Back of the Bus: Flow

The river takes her shape from every tempest she abides...

When I was a kid, my dad started feeling homesick. We were living in South Florida at the time, and his dad, my granddad, was living with my aunt and uncle in Clinton, IA, right along the banks of the Mississippi. He’d had a nasty stroke about a decade prior, and we were never really sure how much time he had left. We’d also lost my grandma a few years prior due to lung cancer, so it was already a bit hard dealing with that, especially being so far away from everyone else…

So, he talked my mom into moving to a little farmhouse a couple of miles outside this tiny little town called Olin, about 15 miles away from the nearest place that would show up on a map (Anamosa) and 40 miles from the closest city anyone has ever heard of (Cedar Rapids). He got a couple of jobs running youth ministry for local churches, and my mom found a position as a band director.

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When Change Really Is Everything

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I loved that farmhouse, the barns and tractors parked inside, and the dirt driveway down to the county road. I’d peek around in the cornfields, go off into the barns, and hang out with the cows. Like all four-year-olds, though, I’d get bored. It being such a small town and even still living a further couple miles down the road, I’d spend some time with my great aunt, who lived in town, but I had a lot of time to do nothing.

One thing I did find myself doing, though, was taking the hose from the side of the house, unrolling it, putting the end at the top of the driveway, turning it on, and just watching the water cascade toward the street. Seeing the streams pour down, break apart, and come back together, I’d imagine that it was a great and mighty river. Everywhere it would break apart, there would be some stone, some elevated dirt patch that the water couldn’t find its way through, and then it would just trickle until it found an easier path—before gravity pulled it further down the slope.

That was such a foundational memory for me that, despite only a year in the Hawkeye State 22 years ago, it’s one of the defining memories of my experience there, right up with my visits with my great aunt and the free-range lab that chose us for a few months. It will last much longer than that old farmhouse, which no longer stands.

This particular memory has been coming to mind a lot lately. As I’m writing this on Tuesday evening with OC Finals playing in the background, it’s particularly poignant because I spent an hour and a half on Sunday, thanks to Tropical Storm Debby, dealing with a flooded backyard, helping the water piling up find a way to flow downhill, out toward the street, and to the storm drain.

Flow can start with one source that branches out, like an oak growing and expanding from an acorn, or it can be like a river, with many disparate origins coming together. Once started, though, it’s nearly impossible to stop completely. The best we can do in many cases is slow it down or redirect it. The question is, what is the best way to go about that?

I also have another memory floating in my mind tonight. That was when I stepped onto the field in Marion for Open Class Prelims in 2019, starting the final week of my marching career, having the honor of doing so with one of my favorite people in the world as my corps director, the aforementioned former youth minister who moved his family to Iowa. The corps I was with that year, Heat Wave, has become another corps that has taken a year off, like so many before them. Some came back. Some didn’t. While the board and administration there have taken tangible steps toward returning to the field, it’s difficult to think about all the corps we’ve loved and lost.

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Back of the Bus: The Last Five Years

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I’m sure almost all of us can think back to the very first shows we watched, wanting desperately to march at that one corps. For me, that was The Cadets, an organization where some of my favorite people in the activity would end up marching. A corps that introduced countless innovations to the drum corps world. And we just went through an Allentown weekend without them there for the first time in how long? We were in danger of losing SCV just last year, though all indications are that VMAPA is in much better shape now.

As an activity, we need to do much more to figure out how to make this sustainable. We need to stem the flow of groups out and figure out how to bring more in while keeping up the massive strides we’ve taken concerning member treatment. Maybe that involves a different touring model. We may see corps pooling resources more, doing things like the Midwest Combine Experience, the combined audition with the Blue Devils and Pacific Crest that we saw for years, or even traveling together and rehearsing at adjoining schools.

Alas, maybe we’ll all just move to Iowa and make rivers in the driveways.

The Podium

So, it continues to look like the Bluecoats will sweep the season. Results from Canton show that while judges think that Bloo has a little cleaning up to do musically, the numbers indicate that their visual book is the strongest all around, and they have cleaned it up well. Boston has the performers, but they’re upside down in two of the three visual captions, which may impact their battle with BD for the silver. What was eye-opening, however, was seeing Phantom ahead of BD in GE1. Phantom is eking every tenth out of their effect right now, while BD’s performance is almost half a point back from their rep. While that’s one judge at one competition, it doesn’t feel inaccurate when looking at their show throughout the season. There’s something in BD’s show that doesn’t feel like they’ve entirely unlocked it quite yet, and the clock is about to strike midnight. That said, I’d be stunned to see Phantom pass them this year.

Le Deluge

With the rainout of Allentown’s Saturday show, we missed out on one of the best chances of seeing the 4-11 battles play out before Thursday (except for the Colts and Cavaliers, who both performed on Friday evening). While some placements almost feel etched in stone already, there’s still enough uncertainty that this grouping is probably the most interesting one to me come finals week, as much fun as it would be to see some drama at the top or for the last spot on the Saturday night show this weekend.

