hostrauser

It did, but in addition to the lawsuits facing YEA, band directors on the Atlantic seaboard were getting really fed up with the way USBands was being run (a lot had to do with scheduling and last-minute, poorly communicated changes from the stories I have heard first-hand). The NESBA gained more bands in Massachusetts, a group of band directors in Maryland started up their own circuit (MMBA) to get away from USBands, and I believe Cavalcade picked up some groups, too. I think USBands has started to recover under the Blue Devils' leadership, but damage was definitely done to the circuit's reputation.

Somebody get the Bot Spray

They aren't the first. Vanguard went last year. I'm still in "I'll believe it when I see it" mode for their return in 2024.

DCI is broken. How much more proof do the powers that be in Indianapolis need? Two DCI champion legacy corps in two years.

Thank you, this is exactly what I was trying to communicate. My argument is not that "there is no creativity in drum corps any more." My argument is that "wild" shows (like Bluecoats this season) cannot and will not ever win in the current system.

Heh, I realize now there is a potential confusing contradiction in my story: I claim to have not participated as a spectator in the 2023 DCI season yet I reference 2023 shows. Clarification: I watched the Finals performances of the three medalists on The Site That Shall Not Be Named. This is the first year in over 30 that I have not spent any money supporting DCI.

2023 was the first time in over 30 years that I was not a DCI spectator in any way, shape, or form. I didn't go to any shows. I didn't go to Big, Loud, Live in the theater. And I didn't purchase video performances (live streams now, replacing the DVDs and VHS tapes of yore). Because the drum corps atmosphere--not the corps themselves, but the overall drum corps environment--has gotten truly, stiflingly... Boring. 1992 was the year I was introduced to DCI. 1993 was the year I became a super-fan. I think I still have those 1993 tapes memorized. In 1993, the build-up style of judging was only about a decade old. I remember the interviews with Jeff Fiedler and Gene Monterastelli on those tapes, and Monterastelli in particular pointing out the big flaw of the tick system: it was beating down corps trying new things in favor of corps who weren't doing as much stuff but were doing it cleaner. And it really did lead to a revolution in drum corps design. From 1988 to 1992, five years, there were five different champions with five different and distinct styles. And 1993 promised to continue that trend: Cadets, Star of Indiana, and Phantom put out three fantastic drum corps shows that were completely and totally different from one another. It was an exciting era. It was partly because you didn't know who was going to win from year to year, but even more so because you didn't know HOW that corps was going to get to the top. The Blue Devils won in 1994, 1996, and 1997 with three entirely different show designs. Ah, the Blue Devils. So much dislike of that corps and resentment of their recent success from the peanut gallery. To hear some people talk, the Blue Devils are everything that is wrong with modern drum corps. And that's KINDA right, but probably not in the way you'd expect. The 2005 Blue Devils changed drum corps probably even more than 1993 Star of Indiana did, though it's not recognized as such. After that lackluster season (by their standards), the Blue Devils changed. The Blue Devils have the smartest design staff in DCI, have for a long time. 2005 made them re-evaluate everything they did in show design, whether it was a conscious decision or a subconscious recognition of reality, I do not know. But the Blue Devils were the first, the fastest, and the best at recognizing what DCI judges do and do not want, and they simply trimmed everything outside of that from their shows going forward. They found the one major, hard and fast rule of modern DCI judging and had it pretty much locked in by 2007. They've finished 1st or 2nd (by tiny margins) every year since. What is this magic rule that the Blue Devils learned over 15 years ago, that other corps either haven't figured out or refuse to abide by? Simple: THERE IS NO EXTRA CREDIT IN DRUM CORPS. There's no extra credit! Don't do anything you can get away with not doing if you want to score well. Judges want variety of demand and cleanliness, the Blue Devils provide that in spades every season (it's usually the SAME variety of demand... but I get ahead of myself. More on that in a moment). Anything beyond that, difficulty for difficulty's sake, is just going to drag your score down unless you can get it as clean as the Blue Devils. Which, let's face it, you probably can't. Look at 2023. The Bluecoats had, in this idiot's opinion, a lot more visual difficulty in their show. But the Blue Devils were LOADS cleaner. The miniscule spacing and timing problems that popped up here and there in the Bluecoats' show simply weren't present in the Blue Devils' show. And, of course, the Blue Devils guard was near flawless. I think corps feel the need to try to do MORE than the Blue Devils to beat them, but I think it's the exact opposite. They need to do LESS, and make it CLEANER. The Build-Up judging system has fallen into the same pitfall the old Tick system had: it is beating down corps trying new things in favor of corps who aren't doing as much stuff but were doing it cleaner. Full circle. Now, this next sentence will probably surprise you, so I hope you are sitting down. I love the Blue Devils. Seriously. 1994 Blue Devils remains one of my Top 5 shows of all time. I CHOSE to audition for the Blue Devils over any other corps (back when I had that youthful naivete that hid from me just how awful of a visual performer I was). And I love the Blue Devils design concepts. I just wish it weren't pretty much the same thing, year after year after year. The same staging concepts. The same visual elements. The Blue Devils are a truly awesome sports car, but all they do is change the paint job each year. Because they know (consciously or subconsciously) they can't do much else without getting hammered for it. Who's to blame? The Blue Devils? DCI judges? I feel it's kind of a chicken and the egg situation. On one hand, the Blue Devils have heavily influenced the course of DCI judging. On the other hand, many of their design features became mainstays solely due to positive reinforcement from the judges. I would absolutely LOVE to see what the Blue Devils staff would come up with if the judging system gave any signs at all that something different would be acceptable. Even the most recent non-BD champions (2018 Vanguard and 2016 Bluecoats) have strong Blue Devils influence on their design styles. And that's why 1993 and the years surrounding it remain such a fond memory for me. Sure, those G bugles sounded dreadful, and even the top corps made performance fracks that you wouldn't see or hear in ANY finalist corps today. But year after year after year you not only had no idea who was going to win, you had no idea HOW they were going to win. Cadets' style? Star of Indiana's style? Phantom's style? Blue Devils' style? But today, there is only one winning style: the Blue Devils' style. All other styles have been judged and found wanting. Everyone is trapped. Even the Blue Devils. And that makes drum corps boring. ************** "It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it." --Maurice Switzer "Hold my beer." --Hostrauser

