Every summer, the spectacle of drum and bugle corps holds hundreds of thousands of fans in thrall. They pack stadiums from Chicago to Los Angeles, New York to Dallas, and Amsterdam to Tokyo to witness the pageantry and cutthroat competition of marching music at its highest level. Building the Green Machine: Don Warren and Sixty Years with the World Champion Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps is the unique story of how one man's dream launched turned a raucous gang of Chicago Boy Scouts into one of the greatest drum and bugle corps in the world.The tale begins in the 1940s in rough-and-tumble Logan Square, Chicago, where charismatic junior scoutmaster Don Warren covets more for his buddies than the dead-end world the street had to offer. Somehow, he convinced his friends to ditch knots and camping for snare drums and horns. And so the Cavaliers were born. The blare and bombast of competitive drum corps erupted in postwar Chicago as neighborhood groups clashed for bragging rights. To become champions, the Cavaliers had to overcome raw musical talent and clumsy feet to build a brotherhood capable of repelling every outside challenge.But drum corps is about more than a show polished to jaw-dropping perfection. It's about friendship, maturing into adulthood, and having lots of fun. It's about hours of rehearsal under an unsympathetic sun, pushing yourself beyond your limits. It's about the roar of the crowd as you strut onto the field, ready to blow your eyeballs out the bell of your horn. It's about achieving something together greater than something you could ever achieve alone. The bonds forged during cross-country bus tours-when you call a gym floor and a sleeping bag your nightly bed and sloppy Joe dished from a trailer kitchen your daily bread-last for a lifetime. Above all, drum corps is about people: parents, teachers, fans, and volunteers who keep the annual tour afloat and give of themselves so members enjoy the experience of a lifetime.Building the Green Machine carries readers through the dominant ascendancy of the Cavaliers to the top of drum corps-but that is only the beginning. By the early 1970s, cigar-chomping Warren is helping found a new competitive circuit called Drum Corps International, which turned the activity into the free-wheeling sprinting artistry of today-nearly killing his beloved Cavaliers in the process.Prepare in turns to laugh aloud and raise your hand to your mouth in shock as you ride the buses, charge onto the field, and participate in the hilarious behind-the-scene shenanigans with the cast of characters who created the world-famous Green Machine. Colt Foutz's Building the Green Machine delivers an unparalleled look at an American musical odyssey-a quintessential American rags-to-riches story you will never forget.About the Author: In six years as a journalist in Ohio and the Chicago suburbs, Colt Foutz won fifteen state and national awards for newspaper writing. He was president of his high school marching band and studied music composition at Carnegie Mellon University, where he earned a B.A. in creative writing. Colt is the recipient of Follett and Getz fellowships in the M.F.A. writing program at Columbia College Chicago. He lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife and son.About the founder: Don Warren founded The Cavaliers in 1948 as a teenager, and has served as its president ever since. In 1971, Warren and four rival directors