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Hey all - Like Jason Buckingham pointed out a few pages back, we're real people, with real lives. Drop me a PM anytime, if I don't know you personally.

Paying tribute to The Queen of Soul. RIP Aretha Franklin.

Such an awesome job as always Michael...SuperSaderFan is an understatement for your dedicated effort and support all these years! Words cannot express the how proud I am to be an alum of such a great organization... :-) for ALL that you do!

If I consider retreats from an MM POV, I am against them. Think of it this way: I arrive in town around 4 am, after an hour or two of "bus sleep" (and we know how great that is) on a 4 hour ride, lay on a gym floor for a few hours, get up, eat breakfast, rehearse, slam down lunch, rehearse more (in the heat), have "dinner", shower, jump on a bus, warm up, line up, perform, now hang around for a while, line up again for retreat, wait for the awards, finally get back to take off the uni, get a snack, and get on a bus. Retreats for touring corps are time killers. We worry about MM safety but we are OK with rest and sleep deprivation. Retreats are passe'. Not needed.

So much for taking a vacation from DCP in the off-season. This is too important to ignore. How can we ensure this kind of thing comes to an end? It seems pretty clear it can't be entrusted to individual corps alone.

Sarah's opening solo recapping Ballet Sacra at the start of the Cadets' show was outstanding particularly as she just did the cartwheel, ballet moves, and gymnastics before picking up the big horn. Amazing breathing and maintenance of tone throughout.

Let’s go Bloooo! 2018 was such a great year! Let’s have another one of those in 2019.

Just a quick note to thank our supporters on DCP. Top 5 finish, highest score ever at semi finals and highest finals score, top Color Guard, very strong across the board in all captions. The corps traveled extremely well, utilized outstanding rehearsal facilities, ate well, produced great media, had a superb medical team on the road at all times, all at the highest levels of the activity. I am extremely proud of the entire organization - especially the outstanding members. There is no off season, lots going on: Delivery of the new State of the Art Catering Truck Sale of Yamaha Equipment The Crusader Classic Golf Tournament on 9/28 Board Retreat the Saturday 9/29 & 9/30 Volunteer Appreciation Night at the House of Blues on Saturday 9/29 Planning for PASIC performance in November Right into Camps On a personal note, my 40th season with the corps was amongst the best. #BuildingAChampion

So I was wearing my cadets shirt yesterday to my local beach...yes I love the cadets too...and I'm proud to wear their stuff as well as my umpteen Boston apparel...this girl walks up to me and asks me if I marched Cadets...well I had say no to that but I told her I did march corps...well she was telling me about her marching band experience and championships at MetLife Stadium and said she didn't march corps because she was a woodwind player...well anyway it was a nice conversation...anyway she was saying to me that the Cadets super-marketed themselves at the show over the last 4 years...I said something along the lines of asking was it USBands...and she said yes..well I told her that the parent organization yea.org owns that and she was saying to me...wow...that explains a lot and had no idea...Just got me to thinking...maybe a lot of the younger people don't make the connection between the two organizations...Well anyway that is my cadet and drumcorps story for this week...haha

Just to keep up some post season banter, I thought looking at some medal facts from the DCI era would be a cool thing which I'm sure most of you already know ha! Only 10 corps have won a World Championship and only 14 corps have medaled in the DCI era 3 of those corps are no longer active. Star of Indiana, Anaheim Kingsmen, and 27th Lancers The Blue Devils have won 36% of all championships and has received 26% of all medals awarded Compared to other competitive sports most championships: New York Yankees have won 24% of all World Series, Boston Celtics have won 23% of all Finals, and Pittsburgh Steelers have won 12% of all Superbowls The top 3 most awarded corps have won 59% of all medals and the top 4 have won 72% of all medals awarded Carolina Crown was the newest corp to the medal stand in 2009, 19 years after Star of Indiana first medaled in 1990 Bluecoats followed the year after, medaling in 2010 and is the newest corp to medal In the past 5 seasons (2014-2018), 5 corps have earned a medal. Blue Devils, Bluecoats, Carolina Crown, Santa Clara Vangaurd, and The Cadets In that time period Blue Devils earned 5 medals, Bluecoats earned 4 medals, Carolina Crown earned 3 medals, Santa Clara Vanguard earned 2 medals, and the Cadets earned 1 medal. In 2018, Santa Clara Vanguard tied The Cadets for 2nd most all time medals with 23, and Bluecoats tied Madison Scouts for 6th most all time medals with 5 Santa Clara Vanguard also tied The Cavaliers for 3rd most championships with 7 Of the current active corps, only 6 have medalled since the Madison Scouts won in 1988 Like I said most of you probably knew most of this and I think there was already a thread over some of this but it was interesting to learn some of this information myself. Anything that stood out to any of you? Correct me if any of these numbers are off. I triple checked but we all make mistakes. Who do you think will be the newest corps to break into the medal stand? Who do you think the DCI champions will be over the next 5 years?

