Grumpy
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Posts posted by Grumpy
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Corps members may not particularly like marching in parades, but they are a necessity and a great way for a corps to help the bank account. Why do you think so few (if any) competitive shows are scheduled ON July 4? Many corps will cram as many parades into their schedules around July 4 as they possibly can-even marching as many as 3 in a single day in some cases. Many times, corps that are forced to take a year off from competing because of their finances will still do parades if they have enough members to make a good showing. If you want to see a huge difference in "parade marching styles", go to the parade in Indy that is held on the Saturday of Finals with all the non-finalist corps. The one that got the biggest response at the parade I attended in 2011 was a corps where the members were interacting with the kids all along the route-snare drummers handing little kids their sticks and encouraging them to tap on their drums, and the like. Every parade crowd is different, and even different sections of the same parade are different. Heck, I was in a parade a few years back where the parade had come to a standstill for several minutes, and our horn instuctor called for a "California warm-up" to keep the horns loose-and the crowd around us went nuts! Every corps should have enough songs in their parade book so that the DM can gauge the crowd response and call for tunes that will keep that positive energy going.
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A lot of communities have time limits on how late outdoor musical events are allowed (like Annapolis for DCA Championships). It may have been that the organizers felt that adding more performing units would or could put them past the local time restriction. Atlanta being an indoor venue, wouldn't be subject to such restrictions-or possibly, Atlanta doesn't have such a restriction and therefore the point becomes moot.
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FYI, I noticed today on the DCP headline page that SCV is offering tickets in their block for sale for semis and finals.
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This is not denying anything you just wrote, but crowds at the southern shows have grown or stayed steady over the past several years. It is more than likely because the same groups keep coming back, making the show consistently good, but I guess my point is that they are perhaps shifting nationally. Then again, if crowds are a big deal, why did Empire not just perform at a couple of local DCI shows? The crowds would still find them enteraining. Not sure if crowds are the true probelm...
The only "local" DCI shows that I know of in upstate NY are Buffalo and Rome...and Rome isn't exactly local, it's about 3 hours IIRC. In addition, if either or both of those shows happen to take place during the week, it could have a significant impact on the ability of some members to participate.
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Many corps will buy "blocks" of tickets each year that are usually in the better sections, then sell those that they don't sell to their own alumni/corps' members families/etc. Those generally don't become available until late spring, again check Marketplace on here or contact your favorite corps.
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Maybe lots of fans are just jaded now by the shows, because it is so different than it was in the 70s and 80s. Back then, it was normal to hear a bunch of show tunes, and pop songs fill a show. Now, if the Top 6 came out and said they were doing a 70s style show, I'm honestly not sure if they'd get the same kind of members. I know I joined drum corps to expand my mind and learn about many new kinds of music. If I wanted to do a show based on pop tunes, I can do college marching band. Now most of what we see is symphonic or orchestral works, with a bit of movie or Broadway music mixed in.
And because so many fans have been around for so long, maybe they feel like they've seen everything drum corps can show them, so they don't get as excited anymore. Me, I've only been around since 2003, so I still find tons to get excited by in every show. There is always something in every show to make you clap and cheer, sometimes you just have to look for it, instead of having it handed to you on a silver platter.
Arguably one of the most popular and crowd favorite shows of this past season was Jersey Surf's "Bridgemania" so I don't buy this.
Just sit near a corps staff (any) during their corps' show, they'll key you in when to applaud-as they all do, and rather vocally, even when the rest of the crowd is sitting on their hands. And, IMHO, Madison are still the masters at getting people out of their seats.
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Probably not. If they are spending a billion dollars I'm pretty sure they will design the stadium to be optimal for football, not drum corps.
Now if DCI were willing to pony up 300-400 million for the project, they might get a say-so in the design...
Umm, note to architects-put a drainage system in. For those who know about the debacle with the Oil Can, 'nuff said.
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I think stadium design has a huge impact on the recordings, and it seems LOS is fairly good at swallowing up crowd sound. Good for the recordings, as it means you can hear the corps better, but bad for comparing corps across years. Especially when comparing recordings, you're at the mercy of the engineeers. (See 1995, 1996.)
Of course, show design has changed as well. We've matured from a peak-peak-peak type show to one with many more valleys in there as well.
Also, don't minimize the effect of the shifting audience over the years. As the music has become more sophisticated and the typical marching member is much more now a trained specialist than ever before, these people (and their parents) with a lifetime of concert etiquette are now sitting in the stands. More highbrow, if you will. :smile:/> Trained audiences know when to clap, and can generally hold it in.
Corps bringing down the house still happen, of course, but I think we as fans know when we are supposed to clap, we know the shows will have moments where we aren't supposed to, and ... yeah, that stadium does kind of suck up sound.
