wishbonecav

Feelings of duty to one side can sometimes supercede the feeling of responsibility to the other. 65 people staring at you from 5 feet away versus answering one guy's phone call. Gut wrenching because either choice sucks.

Dave, we probably dont deserve that information, but as bystanders and concerned drum corps family members, it is sincerely appreciated. I have a feeling that ship has already sailed on any white knight agreement. Only you can clarify that and a PM on any alternatives would be appreciated. I already reached out to the other side. Where others may have been irresponsible in their recent rhetoric, your rather complete description of the matter is cathartic to a large degree. I offer my apology on the situation..."sorry things didnt work out"...on both sides.

There's a few blurred lines in the equation that make it a little less cut and dried in terms of conversation,but no less cut and dried when it comes to debtor and creditor. Your point is taken, for sure. Feelings and business are not a good mix. The raw edge is the potential for losing another drum corps; which is really a separate conversation. As soon as i hear word from the corps, I'll share my thoughts.

The tough pill to swallow in a repo action is the pennies on the dollar thing. Selling horns worth 20 for 12 sucks. If there's any way to keep the asset, that makes the most sense. If the corps needed a fresh LOAN to get out from other this current LOAN, then a benefactor is more likely than a list of small donors. The horns could collateralize a new loan, so the risk there might be pretty small. Like lenders, donors dont want their contributions going down a black hole, either, 501c3 or not. I did contact the corps director and asked for more details. I suggested an escrow-type account for potential contributions that had a refund clause should the goal not be reached and the property siezed and sold anyway. I'm waiting on a reply. It's not a million dollars, but it is significant. Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul might by some time, and keep the horns, but to what end? An eventual return to this spot down the road? Or a repayment plan that makes sense? What you see of the iceberg is usually a sign of bigger stuff. Nod to those that gave 'em a break on going to DCA. Those that understand that DCA members pay their own freight all weekend and have some insight on the money-share know that the corps probably netted positive on the weekend. Even if they ran a loss....keeping the corps as a going concern would have been to their benefit in seeking new funding, from any source.

So if xxxxx and xxxxx can make beer a part of their I&E act (those of you that know, know) isnt it ok for their adjudicating brethren to do the same? I say: YES (limit 2). It might be just the tonic to get through 22 snare solos that all sound about the same. It's not a school function. We're not, like, twelve doing an all-county band audition; there's nothing on the line except bragging rights. It isnt, like, life or death. Is it? Remember when it was waaaaay more fun to be a grown up around grown ups? We got to have our own, you know "adult fun" and not have to worry about setting a perfect example for "the kids" but actually let our hair down among friends for a few hours. My Canadian friends are good examples of havng this concept in their wheelhouse. One of them plays a mean mellophone.

and let the inmates run the asylum. "they" isnt all the mini corps...its like TWO people. still not about tapes. But tapes rhymes with grapes. ($1 to JaM) and grapes let out a little 'wine'. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (I can just feel the (+1) coming!)

so it's like a handshake fee. i see.

Standard judge fee: $200-250/per $750 / 7 corps = $100 bucks per. Standard Mini Corp judge fee (performed on a volunteer, "sure i can do that" basis as a nice favor among friends, colleagues): 0 $0 / 7 corps = $0 1 cassette tape and recorder from the bottom of the closet? FREE 1 request "hey, can you make us a tape?" FREE Mini Corps as a fan focused event: FUN Mini Corps as a contest focused, look at me, gimme, gimme, gimme event: Not as fun. Any event that has a 105 ceiling as a record score is not meant to be so "legit" but for in a certain tongue in cheek kinda way. It takes a certain maturity and certain sense of humor to bond with that kind of mindset and let it be ok. One where its allowed to be something less than super serious and still be cool. Call it a California mindset (which actually starts just West of Ohio, if you can believe that.. shout out to JB, JT, BS, SP, and MC) That's really what made it fun in the first place. I suppose if one get's to their 40's and hasn't quite achieved their younger day goals, that kind of mindset is harder to understand or adopt. I'd hate to go to the grave sad because I didnt win mini-corps at DCA. Or didnt get the judges feedback that i needed to somehow justify my drum corps existence. Yuck.

