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MedicineMan

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  • Your Drum Corps Experience
    Crossmen alumnus
  • Your Favorite Corps
    Crossmen; Santa Clara Vanguard
  • Location
    Philadelphia,PA

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  1. Buying: 1. Crown; they maybe just one year away from their 2nd DCI championship. 2024 looks very promising for them. 2. Crossmen and Madison ; everyone seems to be losing faith in these 2 organizations. They have both been around for a long time and have weathered so many storms in the past. Madison is still legendary to so so many DCI fans and is a member of that very small elite group of corps who has won a DCI title ( 2). And the Crossmen have the distinction of marching in the most DCI finals for a corps that HAS NOT WON A DCI CHAMPIONSHIP ( 29 ). So I will buy the stock from everyone who is selling. I think that both of their values are only going to go up. Holding : top 8 ; these corps are not going anywhere. The only corps to crack the top 8 is The Mandarins ( newbie ) with Phantom rejoining the elite 8. In fact maybe I should hold on to the top 12. If SCV would have competed in 2023 ; most likely the top 12 would have been the same as 2022. Everyone has to take a risk on one stock ( drum corps in this case ) ; I am going to go with Music City ; they continue to improve and maybe knocking on a few doors next year. In fact corps 13 through 18 on any given day were pretty close to competing for that 12 th place spot. The quality of the majority of shows continues to improve and I think that that is a good thing for DCI. Now we just need to keep all the current World Class and Open class corps financially healthy so that they can continue to perform and look to look to new geographic areas to expand.
  2. Crossmen ; after placing 13 th 2 years in a row one would hope that they can make the necessary staff adjustments that will bring them back to a more competitive and quality production for 2024.
  3. Crossmen looked good and sounded good tonight; atleast from my Flo March perspective. Personally; I think that they were a tad underscored tonight; but I have thought that most of the season. GE ; IMHO; continues to be their biggest issue…. At this stage in the season you have to be getting all 8 and above in all subcaptions. No doubt that they will continue to work hard and stay focused.
  4. As one of those 1979 Crossmen members; I believe that we are finally over it. ( LOL ) ; although It did take a long time. We all mellow with age. Both organizations are well run and our producing very quality programs for the performers and for the DCI fan base. We are all rooting and cheering for each other.
  5. GMAB; it’s their 3rd show of the season. Try something novel and say something nice about the corps. They are working incredibly hard and deserve support
  6. Post Whitewater; pre Lacrosse : Last performance of the 3 show weekend. Crossmen continue their touring of some of the legendary midwestern drum corps towns. I did my early education at the University of Wisconsin and experienced the legend of Whitewater as a corps member. Lacrosse is a very nice town on the upper Mississippi River. Home of the legendary 1st Federal Blue Stars, who are having another very competitive season. I am familiar with both of these sites. Networking from some of my midwest drum corps friends, Crossmen are improving ; there may have been a tad of under scoring from the judges in Whitewater. DCI doesn't make it easy for a corps when you fall out the top 12. Early; pre sundown time slots; a bit a slotting to make everyone fit. GE continues to be the biggest concern. I am hopeful that a 3rd performance tonight will bring more clarity to the show and lead to better GE numbers. As disappointing with regards to the corps placement last night ; this is what helps define each and every corps member. The ability to " pull yourself up by your bootstraps " as Crossmen's founding father Robby Robinson would say after a tough show : this helps to define the character and integrity of each and every corps member. It is part of the magic of participating in the activity of drum corps; teaching young professionals the lessons of life. To the current 2023 members ; good luck tonight. Have an awesome run. Your alumni family as always will be cheering you on.
  7. Post Dekalb So how did the Crossmen do last night in their first DCI judged performance of 2023. ( In my day they were called drum corps competitions ; DCI in its attempt to evolve with the drum corps activity changed the name to summer musical games and now I think each performance has its own unique name ; tonight it is the Whitewater Classic. But anyway , how did the corps do. Well first and foremost ; Congratulations to the performers ; you are all extremely talented individuals who no doubt made your family, friends, alumni, and staff very proud. You all put your hearts and souls into that performance and it reflects on your character. Great job. You are now in the official record books as a Crossmen performer and overnight your blood has been transformed to Crossmen red. No matter where you all ultimately end your drum corps carers; there will always be a part of you that is a Crossmen and you will fondly take that with you on your post drum corps journey. So back to the show ; how did the Crossmen do? Well the official slate of DCI judges gave then a 70.65. 0.25 points below Madison ; 3 points below the Colts and 4 points below Troopers. OK ; we are off and running ; and it's a marathon. For me : I very much liked the show. There are a lot of very interesting visual and musical concepts to this production. The corps to me seems very balanced ; no weak sections. Now if you analyze the sub captions (. I firmly believe that one day soon there will be a college course on analysis and interpretation of drum corps scoring. And no doubt that the DCP geeks love to obsess and micro analyze the numbers. But to keep it simple for a knucklehead guy like myself ; the Crossmen were in the game with Visual Analysis and Music, but there GE is a bit of a problem. They were 2 points behind the Colts and 2.5 points behind the Troopers in GE alone. Some may say ; well it's their first show and no doubt there were some 1st show performance issues and with some adjustments the numbers will approve. I partly agree with this; I think that this show has a lot of potential for meaningful growth.. But, one of the achilles heels IMHO with the Crossmen is their GE. ( 2019 the exception ). And what is GE ; well DCI has a definition which judging is predicating on, but to this Flo March / DCP geek ; GE can be defined as ; the ability of a corps to get you up out of your chair or seat and make you pump your chest and scream out : THERE THEY ARE : THAT's MY CORPS; .. the tear in the eye for an incredible emotional connection. What I see in the Crossmen is a corps that has you on the edge of your seat, but never gets you up pumping your chest. I am hopeful that subtle changes in design and more performances will change that. So where will the cops go from here : In my many many years of watching the activity and at times being obsessed with the numbers I find that show # 2 is very key and it helps to bring some clarity with regards to the season. Corps who see a jump in their score usually are on a better trajectory on finishing better than what some of the pundits say. No matter what : this is a very good Crossmen edition and there are a lot of folks out there cheering, rooting, an and standing up and pumping their chests for the performers. Best of luck tonight!!
