ONcorps: New Canadian Alumni Performance Ensemble Starting In Ontario

From Drum Corps Planet: http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/content/view/5834/39/

New Canadian Alumni Performance Ensemble Starting In Ontario
Written by W John MacFadden, ONcorps
Sunday, 20 December 2009
A new Canadian alumni corps called ONcorps has started and consists of members from MANY of the current Alumni Corps in Ontario.
The group also includes others who would like to participate in an ensemble but don't have the time (or in some cases desire) to commit to a "full time" Alumni Corps.

ONcorps is having their first ever rehearsal on January 17th, 2010, in Kitchener at the NorthStar Studio (home to Dutch Boy) and would like to invite anyone who is alumni of an Ontario Corps at any time of their lives (Junior AND Senior)

To date, the following corps are represented:
London Midlanders, Scarborough Firefighters, Opti-Cadets, Cardinals of Precious Blood, Etobicoke Crusaders, Flying Dutchmen, Northstar, Dutchboy, Brantford St Johns, Seneca Princemen, Seneca Optimists, Bluewater Buccaneeers, York Lions, Guelph Royalaires, Burlington Commanders, Simcoe United Alumni, Toronto Optimists, DeLaSalle Oaklands, Oakland Crusaders, LaSalle Cadets and Preston Scout House just to name a few. And the list is growing!

Time commitments are minimal. ONcorps wants this to be a fun activity. Whenever there is a show that many of the members are already either performing with their Alumni units, or attending as spectators, in numbers large enough to warrant a performance, ONcorps would approach show organizers about the opportunity to do a "finale" style exhibition performance of a tune or three. Another option would be to play in the parking lot at sometime before or after the show. All performances will be organized by emails as to who is/is not available. The key is to keep it fun and entertaining.

ONcorps' first selection they are working on is Malaguena, based on Stan Kenton's version, and can be heard in MIDI format at the corps site: www.oncorps.ca

Service for Bobby Fallows

From Andrew Summers via facebook:

"Saturday January 23 2010 at 1 pm at Salvation Army Northridge Community Church, 415 Pickering Cres., Newmarket. In lieu of flowers the family likes donations to Southlake Regional Health Centre Foundation (Paediatrics). On-line condolences may be may be made at http://www.facebook.com/l/b013c;www.roadhouseandrose.com
The Notice of Bobby pas[s]ing was in the paper in Barrie today. He will be deeply missed by all."

In Memoriam: Bobby Fallows 1969-2009

I received this from Andrew Summers through facebook:

"Just a sad note top pass along....Bobby Fallows passed away today at age 40.
Dec 15/69-Dec 15/09"

I don't have any details about a service for him as of yet. If you would like to attend (assuming there will be one) you should monitor the Ambassadors group on facebook.com for the latest updates:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=2261350884

- Sam

More space

We have recently changed our package deal with Telus and I now have 90 more MB of storage for the Ambassadors site to play with. This means I will be putting up some of the images I have been sent but had no room for in the past. It will have to wait until my term work is done this week, but some updates are coming!

(Those of you who are on a plan with your telephone and/or internet provider it would behoove you to investigate their current packages. You may be able to save a bit)

From Stone Bugles

Olympic Drum Corps

We won't see a drum corps at the upcoming Vancouver Winter Olympics like they did at Lake Placid in 1980. I haven't heard of any marching music to be included in the ceremonies so far although the VANOC keeps mum about most things until the last minute. It would be a nice respite from the parade of corporations.

Congratulations to Dutch Boy, Les Stentors and Blue Saints

Congratulations to Dutch Boy (Kitchener, ON), Les Stentors ( Sherbrooke, QC) (above) and Blue Saints (Sudbury, ON) who all participated in the DCI Open class quarterfinals competition in Michigan City, IN on August 4, 2009. ( see http://www.dci.org/scores/?event=def3b914-521e-4ff3-8e32-b869cad7de79 )

Canadian corps are still in the running. I am personally very pleased to see the Blue Saints back in competition after a one year absence. Keep it going in Nickel City!

Blue Saints to return to competition in 2009

Blue Saints Return To Active Competitive Status (drumcorpsplanet.com)

Friday May 15th 2009, marked the approval by DCI for the competitive return of the Blue Saints Drum and Bugle Corps.

The Blue Saints announce their return to the competitive circuit in 2009 after a 2 year hiatus. As Canada’s oldest and continuously active Drum Corps, the Blue Saints have a rich history of entertaining audiences since 1952 and are pleased to be on the field once again.

LOLcorps

You may be familiar with the LOLCats phenomenon: a picture is given a caption using the sort of broken english used in internet forums and text messaging.

There is now a topic on LOLcorps on the drumcorpsplanet.com forums. Below are some examples including one of my contributions.

Alas poor Furl.com

The site I have been using to manage my bookmarks and share them with my many followers has been acquired by diigo. The upshot of this change, gentle readers, is that the automated link lists that appear on this blog and the other Ambassador-related blogs will be broken until I find out how (and if) diigo implements this.

Changes for Tyler's band

On a somewhat Ambassador-related note:

Singer Page leaves Barenaked band- news.bbc.co.uk

Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page has left the Canadian group under "mutual agreement", according to the band's website.
The singer, who pleaded not guilty in July after being arrested in New York for possessing cocaine, will "pursue solo projects", the posting said.