2011 Boston- Revolution Well done Charlie!

Reddit mods love to delete stuff fast criticizing dci, even when newspaper links are posted giving hard facts. I never want to see people ##### about heavy handed DCP mods again seeing what I’ve seen there.

Here is Aretha in 2015. She brought the house down like BD did. And she was 73 at the time!

Well the user name @luv4corps could be "love for Corps" or "love four Corps". Haha!

I'm just going to say one thing: DCI should require all corps to have a med staff. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

BD will be Top Two and DCP will be super salty about it.

By the way, hat's off to the 7th Regiment. They were the first corps of the day at prelims where it was evident they were a step above the earlier corps in performance. Not the biggest corps, but you could tell they must have a pretty good instructional staff and a dedicated group of marching members. We really enjoyed their performance.

as long as BD can hang in there - they really had a rough year! I mean - SECOND!! No guard win? Next dogs and cats will be...

At a minimum, it's about time they separate Percussion into separate judges for Battery and Pit, since it's ridiculous for them to be running back and forth between the two, especially when they have to go all the way around the huge pits of today and avoid all the speakers and mics, etc.

I think WE SHOULD ALL take a good look at this and not let it go and seek an answer from PIO as well as DCI!

The cynic in me thinks they do it because they have to in order to field a corps, not out of altruism.

Note to self: Never hire this guy as my financial adviser.

WORLD CLASS: Bluecoats SCV Music City Boston Blue Stars Cadets OPEN CLASS: Spartans Vanguard Cadets Legends Gold Southwind River City Rhythm

Never forget the time Jersey Surf brought Aretha to the field (literally).

There will be an East coast medal sweep: 1. Boston 2. Cadets 3. Crown Then, at the retreat something derogatory will be said by BAC to BD, or vice versa. A fistfight will ensue, everyone else will jump into it. There will be hundreds jailed and hospitalized. It will be on the evening news, and in 2020 there will be a record number of attendees that have never attended DCI before pushing the audience to over 100,000.

Companies are participating in these deals to provide showcases of their products so they can sell to the scholastic band world. Drum corps itself is not even a ripple in their revenues.

Madison should change their Corps song to "The Way We Were".

I said it before and I'll keep saying it: there will be NO improvements to Pioneer in any way, shape, or form as long as Roman Blenski is around.

https://yea.org/news/17-yea/2056-2018-cadets-banquet

David Lang, Night in Tunisia. Colts ‘84 (I think)

i've made the comment before...DCI and the member corps need to establish a fund for a set of 3rd party compliance officers...someone who is wholly independent of the individual corps to report to a new dept in DCI for performer safety...someone the members can go to if they don't feel safe. Aslo put in penalties if any gross violations of the whistleblower or safety policies are found. in season monitoring on a week by week or even day by day basis is needed before this get out of hand.

SCV Bluecoats BAC Music City Crossmen Cadets HM to the Troopers and the DM who did not want to leave the podium after his final show. I also pretty much enjoyed every single corps in World and Open class. To me, a really fantastic year top to bottom

1. BOSTON Finals 2. BOSTON Semi 3. BOSTON Prelim 4. CADETS Semi 5. SPIRIT Semi 6. TROOPERS Semi

I'm OBSESSED with this thread.

