cellopitmello
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Posts posted by cellopitmello
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who says 88=clean? there's 12 more points in there
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The nacho cheese was a nice touch to the taco salad Lois
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The guy that was my band director my freshman year was actually one of the guys that introduced me to DC, when the old-coot who had previously left to be an administrator returned my sophomore year he didn't really have a choice in influencing my participation as i had already started marching. He couldn't complain cause i was the best percussionist he had, and i was really a cellist that joined the band to broaden my horizons before being a music major.
Luckily for me, my studio prof. is very supportive of doing ANYTHING musical outside of the University and has several students march high-end drumlines. However, i have a number of friends that are WW majors and play brass instruments in corps and keep it a secret as their profs claim it will "ruin their embesure" (spelling don't kount). But i guess a plus is that i go to a university that claims to have a "drum corps style" marching band and pushes out more band directors than any other type of teacher.
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i don't know if anyone could recover form that last drop.....it's have to REALLY bounce.
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well...Hop did bring up the subject of whether or not it was legal for Bluecoats to amplify a megaphone (what that electronic-could be considered a mic) as it was amplified amplification, but it was ruled as legal-which is ok. I couldn't imagine him not bringing up something that serious
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I charged my ipod all summer on the bus (we had a power strip-very nice), finals week because we were in the same local for the whole week I made the stupid mistake of charging it during the day in the gym...it was gone, as was everything else plugged into that particular surge protector. But judging from the area, I'd guess the guy that stole it had probably already resorted to eating his dog so I wouldn't be suprised if they REALLY needed the $$. Doesn't mean it's right, but I should have known better.
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On a laundry day go to a liquor store (depending on your corps don't get any funny ideas) and see if they have empty cardboard boxes. If you find the right size, they work wonderfully as bus seat storage. And at the end of the summer you can just throw it away instead of figuring our how to mail a perfectly good plastic box home or throwing it away.
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what a bunch of sissies!!! you guys never had it bad at all, not like me. once, at retreat, we had all the contras set just perfect on the ground and knelt down to pick them up. now, normally, we would kneel, grab our horns, and pop back up in unison, but not this night. we stayed kneeling down for what felt like gee, i don't know, minutes. needless to say, my foot totally fell asleep, and when our section leader gave the command to stand, i half stood, half fell down, had to catch myself and totally screwed up our uniformity. it was brutal man, brutal. a horrific sports injury if ever there was one but you know what? next morning, for stretch and basics, i was right there dude, ironman, gutting it out, recently sleeping foot and all.
top that, suckas!
i split my fulcrum playing crash cymbals during spring training-and it re-split all summer...any percussionist (especially pit) knows how much a ##### that can be
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This isn't the first time this rule has been proposed. In fact, it was proposed last year as well (even that was not the first proposal) and lost in a tie. This year, it just happened to pass.
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i don't know if i've ever heard of a pianist that could play as fast as a mallet player in a world class dc that wouldn't be able to make money professionally doing world tours. Something everyone is forgetting....the kind of stuff pianists are capable of and mallet players are capable of are completely different.
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my only beef with electronics is where to load the synths on the truck....but we pit kids are talented and sure to find somewhere for it.
as for not marching--wouldn't even dream of it. Back when i first started marching, we still had opening ceremonies. Those are long gone, but no matter what i wouldn't give up my age out year for a million dollars. I couldn't march past 2009 (conveniently my age out) since i'll be teaching a classroom by then...but i'll have loved every minute of my dc career, opening ceremonies, amplification, voice and all-when it comes down to it, anything they ask of you to do is just like your notes and your drill.
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Sure he hasn't... (and I say that based on what George has written in his blog and in prior versions of this rule proposal).
to say he hasn't thought of how it would be used AT ALL would just be idiotic. Sure, he's probably considered how it could be used in any show. But how many directors and corps think in terms of next year's show when right now they have to build the show for this season?
