Hello everyone in the FMA community. My name is Jim Helsel. I've been granted the priveledge of helping to make our little corner of the world just a bit bigger, and hopefully a bit more fun too.

A little background. I live in Christchurch, New Zealand, earthquake city. I am from Maryland. I know, someone told me no one should have to be from Maryland, but it really is not my fault, I was born there. I have been down here since 2002. My real life job is professional sports photography. I follow our national teams around and have photographed at the Beijing Olympics. I have marched in both DCI and DCA (a lot of you were probably in diapers at the time,or not born yet), playing tenor and snare, as well as arrange/instruct percussion for numerous high school programs, and at one point the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band. God help me again. Must be a Maryland thing.

I will be covering both the season 38 FMA Drum Corps World Championship Finals and the FMA Drumline World Championship Finals, all divisions.

I know this is a big ask, but if you are a finalist in any one of these circuits and want a decent review of your finals performance, could you please PM me with group name, division, circuit, repertoire, and most important, what you feel are highlights of your show. I will do my best to put the color into it and give each group the justice it deserves. Free free to add in an instructor or director quote.

If your group fnishes in the top 3, and this is important, expect an interview through PM after the show. Nothing overly time consuming, as I know we all do have real world lives, just a few questions. If I don't get a reply, I will review your performance from the numbers and info I have.

Remember, this is your community. I hope to bring us a bit closer, one show at a time. Enjoy the rest of your day and best wishes to all competing groups in tonight's finals. It's been a great year and I'm sure tonight's performances will be no exception. Looking forward to your shows.

Jim

I love this! Thank you for stepping up

Hello, if you missed the post from Alex yesterday, Kiwi and I both became commentators. Instead of creating a new thread, I will introduce myself here.

I’m Aaron Sickmeier from the St. Louis area. I play several instruments, primarily strings, piano, and woodwinds. I graduated high school in 2001. In school, I was one of the few students who would switch instruments between songs, sometimes playing flute, saxophone, or percussion. I was in the jazz band, marching band, symphonic band, orchestra, and choir. I started playing music by ear around the age of 6. I started composing at age 12 with Concertware on Windows 95.

Even though my credentials aren’t as impressive as Kiwi’s, I have participated in local bands. I have given flute lessons and tutored in music theory. I’ve written drill for local high school bands and have done some arranging for them, too. I almost toured with Glassmen in 2001 but a personal obligation interfered; it was one of the biggest disappointments of my life. Second best was, at least, attending the camps and attending the 2001 finals in Buffalo, NY. Although I didn’t march DCI, I’m a huge DCI nerd with a large video collection going back to 1985. I’ve attended three finals competitions, 2000, 2001, and 2007 and several local competitions and rehearsals.

Because there haven’t been any objections with other commentators, I believe that I will be writing a finals recap for the marching band and color guard circuits. To help improve the recap, please share more details about your finals performance and shows. Furthermore, I’d like to get interviews with the top 3 finalists of each division, too.

Thanks,

Aaron Sickmeier

awesome idea guys--I hope it goes well