David Hill
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Posts posted by David Hill
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Ideology and real-world (drum corps) politics
"No ideology survives the collision with real-world politics perfectly intact. General principles have to bend to accommodate the complexities of history, and justice is sometimes better served by compromise than by zealous intellectual consistency."
Oddly, this quote from Ross Douthat's column in The New York Times is not about the G7 in drum corps, but it could be. (It is about Rand Paul's defining comments on civil rights legislation as misstep.)
I cannot resist appropriation of the piece, though; just imagine if he had been talking about the already-discussed-to-death-and-it's-still-a-year-away "Big Boy" tour in DCI.
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From Field&Floor
Red ink rising:an online exercise in hard choices
Maybe the boards of both field and floor should engage in this online budgeting exercise, from The Committee for A Responsible Federal Budget.
"We need to establish a fiscal goal and commit as a nation(of pageantry fans and followers) to achieving it. We must set an ambitious, yet attainable, goal that Americans(who love both field and floor) can support. This simulation was designed to illustrate the tough budget choices that will have to be made and to promote a public dialogue on how we can set a sustainable fiscal course. How do your choices stack up? Good luck."
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We need "Debbie Downer" just about now.
Not that it will ever happen but, now is the time for pageantry judging to move to an independent organization. BOA, DCI, G7, WGI et al operate the events and hire from within the judging union, yes, much like figure skating.
And no, that would not take care of anything except ... well, it really might help this situation at hand.
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I've clicked around the Internet throughout the day, following the follow-out to the "tease" of the story of seven Drum Corps International member corps taking their show on the road less traveled. They are pulling out of the organization, they are demanding more money, they are the story of the activity, are among the HEADLINES being shouted all about.
Well, of course, except from DCI. Duck and run cover, as always; this will blow over once the "official" press release is released. The season begins in a month; everyone will forget about "whatever the real story is" once corps are on the field.
That's not what I'm grimacing about today; it is -- in the current vernacular -- what it is. But what it is NOT is apt handling of its own story.
The rest of the story is right here.
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MORE FUN WITH GRAPHICS!
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Is "DCI" the victim of the curse of 3050?
I'm looking forward to the 2010 season with just as much excitement (minus the tea party-esque rancor) as the next fan. But won't some truth in advertising soon be required?
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If the season ended too quickly for you, too -- really, already, it's over? -- here are my personal musings over at Field&Floor.
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Voting has ended.
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To tell the truth?
Perhaps: Bud Collyer, Tom Poston, Peggy Cass, Orson Bean, Kitty Carlisle, Jayne Meadows, Don Ameche, Dorothy Kilgallen, Hildy Parks, John Cameron Swayze, Ralph Bellamy, Bern Bennett, Johnny Olson, Phyllis Newman.
(... and with tongue jettisoned firmly in cheek)
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Support the WGI Scholarship Fund just by entering!
The 2010 Field&Floor Top 32 Color Guards will be posted Monday night, April 12 at 8E/7C. Which ones will become my Final 4, Runner-Up and Color Guard of the Year? Once you see the list, come on, second guess this second guesser!
The first person to "second guess" my Final 4 will win a WGI DVD of their choice or a year's subscription to the WGI Fan Network. If anyone successfully "second guesses" Field&Floor's Color Guard of the Year and Runner-Up, they will win the full set of 2010 color guard DVDs.
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Drama.
How about some mid-season faux drama; in the form of yet another list.
Field&Floor's Fifty guards to watch for
I am.
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" ... The important thing for me though, is that a brand name should try to accurately describe the product that is being sold. DCI has added so much more to the activity in the last decade and promises to do even more in the future. I think they should tweak the name of the activity to more accurately describe these and future enhancements.
I think we should just call the activity "DCI Corps". It's only a marketing term; a brand. Or we can just call it "Fred" like my drum corps brother Boo suggests..."
Nothing is ONLY a marketing term or a brand; it is the manifestation of the product. I have thought the new name of the organization was developed when "Marching Music's Major League" debuted. It references the level of expertise and professionalism of the product, rather than the make-up of the product. These days, with ever shrinking audiences in every medium, effective, meaningful marketing is tantamount to success. Eroding audiences have to be buffeted.
If the focus moves from the what to the how in the activity, once we all let go of the (already gone) past, we will have an activity that we can easily tout!
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Early season winner, for sure!
Love me some small color guards ... performing a pitch perfect show.
A Class makes it that much better :-)
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Father Ryan! -
No secret, my love of Marquis.
Among the sheaves of homage I paid, this, at the end of the unit's run:
"Scores, placements, titles, championships, fans' favorites, and medals aside, Emerald Marquis remains and will forever in history be known as a "color guard's color guard."
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Fan Network rebooted for 2010: check.
Tickets ordered: check.
Smell of vinyl wafting: close at hand.
Earplugs secured (those darned tinny and too-loud sound systems): three pairs.
Legacy season: on the cusp?
I'm pondering legacy today: Do you know color guard?
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God heavens, it's so long overdue for some unit on Field or Floor to *discover* Rufus ... when, oh when, will Boston Crusaders ever close its show with "Beautiful Child" from the same CD?
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The full variety of exceptional endings has been presented here, so I will focus on just one; one that has not appeared ... yet:
The 1982 Cadets' revolutionary ending to "Cuban Overture."
For the ones of us lucky enough to have been there, it was a stunning moment, a game changer for the activity. I will never forget the shell-shocked audience leaping to its feet in thunderous applause, and with a question on its face.
