Jeffreelancer

That's correct except Jason is marching tenors this season.

PC's show was one of my favorites of the night. I did not get back to the stands until after the div II/III corps, bit I did see all of the div I. PC's show is reminiscent of my era of junior corps (80's) and I really enjoyed it. The music was more like the 80's, but with todays precision both musically and visually. I would like to see more corps go in this direction since it seems so much more fan friendly. I believe they got the best crowd response behind BD and SCV. Esperanza's show did not grab me at all. Their brass seems a bit weak, but that may be due to the large number of brass they have added recenetly. Their performance was fine, but the show was not memorable. I saw the Cascades bith Friday and Saturday and I think their show has a lot of potential. I felt they should have been above Esperanza, but I can see how the scores went the way they did since Cascades are not as clean. I am sure they will make up ground quickly. Mandarins show is much cleaner then two weeks ago, but I think their brass will hold them back this year. I hope they surprise me and make semi's again. I am always rooting for my local corps. Blue Knight's had very impressive drill, but I could not get into the music. It reminded me a lot of the recent Blue Devils books with big hits, chopped of music and big chords, but an actual melody was hard to find. The music did not seem to go anywhere. The beginning, middle and end all sounded prety much the same. One thing that was relly cool is a swirl drill that starts with one guard member and then ends up with most of the corps involved. It was very fluid and reminded me of how schools of fish move. BD and SCV have improved greatly. There have been plenty of better reviews then what I can give so I will leave it at that. Thanks for the kind words about our show this year. It helps to know people are actually enjoying what we put on the field.

From what I understand we are told by DCIP when we can have our show. Since ours is one of the newer shows and we are not a DCI corps our show takes lower precedence over some of the other shows. Also, our show is technically a Div II/III show even though we have Div I corps in attendance (Mandarins and Pacific Crest). The shows over the 4th of July weekend are Div I shows. This year there are 7 Div I corps (3 top 12) at the 4th of July weekend shows. Eventually our show may become a Div I show, but we need to prove we can pull in the crowds for the show to be successful. Next years schedule will probably be different then normal since finals is in Pasadena. This could be a good or bad thing for a visiting DCA corps since there may be more shows, but the shows will also be more crowded since the corps are converging in Pasadena. Most of the California shows usually have 10-15 corps performing at a show now. If a DCA corps was going to come west arrangements would probably need to start pretty early since everything is governed by DCIP and I believe the three west coast corps are affiliated with DCIP. I don't know if there would be a problem with a non-affiliated corps performing at already crowded shows.

It's not a scientific fact, but you can usually drop the Div II/III scores by about 10-15 points to be comparable to an equivalent Div I score.

This is just getting Dream ready for coming to the Sacramento show. B)

I worked in the industry for nine years so I will give my opinion for what it's worth. Of the big carriers Delta is probably the best. United and American are not very helpful and they cater to their frequent flyers more than other carriers. My favorite was America West, but since they were bought out by US Airways I do not know what their service is like. I always liked Southwest because of their laid back attitude and they have the best on-time performance of any carrier. Here is the main reason why their on-time performance is so good in case you want to know. If not skip to the next paragraph. Southwest uses the same type of aircraft so all of their flight personel can operate on any flight. They always have a large number of flights out of any city they are in. They actually have a minimum number of projected flights that have to be met before they will even go into a city. Because of the high frequency whenever they have a plane go mechanical they pull it out of the rotation and replace it with a flight leaving a little later. They keep juggling the aircraft until the mechanical one is back in service. This way the passenger does not feel any impact from a cancelled flight. As far as airports goes the obvious ones have already been suggested - LAX, BUR and ONT. Since you don't seem to mind driving you may consider others that are not in the immediate area. You may be able to find better deals going to one of these airports. For most people these would be out of the question, but again if you don't mind driving it may be worth it to look into the price difference. Be sure to take into accout the gas prices in California. San Jose (SJC) 345 miles San Diego (SAN) 130 miles Las Vegas (LAS) 257 miles

I agree that something sounds a bit off towards the end of the song. It sounds like it's a combination of tuning and a slight tear. This may be because of the staging of the battery across the filed since they synch up again when the battery is behind the brass. They'll fx it. B) I think they sound very good and the music this year is a better fit for their size. I look forward to seeing them. ^OO^

I won a three month subscription to the DCI Season Pass from the weekly email/newsletter. B)