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i blame the bananas....#### fruits....
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Does anyone know if the new rule change for electronics allows the use of standard pianos? Or must it be electronic? because I, for one, would LOVE to see a grand piano in the center of the field as the members of a corps march around it. Come on now, that would be awesome.
tuning that could become a financial nightmare...but, i'm all good with creating new things! Empire statesmen had a cardboard/plywood piano on the field in their show in 2006 when they did a tribute to Ray Charles
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HI all,
I have not posted much in a while due to work and my overall schedule. I have tried my best to catch up with the latest rules proposals and decisions--some of which I new were being introduced, some not. Here are some brief comments that many may not like, but they are just meant to stir some conversation and some thinking, and they are certainly not meant to be mean to anyone or to the activity.
1. Although a number of rules have passed that have certainly riled up the masses here on DCP, please remember that the unknown factor here (which corps will use electronics, etc., and how will they be used?) has not yet been answered.
2. None of us has experienced a drum corps show with electronics being used along with amplification. We can guess what the outcome will be, but we truly don't know until the corps themselves put it on the field.
3. Even the oldest and proudest of drum corps fans know that evolution takes shape in many forms, and in all phases of life. That includes drum and bugle corps. The activity has been changing since day one. There once was a time when many of the oldest corps used Fifes--a woodwind instrument by any definition. Change has indeed taken place, some of it good, some bad, but you can't have the one without the other. How can any rationale person not think that the day was coming when drum corps would migrate to amps, synths, keyboards, etc.? This has nothing to do with whether you like it, it has EVERYTHING to do with will it happen.
4. Why did it happen? Well, there are lots of reasons. Instructors are better educated, generally come from music school backgrounds, and DO like to play with timbre, effect, and they like to experiment with what could be vs. what is. They are not as concerned about DCI's past or its' traditions, they are more concerned with where it goes and what helps them compete, recruit, create, challenge, and perform. This is not to say that everyone agrees with such reasons, but until the product suffers enough or until people stop showing up for camps, it is unlikely that drum corps will take a step back to the past. None of us really know the answer to this. You can say attendance is down, fewer corps exist, and fewer kids are auditioning, but there can be all kinds of reasons for that. Cost could be at the top of the list, and frankly it would be hard to bring that down given the current times. The top corps seem to draw plenty of people to their camps, and typically they are the most progressive in terms of music, show design, amps, voice, electronics, you name it. They also happen to be the best run and most advertised.
5. Does anyone here really think that corps will continue to use voice, amps, and electronics in certain ways that tend to upset the audience and drive customers away? I am just asking this to hear what some have to say. I don't know that I can answer this myself, but it seems to me that the customer still has a say, and if tickets come crashing to a halt, and web sales fall considerably, and demand for the activity hits an all-time low, I do believe changes will be made. Also, when answering this, please don't just use the Cadets as your only model. They have proven to be one of the few corps that will push at will, regardless of what others think, and they have largely been successful doing so depending on what side you take. But come up with more than one example and don't just turn this into a Hopkins slam-fest. A lot of corps directors seem to be jumping on his band wagon. What must they be thinking?
6. Finally, how can anyone in their right mind really believe that from 1960 to now, or 1970 to now, that drum corps would NOT change, evolve, perhaps even morph into something totally different and new? How can one believe this when everything else in society has done just that? I realize that change is only good when it happens to be change YOU agree with, but to assume that change you dislike will never take place is unrealistic, and if you can admit that then you know exactly why things happen that you don't like.
The old arguments do have some validity:
- we haven't played real bugles for decades
- it's no longer just a drum section, it is a percussion section that uses mallet instruments and more to emphasize color and theme
- the Bb/F horns of today are BAND instrument for better or worse
- the color guard bares little- to no resemblance of those used in the 70s, let along the 60s and earlier.
- the overall military style and structure once so prominent up to the 70s is no longer seen, and hardly a debate arises because of its absence.
