Alas poor cor. I knew him Horatio.

Here's an article after my own heart:

A Lost art: The Blue Devils’ French horn lines

The writer marched french horn with Blue Devils just a few years before me so I never met her. It sounds like the line was quite a powerhouse then. Since about 1987 they have been eliminated from BD's horn line however.

There's a discussion about this article in the Drum Corps Planet forums here:

A Lost Art: The Blue Devils French Horn Lines, (New Fanfare column on www.dci.org)

"Yes, this 'goofy looking thing' is a French Horn!" (from a drum corps button available from souvie trucks back in my day)

How to pronounce it.

The Word Corps - DrumCorpsWiki

I wasn't familiar with the way they spelled things phonetically. Here's some links to the IPA system:

International Phonetic Association: Reproduction of The International Phonetic Alphabet

Wikipedia article ( A more useful overview ) )

Do you Blast®?

“BLAST!” has open call to cast members for U.S., Europe and Asia tours

excerpt:

Anticipating the casting for several new productions of the highly successful stage show “BLAST!,” an immediate and open call is going out to age-outs of the drum and bugle corps activity to inquire about positions in the brass, percussion and visual ensemble.

A majority of the performers who have been in previous productions dating back to the fall of 1999 have been from the activity and the producers are looking to drum corps once again for tours that will take the show on its first European tour, a third visit to Japan and another U.S. tour. The Asian trip may also include dates in Korea and China.

Because of the on-going need for “BLAST!” and other new productions planned by the organization, a consistent pipeline for experienced and enthusiastic members is being established. Full details can be found by visiting the Web site, www.blasttheshow.com. An application can be downloaded.

Seedwiki.com experiment is over

I enthused about the Seedwiki.com service in this post. However it seems one needs to use it every 30 days or it is deactivated; one can still see it but I can't edit anything. I can re-activate it for a small fee, but since I was using Seedwiki because there were no fees this is unacceptable to me. I have no complaints. One gets what one pays for. I'll keep on the lookout for similar services in the future.

The DrumCorpsWiki still exists and I will hopefully contribute more to the Ambassadors entry in the future.

For now I will keep the Ambassadors web site in its original form. To tell the truth, I was not looking forward to transferring it to the new location and format.

Proposed DCI rules for 2005 [i.e. rules changes]

The proposed rules changes are on the DCI.org web site here. Don't let Mr. Hopkins' bad spelling and grammar put you off.

There is a whole set of forums set up to discuss them on Drum Corps Planet here. Let the flames commence!

Here's a choice bit from the proposal to allow electronic instruments, taken completely out of context I admit:

Yesterday --- The Classic Audience of 1975 that continues to dominate some of today’s conversation will not like this. These people want drum corps the way they remember it and I am very appreciative of this thought process. I too like drum corps as it was and is, but I am also aware that something needs to change.
This addition would change that product. The problem in catering to these people --- they are a diminishing group in terms of numbers. Personally, I love them, I want to make them leap from their seats, but for the sake of tomorrow, and we cannot use this class of people only as the opinion makers for our performing groups.

Thanks Mr. Hopkins. That opinion explains the work of the DCI Board of Directors recently. :P

Late '60s drum corps blogging

Only geeks my age will get this.

For the rest of you:

I remember when we had nuthin' but cards to program computers with. No fancified flat-screened T.V.-like contraptions like the youngun's use today. Softies. We typed them out at keyboards on huge desks made for the purpose. ALL DAY! and them we went to the computer room where they were read in an' ifn' you dropped the cards you had to sort them again, by hand. and the hallway to the computer room was five flights up, both ways!

Announcement: Elgin Alumni Drum Corps

John Lloyd has e-mailed me the following about a new alumni corps in Ontario.[update: O.K. so they aren't that new. They are looking for members though.]



The corps web site is here: http://www.squaregg.net/ElginBand/

and soon to be incuded in my Corps Links section.

Northstar Youth Organization Alumni meeting

See the following post in the Drum Corps Planet forums:

Northstar Youth Organization Alumni