I am not an official spokesman for RCR, but I can tell you what little I know about both LMS performances. This is only what I have heard so it could all be completely wrong. LMS 7 - From what I understand the decision to not attend was made by the entire staff back in the fall (I do not know the reasons behind the decision). RCR never gave any indication we would be attending LMS and from what I have heard we were never actually invited by the Renegades. I would understand the assumption we would attend if we had done it every year, but we did not attend last year so I would think we would be invited if they wanted us there. If the last two statements are true then I don't see how we could have "pulled out" of the event at the last minute since we were never officially part of the event. LMS LA – This is probably a timing and cost issue. Our schedule was given out at open house and the staff promised minimal if any changes would be made. This was before LMS LA was announced. The cost part is due to the fact that we will be leaving for our So Cal tour on Friday afternoon and returning after the show on Sunday. This is to minimize the cost of the bus and limit the nights in a hotel to two. If we attended LMS-LA we would at the least have to leave Friday morning and more likely Thursday night. We would incur additional expense for the longer time needed for the bus and possibly an additional night at the hotel. Also, the corps members would be required to take Friday off from work which could lead to members not being able to go on tour at all. This would impact the two shows in LA and we cannot afford to have any members missing if we can avoid it. Whatever the reasons are for RCR not attending these events I don’t understand why the corps (and members) are being attacked for the decision. I do not recall any RCR members outright attacking the Renegades or opening threads that specifically target them (like Rich’s RCR marketing thread). RCR has always supported the west coast senior corps, but we also have to look after ourselves and make sure we are not commiting to anything that is beyond our resources. One question I do have – LMS 5 had five corps (Renegades, RCR, Blue Devils B, Blue Devils C and Fever.) Now there is only one corps (Renegades). Why? Good luck to everyone involved in both these events. B)

We have three regular locations for camps. CSUS (Sac State) VAPAC School River City High School Most like the camp on the 23rd will be held at River City High School since we will be doing drill. The location will be posted as soon as the director knows for sure. We also rehearse every other Thursday and that is almost always at CSUS. Are you looking to join or just come to watch (we can always use an audience) :) ?. We still have spots open in the horn line if your interested and we have some brand new sops that have never been played. B) Hope to see you there.

Sacramento Freelancers - Chattanooga Choo Choo

I know they have borrowed the Freelancers uniforms at some point, but in 1985 we were using the color changing uniforms so we would have had to pull the old uniforms out of storage for Boston to be able to use. I doubt they would have done that for one show, but they may have if it was for the entire season. If the pictures are from any year other then 1985 then it is quite possible they were loaned from Sac.

We usually practice every other Thursday, but the schedule worked out to have two rehearsals in a row (3/30 and 4/6) so come on out if your in town. Here is a link to our rehearsal site.

RCR is playing on all new G Dynasty horns except our contras are Bb. It was going to take an extra six months for Dynasty to make the G contras and we probably would not have had them for last season. We have no plans to go Bb...ever.

When we went to parade rest at finals you could see the look on the VK's brass and they were probably wondering how we could treat our horns like that. Freelancers probably had one of the largest brass repair bills of any corps.

Even though Jester has been around for 5 years I would still consider them a startup corps. Many people will look at corps like Star of Indiana, Renegades and The Academy as an example of successful startup corps, but I believe they are the exception with how quickly they became successful. A good example of this is SoCal Dream, RCR, Northwest Venture and Del Sol compared to Renegades. Renegades may have much better recruiting and marketing or they may have just started at the right time (I think its a combination of all three). I think SoCal Dream and RCR are finally picking up steam this season, but it took us at least five years to get here and I think Jester is in the same situation. Best of luck to Jester and hopefully they will be able to find ways to reduce the cost so they have any easier time recruiting.

Yes, but Carolina Crown probably will not be travelling as many miles as Jester (are they going to finals?). The tour fees do seem high for a Div III corps, but the following is also on the website in the membership section. Tour and Performance Fee $1650.0 SAVE $800 if paid in full on or before February 20, 2006 (49%savings)** SAVE $600.00 if paid in full on or before March 20, 2006 (37% savings)** SAVE $400.00 if paid in full on or before April 20, 2006 (26% savings)** SAVE $200.00 if paid in full on or before May 20, 2006 (12% savings)**

I think he is still working on last years closer so thats about right. :P

Because he likes us more. I bet Glenn is just saying we can't have the opener so he has time to memorize it and show up the rest of the line when we do get it.

See Glenn, it would be so easy just to call George and see if he'll let us have the opener instead of fending off half the hornline. At least then you would have something to play in my ear that I haven't heard for the last year (I know you can already since YOU have the music Mr. high-and-mighty).

I'll take back what I said if you send me a copy of the opener. I won't tell anyone.

Why? Are you going to be playing a solo? ^0^

You can adjust the amount of topics or posts visible on a page to a maximum of 40 (I think the default is 10) by changing the board settings in your control panel. I click the View New Posts at the top of page each time I am on the board so it does not really matter to me where the topic is since it displays from all forums. If you visit the boards often then you will only have a couple of pages of posts, but it would probably be unmanageable if you are on the boards less then once a day. Also, you may find an interesting post that you would miss otherwise.

I thought it was punishment enough playing next to you.

Richie is still instructing at Oakmont High School in Roseville, but he is not involved with any drum corps that I know of. He usually volunteers to help at our homeshow (Westcoast Showdown). John was on staff with RCR the last two years. He and Paul are on staff with the Chicago Royalairs.