oldskl3rings

Pandorica I sent this to SCV.

Last year they proclaimed that they would announce the show on a certain date. Then they reneged, something about the “graphics” package not being ready. A new date was set and that was missed because of “licensing” issues. Last year I don’t think BD announced their show until shortly before the season. It didn’t seem to hurt their performance or placement. When a program is ready to be announced, proclaim it for the entire world to hear. Until then there is no reason for the riddles and all the games.

I don’t know why every year SCV has to play this game. If you’re ready to announce your program, announce it. If not, don’t. Why play the “I’ve got a secret and I’m not telling” game. I see no advantage and it’s rather childlike.

Interesting trivia. Post #1 SCV 1970 Sop in the middle of the pic is Mike Moxley, future director of BD!

As far as I know all DC are 501c3 not for profit organizations, which make their budgets, open to the public. Send a formal request. I know when I was President of SCV in the mid 90s the budget was over a million to run SCV & SCVC. The majority of the funds were derived from the corps bingo operation.

That judge was obviously doing a screw job on SCV. Even in its darkest days SCV has never been 11th in M&M. OK maybe 67 or 68.

Tower of Power!

In 1971 we left Santa Clara in 3 busses the corps had purchased from the Troopers. I believe they were 40’s era Brills. We got as far as Milpitas (about 5 miles) before the first buss broke down. It wasn’t a good omen. As it turned out, we ended up doing the majority of the tour with only 2 busses running at any one time. I recall praying that we would survive the trip over Sierra’s. I remember standing in the aisle for an entire 6 hour ride to La Crosse. Outside of Toronto we had 1 buss run into the back of another. About a dozen members marched the show that night with whip lash and wearing neck braces. In Boston we were down to 1 buss (due to the accident) and I remember going to a show (I believe World Open) with the entire corps stuffed into one buss and the equipment truck. On the way home, in the middle of the desert, outside of Needles one buss caught fire. A CHP officer arrived at the scene and told GR, “You need to move that buss out of the middle of the road.” GR replied, “But sir, the buss is on fire!” Every trip that year was an adventure, but we took home the VFW trophy and that, as members, was all we worried about.

That is so short sighted and stupid. How many people that had never heard of the German Brass may have stumbled across this video, liked what they saw, and then purchased recordings or gone to a concert? It’s called exposure and is free advertising.

They've all got the SCV snare line's snarl!

Excuse me! What exactly are you insinuating? Is it your contention that the smaller local corps were run by a bunch of pedophiles? Current events show that abuse happens wherever children and adults mix, sad, but true.

Of course you would. You teach HS band. You have a vested and fiscal interest in supporting marching bands. You have for years supported morphing DC into bands on this forum.

What do you mean by everything? Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and many other local youth activities survived. With local support and community involvement local drum corps could have survived. The argument is a moot point, DCI took the direction it did and an activity that once numbered in the multiple hundreds, now has less than forty with eight or nine super corps.

Excuses, excuses, excuses. When DCI took over the activity the other organizations gradually dropped away. DCI’s attitude was the same as evolution…only the strong should survive. Instead DCI could of emphasized regional competitions. DCI could have then used the competitive aspect to foster local rivalries to build a local and fanatic fan base. With that would have come local support and participation. Then they could have sent the best of each region to fight for the international title.

The idea that DCI is run by the corps, is false. In the beginning DCI was controlled by only the top corps. The smaller corps had no say in the decisions made by DCI. Since its inception DCI has made two critical and related errors. DCI ignored the needs of the smaller corps and its obsession with the national tour model. This led to the demise of all of the smaller corps and even a good number of the top ones. In fact, of the original top twelve DCI corps, eight no longer exist. It was suicide by inept management. By letting the smaller corps perish, DCI lost a feeder source for members, fans and show venues. Add to that DCI’s never ending need to evolve the activity by adding expensive and unnecessary instruments and electronic do dads, DCI continues to play a perverse game of Russian roulette. In reality DCI has never been interested in performing for the fans. In 1972 when I marched in the first DCI we were told to impress, not the fans, but the people sitting in “the box”. Play to the box; sell the show to the box, that’s what we were told by every instructor. Drills have never been designed to impress the fans, but the box. How many fans can actually sit high enough to see and appreciate all the fancy pictures and moves? I’d like to see a drill designed to impress the fans sitting in the third row from the bottom. The fact that DCI now realizes it has to entertain and build its fan base may be the case of too little too late.

