Beautiful Day in Connecticut, sunny nice breeze and min humidity...gotta love it. Went to my first DCA show of the year last night. Great night for drum corps. If you want to see the scores and read the review go to Drum Corps discussion Board.
Pool is ready and kids have been swimming every day(Holly and friends that is), Bob is busy with the Hurcs on weekends. Crosstown Tornadoes will have a table at the upcoming DCI show in New London this Wednesday. Hope to see alot of people there.
Heard through the grape vine (Sam) that WPDC us having trouble keeping their drum instructor happy. He was the only other person involved (besides Bob and I) that tried to move the corps foward. It has been about a year since we left and now it is the drum instructors turn to get blackballed....Hate to say it BUT...we told you so.
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
June 16, Been about 10 days since last post....
And not too much has changed. Last evening was our last practice at Nathan Hale for the year...we will be practicing in Wallingford at Community Park beginning the first week in July. I will let you know where we will practice for the next couple weeks.
Things continue to not have changed much with the park drum corps...they sent one of their spies old Uncle D to check on us last night...we all decided that since he only sat in the car for a few minutes and then took off, that he could not handle the intensity of the corps drill...they are certainly getting better each week.
The corps will be at the DCI show in New London on June 30th. We will have a table with corps items and information. Some of our staff will be checking out the Cadets, as they plan to march with that corps next year...
Well school is out in Meriden tomorrow and within the next few days for most of the kids in our area...if you are not a member of our drum corps and play and instrument (brass or percussion) give us a shout so as you don't lose your chops our the summer...
Things continue to not have changed much with the park drum corps...they sent one of their spies old Uncle D to check on us last night...we all decided that since he only sat in the car for a few minutes and then took off, that he could not handle the intensity of the corps drill...they are certainly getting better each week.
The corps will be at the DCI show in New London on June 30th. We will have a table with corps items and information. Some of our staff will be checking out the Cadets, as they plan to march with that corps next year...
Well school is out in Meriden tomorrow and within the next few days for most of the kids in our area...if you are not a member of our drum corps and play and instrument (brass or percussion) give us a shout so as you don't lose your chops our the summer...
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Tuesday June 8th
Well it is really warm today and we went from cold and needing the heat over the weekend to real hot and needing the airconditioner.
Well I was right about the competition for Hudson Valley over the weekend, ok so I thought it was CF&DA very similar just alittle less organized...
Same winners, same old songs, who cares...get some new corps, stop the nonsense...or just let them pay for their medals. Or you could just put names in a hat and draw for who gets the medal...that would be alot more exciting....
Well off to drum corps, and Holly has her class night...
Addendum 9:25pm, nice practice of the Crosstown Tornadoes tonight. Great marching all. Remember the more you practice the better you get. Rock step rules!!
well I got more of the scoop on this past weekends State meet for Hudson valley (which of course is run by all CT people and no one from New York. They really messed up on the judges and scoring. First they had two different people judging the same category (glocks I know for sure) and the score sheets were all messed up. Course it doesn't help that all of the board of this association never lifted a finger to help on last years competition so...(I know this as I was the Secretary for this association last year and handled the entire competition myself well with my lap top). They forgot to subtract for undertime, and so who knows who really won. Like I said put names in a hat...it is much more accurate...
Here is the other goof...they claim that if you win the state competition and then go on to compete at Northeastern and win then you are a north easter champ...now lets look at this...
CF&DA, Hudson Valley, and Mass state are all run by basically the same handful of very narrow minded people. The only association that in some way has remained pure is the GDACA. They will not allow any corps not from that area to join as they are in other assoc...go figure sounds like a plan. The corps that compete in the 3 assoc are all the same... Senior Competition ST Petes. only one no competition and they have discouraged other competitors...Jr Combination Prospect, WPDC OW and pretty much defunct Westbury. These corps have black balled any new corps that try to join as they may try and still their members...Senior Ancient There are several but not many that compete as a corps. And a few Jr Ancient corps. Now if these state competitions all 3 jur corps compete then each one represents a state... and ST Petes wins by default...How in God's Name can anyone consider these group champions....Give me a break... Oh and atleast one of Hudson Valleys duets and probably more has to be redone next month at an ID&Q in Cromwell because of the mess up in judging. That is a shame and a disgrace on the association...what did these groups get for the money they paid...probably not even comments on their performance that is helpful....
Well I was right about the competition for Hudson Valley over the weekend, ok so I thought it was CF&DA very similar just alittle less organized...
Same winners, same old songs, who cares...get some new corps, stop the nonsense...or just let them pay for their medals. Or you could just put names in a hat and draw for who gets the medal...that would be alot more exciting....
