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I stopped posting and in general stopped following DCP because I was tired of the same few "Experts" (Liz, Jeff etc.)responding to everything and they are ALWAYS right.

15 years ago as a staff member I was told to stay off of RAMD. I said F off. the reasoning was, if I said anything about our corps, it could be considered overhype. if I said anything about another corps, it could be considered bashing. the issue isn't what the member says, it's more one of how others perceive what's said, and we know on RAMD and DCp, no one EVER interprets something to create drama where there isn't any

I was going to say something along the same lines, but in the main forum I was called out for always being right and an expert, so I'll let you take the heat

it still has to be performed. as I said above, sometimes explaining what to look for can be a double edged sword, because if it isn't performed well, you're not going to get credit for the "try"

and even better for DCI, they made money on these viewers, as opposed to losing money on ESPN

but so many people have this notion effect should mean cheers and whoops and hollers. it can also mean tears, anger, that "awwwwww" moment, laughter, and at times even "WTF?" I judged a show a few years ago about opposites, but didn't have any info on the program in front of me and couldn't hear the show announcement because Charlie Brown's teacher and her microphone was announcing. for the first minute or so, I was literally "WTF?" because the performers wandered around in pairs, but doing complete opposite things...smiling, angry, etc etc. It wasn't until they came together for the first big moment that it sank in what the goal was. From then on, it was in many ways genius. So I asked the staff about that first moment, and they said "we intended that. We wanted it to look and feel like "WTF?". They succeeded

well when you continuously predict "whoever scores highest wins", you are ALWAYS right

guys - I apologize if this has already been posted but it's too sweet not to share Jeff's HOF induction speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ZvGbo7rx4

I only did the Finals package, but especially since I couldn't make ti to the theater, it was definitely worth it. We hooked up the computer to the big screen, video quality was good, audio quality was good, I enjoyed it. Ended up having a small party a la Super Bowl. Will definitely be doing it again next year.

Will definitely be doing it again. Was fantastic. Only broadcast I thought was "bad" was the audio on the Allentown cast. Other than that, was fantastic. Better than the fan network ever was for me. A few hiccups occasionally as expected, but overall I was impressed for the first year of a new setup. A lot of issues people were having during the season sounded like Internet connectivity and personal issues rather than the service itself. Almost every cast was pretty smooth, great picture, and satisfactory audio. If this is a sign of what is to come, sign me up. Improvements to make: Audio could be better overall, was tolerable. Offer a single event option for championships, not force all 3 when you just wanna watch finals on Saturday.

