mophilda

I don't think anything choreographed is a sport. Those people can be athletes. But I don't think they are playing a sport. I think a sport is something where you learn skills and have to choose which one to use and the actions of the other teams impact your next course of action. Learning drill is not like learning plays. No one else on the field is intentionally trying to make me change my course. That is sort of the sum of all field sports: Get Guy With Ball/puck/whatever. We all marched with some knuckle heads that may have unintentionally made you change course.. lol Nothing the Glassmen ever did in their show impacted mine. [random corps choice. No significance] And unless something went quite wrong, no on-the-spot decisions happened. So I'd call drum corps athletic-but not a sport.

It sounds visually interesting but like an ensemble timing challenge for the pit.

I think the ideas for the GE Visual caption are fantastic. These people are all visual artists. And without them being born and raised in DCI they could bring some fresh perspective to what people do visually. It could be delightful. :-D I am reluctant to the idea of non-musicians judging music captions. Even if that caption is about the generally effective nature of the music. I have a degree in music ed. I did a lot of theatre in high school and college. Even though I am involved in the arts and theatre is not unfamiliar to me, I don't feel that I would have much to say educationally to theatre performers about how to improve their work. Ideally, the judges are not commenting just on what has moved or not moved them, but how to increase effectiveness of the shows. I feel like-in the music caption-that requires a strong musical background.

2002 was Spirit's first return to finals in an eon. I wouldn't have guessed we'd beat Crown to the top. I wouldn't have guessed that a corps that I used to watch from the sidelines because they went right before or after me would be in any conversation for the championship either. I do agree that Crown's step-by-step rise is a perfect example of hard work paying off. DCI does reward achievement. You aren't simply slotted and left to die. You can bust out of your bubble. Crown did it. Magic sure did have a lot of momentum in 02. I was surprised to see them collapse so soon there after.

I don't advocate dissolving corps. But I totally see your point in that high school marching band is filling the roll of the neighborhood drum corps of the past. What is more neighborhood than kids at the same school? I mean, they're districted that way on purpose...;D Additionally, I don't think DCI is becoming band so much as bands are becoming more corps-like. I mean, they call them "corps style" because they are more like drum corps than they are the traditional marching bands of the past. DCI is still the standard for cleanliness and precision. I'd rather be known for that instead of unskilled attributes such as instrumentation. Sure, bands introduced all these loathsome instruments to the football field, but that's just because they didn't have to get rules changed to do it. I'm sure that drum corps would have too if there wasn't so much red tape. I know we get our collective knickers in a bunch when we talk about drum corps being *gasp* BAND. I see an instrumentation difference. Typically there are differences in skill, design, and performance maturity- but to say that is always the case is unfair to some outstanding marching bands that I have seen. Some of them take the field with incredibly well designed shows and very mature performances. Also, we have all seen drum corps take the field that do not meet the standard of cleanliness and precision for which DCI is [generally] known. I understand that there is a lot of history, loyalty, and fraternal comradeship that happens in drum corps that doesn't typically happen in your high school marching bands. But if our argument is for life skills like dedication, responsibility, determination, and hard work. Those CAN be obtained through a strong marching band program. I think there are a lot of thing I gained from drum corps that I could not have found anywhere else. I can't quite put my finger on it. All I know is that even at 15 I knew I didn't want to go on without it. Whatever "THAT" may be what sets drum corps apart from band. It isn't the other stuff. We don't have a monopoly on dedication. But we do have a monopoly on "THAT." [edited for double word..I should proof read.. :-D]

I agree! Let's hype the baby blue team! Keep pushing! They are rewarding your achievement. Keep it up!

Having seen all of these shows live but admittedly possessing a hardcore bias since I was a member all of the years that Spirit is listed here- I still voted with Spirit 03. Semi-finals 2003 was the best drum corps moment of my career. Finals was just icing on the cake. It warms my heart to read that others got something out of that.

My high school drum major marched Spirit. My mom liked him and said OK. My folks recently confessed that they expected me to get cut. They didn't really want me to march, but said "ok" because they didn't think me actually marching would happen. That someone else would be the bad guy. Egg on their face, eah? To their credit, they did let me march when I made it. I never planned to go any place else but I didn't plan to go in for life. I didn't really know a lot about the activity. I was a 15 year old bando. My mindset going into auditions was "I like band. This is like band all summer! How cool is that?!?!" That first summer was so miserable, impressive, scaring, life-changing, and manipulating that I had to do it again. Just to prove that I could. In the tunnel going on the field at semi finals in 01 Mark Hoskins said to me "I can't believe you made it. Like, really. I don't know how you made it but you did and I'm proud of you." I think I was too dumb to know when to quit. My second year (02) was when I fell in love. I was in it for life at that point. My husband jokingly refers to Spirit as my "first husband" and that he "knows where he stands on the totem pole" Really, that is pretty accurate. :-D Especially between May and August.

The Crossmen/Spirit relationship is a long one. During my time with Spirit my favorite corps-love memories involved the Crossmen. 1)When we played our corps songs for eachother in a circle it was cool. When we learned each others music and played in a combined arc together it was EVEN cooler. This activity is all about passion. When you're in a staggered arc with a Crossmen on either side of you and you can feel when they're putting into Russian Christmas Music from a 6 inch distance it is pretty intense. It practically travels from elbow to elbow down the arc. It was unforgettable. 2)When Crossmen didn't make finals in 07 we made a cross on the field in our retreat block. We borrowed a hat and a banner from the Crossmen to put in the center of it. Though goofing off in retreat block were some of my favorite memories from every year, I wanted to stand in the center of that cross. I was marching in 04 when the Crossmen put a delta on the field for us. It was special and important to me. At the end of retreat I rolled up the banner and hat and returned it to an age out who was dangling over the railing at the side of the stadium. I'll never forget the hug I got. I told him that I'd been on the line when they did this for us. I knew just where his loss of words was coming from. I didn't have words either when I saw that delta start to take shape on the field. I just cried. 3) In 08, after I aged out Spirit and Crossmen arced it up and played for each other on a dark track after a show. My first time really listening to Georgia as an alum and I got to hear Crossmen too that night. I was beside myself. Sometimes we talk a lot about what is different from when we marched, but this is the type of stuff that doesn't really change at all. I think that is a really good thing.

