Field and Floor

Watch your mouth, judges

In its Thursday ruling against Bono and Howard Stern, the FCC announced that a new day of language policing has dawned.

Yep, no more "F-Word" on those judges tapes ... so

philosophy

first-viewing

form

function

flow

focus

floor

and even fun ...

are all at risk!

At least we'll have a level floor

Good news! It looks like every color guard, regardless of political persuasion, will be on equal footing in San Diego. By giving level, the San Diego area was neutral in the 2000 presidential campaign.

Now if the judges just didn't seem like renegade third-party candidates, visualizing one view ... we'd be in for some fun!

What's the download?

Everybody does it.

I think the laws about downloading and copyright are dumb.

I'm only downloading a couple of songs ... for our show.

The musicians and record companies already make millions - I don't have enough money for a tarp!

I'll never get caught.

There IS more to the music we all hear at color guard shows than meets the ear. But color guard units continue to ignore the laws and do their own thing, all in the name of ... in the name of WHAT?

Ask your director if the sound you are performing to this year is copyrighted material, or if the proper clearances were gained. If not, the law suit won't be directed at you; but it will surely end your color guard unit.

There are precedents to this in color guard memory.

For Risa, Laura, and Bob

Thanks, corpsreps.com, for this wonderful personal drum and bugle corps memory. We all remember it well.

Praise for Online Community

What the wonder bra did for beauty pageant contestants, what Butch did for Sundance, and what "hanging Chads" did for George W. Bush, the Internet, and one-to-one communication, has done for our beloved pageantry industry: raised the level of "media" and interest throughout the year. Is there any value in: “I’m with stupid,” or “Ick,” or even “I now return you to this thread, already in progress?”

If you’re the folks in the offices of Drum Corps International, Winter Guard International, Bands of America, Drum Corps Associates, and the like, there should be. And if you’re a staff member of any competing unit in any of these activities, you best love it. Why?

Miss Manners for blogs

Dear Gentle Reader:

"Formerly viewed as a marginal activity restricted to the technically savvy, blogging is slowly becoming more of a mainstream phenomenon on the Internet. Thanks to much media hype and some high profile blog sites, these online journals have captured the public’s imagination."

But with the hype and profiling -- there's that word again! -- comes potential problems with privacy and accountability.

Dear Miss Manners:

Only when readers take the comments, and themselves, too seriously.

They've gone "Charlize" this year!

If that unit hadn't been so "Martha" about its performance, it might have scored more "Sean."

Well at least they've dropped the "Bennifer" thing from last year!

If I had to see all that "Britney" one more year, I'd have gone "Janet." That would have showed them all.

Overheard at gymnasiums coast-to-coast during color guard competitions.
(Props to US Weekly and its fabulous new commercials. How "Donald" can you get?)

Cheerleader Challenge, ESPN-style

Besides wondering if this is the kind of championship week coverage we can all enjoy at wgi.org next month, let me draw your attention to the far right-hand side of the screen, and the download for ESPN Motion.

CHEERLEADER CHALLENGE!

Now why wouldn't they want to do the same for color guard ;-)

SPAMI-Name-R

The world is running out of names, especially names that are worth $$$. Funny, but that's never been the case in color guard, where names proliferate and spread just as quickly as units come and go on the scene.

Just looking at this year's list of independent color guard entrants in San Diego proves that there is no lacking in our nameland:

Aloha Independent (Let us come to YOUR regional. Phooey, it's a misnomer!)
Ars Nova (Not "Arts," not "Arch," not "Arsenal," not even "Artistic.")
ComplXity (could be a hot new way to name guards, demolish the English language, spelling, and the alphabet in one word. Clever.)
Corona (Presently this unit is court with a trademark suit coming from the brewsky maker by the same name.)
Exaltation (Momentum) (That's what the judges say!)
Full Circle of the Sound (Always loved that name, especially the year the guard grunted its way through its performance)
Innuendo (Can't just hint at things in this activity and expect to get anywhere)
Juxtaposition (Art versus guard versus the judges)
Men with a Vision (Queer Eye for the Guard Guy?)
Fusion / Japan (To succeed on this side of the world, you have to fuse your identity with the limited view of the judges and their vocabulary. Good luck.)
Lealta (With the tag line, "Loyalty to the guard, friendships, and family," nice name. What does it mean, though?)
Millennia (When this group will win WGI)
Moxie Visual Theatre (Suppose it's better than chutzpah)
Regenesis IV the Ressurection (Passion of the color guard)
Sarajevo (Politicizing color guard, what a novel idea!)
Saturday Matinee (Does that mean they only perform in prelims?)
So. Cal Co-op (A merger between members, trainers, and styles?)
Third Edition (Numbers One and Two were good, too!)
Top Hats (As odd as it sounds, it harks to unit names, both in color guard and drum corps, from years ago. Wonderful ... and I continue to show my vintage.)
Urban Expressions (Just another word for ethnic)
Windswept (Their flags practice outside)
XSNRG (This one "just ain't right!")