Random MINUSES are kicking the snot out of my rep score. Yet...no comments or feedback....just MINUSES!! My applause meter did better than my last post. Apparently there is some support for that. Time for me to LOOK! Another ONE! (and what does Removed political comment mean? )

I got a minus. I hate that. Which part? The I&E showcase, the "announce only the winner", or the big party at the end with beer? Me thinks I just solved a BIG problem with announcing only the winner. Just another "it came to me from afar" as a result of our good dialogue. Jay solved the tape recorder thing, too. Good talk.

I & E showcase; audition by video, selection committee, acts scheduled on same slate as mini-corps, huge crowd, maybe you get a score, maybe you don't (maybe just announce the winner...Fran could create the tension), standing-o's guaranteed if you do it right, big party at the end with beer.

PAUSE BUTTON Let's put this on the back burner a few minutes and see if there's a way to help Bob and the Bushwackers. Let's NOT talk about the Bushwackers here...start a new thread if you feel compelled. We'll stay on topic....but let's pause a few minutes to each make a personal decision re: their fundraising effort.

So will Star. Money bet that if you sent them the "new" rules, they'd say something like "cool" and come up with some material to fill the bill. Scaled back or scaled differently doesnt mean it goes to hel l. You (anyone) can still play flight of the bumblebee within the parameters of the contest.

"Let's have some fun!" Up close and personal....it's a freakin' love fest and not a whole lotta 'nuance' if you know what i mean Skyliners didnt need a sheet or a tape to tell them what to play. The audience has a 6th sense that tells them very quickly if the group in front of them is there to play for them or play for themselves. Let me be clear, and my posts from back in the day support it: Star always ALWAYS showed up with a gift. That's why the audience showered them with love. Same with MCL. Same with Sky. If you were busy performing to beat Star, win the contest and receive recognition for your talents as a first priority, as opposed to having those things come naturally after adopting an audience-first, gift-and-offering approach, its no wonder there's so much frustration...you didnt win and the audience didnt buy it. I guess the sour grapes thing started about 5 years ago... http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php/topic/117922-star-united-and-the-finals-exhibition/ http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php/topic/130209-mini-corps-review/ 24 pages of nonsense because i dared like Star and love Mini Corps. If we don't get it right in a hurry, we are going to screw up a good thing.

Because its all about you. "uninformed opinion" and hot air. If you dont get blanket support or your opinion gets challenged, the strategy is dismiss or discredit the other guy with a little name calling. JAM's uninformed :) That's cool. In all the posts you've made, the audience is the afterthought as we are now very busy "leveraging feedback" from 3 judges to decide what to perform; Somehow that supplants the instant feedback from 2000 'judges' who let you know pretty quick if what you did hit the mark. Pick another name for it, please, because it isnt Mini Corps at that point. How about Class B? A smaller version of the same stuff that's on the field...Open, Class A, Class B. Mini corps will play at the dock. The Class B Championship will be at the stadium...on a 60 x 60 or larger field with full drill, critiques, tapes and therapists on hand. This was Mini Corps...check out the last minute of each... http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=12769846622064607 Music on stands! Good charts with enthusiasm and everybody freaks out at the end. These guys leveraged feedback from the AUDIENCE. Big difference. You show up with a sense of gratitude (a place to play) and an offering (your gift of performance) and it comes back in spades (babies thrown over long distances). You show up with a list of needs and wants...suddenly the spirit of the thing kinda changes. Maybe its a good idea that got maxed out and now the heyday is gone. I'd like to think that the lightning in a bottle can be recaptured...call me crazy. The real argument isnt really about tapes...that isnt going to bring out the fun or the corps that left the contest back around. If it is...let's do tapes. The argument is about the spirit of the contest and fun. Get those right and all of a sudden they'll be beating down the door to get one of the time slots again.

Its becoming more and more apparent as the thread goes on.

Whaddaya mean NOBODY???? (And the tape recorder comment is a riot!)

This is a gimme: Cadets Millenium Celebration, Troopers 1984 or Velvet Knights 1988. "Much more" for the rookie? Millenium is super familiar, Troopers '84 is non-stop idiomatic flavor with a drill that rookies can keep up with (and a standin o for the sunburst) and VK with the red wigs/peewee herman/America/girl in bikini thing? Couldnt stop watching it if u tried. If i had to pick ONE....and keep a new person's interest for 11 minutes?....its gotta be VK88. AFTER that...you could pretty much show 'em what you want. You'll have made that good first impression. One more not on the FN? Try Caballeros Alumni, Wayne NJ, 2009 on youtube. 3 minutes of lunacy and a 45 second standing o before the last note of music is even played.

