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  1. Just an update on the recent march camp they had. After becoming a recent alum, contracted in 20, 22, and 23, I decided to drive to the camp site to see some old friends and see what the corps was doing. I was only able to make it to the end of camp but, luckily, I was able to listen to all of the music they had up to this moment. They only had 2 parts for the camp which went up to the ballad surprisingly which makes me suspect that the son lux residency will be the star of the back half of the production obviously. Part one is in your face and guns blazing with great energy due to temp AND technique! This book is already miles harder than 23 and I'm a little jealous I aged out in 23. The second part of part 1 gives me the feeling of Kinetic noise with its intense rhythmic challenges. Part 2, the ballad is just gorgeous. It reminded me as a brass player why I wanted to march this Line in the first place. Doug Throwers chord progressions and focus to writing as close to the source music as possible is just amazing. The lines tonal accuracy is phenomenal and dynamic shaping is just as strong. I am truly pleased to be on the other side of the field and once again be a fan of this organization and wish them all the best for this season!
    17 points
  2. Former marcher here. I work in Torts for a living and have for 22 years. I’m the administrative guy, the paralegal attorneys hire to get everything done. I have NOT done tort work in New Jersey and the rules vary from venue to venue. However, the general processes and meanings are identical from state to state for how they tend to go forward. To provide context for the discussion: 1 - DCI "Answer to Complaint" - do not read much into this response. All Answers to all Tort Civil Complaints are exactly the same. You generally answer a hard no to every allegation set forth against you in the complaint, even if you may reverse or concede later. This is a timely filed required document and that's all. The real nuts and bolts of DCI's position will be laid out in their discovery responses to the Plaintiff (Answers to Interrogatories, Production of Documents), and none of those will be available online as the Court doesn't want discovery documents on file - they are too voluminous. They can only store so much at the Courthouse/records departments. 2 – Notice of Dismissal against Garfield Cadets: Actions against a Defendant don't move forward unless that Defendant has been formally served the appropriate papers of the lawsuit in question (a Writ of Summons to Court, and a Copy of Complaint/Lawsuit are required to be served on the resident agent for companies/non-profits, etc.). A notice of dismissal due to lack of prosecution is generally issued because the Court has no proof on record that the Defendant has been served the paperwork. The Courts won’t let a case exist in limbo against a Defendant, so per the rules every “x” amount of days, the Court will give Plaintiff 30-day notice that they intend to dismiss the Defendant in question because there is no proof/affidavit of service filed with the Court. Plaintiff usually has 3 options in response to this: a. Let the 30 days expire and the Defendant in questions will be dismissed from the suit; b. File a Motion with the Court showing good cause as to why the Defendant should NOT be dismissed yet; c. If the Plaintiff has exhausted all avenues of potential service and it is appropriate, file a Motion with the Court for some form of alternative service on the Defendant. At the end of the day it’s possible they can’t serve Garfield Cadets since technically it no longer exists. Lord only knows who the last listed resident agent for service of their non-profit set up was (or if they are even still alive), so they may be flat out "un-servable" at this point. This potential dismissal is for Garfield only, not the entire case. 3 – The Plaintiff in the Cadets suit is likely incurring zero attorney fees at this time. Plaintiff Tort Work is done on a contingency fee basis and the average around the nation is 1/3 if you can settle short of litigation (the filing of lawsuit) and 40% if you file a lawsuit. At 40%, if they recover $10,000 for the Plaintiff, the attorneys keep $4,000.00. If they recover $0.00, the attorneys get $0.00. Because math. All torts are inherently risky for Plaintiff counsel because it can never be guaranteed an attorney will get a fee. From a standard auto accident or slip and fall, to a medical malpractice case, this is the reality of the nature of the action against CAE/DCI right now. The Plaintiff attorney has to pursue every potential avenue of recovery (money) to do their job appropriately AND to get paid at the end of the day. They leave no stone unturned, and if there is no blood to squeeze, there will be no recovery and the attorney makes nothing on the case. 4 – For a tort, in settlement or in judgment, insurance is what pays Plaintiff 9.99 times out of 10, usually in lump sum fashion. I would wager that the attorneys for this Plaintiff did not know the realities of the dead-end they were facing when they took this and filed suit, nor could they. They would only discover them as they moved along the process. If