byline Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 According to their website, they performed in concert at both Clinton inaugurations but this was the first time in the parade. Really? OK, cool, I stand corrected . . . and learned something today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byline Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Felt bad for the bands late in the parade. Waited all day, all the money to get there, and no one watching. One right after the other....nothing between them. Too bad. Then a long walk to the metro, train back to RFK, and another long walk around the stadium to get back to the bus. A very long cold day. Glad for the experience....but never again. Thanks for this first-person analysis of the day. I had a feeling it was a long, long wait in brutally cold conditions. It makes me appreciate all the more what all the participants went through. I'm watching the parade again now via C-SPAN. If it's any consolation to all those who performed in the parade, even if there were not huge crowds along the route, they had millions of people watching and appreciating their performances on TV and via the Internet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mephistopheles Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 I was looking at the Cadet's video, which was shot from the side. Do they not teach people how to guide right (or left for that matter), any longer? It looked bad. And before any of you jump and say "we'll everyone else looked bad", "it was a bad angle" etc... It is THE Cadets I am talking about. At least they had 14 tubas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fecontra Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 I was looking at the Cadet's video, which was shot from the side.Do they not teach people how to guide right (or left for that matter), any longer? It looked bad. And before any of you jump and say "we'll everyone else looked bad", "it was a bad angle" etc... It is THE Cadets I am talking about. At least they had 14 tubas That video was early in the parade, but you are right, they were not " covering " their ranks. They looked far better at the reviewing stand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byline Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 (edited) The thing I wondered was whether corps do much parade marching at all anymore. Parades used to be a regular feature of certain contests, and even though we often grumbled about them, we still did them. Is that the case anymore? It's the same with marching bands. Other than the military units, Ohio State, etc., I saw few diagonals, which is a clear sign that marching members are not guiding their lines/covering down their files. That's one of the details that used to be part and parcel of basic block, which translated into parade marching. But, of course, if that's not part of the usual requirements for marching, then it stands to reason that such training is going to fall by the wayside, thus becoming a "special" requirement for parades. It's a lot harder to implement that quickly and make it work the way it's supposed to, which can give it a "done on the fly" look. Having said that, I'm not sure that a general audience would have picked up on any of this. Also, I do think the conditions may have played a role. It's a lot harder to focus on everything that needs to be done when you stopped feeling your extremities a couple of hours ago. You're just trying to get through without passing out (something I almost did during a bitterly cold Christmas parade in high school). Edited January 22, 2009 by byline Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euponitone Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 (edited) I was looking at the Cadet's video, which was shot from the side.Do they not teach people how to guide right Actually, we guide left Funny how that works out.... edit - ok I just watched it. Not bad...for january really. I guess we can go ahead and write off the cadets though. Their lines werent perfect in january...9th place Edited January 22, 2009 by euponitone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Actually, we guide left Funny how that works out.... edit - ok I just watched it. Not bad...for january really. I guess we can go ahead and write off the cadets though. Their lines werent perfect in january...9th place 9th, if they are lucky....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Felt bad for the bands late in the parade. Waited all day, all the money to get there, and no one watching. One right after the other....nothing between them. Too bad. I wonder if that could be PARTIALLY helped by giving the units a short block of time directly in front of the reviewing stand...even 30 seconds of drill in the President's face would be better than the doppler-shift of cruising straight by. It just hit me, tho, a possible reason why neither Colts nor Cadets popped a left slide and let Obama have it (and we KNOW how loud Cadets have been in recent years...07...YIKES). The Secret Service might've gotten a LITTLE concerned with a lot of things pointed directly at him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byline Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 I'm not sure what protocol is for inaugural parades. It seems to me that the origin, of course, is for military units to pass in review in front of their commander in chief. It has since been expanded to include performing units from every state. But I wonder if protocol demands that all of these units simply pass in review, not really "perform" for the president the way they might in other parades. Dunno. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrumpetJ Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Ok, Tennessee looses 20 points for making us listen to Rocky Top. Though it's likely it's the only song they know, if the bowl game was any indication :) Bowl game? I must have missed the bus for that one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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