Jump to content

Ron H

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    431

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Ron H

    DCA '15, 35 corps, great performances, not-so-great attendance

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    I've looked. heres the issue:

    I've done research. i've looked into agreements for equipment and stuff, and talked to other directors of corps sound and not sound.

    my former corps burned a zillion bridges around here. I'm pretty sure there's bills still out there waiting to be paid. Plus, I've seen first hand things i'd never do to my members like making them drive home at 2 am from a show for a rehearsal the next day. No bus company around here would take my call thanks to past actions.

    to do it, and do it right, serious $$ would be needed up front. I don't have the luxury of owning a post, or having a continuous legacy in the area like a Bucs Cabs or MBI has. Because otherwise, business plan or not, one incident could #### me personally.....and i'm not letting that happen

    Which seems to translate into this: I'm done.

    I'm not going to personally risk anything to promote All-Age Corps. It's over. I've done my time.

    I'm going to be an armchair critic from now on.

    DCA '15, 35 corps, great performances, not-so-great attendance

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    I'd love to bring my corps back.

    ......

    i could go on. I love drum corps. But i'm not going to #### myself financially to build one. I win Powerball sure. but after the recession i'm not tapping my retirement accounts nor mortgaging my house to build one.

    There is no need for that, provided you put together a good business plan. And that is what is sorely missing from most DCA corps. Poor financial planning is what is truly killing DCA.

    There are really only three (though maybe as many as five) DCA corps that are set for the financial long run, with Minnesota Brass waaaaaaay in the lead. By a factor of 10. And no one in MBI has ever won the Powerball. And no one in MBI has millions to donate to the corps. It's all about wise management, plain and simple.

    MBI is followed by the Buccaneers.

    And the Caballeros.

    This is all public record, BTW, since 501 c3 corporations are an open book by law.

    2015 Drum Corps Associates World Championships Finals

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    I NEVER thought I would say this but Cabs got jobbed!

    There are good reasons why MBI beat them legitimately. We are all homers to some extent. And that blinds us to many details. Personally I thought high brass would be the VERY LAST caption that MBI would win. I am rather shocked,actually. Visual I could understand. The Cabs have never been known for being particularly adventurous in visual design. But MBI has had some of the best visual shows for the last 5 years or so.

    But hey, I'm looking forward to the recaps.. Congrats to C2 and the Bucs!!!

    • Like 1

    2015 Rankings (by most recent score)

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    I'll simply say this. After seeing MBI and Govies at the DCI Minnesota show on July 11th, the performances from both corps last Friday at the DCI show in St. Paul were astoundingly better. MBI has the best color guard I have ever seen from them in late July. (Actually, I think this is the best color guard I have ever seen in DCA, period.) Percussion is tops. Horns have dramatically improved.

    MBI is undoubtedly a contender. That show is something else.

    • Like 1

    DCA Predictions for 2015

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    A lot of corps have gone into stealth mode on here for a lot of reasons:

    The main reason is this site is now irrelevant. The sum total of all the people participating in the conversations in the DCA threads amount to maybe a dozen people, all talking amongst themselves.

    It no longer reflects the fan base of the DCA activity. (If it does, DCA is in seriously dire straits.)

    Championship Site Tests

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    It won't happen anytime soon, but I can guarantee that if Minneapolis were ever to host the DCA Championships it would be the best-attended, best advertised and best-organized DCA Championships in the history of DCA.

    Why? Because the the Twin Cities have a long and lengthy track record of supporting oddball music festivals. With 3.5 million residents, MSP is the North's answer to Austin and the SXSW festival. And as host, MBI would have the best connections to all local rehearsal venues. Furthermore, the stadium (The U of M's TCF Bank Stadium) was designed (with the help of acousticians) to be the best stadium in the US for musical acts. DCI recognized this and their DCI Minnesota show is among their premier venues. This stadium has amazing acoustics. It's like it was built for marching bands and drum corps. The premier suites sell out for DCI Minnesota and those go for $1600 a crack.

    Again, it won't happen anytime soon. But imagine the possibilities. :)

    • Like 3

    Reasons for decrease in audience over the decades?

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    It's not just "on" Broadway that ticket prices have risen. In Minneapolis the price of the tickets to the next "Beauty and the Beast" tour range from $49 to $109. And yet they still will sell out 8 shows in a 2,600-seat auditorium.

    I completely agree with Fran Haring. This may be a bit harsh for my dear family in MBI, but I saw them in St. Paul in the middle of last season and thought that they were going to be a 5th place DCA corps at best. This was at a DCI Open Class show. MBI did not perform well. Yes, this was one of the dreaded mid-week shows and I can give a lot of slack for that fact.

    But still...

    MBI has, in the past, been pretty decent early in their season. But with the increase in complexity of their (and other DCA Corps') shows I feel they need to re-think their early season strategy and go back to starting in November rather than in January. This is just a personal opinion. However ALL DCA corps need to come out with a salable and marketable product in June. Otherwise, why should any fan spend 10 or 15 bucks for a show that is just "in progress?"

    Most one-time fans will have no idea how the drum corps season works. They will assume that what they see before them is what the ensemble can give. These spectators will have no desire to see the show again if they weren't entertained the first time around.

    In the bigger scheme of things, is it really worth the massive effort it takes to field a solid top DCA corps if that corps is only "really good" for the last 3 weeks of a season?

    (OKAY, I am exaggerating the issue a bit, but the principle remains...)

    • Like 2

    Rules Congress

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    Who were the drum corps that used amplification this past year?

    Off the top of my head, Bucs, Cabs, Bush.

    If I don't recall others that did (Fusion?CV?), it was because it was done so well I wasn't jolted by it. The reason I remember the above three was noticing the speakers or in the Cabs' and Bush's case, using them for the pre-show set-up as well.

    The above three also did a great job in meshing the speakers with the overall ensemble sound for the record.

    MBI? Hello? With permission from Neil deGrasse Tyson for the pre-show.

    Minnesota Brass Show 2015

    in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by Ron H

    Not for nothing, but BD pretty much does arrangements by committee. Basically, Dave Glyde does a lot of it and Wayne Downey/Scott Johnson work on their respective sections. A buddy on staff explained their arrangement process in detail, but my head started to hurt.

    Yes, I think many corps do that (including MBI for many years). Specifically, MBI now has BD's John Meehan as arranger and brass consultant.

×
×
  • Create New...