Stu Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 You may call us stupid kids. But we have a dream and we went after it. Just simple as that. Please do not read into these postings as us thinking you are stupid; you are NOT stupid. We all have been young, full of passion and desire, and that is not stupid but a wonderful thing. I am sure that you are a person with great knowledge to share. I am also relatively sure that Nagy had the best intentions for creating a corps. The thing is that with age and experience comes wisdom; and it is wisdom which you, and Nagy, have hopefully garnered from this situation. I know that this might be hard to believe, but us old-foggies do have your best interest in our hearts. We cannot guarantee you anything in life. However, if you use this experience to be more careful as you progress into adulthood, many of your dreams can become a reality. Keep the faith! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ripper Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 Correct me if I am wrong but I believe that Teal Sound was a corps that evolved from young ageouts that had a dream but built it slowly and look what the dream has flourished into, so continue to dream just do it with patience Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad-Spider Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 I understand I did not know what I was getting into at first, but in these few short I have learned a lot. I did not learn it on my own. I asked questions from others who have been doing corps. And I am not the one who started the corps or had anything to do with the planning. I was called and asked to be the composer/ arrange r Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad-Spider Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 I understand I did not know what I was getting into at first, but in these few short I have learned a lot. I did not learn it on my own. I asked questions from others who have been doing corps. And I am not the one who started the corps or had anything to do with the planning. I was called and asked to be the composer/ arrange r Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 (edited) Please do not read into these postings as us thinking you are stupid; you are NOT stupid. We all have been young, full of passion and desire, and that is not stupid but a wonderful thing. I am sure that you are a person with great knowledge to share. I am also relatively sure that Nagy had the best intentions for creating a corps. The thing is that with age and experience comes wisdom; and it is wisdom which you, and Nagy, have hopefully garnered from this situation. I know that this might be hard to believe, but us old-foggies do have your best interest in our hearts. We cannot guarantee you anything in life. However, if you use this experience to be more careful as you progress into adulthood, many of your dreams can become a reality. Keep the faith! I think there's plenty of room for new blood in drum corps. And I personally think a staff full of young people might surprise a lot of folks. I think the key to an "Eclipse"- like venture is getting experience on the board of directors and admin team. You don't want to learn all of your lessons the hard way! Edited May 17, 2010 by corpsband Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scoutnout Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 I am LeKenneth Miller, I am the composer. I am glad that this issue came up on DCP these were things I have been wondering since november. I just wanted to state that as far as I know nobody on said "staff" list knew what was going on. The claims of corporate sponsorships and money from the lilly foundation is news to me. From december - january I was active in making phone calls to the DCI office about obtaining music a license for the 2010 season- so DCI does know about Eclipse. Anything after january I do not know what was going on, on the administration end. I am truly sorry about the whole april fools joke thing. This was not a joke. You may call us stupid kids. But we have a dream and we went after it. Just simple as that. One of my lifes goals is to be a arranger for a drum corps, so when the opportunity came I took it.I don't see this as a blackeye on my resume, I see it as extra practice. I have a complete drum corps show and another one started from this. I hope Nagy reads this. I am angry because I feel like he hid a lot from the staff members and I am angry about the trash talk to other corps staff and members. I know personally I can not run a drum corps right now, but I hope everybody in the future who is thinking about starting a drum corps learns from this whole situation. I myself have contacted a few staff members of actually world class staff and have asked for advice and help in my career ( Donny Allen can back me up on this). Once again I want to say that I did not have anything to do with any of the claims coming from nagy, or had anything to do with the trash talking but I do want to say to the drum corps world that I am sorry about this situation. Wish you all the best. Drum Corps continues to need people young and old with passion. Just realise ( Which you may have after this ) there are no shortcuts to success or doing what you want to do. Find an established and a group with measurable success ( Dont nec. mean scoring there ) volunteer your service in any way possible. Let people see your passion and work hard at your craft and then you can achieve your goals. I think others like myself may agree with me. Good luck and let this be a lesson. In all aspects be cautious ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iplaytimpani Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 With the exception of RAMD dealings with Howdy don't know anything about the people involved in this. But more I thought about it and looking at the bios, it just sounded like an updated version of the "Music Man" but no idea who was playing Prof Hill. IOW a snake oil salesman/con man came to town and sucked in a bunch of people who thought they would be making a difference. Just hope the innocent people who got involved in this drive-by don't get disgusted and not want to work with corps anymore. Likewise, hope no one holds this mess against them in the future.Agree with Duder/Iplaytympani, DCP did a lot of good here. And kudos to anyone who did the digging to find out more instead of just griping and throwing guesses around. And if Iplaytympani and I ever meet at DCA, I'm buying the drinks.... We had trouble... right here in drum corps city! With a capital T and that somehow still rhymes with E, which stands for Eclipse... Or something like that. I haven't been out to DCA in a few years. It may be time to head out that way for a trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymouscorpsvet Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 Thanks to everyone for the advice that has been given. I understand that becoming a 'rock star' takes years upon years of work. However, every once and a while there is a break to make a little progress and to get your foot in the door so to speak. and I agree. if it had been me running this drum corps (something i am sure I couldn't handle) I would be calling up every corps director I know and everyone to get advice and I would make sure that I had someone on staff that had been around the block enough times to know what was going on. Oh well. Thanks again for the advice everyone, i guess I'll just have to continue working as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 Thanks to everyone for the advice that has been given. I understand that becoming a 'rock star' takes years upon years of work. However, every once and a while there is a break to make a little progress and to get your foot in the door so to speak. and I agree. if it had been me running this drum corps (something i am sure I couldn't handle) I would be calling up every corps director I know and everyone to get advice and I would make sure that I had someone on staff that had been around the block enough times to know what was going on. Oh well. Thanks again for the advice everyone, i guess I'll just have to continue working as usual. Hey- I'm 47 got 2 degrees, and I'd be talking to people, too if I were to try something like that. I'd be more a "Corps founder", maybe a show coordinator/horn guy myself. I've been a HS/MS Band Director, and that's a cake walk compared to running a DCI or DCA corps. And no one thought you guys who wanted to staff were stupid. I think all of us would like a crack at teaching a corps. I had one- my work schedule didn't allow me to take the offer. Like I said before, just fight the good fight, and if you have a rep for treating who you teach with kindness, and you have a good work ethic and a solid knowledge base, something will happen for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xXMelloSkiesXx Posted May 17, 2010 Share Posted May 17, 2010 Alright, I'll shoot. I was contacted to be on staff and constantly nagged by Chris Nagy. I cant say that I ever truly believed this would work out, but in talking to other staff members online, we all didnt like the direction it was headed. I spent two hours talking to him on the phone, listening to the ravings of a 12 year old 'corps director' want to be. I told him I hadnt planned on teaching in 2011, since I would be planning marching with The Cadets...instead of understanding and dropping the issue, he told me he still wanted to talk to me about teaching and being on staff, and that he was going to use me anyways. He then continued to bash the "BOA" Cadets, while telling me all about a show involving an on field labyrinth, voice overs, and more props then have ever been used before. Among other show ideas was one that was DIRECTLY copied from a BOA band, called "universal languages'. The entire phone call raised red flag after red flag. He told me cavaliers would be dropping from world class to come march here, and that he was gaining the attention and recruitment of many world corps vets who were interested in marching. When asked what technique I was most comfortable teaching, I replied "straight leg", to which he told me I would have to learn their new way of marching. needless to say this "new" style was EXACTLY described as the Blue Knights. He even referred to the corps as a better and DARKER blue knights...which...if you could even imagine a darker blue knights. Went on to ramblings of how he would only be 100,000 in debt by the end of the season, and that he could pay it off by selling instruments, that he expected 1600 people to audition, that we would have 5 to 8 audition sites, that we would be giving 'scholarships' to help kids march, that he wanted to take open this year, and medal in world the next. All very unrealistic claims. I knew this was a disaster, and was reluctantly kept on staff, on their sorry excuse for a website, and made to make tedious email accounts and answer phone calls (which I never again answered). I actually should have known this was ABSOLUTE failure when I noticed his facebook status said he " LOVE WORKING FOR VECTOR"....which I not only dealt with in the past, but now campaign against at college. Terrible. There were various other elements that were smelly as well...like the BLAND show design and how the staff wanted to have an intervention to talk him out of his musical....well ALL of his choices. If you want to know more about this debacle, just let me know....none of the staff should be blamed though... since then, all of my friends that were kept on bored have made unanswered requests to respectably cut us loose from this horrid organization. oh yeah, and there is no trace of chris nagy on the internet any more....classy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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