Weaklefthand4ever

.. Double Post

There aren't enough shows to keep us occupied in DCA and the DCI forums are mostly people whining about design, preferential judging and how Phantom Regiment is going to instantly fade off into oblivion if Will Pitts isn't sacrificed full blown Temple of Doom style while the Blue Devils dance around his body. But FOOD!! Food, graveyards, houses and other old people stuff...now THAT'S thread worthy!

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah is always a must stop when we are down that way. We missed going last time (well...we got there and parked but then...) because a certain dullard (who shall remain nameless) managed to forget his debit card at Southern Barrel Brewery in Bluffton, SC and had to drive all the way back to get it. When I went back I grabbed another 6 pack of #### Yankee IPA though so......WORTH IT! Living in Chattanooga, we have a LOT of cemeteries. Several civil war cemeteries and a BUNCH of slave cemeteries up on Missionary Ridge where I live. SO many have been forgotten over the years and are overgrown. Beautiful places to visit actually.

Anytime we travel, there are two things that have to happen on the agenda (if we are going to be someplace for more than a day.) 1. Find pool halls...all the pools halls...must have pool halls 2. Look for old neighborhoods. Anything with Queen Annes, Mid-Century Moderns or Craftsmans is a target for me actually pulling into the driveway, getting out of the car and ringing on the doorbell. I have no shame and I LOVE old houses. If there's a Frank Llloyd Wright ANYTHING within 150 miles I'm going to it. It could be a garbage can...I simply don't care. 3. Find restaurants. Irish, German, Italian (Family Style please.) I just love food. There's an Irish restaurant in Nashville called McNamara's which is WONDERFUL. Very traditional. St Simons has Bennies Red Barn. I've got a list somewhere LOL. 4. Find architectural salvage shops (or as Britt calls them "houses of crap")

Yep. Listening center in a dome sucks BAD. I'm sure Jeff would agree. I have zero horn experience but battery in a dome is the devil.

You guys are lucky. You have places that sell actual German food up there. We have a HUGE German population because of the VW plant and yet, alas...not a single real German restraunt. My father was a chef so I can make the stuff. But sometimes I just wanna buy it. Our beer here kinda sucks too. /sigh

Should be a pretty good show. I'll be interested to see how Cabs and Fusion score. Bush is also usually very entertaining. It's a shame we won't see another CV score until a few weeks before prelims. They were pretty dirty in Atlanta. Might have been nerves for some of the rookies. Plus if you've never played in a some, it's....special...very special. P.S - I love domes to watch drum corps but I HATED marching in them.

Something else that REALLY hurts is that CV will not get another score until 8/25 and that's a home show. So just looking at the scores the corps will receive between 7/13 through 8/25, we have this: Atlanta CV - 1 score Cabs - 6 scores Fusion - 5 scores Bucs - 4 scores That's a very low number of looks in front of DCA judges for CV. Travel is expensive and I know there is a severe lack of southern corps. But even at DCI shows like the Atlanta Regional, I don't understand why CV can't get a score on DCA sheets. Just seems like something that needs a hard second look.

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I don't think so quite honestly. Don't get me wrong, I love my DCA alma-mater, but I don't think CV can catch them. I haven't seen the Cabs this year. It's been touched on several times in this thread. The preparation and organization that goes into a Bucs show is just that little bit ahead of what everyone else is currently doing. If CV used the same model (and I think they're using a similar one considering their VAST improvement from 2010 to today,) and had the same face time in front of the DCA judges, we might have a dog fight at the top.

I hope you know how much that statement would / will mean to those MM's coming from a vet. Sometimes, I think those of us who marched with either DCI or DCA forget our roots. Drum Corps is about learning, performing and most of all, FAMILY. We forge lifelong bonds built through hard work to accomplish a singular goal and it's something we carry into our "real lives" later down the road. I'm not a PR vet, but I remember being out there and I'm proud of these performers, their staff and volunteers.

LOL. Thanks Fred. I can say that like most Freshman, the temptation to be a stupid college kid sometimes got to me. I think we had a little over 300 in the band that first year. And being 18, I learned that hangover + kevlar heads on snare drums = ughhhhhhhhhh. The good news was that with that many folks, there was no room to march really. It was kinda back 8, left crab 8, forward 8, right crab 8 (YAY!! I MADE A BOX in 32!!!!) It was like marching DCI in the early 80's (don't kill me for that.) It was also a drumline with some hella talent in it. We had cats from BD, Cavies, Southwind, Cadets and (of course) the Spirit folks. We all pretty much had marched with or against each other at some point. Cool times. Sometimes I wish I was still that age and then I remember that I had absolutely NO MONEY and think the better of it.

