Jamesdrum007

(and Jimmy Mallen ... Why do you keep shouting at us?) Gotcha. Please pardon any offense. BTW I thought that shouting was when one uses ALL CAPS. I didn't know that increasing the type size was also considered to be electronic "shouting". Is it? If it is, then I apologize. FYI I only increased the type size for the really old folks, like Cosetti and Dorritie (oops) to read more easily. :)

Oops! Please pardon me for not including, and forgetting to give, props to Fran Haring. And also JOSEPH Frankie Nash, Ray Priester, Jim Allen, Marty, et al.

Nanci, I do appreciate you, and all who contributed, for this positive thread. There are many threads here on DCP that are controversial, and confrontative. This one isn't. I like that. The fourth snare drummer in our OLPH Alumni snare line at that Brooklyn parade was/is Joe Bongiorni. All six of us ( the 5 snares plus me) have at least two things in common: 1. We have a lifelong love for rudimental snare drumming. 2. All six of us were MOST fortunate to have been students of one of the most eminent of drum instructors, Mr. Bobby Thompson. Hence, all of us are most fortunate people. I thank you, and all who contributed, (Smitty, Siglow, Cosetti, Lisko, Donny, Duke, China, Mike Davis, Boo, and anyone that I failed to specifically mention) for "perpetuating" these positive Our Lady of Perpetual Motion memories! (smile)

It's probably been mentioned before, but I'm sure many of you already know that Fast Frankie's REAL first name is ...........Joseph!I remember because its my dad and brother's first name.

Nanci, Did you ever get an answer to your question? Someone asked me for those scores today.

Yeah, yeah ......let's blame Marty!! :)[size="4"][/size]

. ANYWAY... I was just thinking to myself, how do we keep the old stuff fresh? Now that we are bringing it back onto the field, what can we do with it? hmm, what if we started it as a ballad with a soloist and played it all pretty like before we you know, kickin it up to 120? Could that work? Im not sure but evil minds think alike and your thoughts were already thunk. If in the future you hear My Romance con amore followed by My Romance bellicoso you can feel responsible in part if you wish. OK OK Keepin it fresh is what its all about. I really LIKE your thinking on this. Have you run it by Pusey and the gang yet?

Reilly Raiders - pretty strong showing. I don't get to see Reilly often, so I was impressed. Like Yankee Rebels they started off a little weak and then got their legs under them or got used to the conditions and pushed out a good show. Nice mix of Irish songs and it's nice to hear tenor drums - God! I can't remember the last time I heard tenor drums. One thing that always gets me is "My Romance". They play it well, no doubt, but I always think of it as a tender ballad and they play it like someone shouting, MY ROMANCE! DOESN'T NEED TO HAVE A MOON IN THE SKY..." knowing it's a ballad, but hearing it as a march seems incongruous, but that's just me. All in all a good performance. Good sound and balance between all the sections and the drums. Crowd loved them. Joe Fontana and Jack Murray put on a show. What a show it was! Had a lot of people whooping and on their feet. Folks, this was some serious drumming. They had a little of everything some fancy stick work and drumming on snare. Some truly crazy drumming on a wild set up with lots of rapid movement and trick drumming - this got the crowd up off their seats. Then some really lush sounding rudimental drumming on some rope drums. That was impressive. Well done guys! Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights were a treat. You would have sworn it was 1970 again! In full uniform, they looked awesome. They put out a strong, clean sound. "National Emblem", a tough march, sounded as clean and fresh as ever. "America" was great, but my favorite was "Free Again" with the full exit, (I think?), Man, it was great. You did yourselves proud. Thank you for taking your time to post this. I appreciate it. Many Tom Ashby sightings eh? Joe and Jack are awesome; I'm very proud of them and the hard work they do to give us their great preformance. Also, you made me laugh out loud with your observations on Reilly's "shouting" of MY ROMANCE. I tend to agree with you. Hey, back then it was OK to do. Well, maybe brass instructor extraordinaire Bill Pusey will make changes; and also insert some lush, soft, pianissimo dynamics to it; at least until the last few bars? Again, Marty, thanks!

Spell check? Nah, just careful keyboarding. Should I? (smile) And Martybucs, thanks for your offer to review/comment.

feel free to post up a DCP censored review of Reilly (and/or others) or send me a message and include whatever you might not want to say on DCP *we did what we did with 3.5 hours of practice and a quick pre-show runthrough Yes, and for those of us who could not attend, we'd appreciate it if someone/anyone could provide us with a review of the Reilly Raiders, and all the corps that performed at Archie's show. It need not be detailed or elaborate. A sentence or two about each unit would be great. Thanks!

Ooohhh.... if you make it to a Riley rehearsal.... please bring a tape recorder with you?? Riley? Riley? do you mean Reilly?

Dave, I appreciate you for sharing your thoughts and opinions. I personally wasn't there. I'm sure your opinions aren't agreed with; but I appreciate them nonetheless. Thanks.

Just came on here. Is it true that no one has done a review of the DCA Alumni show yet?