Well off to drum corps, and Holly has her class night...
Addendum 9:25pm, nice practice of the Crosstown Tornadoes tonight. Great marching all. Remember the more you practice the better you get. Rock step rules!!
well I got more of the scoop on this past weekends State meet for Hudson valley (which of course is run by all CT people and no one from New York. They really messed up on the judges and scoring. First they had two different people judging the same category (glocks I know for sure) and the score sheets were all messed up. Course it doesn't help that all of the board of this association never lifted a finger to help on last years competition so...(I know this as I was the Secretary for this association last year and handled the entire competition myself well with my lap top). They forgot to subtract for undertime, and so who knows who really won. Like I said put names in a hat...it is much more accurate...
Here is the other goof...they claim that if you win the state competition and then go on to compete at Northeastern and win then you are a north easter champ...now lets look at this...
CF&DA, Hudson Valley, and Mass state are all run by basically the same handful of very narrow minded people. The only association that in some way has remained pure is the GDACA. They will not allow any corps not from that area to join as they are in other assoc...go figure sounds like a plan. The corps that compete in the 3 assoc are all the same... Senior Competition ST Petes. only one no competition and they have discouraged other competitors...Jr Combination Prospect, WPDC OW and pretty much defunct Westbury. These corps have black balled any new corps that try to join as they may try and still their members...Senior Ancient There are several but not many that compete as a corps. And a few Jr Ancient corps. Now if these state competitions all 3 jur corps compete then each one represents a state... and ST Petes wins by default...How in God's Name can anyone consider these group champions....Give me a break... Oh and atleast one of Hudson Valleys duets and probably more has to be redone next month at an ID&Q in Cromwell because of the mess up in judging. That is a shame and a disgrace on the association...what did these groups get for the money they paid...probably not even comments on their performance that is helpful....
Sunday, June 06, 2004
A Rant.....
On our message board the other day was a question from a member of WPDC asking if the Crosstown Tornadoes would be attending a state competition...It was explained to this member that some of the adult committee members of WPDC along with other committees of other junior corps in this association were afraid the Crosstown Tornadoes were trying to steal their members so they did not want this corps to be part of their association. What bullcrap is that. What they are really afraid of is competition from a corps and potentially other corps that may effect change on their stupid traditional ways. The fact is that their are only 3 junior corps and occasionally one that is nearly defunct that compete at these competitions. It is a standstill competition and they always play the same songs. Occasionally a corps will pull one from their ancient files and add something new but basically no changes....One year WPDC's instructors(not the committee or their music director) actually did something inovative and started a new song and added some great drummming and horns lines and actually won the competition with a new rendition of an old song...those instructors are now gone...and they are back to poor to mediocre crap. It will be fairly predicable who will win this competetion unless the judges are influenced to not place a corps well because of some controvery.
Alot of times these corps and individuals compete against noone, just themselves and still win and believe they are champions. I have to say at one time I believed just that because the junior corps make the kids believe that they are the best and keep them sheltered from all of the other great corps around the world. If you ask the majority of the members of these drum corps they would not know what DCI is, who the Cadets, Blue Devils, Phantom Regiment, Santa Clara Vanguard and all of the true musicians of the drum corps international are....
My feelings are pretty clear...these junior corps of the CF&DA are jokes, and need to allow further drum corps in to compete to truely be able to improve the musical quality of their members....so take the challenge CF&DA and allow and invite some of these other corps into your competitions then you can truely say you winners....
Check out this article in Drum Corps World about 3 new Corps in Connecticut...two are juniors...come on CF&DA...
New Corps Article
Alot of times these corps and individuals compete against noone, just themselves and still win and believe they are champions. I have to say at one time I believed just that because the junior corps make the kids believe that they are the best and keep them sheltered from all of the other great corps around the world. If you ask the majority of the members of these drum corps they would not know what DCI is, who the Cadets, Blue Devils, Phantom Regiment, Santa Clara Vanguard and all of the true musicians of the drum corps international are....
My feelings are pretty clear...these junior corps of the CF&DA are jokes, and need to allow further drum corps in to compete to truely be able to improve the musical quality of their members....so take the challenge CF&DA and allow and invite some of these other corps into your competitions then you can truely say you winners....
Check out this article in Drum Corps World about 3 new Corps in Connecticut...two are juniors...come on CF&DA...