I'm a UA graduate. In fact, it's funny that Clint Gillespie was our percussion caption head at UA since he was also associated with Spirit. I showed my freshman year for auditions at UA and it was like a Spirit of Atlanta reunion party...Clint, Scott Brown, Turtle etc etc etc. Thankfully, I had always gotten along with those cats. Clint got mad at me because I had taken the "summer off from playing" (I told you that young me was a dullard,) and got tendinitis by day 5 of the 1st "camp" at UA. On another note, I was dormed at Paty Hall (I think most of the Freshmen Music Majors were,) which was the furthest conceivable place on campus you could be from the Moody Music building. What made it worse is that there was a student center right across from the dorm that opened at 7am and they had 20 9-foot POOL TABLESSSSS...ugh that year was full of so much temptation.

I would agree. But that ability to create a show which is closest to the paradigm of the modern activity of DCI I truly believe in my heart of hearts, is because of the very things we are talking about. Staff, rehearsal, preparedness years ahead, recruiting. Bucs do everything at a level of at LEAST an Open Class DCI corps. Don't take that to mean that I disagree with your comment on design...you're 1000000% correct. But the ability to focus on that design is aided by the fact that Bucs aren't behind the 8-Ball on everything else walking into the season. Just MHO though.

It really was an amazing performance. My father was especially excited. He certainly did love the 27th.

Very much cleaner. You GOTTA be proud of these MM's (and staff) for pushing through all the chaos that the peanut gallery has thrown their way. Some will still complain and that's fine. But remember what it was like out there please. These kids have busted their ##### to put something out on that field for US to enjoy, JUST LIKE WE DID back in our DCI/DCA days. Don't forget your roots. I'm a bigger fan now than I have been since 2010.

I think we all learned that it's in all things too. When I was younger (and dumber,) I played pool 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. I did that for YEARS until I got good enough to compete on the tour. I didn't figure out until much later in life that I could PRACTICE 3 hours a day and get the same benefit. Throwing balls out on a table and running out is all well and good. You miss a ball, you curse a little and shoot again. But it's a time sink and the benefits gained are small unless you want to play your friends for beer. Practicing means that you have to do everything just as if you were playing in a tournament. You CAN'T miss a ball. If you don't have a shot, you play a safety on yourself. Then you try to get get out of that safety. When I came back to playing pool 7 years ago, I tried that approach at the suggestion of another pro-level player and I was tournament ready in 4 months. Age teaches us many things. Don't take yourself too seriously, practice how you intend to perform, don't drink the water in Tuscaloosa, drum carriers aren't meant for fat guys, don't trust a redhead (that one's probably just for me)....

Indeed...It's not about reps (though my younger self would disagree with that statement...he was a dullard though.) As they say, practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.

So CV usually has their 1st rehearsals around the 1st week of January. That means Bucs have a 2 month advantage over the 2nd to 3rd place corps. I'm not sure what Cabs do but I would think it's about the same as CV. My GUESS (and this is only a Guess,) is that Bucs probably have show music planned 2 to 3 seasons ahead just as DCI corps do. That way they have time to navigate licensing hiccups. And if their arrangers are consistent year over year, they are most likely thinking concepts a season ahead. I would also think that this level of organization helps with MM retention. The more organized the program, the better the consistency and results. The better the consistency and results, the less attrition you have. People want to come back year over year to a winning program. It's why the Top 12 in DCI stayed the same basic top 12 for 2 decades even when we had many more corps. So if what I'm saying here is correct (and please correct me if it isn't,) then what is the down side that I am missing? I think of it like Star of Indiana. Every year, the group of folks that Bill Cook had in place had a plan. First to make finals, then to progress into the top 6 and finally to win DCI. They communicated that plan consistently to the members, staff,BoD and alumni. There wasn't a lot of smoke and mirrors inside that organization (plus Bill knew to hire the right people and not interfere in things he didn't have a personal expertise in.) What is it about DCA (and DCI) that doesn't seemingly appear to the majority of corps? Whether I choose my music for this coming year 2 years ahead or 3 months ahead, does it cost me more on way or another? I simply can't map my mind around the subject.

It makes me wonder how soon the potential MM's get show music as well. Bucs always have the full bones of the music under their fingers by their sprimg preview. I know at least at CV we didn't get it until maybe the 2nd or 3rd camp. In a way, I get it. By then, you pretty much know who's in and out so you aren't wasting time learning, say, a snare part if you're gonna end up in front ensemble. And you don't have the potential of people blabbing about what music your playing all over the internet. At the same time, you're already weeks behind by the time that 3rd or 4th camp comes. Granted this may have changed by now...it's been a lot of years. It just seems like the risk is worth the potential rewards. I DO remember that we got exercises that related directly to the book which was good. I dunno. Just thoughts. And brass may be a completely different beast.

My dad always called the Yugo the "Commie Coup." He wasn't the most politically correct person lol.

Careful Lancer! Within minutes, someone will drag up that old nut of a thread from 22 pages back. Lol

So wrong...and yet so very funny lol

I honestly have no idea what CV does. I asked to volunteer this year buy never heard back from them after maybe November. I'm certain they do SOMETHING.

I can tell you from experience that watching from the stands with my dad after my age out years are some of my fondest memories.