Weaklefthand4ever

I remember all too well putting that black ribbon on my uni. I still have it in fact along with my star from that year. And yeah...retreat was kinda brutally long LOL. Then we went out to the lot and played for Renegades if I remember correctly.

Cats?!?!?

My last year in DCI was 1990. The only reason why I came back was because I happened to run into something about DCA in 2004 and suddenly I was back in the fold for the 2005 season. CV was a great experience for me to come back to. Now at 48, I'm too old to march (my back just won't take strapping on the pigs anymore.) Britt actually asked me yesterday on the way back from work how I was going to stay involved this summer. The last 9 years have been spent building up my wood shop and filling orders for customers. I probably can't hold down a food truck, but I bet I can hold down that chair at the souvie booth!

I can absolutely understand that. I think a few of the things that I've done to keep myself excited about DCI and DCA is that I: 1. Limit the number of shows I go to 2. Don't follow the scores at ALL until just before Prelims. I watch the corps but I just don't care about the scores. 3. Introduce new people to drum corps. I don't have kids. But I've gotten my girlfriend involved and she LOVES drum corps. I think it's natural that if you marched and then had kids that marched (plus the volunteer work,) you just get burned out on it. I'm going to try to do some volunteer work this summer with a corps. It's been almost 9 years since I was anything but a fan.

It was always a pleasure to perform for us in the band. Though I will say it's a huge machine to move around. Definitely different than my drum corps experience. Although I still have to say that Legion Field was AWFUL to march in when we had to go there for college or for DCI South.

What I've learned most from this forum since (I think) 2004 is that I don't know nearly as much as I thought I did about Drum Corps. There's a ton of knowledge on this board. I'm not going to take a part in ageism by any means. Everyone has something we can learn from and find common ground with if we want to. I want Phantom to be relevant again as well but one thing I noticed last year that is different from my perspective. I don't EXPECT a 12th place to 3rd place jump. I want to see gains in design, better use of props (not for PR to suddenly become BD level at prop usage,) and tastier music that I can recognize and groove a little to. But I will NOT....WILL NOT jump on the "burn it all down and sacrifice caption_head/ Designer_X to the drum corps gods" band wagon. That #### got old last year and did NOTHING to help. On the subject of website design, yes it needs a face lift. So does my website. Luckily only people with a crap ton of disposable income want to look at mine so that limits the eyeballs to an older crowd who don't care much about web design. So my suggestion would be that if you have fresh ideas and if you're more in tune then reach out to PR or whomever and give your suggestions. Hell, maybe volunteer some time. I learned something a LONG time ago. I can have a great idea...really great. But that doesn't mean that it can be implemented. Sometimes there are roadblocks that we don't think about or have control over (ask me in PM one day about why I don't have walls between 3 of my classrooms in a 6 million dollar call center that's 2 years old..)

For Spirit I'm pretty sure it was Tom Float through 81 and I know it was Mike Back through either '89 or 90'. Great guy...great teacher and a huge influence on so many of us.

After marching so many years of drum corps in the south, I'm not certain it would work LOL. Britt gets mad at me because I have a permanent tan from marching in the late 80's (and she's outdoorsy and white a ghost.) I'm not sure that even botox can stretch the leather that has become my skin. 😂

Melt my face off in G. Melt my face off in B-Flat. Melt my face off with amps. Just please...melt my #$#$*&^% face off. Times change, music changes and the way we design and even listen to shows changes. But a good face melting is timeless.

You were thinking "#$%$ that's cheap for beer! We'll have a case of THAT!" Same as all of us LOL. When I was at UA, it was Killians.

We still watched it in High School. Granted it was a private, Catholic high school...but it was also 1986! The funny part was that we had nuns who smoked cigars. One even smoked a pipe. Good times.

You know it's funny actually. Britt and I went up to Helen, GA to enjoy some Oktoberfest festivities this past weekend. The only thing that's changed from last year to this year is that now, there are about 760 head shops on the strip (by 760 I mean 7....but you know me.) As we walked by one, we noticed that the store had placed some type of vaporizer outside (think like a renuzit air freshener) that sprayed a cannabis scented oil into the air. It was like bees to honey. Every pseudo hippy that was born in the early 70's was immediately drawn to walk into that shop (including myself.) In fact, I ran into a drum corps buddy on the strip and he mentioned the shop as well. That being said, if it's called out in the rules that are set forth by the corps, then kids should be sent home if they're caught doing it. The legality in certain states to me is secondary to the fact that a rule exists. Drum Corps teaches discipline among other core values and you have to have that discipline to follow the rules. It would be like working in a state that has legalized marijuana but the company you are working for tests for it. Legal or not, you signed on and they have rules. I smoked cigarettes when I marched in both DCI and DCA. But I followed the rules as far as our policies on being in uniform while smoking, areas you could and could not smoke etc.

Considering that here, in the South, we seem to take full blown arenas and fill them with mud (pronounced "muuuuuuuuddddddddd" followed by an echo-y voice saying "Thunder...Thunder...THUNDERRRRRR")......we here could probably figure out the squirrel logistics.

They do indeed. I'm interested to see how season 2 without field judges changes the books. I think this past season was a learning experience for all involved regarding not only judging, but arranging.

It lookes like it would be interesting. We don't get things like that much in the Southeast or I would go.

How different are the International sheets from the Open Class sheets? I'm just trying to piece together some sort of idea about whether or not the framework existing could help form a model by which DCI and DCA could gain from each other.

Good question. Is there a bare bones number of shows that you HAVE to participate in with DCI in order to compete in Finals? If not, at least from the southern perspective, you could probably still do only Sat / Sun DCI shows and still come out +5 scores. Those 5 extra scores are important not just from a cleaning and feedback standpoint, but also from a recruitment and exposure standpoint.

Madison Chicago ATLANTA Cleveland

I remember first seeing "Blondie" on Solid Gold with the Solid Gold Dancers. #### I'm feeling old today.

So could we all agree that a model for what an "All-Age" division COULD look like already exists at least in a framework format? I can't find the exact bylaws for the divisions on DCI's website so I am unable to really look at anything in detail. I would also be interested in knowing what the sheets look like.

LMS was a blast. I'll remember playing the mass Georgia forever

Cabs and Sun were all pretty cool I never spent much time around Bucs. It's kinda like in DCI. X-Men, Star, VK, PR and Colts were tons of fun to be around. There we're others too, but those really stuck out to me. Bluecoats were also very cool.

I hope so. I count them at the top for "cool to hang with" along with the Renegades. Good memories of some really fun times. I'm just sorry that I missed a decade before I knew about DCA. I think I would have enjoyed cats from Westshore and such.

Seems like an almost perfect model for what we have been talking about merging DCI and DCA.

Interesting.......and very cool...yet I am confused. Kidsgrove is an all age group. How are they preforming on the DCI tour if there is no "all-age" division? Or is this Finals only "In Exhibition?" BTW I love me some Kidsgrove. They were very cool cats every time they came for DCA.