Phirefenix

If anyone out there has a copy of the Division 2/3 finals dvd for 2007 I'd love to talk about buying it or otherwise getting a copy of the contents. I'll pay an honestly disgusting amount of money. I aged out that year and in the time I've moved since it's been lost. I have Div. 1, but I'd love to see my age out show again. Cheers

Teal Sound was started, and taught by a few Suncoast Alum for a while during the D3 days. Spiritually I felt the imprint from Suncoast was there. Florida does have an excellent pool of talent from which to pull, but I wouldn't call it a cursed state. People who have no business acumen usually end up at the helm of those corps. It's quite disappointing as they generally tend to have a unique image in the activity, and end up burning out quickly. Simply the wrong people in the wrong places. I hold hope that one day the right people come together to bring back an old corps, or start a new one on solid financials with a competent leadership. As corps from any state should hope to have.

Fun article, and thanks for the 2007 Spartans shout out. Had to go watch my age out year again.

I miss them all. However three I dearly miss: Suncoast Sound, Glassmen, Teal Sound

Without addressing the why of the switch, which has been discussed ad nauseum. (Resale value, easier education, etc...) I always felt a little more punch from G bugle lines. King/Kanstul horns always had a more open throated bell, and played pretty darkly in competent hands. There was nothing that prevented G bugles from being perfectly capable horns in the hands of a person willing to figure them out. My favorite hornline of all time remains Star of Indiana 1992, and they played on 2 valve kings from the 80's. Such a magnificently rich, dark, warm sound. Bugles were also designed for the express purpose of outdoor venues. They were very well suited then to the task of drum and bugle corps. Dynasty, and other G bugle manufacturers had a brighter tone to me, and I never really cared for them at all. However they were still capable of sounding great. Especially when manned by the Phantom Regiment. Bb horns are getting better since the switch, with larger bores, and subtle tweaks to the bells, etc. I still haven't found a moment where I felt that pressure in my chest from a G hornline opening up to 11, but I think it'll come again.

This. I want the Fan Network to be so good. I subscribed once, then dropped it. They've been slow to release new year's videos, and overall the experience is just not well tailored, nor curated. Side note: No one in our theater left during Devil's show, but no one clapped either. There just didn't seem to be any exciting moments to get in to. Which I gather is kind of the 'point' of the show if one could be made. The technical ability is still beyond reproach, but the programming is just not my cup of tea.

Still better than RAMD. (I'm not the first to say that right?) edit: Catherine, and Howdy mentioned. God my head hurts.

My back just cried out after reading this.

The rise of grassroots competitive circuits to encourage more Open Class start ups.

I've mentioned this before, but DCI shouldn't be taking on the infrastructure portion as heavily as they do. Amazon Web Services is a perfectly reasonable alternative. In conjunction with Adobe Media Server 5 you get well supported multiprotocol streams running on arguably the quickest hardware for the dollar. CloudFront from AWS makes this pretty streamlined as well. Costs could be competitive if not reduced, and maybe those savings pass to us the fans. The current provider for dci.thefannetwork.org looks to be okay. The prices are likely above AWS, and they offer a mix of bare metal and cloud hosting. I'd argue that for equal performance they'd pay less with Amazon. Reddit runs on AWS reasonably reliably, and the Fan Network is not going to draw anywhere near the same amount of traffic. The bottleneck is still the bandwidth available at the show site, which really is a roll of the dice. With the comfort of running on a stable, well proven platform DCI can switch gears to this problem. If they aren't already, stream via UDP rather than TCP, and implement DCCP for greater congestion management. UDP streams being stateless are much quicker in general compared to TCP which needs to handshake, and then assure packets arrive in order. DCCP will give UDP streaming greater reliability by introducing a streamlined handshake. However delivery order is not a part of that protocol. Workarounds exist. Partnerships with local news camera crews for smaller events may provide adequate dedicated bandwidth for quality streaming. Tom Blair and his crew can focus on large events, and provide great drum corps coverage. I think in short DCI needs to focus on managing the content they want to provide, not the infrastructure they need to provide it. There are so many options out there now that are cost effective, and provide a good experience for end users. This entire post hinges on them managing their own bare metal box though. I'd love to know more about the gears in the machine to see if they're already using a cloud solution. In which case I'm just talking out my ###. Drop me a line DCI.

Hit the HamFam for some grub, and you might see staff, and directors going over judges sheets.

I've put a hand out with one before. Ideally hitting a judge shouldn't happen, however when the situation is in your control it's better to help the guy out. You could both get hurt if you failed to take the time to avoid it with reasonable stealth. Usually a yell, or a hand out for them does the trick.

