wolfgang

I saw a Reddit thread that a number of seats at the stadium are damaged and will not be fixed by next weekend. Some people will be moved. Is it time to find another venue for a big eastern show?

Just pondering how AI would handle non-linear design contexts... Tell me how AI would judge a PDQ Bach-type of show using parody or humor, especiaaly if within the arrangements or drill? What about a non--humorous section where the guard chucks their flags, usually near the end of a show? Is that a mass ensemble error to an AI? Trombone glisses are way overused, but how would an AI handle this type of pitch bend (pitch bend? Bluecoats?) I cannot think of a corps example of this, but I've seen enough Penn and Teller to know deception/sleight of hand can be very effective, including what appear to be mistakes that are part of the act, and get resolved when the "trick"happens. Drum corps is not a magic show, but a top corps could try a design sleight of hand that appears to be wrong until the payoff. Would AI "get it" like a human would? On the other hand, if AI could not judge scatter drill and forced corps to do more actual drill with what we used to call forms, maybe it wouldn't be so bad...

Can you figure out the illogical reasoning in the bolded statement?

Any remaining assets or the Glassmen name? Is there still a non- profit with the Glassmen name?

I think she shook it off and kept on performing. Back to drum corps, was it in 1985 Garfield's mello soloist got stung right before the show and had a challenging run?

A news story mentioned TaylorSwift accidently swallowed a bug during a recent Chicago concert. With this as the inspiration, what drum corps-related bug stories can you share?

New Bills stadium, natural grass

So what's wrong with Mars?

Maybe this has happened before and I forgot, but the same weekend as Finals, NASCAR and Indy Car are both racing at the speedway, with the Indy Car race Saturday afternoon and NASCAR on Sunday, both on the road course. Back in the day, the Brickyard 400 would get crowds rivaling the Indy 500 until people figured out stock cars aren't a good fit for that oval. Anyway, it goes to show how things change. From 1994 until early 2000s hotel rooms would have been booked for the race, now DCI is a larger out of town draw. I'd guess most spectators at the race are within a 6 hour drive.

On the all-age forum, somebody posted that the "DCA E" Board (not sure what E means) has voted or is voting to move DCA Championships to Indy in 2024 and 25, to be held during the day on Saturday. If legit, how this would work with SoundSport and drum battle also held during the day on Saturday, albeit a few blocks away? Would this be Finals only, or would a prelims be held maybe Friday morning before DCI SemiFinals (would have to be completed so Semis could begin at 2 if the same DCI schedule is used, or held at another venue). One tangent item from such a collaboration which may play into the early season schedule is possibly more regional performance opportunities for shows with eastern DCA corps and say, Jersey Surf, Spartans, 7th Regiment, Raiders, and if early season before the World Class corps head to San Antonio, maybe even Boston and Cadets (and/or Bluecoats since Canton is near PA). A show of 3-4 JR corps and 4-5 DCA corps in PA, NY, or NJ in late June or early July would probably draw very well. If someone is just making things up, ha ha. If there is something to this, thoughts? This would really change the season outline for the all age groups (if legit).

They moved from Hutchinson, KS to Texas, maybe the DFW area but still couldn't make it work. I'd be interested to know what decisions led to the situation where they folded. Side ?- for their 1987 WSS show, is it true the corps wearing separate colors were apart in the drill when the Tony and Maria characters were separate and together when T and M were together? Who wrote the drill that year?

Here's the difference: Amplifying only the top players is an artificial sound enhancement of an acoustic sound. Telling your freshmen 3rd trumpets who cannot technically handle the unison 16th note feature run to sit out is not. In theory, a field judge near where the feature is playing would have an opportunity to catch some of this. This is no different than having a symphonic band with a technical passage have weaker trumpets sit out a passage at contest/festival. That is not optimum, but it is not an artificial enhancement or addition to an acoustic sound. Regarding the last sentence, not at all the same thing. You're trying to conflate adding something that isn't real (artificial amplification of acoustic sound using electronic means) with subtracting something that was never there to begin with (kids who cannot technically handle the part and likely weren't playing it anyway).

Espn story Nashville just approved funding. The stadium will cost over 2 billion. I'd guess the rental would too expensive be like Atlanta, but if DCI still exists when ift's dome, along with the park they may build on the existimg site, it would be a cool venue. OT, didn't someone do a study that showed these publicly-funded stadiums are almost always net money-losers for the cities that build them?