they are doing it right, they are methodically exhausting every avenue of a potential insurance policy that could cover the damages (example - DCI being added in). My office flat-out does not bother to pursue claims where we know there is no insurance because there is no point. Again, it's blood from a stone. Sue me for a million dollars and win, you’ve just wasted time and effort. You will literally never get it, even if you garnish me through eternity (garnishment is a HUGE PITA). Some cases eventually turn out to have zero route of recovery and in those cases, we don’t get paid per contract. Again, all tort involves risk from Plaintiff’s attorney side. 5 – Defense counsel for torts do not work on contingency. They bill hourly rates. When an organization is sued, they turn the paperwork over to their insurance carrier and per their contract of insurance, the insurance company assigns an attorney to represent them. The insurance company usually pays all costs associated with the Defense including the hourly rates and costs. The org being sued is usually not paying the legal fees themselves. They may have their insurance premiums increased, but outside a few outliers under the rules, the org’s assets are usually not directly on the hook if they have the insurance. 6 – Speculation: this particular case against CAE is an instance where the org likely is having to pay out of pocket and any assets are potentially on the hook as a result. When CAE was established it would have purchased the required liability insurance. However, I would have to imagine their insurance refused to be involved in this claim because the claim predates the insurance contract. If you get in a car accident with Allstate insurance coverage today and switch to GEICO insurance coverage next week, GEICO will not cover the subject incident from last week. It predates their contract. Whatever insurance CAE has likely denied any coverage as the scope of the claim is outside the date range of the contract. So CAE has likely had to directly pay ALL defense hourly billing for the claim against them. DCI on the other hand, actually existed as a business entity and theoretically would have had insurance at the time this incident happened, so they may have insurance coverage for the legal fees.
    16 points
  3. Imagine, for a moment, that you are a kid auditioning for your favorite corps. You take look around as you stand in the horn arc, drumline or guard line and realize you’re the only kid of that ethnicity standing in that hornline; no one else there with whom to talk about your background, no one else who identifies with the struggles you’ve had to get to the point where you can actually AFFORD to march; hardly any instructors, staff members or caption heads who identify with your background. This isn’t exclusive to one demographic; in fact, this exists with many different people. THAT was what it was like for me. I truly believe those who are against diversity or who claim initiatives like DEI are “political” do not have a full understanding of the entire history of this country and why it is important for all of us to have representation in many different aspects of life. There are many historical events in this country that we HAVE to learn and other parts of this country's history that is put on the back burner. That needs to change if we are to truly have a better understanding of EVERYONE'S struggles, triumphs and successes. Kudos to corps like Bluecoats for delving deep into this and contributing to make drum corps a much better experience for EVERYONE.
    10 points
  4. Can't believe it's been a decade already, but here's to the greatest on field performance I have ever seen live. Felliniesque is an absolute masterpiece. To quote the fan sitting near me at the Glendora show in SoCal that year............"I hope DCI has an Alien Drum Corps from outer space competing at Finals this year, because nothing on this planet is beating that!"
    9 points
  5. Sorry everyone! I inadvertently got in an area with no service but I’m here to announce our winner!! by a score 64-32… our 2024 March Madness Winner is…. 1989 Phantom Regiment! Thanks for playing along! Didn’t realize we had such dedicated participants or I would’ve made sure to have service at 5! 😂 Hope all enjoyed!
    9 points
  6. As a rookie in the guard, I was hanging onto that show design for dear life. From what I recall everyone else seemed to be as well. We all had to disregard everything we were hearing and hope the drum major and pit could somehow mitigate everything. Guard was not allowed to dut or count IIRC. Only a select few member leadership in battery and horns. Then there was bass 5 going rogue in the design, so beautiful. Love that guy. That first unison hit was always a huge relief cause we knew we had a better shot of syncing up. Then we landed at our first enclosed dome, Mile High I believe, and we all fried a few brain cells trying to reconfigure everything on the fly. That happened at every dome, cause the acoustics were always slightly different. If you look closely at the dna of anyone who marched that show, I'm pretty sure the music, drill and choreo is etched there permanently. Repping was the only way to sort of slay that beast.
