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some old corps photos


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Couple of great shots of the Sex Cymbals!!!!!

Thanks :tongue:

Guess which sex cymbal is the cymbal tech for VK this year....

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In the concert formation (pictured here while we emptied out spit), I was the furthest person out - just inside the 20 yard line!

Yeah, the drill writers didn't cut us any slack - a 60 yard spread and separation for the start of "La Suerte". Made for a nice stereo sound...

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Yeah, the drill writers didn't cut us any slack - a 60 yard spread and separation for the start of "La Suerte". Made for a nice stereo sound...

But I have to wonder: Did that wide spread make it even more difficult for you in the corps to hold the music together? Did any phasing train wrecks ever happen, as a result?

One of my all-time favorite drill moves is the rotating gates (not sure if I'm using the correct terminology) into a company front in your closer; you can see the beginnings of it in the closeup of the two rifle line members holding red streamers on the front sideline. That had to be such a difficult move to pull off, and it always gave me goosebumps every time I saw you do it.

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But I have to wonder: Did that wide spread make it even more difficult for you in the corps to hold the music together? Did any phasing train wrecks ever happen, as a result?

One of my all-time favorite drill moves is the rotating gates (not sure if I'm using the correct terminology) into a company front in your closer; you can see the beginnings of it in the closeup of the two rifle line members holding red streamers on the front sideline. That had to be such a difficult move to pull off, and it always gave me goosebumps every time I saw you do it.

Normally we had tempo locked in really tight to begin with. The beginning of "La Suerte" took some doing because of the exposure. The drums played a downbeat, and we came in on beat two. If you waited to hear the downbeat, reacted and played you'd be late so it took an aural override to make it on time. Fun stuff!

The 'gate turns' were really the only other tempo issue, as you had to really listen to the center. One year we tried doing them from the outside in, and that didn't go well.

One funny note on the gate turns - for whatever reason, and I don't know the statistical probablility of this, I ended up next to the same person every year (Lisa Berkey - now Lisa South). Change of order, change of side, didn't matter. The twist in the story - I'm about 6'2" and Lisa is in the low 5 foot range. It made it interesting to maintain elbow contact, especially for Lisa. It's hard to march and play with your elbows higher than your horn...

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Normally we had tempo locked in really tight to begin with. The beginning of "La Suerte" took some doing because of the exposure. The drums played a downbeat, and we came in on beat two. If you waited to hear the downbeat, reacted and played you'd be late so it took an aural override to make it on time. Fun stuff!

The 'gate turns' were really the only other tempo issue, as you had to really listen to the center. One year we tried doing them from the outside in, and that didn't go well.

One funny note on the gate turns - for whatever reason, and I don't know the statistical probablility of this, I ended up next to the same person every year (Lisa Berkey - now Lisa South). Change of order, change of side, didn't matter. The twist in the story - I'm about 6'2" and Lisa is in the low 5 foot range. It made it interesting to maintain elbow contact, especially for Lisa. It's hard to march and play with your elbows higher than your horn...

Wow, you've pointed out some details that I think a lot of folks may not have taken into consideration when watching BD's show. 27th Lancers got all the glory -- deservedly so -- for George Zingali's breathakingly innovative drill. But someone said to me once, and I believe this is true, that BD's drill was just as difficult as Two-Seven's; it's just that yours was more traditional/symmetrical.

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One funny note on the gate turns - for whatever reason, and I don't know the statistical probablility of this, I ended up next to the same person every year (Lisa Berkey - now Lisa South). Change of order, change of side, didn't matter. The twist in the story - I'm about 6'2" and Lisa is in the low 5 foot range. It made it interesting to maintain elbow contact, especially for Lisa. It's hard to march and play with your elbows higher than your horn...

Heh....that kinda happened in 84....Preston Howard(around your height, IIRC), next to Lisa Glasser (shorter than me at 5' 4.5").....easy to spot in a camera shot...you just looked for one plume in the Frenchies a LOT lower than the one next to it!

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Wow, you've pointed out some details that I think a lot of folks may not have taken into consideration when watching BD's show. 27th Lancers got all the glory -- deservedly so -- for George Zingali's breathakingly innovative drill. But someone said to me once, and I believe this is true, that BD's drill was just as difficult as Two-Seven's; it's just that yours was more traditional/symmetrical.

Well, that certainly was the way BD did it. Not really "in your face" demand/difficulty, and the execution of many areas of the show probably hid the difficulty. Certainly we had somewhat of a "vanilla" symmetrical visual show but you had to match side to side - another exposure lacking in asymmetry.

While the gate turns were a signature move, the spirals in "Free" were without question the most difficult drill move we ever encountered. The middle horns really carried the move. We had to move a circle at a 45 to center front, then break the circle open and do a blind connection to the sops, who were sliding in from behind. Once attached, the dress responsibilities were about three directions at once with a constantly changing arc path. All while playing sixteenth note runs...

Perhaps it can be found in a watchable state somewhere in web land.

The closer you got to the pivot point, the more ridiculous the move was. Fun!

Funny seeing the marching keyboards. LOL. It's even more ridiculous watching earlier videos with the marching tymps. What the heck was everyone thinking???

:tongue:

Edited by BDCorno
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While the gate turns were a signature move, the spirals in "Free" were without question the most difficult drill move we ever encountered...:thumbup:

Same for the Snare & Tenor line in "Free". We had to not only rotate the line but we also had to simultaneously move backfield, effectively moving two directions at once. I know the kids of today would laugh at that but I remember us talking about how crazy the drum line drill was. More than a few steps away from the 50 and we started getting real nervous :thumbup: .

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hey dave

didn't we do that spiral move first in '78 as well?

ron

You know, I don't remember. The half life of my brain cells must be 30 years... LOL.

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