RegimentContra94

Bah, looks like they and the audience were having fun. If it was VK would you still be complaining? Isn't it about entertainment?

So execution judges are supposed to judge the intent? That doesn't make sense. If things are performed as intended, ticks don't happen. No performing group is perfect execution wise, except for 89 Regiment, but you have to absolutely count off for lapses in execution.

What shows do you think have held up over the years and would be competitive today? Styles change, and things have gotten more complex visually and musically over the years but do you feel that a certain show would still work today? I'll wait and post mine later, as I don't want to influence anyone!

I miss the Missouri shows! Not a single show in the Show Me state this past season. Columbia was a great show in a great venue.

People get that and "Rock It" mixed up, I think. "Rock It" was Herbie. "Axel F" was not.

I'm a director of a 3A high school an hour south of St. Louis and need a guard instructor beginning possibly this winter, for sure next marching band season. If you are interested in talking, PM me or send an email to jmooney@stegen.k12.mo.us I have money, and I'm not afraid to spend it!

The panels were flesh colored, not see through. Much to my disappointment 14 years ago! Some of those gals were amazing!

Why can't we just say it's a competitive marching band like activity that members have to audition for and tour the country during the summer performing at competitions? Some people are so hopped up on how cool they are they use an over-complicated explanantion that leads to the questions they are sooo annoyed to have to answer. I'm sure we are all igonorant of something. Why do we have to act so put out when it comes to explaining our activity? Get over youselves.

MO

Well, I don't know you at all, so if you say so, I'll just have to believe you. I just think there are more important things in life that somebody that dares use the MB words on a DC board. Have you ever tried to have a rational discussion on the MBP forum? It's overpopulated by people named "flutiegirl2010" that use some new form of english I'm not familiar with. There are way more band directors here.

Are you seriously this concerned with this little thread? My god, man. You are giving us contra players a bad name. It isn't really worth the effort you are putting in. If people put this much energy into important things, we would have the flying car by now. I don't charge my kids to march. They pay for their things they need, like gloves, shoes and their t-shirt. The boosters and the school pay for the rest. Of course, we don't go to BOA or anything, just local competitions.

If a corp like Regiment takes a year off from finals, recruitment is going to take a huge hit.

Help Phantom Regiment pay off a debt Dec 12, 2007 @ 09:04 PM By Chuck Sweeny RRSTAR.COM The Phantom Regiment, Rockford’s world-class drum and bugle corps, is hard at work once again, arranging another summer of sophisticated field maneuvers and brassy arrangements of classical music. On two recent weekends, corps leaders auditioned nearly 500 young musicians who traveled from Japan, the Philippines, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, Canada, and most of the 50 states. They came to the Forest City because “Phantom” is a name recognized and admired throughout the world of drum corps. This year they’re competing for open slots in the 150-member ensemble that throughout the summer will travel 15,000 miles to perform in competitions on both coasts and in between, including its annual Show of Shows at Boylan. It’s great advertising for Rockford. “In Japan and in Europe, marching music kids know exactly where Rockford, Ill., is,” says Tim Farrell, president of the Regiment’s board. The Regiment, founded in 1956, has placed among the top 12 corps in Drum Corps International competition every year since 1974 — Phantom won first place in 1996, came in second in 2006 and was fourth this year. As you’d expect, it’s expensive to operate a traveling music machine with a cast of a three-ring circus. Corps members ride in three 55-seat charter buses. Support people, including music staff, cooks, seamstresses, nurses and sometimes a volunteer doctor, follow in two others. Then there are two tractor-trailer rigs, one of which is a mobile kitchen that dispenses four meals a day, a smaller truck and some vans. Reminds me of C.W. McCall’s truck drivin’ song: “Looks like we’ve got ourselves a convoy.” The annual cash operating budget is $1.2 million. Sponsorships and endorsements that provide uniforms and instruments are worth $250,000. “King Instruments gives us new instruments every year,” Farrell says. “They had not been in marching music before and came to us. We worked with them to develop instruments.” The corps gets a commission from selling the previous year’s instruments. Because of the corps’ international reputation, “We’re being courted by two other brass instrument makers.” Another $200,000 is earned from souvenir sales and music downloads from the DCI Web site. The corps is paid to perform at contests, and it earns money from holding clinics and a marching band show at Harlem High School. About $200,000 comes from donations. And corps performers, aged 16 through 21, pay $2,000 per season. Bottom line: The Phantom Regiment provides a $6,000 experience to high school and college kids, most planning to pursue careers in the music business. The corps meets its annual budget, Farrell says, but there’s a nagging problem: a long-term debt incurred in the 1990s by a past board. With accumulated interest, the debt reached $471,000. The corps was able to pay down some of it, but not all. Through a series of negotiations, UM Capital, which owns the debt, agreed to settle for $122,000. “We’ve raised about $70,000 of that amount and we have to raise the remainder by the end of the year,” Farrell says. This is where you come in, music armadillos. Oops, I meant aficionados. Help Phantom Regiment retire that debt. Send money. You can pay online by credit card or Pay Pal at Regiment.org, or mail a check to the corps’ office, 5050 E. State St., Rockford IL 61108. It’s a fantastic show. It puts Rockford on the map — in a positive way. Help keep Phantom Regiment on the road. Reach Political Editor Chuck Sweeny at 815-987-1372 or csweeny@rrstar.com.

