HEY MADISON....NOTE TO SELF!

[scout9193]

A note to Madison:

Dear Scouts,

Your alumni are some of the nuttiest fans in the activity. Best wishes in the next few weeks.

Nuttiest?? No. Some of the most dedicated to our particular corps history..absolutely!!

Call us cocky, over confident, whatever..but as Alumni we remember what it's like ( to this very day!) to have babies thrown at us due that final push. Wearing the Superman suit has been the proudest accomplishment in my life. I want my current brothers to feel that final mind blowing hit as well. I've yet to see this years show. I trust the current staff but I'm just a little wary of a soft Madison Scout show ending. I want to be on my feet for the last 2 minutes!

By the way... most folks remember the final moments of the 95 and 97 ( and to a degree the 01 ) shows. Folks..I'm telling you now..grab some headphones, max out your stereo volume, and put on the 1984 show. I dont' see a lot of talk about that show...but it will always ALWAYS be one of my 3 "go to" shows for Madison-that is how a Madison show should end!!!!

(going to grab the 84 show now...)

regards,

CM

[Scerpella]

Why don't you call Sal and tell him that. It's a lot more likely to get something done than posting on a message board. I know he loves hearing from former members (especially ones he marched with if Madsop75 is any indication of your corps affiliation and year).

Jim

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You want we all call the corps directors who we have constructive criticisms for and see how well that works? As polite as I think Sal would be about receiving this advice, (if one were actually able to reach him while on tour) I believe he would simply do the job the MDBCA board entrusted to him and rely on his and his staff judgment. Madsop is simply expressing his opinion. Scouts creative staff is no more likely than any other top corps to heed the opinions of corps alumni on discussion forums.

Edited July 28, 2005 by dans24103

[madscout96]

I'm sorry I don't read the forums as often as I probably should, but this is all news to me. The Scouts really have a quiet ending now??

I saw them in late June and then again in Kalamazoo... They're doing great, doing me proud... They had the loud ending for those shows, and I thought it was good but the ending seemed to me to need a little bit more sauce... They're doing great, doing me proud. I'm glad I got advance warning of this BEFORE I see them this sunday in Massillon OH... I would have been in for a big surprise!!

I don't want to pass judgement until I see this new ending for myself, but I'm kind of fearful. Someone posted earlier about the 1995 Scouts show having placed 4th but deserving 1st, with all that power and precision and showmanship. The great thing about that show and that year was people in Buffalo standing and cheering so loudly during the last 30 seconds that you could barely hear the corps! With a soft ending there's obviously no chance of that happening...

[madsop75]

Ok,

To those of you who refer to Madison Alums as nutty, to those who would rather see requests phoned in directly to Sal Salas, to those who would rather I simply move on, except the status quo, focus on only the good and break into a rousing chorus of Kum-bi-ya (PhantomR). To all of you I express my deepest heartfelt compassion for your utter lack of understanding. For how could I expect you to understand the essense of what it means to be a Scout. Check out the DCI season pass link and in the lower right hand corner of the home page you will see a number of individuals listing thier favorite performances and corps. Notice the constant listing of Madison 75. I am now 45 but periodicly I'll run into someone who was in the stands at Franklin Field on Aug. 18th 1975 and it's a humbling experience when a complete stranger begins to cry as they recount the performance we did that eavening. You bet I'm a little passionate about my boy's. So please allow me the freedom to publicly hold them to a standard that I and all Scouts know runs deep within! Given the proper tools I know that they are capable of anything! So please consider for a moment that you may not know of what you speak and you might just be out of your league.

Sincerely,

Madsop75

[MikeD]

YES, I would.  I would rather have Madison be Madison and get 10th or 14th before they change who they are to get back into the top three.  Like Dave R said....Madisons connection to the crowd is very important, but how good can that connection be with golf claps??? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Remaining out of finals, or close to it, would, IMO, be a death knell for the Scouts...I saw them in 2002 late in the season at U Penn...they were just not the same Scouts as in the past...and the crowd did not react to them either.