As I more or less said in another thread, I could go full-tilt adjudicator, pull out my .50 cal sniper rifle, and do this like I was paid to judge the show and not sit back and just enjoy it. From my point of view, I'm not driving 180 miles one way, spending 80 bucks on a ticket and spending 8+hours on site watching 12+ performances to Scope and Drop everyone like Garrus in Mass Effect unless it's absolutely coyote horrid. Until I started to really get exhausted later in the show, my notebook's filled with performance issues. In modern adjudication, one is supposed to talk about what's good as well as what's wrong. I figure between the two of us we get balance. You do a great job, I mean it! It's just not the way I feel I need to roll here. I think I have made my points where I have needed to over time. I'd rather drop a note tied to a rock from my B-52 than drop an Arc Light. I think too, you were a lot lower down than I was. The different perspective enabled you to lock on to feet, bad notes/releases, etc., which is... and this has been a bone of contention and discussion here from several folks- Why they want the judges off the track/ field in DCA. My guess is that they want the contest to be judged from the perspective of the paying audience and for the sake of entertainment, period. Some scholastic circuits want them on the field because their main focus is on education and the competitors like and desire to have that input to help better develop and educate their students in a more direct fashion. It also means a lot of the issues you speak of don't get hammered as hard because they're more the realm of individual adjudication, not ensemble. I would think the argument from staff would be that they'd rather spend rehearsal time on Ensemble issues over Individual for that very reason. Kind of like the five-foot rule when you look at an antique car. If the car looks great from 5 feet away or when you stand off and look at it, for the most part you're fine. But get closer and see the swirls/scratches in the paint, the pitted chrome, the crack in the rubber around the glass.... then you wonder if the car is as nice. Your point about DCA becoming more like DCI is one worth seriously talking about. This can be looked at from a lot of different angles. In the pre-DCA to pre-DCI era, I know people that would know on DCP will say with authority that the Senior corps were better because of the wealth of experience and talent the Seniors had over the Juniors. The shows were for all intents and purposes... the same style, etc. It changed quickly in the DCI period with the extended touring. That being said, there were certain corps that didn't have an identity in DCA that needed one and needed to make their brand different from the icons in the circuit- went more towards a DCI style of program in the late 70's early 80's because they wanted to compete and not get steamrollered. Those three corps were not satisfied with being happy to be part of DCA and just showing up to be 8th like they should have been so the big boys/fan faves could keep winning.Their personnel were also younger than the DCA median as well because they recruited out of the competitive HS circuits. Why? That was who they had to work with. Westshore, Sun, and Bush. Sun was more DCA in nature but went with radically different music, guard, and an iconic and totally dominant Dennis DeLucia Percussion section to start shaking the tree. Westshore jimmied the door open a bit more and then blew themselves up for a few years, Bush then broke through that crack in the door and ran wild. Everyone else realized they had to do something or these guys would take over. They had to adapt...or go under. Some of them did, or went through long periods of time where they ended up placing not where they felt they should have and finally did something about it. More and more DCI and scholastic-background designers and instructors come on board doing what they do to compete and win with DCA teams. Things have been moving that way for over 35 years now, and folks are only starting to notice this? Even Empire did some charts based on ones that DCI corps here and there. The other issue was this now that I mentioned Empire: Empire was iconic in and of itself. If everyone else would have tried to be like them ("more DCA"... whatever that really means...), everyone would have panned those other corps for being a bunch of cheap knockoffs and imitations and they would not have succeeded. People want to compete. I'm sure Empire would have loved it if everyone tried to be like them and lost to them year after year, but that's not the point of the activity. This is an arena of ideas, and there are many different artistic solutions to the problem of creating a great, competitive, show. Need to get going today- and I figure I may have rustled up some feathers myself, but if anyone wants to discuss, let's roll!

As with the Barnum Festival, this show comes with it's own set of problems. The stadium field is finished but the parking lots are not! They informed us that the Lincoln Blvd. entrance will be closed Saturday as they are not finished repaving the parking lots. They are going to have extra police and security people there to direct folks where to park. Soooooo plan on getting there a little early. Skyliners Alumni though not listed in the flyer will be performing an exhibition. They are going on before the show. I don't know about the other alumni corps. Cabs Alumni will be going on after the show. Good Luck and safe travels to all.

I'm glad you pointed that out, as I certainly didn't want to misdirect people (based on the Google map).

Indoors??? I'll take it. LOL

The black uniforms are going to C2. This was put out by GH and the Cadets multiple times after the uniforms were introduced. According to them, Cadets will be going back to the traditional uniform next year. But we shall see.

Words cannot describe how I feel when I see his drill all over the field. So happy I got the chance to march some of his toughest drill. On another note, anyone know when Cadets will begin selling their 2015 preseason recordings? I don't see it posted on their website.

I would agree that Minne Brass suffered the most from libations noise last year.

PHOTO PLS

I have no problem with opinions "disguised" as facts, because they're still obviously opinions. Most English teachers instruct students not to use the phrase "in my opinion" when constructing an argument because it's almost always redundant to do so. The underlined comment about the Buccaneers design quoted in the previous post is just hyperbole (you see similar comments about the Blue Devils' design in the DCI forum) and can be responded to as such.

