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Tekneek

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Everything posted by Tekneek

  1. It was a great idea then and even better today. I don't know the details, but I would imagine that it could make a lot more than bingo does (unless you have an especially lucrative bingo business going). It would be a full year business, and combined with the air charter and travel agency business that Star had, it was a full compliment of travel services. 22 years later, I am surprised nobody else has tried a similar sort of approach.
  2. That's an interesting theory, but I'm not sure it really works that way. If somebody really wants to march with a particular corps, they will stick around for it even if it looks like it will be a down year or they don't particularly care for the show from a fan's perspective. If it might be your one chance to march with Cadets, either due to your age or other circumstances, you may not pass it up even if you find portions of the show to be unappealing.
  3. If this is any indication of what drum corps is like in 2006, I am beginning to regret the $170 or so I spent on tickets.
  4. I would hope/wish that DCI would not come hard and fast against people who use samples of drum corps activity in podcasts. Even a company as large and powerful as Disney tolerates a lot of audo/video being distributed in podcasts. They understand that this is free advertising. DCI and all drum corps should as well.
  5. Spirit of/from Atlanta/Georgia/JSU 1. 1980 2. 1979 3. 1986 4. 1984 5. 1978 6. 1985 7. 1983 8. 1988 9. 1987 10. 1990/2003
  6. I don't even know if this would be possible at this point (possibility of scarce G bugles to field an open class corps), but would a new corps that insisted on marching the old bugles and never using any amplification/electronic devices be at a competitive disadvantage in your opinion? To give a frame of reference, I am picturing a 1990 era corps hitting the field in 2006. I assume, only from what I have read over the past several years (I have not been to a show since 2000), that nobody marches Gs anymore. I also do not know if any corps has made it a rule that they will not use amps/electronics. I am just wondering if DCP forum members think "old school" (1990 as old school in this case) would have a hard time competing with today's corps that exploit the rule changes.
  7. I can't imagine any drum corps turning away its own veterans without some real cause (they were causing problems on tour the summer before, for instance). You may not be doing the same thing you were doing the year before, but they should always be able to find a place for their vets if they have been committed to returning. For those who wash out of Blue Devils/Cadets/Cavies/SCV and then want to return to their "bottom 6" corps, I can understand not cutting someone from an April camp who has been there since October/November and is committed. Vets who show up from camp one should have a spot in the corps, but you shouldn't be guaranteed a 'safety net' when your other option doesn't pan out.
  8. Star was despised when it was in DCI, mostly because of myths and fantasy created by members and fans of other drum corps. I don't know how much of it existed before 1991, but it certainly became quite significant after that. I know a lot of people had an "anyone but Star" opinion on the winner of DCI in 1992 and 1993. I know a lot of people claimed Star had an unfair advantage in the activity simply because of the way they were financed. If you were close to the activity in the early 90s, you should be very much aware of it. Bill Cook was aware of it: I suspect that nobody gave more to the activity during that time than Bill Cook did, but I don't know for sure. I am pretty certain that nobody was attacked as much for it as Bill Cook was, though. I'm not surprised they packed up and left. It wasn't fun anymore. The animosity between the hardcore drum corps fanbase and Star was pretty strong and evident. At the time I was even caught up in it and believed the lies that were thrown around, and that is something I regret. My point is that Bill Cook was onto the right idea about how to build a foundation for a drum corps. Being a smart businessman, he created businesses specifically to support the drum corps. Today, more than ever before, reveals how running transportation companies could help out a drum corps. These drum corps would be doing much better if they had 1 or 2 profitable business entities funneling the proceeds into their coffers. Star has 3 of them and another business operation that may be close to it. To me, this seems like the smartest way to finance a corps. Not hanging on by bingo proceeds, while watching debt go up higher and higher. Not begging for food donations else the kids won't get to go. Not trying to get staff to work for free. Not needing cash handouts on tour just to get to Championships. There were quite a few corps that had a lot of money go through them with almost nothing to show for it. I've heard and read comments, in the past, from some of those who helped bail out corps on the road that went like this, "I don't know where all the money went, but I wasn't going to let them take the kids home with just <x> amount of weeks left on tour." They need to have a budget. They need to have staff on contracts that bind them to the corps for the season, and pay them the agreed amount at the agreed times. There are some corps that do all of those things right. There are many that didn't and they are either gone or have lost their previous identities. I believe there would be a lot more of them if the right management had been there with the same mindset that Bill Cook had. Can you really argue with this statement from Mr. Cook : With some sound business minds around, they could have hedged their bets beyond bingo and the seeking of sponorships. Maybe bingo and sponsorships should just be one of many funding sources. With many of the open class corps coming from their own regions, many of them could have had their own variations of Star Charter Services, Star Travel Services, and Cook Aviation to support them. They could have even come up with other ideas outside of drum corps to pay the bills. Why didn't they do it? Because they were good intentioned people who loved drum corps and the activity and were not able to think outside of that box. Management had been so bad in some corps that even good sponsorship deals were lost. Some even had so little business sense that they didn't fully understand the sponsorship deal well enough to know just how many dollars were coming and when. This is no way to run a serious operation, especially when you have kids out there busting their ### night and day looking for an enriching music/life education experience.
