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Scerpella

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  1. There is great difficulty when alumni criticize their former corps, even constructively because it comes off as personal criticism of people who we know. Now I cannot claim to come from an era of when Kilties did much better (04-10) but I would argue that while competitive success is the ultimate goal, what many of us alumni want is a corps that we can feel put their best foot forward and at at least gave it a good try. And what some of us are reacting to is not necessarily placing but a consistent decline of the competitiveness of the corps for the past 4 years. The problems revolve IMO around the inability to attract sufficient quality members to the group. Solve that problem and the other ones are greatly minimized. 2010 was a seminal year because after it a great many experienced members left the corps, not because of any large scale dissatisfaction but because many of us were simply getting too old to keep doing this. The Baby boomers, who mainly marched in the 60's thru 80's are now heading into their 60's and there comes a time when the average person that age starts to look for different leisure pursuits. With the exits of those folks, we did not see a replacement of them in number or experience so once the core of dependable people was gone, now would be the test of whether the corps knew how to attract new people of identical potential and skill. Unfortunately the answer appears to be no. Repertoires and musical interpretations and visual programs had to be greatly simplified to match the ability level of the corps as a whole which as we said was declining. So you take a corps which already seems to live in 11th and 12th place and now they are 10 points below that. When you get to that stage it seems like massive change is in order. Whatever they are doing isnt working so its time to try something else probably with new people. It seems harsh but where in the world does continually falling short of a goal NOT lead to changeover? For my part, I beleive if youre going to change then go big. The Kilties brand is essentially an Alumni corps brand now. There's no getting around the fact that few see them as anything but a nostalgia group anymore. If it remains the intention of the corps to attempt competitive success in Open Class then the brand has to be changed. And maybe the attraction of a corps whose image of greatness was 40 years ago simply aint gonna cut it anymore.
  2. Puzzling addition to the discussion.
  3. My belief is Kilties need a major reboot. Its time to stop trying to emulate a corps that was once great but that was 40 years ago. I think apart from the Kilt, literally everything should be fair game for change. Kilties as is are not remotely competitive and would have been better in the Sunday morning program. In fact I think there are sufficient people interested in being a part of a Kiltie Alumni corps. But some serious soul searching needs to be done if Kilties are going to continue competing in DCA, especially Open Class. Considering the area they have to draw from (13 million population within 2 hour radius of Racine) some thing is lacking in their recruiting.
  4. The more I watch those videos the more I am convinced this show is going to be blowing the stands down by mid July. The funny thing about complaints about how faithful (or unfaithful) arrangements are, is that if you are my age (57 in one week) and were pretty into Jazz when younger then you might actually prefer some of these takes vs the originals. As far as Don Ellis is concerned, his music was always out of the mainstream Jazz movement. I dont even understand why Bulgarian Bulge is even considered Jazz to be honest. I thought I was at a Greek wedding! Remember too that dress rehearsal videos of Crown were not very indiicative of what this show would become. Disappointment regarding Fanfare for the New is understandable. The original version which was pretty faithfully followed by Argonne was pretty booty kicking, I'd say a song that was among the best in lending itself to our activity. But stop for a moment and imagine what would happen if they did stay faithful. Some of us dinosaurs would be happy, but then we'd be POed because the judging community would say "been done" and that would be that for GE. As for the guy who said the book was easy, sorry but it is clear you are suffering from MDS (Madison Derangement Syndrome). The question is whether they will be able to play this difficult music with aplomb. On first viewing I would say signs point to yes.
  5. There are people who will say the same things about Madison year in year out regardless of what the actual facts are. "Their book is easy" is one that I read a lot. its simply not true. This year with all the Don Ellis and Stand Kenton however, that cannot be said in any case. Fanfare for the New is a truncated version of the one us oldsters are used to, as played by Argonne and Guardsmen, but then they get into Bulgarian Bulge, Nine Two, Open Wide...this is NOT easy music. I will add something about the concept of easy music. Much of the real hard stuff over the years in DCI has been played (purposely) when the horns are standing still. Its really as though we have gone back to the days of Stop time Concerts. This is not to say some difficult stuff hasnt been played on the move.
