John H

CorpVets are cool. We were standing around on the street lined up to go in for retreat, having a good time talking to them. then Empire lined up, and they were cool too. Didn't catch his name, but one guy from Canada was hoping for a short retreat like some others they'd been in. granted! short retreats are good. 20 hour bus rides that are supposed to be 16 aren't.

something like that, yeah. we have 50 spots and 50 people in the hornline same as last year, but several folks had conflicts this weekend. (getting married? going to Ireland? c'mon, don't you want to go to Ohio instead?) I think 42 in the opening set? The latest and greatest who committed a week or so ago to make us 50 did the first half and then helped finish up the last part of the closer.

oh GOD I love comparing numbers seven states and a thousand miles away, and slates, and judging criteria, and . . .and ordinals, and . . . and . . . as if anybody thinks it means anything until Labor Day. Have fun and play loud, people, that's what we're here for! The rest of it is just useless trivia! I feel better now B)

We are judged on DCA sheets in all of our shows this year. Our hunch is that the reason(at least for us in MN and WI) all the all-age corps go on first is so the judges can use one set of sheets, then switch to the DCI sheets for the rest of the corps, instead of trying to switch back and forth during a show. And you are completely right, our numbers are sure fun to look at right now! But we've been dealing with the 'numbers' question for a looooong time. As our caption head says: arbitrary, arbitrary, arbitrary. We've gotten some real quality judging feedback, but the number is just floating out there in space. Can't wait for Salem!

I'm feelin queasy now . . . . .

I love smores. mmmhhmmmhhmmhhh, marshmellowy you know if you eat smores regularly, it helps you play louder? s'true, I saw it on the internet!

I'm sorry, Sunnyvale? what? I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about. oh, OH! yes, Sunnyvale. I think someone mentioned something about that. Sounds like a lovely place. Wasn't there a drum corps show there recently? I bet it was good.

psssst . . . . . midwest is best. ^0^ can't wait to see Renegades again, can't wait to see Kilties in Finals, can't wait to see CorpVets in Ohio! drum corps is good

OUTSTANDING!!

countermotion is the answer, man. 2005 Metheny show, First Circle was about 4, 4 1/2 minutes, cranking tempo all night at Finals; love that adrenaline! Several different countermotion moves at the end. crossing ranks, and then spinning, morphing square/circle/triangle thingy.

the same one, or a different one in each state?

I understand they are really new, almost one-off still at this point. shank is perfect for the F mells. We were looking at the Wick 2 also, but liked the articulation and ease on the Hammond better. from talking with the factory guy who brought it around, they started by outfitting one of the high-level jrs last summer, and now they'll be moving all their brass to his pieces. **this is second-hand info and may be wrong. I do not represent or speak for any jr corps or for Karl Hammond in any way. I'm just really happy we've got new mpcs that will help our section perform better***

http://www.karlhammonddesign.com has an excellent new mell mpc, played it last week. Really obviously better tone from low to high on our horns, and clearer, 'easier' articulation than any 6 I've ever played. I like it a lot. I understand some other jr corps are starting to use them.

Minnesota Brass will be there too. doing this DCA show instead of that DCI regional thing. Looking forward to it very much! ^OO^

what he said ^OO^

FALSE three of our members of Minne-Brass that year could be considered professional musicians. Roger Grupp you all know, retired from the City of Saint Paul, and playing and arranging like crazy these days Andy has arranged and written drill for us for a number of years, and wanted to play, he's done solos at I&E before Ray was on our brass staff at the time, before finishing his advanced degree and getting a university job. the rest of us are just folks; I think we had one(two?) other band directors and the rest of us have careers outside music and play in Brass and Minne-Brass cause we love to play. Playing on the turf in Scranton was a major highlight. good arrangements and LOTS of pratice gets you good results. for whatever it's worth to anyone . . . back to your regularly scheduled programming

and with the Colts a few hours away too . . . Our bari section leader marched with the Colts back a few years, and he didn't turn out too bad. :P

