"Vintage," for you, might be 2003, or 1990; but for drum and bugle corps fans of longest standing, vintage has just recently become readily available for purchase, for review, and for remembering.
Drum Corps World has vintage CDs and DVDs, the new site Drum Corps Videos offers DVDs, and then Drum Corps International offers vintage of its every year!
I'll take the 1971 Danny Thomas Invitational!
Nice new blog; just discovered!
What is "Throw It Down" about? We're still learning.
It's about that one Bluecoat, that smallest unit of intent. One aching step to one precise dot Then another and another.
A unity of purpose in a family of 135 Zen Masters.
What it takes to put yourself out on the line. To throw it down for 80 days of pain and glory.
Can flat, artificial turf, cause less stress? Or put the Glassmen in the "single digits" this year?
Old acquaintances will never be forgotten with the Kilties. And this year, it will be recognized when Mr. Pavlik is inducted into Drum Corps International's Hall of Fame.
... drum and bugle corps fan!
Near and very dear to my heart: the "Battle" of them all.
Everyone who was there: won!
Happy July Fourth!
George Hopkins|A FIELD&FLOOR CONVERSATION
Tenths of a point matter, at least when they do. What matters all the time to the leaders of both field and floor is what “5 questions for:” is intended to discuss.
First up: the leader of the oldest, and one of the most prolific, drum and bugle corps in the activity.
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1. Seventy-five years in the making; to what do you attribute the enduring nature of The Cadets’ (YEA!) organization?
The Cadets continuance, at times, has been due to personal intensity and tenacity. Many times, as with most long lasting organizations, folks have stayed the course when all else looked bleak. From investing their money; to taking off for a summer; to teaching, cooking and driving, whatever was needed.
And of course there is the matter of inertia! After so many years, "IT" just needs to keep on moving! Oh.... and a lot of luck!
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2. What financial development (fund-raising) approaches are bedrocks for the organization?
We have an annual fund drive that generates $200K per year. The drive runs from March to June and includes the phone, mail and the web. We have other direct mail campaigns that total $50K.
We also have the USSBA, a band cooperative, and we now manage 150 events per year. This program contributes significantly to the $5 million budget that is YEA! Indeed, the USSBA is far larger than the Cadets in terms of impact.
Merchandise sales total $1 million gross, including the bands. We also do golf outings, wine tastings, and run four drum corps shows, to name a few.
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3. How do you prioritize the organization’s annual budget to keep up with rising costs and activity expectations (technology, etc.)?
This is tough! To be honest, we are most negligent in investing in capital investments. We just do not have the cash.
Have to start with the half million dollar equipment and support from our sponsors. Led by YAMAHA, we have great relationships with Remo, Zildjian, Vic Firth, The Band Hall, Dance Sophisticates, and Up Front Footwear.
From a technology standpoint we have been able to get many -- many! -- things for free. We are great beggars and we have had some great board members. We recently picked up 12 laptops for no charge, a server for half price; installation is always "blood and guts."
Vehicles: we’re playing with fire! We have two vans with 200K miles, we have a box truck with 200K and we had an Expedition that had 325K.
We control expenses as much as we can. Folks work long hours, we use many volunteers, and we work to generate every nickel we can.
Historically we are up $100K or down $100K most years. It is a challenge, one we hope to turn around over time.
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4. What role do Cadet alumni play in the life of the organization?
Alumni serve on the board, as teachers, as administrators, and on the YEA! Staff. We also have alumni as donors and who support members at all levels of the organization.
Admittedly, the tie from the corps to the alumni has not always been strong. I have ruffled some feathers along the way. The move out of Garfield and now to Allentown was most upsetting, many alumni did not care too much about high school bands and when we were running the Crossmen through YEA! that was a time of great concern.
But now, folks are beginning to see why we did what we did. We have a 30 year lease on 25,000 sq feet for $800 per month in a great facility, we have stability, we have connections to the local community, and the Cadets exist not in spite of YEA! but because of it!
I love the alumni connection! Indeed, we just relearned the 1957 version of the corps song ... and it is the best.
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5. How do you evolve the corps over the years (past and future) to allow for growth and diversity, and yet honor the roots and tradition of the activity?
What the corps plays and does is a year-to-year decision, I think. How much innovation can the community take? Indeed, after 05-08 it seemed clear we needed to bring it back to square one. Too much talk, too much different … too much.
