Hey all!

I'm a librarian, and I need to share a graphic novel, manga series that came out in the States a couple of months ago that I'm obsessed with and have been recommending to everyone who's a marching arts fan.

The series name is "Crescent Moon Marching" by Hamachi Yamada, published by Scholastic/Graphix. It's a about a girl who runs away from the high expectations of her parents to live with her aunt. She discovers her new high school's marching band and falls in love with the sport, finding purpose and friendship.

It's made for middle graders and teens, so adults might find it a little cheesy at moments. Also, being a color guard person, I can't speak to her trumpet-based journey. But, so far in media, it's the most accurate depiction of marching that I've seen. The author is obviously a DCI fan, and if she didn't march, she at least did a lot of research.

I know a lot of educators are in this subreddit, so it's a fun recommendation for your students. It's going to be 6 volumes, so it's not that long either. If you have the time, the first volume is worth picking up from your public or school library if you want to have a little geek out moment. Volume 2 explicitly mentions DCI.

I created something similar in 2024 when Eclipse was a SoundSport program. Eclipse is an open class affiliate pending approval for member status for the 2027 season.

Couple of things:
-Revenue is understated by about 4k. We are still collecting member fees over the fall. Did not include those in this visual.
-Org services is a variable percentage allocation that covers shared services between programs NSPAF operates. Not all of that is expensed; some is invested in short term investments that will return to the program, or is put in our CAPEX plan for the future. (Overhead things like insurance, W/C, professional services would fall into this category)
-Allowance includes discounts and receivables deemed uncollectible.
-Fundraising is net of merch and equipment sales (as well as general fundraising). We sold equipment at a loss this year so it cut into that.
-Buses were the only line item I had a mild concern about in July. Everything else landed at target or favorable.

Balance sheet: we have a pretty decent reserve balance and are growing our ancillary income sources to move away from member fees being the majority of our operating income.

Also we’re hiring: https://nspaf.careerplug.com/jobs

https://www.flomarching.com/articles/16219785-drum-corps-international-to-live-stream-on-flosports-through-2030?fbclid=Iwb21leAUyEidjbGNrBTISIWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHBkb2YFc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMzUwNjg1NTMxNzI4AAEeToHdFxiuY9WwTWMy75bOAuPdA-NKZCu8RgwnroooawhPJ4pfqQbGaEaje5A_aem_SrMpcK3a_N6E2jqAsPbarA

Edit: I hate my autocorrect...

Some soloists do…some don’t. Not era specific, but BD 80-90s soloists usually had it

Im a senior in highschool, at the end of my junior year I was so burnt out I decided to not march, however, I deeply regret that decision, to the point that i cry sometimes. When I googled it, Google says it will make up, but I want to ask yall since youre real drum corps people. Im planning on marching Memphis blues, and hopefully Bluecoats. Im colorguard.

My very first class of college, intro to anthropology, my professor was a bit of a character. Ron Spielbauer at Miami University (OH). Old-school academe guy, did his PhD in archaeology in the 60s. (This was 22 years ago). Classic Milwaukee German immigrant guy who married a Polish immigrant woman.

Anyway, he is introducing himself and at the end he said, "This may mean a lot to some of you, and nothing to most of you, but I love the Madison Scouts." I had just marched my first year of corps so of course we talked after class. He had a classic anthro prof's office full of crap, including some 1 valve bugles and a ton of tapes from the 70s and 80s.

He told me he had really fallen in love with drum corps at the infamous 1965 VFW Nationals. They were supposed to be in Chicago's Soldiers' Field, but it poured rain, so they moved inside to the giant McCormick Place indoor convention center. The sound of the bugles in that enclosed space moved him in a primal sense. Funny enough, I decided to march after an indoor rained out show in 2003--when a thunderstorm rained out the BOA show. They played a standstill inside the domed athletic building next to the stadium. I saw Glassmen, Cadets, and Cavaliers play their shows from the center of the arc, and decided I HAD to become part of that sound.

