SaraNYC

DVD's system has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with breathing and coming in at the same time and having everyone in the line on the same page. I could hear it in their sound at the beginning of the season - especially on the ends of phrases.

Bring back Marcia! Bring back Marcia!

Awesome! I didn't make it home for finals, but I still get a virtual Marc sighting. My night is complete.

Back in my days of yore my corps ran the table Wed and Thur nights (1985) to make finals. They didn't bring the top twelve from the year before in until Friday night. 4 days of competition.

Ah, yes. Harvey. That's what we called him. I was just getting ready to post that was what the BD stick figure reminded me of. Our Big Bad Wolf Harvey from 1985.

I have to admit, the only reason I knew that was because 1) I went to college with Bruce and 2) you posted a photo on your blog a while back that had you and Bruce in it, so I figured you prolly stood next to him in the line.

Hmmm, isn't that Bruce Hamilton on the right end with Lee next to him? (right as you are looking at the photo...)

LOL!!! Miss ya Tony!

No, no - it's Martha Stewart I've been on. Er, in. The audience.

Y'all need to hook me up with these historic women and I'll get them up on the page. The interviews are all "in their own words". I don't censor or change anything. It's the same five questions for everyone.

This week's KAHC.... Betsy Johnson.

Now George, George would just put the absolute fear of god in ya. Trust me, when George Zingali screamed at you to never miss that dot again, you didn't miss it. Dave Tippett - I didn't know you played in one of his lines Matt - I've got some great stories about him too - he worked with Star in '85 also. He was always pretty laid back with us - he had much more of a quiet intensity - you didn't want to mess up, but it wasn't because he would yell at you - it was more of a glare and point.

Return of the KAHC of the Week. This week - Bonnie Ott Thompson

We went to Chevy's at 2 Embarcadero - that's our usual gathering spot/fundraiser whenever we do events in the city.

LOL!! I don't think he's on DCP. It was a ton of fun being in the parade today. This was the first time I had actually "marched" in it. I've marched in a lot of pride parades in the Northeast wearing various hats as a member of gay and lesbian marching bands - drum major, drummer, artistic director - but it was way cool to be able to participate today as a member of my drum and bugle corps.

My back was not cooporating with me this year, so I've moved to the pit. It's been a whole new musical challenge, playing percussion instruments and orchestra bells and different listening responsibilities and so far I've really enoyed it. And we are on the field this year as opposed to the front sideline, so yes, I am on the field this year, but no, not marching. Just standing there hitting things really LOUD!!! We'll have to catch up off the forum sometime Karen, life is really good these days!

Where's that darn Ashley when ya need her?!??!?

If I can be a "pillow" I am so in.

Oh well, it happened, it sucked and we should move on I suppose. Hey - should we start a pool to predict our score at DCI West? That could be entertaining! Will we get judged at DCI West? Are we working on making sure this little snafu doesn't happen again?

Wow. If I would have run away to march Imperial Guard in 1982, I probably would have gotten my ### kicked by the Ventures too based on the scores on CorpsRep. Foot. Mouth.

Phantom Regiment did it in the mid 90's. I don't know if it's been done in DCA before.

All right, all right. I did the math on the way home too. I'll concede to you on that one. However, 25 years ago I wasn't watching those all girl corps on the PBS broadcast because they weren't making finals. Actually, there weren't too many girls in those hornlines I was watching. That's where I am coming from in this discussion. I'm enjoying hearing about the women you marched with back in the day and your opinion of them. See, the problem in discussing these things is that times have changed. We're coming from a different perspective because of the different experiences we've had. Back in the day when drum corps was drum corps, if the neighborhood I lived in had a catholic church that I went to and they decided to start an all girl corps and that was my only option, then yeah, I would have done it. All my friends probably would have been in it, I wouldn't had gone off to music school yet and gotten all uppity about this kind of stuff and it would have been good times 40 or 50 years ago. The drum corps world I came into was already moving away from being a community based youth activity and more of a competitive based talent heavy performance medium. What I mean by settling is that I feel that anytime you limit a group by sex, sexuality, race, etc... you are limiting the group because you can't include talent from all walks of life, you can only select from a very limited pool of talent. If I get a fair opportunity to audition for a gig and I get beat out by a better player, so be it, that's the biz. If I don't get the opportunity or I get passed over by a weaker player because I'm female, that's an issue for me and sometimes I do get a little sensitive about it. I'm not saying that an all female group is automatically going to be weak because it's all female because there are some great all female bands out there (not so much corps wise, actually by the time I marched in 1985 it seemed like more of a novelty to me than anything - I can remember watching one at the US Open and cheering them with a bunch of other people from Star because not too many people were in the stands watching them) however, the number of male musicians, especially brass players is still much larger than female (=higher percentage of talent), so I would prefer to be in a really strong co-ed group because that is most like where the higher level of talent will be. It's going to be interesting to see what this "all-female" Blast! type show is going to be like, but I'm really digressing here. -------------------------------------- I'm glad I didn't stay for the "scores" announcement also - that would have really ###### me off.

Actually, he said this originally: Thousands? I don't think so. Maybe the quote he is originally referring to got mangled before it hit the paper, but the truth is that opportunities for women brass players were far and few between back then. Bonnie was a true pioneer for many of us.

I'm not saying there weren't - but the opportunities were definately more limited than Marty is making it out to be. And not just in the drum corps idiom - in the music industry in general. Back on topic... Scores. Schmores....