Tekneek

I did begin to feel like there is very little variety of styles in drum corps today, as compared to 10+ years ago. They seem to be different shades of the same color to me, as opposed to being almost completely different in the past. I felt like most corps were trying to do some mix of Star 1991 and Star 1993. These shows are written when no reasonable person thinks they will get it cleaned by Championships.

It's true that there aren't many endings that get you out of your seats. I kept hoping somebody would blow my eardrums out and they were holding back. Maybe that isn't the style that drum corps want to have anymore.

If they would drop the vocals during the ballad, the show would immediately improve. If they cut the speaking parts today, the show would improve. If they cut the number of props used in half, the show would improve. Of course that's just my opinion, but I'd call those changes a great start to improving their chances of moving up. I expect Hopkins to stick by the show, though, and ride it right into fifth place in Madison (because I don't think Crown/SCV/etc can pass them quickly enough).

I specifically mentioned the lack of lightning. Even inside the dome, we could tell there was significant lightning and thunder going on outside. Nobody expects a corps to perform or warmup while exposed to the threat of lightning.

No. I am saying that you should design the show as if it could rain any given night during the summer. Planning to perform only in dry weather is poor planning. If your show design requires you to forfeit rainy performances, you can collect your score of zero. If you're really interested in the safety of the performers, you won't design a dangerous show to begin with and won't have to explain any such zeroes anyway.

What kind of fool puts walking on tables in a drum corps show? As far as I can remember, shows have been performed in the rain (even at Finals) and walking up wet tables is hard to do regardless of your footwear. What a dumb idea.

I hated the amp misuse by Blue Stars, Crossmen, and to a lesser degree Capital Regiment. They are rightfully not real close to sniffing at a finals slot (though for more reasons than that). Maybe he meant 15th in the day show, placing them behind both CorpsVets AND Jubal?

If there was no lightning, I don't understand why the show was called. There's nothing about brass, percussion, and colorguard that prevents you from performing in the rain. Quitting in lightning-free rain is for BAND, not CORPS. If your show involves props that could get you killed if they are wet, that's your bad planning and is not anybody else's problem. If your soundboard might kill somebody because it got wet, don't use one if it looks like it might possibly rain at all.

I believe they are the only corps that has a chance challenging BD/Cavies for it. While it is probably not likely, I think they are a legit contender.

It has to be a joke. If it were true, the DCI offices might as well be burned down right after Finals.

Yeah, that is true. It was way too 'busy' out there.

I just got in from the show... I actually wouldn't argue with any of the placements. I thought they were fair. I thought Boston would beat Madison and can't really argue with BK beating both of them. I don't agree with the point spread, because I see them much closer than that, but I buy the placements. With The Cadets show, I tried to have an open mind and I don't 'hate' the show. I think the vocalist, since that is about all she ever does, is totally unimportant and the corps would do just as well by dropping her off at the airport tonight and moving on without her. None of the speaking parts were important to the show and distracted from the performance for me. All together, it was a strange show that was well performed and I feel it is accurately placed at 5th. I could not agree with them beating Bluecoats and don't think Crown or SCV should be beating Cadets. I had been dreading abuse of amplification and was relieved that the Cadets were the only corps at the night show to do it. I thought Spirit was better tonight than in the afternoon, so the score drop must be because they were the first one on tonight and not a reflection on the quality of the performance. After BD finished, I thought Cavies had a great chance to beat them. I didn't see the spread being just .025 though! I think Phantom could sneak in and figure it's between those three to decide the title.

If it helps any, their score was announced as being in the all-age category...so I would guess DCA?

Jeff Wise. Man, would I love to get back in touch with him. It's been a long time. I probably would not have marched at all without him convincing me to come out for Spirit in 93.

They don't really control the pricing of oil, as I understand it. That is handled via the trading of futures contracts on an exchange. I also think this is where they are making the most money, although I have not looked at the balance sheets of the big public oil corporations. As far as I know, very little of the gasoline pricing is handled in a similar way and that may be where the problems are. Also, gas stations that are affiliated with Shell, BP, etc, are forced to pay whatever price BP, Shell, etc, decide to charge them and cannot shop around. The oil/gas companies like to claim that independent ownership of the actual point-of-sale absolves them of the prices, but they set the prices by forcing those owners to buy exclusively from them at prices they set. Then the only control that owner has is what margin he chooses over the price set by the mega-corporation. In general, as the suppliers charge more, I suspect the margins that the independent owner needs to put food on the table get smaller.

I wonder if it wouldn't be more beneficial to have corporations sponsor individual drum corps instead of events. I suppose that wouldn't be as appealing to the beancounters at those corporations, though. I guess they would be happy if every event was labeled with a corporation's name in front of it. That's good for the bottom line. I hate what it has done to things like the college football bowl games, even though nobody is refusing the money that comes from it.

I'm going, along with my sister and mother. My wife has absolutely no interest in drum corps and the kids are too young to really enjoy that big of a show (son is 5, daughter is almost 9 months).

Hooking up with just 3 weeks left on tour? I'd be really picky about who I picked up, if I were them. After first trying to track down any eligible vets who aren't marching this season (for whatever reason) and offering to fly them into whatever town the corps is in.

They also say this is all because of the market and they have no control over the pricing. Of course, they also throw huge money around to the executives (which is strange behavior if the strong performance of the company is only because of the market and not because of anything special those people are bringing to the table - if I were a shareholder I would be very angry about that).

True and it is actually on a CD I bought directly from BD.

Ah. Good. Then the precedent of dropping recordings due to technical issues was set back then, if not before.

When I marched with Spirit, we had a whole lot of cereal, ravioli, and peanut butter. I can't remember anything else (other than the usual fruit selection after shows). Other than our home show where we really ate well, thanks to the alumni, we ate differently than it sounds like the big corps do. This isn't a reflection on the tour moms though, they worked real hard for us and I always appreciated them. We had snack with Star one night and it was nice. I didn't get the idea they were eating like kings, but that they were doing alright. Oh, and one morning I was so out of it that I ate breakfast with Northern Aurora. They didn't point it out and accepted my apologies when I finally became aware that I didn't know anybody that was around me. :)

I hate to make one of those "the sky is falling" type posts, but this incident is just the kind of thing that is going to destroy the activity. With all the firestorm that Star of Indiana generated, I don't think they ever had the influence over DCI that Hopkins currently does. Being able to cover up a disaster like this is an insult to everyone in the activity. DCI should have made it available as usual, perhaps even with a note that there were technical problems. Just for argument's sake, did they do anything to help BD out in 1988 when the soloist had technical performance problems? I can't recall now and maybe the precedent was set back then.

Are you suggesting the activity is taking itself way too seriously these days?

Star 1990