- the visual program is perhaps the most striking change from earlier decades, yet we have taken all that with stride.
- and vocalizations were allowed back in 1984, yet no debate occurred until amplification became legal.
- amps were added a few years back, and while some did not like this it seems the corps have done well and people continue to audition.
- so now we have added electronics and the world of drum corps has died. Yet it seems to me DCI and drum corps has died a thousand deaths according to many. So which is it?
At first it seems the argument was drums and bugles, now it's keeping things acoustic. Well, which is it? Maybe you wish to have both, kind of like the kid who wants everything he asks Santa to bring him for Christmas.
It is a new day for "drum and bugle corps." Indeed it is very new, very different, and with that may come a different fan base. I don't know. None of us really do. You may be planning on leaving the activity and not supporting it anymore, but you have no way of telling who will join with the new ranks and what their support may mean?
Just some thoughts.
JW
well said :)
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I remember us having a few "short" DMs. Brad Toth in 2001 couldn't have been more than 5'9, and Matt Haines in 2004 was maybe around 5'9-5'10.
Brittany Summers (the 2008 DM, along with Chris Castille) is shorter than me, I think, and I'm only 5'7!
I never heard of any height pre-req when I marched. It was all about the synergy between the person picked and the corps, staff, etc. and the leadership qualities they held. They can be taught to wave their hands in the air.
Michael Terry
Cadets Baritone 2000-2007
i believe that brittany said she was around the 5'4" area
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I was getting ready to do a college marching band exhibition at a high school competition. As we're standing in the end zone waiting to go on, i'm talking to a friend of mine in the pit about DC. This guy nearby overhears and says...wait, where did you march-so i tell him-to which the guy replies...
"Cool! I played snare for Cavaliers (named two years-i don't remember what they were) and Cadets 05"
To which I replied "Oh, then you must know Katie!" (our section leader that was in Cadet's 05 pit), before i gaged the guys reaction i called Katie over to reunite them. He made up some lame excuse of not remembering her...An amazing feet as they would have lived together on a bus for 3 months....
lame lame lame lame lame....
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as to lying about it on a resume--it actually looks really good for a music educator--outside/performing experience. I've heard of people loosing their jobs as band directors for lying on their resume about experience.
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I actually was driving home from my grandmom's once and saw the Crossmen truck pass me on I-95
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we were actually only allowed to take a mat/air mattress that would roll up inside our sleeping bag this summer because of the space foam/rubber/whatever mats take up in the bus bays. It posed a problem with breaking doors in the past-therefore i left my mat at home-i even dropped the air mattress idea because i was too lazy to carry it around all summer...Usually i was fine because i'm a stomach sleeper, but there were many nights when i wished i had one :)
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Basically, if your 22nd birthday falls between January 1st and May 31st you loss that summer to march. If you're 22nd birthday fell between June 1st and Dec 31st you get to march that summer and the proposed rule means nothing to you.
So this proposed rule really only impacts DCI members and hopefuls with b-days between Jan 1st and May 31st.
DCI should have passed this rule the same year they increased the limit to 150 members. I think some corps are going to have a hard time finding 12 to 16 contras to march and this would have allowed an easier transition.
Just my 2 cents.
BackBeat
ah yes...but you can only propose so many rules in a year and have them pass--some people would accuse you of wanting to create a giamongo super corps that will never age out.
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how about the wave of heat that goes with the diesele smell when you walk between busses?
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I would find that insulting. My own parents don't think I can handle myself in a supervised youth activity without constant contact?
i don't know about your parents...but my parents loved me and wanted to hear from me once in a while-remember payphones are practically non-existent these days
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Clogged ear cannal-i'm in the pit....hearing is vital!!
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old news, they've been out for weeks-they've even got their own thread...get a life
Cavalcade of Champions - July 17, 2010
in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions
Posted
yeah but caviar wouldn't go well with the taco salad.....
or would it?