vferrera

Does anyone know what key they are playing Slaughter in? I think the 74/75 and 82 versions were in B minor, no?

First reads are unreliable. Madison beat Cavaliers in music GE at Louisville, but were a point down at Normal.

Scouts could be sitting as high as 9th, depending on BAC. Would have to catch Blue Stars to move higher.

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"That was an important piece of information, don't you think?" (A Few Good Men?? Anyone see that??)

but they keep pulling me back in! :) (Godfather III? Anyone see that? I guess not.)

Just out of curiosity, are you even eligible to march? I mean, have you, or would you be able to satisfy the terms of the contract that marching members are required to sign?

There was no lie, just an attempt by you to twist, hide, and manipulate the truth. The moment you turned down a spot in the corps, that was the end of their obligation. They didn't need to keep you informed of every change in programming. Even if they had decided to bring back a full-fledged plate line, they would have been well within their rights NOT to inform you. You quit on them, not the other way around.

front and center in the first post is where it belonged. Listen, as I stated, from the beginning, you have my sympathy with regard to having your section cut. But when you started with the lying and betrayal garbage, without mentioning that you had been offered a spot, that's where you lost me. Like I said, it's not hard to find people here who will jump on any excuse to bash the scouts (or any corps for that matter). You've gained their sympathy at the expense of unfairly dissing your brothers. Nice job.

Listen, if your goal was to get sympathy from madison haters, you succeeded. Not hard to accomplish. Every corps has their detractors and it only takes a whiff of impropriety for them to start circling like sharks. Nicely done! But you were not perfectly honest yourself in hiding the fact that you were offered a spot and now trying to minimize that fact. That's shows poor character in my book.

I have to admit, this post has a certain brilliance about it. Many people attempt to post pure vitriol utterly disconnected from reality, but rarely do they succeed so well. Honks sweeping dirt under the rug - brilliant! Corps screwed the pooch - genius! Unfortunately, the reality that the "honks" have brought out from under the rug is that the corps did everything they could to give 4 members a chance to march. The members chose to walk and now one of them is griping about a 30 sec cymbal feature. But, hey, I shouldn't even be posting this, because, in the absurd logic vacuum that is DCP, any attempt to defend your corps against unfair and inaccurate criticism just makes it worse for the corps! And it make you a "honk" or a "fanboy." Sheese.

Who does? If people want to criticize scouts for cutting their symbol line, that's fine with me. If people want to criticize the way the corps handled these 4 members, then they need to get the full story. As the facts have come trickling out, it seems that the corps did indeed bend over backwards to find a way for these guys to march. So this is looking to me like sheer petulance on the part of the cymbal players. How can you claim to have been "betrayed" when you turned down a spot in the corps?

Because it was offered and the people who offered it are the ones running the corps, not you. But if you turned down a spot, then your whole "betrayal" issue goes out the window, imo. and with that, I'm outta here.

Well, the scouts do a lot more than thump their chest about it, trust me. But if someone accuses the corps of lying, they better produce some evidence. Cymbal line = guard-on-symbols. No way. Not even close. According to Bill Leslie, who does a ton of volunteer work for the Scouts and pretty much epitomizes the word "brotherhood", the guy was offered a spot. To him, it was more important to be a cymbal player than to be a Scout. That's his decision. But don't come back talking about lying and betrayal when there was nothing of the sort.

Sorry, I just don't see it. I'm with you on everything else, but here I think you're just going overboard. Consider this - the people who are sympathizing about the lying and betrayal aspect of this are not Scouts, and the people who are Scouts are not sympathizing, at least not about that. Anyway, good luck with next year's auditions. Say hi to Jeff for me if you make it. I still support cymbals in drum corps.

What would you say if a corps announced they were having a cymbal line and then it turned out to 30 secs of "guard-on-cymbals"? Would that also be a lie? You can't have it both ways.

overgeneralize much?

Being p.o.'d that the corps doesn't have a real cymbal line and has put cymbals in the hands of guard members is a legitimate beef, imo. Saying that you were "lied" to and "betrayed" when you were given a chance to at least try out for another section? Not cool at all. that's pretty much the bottom line on this subject for me.

I can understand how someone would feel it's disrespectful to have guard members "playing" cymbals. As a horn player, I got the same feeling when Garfield's guard picked up horns way back when. It's sort of like saying, "hey, look, it's so easy anyone can do it." I just don't get the part about being lied to. Seems petty. Once a scout, always a scout, but that doesn't entitle you to make design decisions. If the corps decides one year that they are going to switch from brass to vuvuzelas, then you either switch to vuvuzela or march elsewhere.

You were told that they aren't marching a cymbal line...and they're not. They have a short cymbal feature. Are you equating that with a cymbal line? What about cymbals in the front ensemble? Are you also upset about that? If you're committed to playing cymbals and no other instrument, then you're basically saying that the corps should bend over backwards to accommodate you. There just aren't many cymbal spots in DCI. Learn a different position or go to another corps. But don't say you were lied to when you weren't.

to me, drum corps without cymbals is like pizza without pepperoni or chips without salsa. They add a lot, but many corps feel they can live without them. When the stopped marching tymps, tymp players switched to bass drum. When they stopped marching french horns, horn players switched to mello. You have to be a little flexible.

I like that he doesn't spend half the article explaining what drum corps is. I also like that there are 2 other stories about Blue Stars. Gotta love LaCrosse.

I understand. Every corps should have a plate line. Otherwise, it's like a hot-dog without mustard. But being a scout means doing what the corps needs you to do, not what you want to do. If you didn't try out for a different spot, then it seems like being a cymbal was a higher priority than being a scout. What did you expect them to do? p.s. when I was in the corps, I rode to camp with a guy who was trying out for the tenor line. He was in the line until around April or so, then he was cut. They offered him a chance to plug a third soprano hole and he took it. Even learned to play the horn a bit by the end of the season.

That sucks. Did you try out for another section?

This is one of the biggest myths about DCI scoring. It sound reasonable, but it just isn't true. I've been analyzing DCI scores for years and they are amazingly consistent. Different shows, judging panels, even different numbers of judges, weather, bus breakdowns, flu epidemics, train wrecks. None of that has more than a 5-10% impact on scores. 90% of the score for any given corps is determined by 2 factors: the first score they received and the number of days since the season started.