The Big Picture

'Til

The lyrics to the ballad:

There were bells on the hill
But I never heard them ringing,
No, I never heard them at all
Till there was you.

There were birds in the sky
But I never saw them winging
No, I never saw them at all
Till there was you.

And there was music,
And there were wonderful roses,
They tell me,
In sweet fragrant meadows of dawn, and dew.

There was love all around
But I never heard it singing
No, I never heard it at all
Till there was you!

Schedule from April Camp & Debut

I know camp's over and schedules for something that has already happened are not worth the paper they are written on -- and this one you're looking at is just dots on the back of a piece of glass, so consider what that's worth -- but it's kind of a for-the-record sort of thing.

Friday 4/22/2005
10 p.m. Sectionals
Percussion: band room
CG: lower gym
Brass: Upper gym

12 a.m. Snack (always wear your nametag -- we need Suzie around to enforce this rule. I just can't seem to make it stick)
1 a.m. Lights out. (This doesn't seem to apply to drummers who set up right under the parents' sleeping room....)

Saturday 4/23/2005
8:30 a.m. Wake and eat
9:30 a.m. Cals
main gym
running block

10:15 a.m. Sectionals indoors
Pit: cafeteria
Guard: lower gym
Brass: main gym and classrooms
Percussion: band, choir, classrooms

12:30 p.m. Lunch

1:30 Visual
Brass and percussion: outdoors on fields
Guard remains indoors in upper gym

3:30 p.m. Warm-up break

4 p.m. Visual and playing
Brass and percussion: Field. Warmup
Pit to field
Guard remains indoors

4:30 p.m.
Ensemble
Move and play

5:30 p.m. Dinner

6:30 p.m. Meeting for everyone in the main gym

7 p.m. Sectionals
CG: Upper gym
Brass: Lower gym
Percussion: Music rooms

10 p.m. Music ensemble/main gym

11:45 p.m. Full run of show

12 a.m. Snack and clean school
Load pit/Snack/load cars as much as possible

1:30 a.m. Lights out

Sunday 4/25/2005 SHOW DAY!
9:30 a.m. Wake/eat/pack/load

10:30 a.m. Cals

11 a.m. Brass sectionals warmup/Color guard warmup at Washington
Percussion to Senior

12:15 p.m. Guard to Senior
12:45 p.m. Brass to Senior

1-1:45 p.m. Music ensemble in main gym

1:45 p.m. Meet in sections

2 p.m. DEBUT COLTS 2005
Order of performance
Senior drill team
Colts Youth Choirs
Colt Cadets
Colts

3:15 p.m.
Meeting/load equipment


Sunday Senior Rehearsal Sechedule
Big gym -- Colt Cadets 11-1, Colts 1-2
Upstairs little gym -- Colts 11-12:45, Colts guard 12:30-1:40, Senior 1:40-1:50
Indoor track -- Youth choirs

Camp video posted at colts.org

Nic Champagne has a kick-ass video from camp posted at colts.org already!

Brandt Crocker. The snare line with their "ride" cymbals. Great pit and brass action. Wow! Makes me kind of ashamed that I slept last night instead of processing pictures.....

Thanks, Nic! Glad you got your "ride" shot. I know you were looking for that one.

david

Spring Debut

Camp pictures will be sent to colts.org in a few days. But the weekend was so great, I couldn't resist just one to start the countdown to summer. Memorial Day is 5 weeks away....

April Was Awesome

Sunday's Debut performance was the cap on a terrific weekend for the Colts. (It could have been a little warmer and less wind, especially Saturday when the corps wanted to get a lot of drill work done outside...brrrrrrrrrrrr)

Corps members put in a lot of work, and then wowed a big crowd at Dubuque Senior High with a performance of all the music from the 2005 show "Postcards From Home." The colorguard provided the visual part of the show by backing the opener using actual show flags for 2005. I got goosebumps -- and I was on the backfield side of the gym for the first half of the show. And I tell you, they're going to bring me to tears yet with 'Til There Was You." What power. What emotion.

Had anybody else figured out that Greg had pulled in a ringer before "the voice of DCI" Brandt Crocker began his trademark introduction on Sunday afternoon? I recognized him, but it was still great to hear his "THE Colts" ring out in the gym.

Thanks to all the volunteers for all their help. So much got done this weekend, I'm not sure I could list it all. I took notes while I was there, but I'm sure I missed something. A partial list includes:
All those who worked long hours Saturday so the Colts would have a set of 2005 show flags to use Sunday afternoon. And who sewed practice flags and souvie flags.

"Jim's crew" that replaced the floor in the walk-in freezer and refrigerator on the genuine cooktruck, built a new bread rack and new shelves, cleaned, painted, reinforced, tested, replaced pipe, attached faucets, moved cabinet doors, etc. They also reinforced a shelf and built a new drum carrier rack for the equipment truck.

Program folders.

Those that attended Saturday's board meeting.

Rifle tapers.

Uniform fitters and those who sewed uniforms.

Barry's cooktruck grill cleaning. Who knew it was supposed to be silver all the time?

Chris the knife sharpener.

The cooktruck fixup crew that came inside Saturday night and helped repair triangles on shakos.

Sunday's super souvie sellers.

Luba for measuring prospective guard members.

Bob and Mary for all their help and hugs and for just being Bob and Mary. (Love you guys.)

