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*cough*bringdcifinalstoAtlantasoIcanmeeteveryone*cough*

I can't wait to do it! It's the only time I live blog marching events.

I will admit that at the Mercedes Benz Stadium, if you're sitting past the 20's on either side, you really can't hear much. But if you can manage to get in the sweet spot (especially high up,) it's pretty good. I wouldn't compare it to Arrowhead acoustically, but it's pretty #### good. Parking is super easy, nice lot area and souvie area, TONS of food and drink at reasonable prices and the only time I sweated was when Brittany took my debit card to go and buy "ALL of the BK souvies because they're from Colorado and I'm from Colorado." (it was the first time she ever saw drum corps LOL.)

Yep. Ditto.

I've said this before elsewhere... but the older I get, the more I like the idea of being in an indoor stadium. LOL. No sun beating down... no rain... air conditioning... all good.

Now that I follow and attend indoor events during the winter and spring, there is a sense of withdrawal which takes place between WGI Championships and the start of the drum corps season. Fortunately, that period is only for a couple months, but it's still there. In order to get myself psyched for the upcoming season, I love to plan out what shows I will go to throughout the summer for both DCI and DCA. That plan is what you see on this page. http://www.gaminnet.info/?p=5251

Then there are those of us who don’t follow HS bands or the indoor Winter activities. Talk about a long off season!

And they M&M’d the whole time. Today’s performers are obviously no longer the musicians they once were, and why should they be when supplemented by electronics and loud speakers, and show’s are being designed around visuals. Before long football fields will no longer be good enough.

The issues are, where are they trending and are the shows getting better? Clearly the trend is downward and the shows are not getting better. I agree that 2010 was AWESOME! Well, we're in 2019 and that means exactly JACK SQUAT ($1 to Chris Farley). The current DCI model does not allow for sustained musical moments (Drum corps ADD as someone put it once) and if they are playing Fire of Eternal Glory, that is not a selection that you can chop into little pieces, throw in a 45 second drum break, and have it mean anything (IMO). Thus, all these factors taken into consideration have given me an uneasy feeling about 2019. Look, (no disrespect intended) they got beat by the Mandarins! Why? Because the show design was WAY better than Regiment. I will bleed Regiment Red, White, and Black until I die, but the direction of the corps does not appear to be one of competitiveness, i.e. remaining in the top 12.

As we await the 2019 edition of the corps this conversation has become quite interesting, even though I disagree with a number of individual comments or observations 1989 was an extremely inexperienced/young Cadets corps - the guard was fabulous and the show really connected with the audience I remember seeing the corps in early JULY and the brass line still wasn't full However by August the membership had vastly improved execution (even with the almost all new staff - huge departure to Star) 1990 we saw that hard work fully realized as the corps captured another world title with many of those 1989 members 2011 was not a highly executing Cadets corps - the show itself was a GE monster (as mentioned above) - perhaps visually the most GE monster show since some of those great Cavaliers programs of the prior decade. At finals I was a little surprised by the caption scores - clearly the DCI judging panel loved the program and clearly the members worked hard - and the judging community certainly put them in first Cadets corps in 2012, 2013, 2015 were all more loaded than that 2011 corps (IMO) - design flaws may have cost Cadets the shot at two more Championships during that stretch I personally felt BD was the "best" corps that night - but as we know the "best corps" doesn't always win - see Cadets 2007 or BD 2013 IMO Everything I'm hearing about Cadets 2019 is promising from a talent standpoint and/or a design team standpoint - seems like a relatively smooth off season The upcoming all-corps camp (next weekend) is very important A number of vets aged out of guard in 2018 - the corps will need an influx of experienced but young guard members to build and improve upon 2018 Hopefully we''ll see maturing brass and percussion sections and a young & talented guard My biggest concern remains visual and/or drill design --- I haven't been impressed by visual/drill design since 2015, so I'm hoping that improves Happy Easter! George.

