cowtown Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Not sure I should do this - but the day after Finals has always been a little melancholy for me...... I always feel it as the end of Summer; a transition, a magical, melancholy, magnificent space where one thing ends and another has yet to begin. You look back and know that this morning you woke on a gym floor surrounded by friends, tomorrow you'll wake up in your own bed and no one is around to tell you what to do. Too true and well stated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 Posted on FB....thanks, Jim! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Thanks for sharing that with everyone Jim. And it's even better seeing your name on a post. It's been a few years since you were active on Sound Machine and gave it a good go to form a corps in ME. Stay well and healthy Chief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ch1k3n Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 a band camp to tolerate LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolina09Spirit Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 This. One of the most brilliant things I've seen on DCP in a long, LONG time. I am glad you posted this, and even more glad I got the chance to read it. I long for the day that I'm able to post something along the similar lines of this (which will be this time next year...I'll be a rook-out as well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain88 Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Only drum corps people could understand a post like this. This post brings back many memories. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan Mom Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 The worst part for me is that on Monday I go back to teaching middle school. Suffice it to say that my students are a far cry from the drum corps kids I've been hanging around all summer, who are the most dedicated, hardest working, most considerate, polite kids on the planet. Reality bites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbobaz Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Jim, I wanted to thank you so much for your post. it truly brought tears to my eyes. I had the opportunity to be at Finals this year with a Drum Corps friend who invited me to go with him. (Thanks James...it was a killer time!) After not being able to attend for several years it was an "odd" feeling the day after, even after all the years had past. Maybe it was seeing so many old friends, or was it going on the field hours before Finals that DCI offers fans to do and getting that feeling back or knowing what each member feels like getting ready to give every last bit of what they have left to the last show of the year or of there marching years. You said it all so beautifully...and I agree with several other poster's...it is great to see such a positve post after Finals. Know matter who wins, what score they got, who did this or that we are ALL brothers and sisters in a huge fraternity call Drum Corps! Congrats to ALL the Corps for an awesome 2012! Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Alberty Posted August 14, 2012 Author Share Posted August 14, 2012 (edited) @ Fanmom: I think you hit one of my main points. The thing I miss most about not teaching public school music or even working with a band in some capacity - I work as a Creative for a fruit-based technology company now - is the rock-bottom certainty that any one of those kids could be on that field, whether they march off last or not. One of the images that I can always, immediately, call to mind is finishing my finals show at Mile High Stadium in 1977, coming out of the focus and suddenly becoming viscerally aware of 34,000 people standing up and going crazy for me and knowing that I earned it. Every doubt and fear I'd felt about myself all season evaporated in an instant. That was my goal as a teacher - to get my students to feel that, in some way, in some measure, whether from their parents or the public at large. I envy that you have that chance - though I still try to do that with the people I work with. Back then I did it with clarinets, movement and voices - now i do it with computers. But it's the same goal. @ Ghost: thanks - I've been through a pretty dramatic career change (and financial change) that made feeding my drum corps addiction - and let's face it, it's a D@&n disease - problematic. I'm very happy now, doing my new job and writing music and suddenly I needed to hear horns and drums and watch the guard. Well, generally I always watch a guard .... Many of the Atlantic Guardian kids have gone on to march corps - one was part of the revived Spartans, some are now music education students. I don't want to take credit - I do want to say how proud I am of them. So yeah, we do drum corps for a reason - each of has our own primary reason and if you still are into it, at any level, for any reason, years after the fact - then that reason probably has less and less to do with placements or scores or styles or content - it has to do with what it took to get there. And you know what? That comes back in everything you try to do - if you have the knack for it. God, I love drum corps. Edited August 14, 2012 by Jim Alberty Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Anello Posted August 14, 2012 Share Posted August 14, 2012 Ditto what Ghost said. Glad to hear from you, and well said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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