skywhopper

You click on the weird gray icon that's titled "Insert media" and paste in the YouTube URL, which should look like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGdJlq44Yqg. If it's got extra crud in there or "https" at the beginning just edit it to get rid of everything else, as those can confuse the editor.

Besides BD, who's the other? For the past six years, Crown has been the second most consistent corps out there. Why would that change suddenly because of a championship?

Probably worth replacing the cable first. If you can wait a few days, Monoprice is the best place to buy HDMI cables. To test out your TV/Blu-ray player, you could try hooking your laptop up to it and playing the Blu-rays and DVDs through that way. Also worth trying different input jacks on your TV if you have others, just to eliminate all the possibilities.

Ha, didn't even catch that bit. Says the corps with a military name and a military uniform, whose recent shows were built around toy soldiers, gang violence, and massive sword battles.

I was wearing my Blue Stars T-shirt to the mall one day with my daughter soon after the 2010 season, and one of the guys working in one of the stores mentioned upon seeing my shirt that he had been with Blue Stars for years and had been either their horn sergeant or a section leader that year, and I was like, ####, dude, you guys put on my favorite show this year! So that was pretty awesome, but it also happens to be the only time I've ever run into anyone with any knowledge of drum corps outside of my band friends and instructors from high school and college.

I posted the video below in a couple of Crown threads before I listened to it far enough to get to the percussion and articulation portions, so my apologies for triple posting it. I've never been to LOS for Finals, but I have to ask, is the sound on that video indicative of what the audience is hearing? The echo from the battery in particular but also the brass in quick sections is appalling. It appears this video was taken from pretty high up, and I've heard the sound is worse from up there. But is this representative of the quality of sound people are getting in LOS? If so... YIKES. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjadtT78NsY

For a top level view of the encore run, Crown's Facebook posted a link to this apparently audience-recorded (steady but poor sound) high-cam view on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjadtT78NsY Now that I've listened to it further, man, if that's how LOS sounds at the top level... YIKES.

Crown's Facebook posted a link to this apparently audience-recorded (steady but poor sound) high-cam view of their victory run on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjadtT78NsY

"Revolutionize the activity"? "The Bolt" in particular appears to be a rifle without decoration and with a couple of jags cut out of it. "The Hook" is a just a stylized sabre. Blue Stars twirl far more interesting and "revolutionary" equipment each and every year. EDIT: dang sorry about the oversized image. It was much smaller on the Cadets website. Way to pay for bandwidth you didn't need to Cadets!

Worth noting that since 2008, Crown has been more consistent than Cadets or anyone else, except Blue Devils. An amazing accomplishment to be sure!

Don't worry guys. The amplified pit and electronic instruments rule changes are going to start bringing in global attention (most likely from MTV) any day now. The audience will be flocking to TOC shows around the nation to hear the best of the best in synth patches, horn blowing, reverb effects, stick tossing, stick banging, and sampled voice.

Heh. I'm glad we waited till the last minute to go into the stadium (partly that delay was because of the long lines at the single concession stand). