usmcontra

We had the opposite problem. The school we stayed at in a small town south of Jackson was on the other side of the tracks and the staff couldn't use the press box because it was full of wasp nests. They had a brand new gym built next to the school, though, and the AC had to have been set at about 60. Talk about a shock to the system to go from that to outside or vice versa. I do believe it rained on Madison. Everything after that was delayed. They could only delay so much, though, because of the live broadcast. That was also the year they showed 7 corps instead of 6 because of a tie in the top 6.

2006 The Cavaliers 2005 The Cadets 2004 The Cavaliers 2003 Blue Devils 2001 The Cavaliers 2000 The Cavaliers 1999 Blue Devils 1999 Santa Clara Vanguard 1998 The Cadets 1997 Blue Devils 1996 Blue Devils 1996 Phantom Regiment 1995 The Cavaliers 1993 The Cadets 1992 The Cavaliers 1991 Star of Indiana 1990 The Cadets 1989 Santa Clara Vanguard 1988 Madison Scouts 1987 The Cadets 1986 Blue Devils 1985 The Cadets 1984 The Cadets 1983 The Cadets 1981 Santa Clara Vanguard 1980 Blue Devils 1979 Blue Devils 1978 Santa Clara 1977 Blue Devils 1976 Blue Devils 1974 Santa Clara Vanguard 1973 Santa Clara Vanguard 1972 Kingsmen What do all of these corps have in common? THEY WEREN'T UNDEFEATED You know what's funny? I remember watching a Cadets rehearsal in '93 and thinking how much more rigid it was than our rehearsals. The Cavies just have a more laid-back style. Too bad it doesn't seem to work...

Funny- this morning while I was shaving, I thought to myself, "I wonder how many times Phantom Regiment has consecutively beaten different corps."

As far as this being a recent thing, I can remember not having the drill show done in 1990 for the first contest in Wisconsin.

OK, you got me, BUT the scoring did change in '94 to add more subcaptions. More subcaptions= more diversity and more chance for the totals to be equal.

1994 was when they changed the scoring system to include division in the final tally.

I'd have to do some digging to find the exact year, but that was right around the time the scoring system changed and they started doing division as part of the computation of the final score. I'd say that had something to do with it.

I took part in this as a Cavalier AND it was my first drill performance with the Marines.

Yes.

I have to chime in and agree with wayyyy too much just standing still for playing difficult parts throughout DCI these days. On Friday night I watched the Crossmen mellophone line stop to play a nice lick, then the bari line stop to play a nice lick, all while being disguised as a "featured" section. The one thing I don't understand is continued discussion about the Cavaliers' lack of a horn book as though it's something new. With few exceptions, this has been the argument since Cavies came of age (in the DCI era) in the late 80s. Let me tell you about how many times I've heard about the number of whole notes the contra line played in 1990. I've said it in the past- each corps has something you expect from it, and a hornline is not something I expect from my boys. I think hornline and I think Blue Devils. I think visual and I think Cavaliers. As far as the visual show, you knoooow it has to change. I can go all the way back to '93 and how people were saying at the end of the summer what a completely different show we were marching than the visually disappointing show we had at the beginning of the season. For crying out loud, come back next week and the show will be different. And, as evidenced by '92, '95, and '96, the only thing that really matters in the grand scheme of things is those last three nights.

Yeah, I'll be there- with the same friend again to further indoctrinate her into the world that is drum corps. I wonder if Revolution is going to be there now since they don't have a Spurs game to play for tomorrow...

Yeah, sorry. What I do mean is good compared to the Crossmen of previous years AND compared to the top corps, if that makes sense. I remember the Crossmen drumline blowing me away back when I was marching and the hornline really being good in '92 especially, but the late 90s saw some weak Crossmen hornlines. And, of course, depending on which corps I am going to see, I expect different levels of performance in different areas. I don't expect the Crossmen to sound like the Blue Devils or look like the Cavaliers, just as I wouldn't expect Cavaliers to sound like the Blue Devils or the Blue Devils to look like the Cavaliers. With the expectations that I went in with, I was pleasantly surprised. Remember this, also- I went AND took someone to their first drum corps event, which I wouldn't have done with something I expected to be bad. I hope that Crossmen can thrive in Texas and continue to be a source of early drum corps entertainment for me for many years to come.

Just got back from seeing the Crossmen debut their show for the public. It was good to get my drum corps fix in for the evening! Each portion of the corps was featured with much talking in between by the director before they marched the show itself. They marched each movement with, again, more talking in between, then played the entire show straight through at a stand-still. I have to say- it wasn't bad for the Crossmen! The drumline was smokin' and back to what you expect from a Crossmen drumline. The hornline won't blow you out of the water, but pretty good for a Crossmen hornline. The guard was the weakest section. I couldn't figure out at times whether the rifles were freestyling, and a couple of flags looked like they may have just joined the corps. My friend, at her first drum corps event, enjoyed it overall but said the guard looked like "general chaos" at times. The show itself is pretty kickin'. Called Metamorphosis, it represents the changes the corps has gone through to get where they are today. Loosely based on Symphonic Metamorphosis, it includes some familiar snippets (more Birdland!). There was a short moment of cheese that went over well in Texas (you figure it out), but other than that some good stuff. The show starts with an actual color guard, so many DCP'ers should enjoy that! Wasn't high enough up to see much of the visual, but they look like they are doing some moving. The director said that they have over 200 sets in the show, including a Maltese Cross to end the first movement. They start off with three sides of a box on each goal line and the back sideline and spread out greatly through the 3rd movement, so there is some challenge there. I am looking forward to seeing them again next month in the Alamodome with my boys!

I've had quite a few, but I think the most notable was getting pulled over for speeding in Virginia and the cop noticing my Cavies license plate frame and Marine Drum and Bugle Corps sticker. Turns out he had marched Troopers. All the discussion we had didn't stop him from giving me a ticket, though.

Having done the same thing to my OWN house in my early 30s, I'd say it has little to do with age and hopefully is just a one-time mistake. Having no one else staying at my house, I had no one to get upset with but myself. I had never thought of the fact that a true burglar probably would have shut the door so there wasn't anything for me to be concerned about. I stand by m earlier post about giving someone else a key and having them keep tabs on your place. Now that I think about it, you could probably even call the police and ask them to keep an eye on your house for you with your current situation.

My only question to you is, when you say "WIDE OPEN" do you mean actually open or just unlocked? If the door was in fact WIDE OPEN, I probably would have called the police first to escort me into my house. The advice I would give you is to find a neighbor that is home during the day, give him or her a key, explain the situation, and ask him or her to keep an eye on the house for you. Of course, I would advise this whether you have kids staying over or not. That way you also have an extra key out there in case you lock yourself out.

Good ol' Jim is enjoying the retired life. He runs his own home improvement company. He used to give me a hard time that his three rings trumped my one. Then, when Cavies did, "My Kind of Town" I told him that the Cadets wanted to do the same kind of show but they had to figure out what town it was first. A lot of friendly ribbing went back and forth between the two of us over our many years of marching together.

"I know you are but what am I??" Jesus, people, grow up and get over it!

Umm, just one problem with that. The diameter is already 2xR, so it's 3.14 x diameter.

Welcome to the close-mindedness of some people on DCP. I don't know why I still bother to come on here. Sounds like "Senior" needs to grow up himself and take a chill pill. As for the Cavalier's corps song, it is indeed set to the Coast Guard song. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is also considered an unofficial corps song. What you normally hear the corps play is a medley of the two songs. And, no, I won't tell you what "splooie" means; I just won't get so bent out of shape about it.

Wow, love how people take something totally tongue in cheek and think you're being serious. Of course, if it was the Blue Devils, they'd form a piano and march it across the field.

I've said it before, but if you go by purely score differential from Thursday-Friday-Saturday, Cadets would have beaten us given one more night. On the other hand, the opposite would have happened in 1990. Again, I am going purely on scores, and this is completely hypothetical.

The DCI East Regional and Drum Corps East Championships were two totally different events. Each region had their own championships, usually at the midway point of the summer, with the corps from that region. Most corps stayed within their particular region for the first part of the summer, though occasionally a corps would visit another region for the first part of the summer. Whichever happened, corps stayed in one region for the first half of the summer. When I marched in 1990, we had the DCM Championships in Dekalb, which I believe Star won, and later the DCI Midwest Regional in Whitewater, which we won over Phantom and BD. In 1993, we went west and competed in DCW shows, but came back for the DCM Championships. I think it was Madison who one year went east, performed in DCE shows and actually took part in the DCE Championships. The second half of the summer was the cross-competition in DCI shows, to include Regionals. DCI Regionals pretty much have been regional in name only. They are big shows, but regional they certainly are not.

Actually, Phantom's original uniforms were red! Their colors are still officially black, white and RED.

I know that my very first show with the Cavies was at UW-Platteville with the crowd on a hill. That might be where the others are thinking of. There was a big P on the hill. When I was fairly new in the Marines, we went down to Colonial Williamsburg to do a performance along with the Silent Drill Platoon. We had gotten word that President Bush (the first) and Reba McEntire were both supposed to be there. They striped off a football field on a golf course for us. We were set up behind some hedges where we couldn't see the stands. The drum major kept looking at his watch and peeking around the hedges. Finally he gave us the speech, "Remember, it doesn't matter how many people we are performing for. We always give it the same intensity." He gave forward march, we came around the hedges and there was one guy sitting there. Some others wandered over as we marched and played. That was only one of the many unusual places we marched in the Marines. In Japan we marched on a beach with a partially submerged cargo ship right behind us. In Utah, we performed in a brand new stadium where the grass hadn't shown up yet, so we marched on sand there, too. The best had to be the regular performances we did on military flight lines where you had to be careful not to trip over the tie-downs for the airplanes.