If you are not familiar with this show, and this ending, queue it up on Fan Network. Highly recommended!
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I like spending my off season in retrospect, rather than in speculation, so I watched, re-lived, parsed, and ranked this decade's and the new century's drum corps shows. The result: a nine-part series over at my blog Field&Floor.
Here's the index for the entire look at "The evolution will be competitive."
Hope you enjoy reading my take -- and disagreeing with it
-- as much as I enjoyed the research and writing -
I listened to the original "Strawberry Soup" during this season. The Don Ellis version that is hard to find, not the Scouts' original version. I thought then that an update for the times would be a great choice for Madison. Still do!
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I wrote this in 2007, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary.
I wrote this today; 2008 and 2009 Devils are both included.
As absolutely terrific as are all of them, in the end, and with the glorious view of history on my side, I'll stick, ultimately, with the 1986 Blue Devils; perhaps my favorite drum and bugle corps of my time!
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Every time the 2009 World Champion Blue Devils readjusted the block of chairs from its opening dance band block to form -- $ -- I smiled. I now realize that the drill formation is the elliptical representation of the just-completed season, indeed the industry, Drum Corps International: "Marching Music's Major League." All the corps needed to finish the image was to have a newspaper thrown on the field with the heralding headline: DRUM CORPS RIP?
Our beloved activity is at a similar crossroads as the beleaguered newspaper industry. (Probably radio, too; but I follow the newspaper industry, so I'll use it for comparison.) Print newspapers are thinner than ever due to fewer advertisers, they have been physically reconstructed to cost less to produce, and subscriber numbers are plummeting with the effect of the Internet cited. So in city after city, the daily newspaper has been left as a relic of its former self, if left at all. Business models of long-standing have failed, but no one has yet found a successful replacement that will sustain the industry into the future.
If readers have moved online for their news, we'll charge them, say most. But the short history of online subscribers has failed to produce enough revenue to replace the print business.
Similarly, the number of sustaining units to participate in the DCI tour continues to dwindle; the economy affected attendance throughout the shortened season; and that natural, but always prickly contention between drum and bugle corps as an idiom and "Marching Music's Major League" as an into-the-future tagline bristles the faithful, even as the industry quickly moves to reposition itself. And unlike the print newspaper industry that is cutting costs everywhere it can, this season's changes add $ -- real ones -- to each unit's bottom line costs.
Nonetheless, in some ways, we're better off than newspapers. Between Fan Network online and quarterfinals in movie theaters, a revenue stream independent of attendance has been developed, largely successfully. And instead of perseverating over consequences of possible action, thus rendering movement of any kind impossible to even temporarily stop the leak, no one around here stops long enough to worry about the consequences of their decisions; ground-breaking rules are passed and acted on. Where we stop, nobody knows.
In a piece I wrote for Drum Corps World following the Southeastern Championships in Atlanta, I noted that "this is a game-changing year for marching music in this venue. Unlike other dialectic introductions to the drum and bugle corps arena over the years that were often rolled out timidly, slowly, unit by unit; the use of electronics is virtually universal in year one. Ambient sound, bass guitars, electric pianos, sampled voice, electric violins, recorded history, and the ubiquitous keyboard are all featured elements that add a depth of sound and place to the acoustic nature of brass and percussion instrumentation. Its groundbreaking, it's thrilling, it's shilling; it's all in the purview of the viewer and listener, whether fan or judge."
With a tenuous organizational financial foundation and a potentially polarizing idiomatic change, what's the industry to do?
Headline: STRADDLE THE FENCE BETWEEN DRUM CORPS AND MARCHING MUSIC
Like the newspaper industry, the economic and future viability of this action flows and continues; outcome to be determined. Unlike the lack of creative inertia in newspapers, the artistic fence-straddling among units benefitted everyone this season: fans of historic standing (no matter where your personal history with the activity began), and followers of the current "marching music" model that references marching bands, save a "major league" version of them.
The headlines have been written, the stories are already archived for historical reference, so here are some notions about the artistic high-wire balancing acts that units attempted to the varying degrees of popular and judged success.
For the story of each World Class unit, click over to Field&Floor.
LATE AUGUST ADDITION: Just added variety of links for your off-season reading pleasure. I've called them "BEST OF" Field&Floor stories; the pieces over the years that have generated the most *buzz* and traffic to the site.
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Tom's comments are just right, except for one thing: Drum Corps International IS a charity. A 5013C not-for-profit organization is a charity. In the current economic environment, that distinction is important, might be, and in my mind (I lead the marketing for a non-profit that is benefiting from our role as charity in this economy) should be.
Money you spend to attend shows not only helps stage the event and support the corps, when more money comes in than goes out, that additional money is reinvested in the organization to help it prosper and to grow.
It's a win-win all around.
Support the activity at every level: your favorite corps, your alumni corps, your local show, the regional and national competitions you attend, the theatre presentations, The Fan Network, mp3 downloads, DVDs, souvenir items. Every dollar you spend helps perpetuate the activity.
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I want the designers to be as creative, as "out there," and as ground-breaking as they choose.
The caveat?
That creativity, that "out there" idea, and that ground-breaking theme must be evident through the performance! If none of us "get it" from the stands, then it is lousy design, rather than what I perceive as the top-down thinking that persists now.
I want to love every show out there.
I do!
Official DCP G7 Proposal Discussion Thread
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Just discovered: the video presentation by the G7!