Mike
I'm going to expand on the stadium thing here...each year, LOS is progressively trying to minimize the "echo" effect in the dome, and with a lot of sound deadening efforts. While helping to achieve the desired effect, they also mute the noise from the crowd, IMHO.
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Is there anything worse for a drum corps geek to come home and find the dreaded USPS "We'll try your delivery again tomorrow" slip in your door??
Now I know it's here, but tomorrow's Sunday so, POOP!
At least in our area, if UPS leaves that wonderful news during the week, you can drive to their terminal which generally is open for a short time and pick up your package after 7 p.m. on weeknights...I have done this exact thing in the past in order to get my "fix", even though the terminal is a good 45 minute ride each way. I have said this before but I really wish DCI would offer different shipping options than UPS, even if it cost more...if US postal service was used and I had to pick up my package, it's less than a 5 minute trip and Fedex is about a half hour but is on my way to/from work. I have enough negative experiences with UPS to write a book-and I don't get a whole lot of packages delivered.
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No company should bill you for anything they do not have on hand. I have been billed two other times this way and stopped doing business with the firms when they did not fix the problem. One was a now defunct speaker company who had a great sale on a center channel speaker which I ordered and which they promptly charged me for. Then they didn't ship for almost a month. Good riddance.
Now I am going to say that at the moment I am assuming that they "thought" the product was going to be there when they did the charge - I will give them the benefit of the doubt.
But I have e-mailed them asking two questions.
1) If the product is not in, when will it be in and shipped?
2) Do you have a policy which allows you to charge for items you do not have in stock?
We will see if they reply to my polite, but firm e-mail.
Online purchases are quickly taking over as the norm and as such I feel should at least strive to be as satisfying as an in store purchase. Can you imagine if you picked something out in a store and then gave the guy the money and he said, "Thanks for the money, we will be giving you your item sometime in the future... have a nice day."
Let's face it this ain't no $5 novelty, we are talking about Drumcorps! (and I am out $129 bucks!)
Whenever you order airline or concert tickets, your credit card is charged immediately-even if the travel date or concert is 8 or 9 months in the future. Same thing with DCI/DCA tickets-if you ordered tickets for next year's championships, you've already seen that charge show up on your cc statements. With DCI quarters/semis/finals, that's probably approaching $275 per person right there.
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Has anyone received the Blu-ray yet?
I received an e-mail from DCI the week that the standard DVD started shipping, that said the Blu-ray would begin shipping after Thanksgiving. I haven't received anything with tracking information yet, and as of a few days ago my credit card hasn't been hit yet either. FWIW, I ordered mine as part of the FN package.
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Whatever the reason Boston has been shafted. Their home show in August has only 4 open class corps.
Boston's home show each August usually only has 4 or so world class corps. There are usually a couple of open class corps and alumni corps usually round out the schedule. There are generally 7 or 8 corps performing in total. I have a feeling this comes down to primarily two issues...first, money. I was part of a group that hosted a DCI show several years ago, and looked into hosting a DCA show. At the time, the more top corps you had, the more it cost. The cost for corps was based on that corps' placement at the previous years championships. In other words, having Blue Devils and Crown at your show would cost significantly more than having Troop and Jersey Surf. Alumni corps, and in particular Boston's own alumni corps, don't have a huge impact on the cost side either. The second issue is logistics. Where are the corps coming from? The next stop after the Boston home show is Allentown, so depending on where they are coming from it may not make sense logistically for them to go to Boston then on to Allentown. IIRC, many times (though not this year) the Boston show takes place the same night as the first night in Allentown, so in those instances the corps in the Boston show are always corps from the second night at Allentown.
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My order has not arrived as of today and I have not received an e-mail with tracking information. I was concerned because people I thought ordered after me had received their copies before me, so I called. I had a very polite person assure me I would receive my order prior to Thanksgiving and from what I could gather from our conversation, they are somewhat overwhelmed this year with more orders than last year, smaller staff, and that they are doing their best to get the orders out in a timely manner. She also asked if I ordered through the Fan Network. I just clicked what was on the website and assumed it all went to the same place. So my question: Is the Fan Network a separate entity from DCI and do you get faster service?
My guess is that FN orders were probably among the earliest...one of the Fan Network options was to subscribe to FN and include DVD or Blu-ray at certain subscription levels. Many people who ordered with this method most likely did so when they renewed their FN, which IIRC expired at the end of May...so she most likely was trying to determine when your order would have been likely to ship. Unless something has changed this year, traditionally they have shipped based on when you ordered. If you ordered Blu-ray, the e-mail I received yesterday stated those would begin shipping after Thanksgiving.