I took the words you yourself typed and demonstrated RCC did not get the only perfect 20 "of the entire competition." Back to the issue at hand: Let me ask- suppose the judge hapoened to glance down to write a comment on his tote sheet at the moment the fall occurred, thus he did not see the fall. If for whatever reason the fall was simply not seen, there would not be anything to fault based on what the judge saw in that case. Perhaps the judge did see it and still gave the mark, but there is the possibility the fall was simply not seen.

Actually, a group got a perfect score in GE visual in PSW. If we include the prior week, 3 of 4 GE judges gave the Bride(s) of Frankenstein a perfect score.

At last night's WGI Percussion Independent World Finals, an interesting scoring anomoly occurred. This could happen anywhere in the rankings, but just happened to occur at the top. Here's the recap: PIW Recap They use a double panel for Championships. Notice that, of the 8 judges, 6 had the second place group ahead of the winning group. One of the two that had the first place group on top only had a margin of a tenth. The other judge, however, had such a margin that his spread flipped the outcome. Now, the DCI question sprimging from this example- Has there been a situation like this in DCI where ome judge was not only at odds with the rest of the panel, the spread in his/her caption flipped a placing? It may not necessarily be for first; has it happened anywhere in the order? It would be demoralizimg if this type of spread kept a corps out of Finals.

Good to know they plan to come back. I doubt they'll ever hit the field. Refer to the thread title. Director or not, the fact that someone on their board couldn't be bothered to post something says volumes about lack of leadership.

With the SCV news, here's another corps that will not be performing at DCI Quarterfinals this year. You've heard of the Louisiana Stars? Up and coming Open Class corps that I've felt could make the next competitive move and be a World Class Semifinalist as Guardians accomplished last year. In checking the dci website out of curiosity, I noticed there are a dozen Open Class corps signed up for Championships. What caught my eye was a corps called Eclipse from Indianapolis entered that was not shown the last time I check the entries. (Was there an announcement about this new corps? I did not locate their name on entry lists for any other Open class shows.) Remembering there were a dozen corps the last time I looked, that meant someone was missing. Who was it? Aha, Louisiana Stars. A check of the Open Class forum shows them seeking a Director several months back. Otherwise, nothing. Reddit has a couple of threads from potential members but nobody had heard anything from them. It's as if the corps just disappeared into the ether. Even if folding or taking a year off, just disappearing from the landscape is no way to run a corps. This type of move alone is indicative of a clueless Board on a number of levels. Finally, if we're cutting costs, I have to ask what's the financial justification for having a dozen OC corps have a Prelims to eliminate nobody, then perform again the following night? DCI could do a seeding based on prior OC shows (with Eclipse going on first if there are no other shows for them), and make it a one shot deal.

When did corps transition from a single bass drum to multiple basses of different sizes? Same question for tenors.

If DCI's fortunes ever improve, the Titans announced their stadium will get artificial turf to improve safety (you read that right). If DCI ever wanted a change from Murfreesboro at a pro venue, depending on stadium rental, this opens a new possibility.

For percussionists- In your opinion, what is the Gold Standard for bass lines within DCI? Which corps/year bass line stands out among everyone else?

Yesterday, my wife and I walked through the Convention Center in Indy. Unbeknownst to us, a huge cheerleading competition was going on. The entire place was filled with the what looked like kindergartners through high school kids in their various cheerleading outfits. Doing some research, this was an event put on by Varsity. It has been posted there was some discussion about this group taking over SoundSport. Out of curiosity, I checked the competition website. Here is the performance schedule (49 pages long!). I did not count the total # of groups, but they used up 5 exhibit halls and the kids were performing in 3-minute increments. https://www.varsity.com/jf/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/JFCSN_PerformanceOrder_SPECTATOR_FINAL2.pdf I'm not familiar with Varsity, but a gut level reaction is as a drum corps fan, I would want no part of this organization. For comparison, I know DCI, BOA, and WGI each have their issues, and each has expenses, but I don't feel like those organizations are quite as much of a cash grab as I felt yesterday walking through what felt like a commercial cattle call. Again, nothing concrete, just a gut-level impression. Can anyone explain why Varsity should or should not be involved with DCI and/or Soundsport?

Copied this from dci.org corps updates, under Soundsport section. Since they call themselves a corps, hopefully they can develop the right way and become a full-fledged Open Class corps some day. We need all the new corps we can get (as long as responsibly managed). The brand-new Boise, Idaho-based Gems Drum & Bugle Corps hosted its very first rehearsal camp in early January. The team posted a highlights video recapping the historic event.

Hey, let's get together sometime. I've got something to show you that you'll really like :)

The "creative process" canard is weak minded. You can be creative as you want within the limits of the rules. DCI became popular by corps performing innovative shows within the parameters of the rulebook.