Jeff Ream
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Posts posted by Jeff Ream
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talked to a friend today who still kinda follows drum corps, but isn' up on everything. he asked about Phantom and asked "if they are killing anyone this year"
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13 hours ago, Chief Guns said:
Can GH get eaten by the shark in the closer.........a real one?
a shark with frickin laser beams
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they had me at hello
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10 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:
Oh I said something to them. It was something like WTH is wrong with you? Those are 16 year old girls.
yeah we had code words to alert all if youngins were around so nothing nasty would be said. same thing for if parents were around.
i think in my years in the drumline, the oldest were early 30's down to 15 year olds. we looked after the kids. i mean they saw us do stupid stuff, but we tried to make sure they didn't.
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4 hours ago, Jurassic Lancer said:
Have you checked out Marching Rountable?
shhh he's on a roll
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14 hours ago, Tony Flores said:
what part of irreverent did you not understand? it is meant to be funny and snarky, I like it even if I have the occasional disagreement. The folks on the pod are dudes I'd love to have a beer with and hopefully will one day.
hell we disagree with each other....you should see the group chat.
and for the record, Nick is totally out of touch on his Allentown views.
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14 hours ago, Slingerland said:
Have listened to it plenty of times. It usually doesn't reach the threshold of mature (the clip of the guy misspelling a euphemism for breasts isn't really funny, it's just obnoxious). It's much more sports talk radio than "Fresh Air" (which, I recognize, is not what DCAF is aiming to be).
More like Stern
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3 minutes ago, ContraFart said:
Dont get me started on last nights visual scores. Rhythm X got screwed
Oh I’m not gonna disagree on that caption. However a few other calls on other sheets confuse me too
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4 hours ago, scheherazadesghost said:
What boggles my mind is that attendance was highest around the time of my birth, the 80s, before the interwebz could be used to share the artform widely.
By the time I marched Pathways, we'd barely recovered to the 20k mark.
That's a quandary only my elders could really begin to reflect and respond to. I'm stumped. Unless AL/VFW and the mid 20th century wars/required enlistment played that big of a role in drum corps recruitment?? Or am I way off base?
Pathways was quite the departure from drum corps's militaristic roots... artistically anyway...
Society changed. Alumni didn’t follow with the passion previous generations did, especially as corps folded. Fewer shows to go to. And in some cases design turned people off.
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7 hours ago, Vuitton said:
it doesn't matter. If I had to sit behind the stage to see U2 or Bob Dylan, I would do it. People fill the cheaper seats behind the symphony at the San Francisco Symphony just to see the concert. The point is there should be enough fans that people are willing to get cheap tickets in the end zones and at the back stands just to be there. In the 80s and 90s as a poor college student I would have paid to sit in the back stands at finals rather than not be there. Now, that I have money, I won't even both to go to a drum corps show today. It's not worth it to see 1-2 shows that are actually good and entertaining. Much of the front sideline is full of the corps that performed earlier in the week and family members of all those corps. Joe Blow off the street just isn't walking into Lucas Oil to see the show.
Well if you mic every performer in a drum corps and plus it into the house sound, that’s a valid comparison
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11 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:
I wonder if DCI tracks the demographics of attendees? In other words, how many are parents/family of performers? How many are alumni of extant Corps? How many are alumni of extinct Corps? How many are HS band students? How many are fans that just enjoy Drum Corps? How many are locals that want to see what Drum Corps is? Etc?
As DCI paid attendance is the biggest source of income, I would hope that corporate DCI understands who these people are.
DCI does track the demos based on surveys I’ve gotten even just after ordering tickets
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4 hours ago, ContraFart said:
No it was a tour show the day after Canada Day in 1999 at the Buffalo Bisons field. I got mixed up
Ah. Well hey no one wiped out and got a 10 in Dayton last night
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12 hours ago, Vuitton said:
Yep, I said 20-25k.
You'd think after decades of alumni the stadium would be packed, but...
That is packed on the front sideline and around into the end zones. Concert side in Indy doesn’t hold as much as you think it does
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On 4/19/2024 at 6:00 AM, BigW said:
Jeff, I couldn't sleep after I realized there was yet another Red Flag I was aware of that you wouldn't have been aware of for very good reasons. I've kept it to myself for 30 years and have only discussed it a couple of days ago with someone else. Since this thread involves abuse- That contact person within the corps that we both know that I mentioned? Well, someone took that individual where there were no witnesses during a rehearsal and struck them. Who, Mom and I don't know, we just know the individual was struck and was afraid to say who it was. 30 years is a long time, but I'm thinking that was when Mom hit me with the question as to what in Hades was happening there. Mom and I don't know who it was. And whomever it was should be thankful I don't know. *sigh*
There was also the joint Bingo with the Fire Department where it was decided by the Management that it wasn't worth it. A loss of easy and steady income at the time. There's another Red Flag I remember.
