Scerpella

Ok, I asked the thread question originally on May 13th and now with the benefit of the events of the 2009 DCA season behind us, I want to re-pose my question. First of all my understanding is that DCI's product is now HD. Secondly it appears from their website anyway that BVP is a healthy company producing videos for a large number of organizations. About 500 events according to their own site. It strikes me almost impossible that DCA would be the first organization to request their even be done in HD. Interestingly enough, there is a quote on their homepage stating, "The video clarity is one of, if not the best ever of a DCA event!" http://www.bandvideos.com/# A funny coincidence! But surely they are not trying to fool people into accepting that their current format is equal to HD? There are a number of tabs which I tried to use to find out if they offer HD for anyone else but when I tried them they weren't working. I rejoined my old corps the Kilties in mid July to fill a spot that had become empty. Our marketing people arranged to have a semi uniformed runthrough (Kilts and spats and black shirts) filmed in HD. I can say unequivocally that that recording is superior to any DCI or DCA video I have ever owned or viewed, even though it was simply a hi cam vantage point done mainly as an instructional tool. I was able to obtain a copy which I played on a PS3 on my 42" HD TV and the sharpness and clarity was as we have come to expect from HD, in a word as close to perfect as the technology allows. I have also seen the video of our prelims performance provided the corps at DCA right after prelims and the difference is not even close. So I ask my question again, maybe this time someone from DCA can weigh in, will the DCA nationals next year or anytime soon be done in HD? Is this something that has been discussed with BVP or another vendor? At what point will it be decided to dispense with dated technology?

Correct after a month of season is gone, the top 12 is probably 80% sewed up.

My hopes and to a certain extent expectations for Madison are not that they just get better and finish top 12 again. I think bringing on Mason and all the folks with Star and Blast! ties means that like those organizations they are bent on bringing something new and maybe revolutionary to the activity. This is nothing if not a very bold stroke by Komnick and the MDBCA. Theres no guarantee that they will be successful but they have definitely rolled the dice on this. And as such they are facing an entrenched power structure in DCI primarily concerned with protecting their own gigs by being the people who decide what direction the activity will take. This is not a Salas/Cesario appeasement move (and I mean no disrespect to those two) this I think is going to be a game changer, not unlike Bridgemen and Star of Indiana were. This will not be your fathers Madison Scouts. The scary thing about gamechangers is that while they blaze the trails, they dont always reap the benefits of it.

This is a wide angle panorama of Toyota Park in Chicago. It holds 20,000 for soccer which is a bit btter than Paetec.

Great venue, not so great town. 3 restaurants and 4 hotels I think.

I think the Madison ties are only important to those of us who have ties there as well. I believe the organization has looked at things very pragmatically and decided that the tie is mainly historical and location doesnt change anything about the corps or its philosophy. I do appreciate the fact that they are making the effort to strengthen those ties but in the most crucial ways they are taking the path that will result in a better competitive outcome, which I think is only smart. DCI corps have become all star units. Even if the Scouts did move all operations and presence out of Wisconsin, they still would be our corps. Our memories don't change. I dont know if this was addressed in Komnick's PR but during the summer, where will the corps reside after move in day? Madison or Bloomington?

One viewpoint I have heard expressed is that Scouts dont really spend much time in Madison now, so cosmetically at least them holding their rehearsal camps in Bloomington changes little. They will still host Drums On and keep the tie to the city of Madison in other ways. Although in honesty I could see that going away some day as well. They might simply be referred to as "The Scouts". This is a cost of competitiveness in today's DCI.

Well Camp Randall holds 80,000 meaning 20,000-30,000 on the concert side while Paetec holds 13,500 meaning about 4,000 on the concert side. While DCA is not as widely followed in the midwest, there is no way to know what a championship weekend would draw since Madison is what used to be the heart of the junior activity in the Midwest. Point is there are thousands of fans who might consider coming simply because it is happening close by. In reality, moving the Championships to a non DCA city out of the East would be a huge gamble, but if DCA was in a gambling mood, Madison would probably be one of the safer bets. My only complaints with Paetec are as a spectator and the concert side is simply too small and not high enough. So assuming one has found a good city to host DCA in, the next criteria for me would be one with a better stadium. Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus and Toyota Park in Chicago are pretty good options.

Rosander was at Madison and his presence didnt make them a contender.

Knee replacements used to be my business 8+years ago. it is one of the coolest surgeries youre ever going to see.

What about a full-**sed version of stuff they did 15-20 years ago like SCV and Cadets just did in 2009?

Correction Pat, 3 members did not, this a photo (which also appears on the Kelly website) of those of us who did.

Kilties (an almost finalist) Just replaced their hornline over the past 3 years with Kanstul G's.

