CasualFan

Not the current administration but Forte's original corps director had been deeply involved with at least 2 if not 3 DCA corps that have folded/gone inactive. I am not at all surprised this happened. I never understood why DCI approved his association with a corps considering his prior failures. I guess all they could see was another corps in the lineup. This is NOT meant to reflect poorly in any way on the current administration of Forte.

Well, I hope that your kids don't have cystic acne like myself and most of the males in my family. I took an Accutane treatment as a teenager and the only side effect that I had was very dry skin (it was extremely painful to take a shower in our very hard water). The good news is that it helped with the acne and while I still get it occasionally (25 years later) it's not too bad. Unlike one of my cousins who, after having 3 treatments, still gets acne the size of quarters all over his body. That being said, I don't understand doctors who prescribe it for mild cases of acne that usually go away after puberty.

Hopefully, only the G8 shows.

Oh dear, poor Southern California. Now they will have to start band booster programs like the rest of the country has for the past 20-30 years.

Was checking out the schedule for Open Class corps and it seems to me that this year they have a little more access to World Class shows. This lists shows the number of World Class shows each corps is attending and their total number of shows not counting championships. I had to guess somewhat on the West Coast corps because I don't know if the shows sponsored by Mandarins and Pacific Crest are considered Open Class or World Class. I went with Open Class as the only WC corps at those shows was either PC or Mandarins. On average, most OC corps are performing 50% of the time in WC shows. While I don't have the figures from previous years, my impression is this is more than before. 7th Reg 4/9 BDB 3/12 BDC 3/7 Blue Saints 6/12 City Sound 2/6 Colt Cadets 11/15 Revolution 5/11 Genesis 4/10 Gold 6/8 Impulse 3/7 Legends 10/15 Les Stentors 0/7 Music City 6/8 OC 6/12 Platinum 3/11 Racine Scouts 5/10 Raiders 4/5 Revolution 14/20 Spartans 3/10 Thunder 4/8 SCVC 4/13 VK 4/8 Has Revo been promoted to WC and DCI didn't tell anybody? But seriously, they are competing in more shows than Jersey Surf, Mandarins, Pacific Crest, or Academy. Wasn't it just two years ago they were suffering from budget problems? And now, they are pretty much doing a WC tour.

What would keep him from bringing in people from Cadets1 to fill out Cadets2 for Championships? Yes, I am aware that it probably wouldn't happen, but we've all seen what he does, when he gets desperate for control and power. Personally, I think that if DCA is going to let a DCI organization compete in their circuit, the competing corps should have a minimum age of 22 to keep this situation in check. In other words, it would be a way for age-outs to continue with the organization. Feeder corps under the age of 22 already have a circuit, DCI Open Class.

This is the problem, now though, there is not much difference, if any, between a top notch marching band and a drum corps. I remember watching the Inauguration Parade and the unit that impressed me most was, I believe, a middle school marching band, not the Colts nor the Cadets. DCI corps have lost their focus when it comes to precision excellence. And then, of course, you have the rampant attitude of the members that parades suck so their performance sucks as well.

The only new thing I see on the list is the pre-show entertainment. Sounds a lot like watching warm-ups in the lot Back in the day, it was called trooping the stands DCI does this at the regionals As mentioned before, OC's Volcano Score and this was done at the Las Vegas show. Umm...retreat, anyone? Aren't these are the very corps that wanted to limit their performance time, so they could practice more or leave for their next stop earlier?

Good thing it isn't being held at Boise State!

That sucks. If you see someone from Box 5 you might want to let them know that the webpage to order the DCA DVDs is blank/not loading.

No video clips this year?

Well, I must be getting old, cuz I don't remember them ever doing a webcast that wasn't scheduled. I know that at least twice the last two years they put up VOD from a show that wasn't on the schedule.

I don't know exactly what you mean by outside groups but Box 5, DeMello Video, RawTV, and Tom Blair Productions are all independent of DCI and they are the ones that provide the show/official videos. I would think it takes much advance preparation and a stadium equipped with high-speed upload capabilities for a streaming webcast as opposed to filming and then uploading for VOD.

You can expand the date range to include a full year. When you do that for 2007, it shows PR in third place but BK in 6th and 7th places and BAC in 8th and 9th.

I'm sure that DCI has $50,000 sitting around to spend on professional grade video and audio equipment. Plus the fact that even if DCI owned the equipment, it still can't be in two places at one time.