Category Archives: music

drumcorps, photos 4 Comments

Topless Drumcorps

As requested… I have delved into the drumcorps archives and dredged up the smuttiest and sleaziest drumcorps photos of the late 90’s! (And don’t forget… you asked for it!)

Here they are, in no particular order:


Here’s a teaser: just a little midriff.


Mmm, some more midriff. Check out that hot… um, chick. Yeah.


Chad shaved his head for Finals in ’95. That’s sort of “going topless”…


When I think of topless drumcorps, *this* is my fantasy. Mmm… tasty.


But these two fine specimens are more of the reality than the fantasy.


And finally: bottomless drumcorps. Or pantsless, if you prefer.

music 1 Comment

Mmm… Free iPod…

iPod As opposed to Aaron‘s idea of getting an iPod and paying it off over one interest-free year, thanks to credit from Musician’s Friend, I got sucked into the Get a Free iPod craze.

Yes, there’s always a catch, and this offer is no exception. First, you have to complete an offer—I chose to sign up for BMG, which was pretty painless. I didn’t really expect even this much of the process to work… but, lo and behold, I received an e-mail from the nice FreeiPods.com people today, saying that I’d completed my offer.

Well, hot damn.

Now all I have to do is shill my friends.

See, that’s Step 2: I have to refer five friends to the site and get them to complete offers, too. The best offers listed are the BMG signup that I did, maybe the Blockbuster Online deal (sounds like NetFlix to me), or join the Columbia House DVD Club, or subscribe to USA Today (that wouldn’t be bad). Of course, if you don’t have enough credit cards in your wallet, there’s over half a dozen of those to try out for, too.

Soooo… if you’re so inclined, please consider yourself invited to check out the Free iPods scheme. If not… well… Aaron’s probably going to buy himself one, anyway. I’m sure he’ll share.

Right, honey-muffin…?

drumcorps 1 Comment

A Measure of How You’ll Be Missed

Last Sunday was the 2004 LakeShoremen Banquet. You may recall that I didn’t attend for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was the two-hour drive. Anyway, I had assumed—or, perhaps, just hoped—that someone would miss me. That I’d catch some flak from someone for not being there. That someone would tell me that I’d won some award or other, and that they’d have it for me at the first 2005 rehearsal.

But alas. Nothing.

My egotistic assumption that someone would miss me at the banquet reminded me of a poem my Mom taught me long ago, that I’d nearly forgotten (and Google managed to remind me):

Sometime when you’re feeling important,
Sometime when your ego’s in bloom,
Sometime when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room,

Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles the soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water.
Put your hand in up to the wrist.
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is the measure of how you’ll be missed.

You may splash all you like as you enter,
You may stir up the waters galore,
But stop, and you’ll find in a minute
It looks just the same as before.

The moral of this quaint example
Is to do just the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is no indispensible man.

                —Anonymous

drumcorps 2 Comments

Supersizus Interruptus

I had just sat down to write a review of Super Size Me, the documentary that I went to see yesterday with Mark and Aaron, when Kris Heath called. Turns out that he and Jamie happened upon the PBS broadcast of the 2004 DCI World Championship Finals, and he wanted to let me know it was on—which was good, because I hadn’t realized it would be broadcast so soon after Finals. Usually, it’s not broadcast until Thanksgiving weekend.

As always, watching Finals on PBS was an experience best shared with no one. If I can’t have fellow corps alumni with me, I’d rather not have anyone else watch me silently cheer the incredible drill moves, or tear up at the memory of aging out forever, or any of the other silly unexplainable things I do while watching the broadcast. Having been involved in the activity, these reactions make perfect sense; to someone looking from the outside in, I’m sure it seems… over the top?

Back when I was still marching Junior corps, I’d seen alumni from the 70’s bawl like babies when they saw the Troopers perform their signature starburst drill move, simply because no one does that anymore, and it was once a staple of drum corps repertoire. I only vaguely understood back then what they were feeling, even with the drum corps experience that I had. I can’t imagine what people with no drum corps experience whatsoever would make of this.

Even without the drum corps experience under your belt, though, the DCI PBS broadcast is a wonderful program. Back in high school, before I ever dreamed I could possibly age out of a Top 12 corps and play in The Night Show, I watched and admired the ability of these young people to perform with such intensity. All the corps put on a great show, and every last kid is giving it his or her best for that one final performance. Even without knowing it firsthand, you can see in their eyes their love for the activity and their corpsmates, and it can really move you if you let it. When I saw it back in high school, I wanted that feeling myself. I never thought I’d actually get it.

Even now, seven years later, it’s such a great memory.