Not every corps is for everybody. There are all kinds of great corps I wouldn't march in. Doesn't mean I think I'm better then them, or that I look down on the folks that do and have marched there, just I don't care for their style. I'm usually not a Hroth defender, but I'm with him on this one. Although, if the price was right, I could march just about anywhere. I can only think of one place I would never march, no matter how much money was offered.

Yeah, they don't share instructors or anything......

Audition for both, if one picks you and the other doesn't, your decision is made. If both pick you, decide which feels right. I, for one, could not spend a summer sitting next to a big smelly guy. However, sitting next to a nice, soft, cuddly, great smelling gal can make the summer that much more fun. I know it seems like a dumb thing to base a decision like this off of, but it really is something to consider. At least it was for me.

As I said, I enjoy the sound and look of all brass. I know my reasons, I'm just looking for others! Something besides "It just isn't right!" Nobody is suggesting an entire ensemble of clarinets! There would still have to be large numbers of brass. Loud isn't the only game in town, though, what about about some sensitive playing at the piano level?

Now see, that is what I'm talking about. Your reason isn't a reason. If we are going to fight this, we must present better arguments than this. I'm not sure what you mean by every "bando" thinking they can march drum corps. Can't just about any band member now march corps if they want to?

As I've said before, I'm not in favor for adding woodwinds because of I like the look and sound that all brass presents, but the idea isn't exactly like reinventing the wheel. What is the major opposition most people have? I've never really heard a concrete reason for most.

Some of you guys act like the only difference between a college marching band and a drum corps is woodwinds. More often than not, the two are very different styles of marching music. I'm not for adding woodwinds to DCI, but if it ever were to happen, the ones added would be the best players that are just as dedicated as the brass players. It's not like the kids you see in bad high school marching bands that march with their flutes almost perpendicular to the ground would be the ones you would get. You would get the cream of the crop, just like you do with the brass players. Just because a kid plays a clarinet doesn't mean he can't march or play or feel as emotinal about corps as a trumpet player does.

"Why??.........Because I'm the Executive Director and I said so........Good enough reason. Thanks for asking. -Bill" Wow. Not how I would have handled that question. You really do catch more flies with honey than vinegar. I wish you luck.

Are ratings really judged by who has theri TV on? I don't believe that they can check that. I think ratings are set by people that have been chosen to be a Nielson family and they have a special box on their TV that keeps track.

How different can a marching snare look? Once we got to Free Floaters, the only real difference in looks has been colors.

I guess what I don't understand, and don't mean any disrespect by, is the product that most of the "old timers" for lack of a better term, describe is readily available. DCA is exactly what a lot of people are looking for but not finding in DCI. So why come to a DCI board and bemoan the fact that it isn't what you want? It's like coming to Taco Bell and complaining because they don't have any hamburgers! Go to Hardees, my friends! Get the Thickburger! I still like tacos, and that's ok! I also like an occasional burger. If the thing you want is right there, go get it.

How cryptic!