LOVE. LOVE, LOVE the contest winner idea! Of course, you'll hear about the potential conflicts to objectivity and blah blah blah. But how fun would that "unknown quantity" be if Grandma Jones, at her first show ever, happened to win the drawing? Awesome! She might even write a COMMENT on her sheet like, "I didnt like it, it was too darn LOUD." HILARIOUS!!! Can you imagine the FUN we'd have with that post-show over a few beers??

THAT IS PART OF THE FUN!!!!!!! As STUPID as it may sound...a big THANK YOU is an HONEST response! Objective doesnt mean you dont enjoy it, sit stoically and write down a number! This ain't figure skating, its DRUM CORPS. Bias comes from before the first note is played. Appreciation comes after the last note! Cannons and overtures that explode you from your seat are a good reason to write down a 99 If Howie and Howard and Mrs Ozzy can stand and clap, so can these guys!! It's not life or death...it's Mini Corps!

Thanks, JR

"" a little self serving...erased for wrong focus

AWESOME!!!!! Remember it like YESTERDAY!! Great shot :)

I waited for someone with skin in the game to bring up the white elephant in the room. I'm glad you did. Since the Star crew is friends of mine (i am an honorary member of Star United from 2009 forward, with the scarf to prove it), I can make a few comments without being misinterpreted as having a Darth Vader complex about it. I'll start with this: pushing boundaries is one thing; doing your own thing is another. I think the free form rules of mini corps allowed for a certain amount of creative expression, but seeing the corps on a football field marked off with cones doing a field corps presentation is so far from the original mission and design of mini corps that it became something different altogether. "Look what we can do...because no one told us we couldnt"...has pretty much allowed one group to define its own interpretation of the game and, without restraint, invent a new game. It begs the question: who's in charge, here? There are rules for any game, and that's not a bad thing. Think about the field corps: no woodwinds, the flag has to be guarded, its a 100 yard field, no electronics. break the rules at your own peril. Star brought a bunch of new elements to the minicorps game, but they really did so without asking. A full drill? That's not playing our game. I've referred to it as the Star freak show (most often in a positive-smile-on-the-face sense, but also a choice of words rooted in the reality of the situation) and this year's deal as a Frankenstein (I guess that makes Josh the mad scientist, but he's a big boy who would probably read this with a smile and understanding). The first word that came to mind when i saw the 20 YARD field in Annapolis was: NO. this ain't it. It's the antithesis of "it". How we allowed the mini corps stage to go from a parking lot (Scranton) to a ballroom to a Convention Hall riser to the 20 yard field is beyond me. Why did we allow the rules/boundaries of Mini Corps to be bent that far? Because it was StarU? WHOEVER IT WAS....Does anyone have the jam to just say no? Simple..."No, we arent going to do that..that's taking it a little too far, guys, not quite in the spirit of the thing,sorry...and, No, we arent going to accomodate that as a one-off, either. Here's the boundary. Looking forward to your presentation." The Star 2012 presentation belonged at A-Prelims, as a marching unit following THOSE rules; NOT at Mini Corps which is and always was designed to be a MUSIC ENSEMBLE judged on a GE music sheet. And I'm not blaming Star for doing it....and it was pretty cool, actually....but it wasnt MiniCorps, IMO. I'm of the opinion that, had the sheet / rules of THIS game, not the one Star unintentionally (?)'invented' but the one they arrived to play at, been adhered to right along, this 7 for 7 thing wouldn't be kicking the conversation in the butt right now. I'm of the opinion that the Red Pony would have, at the very least, gotten a split decision. I did want to address this comment: "it would never be enough to just show up and play". Never enough to do what? WIN MINI CORPS? Go beat Star? The point of mini corps was to show up and play, and turn some people on in the process. If it's about Star-chasing and medals, then it's not better. If its about fewer groups instead of more...then its not better. (I'll add: if it becomes less about your audience and more about you, its not better) Re: all the "raise the bar" talk....Spain and Lithuania both put a scare into Team USA and sure made Olympic basketball more interesting this year. The US team couldnt just decide arbitrarily, however, to crank the baskets to 12 feet. FIBA wouldnt go for that. They had to play by the rules.

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