Drum Corp International

Recently, when I was at a movie theater, they advertised an airing of a Drum Corp International http://www.dci.org/ event.  Well, I love Drum and Bugle Corps as much as I love a brass band, so I was hooked, and I bought my ticket

It was interesting during my most recent trip to New England for the Crochier family reunion, that my oldest brother and I had similar memories about the Millers Falls Drum Corp http://home.earthlink.net/~andepaula/id5.html  http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2209&dat=19520902&id=DYtjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=H3oNAAAAIBAJ&pg=6959,16044. My cousin now lives in the house that is attached to Redman Hall which was their home base.  We recalled that they hosted parades and competitions, and played across the country.

Well, I went to the Drum Corp International event that was aired on June 23rd.  I was surprised to see a colleague and her daughter in the audience. But it made sense. Her daughter is a band director for a high school in Austin, Texas.  And, two of her daughter's students were in various bands, one of which was going to be aired during that show.

I learned that there is a large network of drum and bugle corps, they compete during the summer season nation wide, and the competitions culminate in finals. And, the finals have aired on the network that aired the show we were going to watch. My colleague and her daughter have been at many live performances.  I recalled that some years ago, they made stop at AT&T Jones Stadium at Texas Tech.  I attended the performance that was foreshortened by electric storms (thunder and lightning as well as rain.)

My colleague and I agreed we wanted to watch the next event that would be available to us, the Prelim, which will be performed August 7, 2014. It starts early, and is long, but it will be the best of the best. Most of the bands that performed for the show we watched were well polished with their performances, which is surprising, becausing usually, the bands improve their showmanship as the season progresses. But, maybe these will make the preliminaries for the finals. 

The performances we watched this week were interesting. One was very strange, and was rated last. One was very magical and was only rated 4th.  One was very historical and patriotic, and was rated first.  Hmm.  I am not sure agreed with the ratings, but I am not an expert. 

This was a very fun activity.  But, I had to leave work right at 5 PM to get home and feed the cats, then get to the theater, with just a few minutes to spare.  So, part way through the performance, I started to nod off. And then, I started thinking about a junk food dinner (usually a fast food junk food meal for me is from Subway, but I was salivating for a Big Mack and fries.)

So, after the performance, I headed to MacDonald's, then went home for dinner, checking my blood pressure, doing my PT exercises, and finally, getting on the computer to read email, and do the various puzzles and games I work on daily to exercise my brain.

No wonder I was tired, but not ready to sleep.  Going out for activities revs me up. Listening to about 2.5 hours of brass and drums really revved me up!

Even so, I finally wore out. So, I was too tired to work on a post last night. But, I am pleased to offer this tonight.

All and all, it was a good night.  If you like Drum and Bugle Corp, and Fathom Events http://www.fathomevents.com/#event/2014-summer-encores I would encourage you to check out their upcoming broadcasts, for something you might enjoy.