CVQuesty

I used to drive from Baton Rouge to Atlanta for CV. (8 Hours) I got fed up with it and moved here.

Bwaahaahahaahaaa.... It is indeed that Vic.

DCA's schedule isn't finalized until after DCI announces theirs (typically)... THe meeting coming down the pipe will be where those dates get finalized. (vets, correct me if I misspoke there)

That's pretty cool. I wonder if the shade will be distracting, though... ...just looked at some later pictures. It looks like they pointed some lights and eliminated a good bit of the shadows for a nice, even field. It's gonna rock.

In just over 20 hours, The train leaves for Vegas... Be on board for the wild ride!

In the spirit of Southern Unity, I see your bump, and raise you a bippity-boo!

You hear that rumble? The train is leaving for Vegas. It boards at Rockmart High School, Sunday. All Aboard!

Well... (and how do I be diplomatic here but still let my feelings be known)... I liked it the way it was. I paid my money the way it was. It had finally reached a place of normalcy and civility that I really wanted to support.. and now things have gone awry. I paid to support things the way they were because frankly, they were great. My guess is the personell changes are the source... I don't mind trying things... heck, you oughtta see the ^%&*% storm I caused with the new RSS import features on CV's forums. w00wh0! However, I didn't tell everyone they'd be kick/banned/or farted-in-the-general-direction of if they didn't grin and bear it. As paying supporters, you should instead make features available, and encourage us to try it out and then take the time to poll about the desirability of said feature. The bandwidth issue, IMO, is a red herring. Before you cry foul, I'm the webmaster at The Weather Channel and serve up 20 million unique page views a day... I know of what I speak. If you're behind the same router for all your hosting at ev1servers, then bandwidth is not an issue. Based on ev1's router records, they don't load balance connections, so that's a major part of your bandwidth issue right there. If you want to limit bandwidth utilization, turn off images, linked images in signatures, and the like. (more tweaks available at the IPB site in the customer forums). Don't punish us for using the forums as they were designed. After all, there *is* a reason that some have quit coming, and are sad they spent their money now.

BUMP

I'd love to be able to subscribe to a pile of RSS, and not have to come use your bandwidth to root around unless it was completely necessary. Any chances you'll be using the RSS stuff any time soon?

And don't forget... It's just 7 hours to Rockmart. ^0^

:spit:

UdaMan, George. It looks good.

Admins: The CSS that comes with the 2.1 forums has some issues. You actually neeed to open the new CSS they send with the software, copy the whole shebang into the clipboard, and then go to the Admin Control Panel and paste it into the CSS edit page on the skin options. That'll take care of the baclground. Also, double-check your perms on the forum directories. I had these exact issues with the CV board, and that's how I fixed them.

Please tell me their patterns aren't as wild as that shirt from W/S...

We better start prelims at Noon!

CorpsVets -- Post 233 Loganville, GA. They are our supporting AL post, and our spot for parking on away trips. Great bunch of folks. I even joined this year. :)

What's the scoop on housing and stuff? And is anyone coming from anywhere in the Southeast that might have room for a rider?

I have to agree with Geoff. NO training I received in College or High School would've prepared me for what kids are doing on the field today. While both schools had impeccable programs, you just cannot match a large college band's fundamentals program (for example) to that of the Cadets or Cavliers or BD et. al. My high school, while good, just didn't have the program to put me into a Div I. I'm happy there are many more BOA and TOB schools out there, but for every school that participates in one of the big circuits out there, how many hundreds more exist that go to a marching festival or two, and don't compete on that level? I think your argument kind of lives in a competitive band vacum, and doesn't take into account the many thousands of band programs out there, or the many hundreds of thousands (millions?) of kids involved at various levels throughout the country. I mean, I was first chair All-State in 1984-1985 and First Chair Ark-La-Tex the same school year, yet my school didn't compete at BOA, TOB, or any other such competitions. We went to district marching festival (All I's) and SLU's marching festival in Hammond, and that was the marching year. My point is simple. If Phantom turned away 350 sops from auditions (just an example... I don't know the actual numbers), I can't imagine that your premise is 100% accurate that they are *ALL* getting their competitive itch scratched in high school and not marching because their first choice turned them down. Now, multiply that by lets say the top 6, add all sections turning all kids away, and you have thousands turned away that don't march. That, IMO, is the shame.

Which, unfortunately, is a cause of demise of smaller corps, or at least their hurt for membership. These kids go to one of the top, and are told they don't have (insert skill or attitude here) to march Corps X, and instead of going somewhere for a year in the lower Div I, Div II/III, All age, or even parade corps ranks to get their chops up and try again, they just don't march. I don't know whether to call that just a shame or arrogant, but it's definitely one (or both) of the two. You have to learn at some point that you don't always get what you want because there's those out there who are better than you, have a better attitude than you, or whatever. Instead of taking that as a cue to just not do anything, it should light a fire under you to do everything you can to gain the chops to step up to the plate, spend some time training yourself somewhere other than your first choice corps, and then go back at it. The crime here is in the fact that kids would rather not march at all than march at less than their first choice corps.

Lemme think about this a couple days. It certainly has lots of merit, but I need to marinate on it a bit.

And therein lies the problem. Watch closely, you're proving his point. If the cost of touring is prohibitive enough to destroy a corps, one would ask why the touring model requires corps to tour themselves into oblivion. When I originally auditioned for my favorite corps, the dues wereunder a grand, and my family could afford it if I supplemented it with my lawn mowing earnings. (I never did march... lookup my posts to find the story) Today, if my kid wanted to march Junior corps, I doubt I could afford it. (I'm nearly 40, work for The Weather Channel, and own a large home in the suburbs of Atlanta) It's odd that the very reason folks give for having to have things just like they are is because things are just like they are National touring models, while a boon to the fan can be detrimental to the health of your corps. Just because we haven't seen an event to make a tour unfinishable for a corps in recent years (what if Katrina had stuck on July 5th with the accompanying gas prices?), doesn't mean it can't (and will) happen. "Back in the day" as some have put it here, you had local corps with local membership with various local circuits that helped them keep costs down, yet have numerous opportunities to perform. Local communities knew they had a drum corps...they saw them in parades, at the local bingo hall, giving car washes down the street. Rehearsals were at the local school, and all the moms could take part. The local drum corps fostered an environment where the older folks would get together as well (CYO, AL, VFW, Scouting, etc.) to support the group and raise funds for them...support them...have get-togethers for them. It was truly a local community effort, event, family, organization. The *REASON* we are so small these days is indeed money. We abandoned old methods of doing things that made it just a liiiitle bit easier to tour, a liiitle biteasier to perform a lot, VERY easy to build a local booster organization to support your group, and an emotional connection between the local community and your corps. I guess I agree with your statement completely, but draw very different conclusions as to what that really means.

Studio Tan's beef is with DCI. ESPN2 simply took the tape and ran it. If you're going to bark up a tree, be in the right forest, ok? Done! I liked the fact the exposure was there, that's all.

Then they should check the "not for hire" box on the copyright form before they send in their 20 bucks. <**>

It also kind of speaks to the remarkable growth of DCA South, the first region outside the Northeast to be pioneered by DCA, and to receive judges, a regional championship, etc. The area is indeed rich with the Alumni from that era, to be sure.