Discussion is great. Disagreement is even better. But if you disagree (on whatever topic, for whatever reason), you'd better bring something to the table in terms of evidence. "LOL today's drum corpz ain't REAL drum corpz!!!1!" Yea, that's not going to work. Saying, "I don't like Corps X show, because A, B, and C." or "I don't care for electronics because X, y and Z."- Fantastic. You've brought your opinion, and you've stated why it is what it is. On the other hand..saying "Corps X sucks" or "Electronics is ruining drum corps" is an opinion disguised as a statement of fact. You're wrong before you even get started. You do that, people are going to call you on it. If you get mad as a result, that's your fault, not theirs. There are a lot of folks on DCP that debate, argue, and discuss topics where I don't agree with them. But neither I nor they take that disagreement personally. Sadly, that's not always the case. I can't speak for anyone else, but I'll never dispute a person's opinion. But if they are factually incorrect, that's a whole 'nuther ball of wax.

When it came down to it the only difference is no VOD. Both would have ups and downs. Audio was always different from show to show and there would be little hiccups. So we got a clearer picture and more shows for $10 less but no VOD. I will do it again because some drum corps is better than none.

I'm sure opinions will vary for many good reasons. I was in unique position to watch everything presented, except 1-2 of the later events for those living on the east coast. The quality was OUTSTANDING compared to other years. But, again, the level of technology on each consumer's end was a big factor. For me, the subscription was MORE than worth it. I'll do it all again next year without hesitation. Some onsite audio/video teams were not as good as others. The Allentown broadcast sound was awful, and the people on the ground were unable/unwilling to change things for the better, even with 2 days to get it right. That should not happen again. Even though I made a purchase, I felt very privileged to receive what seemed to me as a gift. I wasn't going to be attending those events in-person under any circumstances, so this was a fabulous way to participate. It was nice to watch the shows change and progress from the season's beginning. So, yes! I'm buying again next season, even knowing some features might not return. It's just plain good for DCI, too. The potential revenue through this access is huge. I want it to help keep it around, have a chance to flourish.

Yes.... I think we can, within a reasonable manner, compare off site Finals Nite viewers with these formats. DCI 2015 Pay Per View subscription " viewers " according to DCI were 4,500 viewers. Since they paid for the right to view Finals, I think its reasonable to assume that 100%... just about all of the 4,500.... viewed the Finals Night telecast. By contrast, the 2007 DCI ESPN partnership venture, according to DCI had " over 300,000 households " viewing the Finals Night broadcast. Barigirl78 estimates that translates to approx 507,000 viewers of the Finals Nite broadcast ( a month later ). Given the fact that a large segment of the approx. 507,000 viewers of the 2007 Finals Night ESPN- DCI partnership broadcast were essentially seeing it freely, it is reasonable to assume that approx 90% of these viewers did not watch the 2007 Finals Night show for very long, nor with any degree of great interest, other than perhaps mere curiosity. But even if we eliminate these 90 % of these casual viewers ENTIRELY from the 2007 numbers calculation of viewers, it still leaves us with over 50,000 viewers for the 2007 DCI Finals Night telecast.... or put another way.... over 10 times the numbers of viewers that watched the 2015 DCI Finals Night competition earlier this month.

Sorry to get off topic, but I just noticed in your sig that you marched Madison in 94 thru 96 and I have to say that I LOVED ALL THREE of those shows!

So here's my specific question: Back in the ESPN days, if a viewer casually stumbled on the DCI broadcast, stopped for a minute to see what all the bands were about, then got bored and left in minute two or three, that viewer, apparently, is counted as a viewer. But can we really use that as a basis for comparing to fans who signed up for a PPV and stayed for most or all of the evening? IOW, is it really rational to be comparing today's "viewers" with either PBS or ESPN based on the metric used by Nielson?