Can the Troopers, who will be a week out from their last performance when they go on for Prelims (with plenty of cleaning under their belt undoubtedly), pass the Cavaliers? We haven’t seen Vanguard and Mandarins at the same show since Atlanta, and who knows how things will be when they get together again. Finally, with multiple corps dealing with nasty COVID outbreaks over the last couple of weeks, how much will that factor into things?

(sidenote: J. Birney is a Drum Corps Mecca, but how long are we going to put up with one of the most important shows on the calendar, the weekend before finals, getting rained out every few years? I hear the Carrier Dome has A/C now…)

Last One Standing

Unless something shocking happens, it seems like the Madison Scouts will find themselves performing on Saturday evening for the first time since 2017. Russia hadn’t been banned from competing at the Olympics for the first time then. For me, it’s difficult to remember seeing their flag at the games at all. Oh, how things change. Seeing the Scouts back on the activity’s biggest stage will be good. They have an entertaining show this year, and they have the energy in the corps to push it forward.

As for the battle for 13th, it feels like things will be a little tighter there. Pacific Crest has really started tightening things up with one of my favorite shows of the season, but Blue Knights and Crossmen are right there, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the order of those three change from Thursday to Friday. Spirit is a bit of a dark horse to step into that grouping, but their awful luck with getting performances this season seems to have affected them. Regardless, their shows over the last couple of years have been a delight for the eyes and the ears. As these performers mature, it won’t be hard to imagine them challenging the Scouts and Troopers of the world and making a long-awaited return to finals of their own.

Things Open Up

Around here is where we have to expect to see BDB and Spartans slot in, right? They’re both excellent groups this year, but it’s hard to see either in the mix with any of the top 16 World Class groups at this point. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Spartans take the leap up to World within the next year or two. It seems that they’ve been on the longer and more involved “Prove It” tours over the past couple of years, which DCI generally gives corps interested in making the step up.

Spartans’ victory tonight is fascinating as it is the first time we’ve seen a non-BDB or SCVC group win an Open Class championship where one or both of those groups attend since Oregon Crusaders took home the OC championship in 2012. I also wonder how different things would have looked if we’d seen BDB out at shows and getting judging feedback more recently than two and a half weeks ago, but that crew knows their stuff and did a very good job cleaning up. As usual, Spartans did an excellent job, and I love the show identity they’ve been carving out. Things are a little different than Spartans… At The Gates! It isn’t hard to see them transitioning well into the lower half of World Class, though I am also excited to see what Open corps step up and fill their niche if they get bumped up.

Right in the mix, though, are Academy, Music City, and the rest of the World Class crew that we haven’t mentioned yet. Surf might have the most entertaining show I’ve seen from them since Bridgemania; it’s an absolutely wild and delightful ride. Music City’s show is lovely and very Southern in a great way, but it has a decidedly different vibe from the South shows we’ve seen from Spirit in the past. It’s hard to be mad at the crop of shows we have this year below the finalist contenders, and that’s a lovely thing.

Best of the Week

Alright! We’re going to be in a marching lull for the next few weeks, though we’re only five weeks away from the first BOA show of the season, and other circuits are getting started even sooner. Here are a couple of things to tide you over until then.

• The Bear - You may have been all over season three as soon as it dropped at the end of June, or you may have been like me, watching an episode here or there when FloMarching isn’t on the screen. It’s back and just as great as before.

• Parallelograms by Linda Perhacs - This is a classic folk album with psychedelic influences that I somehow completely missed until

  Aaron Blackley
  sent me a track off of it, and I immediately fell in love. If you listen to just one track off of it, make it “Hey, Who Really Cares”.

• Kicked-Up Tater Tot Hotdish - We’ll be getting into Hotdish season real soon, and it’s always good to have a great recipe on hand. This is a really fancy (and excellent) version of a classic, but if you want something a bit more traditional but with a bit of flair still, try this one. I can personally attest to how delicious it is.

• The Destroyer of Worlds - If you’re into history, or if you enjoyed Oppenheimer at all, you should be listening to Hardcore History. More specifically, you should listen to this episode regarding nuclear weapons, their development, and the threat they pose. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart, but wow. It’s really something that everyone should have the context of and is presented in a very engaging way. It’s also almost six hours long, so it might be good to space it out with something a little more lighthearted (may I recommend the Discworld series that I mentioned in the last Back of the Bus?)

  

Matthew Carstensen is currently GEM’s Managing Editor. He has been involved in the Pageantry Arts for over a decade as a performer at the highest level, an instructor, and a fan. You can find him on Twitter and Threads at SatNightLites. He currently lives in Florida with his dog, who had far too much fun splashing around in the small ponds formed in the flooding backyard.