Madison in Macy's Parade

[JimF-LowBari]

Sorry for the disconnect HornTeacher I was agreeing with the points you made about "debating the merits". IMO it was a Drum Corps doing a parade and some of the posts here over thought the whole thing. You did not give the MonMornQB vibes at all.

The parade being already over was news to me, wonder how close the end was for the CBS cameras. I think it was about a 5 minute gap between the networks.

Irony alert.... wife wants to shop at Macys for a coat tomorrow... thanks goodness not the NYC Macys....

Edit: Bloomingdales ad just showed up below my post... LOL

Edited December 1, 2014 by JimF-LowBari

[MikeD]

Oh, my. Just stumbled across another video supposedly of the parade that's actually video of a guy watching and commenting on the parade for more than two hours. (It includes an extended rant, in which he is joined by a girlfriend, about how outraged they are that Annie has been cast with an African-American girl--because everybody knows Annie is Caucasian. \

Hmmm....I hope the guy doesn't go see the current cast of Cinderella on Broadway...

What a gorgeous Cinderella...

[MikeD]

Hi Brutus. I'll be your Olive Oyl for one post. I was more excited about watching Macy's parade this year than the 30 or more years I watched the parade on TV, mostly NBC. When drum corps faded in our fair city in the 70's it was hard to watch a live parade. I didn't mind watching bands but I missed Drum Corps. 2 of our own in our fair city marched the parade as tubas (contras). I was proud of Madison Scouts when I watched Macy's on TV 2014 for many reasons. Here's a wonderful video from the parade route that I like a lot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuqerbm5I-U&feature=share

Center Grove HS had very good presence on TV (as I've done on parade in the 70's; as DM I was told 'if you see a camera, stop and get coverage'). Center Grove were on before the Red Power Ranger and preceded 'How to Train Your Dragon'. There were many animated characters in the parade but I have to admit I didn't know some of the video game characters. Madison Scouts preceded Santa Claus whom I'm aware of. It's all good

Linda...I said this someplace else...maybe FB, but personally I thought Center Grove was the best marching/music unit in the parade. They exhibited the best individual visual technique to go along with great playing.

Scouts were, of course, great too. All of this overthinking and over analyzing is just par for the DCP course.

[MikeD]

Drum Corps is different than "band."

How so?

[MikeD]

Look, people can be critical for Madison not using tv to their advantage, critquing the screamers, Lauer's slip, etc, but let's keep our eyes on the big picture here for a second:

Who was the last DCI corps, current members, alumni members, current and alumni members, ringers whatever to march in the 2nd best known parade in the world? ( Rose Bowl being first)

I'll wait for the answer.

I hear crickets

Right...I hear crickets because no one has done it. Not any of the vaunted east coast corps past or present, and no one else. I know of 3 DCA corps that have in the past ( Cabs, Skyliners and Matadors), but that's it,

So Madison performed in Macys with a huge ####### corps, and got more eyes on DCI corps than the entire summer tour does every year.

That's the important thing

Cadets had the "Santa Slot" a few years back..around 2005, I think. They actually got a lot of air time, as they opened up and created a tunnel for Santa and his sleigh to pass through.

[MikeD]

Loaded question: Cadets at the 96 Olympics. Did it do anything to help? Anything? My cringe over that show they were made to do live still hasn't reached its half life and I'm still wincing in embarrassment every time I think of it.

Well, the Cadets were the supporting cast. The 'star' of that show was Bill Irwin, the self-proclaimed clown prince.

As it says in his Wikipedia entry...

"In 1996, Irwin performed with The Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps at the 1996 Summer Olympics, in a "band on the run" sequence where he played Dr. Hubert Peterson of the fictitious Federation of United Marching Associations of America^."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Irwin

[lindap]

Linda...I said this someplace else...maybe FB, but personally I thought Center Grove was the best marching/music unit in the parade. They exhibited the best individual visual technique to go along with great playing.

Scouts were, of course, great too. All of this overthinking and over analyzing is just par for the DCP course.

This is the second time you and I agree on DCP! Happy! Center Grove HS and Madison Scouts were awesome!