A lot of times, I know more about many things that I let on, Jeff. I know to many I might come across as a total rube and a goof, but I figure I'm better off underestimated.
I know we agree on one thing, Jeff, and I believe everyone on this thread agrees:
We want the experience to be far, far better for young people who want to be challenged hard in this activity. It's an intense crucible where one finds out a lot about themselves. Without the discipline I learned and kept with me, I prolly would have given up in the hospital two Augusts ago. But I know I was determined and disciplined enough to fight hard from my corps experience.
We need transparency and professionalism badly. People need to stop running away from these things and try and bury it. Yeah, it's horribly embarrassing. Being called out and called a "Worthless sack of (insert colorful Noun)" like I was over the PA system at the Syracuse State Fair Grounds Stadium when I was 16 in the middle of a rehearsal was pretty embarrassing, and it still gets whole lots of great ho-ho-hos and chuckles when its brought up. I just smile and chuckle along, so funny. I overcame it and then some. I was determined to make it in the activity. Some folks might not have overcame that. The activity needs to learn from this stuff and do better.
Bingo lost money and we couldn’t get people to come out to help run it. Again you weren’t there.
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On 4/19/2024 at 3:59 AM, BigW said:
Jeff, there were things I knew that happened before that. The big Red Flag was when the Business Manager passed away suddenly and the Director took the role of both Director and Business Manager by convincing people that's fine. and getting voted in. Right there's a huge Red Flag. Loss of Checks and Balances in management. That alone should have been a concern from everyone, and it wasn't. Those are two separate positions for good reasons, and it should have been done by two different individuals in spite of the sudden emergency situation. Some responsible individual should have been found. Bad things usually happen when one person is given too much control and there's no one there to check them. No, I wasn't there. I ended up doing other things with DCA. And if I was there at that point, I would have voiced very serious concerns about that alone and been shot down in flames. Likely been laughed out of the room. I look back when I made an approach about coming back in 1992 and got shot down. I think it was because I was thought of by the certain person who shot me down as someone who was going to ask too many questions about too many things.
There were other things I was privy too through contacts where things were shady and questionable before the Championship. It was why Mom had her questions. It's why that contact I had got the heck out of there before things got really bad and made sure the books on their end were tight. You can figure out who. Yes, the house got cleaned after 1the championship- but the damage was done in many ways before it, and there were enough clues there that even someone like me was concerned. Many folks were kind of oblivious or maybe they might not have wanted to look closer? There was a Championship to win, and if this stuff got dug up, it would have been a distraction. Folks wouldn't have been happy. As it was, folks were unhappy in many aspects. Was there an annual corps meeting some time around March where the corps' expenses were explained and itemized and how the income was raised and what the corps monetary balance was at that time after the Business Manager died? Just asking. That was done for 5 of the six seasons I was there, the Sixth was that whole insane six-week effort, and that really doesn't count. There's another red flag if the combination Director/Business Manager at that time didn't sit down and take the time to seriously discuss this with the membership like it used to be done. If that was done, all well and good, but I'm seriously asking you. Somehow, given who was the responsible person to lay out the accounting to the membership, I'm betting the answer is "no" and the excuse would have been that it wasted valuable rehearsal time, just trust me that everything is okay. Don't worry about where the jackets that were pre-paid for are, or the Rings. There's another red flag. Jeff- there were a lot of things that hard questions should have been asked about and got deflected, or folks were scared to go there.
Sometimes, when one is standing back from a distance and observing neutrally, maybe they're seeing more than someone that's right there in front of it about some of those things.
John Williams was business manager in 95 and 96. His kids were in the corps. Strike one. Again you weren’t there. After the win John left and boom, as I said.
and those of us there had no idea the red flags. Glad you heard things, thanks for telling people the . Coulda helped to save it.
so again you weren’t there. You didn’t do what you could after 97 to undo the damage. I paid bills out of my pocket until the next management team proved beyond inept. I saw the books. The mail. The email. The legal papers flying around. Even the business manager that replaced JC didn’t know until afterwards.
and I’m not gonna derail this thread further or debate this further online. But I know far more than what you think you saw from afar after the fact.
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9 hours ago, Quad Aces said:
See the trial through to the end, by paying whatever legal fees and fines have accumulated along the way. Obtain the rights to the brand. Purchase all new assets to replace what was sold.
