Recently, a friend asked me why the Cadets are my favorite corps. That decision took 12 minutes and 36 seconds to make as they finished their semifinal performance on August 14, 1985. That was my first live viewing of the Garfield Cadets, and I made it my mission to learn all about them. (more…)
DCI committed another championship to its annals. Per usual, the Internet reacted from all sides of the dodecagon (one side for every finalist). Who let Judge A work Finals? Corps B was CLEARLY better; everybody on Drum Corps Planet SAID so! Park and bark! What are they wearing? Too many props! Not enough props! The Whale lived! Frankly, I’ll read these artistic disagreements over political vitriol any hour of any day of the week. The passions are similar; the venom spewed from drum corps is less harmful.
From 1976-1980, DCI fans experienced the first Reign of Terror by the Concord Blue Devils. They won four out of five championships, and despite placing third in 1978, they were a few mere tenths away from winning that one. (more…)
Santa Clara Vanguard’s tragic decision not to field a 2023 corps shocked the DCI world. Drum Corps Planet, Twitter, and Facebook exploded with elegies, eulogies, and touching memoirs. One of the common thoughts of the social media: if it happened to SCV, no corps is safe! Perhaps one day, we fans will ask each other, “How did you find out about Vanguard?” I received a DM from a former marcher who doesn’t spread misinformation. I then (privately) went to bigger fish—one of whom confirmed before the official gavel dropped.
Finally! Another full season, complete with scores, is in the books. I spent Thursday in my local theatre sparingly taking notes on my iPhone and emailing them to myself. “Big, Loud & Live” takes me back to my Boomer days of the live PBS broadcasts which I still have (reformatted for this century).
Should there be competition among the Arts? Easy decisions are made on the football field, baseball diamond or at the track meet tape. Whoever is fastest or scores more points wins. With Art, subjective minds decide what/who is best – usually for the rest of us. Is Citizen Kane the greatest film ever made? (more…)
I hate Covid-19. I hate it more than most. I think I had it in January ’20 – that weekend I sounded exactly like Barry White. As of this writing, Ohio – as well as most of the planet – has been mired in shut downs. Covid has been deemed a worldwide pandemic of epic panicking proportions. I don’t hate the virus as much as the reaction to it. I do have dear friends who are scared for their lives, and I respect their decisions to stay quarantined even after Ohio reopened restaurants. Remember the scene in “E.T.” when the government people raided Elliot’s house in those scarifying sterile getups? I’m pretty sure one of them was my server the other day.
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Rick spent six years in the hornline of the Garfield Cadets. We all know his distinctive tone quality, as he was the soprano soloist from 1984 through 1988. We became acquainted through social media, and I have asked him an insufferable amount of questions about his drum corps experiences.
TF: Let’s start with your musical training.
RW: I grew up in New Jersey and am a 1984 graduate of Waldwick High School. I attended William Paterson University where I received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education in 1988. I did some graduate study in Trumpet Performance at Montclair State University in the early 1990s.
TF: List your corps experience.
RW: 1976-78: Imperial Knights; 1979-82: Fantasia III; 1983-88: Garfield Cadets; 1989-1993: Crossmen Brass Staff; 1994: Westshoremen Brass Arranger; 1995-2007: Jersey Surf Brass Arranger/Musical Director; 2000-04: Juliana (Holland) Brass Arranger; 2006: Skyliners Brass Arranger; 2007: Fusion Core Brass Arranger.
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