  6. Posted last night... I am just leaving East Troy momentarily but I thought I would share some general impressions about Madison's dress rehearsal tonight. First of all the field was a swamp so they were not able to perform the whole thing marching. What they did was perform two of the tunes and then arc up and play the whole show in standstill for the crowd. This hornline has in a word, balls. You need them to play this book and to be honest they were still playing a little hesitant tonight probably due to the bad field conditions and the fact that the first time you put on your uniform everybody looks the same and you lose track of who you used to use as your guide points. The coordination between percussion and brass was a little shaky in the first tune due to the natural difficulty of a tune like Fanfare for the New. But in all the hornline sounds very strong for so early in the season but I am also excited about how they will sound once they are confident in their own feet. My complaint with Madison the last few years has been great beginning, great end, forgettable middle. That is not the case this year. There is something going on at every moment to hold your interest and when they get into some of the straight up Don Ellis like Niner Two they really start to cook. Battery and front ensemble seem relatively solid but since they are not my areas I can't really get a proper read. From a visual standpoint the stadium only had 15 rows so there was no seeing pictures tonight. That will have to come from some reviewer watching them from a higher vantage point. Videos are available on my Youtube channel DanS24106 (I dont remember if DCP allows direct posting of YT videos anymore)
  7. Dress rehearsal for Madison tomorrow night. Pictures I'm sure will be up like lightning!
  8. Probably because of it being Madison's 75th, I ended up going to 6 performances this year including all three DCI Championship rounds, more than I've gone to in many years.. I have to say that my mind has been brought around as well at least partially. The corps seem to have found the "sweet spot" for Amps and singing and being in Lucas Oil brought out a deep rich sound like I've never heard before. I readily attribute that to the presence of synths on the bottom, but the brass sound just gets better every year and while I think g's produce more sound, I'm over it now and would prefer the beautiful much better tuned and balanced sound of a Bb line. In fact G lines are becoming almost unbearable for me to listen to now. I'm still of the opinion that the activity has been co opted by a few powerful figures for their and their own groups benefit and that it is leading to the eventual melding of DCI into the Marching Band world, but I cannot deny the music is so much better now. In fact I find that I dont even need to see the visual anymore, audio recordings are sufficient.
  9. Someone certainly will always enjoy what DCI is peddling, but it seems that more people were enjoying years ago before they took it in this direction which by the G7's own reckoning, is not working. I presume because thousands of legacy fans disappeared over the years which each new self serving change caused.
  10. In its present form, no. But thats what they are threatening anyway.
  11. One of the things I have stated over and over again in my periodic rants about DCI over the years was that for a long time now it has not been about the activity but about protecting the lucrative gigs of a handful of people in the activity. I think its safe to say that opinion is being confirmed by the current goings on. They created a model that only they prospered from, which worked to the detriment of the activity as a whole and now after essentially running DCI through a titular sanctioning board, they are trying to make the ludicrous assertion that it is not them who have been running things at all and brought the activity to this pass. Frankly I believe DCI should expel Blue Devils, Cadets, SCV, Crown, Bluecoats and Phantom and go about the business of rebuilding the activity into something the fans can enjoy again. The previously named corps would be free to go pursue financial rewards for their managers under the guise of a youth activity, but at the same time its clear their 501-3© status should be revoked. DCI has to be reformed into an organization that rules out suiciding itself in pursuit of goals that are not the interests of the most amount of participants and fans. Get out the professional pageantry folks now.
  12. This whole subject is very confusing. If a HS band for example purchases an arrangement, they dont have to purchase rights on top of that to perform it. How is this different? Why couldnt a drum corps buy an arrangement of the tune they want to perform and that be that? Does altering it somehow make it now require further rights? On the Synchronization side, how is it for example that anyone can go on YouTube and perform someone elses work and get millions of views? How do those same people create iTunes accounts where they sell their versions of these tunes and not have to pay hefty royalties to the original artists?