I liked this show a whole lot more than I expected to. Quick question, though: who provided the voiceover/narration for this show? He sounds EXACTLY like Clavicus Vile from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (voiced by Stephen Russell).

Blue Devils better than everyone else? Sure, I buy that. Blue Devils nearly a point and a half better than everyone else? Naaaah.

This song just SCREAMS "Blue Devils" to me, especially the horn riffs (uh, horn patch riffs) (first heard at 1:08). "Music for a Sushi Restaurant" -- Harry Styles (yes, the video is a bit weird) Now this one I can see any number of corps doing. This song is a whole groove. "Cynical" - Emei

So. My father passed suddenly on July 22nd. He was 74. Needless to say, I've had a bit too much going on to pay attention to drum corps. There were no 7/23 rankings. There were no 7/30 rankings. There will probably not be 8/6 rankings. And then the season will be over! I thank all of you for your support. We'll try this again next year, God willing and the creek don't rise.

Blood tests, endoscopies, CT scans, MRIs, PET scans. I've had them all. Oh, did you mean the drum corps scores? I enter the results into a spreadsheet loaded with formulas (formulae? forumulai? formica?). Only Wed-Sat scores are considered. The formulas compare the results against prior scoring margins to determine if the scores are progressing in a reasonable fashion of if they are jumping all over the place. Dampening or boosting factors are added to specific shows if they calculate significantly above or below other recent shows. Daily progressions are then calculated to give every corps a score for that day, even if they did not perform. Then I add a dash of magic (or bs, depending on your opinion) to get the final results, and extrapolate the weekly rating forward to guesstimate a season-ending score.