And the cooks. What superlatives can you use that would be worthy of Colts cooks?

Here's the weekend menu. Thanks to all the cooks who made it great.

Friday snack
Corn dogs
Peanut butter and jelly

Saturday breakfast
Egg McMona
Cereal
Peanut butter and jelly

Saturday lunch
Cheeseburger turnovers
Green beans
Take Along Cake
Peanut butter and jelly

Saturday dinner
Chicken Parmesan/Spaghetti
Salad (which was very beautiful as well as yummy)
Cupcakes
Peanut butter and jelly

Saturday snack
Ice cream sundaes
Leftovers
Peanut butter and jelly

Sunday breakfast
Pancakes
Bacon
Choice of 3 kinds of muffins
Fruit cups
Cereal
Peanut butter and jelly

Sunday lunch
DIY sack lunch

Camp today

Who's coming?

Camp details are at colts.org. Be sure to check the website before you leave for any last-minute changes.


Forecast for Dubuque

Google map of Dubuque. With Google maps you can zoom in and out on a location. Click and hold on the map to drag the map in the window.

Camp tomorrow

Look here

Click to see something cool at dci.org

What's the weekend weather?

Weather report and forecast for Dubuque

Click for Google map of Dubuque. With Google maps you can zoom in and out on a location. Click and hold on the map to drag the map in the window.

Drumming

Filling a contra spot

And doing it really, really well.

Sew sunshine

dci.org says former Colts drummer to be on TV tonight

Former Colts drummer Matt Chambless is on the Jimmy Kimmell show on TV tonight. Read more about it at dci.org

April info at colts.org

There's a lot of good, new information for April camp and the Spring Debut at colts.org.

2005 Flags in progress

Summertime test

Click for Google map of Dubuque. With Google maps you can zoom in and out on a location. Click and hold on the map to drag the map in the window.


Click for today’s weather in Dubuque

Uniform

Work time

Olaf, Olaf, Olaf

I nominate Olaf for chairman of the board.
david

(article below is from dci.org)

Drum Corps Netherlands founded
4/11/2005 -- 3:29 PM CST From a Drum Corps Netherlands press release:

A new Dutch drum corps association is on the horizon: Drum Corps Netherlands. The foundation of Drum Corps Netherlands was initiated by Drum Corps Europe. It is expected that the new Dutch drum corps association will run its first circuit in 2006.

Since 2003, Drum Corps Europe has run the European Championships, as well as a Dutch drum corps competition. At this moment, there is no drum corps organization active in the Netherlands.

Drum Corps Europe wants to change this by founding Drum Corps Netherlands. DCN will be an autonomous association, with its own board of directors. The preparations for DCN will be lead by DCE board member Kees Bourquin.

DCE and DCN will cooperate closely in the fields of judging team, and contest rules.

"We think that founding a Dutch organization for the drum corps competition in the Netherlands is a step we need to take," DCE chairman Marcel Matthijsse said. "With Drum Corps Netherlands taking care of the Dutch activity, DCE can now focus on the European level."

Details of DCN will follow in the coming months.

Warmup

Red Team

I don't know about anybody else, but I like the red T-shirts that the Colts are wearing for drill practice. Very 'Red Team' feeling.

Maybe that's just a photographer's point of view.

david

BR's run

Bonus photo

Welcome to the new virtual cooktruck

Well, it's really the old Virtual Cooktruck, just cleaned up, expanded, and readied for the 2005 season. (If it were only this easy to get the real cooktruck ready!)

The move was so easy thanks to colts.org webmaster Katherine Eichhorn. She got our new home here at colts.org ready for us and helped (helped, hell, she just did it) move it over here.

We now have all the space we need for maps, reports, menus, pictures, and maybe even an audio report or two from the road this summer. No more having to stash pictures in free photo-hosting all over the net or stealing bandwidth from my high school band's webpage. -- I'd never do that. They gladly donated the excess bandwidth. Really, they don't use that much in the summertime anyway. I know the webmaster personally ;) --

Let's get 2005 on the road. All we need now is for YOU to volunteer to come along.

david

Anybody can help

DLS001057_RT8(1), originally uploaded by David Speer.

Hey, sign up to cook for the Colts this summer and you might even get your picture on the virtual cooktruck. (whether you want to or not!)

Even the color guard got into the serving act at the drill camp in Sterling last weekend.

Sign up today!

david

We still need cooks. Sign on now

A note similar to this one will be posted soon at colts.org. But I thought I'd put something here, too, just to let everyone know that we still need help this summer. There are still weeks on tour that are short cooks. I know that if you're reading this, you care. 'Cause there's no reason to come over here and look at this blog unless you really, really care about the Colts....

First of all, though, all the volunteer coordinators want to thank everyone who has already signed up for a summer tour spot. You are the greatest bunch of volunteers for any corps anywhere. The response has been great. But we need more.

Here's what Bill wrote me today after more people signed up over the weekend:

1) The first three weeks (that's pre-season and the Cornfield Tour) are very light.
2) We're still short for the week of 7/10 (Midseason camp week).
3) We're begging for help from San Antonio to Indy, 7/23 - 7/30.

And there's other spots open. These are just where the need is greatest.

If you have signed up, thanks for that. We can't do it without you. If you haven't, email Bill at colts.cooks@comcast.net and get your name down. You don't know what you're missing.

david

Camp today!

Woo-hoo. See you in Sterling!

david