New Corps Article
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Saturday June 5
Just sitting here after setting up the pool and doing yard work and was sad to hear that President Ronald Reagan had died at 93. I am sure it is a sad time for his family but also a time of relief. He has been sick with alzeheimers disease for so long and it is such a devastating disease for a family. Atleast his family was with him at the time of his death and he was able to remain at home. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Thursdays, it seems like Friday...
Although it has been a short week, today is Thursday and I keep thinking it is Friday. Can't wait for the weekend.
Crosstown Tornadoes has added another horn tech, will give you more information soon. We still need drum techs. Once we have our guard in place we have a guard tech ready to start...Hoping to add more experienced members to help out those that are just learning.
One of our board of directors is having surgery tomorrow and we wish them well.
Crosstown Tornadoes has added another horn tech, will give you more information soon. We still need drum techs. Once we have our guard in place we have a guard tech ready to start...Hoping to add more experienced members to help out those that are just learning.
One of our board of directors is having surgery tomorrow and we wish them well.
Wednesday, June 02, 2004
Tuesday June 1,2004
Crosstown Tornadoes had a great practice. They worked for quite some time on marching. It was great when asked who their idols were (to try and envision their idols marching like...) one member said another members mother, and the main idol was Jesus...So they rolled their feet like Jesus would do...They picked it not us...
Kelly was awarded the master marcher of the night...Vinny did try and trick the group into believing if they could march perfectly he would give them 60 bucks. Well, no one got the 60 but Kelly did get $2.00, not bad. What Bob and Vinny didn't tell the group was that the Hurcs as do most of the corps, work for hours on marching. And this group did great for the first real working on it...
Keep working at it, this corps is young but has great potential, we can hopefully get some more experienced members to help give you all confidence.
On a more personal note, our yard is totally torn up by the town. They are putting in new drainage system for the town. The great news is that the company digging has agreed to regrade my lawn and new seed, so once they are done it will be awesome. Course that will probably be quite sometime. We do have our strawberry plants in the front so we are getting plenty of berries, but the rasberries are pretty much covered by dirt...oh well will replant them next year.
Kelly was awarded the master marcher of the night...Vinny did try and trick the group into believing if they could march perfectly he would give them 60 bucks. Well, no one got the 60 but Kelly did get $2.00, not bad. What Bob and Vinny didn't tell the group was that the Hurcs as do most of the corps, work for hours on marching. And this group did great for the first real working on it...
Keep working at it, this corps is young but has great potential, we can hopefully get some more experienced members to help give you all confidence.
On a more personal note, our yard is totally torn up by the town. They are putting in new drainage system for the town. The great news is that the company digging has agreed to regrade my lawn and new seed, so once they are done it will be awesome. Course that will probably be quite sometime. We do have our strawberry plants in the front so we are getting plenty of berries, but the rasberries are pretty much covered by dirt...oh well will replant them next year.
Memorial Day Weekend....
The Crosstown Tornadoes did not march in any parades over this weekend. We were short two snare harnesses (which are on back order along with a snare drum from dynasty) and our uniform alterations had not quite been finished. This is one of the first Memorial Days that I have not had to march in quite a few years. It was nice to be able to do what I wanted...Course one of those things was to go to the Ansonia parade.
Holly and I went to the parade and found it to be quite fun. The Hurcs looked and sounded great and of course Mariah and Mag 7 are always crowd pleasures. They were very nice to us (it helps that Bob and two of our instructors are with the Hurcs). Holly watched and took some pointers from their major. Thanks Hurcs for your support.
Not surprising there were several fife and drum corps that were not so courteous. It was nice of one of the members of WPDC to come and talk to us( as we have been members of this corps for many years) but our understanding is he received some really nasty looks and nasty comments. Sorry, but still glad to see that not all people are butts. I would say grow up but one of the adult combination corps were equally as rude...so all I can say is get over yourselves.
Another band we did notice was the Ansonia Prep Schools band, they were small but the sure looked like they were having a great time. There drum section was pretty good to...
Holly and I went to the parade and found it to be quite fun. The Hurcs looked and sounded great and of course Mariah and Mag 7 are always crowd pleasures. They were very nice to us (it helps that Bob and two of our instructors are with the Hurcs). Holly watched and took some pointers from their major. Thanks Hurcs for your support.
Not surprising there were several fife and drum corps that were not so courteous. It was nice of one of the members of WPDC to come and talk to us( as we have been members of this corps for many years) but our understanding is he received some really nasty looks and nasty comments. Sorry, but still glad to see that not all people are butts. I would say grow up but one of the adult combination corps were equally as rude...so all I can say is get over yourselves.
Another band we did notice was the Ansonia Prep Schools band, they were small but the sure looked like they were having a great time. There drum section was pretty good to...
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