That's the diary system. The national ratings use meters attached to TV sets and any other device that you can watch TV on. Diaries are only still used to measure local market ratings in smaller markets. The larger markets use meters, too. The meters can measure in smaller increments than diaries did. Nielsen operates a national ratings system to measure the whole country and a local market system to provide ratings for just the local markets that stations operate in. There are 210 local markets. The largest in New York. The smallest is Glendive with just 4,700 households. National ratings have not used diaries in any form since 1987 when the "Peoplemeter" was introduced. Prior to that, they were used nationally to provide demographic information on top of a "household meter" system. This wikipedia article isn't bad at explaining what a Peoplemeter does: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_meter One other thing not covered in any of what I've said is the concept of ratings "streams". Because a lot of people timeshift now and don't necessarily watch a show the same day it airs, there are different types of ratings estimates based on when people watched. There's the Live rating, the Live + Same Day rating, the Live + 3 Days rating, and the Live + 7 Days rating. I pulled up an old file to get the 508,000 estimate. I forgot to look at what the stream was. It was the Live + Same Day rating. That's anyone who watched Live or watched timeshifted on their DVR by 3AM the day it aired. I think the Live + 7 days figure would be a little higher. If you encounter "overnight" ratings for TV shows, it is the Live + Same Day rating. Those are available the next day. You have to wait a little longer for the Live + 3 or Live + 7.

I think it's been exclaimed that the Dark Side Cadets uni's will go to C2. Which, if they keep the cream pants of C2, would look STELLAR. If they go all black... eh. I think there's enough dark pants in DCA. They are the only group currently wearing white pants, and having definitive foot technique. At least at the last show.

So does this means their momentary flirtation the last week of the season to become the Black Knights has come to an end, and the Cadets will be going out next season in their beloved iconic uniform with their traditional Corps colors again ? ' Hope so, for their sake, and for their long time Alums anyway.

Yes.. 500,000 viewers for 2007 Finals broadcast was indeed a good number. That said, I personally did not like the format of the highlight reel shortened clips of the Corps shows for that Finals show at all. It made for a chopped up version that really didn't serve either DCI, nor the Corps shows for that season all that well. There is a natural flow to each Corps show from beginning to end. Showing just a small snippet of the top 12 Corps show for that nite was just meh..... at best. But I do understand that there was a negotiated time allowed for the show with ESPN, so from that perspective anyway, it does explain why it was done in this fashion.

To be accurate, the show was a two-hour highlight reel with a bunch of human interest stuff interspersed, not a broadcast of the entire champs show. . In any case, 500K is a nice number to see.

http://inspirearts.org/2015/08/inspire-arts-music-welcomes-new-cooexecutive-director/ INSPIRE ARTS WELCOMES Chris Holland, Chief Operations Officer/Executive Director AUGUST 26th, 2015- Inspire Arts & Music, parent organization of the Boston Crusaders Drum & Bugle Corps, welcomes Chris Holland as the new COO/Executive Director. Chris is an alumnus of the Boston Crusaders having participated for nine seasons from 1986 through 1994. Holland went on to earn his B.A. in music from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and is the former Director of Bands in Norwood, Massachusetts. During his four year period in Norwood, his ensembles consistently rated superior at marching band, concert band, jazz ensemble and orchestra evaluations. His award winning ensembles performed at Boston Symphony Hall, Tanglewood, and the Hatch Shell. His prior drum corps experience includes brass caption head for the Phantom Regiment and Boston Crusaders, as well as brass staff for the Carolina Crown. Subsequent to his Director of Bands position, Holland earned his J.D., became a lawyer, and was sworn into Massachusetts Bar in 2006. He served three years as a trial attorney in the Essex County District Attorney’s office. He then went on to private practice with a focus on litigation. Holland joined the IAM Board of Directors in 2013. He worked on several committees, including the risk management committee and executive committee. Holland has now fully transitioned into the Executive Director role and will oversee all operations under the Inspire Arts & Music umbrella, including the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps. “I am very excited to work with the talented and dedicated staff at Inspire Arts & Music. There has been tremendous growth over the past 4 years. The Great East Music Festivals allow for participation of over 400 music programs per year to experience quality adjudication at our many spring festival locations throughout New England. The Great East Music Store gives families and music programs the ability to purchase or rent equipment through our store. The profits generated funnel back into Inspire Arts & Music so that we can continue to expand our services and reach within the fine arts area.” “We now own and operate the Riverside Theatre Building in Hyde Park which provides Inspire with the ability to be a major contributor in this historic Boston neighborhood. I am excited to reach out and collaborate with the city on fine arts initiatives.” Excited about working with the Boston area community, Holland states, “We will continue to launch grass roots music programs like HYPE (Hyde Park Youth Percussion Ensemble) and look to create new opportunities in music for youth and we will continue to collaborate and support other world class organizations like Blessed Sacrament Colorguard.” As to the Boston Crusaders, Holland states, “It is the crown jewel of Inspire Arts & Music. I am humbled to have the opportunity to lead such a talented design team, administration, staff, and membership. We have such dedicated volunteers and alumni all over the globe. Drum Corps International is an incredible organization and we are proud to be a part of the DCI community. I look forward to growing the Crusaders within the DCI arena.” Looking to the future Holland states, “I am already connecting with so many who all believe the greatest days are still ahead for the Boston Crusaders. I am so grateful for the support of my wife Darlene, and my family, as well as the Board of Directors as we strive to achieve excellence in all facets of our organization…. Building A Champion.”

