one can leave until whoever's parked in front does. This is particularly annoying on Friday, when many corps want to return to their housing site early because they'll be staying there the next day and as a result have left their food trucks there. Last August, I spent an hour and a half sitting on the bus, plus another close to two hours actually driving to the housing site, with no bus box food because the next day was Walmart/laundry, and didn't have time to get the super-hyped-up funnel cake because of the super-early BIS. Most of our corps was in exactly the same situation, and the people on the buses next to ours didn't look too happy either. Allentown is a ridiculously overhyped show site in every way imaginable. Parking's a nightmare, buses, equipment trucks, warmups, and the stadium are all a million miles away from each other, there's that nightmarish hill that you have to haul props and pit up into the stadium, there's barely room for corps to enter and exit, and the stadium itself isn't significantly better than, say, Whitewater or Little Rock and is only talked up because it's the regional.

Predicting results before the season starts or either corps you're talking about has even announced their show? That's a paddlin'.

I'm pretty sure the actual purpose of these is for research on artificial lips and lungs.

Had I written the proposal, I would have set the limit at nine or ten in order to allow one of every part in a small ensemble (three trumpets, two mellos, three bari/euphs, and one or two tubas), but I'd much rather the limit be six than 154.