StradmanBW

Yep. I think I'm going to get back to my self-congratulatory dissertation proposal now too.

Following this line of thought, it's also incorrect to talk about a 'renaissance' (rebirth) period since there's clearly nothing new about it now. Specialized bodies of knowledge have their own terms. I don't expect the terms that theoretical physicists use to be immediately accessible to me or the rest of the uninitiated general public, but for whatever reason most any given layperson seems to have the expectation that they can pick up a text on 20th century French literary theory and immediately understand it (and if they don't, then it's the author's fault, the entire field is ridiculous and meaningless, or there's some other similarly hubristic conclusion). As for the 'well-established meaning' bit, it's more than questionable to say that the general public is an authority on technical language. Neither I nor most of the people you'll run into on the street probably know much about the terminology air traffic controllers or chemical engineers regularly use on the job with their peers, but that has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not there's an established meaning within the contexts in which their terms see use.

Sounds like a good model to follow, then.

Travis Peterson was the horn sergeant in 2004.

I literally laughed out loud.

It's definitely worth a look. For me, this was a difficult choice between '01 Crossmen and '02 Bluecoats.

If I remember correctly, one aged out, one marched another corps, another aged himself out (didn't march again), and the other went into the guard.

So says you. That would've made the CTA a nightmare, and traffic even more of a nightmare than it already is.

I don't see any way that a section tech (read, importantly: tech) could be on staff for two different corps. There's too much day-to-day, in the trenches involvement for people serving in those roles.

Good amount of continuity in the brass staff, really.

Yeah, I believe dues were $1800 in 2004 and $2000 in 2007. This is a logical increase in fees that's by no means incommensurate with the dues of other corps. Madison's probably still on the cheaper end for a division one corps.

Just looked at the staff list again, and I noticed that Jeff Lee remains as a "music designer" and Ancona is the "front ensemble arranger." Jim Prime is listed as brass arranger, not music designer, and there's the equivalent case with Thom Hannum. Is Lee going to be doing original compositions the others will be responsible for orchestrating, or is this a rhetorical maneuver to avoid listing Lee as "electronics arranger" or something along those lines? Just curious. In other news, this staff is pretty boss.

Well, following the model for the other sections, we only know the front ensemble supervisor and not the caption head (who I assume will be the person working with them on a day-to-day basis).

Jim Mason and DVD are also both businessmen, if I'm not mistaken. I don't think they would have come on board if they didn't believe that the organization would be able to hold up as they need to. To me, the fact that these guys have selected Madison to come on board with says a LOT about the quality of Madison's current administrative team.

Things that alleviate my Saturday morning hangover: 1. Biscuits and gravy 2. Coffee 3. This announcement Also, I'm pretty sure that original music by Jim Prime could turn out to be VERY cool.

Now there's a show concept.

Very, very, very, very big. The thing about having him there is who he'll probably bring with him (staffwise), I think.

I definitely did not see any of this coming--I'm absolutely ecstatic about this. Figuring out how much money I can donate.

With others, I couldn't disagree more. The site has a clean, polished look and is very easily navigable. What else do you need, exactly? A Shockwave intro into every page? I find the Blue Devils' website on the verge (but just on the verge) of being "too busy." Simplicity is best for websites which have the primary intention of transmitting information.

I continue to be amazed by this myself. The older I get, the less able I am to get worked up about a drum corps show announcement.

Kris--sorry about things not working out with the Cadets, and also that you're currently in a bind. When I saw your post, though, it did remind me of a press release I read on Madison's website from their last camp. As of the time of the release, which was near the end of January, they indicated they were still looking for snares. You can check the article out here (the statement I'm referencing is near the end): Madison January Camp Report. Should you be interested, you might try getting in touch with Dann Petersen (corps director) or Roger Carter (caption head), both of which have contact information on the staff section of the Scouts' website. Best of luck to you! I hope you find something and have a fun year.

I haven't read the thread up until this point, and maybe this has been covered--but if the market doesn't get fixed in a hurry, then I suspect that the economic situation will make it very difficult to operate a drum corps circuit resembling the current model for a while.

Breathing blocks are, or at least the way we did them at Scouts (I was around for 2004 and part of 2007), hard. Essentially, as posters above said, you take air in for a certain amount of counts and then expel the air while running in time. The expulsion of air is done with a "hissing" sound (sssss), which creates resistance and makes one push to get air out. Typically, you'll fill up for four counts, then go out for four, do a "cleansing breath", then rinse and repeat with higher numbers of counts out. At some point, normally when the block gets hard, the cleansing breath will be taken out and you'll just do the sets back to back. I never ran in a breathing block where the counts went higher than forty eight out. The really long sets out aren't really what you have to watch out for. It's repeating the sixteen count sets while going at a brisk run--with a large step size--that really gets you worn out. Blocks at Scouts would last between 15 and 25 minutes, if I remember things correctly. You start out with relatively easy counts, then it gets harder. At the end you'll either do the sprinting the poster above mentioned, or you'll kind of "cool down" as a group, which consists of slowing the pace down and tapering out, hanging your head down, standing still, and praying for death.

After reading a couple of earlier posts concerning the 2001 Cadets hornline, I just figured I'd say that I thought the brass trophy recipients in 2000 and 2001 should have been flipped. BD was pristine in 2000, and the Cadets 2001 hornline blew everybody else out of the water that year, in my opinion. Though I think the recent design tactics have been questionable--okay, last year was beyond questionable--I think that they are really the hornline to beat year in and year out. That's not how the numbers play out a lot of the time, no, but they're often the best in this fan's eyes.

If a red sash could be worked into the current look without sacrificing the nice details on the front of the jacket (beautiful fleur buttons, the cut of the jacket), then I think it would make the uniform even better. I really like the current iteration, however.