Madison in Macy's Parade

[tesmusic]

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.

Yup. All my thoughts on the experience as well. MYNWA

[IllianaLancerContra]

How so?

I knew this was coming - but I am a bit surprised it took this long...

[Cappybara]

Funnily enough, the people crying about overreactions are doing the same.

I don't think anyone said they hated the Scouts performance (like some people on here did to the Cadets in their Olympic performance) nor is anyone trying to bash on Madison in any way whatsoever. In fact, the consensus is that every single person enjoyed the performance. There is nothing wrong with giving an opinion on what could be done to improve the next showing whenever another corps makes a large national appearance. We all appreciate the performance, there is no reason to get all sensitive.

Everyone has a right to an opinion on the board, I will happily exercise it. This is mainly directed towards c_holland.

[perc2100]

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 in 2005, I think. Still quite awhile ago, but Cadets are the last DCI corps that I can think of to have done it. They and Scouts might be the only two though

Edited December 1, 2014 by perc2100

[perc2100]

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.

Thanks to you and the other Scouts who participated in a wonderfully entertaining production. I appreciate the work involved, the 75 year tradition of Scouts represented, and the drum corps panache that is so well-represented by Madison. You guys did a great job of representing the activity in general, and your organization specifically, to a huge audience and we're all grateful! Glad you all had a great time

[N.E. Brigand]

So you're saying that the Scouts intentionally didn't bother to research prior years for the camera layout template?

So you're saying the Scouts opted against a TV staging intentionally?

Maybe on both counts. I don't know, and I doubt you do either. There may have been multiple considerations involved. As someone else said, getting as many alumni together as possible probably will help with future fundraising, and maybe that's what was most important to them. Also, you might ask: which of the bands this year did the best job in staging--and how much time did that group have to rehearse together compared to the Scouts?

Thanks to C. Holland's excellent post, we now have confirmation that (1) the Scouts deliberately didn't make TV staging a priority, preferring to focus on other matters, and (2) they had very little time to rehearse together (and still put out a great product).

[Madcityscout]

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.

[Madcityscout]

Bravo brother!!!!

[xandandl]

Young Cappy, sir:

One of the treasured hollowed traditions of the the Macy's Parade is the deputation of the members of the "Santa band" (whether they be drum corps or otherwise) as "Official Santa's Helpers." Hence the Scouts went with their green, white, and red uniforms styles rather than the French gendarme outfits which are also a historic part of Madison's 75 year tradition.

One would think that youthful folk like yourself would not try to goad or upset the Scouts during these weeks of December, especially Chris Holland who already has a documentary about his influence up there at the North Pole. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/

Ho, ho, ho.

Edited December 1, 2014 by xandandl

[Florida Sun]

Sunrisers 1966 and again in 1968 got rained on both years ,plus air force Flight of Sound ,and the New York City Warriors ,all three corps in 68 .