The problem is, to attract new fans and retain old ones; the activity has to be entertaining EVERY year. Some of the evolution within the activity was natural and didn’t change the activity fundamentally, guard’s migrating to dance and drill design, others were forced and changed the fundamentals of DC, the pit, amps and the addition of keyboards. Funny, but the natural changes really didn’t affect the cost of doing business, yet the forced changes have added significant costs to the activity. Ten years ago who in the activity would see the eventual need for corps to have a sound engineer on staff. DCI’s preoccupation with the national tour model and the forced changes led to the destruction of smaller local corps, which further eroded the fan base. If the DCI member corps were fully dependent on revenue from ticket sales, I guarantee many of these forced changes would be long gone and the activity would be better for it.

DC is a rather unique activity as it is a competitive activity, which is also a performance/entertainment medium. I’m so tired of the DC must evolve argument! Why? Let’s examine a couple of other competitive/entertainment mediums and see how much they have “evolved”. Broadway musicals combine great music and choreography, much like DC, to entertain. Broadway has changed very little in fifty years. A great Broadway show still relies on wonderful music, exciting choreography, and an interesting book (story). All of the major league sports have changed very little over the years. Baseball is basically the same game as it was 100 years ago, but we just witnessed one of the most entertaining World Series in the history of the sport. What few changes that have happened in basketball or football were either to protect player safety or to increase scoring, to make the games more entertaining. DC is the only activity that has made changes WITHOUT any consideration of its fans. In fact I submit most of the changes in DC were to benefit instructional staffs or the music instrument manufacture companies. Why? Because unlike Broadway or the major sports, DC does not depend on the income from its audience/fans to survive. If it did DC would have folded a long time ago. DC members are very dedicated people. It takes an incredible amount of commitment of time, money, work and most of all heart to march DC. Yet, how many of the thousands former members that have participated in the past forty plus years still attend DC shows. I think within the answer you’ll find the success of DC’s evolution.

My link All trombone DC?

I find the perception that all use is abuse is just ludicrous. Most people can use and enjoy any drug on an occasional basis. I say most because there is a percentage of our society who are predisposed to addiction. I once attended a lecture given by Dr. Solcomb. Dr. Solcomb has being running a drug treatment facility in San Francisco since the early 60’s and is considered an expert in both use and abuse. His lecture was very informative and contained some very interesting facts. The most physically addictive drug, a drug that if 100 people are exposed to over a period of time that all 100 will become physically dependent, is…nicotine! Opiates and cocaine and their derivatives were also very high on the list, but nicotine was number 1. Alcohol is also high on the list. Near the bottom of the list was cannabis. He did point out that while marijuana is not physically addictive, it can be psychology addicting. He also talked about a patient he had and his family. His two sisters thought their brother was the scourge of the family because of his drug addiction. Yet, one sister was over 100lbs overweight and the other was in extreme financial trouble because her inability to control her spending. Dr. Solcomb pointed out that they all suffered from the same disease. One was addicted to drugs, one to food and the other to shopping. PBS just did a very interesting documentary on the 18th amendment, prohibition. The main point was the prohibition didn’t prevent people from drinking, but caused people to hold police in contempt, made the police susceptible to corruption, removed a major tax resource and led to the growth of major crime organizations. Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol and its not working for drugs. As far as drug use in DC. I’m sure current members use illegal drug at the same rate as their peers. I marched in the early ’70s in a corps that was located less then 60 miles from the Haight. Illegal drug use was rampant. At almost every rest stop members were sneaking off to smoke a doobie. I heard speed was very popular with the percussionists. As the years passed the use of drugs gradually declined in the corps, just as it did in society. In reality drug use in DC, both legal and illegal, is reflective of drug use in our society.

I was talking to Wayne after a show in 93 or 94. I hadn’t been around the activity since the late 70s. I asked Wayne if BD had ever done any Don Ellis. He replied, “No”. I said, “Are you kidding! Don Ellis would be perfect for you guys!!!” Lo and behold the next year BD did Don Ellis. So did Madison, but I had nothing to do with that.

There is a lot of pressure on Jeff in Santa Clara to bring back SCV’s tradition of winning. He has made significant staff changes in the last two years and I believe the 2012 program will have the potential to take the gold medal.

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So, why are you excluding the first back to back, 73 & 74 SCV?!