I thought it was one of the better local news pieces I've ever seen done on a drum corps. For one thing they didn't use the intro that has been used for all such pieces over the past 50 years which always seems to begin "the blare of the bugles and crash of the cymbals" and then the usual referring to the corps as a marching band. The piece did get into the multigenerational nature of the Kilties but I think it would have been a little less confusing to the uninitiated viewer had they simply briefly explained that Kilties perform in an all age circuit.

Didn't Ventures or Les Chatelaines (can't remember which) bring wooden folding chairs onto the field in the early 80's and use them as part of the drill as well? Chairs on the field are not new.

Kilties Featured On TV

I hope the debate is over by now but it seems the differences are clear cut. G's are louder, Bb's tune much better. There have been some great G lines but when you talk good to great Bb lines the difference is startling.

much is being made about closeness to the airport. When did Rockford become a major Metropolis? Rockford is further from Chicago than Madison from Milwaukee if one wants to make it about larger airports. To go out on a tangent here, this to me points out the failure of the activity under DCI's stewardship. I went to school in Madison, I have lived in Wisconsin since I was 10. This is why I joined the MADISON Scouts, they were my local group (I marched in a Milwaukee area corps before Madison) Now DCI has so messed up this activity that people don't have the choices I once had, so much so that a kid nowadays has to be supercommitted to being in one of the rapidly dwindling number of competitive corps which is likely not even close to where they live which involves giving over your entire summer plus lots of money not even including travel expenses to and from rehearsal camps. DCI has created substantial financial barriers to entry for individuals as well as organizations wishing to form a corps. And this is without even getting into what it's caused with respect to whether you can even get in because of the furious competition for lesser and lesser spots. That said, this is the reality. If this is what Madison has to do to achieve competitive success, then it has to be done. So much in the drum corps activity has gone the way of the dodo, including corps being from and drawing locally fomr their host cities apparently. Out of curiousity, has any thought ever been given to creating the facilties right in the Madison area?

Interesting thing that I personally experienced that while in Madison (people not knowing who we were) but if you live in Racine you probably know who the Kilties are. Anecdotally, it seems the 8 out of every 10 people I meet from Racine are very familiar with the Kilties, and Kilties are still the highlight of Racines 4th of July parade, even as a senior corps. And probably half of the current corps are from outside of WI.

Correct me if I'm wrong Jerry, the only rights alumni and interested persons are entitled to in the bylaws are for voting on seats on the board. All other decisions regarding the running of the organization are made by executive staff without outside input.

I do understand your viewpoint, but short of going to a board meeting, this is all the opportunity most alumni will get to opine. Madison's own forum has never been used for these purposes and as I understand is so underutilized Komnick is planning on shutting it down.

If you read all of my comments youll see I pretty much squarely straddle the fence Vince. Frankly the issues brought about by these changes are going to be the same regardless of the corps in question. But you reply begs a question do the advantages of rehearsal facilties trump everything? Like actually having a tie and presence in the community? To elmhurstmusiced as I said to Vince these issues are fairly universal and the idea of discussing these away from DCP seems needlessly secretive. We are a brotherhood, not a secret order. The comments I have read so far are respectful and fair.

Ever hear of this new fangled revolutionary concept of the joke?

I will reserve judgment on this since people want Scouts to regain prominence and there arent many options left, but insofar as the "reality" of national corps makes this an easy decision to make for some, the fact is the city you come from, the weather, the accessibility, the facilities...all of this has very much to do with the identity of the corps. No Green Bay Packers are from Green Bay either but they practice and play there. I applaud the decision to make provisions to make sure Madison Wisconsin members are pursued. But consider this, if youre group has no members from Madison, never rehearses in Madison, only performs once a year there, then at what point does they being the Madison Scouts cease to matter? Is this the price for competitive success? The question then comes at what point will this Indiana based drum corps decide that this pointless allegiance to a place from whence come no members or support doesnt make sense any more and they drop the whole Madison pretense? The question then follows is it important? Does it matter where they reside if they are carrying on the tradition created by 70+ years of young men marching in this group? Seems reasonable until you realize Devils arent moving, neither is SCV, Carolina Crown, Phantom Regiment. They remain an intrinsic part of their communities. Ultimately I trust Chris. It was this or Scouts could have started considering competing in other circuits like DCA. What the effect on the corps and its fans and alumni will be is yet to be known.

Ok heres the truth, in my day after being forced to rehearse naked with only our hands to make sounds that could be interpreted as music we were forced to sleep under a newspaper in a cigar box. We ate gravel for breakfast and were happy to get it. To get to contests were stacked like logs on a flatbed and covered in plastic so we wouldnt spoil and that was an easy day. On normal days we were crammed into old artillery shells and fired at our contests, where we were forced to perform and then ground up and served to hungry drum corps fans in the refreshment stands.