    9 points
  7. I didn’t read it but if it’s of benefit to the Canton area young people, more power to them. The underserved communities have been ignored for decades in the marching arts. A step back from when I marched, IMO.
    9 points
  8. Here: https://bluecoats.com/news/diversity-socioeconomic-impact-annual-report-2023 Good on them. More reason to root for Bloo IMHO. Edit to add: Also thank you to Bloo for including mixed race statistics. I rarely find that anywhere!
    9 points
  9. D.E.I. is political in nature. Doesn't this topic violate DCP guidelines?
    9 points
  10. You are not lying about the band moms out here in SoCal. Especially the three-way rivalry between the SoCal powerhouses Vista Murrieta, Chino Hills, and Ayala. There were times where I thought the three should just have a Triple Threat Match at WWE SummerSlam lol. But here is a hilarious story about some band moms I encountered. Back in October 2019, my son was in his sophomore year with the Vista Murrieta band, and they were hosting a competition, Of course Chino Hills and Ayala were there for the big showdown. Anyhow, during the intermission between 3A and 4A, there were some band moms from another 5A competing band sitting in front of me. Not going to lie, they were giving off the "Entitled Karen Vibe". So eventually their discussion veered toward drum corps, and one of the mom's (we'll call her son Johnny) says "OMG! Johnny dragged me to one of those drum corps shows at the Rose Bowl a few months ago, and honestly I wasn't impressed with any of those corps. I mean our kids high school band COULD TOTALLY COMPETE AND BEAT ALL THOSE CORPS". Keep in mind when she went to the Rose Bowl, she saw the eventual champion Ghostlight, Bronze Medalist Vox Eversio, and phenomenal shows like Wrong Side of the Tracks, Everglow, and subTerra from Cavies, PC, and Mandarins to name a few. And to top it off, the other moms just chimed in and started agreeing with her (mob mentality) that their kids were totally world class level, and there was no difference between high school band and drum corps. I couldn't help it and laughed out loud, they turned and looked at me, but I passed it off as I was laughing at something else as it would have been a no-win situation getting into it with them. Another guy near us looked at them, and just shook his head lol. So naturally when their kids band came on the field, I was hype and ready to see a historic performance considering these kids could allegedly beat BD head-to-head. Uh yea....................no. They ended up dead last in 5A and got waxed by the competition. Another lesson in its ok to root and support your kids and think they are great, but on the flip side, learn to keep things in reality and know there are levels to this. Lol.
    9 points
  11. I'd still take BD over that field.
    8 points
  12. In memory of Poppy on DCP........... "Those naughty little Devils did it again."
    8 points
  13. I’m sure most posters will place Crown fourth (or lower) in the predictions thread. But I’ll be honest and say last season was significantly more enjoyable for me because I tuned all that stuff out for the most part. I can only speak for myself but obsessing over scores, placements and spreads kinda kills the fun.
    8 points
  14. Hornline put in a lot of work this weekend and sounds great for March! Not hyping but things are good in all sections. Guard really is getting good member numbers and have exciting plans to help with their movement technique. They should start off better than last year. Percussion just won, and are full. Horns are full from what I've been told. Specific shout outs to tubas! They are tight. Hornline is moving well. No show announcements. No hype. Just positive vibes. They ate well too.
    8 points
  15. Musically both design and execution have been consistently excellent for a very long time. RHRN, Spacepants show, choose your "miss" : they were all visual blunders. Hell 2010 was a design blunder (spend massive amounts of time of unjudged part of show and then put performers in impossible listening positions. Musically that show was fabulous but was undercut repeatedly by frankly ridiculous staging. Visually under Rick Subel they were ... what's the word ... amorphous?. The visual design was there but no one was quite sure what it was. Also (just personal opinion here) Rick doesn't "get" outdoor the way he does indoor; and that's no indictment of Rick's abilities. There are a LOT of indoor designers who just don't seem to get outdoor (again IMHO mostly because they can't stand to "lower" themselves to being obvious. Football fields need obvious.) And so Crownies are repeatedly left hoping and praying that this year the visual design excellence will match the musical design excellence. Heck even the "old" visual team missed as often as they hit.
