hairbear Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Somehow, the thought of Tom doing a "pizza dive" on a bus trip nowadays.....I don't think todays young DCA corps members would appreciate it, Jeff. Certainly, the DCA corps of today do a far better job with the membership, in all the areas you mentioned, BigW. Our 96 season was the most focused and purposeful effort I'd been a part of, since 1987. I think what we are discussing here, is exactly what C.Holland is asking about. Do you guys recognize a change in attitude, in todays DCA members? I see a sense of professionalism, individually as well as collectively. Coming from Ohio Brass Factory to Steel City Ambassadors was quite a change of culture, for me. Then from Steel City to Westshore in 1991, another "adjustment" period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 There was a sense of professionalism that gradually crept into Westshore as I was there from '79 to '84 as well. It did give us an edge. A lot of us grew up there and matured, understood we had to work harder and really push to make it where we wanted to make it. Larry tried hard as I was there each season to continue to cultivate a more serious attitude. There were still the moments for silly. Maybe now as tight as everything's scheduled, there are less moments for it, too, and deliberately so. The one thing I haven't gotten to on the Westshore threads, though, was my thoughts on '84. I can tell you looking back I am infinitely more happy and pleased with the 1984 season than 1983. Dropping to 15th from 4th doesn't come into the calculus there. Even the fact the 83 hornline was arguably better than 82's and so was the drill. We got rid of the intense pressure to succeed/win it all, several people who produced an incredible amount of the drama, negative vibes, nasty sniping and drag within the corps, and it made those of us who put together a corps in 6 weeks that actually beat 4 corps who rehearsed all year very satisfied and happy inside. The air and my heart was light and clear without the ringchasers on board. It was fun to rehearse and be around my friends that year, and we did work very hard for those 6 weeks. I think corps today are also very sensitive to the 10/80/10 principle and make certain the 10 percent negative people are either excised or held in check by the 10 percent of the go-getters. This was not a well-known concept in the activity at the time unless you knew Dr. Tim well. I think in '83 for the first time the 10 percent of the duds in the corps poisoned us. The interesting thing was those duds were for the most part experienced individuals, just with very negative personalities who didn't assimilate well into our culture and tried to impose theirs upon us. If George Parks didn't know the actual concept, he most certainly grasped it intuitively at the time. My educated guess is that someone or a group at Sun also did as well. Now I'm sighing. Not anyone's fault. Made me realize how much I miss George now. I'd love to ask him about that very thing and I know I'd get a thoughtful and inspiring answer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted November 23, 2014 Share Posted November 23, 2014 Another thought on this- and Chris, you should come to Westshore Alumni practice and join or hang with us and have dinner after practice where we can hang it loose. HB made me think of something important. When I've been in a corps, I've never been anything but a Westshoremen. I was close to doing a gig with SCA Alumni a couple of years back but I think the performance fell through, and I realized I'd never been anywhere else and it really hit me emotionally. When you go somewhere else, you have to be wise and smart enough to understand you're a guest there at first, and you need to respect and work the way that corps works and learn their culture and work within it in positive ways. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be there, ring or no ring. I think some people forget the whole We instead of Me thing. Just my tuppence on that. If I did go somewhere else, I'd give 100 percent to being on board that team, period and not cause issues like were caused by others in '83 at Westshore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Somehow, the thought of Tom doing a "pizza dive" on a bus trip nowadays.....I don't think todays young DCA corps members would appreciate it, Jeff. Certainly, the DCA corps of today do a far better job with the membership, in all the areas you mentioned, BigW. Our 96 season was the most focused and purposeful effort I'd been a part of, since 1987. I think what we are discussing here, is exactly what C.Holland is asking about. Do you guys recognize a change in attitude, in todays DCA members? I see a sense of professionalism, individually as well as collectively. Coming from Ohio Brass Factory to Steel City Ambassadors was quite a change of culture, for me. Then from Steel City to Westshore in 1991, another "adjustment" period. lot's of adjustments even from 96. At the time, we were one of the few that didn't rehearse on Sundays after shows. We came in Friday night, kicked ### for 4 hours, got on the bus, mostly went to sleep, woke up wherever, rehearsed, barely had a lunch break, rehearsed more, ate, showered, got on the bus and went to the show. The hijinks were saved for Saturday after the show. But even the approach I just described changed from when I joined in 89. Now, the focus is on quality even more so...smarter rehearsal approaches, and now it's ok to not do a show every week but stay home and deep clean or make changes. I can't imagine a corps now doing what we did in 90...learning 20 pages of drill then going out and performing it that night...and winning! The good ones have a game plan that's set in the winter, but smart enough to adapt as time goes on. even in 96 we didn't have the whole show musically before we hit the drill field ( not counting changes). Now the good ones have the skeleton by the drill field, and corps start drill earlier too. membership is also generally in better shape...they have to be with todays physical demands. The drumline stretch block we'd have at Westshore, aka Body by leslee, was taken as a joke to half of the line. Staffs are also A LOT smarter about hydration and rest. member still bond. With things like social media, they can keep in touch all week. we had to call everyone. The game has changed...on field, off field...and yet in many ways it hasn't...weekends only for DCA, full tour for DCi etc.....and that's ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 Another thought on this- and Chris, you should come to Westshore Alumni practice and join or hang with us and have dinner after practice where we can hang it loose. HB made me think of something important. When I've been in a corps, I've never been anything but a Westshoremen. I was close to doing a gig with SCA Alumni a couple of years back but I think the performance fell through, and I realized I'd never been anywhere else and it really hit me emotionally. When you go somewhere else, you have to be wise and smart enough to understand you're a guest there at first, and you need to respect and work the way that corps works and learn their culture and work within it in positive ways. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be there, ring or no ring. I think some people forget the whole We instead of Me thing. Just my tuppence on that. If I did go somewhere else, I'd give 100 percent to being on board that team, period and not cause issues like were caused by others in '83 at Westshore. very, very true. In my 2 years with other teams, I laid back at first to get a feel for things and the people. At Bucs, I knew enough of them already, so it wasn't so bad, and as long as I didn't mention the season between 80 and 82, Jimmy Gruber was always happy to see me At Empire though....there had been some bad blood between the groups during my marching days. Luckily all we had to do was David impersonations and they loved us! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 (edited) Times, indeed, have changed. What was tolerated/accepted on bus rides back in the day is no longer so. Same with what went on in the parking lot or at a post-show party. From someone who has lived/seen/heard his share of crazy "war stories"... the new rules are a good thing, IMO. Should help all of us live longer. LOL. Edited November 25, 2014 by Fran Haring 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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