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HEY MADISON....NOTE TO SELF!


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Well, Madison Scouts are instructed to be passionate. You can't fault alumni for being passionate about their corps.

I think an integral part of what Madsop75 is getting at isn't that scouts are superior to all other corps, simply the pride and belief in one's organization that I imagine exists at every other corps. Just like every corps recognizes itself as a "family", scouts believe they exist as a "brotherhood". Now the members would like to think this bond is stronger than just passing fancy and thus becomes an essential tool that scouts depend on year after year to deliver their package.

Madsop75 mentioned he marched 10 years with the scouts, and alone that amount of time in drum corps represents a wealth of knowledge, but the fact that he was a member of the Scouts for 10 years represents that same passion for the brotherhood x10.

P.S. Every corps should be so lucky to have alumni that are both involved and concerned with their corps, and isn't this forum exclusively for sharing one's opinions on the activity?

-Dave

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To Maedhros and MikeD,

Thank You for your thoughts!

You're welcome. :)

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

That's a good clarification of something that came across in a way probably not intended, at least to me. Good job!

Now, that would NEVER happen to me (right Dave?) :P

The rest I leave up to you and Maedhros.

Mike

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The rest I leave up to you and Maedhros.

Mike

Well, I'm with you Mike. His response clarifies some things, and helps me understand what madsop was getting at. I think I probably read a much more arrogant tone into the previous post - probably due to the "out of your league" comment - than was intended. I don't mean to demean what you accomplished 30 years ago (or 24, as the case may be). I just don't want to see the Scouts of today demeaned either, because they are just as deserving, and just as much "Scouts" as the members from any other decade. And I have to think that's true regardless of whether the show ends softly or with a bang.

Edited by Maedhros
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Well, I'm with you Mike.  His response clarifies some things, and helps me understand what madsop was getting at.  I think I probably read a much more arrogant tone into the previous post - probably due to the "out of your league" comment - than was intended.  I don't mean to demean what you accomplished 30 years ago (or 24, as the case may be).  I just don't want to see the Scouts of today demeaned either, because they are just as deserving, and just as much "Scouts" as the members from any other decade.  And I have to think that's true regardless of whether the show ends softly or with a bang.

Well put. Tradition or not, the future of the Scouts traditions depend on the current members, not the members of years past.

-Dave

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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.

wow...jealousy is an ugly beast... :P

heaven forbid we should be vocal about our love for the corps we marched...I see that you couldn't really understand THAT aspect of things. So, think what you will, but we are not nutty...we're passionate...and that's something that should never ever be lost....

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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

...and, to some of us, what you just described is part of the problem. Madison was different.

Everyone feels obligated to present some grand concept, whether it be "Man's Struggle", or "Fall of Man", or throw 50 different snippets of songs into their arranging... or what have you.

For the life of me, I don't understand why... as The Cavaliers have been able to win most of this decade presenting fairly straightforward musical ideas (read:melody) and without overprogramming the show...or the design. Rococo arranging (and that's what it is, empty froth) doesn't win DCI Championships, and 4 Cavalier rings in 5 years prove it.

It doesn't have to be "easy" arrangment-wise to be good or LOUD. Look at the FFF hate ( ^0^ ) that came from the 1997-2003 Vanguard, or last years Phantom...or Carolina Crown's opener in 2004. Most of us get our mezzo-fortes at the symphony or dentists office, not on the field. :P

As much of a "follow the leader" type of activity as DCI is, I wish this would catch on a lot more.

Edited by bawker
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Well put. Tradition or not, the future of the Scouts traditions depend on the current members, not the members of years past.

-Dave

drochau,

Yes, today’s Scouts are making their own history as will tomorrows! Something that each Scout learns and is keenly aware of though is that they are truly carrying a torch from the past forward and it is a weighty and proud endeavor! You see, tradition is in fact the mystique that is Madison and is that major driving force that draws men (and woman) to the Scouts! Madison’s tradition is its holy grail and its past members do in fact hold a very prominent position in the eyes and hearts of its current members. We are their standard!

Sincerely,

Madsop75

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Well, I'm with you Mike.  His response clarifies some things, and helps me understand what madsop was getting at.  I think I probably read a much more arrogant tone into the previous post - probably due to the "out of your league" comment - than was intended.  I don't mean to demean what you accomplished 30 years ago (or 24, as the case may be).  I just don't want to see the Scouts of today demeaned either, because they are just as deserving, and just as much "Scouts" as the members from any other decade.  And I have to think that's true regardless of whether the show ends softly or with a bang.

Maedhros,

I really appreciate your perspective and one thing you can certainly bank on is that there will never be any demeaning of our family from this camp! Neither do I believe anyone would ever, or is currently calling into question if one Scout could possibly be any more deserving of its lineage over another! It is truly a sad day if style of program or in this case Madison’s current show ending were to become a personal issue directed towards its current members. That said, not being able to discuss and express ones opinion on such a passionate topic would be as I’m sure you would agree to be simply wrong!

Sincerely,

Madsop75

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