So ... here we are! “West Side Story” like you never heard or saw it, but great music, great effect, and great response.
For 2010? Undiscovered “West Side Story” ... Philip Glass revisited :-)
Who knows?
I'm always chasing connections between modern culture and field and floor. This week has been a particularly probing time mentally. Do we have, in either activity, field or floor, cultural icons, living or dead? Our own Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett?
When I fell slap down, exhausted from chasing my own mind in endless circles, I landed on top of these possibilities:
Star of Indiana, Erte Productions, Gail Royer, and State Street Review.
Certainly we have our current favs, as do both the worlds of music and acting; and they are all lining up to offer homage, both genuine and career-enhancing. But in the realm of universally considered iconography, I found that fantastic four.
Tell me I'm wrong ... but there is no inactive drum and bugle corps that generates more copy and buzz than Star of Indiana, there is no pageantry personality that has the name recognition as does Gail Royer, and there are no two inactive winter guards referenced more reverentially than the short-lived, but ground-breaking Erte Productions and the prolific State Street Review.
We remember them well.
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And then there was the surprise announcement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Oscar nominations for Best Picture next year will expand from five to 10! Like in the olden days ... when people actually paid attention to the award. Back when movies were movies, many cinephiles contended. And like when an Oscar nomination itself fostered a bump in business for the movie.
Good times. Good times, indeed.
Me again, chasing chasing chasing, connections, relationships, relevance to ... Winter Guard International World Championship finalists. And expanding.
Gosh, wouldn't it be "loverly" (1963 Best Picture "My Fair Lady") if the enormous A Classes expanded to 20 finalists, the up-and-coming Open Classes stuck with their 15, and then, mirroring the Oscars, the world's best of the best, the World Classes were winnowed to an expansive 10 finalists?
“Throw It Down”, the feature length movie about drum corps -- BLUUUUUUU! -- is playing the film Festival circuit this summer; including the Connecticut Film Festival and the New York Independent Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Music Documentary.
It also won the Silver Remi Award at Worldfest Houston.
The film will next be shown at the Indianapolis Film Festival on July 17, 1 p.m. at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
On July 26 it will screen at the Oxford (OH) Film Festival, 5 p.m., at the Savannah Center in West Chester, Ohio.
The DVD is available every day right here!
Calling all members, for a reunion. Were you one?
"The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed."
Contemporary author William Gibson may offer the best reading of today's DCI; really, calling "Marching Music's Major League" drum and bugle corps, is just like holding on to the "glory days" of DOS computing systems. After the weekend's opening events, it's clear: this is high-end stuff, Corps 2.0 is on the field!
For the DOS crowd, this season is going to be a bumpy, electronic ride.
Which inevitably brings at least some people to a conversation, or rant, about just whose input has the most relevance?
A framework for the question came over the weekend, in a review of Mark Helprin's new book, "Digital Barbarism."
"Helprin acknowledges the peculiarity of arguing with anonymous commenters rather than training his fire on more intellectually serious targets. 'Why talk to the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room?' he wonders, quoting Churchill; the answer, he explains, is that in this case only the monkeys really matter. 'The philosophical basis of the war on copyright is crackpot and stillborn,' and 'apart from unavoidable forays, it is best to stay out of such thickets.' Instead, the battle should be waged 'wherever the gnats in their millions crudely make real the musings of the Mad Hatters.'”
But, but ... aren't these folks the REAL drum corps fans; aren't they the ones who bleed green, blue, red, teal, et al on behalf of their favorite unit? Aren't these folks (who Halperin later refers to as "a million geeks in airless basements") the ones whose butts are in the stands, no matter what? Aren't they the audience that matters most?
So, aren't their voices, and opinons, the ones that should be most carefully weighed, and considered? Yes, but: that uneven distribution and the future is precarious. Our first love of drum and bugle corps is uneven. My first live love was for the spit and polish that was the Kingsmen, 1972. Love for Blue Devils' 80's jazz, for Cadets' 05 "Zone," indeed for the Troopers' "circle," 27th Lancers' "cutting edge" color guard, and Argonne Rebels' 1969 "Barnum and Bailey's Favorite" are among the fields of dreams. Fields whose numbers match precisely the number of people who profess love of the idiom.
From my view of opening weekend, via DCI Channel "Fan Network," this season is going to be as technically proficient as anyone can remember, and as idiomatic as ever. Plus some.
Level your personal playing field, the future is here already. Plus some.
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