When I marched drum corps I had ridiculously high arches. I had to wear inserts and well supported shoes. I would have said back then that vibram-esque shoes were a terrible idea. Since aging out my drum corps replacement has been Brazilian jiu-jitsu. After 2 years of playing bare foot sports my arches are more normal but the supporting muscles are stronger. In fact, my chicken ankles that I sprained at least 3 times a season when I was marching drum corps have only been sprained twice in since I aged out (2007). Vibrams, Minimus, and Chuck Taylors are all CrossFit footwear fads. If you CrossFit you know avid supporters of all different kinds of minamilist footwear. I wear low top chuck taylors when I work out because it puts my feet as close to the floor as you can get for under $100 (mine were $9 at Target!). Since starting to work out without cross trainers I don't have the foot cramping that I used to get when doing CrossFit work outs that included heavy weights and olympic lifts. Probably because my foot is able to do the adjustments that it needs to do naturally without fighting with 2 inches of rubberized padding between it and the ground. I attribute the strengthing of my ankles and feet to working out barefoot (BJJ) and in barefoot-esque shoes. Despite how positively I feel about the minimalist footwear craze, I don't think they're the best for drum corps. Vibrams are made to assist in a mid-foot strike when you run. That is not how most corps march. Unless the marching style changes, wearing vibrams is like changing your tire with a can opener. Wrong tool for the job. Also, I remember spending a lot of time on blacktops and turf when I was marching. Temps on black top and turf get QUITE high at ground level. I cherished the 2 inches of rubberized padding between me and the 130 degree rubber pellets on that turf. One of the funnier memories I have is during a late everydays shako and shoes run through during the mid-day visual block. One of the guys on the baritone line had his show shoes melt on the field. The glue holding the upper to the sole melted and his shoe fell apart from the heat. His reaction was priceless. In college marching band one of the guys did the final run through barefoot and ended up with 2nd degree burns from the rubber pellets on the bottoms of his feet. That was 1 ten minute run through that produced those burns. I don't want to be anywhere close to "barefoot" on 100+ degree anything.

Outside of my tour and travel fees (which are pretty much non-negotiable) I spent less than 300 a summer in walmart runs, free days, and other stuff. Drum corps is expensive. I don't know how much free time you guys had, but I didn't have enough to spend a ton of money.

I'd be down! Sign me up! I would love love LOVE to play a Glory Years show. It would be a dream come true!

I graduated the year after I aged out and applied for a job opening at a school in GA. I found out later that one of the high schoolers that was on the hornline with me was still a student at that school. If I got the job (which I didn't) i would have been his teacher?! That would have been terrible! How do you disclose that information to the principal? "Um... Timmy may or may not have seen my bare bottom, definitely in my undies, and has heard me use more profanity than a Showtime series on TV." Talk about a liability! What if they have pictures of you from tour. I am sure somewhere someone has pictures of my bare backside. I know I have a few of some others. Even if you're not doing anything inappropriate. My daily attire was not something I would want my students to see. I was never wearing a shirt, shorts always "diapered." And they would be his personal property. Not to mention the "this one time on tour...." stories that, given my position at the school, would certainly include me. Nightmare! Even being barely removed from them is bad enough. Right after my fall student teaching one of the girls in the band auditioned for Spirit. She heard plenty of stories about me from my age out the year before and brought them back to school. I was SO thankful I dodged that bullet.

Maybe if they concealed the amps in those swanky rocks with the built in speakers and created a garden scene in the pit it would be less intrusive to the mood of the show and we could all enjoy it. Out of sight, out of mind. :-D

DCI has to have a firm day or you may not know when you actually age out. Any birthdays between August 5th and August 17th would be a big question mark. There is no way to have a cut off date without having someone "cut off." How terrible would that be to have aged out last year when you thought you had one more season of eligibility... Mega bummer! I needed an expiration date to my drum corps career. I needed someone to say "Ok, that's enough" It would have been very hard to simply decide "This will be my last year." There is a distinction between aging out and just stopping marching. We qualify in the way we talk about our corpsmates. EX: "Nick, he was an age out on the sop line my first year." You don't say "David aged himself out my first year" You say "David was on the line in 01" They were members. They are now alumni. But you never call them age outs. You may say years later after their period of eligibility passed. "David was on the line in 01. He would have been an 04 age out but he didn't march after 01" Being an age out was far more important to me than when I was a senior in high school or college. Aging out was the end of a long journey. I was finally finishing what I started. Having an open ended age limit means that it is probably going to be something negative that ends your DC career. Lack of money, time constraints, etc. This way most of us leave with a positive feeling about the way we went out. I don't see a whole lot of a difference between the 21 year olds that are already on the lines with 14-15 year olds and 24 or 25. If anything, those extra few years of maturity might offer some innocence-saving discretion. I know as a 21 year old age out I probably scandalized some of the younger members on the line. I was very...er....comfortable... I would not do those things around kids now at 25.