interesting question that we occassionally talk about ourselves. I think the Blue Stars organization and expansion in recent years shows that quality will always attract, no matter where you are. it depends who your target membership is. Now that the Blue Stars give all indications of being a powerhouse in the making, the question seems a bit moot. they really are very close to the twin cites. good question would be, can this population base support another corps in addition? drum corps in this part of the country is very strong these days: MBI, Chops and Govies both at the top of DCA class A, Kilties happily making steady progress in design and performance(Finals 2007! Count on it!), Blue Stars wowing the world last season, with the some GREAT people on staff, Scouts looking very interesting this year. looking forward to the summer! more corps=good

that's hot

Empire Brass oh wait, someone else already uses that one . . . . :P

. . . . . said the Class A CHAMPION and coolest small corps in the world, and very happy to stay that way. :)

that could be an advantage, not having to travel so much right now to get to so many DCA shows? smaller, newer corps, don't have the structure or skills in place to run a corps and a full-out show right away. heck, MBI has been going to Finals on Labor Day for a couple decades now, and until recently we were just an oddity, I'm sure. Our time and attention has always been local in MN, with DCM and now DCI; there are enough local shows for the calendar we want to fill, and the DCA-C shows last summer were super-cool. competition in August! How cool is that? Previously we're usually winding it down, and then just going east for one last fling at the show. the part about fewer required sanctioned shows can be a good thing for a few years, I think, if the regions do develop. the voting number thing does bother me. regions have to continue to develop organizationally; I think that's how DCA can manage far-flung groups and still remain stable. I don't know, my head hurts now . . . .

hmmmmm . . . number of voting members is where the nut is cracked, then? for us marching scmucks out in the rest of the world, the travel always seems like such a monstrous hurdle. Couldn't imagine how those southern folks managed to go up the coast so many times. I'm not into the political stuff too much. seems like with this layout, making Finals is the most important thing then, since you can do fewer sanctioned shows and still be elligble to vote. is that it? What if the regions do continue to get stronger? particularly the south, since that's where alot of the new groups are. If the Kilties tweak a few things and make Finals? You know that's coming. If MCL or Frontier draw numbers like CorpsVets have done recently and start popping up too? what happens in future meetings about the voting numbers, when there simply are more travelers than NE-ers in the whole organization?

I seem to recall last year? two years ago? DCA had a membership requirement of 2 DCA Sanctioned shows other than Finals night, then we all started squacking because it changed to 4 shows last year. or something like that? Am I clear on this? Now, the membership requirement is down to 1 DCA sanctioned show, at least as far as I can tell, since I'm only really skimming here, and we're squacking about that because it will somehow harm drum corps. did it go from 4 to 1? and did someone post that the requirements to be considered 'sanctioned' were ease in some way? isn't the point of that obvious? each member of each region is now supposed to work within the region to put on your own sanctioned regional show or shows, in order to cut down the travel time and budget needed to make 4 shows somwhere, anywhere. Carolina Gold made some tough choices last season. CorpsVets, haven't you piled up the miles? That way, for all of us outside the NE, we can keep our house in order without having to travel all over creation to be a part of DCA. just half-way. if the regions manage their own shows, and the hurdles to reach "DCA sanctioned show" status are reasonable, then we are, in fact, promoting regional drum corps! now we just need to build the regions over the next couple years with good corps, good competition, good planning, continue to earn Finalist spots on Labor Day, and DCA-NE region will become a reality, because the competition, not just the corps, will be spread around the country. That business about reducing the total number of voting members is bothersome to me; maybe a concession to the long-established eastern big boys in exchange for giving other regions room to grow within DCA? Still, it does seem we have moved the ball down the field a bit this winter. Maybe that voting setup will be expanded again in future years, as far-flung corps, and regions, develop into more mature organizations, and the obvious-ness of it becomes too much to bear. or, I may be all wet. by the way, I have not one single CLUE how my corps voted, or what positions they advocated this weekend, so you can slam me and me alone if I'm nuts. I can take it.

now that's funny, I don't care who ya are. $1 to that fat redneck on Comedy Central. I can say that cause I am one. ask anybody. Hey Kurt, thanks for the kind words, o tall one. I know what you mean; last two Easter gigs I did, the choir director looked shell-shocked when I laid into the solo fanfare intro on the Recessional piece. I LOVE that! Hey, I wasn't overplaying anyone else, I was just filling up the room! B) Open House in 3 days! WOHOOO!