If BD wins, we huff and puff on the forum for a bit. Then most of us end up finding ways to like BD's production. The crowd has been ready for a new champion for a few years yet, however Crown has some time to prove if they're ready to be that champion. Devils may not be the champ DCP wants, but they're the champ DCP needs.

Excellent show. I think it would be good form for DCI to put this up for a few weeks for the fans. Or at least a greatest hits compilation of BAC's finer moments.

Thank you to the Glassmen BoD for making a smart decision. It's still a painful loss for this summer, however I look forward to enjoying many more in the future.

Spartans have performed for both Bush, and his father in inaugural parades along with several other inaugural appearances. The 2005 inauguration was quite cold, so I hope they dress warm. It's an incredible experience either way that they should cherish forever.

I did Freeport Maine in 05-06, and the Kennedy Center in 2010. I'll be at the Solomon's Maryland event on the 16th. I imagine I'd be the only one with a King K-90 as usual.

Girl, I wanna play you like one of Star's mello books.

The corps name would best benefit from a year off. I love Teal dearly, as they provided me with my first taste of drum corps. They simply will need to have a new board, a vastly revamped mission statement, charter, and bylaws, and more involvement from business minded board members. If they seek these things out, and approach a comeback from a bottom line mindset they have a chance. Teal clearly did not have the resources to operate as a charity. No drum corps does these days. That being said I have little faith at this point in a return to DCI next year, or the year after. Returning next year would simply be foolhardy. Especially with current board members involved. I would love to see them back, as Teal Sound, in the future. They need to be smart about it though.

Worst: Staying outside Pittsburgh in a very run down neighborhood. The school flooded in a rain storm, had bullet holes in windows, and a little girl walked up to us once asking why we were there. On replying that it was for a DCI show she paused for a second, and said very calmy "Oh, well people that come to this school get stabbed.". 24 hour police presence, and the cops loved pointing out crack houses nearby they raided. Best: Performing at the show that night, because all the neighbohood kids just showed up with buckets, and would drum along with members after the show. We left the lot a little later than usual that night so we could spend some time jamming out.

Loaded onto a bus for the airport after my age out. It was a wierd feeling to be doing something so mundane like dealing with airport security. I just spent a summer feeling like superman, maxing my last year out so I could finish saying I had nothing left. Then I stand in line. I ate breakfast to a new sunrise every morning knowing I'd never see this place again. Then I take off my shoes. I remember resetting the same set for three hours one day just to make it right. Then I take off my belt. I smiled recalling the laundry day spent buying the most ridiculous shirts mankind had ever created with my section. Then I step through a metal detector. I couldn't believe that my aching back, and worn out body could even get out of my sleeping bag for one more stretch block. Then I put my shoes and belt back on. I was in awe at the talent I competed against at I&E. Then I grab my bag. I also remember the feeling after prelims when I collapsed after the show overcome with grief that my last week in drum corps had begun. Then I walked to my gate. I can't replace the feeling I had when my staff slipped a gold medal around my neck, a champion. Then I board the plane. I remember leaning my head back, and truly relaxing for the first time since April, a lump in my throat, fighting tears. Then we took off. It was kinda like that.

Fantastic write up. I wish I had the time to take such a road trip myself.

You win DCP today. Mike Boo has been a voice for the activity for a very long time, and I always love reading what he has to write. DO I really have to consider him an expert in all fields of the drum corps experience/activity? No. I enjoy him all the same though.

Maybe having an EMT or two on the front sideline, as well as the back sideline with a staff member present would cut down on response times for incidents like this. I agree that stopping a performance is difficult, and can lead to more injuries in the long run due to the nature of snapping the corps out of that show mindset. Having EMT's, with a visual staff member who knows the drill should help mitigate this in the future. It is still dangerous for the injured member, EMT, and judges out there. If the judge indeed saw the kid, and moved on that's a poor choice for the judge. We're all out there together, and when I marched we at least tried to look out for the judges, and in most cases the judges look out for us too. When the tenor player at Magic ate it in 2002 the perc judge ran over to check on him, and only left at the behest of the performer. That's the correct response IMO. If the kid can either move themselves off the field without aide, or get back into the drill then the judge should just offer due diligence in checking on them. In situations such as this however a little more aide from the judge, and quicker response from staff. Truth is, being on one sideline they simply may not have noticed. It's not that hard. Though with all things like this the point is to learn from it, and make the activity safer. I hope the member is in good care, and finds his way back on the field soon. As a contra player myself falling was a very serious fear in the back of my mind. There just isn't a pretty way to do it.

Can't wait for this. Got a campsite with a few friends for the weekend.