  13. This is a general question then, addressed at no one about no one but obviously based on this discussion. If someone is accused tried and convicted of a sexual offense. Serves their punishment and completes their probation but because of the laws regarding this offense must continue to register wherever they live and work, and assuming they have reported their status to the corps, the venues they are in and DCA......why isnt this good enough? I am leaning back towards Peashey on this.
  14. Forehead slap...doh!! That kind of cuts to the heart of it, great point. But....the issue here is not the matter of policing but the nature of the offense, and when it was perpetrated. DCA has no power to direct individual member corps as to who they can allow to join, but they can (and in this instance must) respond when a unit is accused of behavior that might jeopardize the organizations ability to conducts its championships.
  15. People have been done in by false accusations was my point. In fact the mere false accusation could kill someones teaching career. I am not making any point about the person in question however. Mainly I am just noting Jeff's hard line on this when he could as easily be in this persons shoes.
  16. I truly dont get this answer. You admit you were under suspicion yourself from a false accusation. It doesnt occur to you that the person in question might have been a victim of the same thing? From where I sit the difference between the two of you might be that you were able to get out of it and he wasnt. One wonders where this righteous certainty comes from on your part Jeff. It seems to me Tom's answer is the probably the only one possible. We have a justice system, and provided that person follows those dictates, then it is up to the individual corps.
  17. Yeah cheap shot on the altar boy thing. Its kinda gratuitous to be honest. For the record the actual number of priests involved in the sex scandals is roughly equal to the percentage of men involved in pederasty in the general population. It's no badge of honor, but I don't like the idea one would so summarily disrespect a great experience I had growing up and being an altar boy ( and NOT being abused) http://www.thedailyb...7/mean-men.html
  18. fair enough, then how do we deal with others in our activity who have prior criminal records other than sex related? We know theyre there. Perhaps its time to come up with a policy the deals with all of it. And while we are at it, how do members in DCA corps deal with activity currently going on which is known to be unlawful, such as smoking weed?
  19. Anyone who has been involved in the activity for any length of time is aware of incidents of improper behavior between staff and membership, some occurring at the highest levels. There are more than a few people who have served jail time for this from both the juniors and seniors. The first question is whether this happens in a higher proportion in drum corps than it does in education in general. Based on my own anecdotal observations and the stories recounted here, probably not. Second question is what the activity is going to do about it. Given that drum corps staffs are not typically vetted in the same way a certified teacher is since they are private organizations without any certifying body, the question then becomes should they start?
  20. You know about 25 years ago I was watching some program which talked about innovation and they brought on a guy who was wearing an electronic drum kit which had pads at about the same level as multi tenors and snares, and then what looked like a roll cage around him which had various bars and pads on it that he hit like (and sounded like) cymbals and other electronic percussion patches. He specifically mentioned DCI and this was 20 years before there was any amplification or electronification in the activity. (It was already in the band world) So he had his electronic percussion set, but he carried and wore it and could march with it. So why not go to synth keyboards and get these players marching on the field with them? I just wonder how long before Blue Devils or Cadets decide its time for this and the measure get passed through DCI? There already are synth vibes and marimbas that are played by striking as well.
  21. When one considers the investment it requires to own and transport 6-12 full concert keyboards for use by the front ensemble, (as well as various other aux perc equipment) why hasnt anyone seized the initiative and simply gotten rid of them in favor of electronic keyboards? If they need to be amplified, why not cut out the middleman and simply use a few Korgs or Yamaha keyboards out there set to xylo and marimba sound (and whatever else)
  22. It seems to me since I got my smartphone, I have at least twice entered a numeric code which I sent to someone and am supposed to get the show scores, but it has yet to happen. Anybody help me please?
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