1. Music City 2. Santa Clara Vanguard 3. Cavaliers - in spite of the tarps, which I hated 4. Boston Crusaders - with Music City, best storytelling shows 5. Blue Devils 6. Crossmen HM: Genesis - loved the music until they ended with Que Sera Sera which was a downer

1) Bluecoats 2) SCV 3) Pacific Crest 4) Spirit of Atlanta 5) Music City 6) BAC

Predictions for 2019 1. either: Blue Devils/Crown/Bluecoats/Santa Clara Vanguard/Boston Crusaders 2. either: Blue Devils/Crown/Bluecoats/Santa Clara Vanguard/Boston Crusaders 3. either: Blue Devils/Crown/Bluecoats/Santa Clara Vanguard/Boston Crusaders 4. either: Blue Devils/Crown/Bluecoats/Santa Clara Vanguard/Boston Crusaders 5. Cadets/Cavaliers - if no one falls down 6. Cadets/Cavaliers - no tarps this season

Just a quick note from one of the mods (me, that is)... Please be careful what you post as far as rumors are concerned. Even more...please keep the thread on topic as much as it can be...that is...keep it focussed on 2019 staff changes.

A limit on the number of seconds a show can use pre-recorded singing as part of the musical score. If singing is key to an arrangement, it should be done live, just like any other soloist.

Two guard judges at major events. The groups are all achieving such levels of excellence, with different approaches to choreography, that judge preferences for one style over another seemed to be more an issue. Weird, dramatic swings in placement from event to event all season.