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I've never gotten an email. They've just always randomly shown up.
I don't recall receiving e-mails in the past, but this year I received TWO-the first was a couple weeks back, and informed that shipments would begin the week of 11/12; the second was yesterday informing me that the Blu-rays would begin shipping after Thanksgiving. I am assuming that the latter was sent because the DCI office was probably getting numerous complaints about orders arriving without the Blu-rays, or people who had ordered only the Blu-rays calling and wondering where their order was. I'm glad for the second one, as I had been wondering when my Blu-rays would be arriving-but in this area, Mr. UPS Man is not the most reliable (wish that DCI gave us the option to use other shippers, but that's a topic for another day).
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Ah, but that's not how they label it. DCI labels it "World Championships" or some such. This little tricky move is how they cover themselves. For instance, take last year's Phantom show, "Juliet." At the finals performance, Juliet takes the sword and puts it through her chest. But if you're watching the standard multi-cam shot, she simply hangs the sword over her throat, suggesting that she's about to commit suicide. But if you switch to the high-cam shot, you'll see that she does actually "kill herself" (you'll also get a better idea of the long, thunderous ovation the fans gave Phantom). Why did DCI do this? I suspect the close-up shot of Juliet "killing" herself is a bit odd/corny, as you would clearly see her shoving the sword in between her arm and chest. So they spliced in the semi-finals shot, which looks better, albeit not as dramatic.
This was covered in another thread...this scene was "ad-libbed" by the corps members and the recording crew had no clue that this was going to take place, and the only angle they had would not portray the "suicide" properly.
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I have asserted elsewhere that the shows should be vetted much earlier,.........but how about a deadline of mid season in regards to the mechanical/sync rights portion, so that the audio/video products do not have to be sliced up post season............something like "no rights by July 15, remove the material"
But then there is still the possibility of what happened in 2008...rights were granted, then rescinded after the finished product had already begun shipping, which caused an immediate halt to the shipments, and an edit to remove that portion before they could resume shipping.
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Phantom, but they'd have to go back to the black unis. Wasn't BD's '95 show "dark"? I could also see Bloo doing a dark show.
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I was kind of surprised that this happened to Revo; I would have thought after 2011 that EVERYTHING there would have been under the microscope. I honestly don't know what the best solution to the entire situation concerning all the rights, but it is clear that DCI needs to draft a policy that the corps can live with, that DCI can live with, and that will give those who are purchasing FN and/or audio and video products a complete product. I recognize that a lot of the rule changes allowing electronics were drafted to "allow designers creative freedom" but IMHO a great designer should be talented enough to design a great program within the parameters allowed. It was done for a good many years before electronics were added to the mix.
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Bush was looking for a DM a couple weeks back, there is a thread in this forum about it. Haven't heard if the opening is still available. FWIW, most DCA corps appear to be having their open house/auditions over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I would pick a couple that interest you and in within your geographic preference and pay them a visit.
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An open class feeder corps? Kinda like Cadets2 but in the open class circuit that would act as a feeder corps for the two corps? That would be pretty sweet for the open class division...
I honestly can't see one of the ringleaders of the G7 debacle (Hop) promoting a new open class corps. If I had to guess, I would say it would involve something to do with Crown Ticketing.
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I don't know if this is still the case, but BAC had held winter camps in Florida and had a pretty healthy number of participants from that area...I heard from some alums it was because, at least at the time, most of their staff and a good amount of the staff's students were located in Florida. This was a few years ago, don't know if their situation has changed. In the spring they had continued their all days in New Hampshire, with the exception of last year because they began tour in CA.
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Does anyone have knowledge of the status of Alliance and/or Brigs?
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I would like to be picked up in the parking lot next to my car by a snazzy electric cart like Blofeld and Dr. No rides around in the Bond flicks in driven by some good looking women in 60's outfits and be served up a frozen magarita while riding to the gate. Jeff's Dad can ride with me. They can hand him his cooled to the perfect temperature adult beverage of choice.
Now THERE'S outlandish. How I come up with this stuff....
I'd settle for a PA system that we could actually HEAR, some stadium ushers who could help people find their seats to eliminate the traffic jam at the concourse exits, and setting up an entrance on the side of the stadium instead of making everyone hike around to the ticket window entrance even if you already had tickets.
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I dated a woman who was a foster parent to teenage girls, and the placement agency asked that I submit to a background check since I was at the house so much and occasionally stayed overnight-and that was over 10 years ago, so this has been on the radar for quite some time. Any corps that does not already do this as a standard operating procedure is living on borrowed time.
RED ALERT. Major Renegades Announcement Imminent
in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions
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