When we last saw our intrepid hero, he was undergoing a battery of tests (some of which involved objects being shoved in uncomfortable areas). On August 1st, 2022 the verdict came back: stage 4 colorectal cancer that had metastasized to the liver. Not the news I was hoping for. I was three weeks shy of my 46th birthday. A large part of the past year has been spent in hospitals and cancer wards having gallons of poison injected into my body. The goal was to knock the cancer down enough that they could perform a bowel resection and remove part of my liver. Seventeen rounds of chemotherapy and one week of radiation later, tests in May, 2023 could not detect any signs of active cancer in my body. We actually overshot the goal: both of my oncological surgeons agreed that surgery was no longer necessary, at least not right now. In June we decided to shut down chemo to let my body recover. My next round of tests is in early August and, if those come back clean, I will officially be in remission. Far too early to say we've won the war, but the first major battle has gone as well as we could have hoped, literally a best case scenario. I thank you for all of your prayers and good thoughts. To the delight of some and the dismay of others, I don't intend on leaving any time soon. So, in the words of Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force: "God has allowed me to live another day, and I'm about to make it everyone's problem." In DCI, everyone is facing the usual perennial problem: how to catch up to the Blue Devils. Forget going undefeated: will Concord even lose a CAPTION this season? Also, while Vanguard is inactive, another corps is stepping up to try to ensure that California continues to have three finalist corps. 99.045 Blue Devils 96.742 Bluecoats 96.517 Boston Crusaders 96.180 Carolina Crown 93.180 Phantom Regiment 92.078 Mandarins 90.711 Cadets 89.567 Blue Stars 88.956 Cavaliers 87.689 Troopers 87.433 Colts 84.440 Pacific Crest 82.923 Crossmen 82.736 Blue Knights 82.571 Madison Scouts 82.121 Spirit of Atlanta 81.582 Academy 79.217 Music City 79.185 Blue Devils B 76.129 Gold 75.215 Genesis 74.731 Spartans 73.194 Jersey Surf 71.011 Golden Empire 68.106 Cascades 67.426 Impulse 66.947 Southwind 66.894 River City Rhythm 66.191 Vessel 64.830 The Battalion 64.468 7th Regiment 63.830 Guardians 61.947 Colt Cadets 60.095 Blue Devils C 59.726 Heat Wave 58.979 Raiders TBD Les Stentors

I think the uniforms look pretty bad when just standing there, but I expect they will look absolutely AMAZING when in motion on the field. And I'm sure Scott Chandler planned exactly for that.

Baloney. That was true 15-20 years ago, when obtaining all of the mandatory rights and coordination licenses was still a fairly new industry, but not anymore. I can assure you that many of the "heavy hitters" started asking for this season's rights before last season was even concluded. And I doubt any of the Top 6 had any unresolved licensing issues after about March of this year. At the latest.

A million in the hole for 2020, the lost year. I've heard that it was higher than that at the end of 2022. I have an anonymous source that says they've whittled that debt down to about $500K, but touring in 2023 would have ballooned it back up to at least $1.5 million.

Source? (I can believe it, I just want to read for myself.)

Yes. The only surprising part of this to me was that Vanguard was the first of the big corps to go under (even if it ends up being only temporary). Unsustainable activity is unsustainable. DCI has spent 20+ years becoming an arms race, and once you add in all the outside factors that can't be controlled, this is the result.

DCP-I began in the winter of 2004, started by an Executive Director with a dream and several corps/players helping to fulfill that dream. The very first shows in the history of DCP-I were on March 1st, 2004. A total of 34 corps competed that day in either San Diego, CA, Willingboro, NJ, or Whitewater, WI. The first winners were The Gladiators, Phantasma and Buena Vista. Twenty-nine seasons (2 per year in most years) later, the final DCP-I season took place in the summer of 2019, culminating in that season's championships in Seattle, WA. The final DCP-I champions were Quiksilver (World), Sparrow Regiment (Open), and Nastalgia Percussion Ensemble (A). During the twenty-nine seasons of DCP-I, over 100 different corps won a medal in any of the three competitive classes. Over the fifteen year run, participation waxed and waned. The COVID-19 pandemic and loss of the 2020 and 2021 competitive DCI seasons were the final nail in the coffin for our fun little side activity. After a couple of years of inactivity and server changes, the amount of work required to bring the custom DCP-I code and databases up to current standards and bring the game online again is simply too big of a demand. We thank all of the players and Administrators who put forth their time and effort into this game over the years. Executive Directors and administrators of the circuit included: STEVE BURSTALL (DCP user: sburstall) - Founder, Executive Director seasons 1-6 JEFF HINTON (DCP user: CincinnatiGloryMello) - Executive Director seasons 7-15 MATT BRIDDELL (DCP user: Galen) - Executive Director seasons 16-23 KEVIN POGUE (DCP user: hostrauser) - Executive Director seasons 24-29 JOHN DONOVAN (DCP user: JohnD) - Drum Corps Planet owner / system administrator / developer Drum Corps Planet International (DCP-I): 2004-2019

