jmalerba

This is a great topic. Personally I think the street beats should groove to no end. The other stuff is just an ego trip by the arranger (no offense to anyone, I'm all for creativity) If it defeats the purpose.. like the comments of people scratching their heads, out of step, etc.. then.. whats the point? It's all about the groove.

All I'm going to say is, if you think you want to tangle with big business or politics... you're gonna lose big unless you have more cash than them. You're better off getting on their good side than prodding them and poking them.

Pretty good thread but perhaps, over analyzed? Maybe get to the root cause being.. most people have absolutely no clue what drum corps is. For example.. going to my 20yr class reunion.. and talking of corps, only band folks would know what it is. Or some others when you mention drum corps, will bring up the movie drumline (and then you have to explain exactly how cheesey it is compared to reality!!) If I had a quarter for every time... In any case, an idea that maybe helps is off season performances, for example, I played with the Brigs at a winter solstice concert held in the cathedral, where the drumline came out and played with a track, a chorus and lead singer, bottom line kind of adding corps to pop.. we wow'ed the crowd, even the school kids were running around trying to get our autographs before they did their performances! wierd eh? Hopefully some impressions were made on them and the audience and perhaps future fans/members. To sum it up, its just marketing. also, i think as long as there are members there will be fans (families, relatives, friends). Thats who the fans are, for the most part, past members too. Put together more performances locally as above.. hmmm which brings up another point, it's not a local sport anymore, more like a free agency.. which has kinda turned me off to the whole thing, so now your local fans may or may not even know who the members or are they from the next town 50, 200 miles away. It works for football, I dont know about this though. If you were being paid to perform, that would of course change the argument altogether. Just my .02, and I wont mention the BS politics, oops I just did :sshh:

eh well, the more I think of this, the whole thing is stupid. A few people let their ego get the best of them and it's the fans who will pay now. That's a favorite show, and it's put on at one of America's most unique places. Now it's gone.. I'm sticking to my original though that they should have worked it out outside of court and whatnot. 5K seems reasonable.. thats less than 300 tickets to pay for that... It's all give and take.. what do I know.. The whole thing is stupid, no offensive to anyone... but this sort of thing happens everywhere. I had a feeling this sort of thing would happen, always does. God bless America,, Profits Profits Profits.

Here's the reply I got back from the email I sent... whats the deal? They're saying it's still on. We appreciate your insight and feedback; however, if you've followed the situation you will notice that the Drum and Bugle Competition is coming to HERSHEYPARK Stadium, just like it has for the past 20 years. It has never been our intention to lie, cheat or steal anyone out of anything, and we do appreciate your concern. Thanks for writing.

The whole situation is pretty disappointing. To look at the big picture, there really needs to be a call for Integrity among the business community and within government. This is just another example of the complete lack of Integrity we're dealing with in this country. There's scandal after scandal, mass-layoffs, salary dilution, exportation of jobs.. all designed to make money for... who? Now we have watch this activity fall victim to it. Like the Don says, If you have to lie, cheat or steal, you simply aren't doing it right. It stems from complete incompetance, lack of talent, bad taste and laziness. Yet there's no accountability for folks like this. Hopefully people wake up and start pushing back. How many bags of gold are enough?

Snareline full?