I think it's great to see them in the top-5 or 6.

Mike

[glory]

Sincerely,

Madsop75

I have no doubt about the "sincerely," which is great. And continue please to share your thoughts no matter whether I or others disagree. This notion that we should only offer our advice directly to corps directors is absurd. These boards are here for us to discuss drum corps, and we needn't justify that any further.

As for what Madison should do, a retreat to the "Madison of old" would be a mistake. Though I may have shouted loudly for Madison too, I came to regard them in the late 90s and early 00s as an anomaly. And it wasn't just me. Others in the stands shared my feeling at finals that Madison had become the VK of that era not because they were funny but because they were the oddball corps among the 12. We looked forward to them as a fun diversion, not as a serious competitor. Madison doesn't want to be there.

HH

Edited July 28, 2005 by glory

[Matt_S]

So please consider for a moment that you may not know of what you speak and you might just be out of your league. 

Sincerely,

Madsop75

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Please learn that marching in one show thirty years ago, even a championship show, does not make you a god to be worshipped. You are still just a man, and just one among a great many. Frankly, you may tear up at the thought of Scouts '75, but I would listen to Scouts '03 in a heartbeat over your show. Who are you to tell me I'm wrong? Please tell me how I am possibly "out of my league" when I am deciding what does and does not suit my particular tastes? I'm sure you'll counter with the fact that I am not a part of the Scouts brotherhood. To that, I have just one question. Sal Salas clearly is a part of that brotherhood, and even marched the same year as you. Do you truly consider yourself so special that somehow you have clairvoyant knowledge of what it means to be a Scout and that Sal, who oversaw the design of this year's show, somehow never learned it? Do you really presume to think that your having marched makes you somehow more qualified to be a Scout, and better able to tell someone else, who marched the same championship year that you did, what being a Scout is like?

If I call you nutty, it's because I've seldom seen such an ego in over three years on these boards.

[MikeD]

Ok,

To all of you I express my deepest heartfelt compassion for your utter lack of understanding. For how could I expect you to understand the essense of what it means to be a Scout...So please consider for a moment that you may not know of what you speak and you might just be out of your league. 

Sincerely,

Madsop75

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You have every right to be proud of being a Scout...as do the members of any corps. I'm as proud of being a member of the Cadets as you are of being a member of the Scouts. I do not pretend to "know" what is means to be a Scout, as I'm sure you don't pretend to know what it means to be a Cadet. It doesn't place you on some higher plain as you seem to infer...everyone who marched is an integral part of something special.

Mike

[Pinwiz]

The new ending is not what's holding Madison back. It's the entire last third of the show that is holding Madison back.

And if we're talking about "Classic Madison", then why does the corps have B-flat horns and amps?

[madsop75]

To Maedhros and MikeD,

Thank You for your thoughts!

Maedhros, you’re demeaning of what took place 30 years ago in my life and it somehow being irrelevant to today’s activity is sad and quite telling. I marched for 10 seasons with the Scouts organization, 81' was my age out year. There have been a number of productions that the Scouts have performed since my age out that have simply astonished me! (As well a number of other corps!!) I believe if you truly have read my past posts that know where have I expressed as you say "god like" superiority over my alma mater. Know where have I called into question the abilities or lack of "brotherhood" of Sal Sallas. As a matter of fact, quite the opposite! One thing I would never do is call into question the experience of someone relative to his or her own personal marching experience with another corps. That would be foolish and arrogant. I believe ours is a wonderful activity and all of us are needed to make up the whole. I am sorry, but when I speak of Madison as I have in these posts I am often referring to an ideal and a philosophy that is uniquely Madison and these ideals are transcendent and alive today! Again, it would be presumptuous on my part to believe that the Madison experience is understood from the outside looking in! Please don’t take that as an attack or somehow and issue of superiority, for many of you also have an experience that is all your own and for that I say, amen! Maybe you might consider celebrating my experience as I raise a toast to yours!

Sincerely,

Madsop75