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Weaklefthand4ever

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Posts posted by Weaklefthand4ever

  1. Regarding the question would I let my kids march the Cadets (if I had any) the answer is a resounding yes. The Cadets have a great history in DCI. 

    That being said let's face some reality. My drum corps experience was not with the Cadets with the exception of competing against them. I always found the members and staff to be pretty friendly. I think the question of "will the Cadets survive" is multi faceted. In an organization as large and long lasting as DCI, it's unfortunate to think this, but honestly, something of this nature had a high potential to happen just based on probability. Thousands of kids over 40+ years have had the amazing experience of marching. 

    The Cadets are simply one example of a severely imbalanced hierarchical management system. In the corporate world, that creates one of the main pillars in which a culture of "bad behavior" becomes prevalent. Members would rarely know that something shady is going on behind the wizards curtain. Most likely not even staff would know. 

    The survival of the Cadets (though it could have happened to ANY of our beloved corps and we would be remiss to forget that,) depends on how the management responds, how the kids respond to their trust being violated, how DCI responds and to large extent how WE, the family of Drum and Bugle Corps respond. In my opinion, we should be turning our attention to helping the existing membership cope and heal. I will be pulling extra hard for the Cadets this year and I hope that others will take the high road as well. Everything I have heard of the supposed "culture of the Cadets" over the last 30 years is unproven as far as I can tell. The membership that came forward with the allegations have only spoken in the articles I've read about the sexual misconduct itself. 

  2. My father brought me to my first show in Birmingham in 1984. He had been heavily involved in Drum and Bugle Corps (in fact he was involved with Suncoast Sound at some point on an administrative level,) and his sister had marched with the Bridgemen. I was already heavily involved in choral music studies and was fortunate enough to have already toured expensively in that area of music even at a very young age. That DCI South show in Birmingham hooked me. Though I did not drop vocal music, I began a serious study of instrumental music, got a private percussion instructor and marched my first year in DCI in 1987. I continued to march two more years in DCI before aging out and then picked up marching again with DCA in 1984.

  3. It's so hard to really judge from just a feed looking straight on from the 50. I'm hoping someone did some filming from a higher angle so I can really appreciate the drill of the top 4 corps. When you're looking straight in, everything seems a little "chunky." Some really pretty moments from all the corps. Fusions guard was outstanding as was the brass from the Bucs and C2. CV and that battery and front ensemble....wow. Nice soloists from all the corps. Overall, even on a live feed from the crowd, a great show for all the ensembles involved.

  4. I've got another CV person (volunteer) staying with me.  He lost everything...  His storage shed with all his personal furniture and stuff was (I said was) in Mandeville.  Since most everything else there was blown away, I can't guarantee anything of that is still there either. 

    I still can't find my aunt and Uncle from Slidell either.  We're trying to get text messaging through, and having spotty results...  Pray for everyone involved.  Many of us have/may have incredible losses.

    Two familes from Slidell are in my house and my finaces parents house from Slidell as well. We're finally starting to get some reports in from the area and some National Guard friends are feedign us info as they can.

    For all of those who are displaced or have friends or family who are missing / displaced, all of our prayers are with you.

  5. Kevlar has it's place. We don't have to double rim snares anymore to get to not sound like a wet paper towel hitting concrete.

    Tom Float has a nice article at the Vic Firth site in which he says something I never really thought about in regards to this. As the material changed from Mylar heads like the Striders, Powerstroke 3's and Resonators to Kevlar, the spacing between notes shrotened. Tom states, and very truthfully I might add, that it's much easier to play harder rudiments on Mylar in a line because the spacing of the notes is broad enough to hide imperfections. With Kevlar, you hear everything.

    Free floating snares have also changed the timbre of the drums somewhat. Less hardware in contact with the shell gives a much less "choked" sound like we used to have with the old Slingerland TDR's and Ludwigs.

    Erich

    EDIT: Didn't read Cliff's post 1st and he sid most of what I said. So yeah...what he said. Uh huh.

  6. After 2 back operations and about 11 years marching snare and tenors...I can say from personal experience that it does happen. I actually went to a sports doctor first and he was very familiar with the issue.

    Erich

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