What was our old phrase at Corpsvets (CV) back in the mid 2000's? Oh yeah...."We take 9th so you don't have to." I love PR from the bottom of my heart and I truly hope they can manage to find the right formula to make them truly competitive again. I'm not much of an armchair quarterback and usually don't respond negatively to shows (at least on an open forum where parents, mm's and alumni can see them) unless it just truly something horrid.....*cough*verbaldrumbreak*cough* PR needs a show that speaks to people and is staged well and that they can actually pull off. 300 people ahead of me have already said that. I still, to this day, feel like 2010 was a back breaker. That show deserved better than what it got and I will howl about it until my dying day. But I do want to point out one thing. Since it's inception PR has averaged 6th place. From 1996 to 2008, they averaged 5th. From 2008 to 2018, they averaged 7th. The whole "PR is doomed and we will need a new designer and a goat to sacrifice to drum corps gods" just seems a bit overly dramatic to me. They've shifted an average of 2 places 22 years. That's just not a huge shift if you put it into perspective. /shrug

1) I have no way of knowing if this was the case, but if so then you need new visual guys if they couldn't interpret the music for "Beast" in order to design the show. I personally think they got a lot of things right with that show. Just came up short in a few GE and Visual areas. 2) JMO, but Crown is a music-first corps. Show design should begin with music and flow from there. If other corps do it differently, fine. That doesn't mean Crown should. Do your thing. Be unique. Crown has a fantastic music program with an arranger that calls for a certain style of visual/GE design. Work from the music outward to achieve the best results.

Widor's organ symphonies would be a good start. The finale of the 5th would be glorious. Louis Viernes' organ symphonies also.

Cathedral... Great show idea. Maybe BAC still has the 2006 arch props (usually referred to as "the bottle openers") from several seasons back. Much music would be available for such a show idea, past, present, and perhaps future.

Hopefully Cadets can have more seasons like that in the near future.

Cadets have never been the corps with all world talent. They have however been the corps with the best work ethic.

Well, all theory of course but multifactorial. 1. The challenge of maintaining the Scouts tradition while adapting to the quickness of change in DCI 2. The pressure to make the corps coed 3. The challenge of maintaining the Scout brand of masculinity and aggression in an all male corps in the current environment where masculinity is criticized DP does not have an easy job- yet, I respect his effort and donate to the corps

and honestly.....drum corps will never be mass marketable. it's band as far as the world is concerned. Remember we have kids in corps or bands wearing Under Armour gear, but UA sees no benefit in any kind of marketing agreement. At college football games, unless it's a place with serious tradition, large chunks of the crowd get up at halftime when the bands perform....even see more and more people coming in late instead of watching the traditional pregame stuff at many schools. Heck now, you even get more piped in music during the game than just the band. I said this just last night on the DCP Facebook page. We're band nerds, and in drum corps, we're the uber nerds. We're "hey that one time at band camp". DCI decided years ago, and while i was against it then, I see the wisdom now....the growth is going to come from the band world, and has. The key is once they come, retaining them. yes the activity has shed "legacy fans" disenchanted with the product....they lost me for a few years! But DCi realized the key is getting the kids, and trying to keep them as they get older, and hook their parents too, because as we've seen too many times, alumni #### on the activity they claim to love over and over and over again. You'll never win those folks, because they can't even agree on what era of drum corps they want to see it revert to.

There was also The Crazy World of Arthur Brown back then, as well as The Troggs, 10 Wheel Drive, and The Fugs. Odd named bands are nothing new!

WOW...kind of sad that you could quit your corps...and nobody would notice.

Way back on the last day of 2017 spring training in Denison, Bluecoats finally performed their first complete run through of Jagged Line. Who was there to watch it? Thank You Scientists. Bloo flew them in to watch how their work translated to the football field and after that first run through, TYS gave a private concert for the corps. Who had no problems getting licensing from TYS? Yup, Bluecoats, in part because they invited the band into the drum corps experience. I’m sorry there are fans of drum corps who can’t get past their narrow preferences not to see how this is a great thing for the activity.

Hermin's Hermits...Dave Clark Five. ...Trini Lopez. In my wildest dreams, I never would have guessed something called Thank You Scientist was a band.

You should probably look up this group you seem to have immense disdain for. They are insanely talented, and lovely people that also went out of their way to have a little fun with the Bluecoats. Their music has wide range, and is most definitely within progressive jazz. That's not what all the kids are going out and listening to generally. If you don't like one of their songs, give another a listen. It's also totally cool if they're just not for you. This group also came to support the Bluecoats during finals week in 2017 when they were playing some of their music at that time, so there is history between the two. Life is better when you try to enjoy it. Have some fun.