Another time, another blog: Percussion line names!

"Dante's Inferno" Redux

"I try to be people's ears, eyes, and hearts so they can understand the times they are living in ..."

Maybe the program-shattering "Dante's Inferno" was just a few years before its time, what with "The Passion of Mel Gibson" set to become the largest-grossing movie in history, and with this writer, who stepped down from USAToday in January, admitting he falsified stories, now harking to the four greatest "journalists" of all time. What, no Jayson Blair?

It's okay to poke around in *this* closet

Is this the perfect pageantry idea, or what? Especially for new, small, or budget-challenged color guards and bands, this is the one closet that everyone can be glad to go in and feel free to poke around in :-)

Relax queens; it's so L-Word to be homeoselectual these days. Embrace your inner closet!

and now a word from your president

"During this time of terrorism and fear isn’t it more important to focus on all then good we are doing in every thing we put our time and energy into, instead of fueling the hate machine."

Sorry, that was from "Mariah Canary" ... and there are not enough reasons to hate your namesake!

Just a re:re: the post: Breaking ground is just that; it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with being any good!

(All usual caveats apply: this is just MY opinion, it does not represent the opinions of anyone else on the planet earth -- or Mars, since we now know there could have been water on the planet, which means there might have been life on the planet, which means your president (why does he keep popping up?) will probably spend gazillions of your dollars to find out.

Mistaken Identities

New, and combined units abound!

Let's see: there's the Oregon Crusaders Vanguard, the Madison Vanguard Scouts, and then wow! -- look at the widespread membership of the Denny Middle School, Wisconsin Varsity Band, and Delaware High School bands!

Picture that.

Rank 'Em ... currently

Lest we not *know* San Diego's outcomes RIGHT NOW THIS VERY MINUTE, here are the only current rankings available.

All in the Family

Living the life of a DII or III corps:

With 23 members (11 horns, five battery, one pit, five guard and me as drum major) we spent countless hours on a hot, humid, uneven practice field (that flooded under six inches of standing water in the slightest hint of rainfall) learning, cleaning and perfecting our show. Along the way, we endured the usual corps life: Sunburns, sprained knees and ankles, mosquitoes big enough to carry off a small dog, hard gym floors, peanut butter sandwiches and cold, cold showers. As an added bonus, our home base was an elementary/middle school in one building. Imagine how low those showerheads were!

Along the way, we became a family, closer in some ways than we were with our flesh-and-blood family. We worked as hard as we possibly could because 22 other people could be let down if each person didn’t give everything they had at each rehearsal or performance. When you’ve got three sopranos, it’s a lot more obvious when someone breathes in the wrong spot than when you’ve got 24. We spent almost as much time together outside of Mirage as we did in it. We missed birthdays, anniversaries and barbecues with our families so we could get one more run-through or work out a two-bar rough spot in the drum feature. Mirage was pretty much all we lived for.

Add a 'WHEN' and 'WHERE' and you have a news story

Techniques depend on who you are working with, what you are working with (dance, flag, rifle, sabre, swing flag, etc.), who you are working with (your instructor's "style"), and what seems to be "in fashion" at the time. Techniques can change just like fashions do. Your instructor knows what you need to know ...

Personal Profiling

So, the profile of the typical drum corps and color guard participant remains under 20 years of age, and is a high school student. The profile of the typical blogger is a twenty-something techno male.

So what in the world am I doing, doing all of this; me, who never marched a step, nor spun a single twirl in either a drum and bugle corps nor a color guard? I might well have been then, what is today the principal target market for both activities: I was a high school band guy, who saw both activities, fell in love with them, and have followed them both now for more than 30 years.

Call it love, passion, compulsion, attraction/repulsion, even need for "a life," if you will, but they've been good to, and for, me. I think I'll stay :-)

The countdown continues ...

Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... Tick ... and the drum corps season will begin.

Is Bishop Kearney planning a comeback?

I thought this was figure skating's prima donna, but it looks as if she's auditioning for a Bishop Kearney reunion guard. Just a bit more flexibility needed, Michelle; you have to go a l l t h e w a y b a c k.

And do something with that hair: gotta let it fly free, over-perm it, rat it about ... THEN you'll make the comeback squad!

Profiling / Sampling

It kind of gives me *cooties,* imagining a judge's tape full of references to "profiling."

Wasn't the word "sampling" sufficient in taking a look at a specific portion of a unit? Sure, to draw a profile of what is transpiring in a show is fine, but we live in a mighty contenscious, and nervous, country right now, so let me go on the record as questioning the use of the word "profiling."