  8. IDK ; better than their 2022 program ; but no where near the " ###### " coolness of 2019. Somehow the Crossmen have transitioned out of the pandemic much less hip and way less creative. I agree that the video that was provided falls considerably short with regards to an accurate assessment of the overall show quality so one can't be too critical of show design at this point, but if the best comments folks can give is : " they will be in the thick of things with regards to finals " that doesn't bode well in my opinion. The Crossmen play is way too safe;...its 2023 ; and the best that they can do is start off with a Beatle's hit ; I hope that I am wrong; hopefully it will not be a long and winding road from both a competitive and performance standpoint this summer. The sights, sounds, and memories from the Boeing parking lot in Ridley Park at alive and rooting for the 2023 Crossmen. It's almost showtime. Let's do Bones proud.
  9. Sorry to hear; Crossmen had a nice sound this year and at least at DCI prelims ; they came in 8 th place in brass. Its the Program Director who really needs to better coordinate with the design team on a program that better connects with the audience. The talent with regards to the performers is absolutely there; the overall show design not so. With the exception of 2012 and 2019, the Crossmen have not found a " winning formula " to produce " fan excitement " ; fan buzz" that other corps have been able to do. I am hopeful that the design team can really turn it around for next year and the years ahead. There are so so many Crossmen fans out there who want to feel the emotion and excitement of a drum corps that is near and dear to our hearts.
  10. Exactly as you state. ; its all about the number of returning Vets to the organization. From this list Crown had the highest number ; Crossmen had the lowest number. Crown came in 4 th and was in the thick of things with regards to a potential medal ; Crossmen came in 13 th and never really materialized as a competitive corps against the top 10. So now the conundrum ; does a next year age out for the 2023 season go back to his 11 th through 16 th place corps in an attempt to build on that success or does the performer move on to a top 6 corps. Or does the performer say ; hey DCI was great; loved the experience, but I have had enough and does not return to any organization the following year. It would be really nice to be able to track this data to see where performers go year after year. I think that it would help both a drum corps administration and staff to see what adjustments they need to make for future years. An administration may think ; well we provided good this , that ,etc, etc, and everything else so lets continue as we have done in the past; but if the numbers say : hey the food on tour was top notch , but your retention numbers are dismal; then the administration really need to reevaluate what they are providing to the marching members.The one thing that we do know it that the top 6 corps do not have any problem recruiting and the 11 th through 16 th place corps ; year after year are view as " well they look like a very young corp this year ". No doubt that staff makes a huge contribution in retention; nothing tells you this this better than the 2016 to 2017 staff changes with the Boston Crusaders. 12 th place finish to 6 th place. When I marched in Crossmen in the late 70's and early 80's this was not that unusual ; heck Crossmen was the leader back then in bouncing around. But in contemporary drum corps this just does not happen; just look at the Blue Stars or the Mandarins. Great organizations; terrific staffs, talented performers, but still not quite in the orbit for potential metal. This would never happen and it would make for some very angry folks and potentially back fire, but I would like to see some type of rule that if a corps member is lets say 19 or younger; he or she is required to stay in the same organization for lets say maybe 2 seasons. Once they turn 20 then they can move on. All professional sports ; ie MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL, has some attempt to achieve some parity ; ie : college draft; mid season trades; etc. Obviously this is never going to happen, but in this day and age for DCI ; performers are just as talented as many of these young sports professionals. But statistics don't lie ; 40 % of DCI championships have been won by the Blue Devils, 9 out of the 12 DCI finalists have been in the Saturday show since 2013. No doubt that retention plays some role ; maybe the status quo is a good thing ; but at least having meaningful discussion on the topic is also good for the organization.
  11. Sure ; 2016 # 12 2017 # 6 ; but that came with an incredible staff change that had already achieved significant greatness and DCI championships. But you are correct; anything is possible!
  12. I think that you may need to go back to your OUIJA board. 1. Troopers; had an amazing 2022 year. I love their tenacity and grit ; they connected with the DCI audience and were a well deserved 2022 finalist. But for them to come in 10th place next year, they would have to beat the Mandarins and stay ahead of the likes of the Colts, Crossmen, Blue Knights, and a much improved Madison ensemble. And who knows what the off year will bring to Music City, Academy, and the real unknown : Spirit. Thats a lot of competition coming after you. I would also say that its a good bet that the Crossmen and Blue Knights will fix their program design issues for 2023 and will be back in the Saturday night show. 2. Cadets ; another great season. They too were spectacular in 2022; but to advance to medal contention in 2023 with the likes of the current top 5 is a very tall order. These organizations are set up to be perennial top 3 corps. Personally; I would switch Vanguard for Cadets. 3. BAC; this one I would agree with you. An absolutely amazing 2022 is only going to get better in 2023.
  13. After moving to Texas and getting a solid foot in SA ; I thought that the Crossmen would be one of the next corps to move into the top 8; and then to the top 5. For many reasons this has not happened and after a very disappointing 2022 finish, it is unclear in what direction they will go in 2023.
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