And have reserves for future lawsuits since you own the name
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1 hour ago, Chief Guns said:
We should be about a month out before the Final Boss blesses us with their show title.
Let the quest for the four-peat begin!!
The Rock is announcing the title?
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On 4/19/2024 at 1:59 PM, Slingerland said:
I wish there was an intelligent, mature, informed podcast that discussed the art form and the business of drum corps, one where the folks who actually know what's what would be willing to go on and discuss the activity and provide insight and clarity to listeners.
Something very different from DCAF, in other words.
May wanna check the archives. One comment on one episode isn’t the full show
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On 4/19/2024 at 11:01 AM, craiga said:
Yeah, saying that DCI knew the end was coming and "gave" Cadets the 5th place finish was conspiracy theory, clueless, and just plain stupid. The Cadets came in 5th because they were better than everyone beneath them, including this woman's beloved Regiment. They deserved their placement, and I say this as a Boston supporter.
Well that’s not the view all of us have. 5-7 was a hot mess. All deserved it
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On 4/19/2024 at 10:30 AM, DAYGO said:
Enjoyed the podcast as well and even got a few laughs from it.
1) Nikki's comment about DCI "giving" The Cadets 5th place last year because they new this was coming. - Yeah, ok. 😅
2) the ballad from 2023 - the comment about only realizing how good it was after recently hearing it added to a clip from Kung Fu Panda - where were you all season last year?
I do love the Kung Fu Panda mash up tho...
Honestly the ballad was meh for me all summer
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20 hours ago, BigW said:
There's a lot of pain when your corps folds. I know this personally. But my anger is directed at those individuals who committed the malfeasance that killed it. And, the enabling that went on. My Mom asked me why it was all happening, and I told her, "People were willing to go along and ignore all of the red flags because the corps was gunning for a championship and didn't care about the long-term future of the organization." On that tangent, What Keith discussed and what Brian Tuma discussed on another thread as well as SG recently:
I've given a lot of thought about this. It's definitely the culture that exists and has existed. The activity is very result and win driven. Why are some of these people on board? They're perceived to get things done and that they're effective staff members, and there's an attitude with some people that to make an Omelet, well, a few eggs are broken, and well, those broken eggs aren't really corps material. There's also a very in house Good ole Boys' network in place. "Oh, X has a problem, well we can keep X under control here and they're great staff people, we'll give them another chance with our corps. We can keep an eye on them." Why? they figure they can win with this individual on staff or as a performer, just keep a lid on it.
People who turtle up about the dark secrets or shun those who speak up for fear it'll wreck their corps are playing into the hands of the abusers and enabling them. It's one of the tools of their trade. "Don't say anything or you'll be blamed when the corps gets sued and goes under." To me, that's evil incarnate. One can't knuckle under to that mindset.
Lord, I've got my dander up. And everything in the second paragraph has happened somewhere. Some of it, I've seen personally. You want to turn your back from it, shame on you. This (insert colorful noun here) has to stop.
quick point of order from someone who was there.....the red flags were not actually very apparent until after said championship. I too miss my corps, and was there for the resurgence. but many decisions and actions made AFTER the championship are what led to the fall of 97, and pure stupidity by those who took over mismanaged the last years.
I love you man, but you weren't there. I was, and you know the busybody I am, i asked a ton of questions and talked to a lot of people. A lot of us were fooled but the red flags didn't start appearing until the winter of 97. Come August well....they were full blown full field tarps.
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3 hours ago, jwillis35 said:
Very nice podcast to all involved. Well done, insightful, and respectful. I enjoyed listening to that.
Thanks!
yeah this wasn't the kind of topic our usual snarkfest was made for. we like to bust ###, but losing an icon...yeah, we aren't bashing that
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4 hours ago, Barneveld said:
Madison - 1938
Boston - 1940
Governaires 1927
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On 4/6/2024 at 1:13 PM, Vuitton said:
This has been happening since the 70s. There is no fairness in competition, and corps are forced to spend massive amounts of money to try and win. The list of corps who folded because of spending to try and win is massive. I don't know how anyone could look at the number of corps and the decreasing audience and say this activity isn't dying. And, yes, it is a decreasing audience. There are around 20-25k people at finals, and a good 6,000 or so are participants. That's less than when I marched over 30 years ago. DCI doesn't help this. The corps should not be running DCI.
paid attendance the last several years at finals has been 22,000ish. members, staff and VIP's are not counted in that number
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Phantom Regiment 2024
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
i told him if they are, we'll know by Allentown