    8 points
  16. A history of DCI judging; the movement away from music scoring emphasis. This is an outline of the scoring systems/point allocations for DCI since it’s inception. Understand that every single change had to be voted on and approved by the DCI Board of Directors. Also, only the system used at the World Championship will be analyzed. Year No. of Judges Music/Visual/Neutral % Mus. Pts/ Vis. Pts Notes/Changes 1972 10 7/3/0 70/30 60/40 20 pts perc./20 pts brass 1973- 10 7/3/0 70/30 65/35 5 % removed from 1977 vis., added to brass 20 pts. perc./25 pts brass 1978- 11 8/3/0 72/28 65/35 Perc. analysis added 1979 1980 12 8/4/0 67/33 65/35 Vis. analysis added 1981 11 7/4/0 64/36 65/35 removed a perc. Judge 1982- 10 6/4/0 60/40 65/35 Brass analysis judge 1983 eliminated 1984- 9 6/3/0 67/33 65/35 GE increased..40 pts 1987 GE visual 15 pts GE vis. raised from 33.3% to 37.5% of GE score 1988 - 6 4/2/0 67/33 65/35 GE 55 pts 1989 1990 - 9 6/3/0 67/33 65/35 GE 40 pts 1993 1994- 7 4/3/0 57/43 55/45 GE Perc. eliminated 1999 GE Mus. Created Music Ensemble created 2000 - 8 4/4/0 50/50 50/50 Guard caption added 2003 *In 7 years (1994-2000) Visual judges assigned increased 17%, and a 15% reduction in scoring and 17% reduction in judging assignments in music 2004 - 9 5/4/0 55/45 50/50 2nd perc. judge added 2007 2008 11 6/5/0 55/45 50/50 Effect panel doubled to 4 judges 2009 - 10 5/5/0 50/50 50/50 one perc. removed 2013 2014 11 4/3/4 ? 50/50 GE is just overall GE first time in history that a visual judge can score a caption that was music the year before All GE judges required to extensively evaluate visual 2018 - 11 4/3/4 ? 50/50 a perc. Judge dropped 2023 A mus. Analysis added some highlights: 1994 creation of Music Analysis. An extremely difficult caption, because the judge should be able to indicate that 3rd baritones were slightly flat in pitch, and snare flam drags were flawless, in consecutive sentences....not many are that versed/perceptive in both brass and percussion. On a plus side, any evaluation in regards to how the percussion and brass are working together as a coherent musical ensemble is a good one. This caption remains a challenge depending on the background, knowledge, and perception skills of the assigned judge in both brass and percussion. 2014 GE Music GE Visual no longer exist, merged to just GE. For the first time, a judge with little or no music background/knowledge can comment/score regarding the effectiveness of the musical program, as well as visual. Those with a music background must comment/score regarding the effectiveness of both the visual and music aspects. Conclusion: for 20 years (1973-1993), even though the number and breakdown of judges varied, a significant emphasis on music was given in the scoring; 65% to 35%. In 1994, that spread went down to 55% to 45 %, and 6 years later it went to 50/50. Thus, in 6 years, music went from having a 30% emphasis edge, to none. Also, we went from 2/3 of the judging panel scoring music to 7 of 11 judges considering/scoring visual. Also, in the past few years, proposals did occur to return to the Music Effect/Visual Effect separation, and also to return the brass ensemble caption. However, these were voted down by the body.
