Stanford Live!

[JulesBry]

Whoever made the world's first quiche is an example of this I am sure. They tried to make an omelette and screwed it up horribly. But, it worked anyway.

First, anyone who accidentally makes quiche should not be in the kitchen. That simply doesn't happen. :-)

Second, in this case, it didn't work for the audience. That's the point. The judges may love a show, but if the audience doesn't, over time, the audience will quit paying to see the show. And if there is no audience, there will be no drum corps.

If you want to help the students, the best way possible is to build the audience. And you do that by giving the audience things they want to see. You can still stretch them, but you can't do an entire show where everything is a stretch. And you certainly can't do several all-stretch shows in a row. And worse yet, you can't have 12 corps doing all-stretch shows for several years in a row. Right now, we're somewhere between the first and second levels--one corps doing mostly stretch shows for several years in a row. The further DCI goes down that row, the less likely the audiences are to pay for future shows.

[JulesBry]

George Hopkins seems to have gotten the message the last three years with the microphones and put good shows on the field again that everyone likes. I've listened to the Cadet complaints in the stands come to a stop. It's time the Blue Devils listened as well.

I'm no fan of George Hopkins, but I will give him credit for this. I can't tell you the number of times I said "I wish they would just shut up and play!" during the voice-over years. And now, I'm again a tentative Cadets fan (meaning I like their last several shows, but I'm always nervous they're going to do something ridiculous again).

I used to respect and even like BD shows (I watched 2003 again tonight and really enjoyed it). I'd love to be able to enjoy them again.