Every day in every way I find more and more ways to ensnare people unfamiliar with drum corps into becoming nascent fans of marching music. My current scheme involves using quotations from the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin to describe different aspects of drum corps life. It's all part of my effort to get new drum corps fans to think a little bit about the marching arts and realize that drum corps is good enough, it's smart enough and doggonit people like drum corps.
Today's Quote:
Dude, you look like a man-o-lantern. -David
What does this have to do with drum corps?:
As we expand our view of life in a drum corps beyond the actual performance aspect, rehearsals certainly deserve some serious attention. For every minute you see a corps on the field the performers, designers, and instructors all had to pour in untold hours of work to make that happen. On the days they have a competition drum corps will spend the morning and afternoon fine tuning every aspect of their show under the glaring, boiling, unending summer sun. On the days they don't have a performance they will practice even more and absorb even more UV rays. All of that time under all of that solar radiation leads to some pretty intense tanning. Drum corps members have to watch out for heat exhaustion and sun stroke, but they can also get some pretty odd tan patterns. Wearing a shirt (as I understand experts recommend), results in the unsightly "farmer's tan" where a person develops a deep brown tone on their neck and forearms but retain their pasty complexion everywhere else. If the corps member tries going bareback he may find that all the movement around the field plus the shadows from carrying his equipment results in some pretty odd patterns. I have seen many a tan inflicted by harsh drum corps rehearsals. While few rise to the level of "man-o-lantern" oddities, you certainly see some odd things blazed into the skin of drum corps.
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