Skydrummer9

All I heard was the wind blow....

Success... –noun 1. the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors. 2. the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like. 3. a successful performance or achievement: The play was an instant success. 4. a person or thing that is successful: She was a great success on the talk show. 5. Obsolete . outcome. Keep it up!

All I can say after reading this topic is.... Thank GOD I am retired from competitive drum and bugle corps. It is crap like this that takes a lot of enjoyment out of the activity... In my own opinion of course. Best of luck to all competitive corps who still have the sanity to continue on.

*Sorry for the double post*

I believe Cabs did it in 2007 with Keith Urban.... But I might be wrong.

I am ready to do my part to bring Garbarina back on the field! SOCK IT IN! Ooo RAH!

I was hooked by first and foremost my Father as he was a Soprano player in the Field Corps since 1994, but what really solidified me was after watching a Sky Field Corps rehearsal at the Garfield Anthrax and biological weapons disease manufacturing plant....Ummmmm I mean the Garfield American Legion Post. Bobby (Jomba) O'Connor showed me a few things on a drum pad (holding the sticks, etc) and for some reason, it felt that this corps could be one of the best things in my life. Although my first time around the Skyliners was actually at an Alumni Corps rehearsal at the same, and some how still open, physical location of just about every Violation of Federal Health Code regulation, back in 1998. I was about 7 or 8 at the time and screwing around with my brother Harry on the stage during horn line rehearsal. What I remember most about that rehearsal in '98 was afterwards before going back home, I remembered seeing a TV trailer for the Samuel L. Jackson's version of Shaft. Then I saw Ricky Lane for the first time and some how made the connection and thought he was Shaft. I told my dad this when I thought of it and I thought that no one else would have heard, but someone did and that is how Ricky Lane got the nickname "Shaft".

I found a new favorite drum corps site Preserve Our Drum Corps Memories.

Also, there are more corps springing up around the country who are going competitive that DCA needs to accommodated. Better to start reviewing all the options and drafting as many contingencies sooner than have an influx of non northeast competitive corps gun for the title. Not to mention the foreign corps who come in as well.

Neither am I by any means. All I meant was that there are so many corps today it might be a little more fair for all corps instead of those who have a history of being on top. It seems logical to me that corps should have an average score and a by-week the last weekend before championships so the corps could be placed accordingly for Finals. Reason for the by-week is that the corps that do qualify will have one full weekend to completely clean EVERYTHING they need to to have the best possible show during the championship competition. Also, it will save corps who know ahead of time that they won't be able to qualify for finals throughout the season the time and money traveling all the way to the championship venue just to be turned away during prelims... See ya in January good sir. B-)

I like it. Instead of a Preliminary Competition, just take the average of the scores the corps have received throughout the season. The best 10 corps with the highest over all score average get to compete in championships. (for corps scoring the same averages, the corps who has been competing longer in the season is moved above the less exposed corps.) This gives people more time to enjoy the weekend and a bigger motivator for corps to perform better through out the season. From what I remember, corps score averages started around the beginning of August to determine their placement times for the Preliminary Contest. Instead of beating a horse to death, take the first show score and all following scores up until the last contest before Finals weekend and include that within the average.

Lest we forget Jeff, a majority of the world OUTSIDE of DCA most likely has never heard of DCA unless they come from families who have been fans or have marched there in the past. about 80% of the people who asked what it was still consider it to be like the movie drumline. The other 20% really don't know unless you bring up names like Blue Devils or ScoJo's lick of the week. A lot of the younger people around my age group see the top ranking DCI corps as "drum corps" and don't really acknowledge lower class DCI corps let alone DCA corps. So it puts DCA corps against the wall in a way to contend in the activity as a whole. Or so I have witnessed

You have a lot of good points. I have seen first hand all age corps going more so to high schools rather than colleges to fill their ranks. With the ever continuing budget cut backs towards music education in public schools, and funds disappearing from corps themselves, there has to be some kind of an impass. It boils down to the administration for each organization questioning their needs and sacrifices for the survival for their corps. If it means changing from G to Bb, then it has to be done. If they see people wanting to go to a corps who have already started adapting what "traditionalists" believe does not belong in the activity, than more corps might have to hop on the "band wagon" (pun intended) and evolve to gain the membership. Music and Fashion evolve in a massive circle. I for one believe there needs to be a definitive line between what my definition of drum and bugle corps from when I started almost a decade ago, and to the evolved activity it is now and is becoming down the road but in order for the survival of the organization. Sacrifices need to be made.... Who knows, maybe if drum corps follows the pattern of popular music and fashion, their might just be a rebirth of what we call "traditional" drum corps or even"Alumni style" drum corps on the competitive field. But in the mean time We still have a solid handful of alumni corps to preserve the history of not just their individual corps, but for drum and bugle corps in general. <----- to forward progress without forgetting our roots.

AMEN!!!! :tongue:

Nice combination of classic and modern uniform style. Best of luck this season. =)