Dan Murphy was a fine and honorable man. We are all deeply saddened by his passing. And we keep Joanne, his family, and his loved ones in our prayers. I personally knew Dan and enjoyed his friendship for over 40 years. I loved him dearly. Now he shall finally rest in peace.[/color]

2nd: Now that the Director felt it neccessary to address this, why so late? This was a well known issue... "Why so late" you ask? Glasgow's letter is dated 8/16/08. That's just 7 days after the incidents occured Do you really think his letter is late? I don't. And I appreciate his letter and his efforts.

Excellent post to Hoppy, Randall. He liked it so much he's already posted it publicly on his blog.

Two things only have bothered me: 1) Interfering with each other's retreat "performance", and 2) the absolutely deplorable performance of ATB, which is for the audience and therefore disrespects them, and which was worse than anything I've ever heard before. Thanks Liam for your apt use of the word "deplorable". I don't usually post here, (as you can see) but believe the unacceptable performance of America The Beautiful at Finals needs to be emphasized. (until something is hopefully done about it.) We sat 80 rows up at Finals. We walked all the way down to the 3rd row to hear the scores and enjoy the Finals retreat experience up close. We stood directly in front of the Bluecoats. A big mistake. I presume (based upon earlier posts here) that they were not the only transgressors. But their mistreatment of this music was most evident to us. It was appalling. I was embarassed. I was ashamed. For them, for those who allowed them to do this, and for all drum corps fans. (present or not) This was clearly a terrible reflection on our activity, which I have loved my whole life. Also, the abusive, demeaning, taunting, and belittling behavior towards Cadets members, and any other corps who elected to play it "straight" during retreat, is totally unacceptable, and needs to be immediately addressed by Dan Acheson and the DCI Board of Directors..

Jwillis, Thank you very much. Yours was an insightful, thoughtful, thought-provoking and well-presented opinion. I commend you.

I'm told that Hop just recently found out that the local noise ordinance requires a stop at 11:00 PM. So yesterday they rehearsed from 9 AM til 11 PM. With a uniform run-through (except for pants?) of the entire show under the lights at the end of the night. So their show is done (for now, of course) and they'll perform a complete show in Toledo.

I too would like to extend a personal apology to Blessed Sacrament if our warm-up interrupted your performance. It was not at all intentional and we had no idea that the sound carried the way it did. I warmed up the drum section in the exact same spot that Park City and Scout House had used earlier. Larry Kerchner began his horn warm-ups right next to us. Had we known it was being heard in the stadium, we certainly would have moved farther away. We'll keep this in mind for next year, should we be back at the Tournament of Stars. John, As always I appreciate your thoughtfulness. FYI, when Park City and Scout House warmed up, I don't believe the show had yet started. Nonetheless, it was simply a matter of acoustics. The performers on the field played towards the stands and their sound went out across Newark bay (which is why you could not hear them). You played your warmups in between school buildings. The building walls acted as a bandshell to amplify your sound down to the stands. BTW I was in the audience then; and I believe that (most of) your fortissimo warmup actually occurred in between BS productions. So it wasn't as disruptive as you might think. Also, after all these years at that site, the show sponsors should know to direct the corps' warmups to the front of the HS on Avenue A. I'm sorry I didn't get to see this year's Cabs alumni program due to rain. However, you sounded REALLY strong in the warmup!!! (smile)

Corps looks good and ready for the first show. Stay tuned for my next posting. Thanks for your update. And thanks for being a volunteer.

Joe, Please know that my comments were never intended to insult either the Bridgemen members nor their organization. I do not speak as a representative of Blessed Sacrament, nor do I speak as a representative of the Raiders. I speak only as a parent. FYI my son Ryan recently completed his fifth successful year marching with the Raiders. As parents we would attend as many of his shows as possible, including the DCI Championships held each year in Buffalo, Madison, Foxboro, Denver, Pasadena. I've also attended every TOS show since its reincarnation and I thoroughly enjoyed every one of them. Each year I would be disappointed that my son's corps, the Raiders, were not performing in the TOS show. With fewer drum corps shows occuring each year, there are fewer performance opportunities for all the hours of hard work that they invest. The Raiders are an excellent DCI competing corps. They even won the DCI Div. III World Championships in Foxboro. So the question I raised as a parent was why aren't the Raiders invited. Please don't read too much into this. I'm disappointed that you would be so judgmental to presume that a question from a parent about his son's appearance in a show would be deemed insulting. I just feel that those kids have a good drum corps and deserve every performance opportunity that they can get. Hence the question. Thanks.

TOS is always a successful show. But, a few questions. Bushwackers are back in the TOS in 2008. Excellent! So, where were they last year? They were there in 2006. Why were they not invited in 2007? They were ready and looking forward to performing in Bayonne again in 2007. Huh? Where is Sky Alumni in 2008? Always a crowd favorite. AND, they are actually doing a drill this year. (Yep) Yes, I know, they declined this year to accept a big paying gig elsewhere. Too bad. AND, the BIG question: Why aren't the Raiders EVER invited to this show? They were originally the Bayonne Raiders. Now they are the Wayne Raiders. They are a longstanding successful Div 2 corps (Oops, Div II is now known as an "Open Class" corps). Nonetheless, why not have the Raiders in the TOS shows. A local corps. With Bayonne roots. They would add to the draw at the gate. They are a good corps. Attractive. So, I don't understand why they are not in the show. Can someone explain why Raiders are NEVER invited to perform at TOS?[/color]