Houston's Astrodome is -- rather amazingly -- still clinging to life. However, the Georgia Dome has long been reported to be demolished when the new stadium is finished. See Wikipedia (below) and a quick google search will bring up tons of articles about that... Replacement[edit]Main article: Mercedes-Benz Stadium It was announced in 2010 that the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the stadium's operator, is pursuing a new stadium with a retractable roof, to the south of the Georgia Dome. Upon completion of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in 2017, the Georgia Dome will be demolished to make way for parking to the new stadium.

if a corps has legit issue with a judge, there is a process for them to raise their grievances to DCi to have the issue addressed, and possibly have the judge yanked. however, MM's don't have that power. if a corps did complain and DCI let them judge it means the corps argument was faulty, or that DCI dropped the ball. Having seen what someone who trialed this year had to go through, if the corps bothered to protest at all, their argument i'm going to guess was 99% score based and didn't link it to commentary. remember effect also is he triad....intellectual, emotional and aesthetic. of the top corps, I feel all did a great job balancing the triad, and even more importantly, they mastered the real key to effect...it isn't just the big moment, but also the build in AND out of the moment. let's take BD for a second since they always get hammered about being too intellectual, and even a few years ago I agreed heartily. This years show, they kept the key elements out until finals week...Clara. While seeing it early I was a little confused what they were going for. As the season progressed, things started making more sense about the fairy tales and what the books and stuff were for. You add Clara finals week....bingo! They tied it all together. to me, IMO, and i'm sure the haters will arise....the change to black for Cadets hurt the show. Oh yeah neon is the 10th element...I mean come on, what person that doesn't read Hops facebook page knows that from memory? I don't. The keys to Cadets show were speed and velocity...all of which were cancelled out the second the corps went all black. White made them look faster! Plus, but going all black and focusing on the neon, you highlighted their weakest caption...the guard!