    7 points
  17. Hey all! It's that time of year again! March Madness DCI Edition. There seemed to be a decent amount of people who enjoyed this last year and I did as well, so thought I'd bring it back! I did some digging through last year's thread for this year's topic and there were a lot of good suggestions, but the theme I decided on this year will be.... The Greatest Shows to Almost Win, a tournament to decide the favorite silver medalist! The top 34 highest-scoring silver medalists will compete until a winner is crowned. The bottom 4 shows will open the tournament with a play-in round starting this Sunday! I'm going to switch things up just slightly this year. I found a website that allows you to create your own predictions on the bracket for those who enjoy a little friendly competition. You can cast your predictions and follow along on that bracket as the week progresses. To submit a bracket, it seems you'll have to submit an email, but you can probably provide a fake one. I don't believe it asks you to verify it. I'll post a google survey link starting on Sunday to vote for each round and will update the bracket accordingly with the results. Voting for the play-in round will open Sunday (3/10) at 5pm est, and each round will start at the same time each proceeding day. Per usual, don't take it too seriously and let's have a good time! Bracket: https://challonge.com/3xw8av4s 2024 March Madness Winner: 1989 Phantom Regiment
    7 points
  18. It is like pulling teeth to get them to talk about their experiences. I didn’t even know my father had served in Korea until after he had passed away. I knew he’d been in (West) Germany but he never talked about Korea. I can only surmise that he saw a lot. God bless your Grandfather.
    7 points
  19. Drilling a bit deeper, I think you may find that spreads among captions are not equally applied. Differences in Effect categories are often miniscule, and the same seems true in Music. Percussion scores often feature the widest gaps between placements. As for Visual, I'd need to do a bit more analysis. Perhaps the perception that Music has diminished in importance springs from the fact that, though the actual point allocation does not show this, Color Guard may be the real driving force behind field shows today. Program designers are often visual experts who have made their bones in WGI where sound, though essential, is cut and pasted in service of the visual effects, which appear every few seconds in a 4 to 5-minute routine. Translated to the field, this results in truncated sound bites that support rapidly occurring visual ideas but leave no space for musical development, presenting the impression that the music is a secondary consideration. Which it is in fact, the relative point allocations among captions notwithstanding. And everybody sounds good. The music is much simpler (any really challenging segments usually presented at a halt), played on superior instruments in comfortable registers for brass, percussion avoiding most rudiments (which can not be jammed into the faster tempos anyway), and all of it supported by a (usually) over-modulated pit contribution. Ergo, the real decisions do have to be made on the visual side.
    7 points
  20. BD 2012 exuded excellence. There isn't a theme a corps has done that isn't pretentious and silly even if it happens to be your personal favorite. It's all just marching band that takes itself way too seriously. People in crowds who try to make their opinion known to people around them are even more pretentious and silly. Real weirdos. Your opinion isn't that special no matter how many fellow weirdos get onboard with you. Every finals I went to there have been people like that. Every adult rolls their eyes and tries to ignore them.
    7 points
  21. Really? Bluecoats did a Beatles show without any Beatles music. I know I'll get shot for this, but it's true. It was, actually, my favorite show of 2019 and I felt it should have won based on it's merits and the extremely high performance levels, but it wasn't musical at all. The musical elements of the show were just a technical exercise with the Beatles music as an underlying component, overshadowed by the vast and endless runs. That's not music. WHAT THE BEATLES HAD WRITTEN IS MUSIC, and Lennon is a much better composer and orchestrator than the Bluecoats music staff. I don't mean to rag on the Bluecoats, because they are not alone. EVERYTHING is written for the judges and nothing is written for the fans. There is no musicality today, or there is rather very little. If the Bluecoats just played the Beatles music without all the runs tossed in all over the place, they wouldn't have scored as well because it wouldn't have been deemed as having as much content. But, it would have been a hell of a lot better. I quite enjoy modern DCI but musically it doesn't hold a candle the golden era. Listen to Regiment's 1996 opener and how it just built and bulit and built over 4 minutes to it's thundering conclusion. THAT is music. THAT is musicality. How the hell can a corps achieve that today when they are playing 15 different pieces in 10 minutes and the hornline is only playing for 4 of them?
    7 points
  22. Interesting development from the case. The judge appears to be dismissing “The Garfield Cadets” for lack of prosecution. I don’t pay for the legal website service so I can’t see the entire document. Not sure if this is just a formality since the Garfield Cadets don’t technically exist anymore so they’re just cleaning up the parties listed or the case is being dropped in full.