  9. I don't really know any details about the cause of Kiwanis Kavaliers going inactive (or folding), but I really believe the activity would be a lot better if more businessmen were involved and these corps were ran like a business. Bill Cook was really onto something. Too many seem to be ran by people who have a great love for the activity and the kids, but don't have the business sense to keep things solid on the backend. If you can get the right mix of bright business minds and bright musical minds, you can take over the drum corps world. Obviously this is harder to do than it is for me to type it out, but there has to be room for more drum corps out there if the right people were willing to make it happen. It really is a shame the way that Bill Cook, and Star of Indiana, were so maligned. If his lesson was learned by more people, we might still have a meaningful Quarterfinals day at Championships...or an even better idea would be having so many corps we had to have Prelims on Wednesday just to make it to Thursday. These days, a love for the activity and the kids just isn't enough to keep the wheels moving.
  10. That would be brilliant. They don't have to offer the entire catalog, but putting the Countdown DVDs on there would be a great marketing move. It advertises the entire activity, as well as the video backcatalog that DCI would like to move. I don't see the negatives on this idea, especially when confined to the Countdown DVDs.
  11. It would be brilliant. If you assume that the people who rent it from Netflix were never going to buy the DVDs, then DCI might very well get more revenue out of it than they get today. If people rent instead of purchase, then it does mess up the model. The ability to rent them would only increase the odds of me buying more DVD sets. I absolutely love the idea of previewing a DVD through someone like Netflix before making a purchase decision.
  12. I was worried about the sound, having never attended a show in a dome. I am strongly considering attending. I have not been out to a show since 2000, but since the Dome is not too far from where I work I might as well get out to it. :) I would like DCI to come back, so I hope attendance is good.
  13. It is not my favorite either, but neither is it a corporate sellout like was mentioned earlier.
  14. I agree with this analysis. The music the show was taken from is very good and something I listen to at least once every week. I am a little surprised that no one here has seen the night show at Epcot where the music is played...
  15. I watched the Cadets rehearsing in the middle of July that summer and felt certain they had a championship show. It's one of the only times I've felt that strongly. However, I might have picked 1987, or a show from 1990-1994 before it. That could also be because I was much more in touch with drum corps during that period, as well as the shows being very good.
  16. Anyone who complains about the volume of drum corps is...not a drum corps fan. :)
  17. I sincerely hope the comment you overheard during Star was meant as a joke. Bill Cook did say that, but it was all a joke. What he tried to do with Star has been very misunderstood and attacked for reasons that just don't make any sense. The activity has been hurt by losing a man like Bill Cook who loved the activity and was willing to put his money where his heart was. I really wish Star was still on the field. The influence of Star from 1990-1993 is all over the activity now. As for the Cadets' music, if you ever go to Walt Disney World and take in the 'end-of-the-day' celebration at Epcot known as "Illuminations: Reflections of Earth", you will get to hear the pieces that their show was based on.
  18. Thursday is the best night DCI can get. One day away from the weekend. Theatres make a ton of money on the weekends, so they are less likely to carry an event like this which would be depriving them of a lot more than they would make on a DCI show. I liked it and would go see something like this every year. They should do it again, eliminating this year's winners from the competition. A blast from the past before each season might also slow down the encroachment of silly rule changes as people are consistently reminded what drum corps is all about.
  19. This is my all-time favorite drum corps show. Absolutely incredible stuff. It peaked at the right time, too...
  20. Star '93 was incredible. I got to see portions of their show a lot on tour that year. It went from "I can't believe they are doing this" to "This is incredible." I really wish they had stayed around after that. I have missed them greatly. 1990 was my favorite year for Star, but '91 - '93 were still incredible performances.
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