There's a well-known and studied psychological phenomenon called the mere-exposure effect (also called the familiarity principle). It means people develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. Put more simply, if you listen to lousy music long enough, you'll start thinking it's good. (This isn't opinion—it's fact.) It's clear that DCI audiences are suffering from this effect in a big way. Witness what DCI judges considered the pinnacle of shows in 2018 by awarding it a championship (SCV). Now I get that drum corps is more than just music—it's "art" (though I could make a case for why it really isn't, even at the highest levels). Drill, choreography, difficulty, etc. are all part of the activity. But the emotional underpinnings of any show are the music. You aren't going to be swept to emotional highs by a single high rifle toss or a big two-handed rimshot. The music matters—a lot. I've spent countless hours of my life studying, listening to, and performing music of all kinds. I have a BM degree from Juilliard—which doesn't make me more knowledgeable than anyone else—it simply certifies that I'm very knowledgeable about music—and what distinguishes good music from bad music. Contrary to popular belief, music isn't "in the ear of the beholder." It's entirely possible to judge it objectively and even place it (roughly) on a universal scale from bad to good. (If you're someone who believes the quality of music is entirely subjective, you're a hypocrite—because you logically must say the same about everything in life—which I'm sure you don't.) So on to SCV's show: I've watched it several times. Not dozens or hundreds of times—because remember the mere-exposure effect? I'm not going to destroy my judgement by watching it every day for the entire summer (like the corps members and staff do). The first criterion for great music is that—on the first listen—it moves you. If it doesn't, then it could easily be argued the music has failed. Some might argue that it's not just the music in drum corps that should move you, but the collective experience of music, drill, and choreography. Fair enough. But nobody would argue that the music has a far greater impact on a show's general effect than either drill or choreography. And drill and choreography don't even come close to having the emotional impact of music. I watched SCV's show with an open heart and mind. I love SCV! I always have. And I give every show the benefit of the doubt because I want to be moved emotionally. When I watch a drum corps show, I want to have tears in my eyes. I don't give a flip about how cleanly a difficult move is executed. It's interesting, but that will never move me to tears. (That's a bit like trying to be moved to tears by a brilliantly-designed coffeepot—it ain't gonna happen.) While watching (and listening) to SCV's show, I paid attention. I focused on the melody (or absence of it), the harmonies, the transitions, the tempo changes—I sat back and let it wash over me without judgement. It left me cold and feeling completely flat. After hearing it the first time, I thought "Okay, I'm just not familiar with it." (There's that principle again!) So I watched/listened again. And again. And in what is a testament to the absolute sterility of the show's music, familiarity didn't help at all. Every time I listened to SCV's show, it was just as pointless and unemotional as the previous listening. Here's what I noticed, repeatedly: • There were no discernable, memorable melodies in the show—and by melodies, I mean a sustained melodic line lasting at least 8 bars (at the same tempo) that very clearly moves from point A to point B in an emotional arc. (Think of just about any Beatles song, any Rodgers & Hammerstein musical, or any Beethoven symphony.) Even after repeated views, I couldn't sing along with 2 bars of this show (and I have a good ear for remembering melodies). • There was no sense of a grounded tempo anywhere in the show—by this, I mean a chance to get into a groove—to feel the pulse of the music and actually have a chance to tap your foot or rock gently along with it. Tempo changes were so frequent they suggested a kind of musical schizophrenia—arrangements driven entirely by the drill and perceived difficulty. NOTE: Even some of the most brilliant, avante-garde compositions in music history hold to a steady tempo for at least 16-32 bars—I'm thinking of pieces like Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps or Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra orJohn Cage's Third Construction. • There was no overall sense of continuity—no feeling of going on a journey from the beginning of the show to the logical conclusion. Despite the flowery descriptions creative staff come up with to justify their shows, SCV's show was quite literally like a long series of 1- or 2-second cuts in a video, each one jarring, seemingly designed to be as abrupt as possible. This was, plain and simple, an epic musical fail. (And therefore, a fail of a show—in spite of winning.) Some of you reading this will think I just don't get it. Okay—I'll humor you: I get cubist paintings. I get architecture by Frank Lloyd Wright. And I get music by Steve Reich, Igor Stravinsky, Vincent Persichetti, John Cage, and countless other "challenging" composers. I have a very sophisticated musical ear. My favorite composer is Charles Ives—I've listened to his Concord Sonata hundreds of times—and every time I hear something I didn't hear before. (And trust me—Ives' Concord Sonata is light years ahead of any DCI show in sophistication.) Some of you will think I'm just an old fart who doesn't understand current music. At this I just shake my head and laugh: have you noticed that people still love The Beatles, Beethoven, Mississippi John Hurt, and Joni Mitchell? This music isn't any less relevant and popular today than it was 25 or 100 years ago. When it comes to music, you can't get rid of the fundamental elements that make music great without destroying it: 1. It moves you emotionally on the FIRST listen. 2. It is memorable—you can actually hum or sing some of it after one hearing—and ALL of it after several hearings. 3. It has a steady, consistent pulse that you can slip into and feel—in a sustained way—while you listen. SCV's show had NONE of these qualities on the first hearing (or second, third, or fourth). which is why I call it an epic fail. What disturbs me even more than SCV performing this show (who has a long history of connecting emotionally with audiences through great music) is the fact that DCI judges apparently reward this "music" that is devoid of any characteristics of good music. Yes, I know—they're judging more than the music (I already acknowledged this), but the judging community has lost its way. Clearly judges are more focused on difficulty (in the form of chaotic, disjointed shows packed with tempo changes and 32nd-note runs) than they are on emotionally connecting with audiences. --- In many ways, I guess we've gotten what we deserve. It's widely acknowledged that young people today have an average attention span of seconds. Maybe show designers are catering to this? Maybe we—as an American species—have lost the ability to focus on something more than 10 seconds without needing an abrupt change? Listen to pop music today and it's clear that it exists on a level far lower in intelligence than it ever has in the past (just look at all the hit songs about nothing more than partying). Even the Academy Awards have officially decided movie audiences are dumb–they've created a new Oscar for "Best Popular Film." (Because a popular film can't be intelligent or have depth.) If anyone out there disagrees with my premise that SCV's show was a musical fail (and I'm sure hundreds or thousands do), feel free to explain (hopefully in more than single-syllable words) why you think it was great. Tell me how this show moved you emotionally. And as proof, record yourself singing some part of SCV's show and post the MP3 here. :-) (Corps members and staff who performed/arranged the show aren't allowed–your impartial judgement is long gone). Scott

Budget looks good for my first trip to Indy in 2019! Last finals I saw was in 99!

I had this really long post about considerations before moving, but have been getting error messages all day when I try to submit. I don't feel like typing it again. Long story short, IF Cadets were to move, there are a host of criteria I would hope they evaluate in great depth before picking a new home.

Quite a few to choose from, but the first ones that come to mind for me are Scouts in 1988 and Bluecoats in 2010, and also, though it's pretty short, the end of Phantom's ballad in 1989.

Agnus Dei? Kyrie? Simple Song? (Those Bernstein rights aren't always easy to obtain.)

They may be looking "stale," but they still got a silver medal out of it so I would say the judges would disagree.