formed the Midwest Combine, which grew the next year into Drum Corps International. Warren worked as an insurance salesman for thirty-three years. He is the father of four, the grandfather of nine, and has been married to his wonderful wife for half a century. The Warrens live in Wood Dale, Illinois.Advance praise for Building the Green Machine: "Colt Foutz masterfully presents the Cavaliers story through the eyes of the corps founder and Drum Corps International co-founder Don Warren. . . . This is a must-have for anyone who calls drum corps their activity." - Dan Acheson, executive director, Drum Corps International"With a true storyteller's instinct, Colt Foutz chronicles every pounding beat and every soaring note of the Cavaliers' amazing 60-year history. Building the Green Machine is a terrific read, equally engaging for Corps insiders as it is for the newly initiated." - Sam Weller, author, The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury"This book is a priceless reminder of what drum corps is about: Kids, making the world a better place, and excellence And Don did it all With this book, we have the stories, the challenges, and the joy-to relive for years to come." - George Hopkins, executive director, Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps, Youth Education in the Arts
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从文化批判的角度来看,这本书提出了许多值得深思的哲学命题。它不仅仅是关于如何制造更清洁的引擎或更有效的电池,它更深刻地触及了我们这个时代对于“进步”的定义。作者不断抛出一个核心问题:我们所建造的这个“绿色机器”,其最终目标究竟是单纯的环境修复,还是构建一个更公平、更具韧性的社会结构?书中对“技术中立性”的质疑尤其犀利,它揭示了任何强大的技术系统,在落地执行的瞬间,都不可避免地会被现有的权力结构所裹挟和利用。我读到关于“技术获取权”的那部分时,深有感触:如何确保这些革命性的绿色工具,不会仅仅成为富裕地区或精英阶层的特权,而真正实现全球范围内的普及和赋能?这本书的价值在于,它强迫读者跳出“技术至上”的思维定式,去思考技术背后的伦理、政治和社会责任。它是一本需要被反复阅读和讨论的书,因为它提供的答案,远不如它提出的问题来得重要和深远。
评分这本书的语言风格是少有的,它融合了硬核的技术分析和近乎诗意的描摹。不同于那些冷峻的学术写作,《Building the Green Machine》充满了对人类创造力的赞美和对自然之美的敬畏。当作者描述一个全新的、基于生物启发设计的反应堆原理时,他所用的词汇和句式,仿佛在描绘一幅文艺复兴时期的艺术品,充满了和谐与秩序的美感。更难得的是,这种美感并非空泛的辞藻堆砌,而是与具体的技术细节紧密相连的。你会发现,最前沿的工程学突破,其灵感往往来源于对自然界最古老法则的重新发现和应用。这种将科学的严谨性与人文的浪漫主义完美嫁接的能力,使得阅读体验非常愉悦且富有启发性。它让我们意识到,伟大的“机器”从来都不是冰冷的机械集合,而是人类智慧与自然规律之间最优雅的对话。这本书成功地将一个关于工程实践的题材,提升到了美学和哲学的层面,让人在合上书本后,依然能感受到那种对未来无限可能性的憧憬和对科学探索的由衷敬佩。
评分我一直以为这类主题的书籍会充斥着大量的专业术语和公式推导,读起来会像啃石头一样费劲,但《Building the Green Machine》却彻底颠覆了我的预期。它最成功的地方在于,它用一种极具画面感的语言,将复杂的系统工程分解成了读者可以轻松消化的模块。我印象最深的是关于“分布式能源网络”那一章,作者没有用晦涩的电网拓扑图来解释,而是构建了一个虚拟的小镇,详细描述了当太阳能、风能和储能系统整合在一起时,小镇居民的生活是如何发生的质变——从每月的电费账单,到面对突发断电时的自给自足能力。这种“自下而上”的阐释策略,极大地降低了阅读门槛,同时也提升了读者对变革潜力的直观感受。它成功地将“宏大叙事”与“个体体验”完美结合,让你在理解技术脉络的同时,也能为那些正在努力实现变革的小人物鼓掌。这种叙事上的平衡感,使得即便是对工程领域一窍不通的普通读者,也能被书中蕴含的创新精神深深吸引,并从中汲取到改变世界的信心和方法论。
评分这本书的结构设计堪称精妙,它不像是一部线性叙事的传记或技术史,更像是一部多维度的交响乐。作者巧妙地采用了多重时间线和视角切换,时而深入到历史的尘埃中去探究某个关键发明的早期原型,时而又跳跃到几年后的未来,预设性地展示了该技术全面推广后可能带来的社会连锁反应。这种非线性的编排,极大地增强了阅读的探索乐趣。每一次章节的转换,都像是打开了一个新的观察孔,让你从不同的角度去审视这个“绿色机器”的构建过程。我特别欣赏它对“失败的教训”的坦诚记录。很多同类书籍会选择性地突出成功案例,但这本书毫不避讳地展示了哪些路线被证明是死胡同,哪些高成本的实验最终被证明是必要的牺牲。这种对不确定性和试错过程的尊重,让整本书的论调显得异常成熟和可信。它提醒我们,任何伟大的“建造”都不是一蹴而就的完美蓝图,而是一个不断试错、修正、再试错的漫长过程。
评分这本书的叙事手法真是令人拍案叫绝,作者仿佛拥有一种魔力,能将那些看似枯燥的工程学原理,通过一个个鲜活的人物和扣人心弦的冲突巧妙地编织在一起。我尤其欣赏它在描绘技术革新过程中所面临的人性挣扎。比如,书中关于能源转型阵营内部不同利益集团之间的博弈,写得丝丝入扣,远超一般的技术手册或商业分析。它没有简单地将绿色技术塑造成万能解药,而是深入探讨了在推广过程中,传统行业如何抵制、社区如何被忽视,以及理想主义者如何与现实的官僚主义周旋。读到主角团队为了一个关键的材料突破,如何在缺乏资金和来自既得利益者的恶意中挣扎求生,我几乎能感受到那种彻夜难眠的焦虑感和对信念的坚守。这种对“人”在宏大叙事中的关注,使得整本书的张力十足,它不仅仅是在讲述一个技术如何被“建造”的过程,更是在探讨一种新的工业文明形态在诞生之初所必须经历的阵痛与牺牲。作者对细节的把控令人赞叹,无论是实验室里的气味,还是谈判桌上的微妙肢体语言,都刻画得入木三分,让人仿佛身临其境,参与到这场伟大的“机器建造”之中。这种叙事上的丰富性,让这本书超越了单纯的行业报告,成为一部引人深思的当代史诗。
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