Back to theatre, promotion and Macy's. There was alot of promotion for Annie during the parade. 'It's a hard knock life'.

It's interesting that Frozen has a huge following and market (as I sit at home all day because the report said -40 C with wind chill ;)

[Magbo]

I cannot believe that anyone would have the audacity to complain about the Scouts in the parade. They had members from all over the country (and other countries) participating who were brought together for about 24 hours to practice as a group. I would venture to say that there is no other corps who would have had such a tremendous alumni response. It was thrilling for the members and for their fans. It is about the brotherhood above all else. They made DCI proud. If you think you could have done it better, go stand outside in the 30 degree temperatures in snow, wind, and rain with no coat for 3 hours.

[C.Holland]

so a couple points from someone who actually participated in this event, and took it personally.

thanks for all your feedback, good, and... well... seriously? sometimes, if you don't have anything nice to say, just... (comments censored)

Hope you enjoyed your holiday. We sure as hell did.

Anyway, we did it because well, why not. We have a corps that just celebrated 75 years, alumni who are very active in supporting the current corps, and three directors who wanted to "get the band back together" so to speak.

I had the ability to hang out with guys who just marched, and guys who marched 30 years behind me and chat like we're all old friends. That's some magic if I've ever seen it.

We couldn't do more drill than we could learn and clean in 12 hours (4 tues night, 8 wed, and practice time at the rehearsal site on our own), we had to make it accessible for everyone from the 15 year old current member to the 50, 60, and 70+ year old members, and to be honest, we have a boatload of participants, so it didn't leave room for much more than a park and bark. 2 step intervals just don't let you move around with a big old horn that easily. So yea, it was about getting everyone together under one roof, and trying to peel the paint off the wall. No, we didn't care about numbers of people for tv. We wanted representation.

All of this was ok with all of the participants, directors, and yes, even Macy's and CBS and NBC who have to OK what goes on the TV. And no, no one cares about tv frame size or viewing angle. Not one single group. You as a ensemble cannot have any idea what the artistic director and production coordinator's are thinking and what they feel needs to be broadcast. I too, work in entertainment production, so don't talk to the masses here like they are stupid. They're not. It was out of our control, so we didn't worry about it.

All decisions for your performance are approved by Macy's and the TV Stations. They have to approve everything you plan to play and do. If they don't like it, you have to change it. We had to cut music (we had all learned already) out of the performance last minute to make it all work in their time frame due to their proposed layout of performances during the broadcast.

So seriously, as much as I enjoy the banter every once in awhile, shuddup. We jumped at the chance to go out and blow the windows out of the Foot Locker, and we did. We forced the recording engineer to ENTIRELY revamp his approach. haahahahahahah. Which was awesome.

We went out and had some fun in the cold. For those of us who don't march anymore, it was a chance to not just put on a uni and pick up a horn, drum, or piece of gear, it was an opportunity to put on THAT uniform. You can say there are corps that change you when you put on a uni, but there's something different about being in the Scouts, or Cavies, Cadets, or BD or even Troopers. There's a history, and a tradition. I think that's why I have such a hard time thinking about forcing more injury onto my body by marching for someone else. It'll just never be the same. It's beyond inspiring to see gents from the 60s and 70s in the streets working on 5s till they were perfect. Gents who hadn't picked a horn up in 30 years to magically find a way to pull not just a buzz from their lips, but to pull together something presentable. And the guys who hadn't carried a drum in years to put on the harness (and a back brace) and hack until the wee hours of the morning so they felt it was clean enough to finally sleep at 3 am.

I got a call from a friend tues night saying he's proud to be my friend, he'd watch for us, and there's not many corps that could pull off "pulling everyone together again". Even his own corps he aged out from he admitted they just don't have the support or pride from past generations to fathom making something of that scale happen. that says a lot. and it says a lot about the three guys who worked their butts off to organize this. housing, travel, busses, uniforms, horns, drums, flags, rifles etc etc etc. practice space and the family members who came out to help as support staff sewing unis last minute to make them perfect, dealing with food, checking people in and issueing horns and gear.