Wait? The season's over already? The weeks sure seem to go by fast in the Summer, don't they? Here are the last power rankings for 2022. The championship is the Blue Devils' to lose. I'll be back next year for another set of power rankings, God willing and the creek don't rise. 98.632 Blue Devils 97.359 Boston Crusaders 97.120 Carolina Crown 96.870 Bluecoats 95.232 Santa Clara Vanguard 93.263 Cadets 92.389 Blue Stars 91.005 Cavaliers 90.203 Mandarins 89.657 Phantom Regiment 86.535 Crossmen 85.410 Colts (Top 12) 85.074 Blue Knights 84.162 Troopers 81.060 Madison Scouts 78.345 Academy 78.295 Vanguard Cadets 78.257 Gold 78.220 Music City 76.969 Spartans 76.752 Pacific Crest 76.193 Blue Devils B 75.113 Guardians 74.741 Genesis 73.503 Southwind (Top 25) 72.020 Legends 71.922 Jersey Surf 71.545 The Battalion 70.625 River City Rhythm 70.062 Louisiana Stars 70.025 Columbians 67.534 Golden Empire 67.321 7th Regiment 65.232 Raiders 64.652 Les Stentors 64.485 Colt Cadets 61.591 Heat Wave 55.973 Blue Devils C 55.272 Impulse

Thank you everyone. I will likely be starting chemo later this month, and we'll just take it week-by-week from there. There's no long-term prognosis right now, still too many unknown variables.

The Boston Crusaders look to be an almost-lock for their first ever medal. But what color will it be? They got awfully close Saturday in Atlanta, but all the other shows from the week indicate the Blue Devils are still keeping 2nd place at arm's length. 98.614 Blue Devils 97.685 Boston Crusaders 96.615 Carolina Crown 96.191 Bluecoats 94.420 Santa Clara Vanguard 92.465 Cadets 90.861 Blue Stars 89.557 Cavaliers 88.647 Mandarins 88.374 Phantom Regiment 85.292 Colts 84.727 Blue Knights 84.180 Crossmen 79.184 Troopers 78.975 Madison Scouts 77.789 Academy 77.452 Music City 73.844 Vanguard Cadets 73.589 Pacific Crest 73.389 Spartans 72.710 Guardians 72.350 Genesis 72.150 Blue Devils B 70.013 Gold 69.422 The Battalion 68.333 Southwind 67.658 Legends 67.158 Columbians 66.833 Jersey Surf 66.733 River City Rhythm 65.683 Louisiana Stars 64.675 Golden Empire 62.221 7th Regiment 61.883 Colt Cadets 59.758 Raiders 58.733 Heat Wave 58.433 Les Stentors 53.125 Blue Devils C 52.413 Impulse

Xavier Cugat has some absolute burners, and I'm amazed DCI hasn't tackled "El Cumbanchero" or "Jungle Rhumba" El Cumbanchero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zftkbnDP4MA Jungle Rhumba: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yb9EOYqVScU

Thank you, everyone. I am 45, about to turn 46, so I dutifully went in for my first ever colonoscopy last week... and they found colorectal cancer. I'm young(ish), I feel fine, I'm not showing any advanced symptoms, so we are hopeful that it was discovered early and the treatments will be (relatively) straightforward. I have a lower-body MRI on Thursday and then we meet with the oncology team 8/1 to formulate the plan of attack, so to speak. I will accept any thoughts or prayers from any religion or denomination. Get your check-ups, folks.

Here we go with the latest projections for the 2022 DCI season. If I may, I humbly ask for your good thoughts as I have recently received some concerning health news. 98.893 Blue Devils 97.486 Boston Crusaders 97.331 Carolina Crown 96.491 Bluecoats 95.006 Santa Clara Vanguard 91.707 Cadets 90.595 Blue Stars 89.387 Mandarins 88.681 Cavaliers 87.396 Phantom Regiment 83.930 Blue Knights 83.364 Colts 82.785 Crossmen 80.933 Troopers 78.995 Madison Scouts 77.459 Academy 76.455 Vanguard Cadets 75.645 Music City 75.458 Blue Devils B 74.338 Pacific Crest 72.558 Gold 72.147 Spartans 71.634 Genesis 70.579 Jersey Surf 69.799 Columbians 68.146 River City Rhythm 67.903 The Battalion 65.819 Golden Empire 65.214 Guardians 64.935 Southwind 64.385 Colt Cadets 63.439 Louisiana Stars 59.953 Heat Wave 59.019 7th Regiment 57.730 Les Stentors 57.322 Raiders 52.863 Blue Devils C 52.249 Impulse