    7 points
  23. If Bluecoats played Let it go, I’d have to fake my own death.
    7 points
  24. Guess who never attended a band booster meeting?
    7 points
  25. Oh 2000 too. SCV 2000. I've shared this story before but my grandmother died Jan 1, 2000 and for a LOT of reasons, I was unable to truly grieve for a long time. SCV put Adagio for Strings out there Thursday night after a long hot day in the stands watching all the corps and that rifle toss from midfield to the end zone at the most dramatic moment is when I finally was able to 'feel feelings' more fully again. That night I was having the strains Barber float through my head. I woke up the next morning for my walk before eating and getting around to head in for Semifinals and I swear I'm hearing Adagio for Strings....but nah, it's still just in my head. As I complete my walk back at the end of the cul de sac in my apartment complex where there's a middle school. HOLY CRAP...there's SCV rehearsing the ballad still. I WAS hearing that. I sat by the fence at the back line and just listen and sobbed. Then went in and got lunch and ready to go on in for Semis. Boston 2000 as well. Anyone who saw Red on finals night can tell you how special that show and performance was.
    7 points
  26. I’m not going very far back. Mandarins last year. I’m usually kind of meh about them. Not that they aren’t good because they are. It’s me. But when I saw them in Cincinnati last August…holy moly… 🥰 First runner up: 2022 Troopers. Didn’t see that coming either. .
    7 points
  27. Thanks for the lore, friend. I'm actually hesitant to speak for the members I marched with in this way. My motivations were different those two years as what amounts to a double rookie, 03 on flag and 04 or sabre. But I'll try... I can say that 03 finals was strange. We were rained out of our final rehearsal runthru, for one. The age outs felt robbed and that was a major factor in the final performance despite some hefty magic extended to us by Myron. We weren't sure, even to the last minute, that we would even have a final show. I was just happy to be there, flying by the seat of my pants, having no frame of reference for how things are supposed to be. Same with my rookout seat partner, who was awarded rookie of the year that season. Too many challenging things happened to the membership btw 03 and 04 that distracted us from the grit you're imagining. Those things may not have affected everyone directly, but the chain reactions are something I still consider often. I think that grit was likely there for the drumline though, but they were tighter than the rest of us: solid, alumni staff; moved-in in Jan; already had a strong 03 season together where they had carried the rest of us like a boss. And not just in score, but literally, the opener wouldn't have been possible if they hadn't been so tight. But they literally always had fire in their eyes... that never changed based on placement or competition. They were our heartbeat in every possible way. You'd have to ask one of them for more clarity on that tho. You didn't ask, but I'll take it a step further to describe why I think we didn't place higher in 04. I think the staff and alumni were motivated more than membership in the way you were referencing. We, as members, were stoked on the show in 04, for sure, and it was seen universally as not only highly competitive, but a vehicle for a first place finish. No pressure lol just jump from 5th to 1st, amirite? This perspective is what may keep me in hot water with the org and alum but it's what I believe: in that way, the staff pushed us too hard. Particularly in visual and guard. I still think that just a little more rest both years would've been the key to greater competitive success. Instead, they did the opposite and that's why Vanguard had the rep of the hardest corps back then, even giving Cadets a run for their money. That's why there were silly drops on both finals years. That's why there were still drill mistakes from all sections. That's why a rookie horn soloist cracked in 04 finals when he nailed it consistently leading up to that point, poor thing. When mistakes in such amazing shows happen that late in the season, and when everything else is so pristine, it's not on the members, it's on the staff's ability to motivate appropriately. One of the previously mentioned drops from the sabres was actually 2 drops on finals night from our most reliable, consistent spinner. Our elders, alumni, and staff let us down in that way. Contrastingly, I eked out a sloppy finals but didn't drop. There was a lot of that among the weapons because we weren't confident, we were still trying. And we still had to save juice for the 1st noncompetitive TOC after that. It made things weird again. The difference is that the drumline could get comments from their finals on-field judge describing how art isn't always perfect if it's truly expressive. Their mistakes were forgivable given the artistry they had captured. The rest of us had staff that found our mistakes consistently unforgivable and "motivated" us accordingly. "The Way" with all its many flaws was in full effect back then. All that said, IIRC, competition was a motivator for staff and alumni. Myron always wanted members to focus on ensuring we were aware that we were trying something new and breathtaking and to keep our focus there... competitive success would fall in place after we got that. It was the higher calling he always pushed. He always iterated that shows took up a fraction of the summer and that the rest of our time together was much more valuable, so many of us took that to heart. That was my motivation more than anything else. I don't think I was alone in that.