Thanks, man! DCA does have a great value for so, so many reasons, going way back. My sister and I were able to march somewhere and not break my parents' bank for one thing. My sister was taught by great people, some DCI cats (Goodhart, Hardimon would come in once in awhile). Same for me (Frank Dorritie, Dave Rohrer, Ray Eyler). We both had a great experience for comparatively not a lot of money. The same applies now! Education may not be what DCA sells to the fans- but for the members, it's excellent. Not everyone can afford to tour but wants the challenge. Some of us older folks just like to hit the field and challenge themselves, make the fans happy, and have their friends close by. They can do that in DCA. You hit on the big problem every design team has. There's this cliff to oblivion where the shows become too difficult to clean in the time allotted that if you're not careful, you go right over this cliff. It's a sheer drop, and it's an ugly thing to see happen. The problem is, if you don't get as close to the cliff as you can without getting sucked over the edge, you'll lose. The Bucs last year got about as close as one can get to that edge and not go over. Their ship was half over the edge and ready to go over until Finals when they righted it. In some ways I think they learned a lot from it. I have a guess that the lesson the Cabs learned was that they needed to take more of a risk and get even closer. One corps that really gets this and comes up with things that are very thoughtful and sophisticated, but not asking their people to do the impossible and implode their organization are the Sabres. This also brings up another good point here that people have discussed recently. I think fans understand that they're not going to see a finished product or a wonderfully polished one at Cabs at the Beach. But I think one of the things some (not all) people say now and then is that they'd like to still see something that's decent early on and not leaving them cringing at times. That's also an issue for a lot of crazy reasons that don't line up well with each other. You put together too 'easy' a program, take the lead, don't add content and enhance the program... you stall out and get passed. (Westshore '82- been there and done just that!) You also want folks to attend contests early on in the season. Personally, I want the show hosts at these contests to have their coffers filled with loot. Otherwise- we don't have DCA at all. If people think... well... "Why go early to something that's not good.. or wait 'till, say Scranton".... it leaves a lot of shows with missing people and missing revenue. I don't have a real answer, but it's something that makes me think. It has to make show hosts think. It has be in the back of the minds of the corps Admins and something they need to impress upon their creative staffs. From listening to some people, I do think this is going on to a point. I guess the question would be, is it going on enough? I have no answer.

Trust me... that's not too far off the mark!!!

I would have liked to have marched in the 1980 27th Lancers Color Guard. This would require a sex change operation for me, But thats way too drastic to want to even contemplate.. so it appears I can't even dream of doing a summer's tour with them. My 2nd choice would be as a pension quaifying stint in the U.S. Marine Drum & Bugle Corps as Drum Major. Its way better to receive a paycheck for marching Drum Corps than to pay a check to do it, imo.

The truth is, all of the active manufacturers make a good product. None are without fault, but they are all several orders of magnitude better than what was offered in the past, save maybe the King K-bugle line. Any time someone says, "Manufacturer X is crap" about today's horns, I immediately think of Hitchens's razor.

I'll trust MBI's number. you had faces on that panel that had seen the other horses in the race

Cadets 2003 are now mourning the second of their nine snares to die so young. God's peace be with them all.

Some good numbers all around, it appears. We know there is a horse race for the Open Class title... but Class A is gonna be interesting, too. All sorts of possible scenarios at Prelims.

Probably when the Jim Ott Brass Ensemble played there this year.

Just your friendly reminder that these staff are real people :) I think it's better to keep those thoughts in your head or to express them in a more tactful manner.

There were actually 2 Mini Corps Associates Championships....the first one was in Harrisburg Pa, the same day as the Forum Show in April of 2007, which the Golden Eagles were victors that day. We got the chance to perform at the night show with all of the great Alumni Corps and blew the stands down!! In 2008 we had the Mini Corps Associates Championships in Albany with Mass Brass taking home the title. Great times for sure, and I really miss doing Mini Corps. Sigh.....maybe some day again, when I retire for good I'll get something going again.

That clip shoots full of holes the argument that the battery can be judged equally well from the booth. Those who know Prosperie's lingo understand the depth of playing that would be lost if he were forced into the booth.

"If I can dodge an axe, I can dodge a sphere. Right?"

that Prosperie tape for Bloo is the most fun I've had listening to a judges tape in years! I love when a judge lets their personality and fandom come out!

I'm expecting the Colts to make a mive into the top 12. Also, Mandarins should be moving up.

Can we have a non-electronics division? Half the sound coming off the field anymore is controlled by some fat guy sitting in the stands. I want to hear wind+muscle, not electrons+paper cones.

I'd like two judging panels for finals, and the caption scores for each panel are averaged to make the final score.

I think I mentioned that there was an alcohol problem. Rumor had it that in 1968 he introduced the 27th Lancers as being from "Reverie" Massachusetts. Listen to the 61 Nats recordings from Miami ... by the time he got to announce Blessed Sacrament, I swear he was going to fall asleep ... and God only knows why he shouted "GO" when the starting pistol was fired ... :-)