John H

Having played at the Dock twice on Thursday, with Minne-Brass and with MBI, the idea of doing a mini corps contest there troubles me. Minne-Brass fit on the stage with a certain amount of room left over, so it's conceivable that VERY limited drill could be accommodated. Okay, we tweak the gig expectations so the mini corps don't do a bunch of movement. More notes, louder music, cool. From the performers perspective, no sweat. The far bigger problem with doing mini corps at the Dock stage would be that the area available around the stage isn't even NEARLY big enough to accommodate the size of the crowd that shows up normally to watch the mini corps. I'm thinking about the size of the crowd that was there watching Thursday night, the various trees and obstructions that blocked off A LOT of views in that area, and comparing it to the size of the crowd at the contest Friday night. I don't see any way that that number of people can jam into the stage area and have anything like a satisfying listening or viewing spectator experience. I'm sorry to dump cold water here, but I truly don't see the Dock stage as a satisfactory performance space for the kind of crowd that typically wants to be there for mini corps. Perhaps if the parking area right next to it were cleared out and THAT space was set up? I could see that maybe working. Put up a stage on one side, and bring in a bunch of chairs?

It was me.

aw no way man, Bucs are cool.

oh jeez Scott, you're cracking me up! gonna be laughing all day! HIGHFIIIVE!

Well, they're nothing like "camp weekends" in the sense that other corps do. Particularly the last several years with our winter drumline and colorguard, we don't do any corps "camp weekends" until May. Last few years the winter "camps" have been simply hornline sectional time once a month on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon for 4 or 5 hours. The spinners and drummers in the corps that are not in the winter programs don't have weekend commitments until May. This year, we did take our Saturday afternoon time in March and learn Intro drill with horns and drums, since it's pretty physical. And freakin' sweet. Yes, we do weekly rehearsals Wednesday nights from January thru August, which is possibly unique in drum corps?

Minnesota Brass has both a winter guard and a winter drumline. These are separate selection and separate membership from the full summer corps roster, although there is overlap for sure. This past weekend Feb 18-19 both groups performed in WGI regionals. The MBI Winter Guard won first place in Independent Open at the Kansas City regional, and the Minnesota Brass Indoor Drumline won first place in Independent Open at the Indianapolis regional. Winter Guard Facebook Indoor Drumline Facebook We are very proud of these groups!

tl;dr I mean, really.

fixed it for ya, Curt.

We come from the land of the ice and snow, From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow. The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands, To fight the horde, singing and crying: VALHALLA, I AM COMING!

maybe rope in a couple more to reach 60. that'd be cool.

very happy to say we heard this evening from Yui that she and Ikumi, both of whom played with us in 2009, are fine. they live down closer to Osaka, so they are several hundred miles away from the epicenter. would not expect major widespread damage that far away apparently, even with an 8.9.

running my eye across that quickly, I read: 'a trombone is a cynical instrument. bugles are comical!' I swear I'm not kidding. back to . . whatever you were doing

BWWWAAAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!! brilliant, brassEXPERT, brilliant!! that is phenominal, one even might say artistic, trolling! you nailed it all; the snarky tone, the illogical vaguely coherent thought, the claim of inner-circle secret info, the classic "i'm smarter than you" wrap-up at the end, the hidden brand new profile info. SPOT ON in every detail. i salute you sir, for your virtuosic parody of trolling wizardry ! ! ! edit to add another because you made my day, brassEXPERT. i'll be laughing for hours!

there's the party area, the stage and the seating for the audience . . .and a big open floorspace over on the other side where nobody goes. what about using that space? I've wondered about that big un-used floorspace every year. how bout move the stage and seating over a bit into the (now) dead space so it's not 'centered' on the room? line up the edge of the stage on the doors going out to the loading dock, or something like that? (I'm sure there's some kind of access regulations involved for fire safety) that's 15-20 yards or so distance. put open floor space between the party area and audience seating. the party area stays where it is, but maybe 'contain' it some way? rope it so it doesn't spread all the way to the seating? curtain walls? people can shoot the breeze together w/out being right on top of audience. would love to keep it a free and easy party atmosphere . . and still give the serious audience a workable environment . . .