R.A.M.

If you are returning for the next camps and move-in (and I hope you are), sign up for Southwest's DING and e-mail alerts. Last week I received alerts for non-stop flights to/from Raleigh Durham (and other airports) for travel in April/May/June booked a month or more in advance for $49/$59 each way, so you just have to stay alert. Good luck!

The Crossmen team must literally be in transit right now from Pasadena to San Antonio. I would imagine they'll work on getting the website fully operational as soon as they return. Perhaps their webmaster has launched what is ready to go to keep the presence on the web, since the former link is off of the YEA site. Be patient, but most of all, be supportive!

Oh, I am sure they will have this fixed before the "top corps" perform...is it really too much to ask anymore that the "lower corps" would expect the same attention to technical detail before they perform their show and it's broadcast live.....?

I tried for 45 minutes to get into the site with my account to watch THIS show tonight. All I got was the OOPS! technical message...with highspeed internet too....aaarrrghghhh! GO BONES!

Report: Weather is perfect - the sky is beautiful....perfect night for a show!

Trying to get the volunteering hubby on the blackberry......

Not everybody has "ample opportunity to add and clean" The lower scoring corps are PERPETUALLY stuck with a quarter or half rehearsal day, less time to clean and refine, etc. They are many times housed not so close to stadiums either, so more time cut into with additional travel. It would be interesting to see if the perpetually higher scoring corps continue to do so much better with a CONSTANTLY shortened rehearsal day, and being judged in a random performance pattern instead of always being "saved" for the latter part of the day. Some of the lower scoring (now) corps came out with virtually the same first show score, a week later, as the top scoring corps did. But once they get slotted into those early performance times, and continually shortened 1/2 rehearsal days, I can't help but think that makes a huge difference ......... thoughts?

Hamilton Diner, one block below the stadium, is THE BEST.

Some food for thought.... Watching nearly every preseason camp this year, and a few stretches at spring training, I can say that the Crossmen rehearsed, played, behaved, etc. with tremendously more discipline and skill than the past season. A new sense of discipline was instilled by the section leaders AND the members, not just the staff. They appeared more physically prepared as well. Memorial Brass performance, WOW. Ask anyone who was there whether or not they were prepared and READY for that point of the year...every section. Spring training - may have been way too much rain, but they persevered. Continued to get the show ready, and by Gettysburg exhibition, both the Cadets and the Crossmen marched their shows and did a standstill of their closers. Number of vets returning - MANY, I would say easily a majority. These corps members looked at each other at finals last year and were determined to come back and keep moving ahead. I have the utmost admiration for those who did, realizing that one of the main ingredients for moving forward is CONSISTENCY and CONTINUITY, and they have control over THEIR part of that equation. Too bad not every eligible returning corps member had that type of commitment to the legacy and rebuilding. Injuries - more than enough, but probably not more than usual. Read the Cadet's blog and it's no different,members dropping out each week, or injured. You just don't read a daily accident report from the Crossmen.... The drill this year is what the corps members have hoped for for a few years, thanks to Bobby Jones and the design team. I hope and pray that he is not spirited off by some other corps at the end of the season when the few that don't know how talented he is realize it. Hop has been in attendance at several rehearsals early on, according to his blog, offered critique, etc. He has been more involved than I have seen in the past, and as far as design and performance, it certainly appears in a positive way. My opinion about "other" aspects of how the Crossmen as a corps is treated are another subject...would be nice if their webmoirs were up completely from day one, much less an "all access" wiz-bang feature; would help them to have more admin relief instead of bare bones (no pun intended); and other things, but not to digress..... From what I can see, with my limited knowledge of brass technique, the members LOVE Jimmy Steele, and they are a on a higher plane when he is there. Chez is of course the BOMB. The whole brass staff so committed to this corps. The corps is MOVING AND PLAYING. Not standing still for loooooong periods of time and playing. Listen to them in their warmup arc going through a full warmup if you want to see them stand still and play. The Crossmen have a great positive attitude, never stop working hard and OF COURSE would like to make finals, what corps member wouldn't want that experience, much less to place in the top 8? Do they dwell on it and wring their hands over it? No, they focus practice practice clean clean clean. And they were told from camp one, unlike what I heard at camp one in '05, that they should set their goals, both personal and as a corps, as high as they want. They have a fight ahead of them as they have fewer shows in which to prove themselves than many other corps, they came out later so their first-show-jitters were shaken off later than others, they are slotted awfully early in most of the rest of their shows. But there is no way they are just going to lay down and die, or not improve. They realize the value in being as entertaining a corps as they are, and receiving the type of fan appreciation they consistently do. If ever in recent times there was a show to get an ESPN2 viewing audience to go "now THAT was entertaining!", this is it. Too bad they have to perform too often in daylight and to half-full venues, but that will not deter them from giving the fans what they expect from this corps. Darkhorse. Bones. No matter what happens, only the Crossmen corps members and vets know what that truly means.

I have to agree. Here's a concept: If it really is truly all about judging each individual show for its own merits, and the judges are truly capable of doing that, then the performance order should be RANDOM every night, until finals. Give EVERYONE a chance to perform under the lights, or at least an equal chance. Want to fill the stands for an ENTIRE NIGHT? (= more consistent souvie sales, more concession sales, etc.) then have the corps in random order - you'd have to SHOW UP for an entire show to make sure you saw the ones you wanted to see. In Elizabeth the stands were not even half full for the first few corps, and of course full by dark. I feel really disheartened for the corps who don't get that chance. And at least one of "those early shows" got a standing O immediately. Imagine how the judges might react to 2X the number of fans screaming and clapping during a show for any given corps, with the corps feeding off the energy of a larger crowd .....me thinks scoring would be much different.

Having spoken to a corps member late last night after the rainout in VA, I can assure you NO ONE is more disappointed than the corps members, who want to perform nothing less than a full show for drum corps fans. That's all they want to do.... As far as the "party city" in VA for the Crossmen, they seem to have developed a huge fan base in VA in the last few years. Not just Chesapeake, Salem as well. Good for them! I don't see that as a bad thing...

A fabulous image of Bones is on the 2004 tour video...Bones was on the cherry picker again at Allentown, and the videographer had a camera attached below, with the up-light effect, cape swirling.... my personal favorite, however, is this: http://www.crossmenalumni.net/galleries/pa...2002-07_jpg.htm

The sponsorship form we have says clearly that sponsorships are NOT tax deductible, no beating around the bush. You are paying for someone's fee for service, or "tuition", if you will. A donation to the general non-profit which runs the corps is. Mileage driven to volunteer for the non-profit is. BTW - this "tuition" is not deductible for educational tax relief on your income tax forms, as some people have told me. You are not paying tuition to a fully acredited two or four year institution, and they are not going to send to a tax form stating that at the end of the year either. I know, I made your day. Not.

Corps sound like a big bunch of happy noise in a gym. This was recorded in an auditorium with professional equipment. And live - it was....wow.