mcjordansc

Hate to see this thread fade away.

The girls seemed a little more worldly than the usual high school fare, if you know what I mean.

Come for the punch and cookies. Listen to the corps warm-up. If I was near Indianapolis, I would show up at four.

Blue Stars sound and look great. I am guessing the guard at the 30 sec mark will be wearing straight jackets or chains. The flag work toward the end was excellent. This is a show I am really looking forward to seeing.

Blue Stars have posted a short video of their drum line. http://www.facebook.com/#!/bluestars

Ugly presentation, but very interesting content. I cannot disagree with much of what I read. Something needs to be done to increase interest in drum and bugle corps and at least a few people had the balls to step up and make a recommendation. I see a lot of people complaining about what the G7 is proposing, but I am not seeing any alternatives. I guess most prefer the status quo which will result in drum corps' continued slide into obscurity.

The Blue Stars have a great staff, but if you look at the corps financials posted at guidestar.org, you will see that they are not "buying" this staff. I would say it was a decision by some very determined alumni to finally go big or throw in the towel. Obviously, it all worked out.

This is such a dumb statement.

That is how it was done in the 70s. The top twelve had a vote and the associate corps (13-25) did not.

Of course that is not what they said, but it makes for good hyperbole.

Sounds like the Cadets take on the Nutcracker. I am sure it will be great.

Being ahead of protections means nothing if we do not know what said projections are or how they compare to previous years.

There will be more information released in the next 24-36 hours.

There may be more support than you think. Particularly if more corps are added to the elite classification.

I have sat in a lot of board meetings. Proposals like this are not made without some idea on how they will be accepted. I believe this grows beyond seven corps and it will be a join or die arrangement. If I was betting, I would wager we see a 10-14 super corps circuit within three years.

I did not say it was a good thing, but, unless the current structure can start generating a lot more revenue, inevitable.

Some of these corps do not have the means. That is why they need more money. They may not exist if this does not happen.

Flame on? My point is these corps are not going to go back to a less complex show - the costs are not going to go down. The G7 believe they hold the hammer and they are now going to use it. Not much fans of drum corps can do. For older fans it is sad, especially considering the corps I marched with seems to be looking in from the outside despite two consecutive 8th place finishes. I will put you in the bitter column.

Obviously, money is a big problem for most World Class corps. We know YEA is not generating the same revenue they did previously. I am guessing the same is true for many other corps. If we go down this road we very likely will see, in the not so distant future, only the seven corps pushing this proposal left as competitive, world class organizations. The rest of the drum corps will either fold or will be part of regional organizations acting as training ground for the G7. The G7 will be larger marching groups, splitting all of the pie between themselves, and, I believe, putting a very high quality, entertaining product on the field. It will not be what we grew up with and will leave a lot of fans of corps not in the G7 bitter and lost to drum corps forever. I am guessing some of the G7 may not survive financially if this proposal is not enacted. If money was not a problem, this would not be considered.

Just about every top twelve corps adds new ending in July.

Blue Stars sound like they are ready for a big step up this year. Maybe it is time to start punching with the top five. If the visual show has comparable improvement, look out.

The clips the Blue Stars have posted to Facebook today sound great. I am really looking forward to the summer.

Charts?

One thing we learned from the Blue Knights video - their lead trumpets do not have range. Never heard anything quite that bad on a football field.

If the moderators of this site or going to be so ultra-sensitive to political talk, then why not create an off topic forum where we can debate such things freely? Of course Che was all for squashing free speech.