    6 points
  28. If you went to a show with me and didn't know anything about me, you wouldn't know what corps I root for. I give every corps a standing ovation, regardless how I feel about the show, because I know how hard those kids work and I appreciate them giving up their summer to entertain idiots like me. Mandarins were in direct competition with Cadets and Phantom last year. I was going bonkers and cheering for those corps just as much as I did Mandarins.
    6 points
  29. fighting for our lives DAILY mirrors and lawn chairs will never know how hard we fought for their honor …
    6 points
  30. still the best top to bottom drum corps, show and performance i have ever seen
    6 points
  31. Touching on the comments here, I'm reminded of other thoughts from people that the musical design aspect has been accused of taking the final number out of the hands of the performers and into the hands of the design team. Everyone's insanely clean now, subatomic particles need to be split to separate in raw performance. It's more in the hands of content that cause separation between DCI competitors. In regard to this, there's been other threads and thoughtful comments touching on some aspects in BoA in particular regarding the degree of meshing of electronics into the ensemble sound so well no one's sure who's doing what at times and with what weight. I can say that since the OP started going back in time, a lot more of the difficulty/analysis numbers are generated through how challenging the book is to play while moving/field placement/use of body while playing the brass instruments rather than the raw musical content. This is something I've become painfully aware of over say, the past 5 to 10 years in the activity in general. This is even more prevalent at say, the base HS level (I'm not talking about the elite HS units out there), especially since COVID hit. Another aspect to touch on his BITD, visual design was predicated on what the musical book was. The designers were given the music and then they wrote in reaction to that. Over the past two decades, many teams will have a drill sequence written out and ask the music design team to create something to fit that instead. Which, might explain some of the comments about patchwork designs occurring. Would I like to see more coherent melodic thread in a lot of what I'm hearing? More resolved musical phrases and completed thoughts? Yeah. I was trained in Music School that music is a language, phrases are thoughts and sentences. And when. You break. Them up abruptly. and Change subjects without logical flow. It's not. A good. Thing.
    6 points
  32. Kind of like DCP during the season. But with consequences.
    6 points
  33. Jim, you hit a nail on the head, old friend. The old building I worked in was pretty diverse, the new one is even more diverse, and I feel great about that. We're more multi-lingual than before, and I'm working with even more really nice folks. More people are getting a great opportunity to get pretty well-paying jobs now, and if they're nuts enough to go into supervision and management, even better. It might have been a low bar to hurdle, but my job is better in large part because of this. If I read a lot of the thoughtful posts here correctly, I'll try and slice this with Occam's Razor. The gist seems to be that the corps has identified that they have an issue they sincerely want to address. Admitting there's problems is always good. Denial in this activity has led to multiple disasters. The real problem is now, we have serious concepts we want to commit to getting better at and not just talk about it- but how can we effectively address this and do something concrete? My guess is this could be a long process of learning and evolution before they get to their eventual goals.
    6 points
  34. 4th place in the annual predictions thread is reserved for BD.
    6 points
  35. One of my fellow Chiefs I was stationed with in San Diego was a volunteer coach for Pop Warner football. One day he asked me if I wanted to volunteer to coach. I told him no I couldn't handle it and would end up choke slamming someone thru the bleachers. He laughs and says "Bro the kids aren't that bad".........my response.........."I wasn't talking about the kids, I was talking about the parents".