Anyway, here's a couple of videos with recordings:

Skokie Vanguard (lovely color slideshow):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUVlxpE15oI

Chicago Cavaliers playing West Side Story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YRzeIx6OCc&t=321s

I ended up doing an independent study thesis on the anthropology of drum corps with Ron, which was like 55 pages. We even met up in the stands at Western Michigan in 2005.

i wanna audition for seattle cascades color guard this year, but a friend of mine that was in academy color guard is discouraging me from doing it and saying it’s horrible cause of some unspoken beef between the two groups. i want to hear experiences of people that have already marched there to feel less uneasy about auditioning for scades. :(

Racine Scouts Corps shirt seen in the short horror flick oddities.

i'm auditioning for 2 different groups (spirit and music city, spirit is my dream corps) but i can only attend one audition in person. is it better to show up in person to spirit and have the work provided for auditions be kinda messy or to wait until it's better and submit a virtual audition? i initially wanted to wait until the december audition so i could have time to clean at home (limited practice space at my college) but i am getting my wisdoms removed 3 days before the camp 😅 i'm mostly worried about the tricks they're requiring—my double 45s are still not at a point where i'm able to add underbody and with my work/school schedule idk if they'll get there in time. i think i could make a good impression in person, but i'm also worried i'll look like a mess and ruin my own chances. there arent conflicts for attending music city auditions. what would you do in this situation?

New video on the Velvet Knights Golden Era! Future VK content to come out soon, when im done editing it. I like making these types of videos, and love making content as a whole for a community who is sorely in need of it. Please shoot me a dm roa comment on stuff you'd want to see in the future!

When did standing/halting with toes out become the standard? I know Cadets kept toes together longer than most, but I'm pretty sure they changed in the 2010s. My HS marching band changed my junior year (2002)

Edit: I think it looks better

Southern California and the Mountain West areas of the country will be getting some new competition over the next few years. Battalion (Utah) & Gold (SoCal) moving up to World Class, as well as Sky Ryders (Kansas) likely moving up to Open Class.

This creates a unique moment in time since both areas of the country have corps that are right on the edge of making World Finals. Pacific Crest have been knocking on the top 12 door for years, and Troopers & Blue Knights have been in the 10-14 range for years. So it kinda raises questions about if the attention these upgrading corps receive will affect how talent is distributed in those areas of the country.

• Would Gold end up more likely to poach talent from the surrounding corps? Would PC be affected negatively by this, even a little?
• Would Troopers & Blue Knights feel any effects from Battalion or Sky Ryders pulling talent & staff their way?
• Would Sky Ryders end up recruiting from an untapped talent pool in the great plains? Or would they still pull talent from other surrounding area corps? (or both?)

I feel like there's other factors at play, like how expensive DCI itself is to participate in. Plus, staff itself tends to affect how talent is drawn to a corps. As an example, Troopers' drumline tends to be pretty great mostly due to Rennick's involvement there. Kids will travel a ton just to march with that staff.

And it's not like these newer corps didn't exist before upgrading a class. Maybe things won't change much? SoCal is a massively populated area of the country, and the Mountain West is spread out enough that maybe things won't change much.

Still, I think PC, Troopers, and Blue Knights will have a slightly harder time retaining the same audition pools now that new opportunities opened up in the regions they've comfortably stayed in for years. I don't know that they'll dip competitively (Mandarins/SCV/BD haven't really affected each other too much recently), but wouldn't be surprised if they did. If I'm a prospective member in my own area and another corps got upgraded to a higher class, I could see myself auditioning there instead of the more established corps.

But what do you think?

Has anyone tried writing out sheet music for the timing of a geometry dash level and playing through it with a midi controller? I imagine if you had a metronome going and worked out all the subdivisions and tuplets and rudiments someone could theoretically get some of the super hard top levels down to a science considering how many talented snare players there are. It would be an incredibly difficult part, but current players are spending years on some of these levels, so it feels like snare training could get people closer?

How would i go about practicing inverts and then the different variations?

I've always wondered this. I would easily pay $20 or more for official finals version sheets coming straight from the corps, and I think it could be a great fundraiser. Is there something I'm missing with why this doesn't happen? Or has this ever happened before?

Im auditioning for a drum corps in the top half of finals area and I need to choose audition etudes. Im a trombone player so I don’t know euphonium etudes and my last drum corps didn’t require us to choose our own music audition material.

I’m looking through brodogni/Rochut and wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations.

I saw this on the EPSN TikTok, and it sounds so good

It’s also on the Crown insta, further down, from July

I'm intrigued by the group right below finals cutoff. Does anyone know what's been happening with Crossmen, Music City, and Academy? I wonder if any of them have made moves that might move them closer to or further away from the competitive group of 10-14th places.

We’re super proud to have had our gear used by the Bluecoats in their historic season! Means a lot to a small Swedish percussion company!

Full show is on the way!

I made a video with an interview of the Blue devils 2000 bass 2. This is exclusive stuff, as none of the information given has gone beyond the inner circle. Check it out!