So I hope you all had a happy holiday, if you enjoyed seeing us rattle the streets of NYC, you're welcome. This made the best start to a holiday season Ive ever had, and it bittersweet with this being the first holidays without my father, it became something my fam could really get into, Because Dad loved the holidays, and he loved the Scouts. I wish he'd have been here to see it.

cheers.

Edited December 1, 2014 by C.Holland

[FlamMan]

so a couple points from someone who actually participated in this event, and took it personally.

thanks for all your feedback, good, and... well... seriously? sometimes, if you don't have anything nice to say, just... (comments censored)

Hope you enjoyed your holiday. We sure as hell did.

Anyway, we did it because well, why not. We have a corps that just celebrated 75 years, alumni who are very active in supporting the current corps, and three directors who wanted to "get the band back together" so to speak.

I had the ability to hang out with guys who just marched, and guys who marched 30 years behind me and chat like we're all old friends. That's some magic if I've ever seen it.

We couldn't do more drill than we could learn and clean in 12 hours (4 tues night, 8 wed, and practice time at the rehearsal site on our own), we had to make it accessible for everyone from the 15 year old current member to the 50, 60, and 70+ year old members, and to be honest, we have a boatload of participants, so it didn't leave room for much more than a park and bark. 2 step intervals just don't let you move around with a big old horn that easily. So yea, it was about getting everyone together under one roof, and trying to peel the paint off the wall. No, we didn't care about numbers of people for tv. We wanted representation.

All of this was ok with all of the participants, directors, and yes, even Macy's and CBS and NBC who have to OK what goes on the TV. And no, no one cares about tv frame size or viewing angle. Not one single group. You as a ensemble cannot have any idea what the artistic director and production coordinator's are thinking and what they feel needs to be broadcast. I too, work in entertainment production, so don't talk to the masses here like they are stupid. They're not. It was out of our control, so we didn't worry about it.

All decisions for your performance are approved by Macy's and the TV Stations. They have to approve everything you plan to play and do. If they don't like it, you have to change it. We had to cut music (we had all learned already) out of the performance last minute to make it all work in their time frame due to their proposed layout of performances during the broadcast.

So seriously, as much as I enjoy the banter every once in awhile, shuddup. We jumped at the chance to go out and blow the windows out of the Foot Locker, and we did. We forced the recording engineer to ENTIRELY revamp his approach. haahahahahahah. Which was awesome.

We went out and had some fun in the cold. For those of us who don't march anymore, it was a chance to not just put on a uni and pick up a horn, drum, or piece of gear, it was an opportunity to put on THAT uniform. You can say there are corps that change you when you put on a uni, but there's something different about being in the Scouts, or Cavies, Cadets, or BD or even Troopers. There's a history, and a tradition. I think that's why I have such a hard time thinking about forcing more injury onto my body by marching for someone else. It'll just never be the same. It's beyond inspiring to see gents from the 60s and 70s in the streets working on 5s till they were perfect. Gents who hadn't picked a horn up in 30 years to magically find a way to pull not just a buzz from their lips, but to pull together something presentable. And the guys who hadn't carried a drum in years to put on the harness (and a back brace) and hack until the wee hours of the morning so they felt it was clean enough to finally sleep at 3 am.

I got a call from a friend tues night saying he's proud to be my friend, he'd watch for us, and there's not many corps that could pull off "pulling everyone together again". Even his own corps he aged out from he admitted they just don't have the support or pride from past generations to fathom making something of that scale happen. that says a lot. and it says a lot about the three guys who worked their butts off to organize this. housing, travel, busses, uniforms, horns, drums, flags, rifles etc etc etc. practice space and the family members who came out to help as support staff sewing unis last minute to make them perfect, dealing with food, checking people in and issueing horns and gear.

So I hope you all had a happy holiday, if you enjoyed seeing us rattle the streets of NYC, you're welcome. This made the best start to a holiday season Ive ever had, and it bittersweet with this being the first holidays without my father, it became something my fam could really get into, Because Dad loved the holidays, and he loved the Scouts. I wish he'd have been here to see it.

cheers.

Well said.