    6 points
  36. 6 points
  37. Season 2 Real band moms of Indianapolis and have a confrontation between Avon moms and Carmel moms
    6 points
  38. true story....my senior year in HS, our drill designer was a Boston alum. when he would count stuff off, he never said 27. so i asked him and he told me. so i of course told the band and we yelled it. then in our closer, we had a slow turning front, and for the last day of camp, i got the band to sing Danny Boy while we did the drill. he eventually forgave me, and we even marched together later. and now he's a Lutheran Pastor
    6 points
  39. gigantic list. dci is what really got me into instrumental/classical music as a young teen. I played in the band and enjoyed it and all, but after getting exposed to the following pieces and composers with dci, I became the kid listening to classical on my walkman/discman (yes, i'm old) while all my friends were listening to Nirvana and Kriss Kross. 91 Star: All of the Respighi stuff. This got me to backtrack and watch some older corps,, including Cadets 87. Ended up going to the library and checking out cassettes of both The Pines of Rome and Appalachian Spring. Ended up wearing out the entirely of both cassettes and my love for classical was born. 92/93 Cadets: The Holsinger stuff they used really got me into wind ensemble music for the first time, and I started to really embrace 6:30 AM rehearsals with my band and understand the stuff by John Barnes Chance, De Meij, Gillis, Nelson, etc that we were playing is really really really good. The only way to get recordings of wind ensemble stuff back in the early 90s was my school's music library where out band director would put all of his sample CD's from publishing houses. I "borrowed" them for a couple years. 😉 93 Star: I had heard Adagio for Strings by Barber, but this opened me to all of his other stuff. Same with Bartok. The fall of 93 is when I started playing for the first time in our local regional symphony and the first pieces I performed at a concert were Mahler 1 and we had a guest soloist do Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, so that was more. dci truly was really the catalyst for all of it for me though.
    6 points
  40. I am with you so far. Not following you here. First, BDB is not "local", judging from their near-perennial appearances in Indiana over the past 16 years. If you want to discuss local drum corps programs, BDC would be the example. As far as what makes BDC or other local programs possible... the truly local programs work because there is so much less travel (and associated cost). No, it really is the other way around. Without the local, there is no community money. It is also worth noting that for a drum corps to justify hiring even one full-time employee, it makes sense to add other programs that are not on the same seasonal trajectory that DCI drum corps follows. I would like to hear more about this. I cannot say whether anybody specifically thought that was a good idea. For that matter, with all the personnel turnover, not sure there really was a "regime". I thought it was local/community bridges that were the topic there. If anything, "hard-headed" Cadet alumni* would be far more interested in maintaining those connections than the administrations which relocated the corps. (* - assuming there are hard-headed Cadet alumni without evidence, only for the purpose of discussion) And honestly, in all three cases, the bridge burning was done under the same corps director. There was one person who was the Hiroshima/Nagasaki of burned bridges. And he was not a Cadet alum.
    6 points
  41. I’ve often said everything I know about classical music I learned from drum corps or Bugs Bunny cartoons.
    6 points
  42. Back in the 80s as a kid, BD introduced me to Chick Corea.
    6 points
  43. That was unnecessarily Snarky, Puppy.
    6 points
  44. Working my way down a backlog of official DCI audio that I never got a chance to listen to - 2019 Crown is probably the best music book of the entire year. Funny enough, it's also probably one of the most "old school" in structure too. That closer is amazing. For that matter, the 2021 Right Here Right Now book is just as good - but man oh man I wish they hadn't hammered that phrase into us the entire show. Their closer that year was absolutely explosive, and they had the crowd in an uproar by the end - it was very, very cool. Anyways, just dropping some 🙂 thoughts into the thread as I catch up. -Mike
    6 points
  45. Some corps may take a year off but that still is not a certainty. But in Cadets case, they aren’t taking a year off to reset. They are taking forever off. Insurmountable challenges because of a variety of past bad behaviors and poor planning for sustainability has caught up with them. SCV has a different set of issues that they may be resolving but still they are at risk to a degree. However, they are planning on a return.
    5 points
  46. My literal introduction to DCI. BD was just starting on the PBS broadcast as I was channel surfing and seeing them glide across the field stopped me in my tracks — plus I knew the music! Taxi Driver, unforgettable.
    5 points
  47. It's not domes for me, it's Indianapolis. I realize from a logistical perspective it makes it easier to have it in one place, but I miss the days were it travelled. 1. So many more people were exposed to the activity, and 2. It was fun seeing different parts of the country. No offense, Indianapolis, you're a lovely city but I don't ever have the need to visit you again. A few times was enough.
    5 points
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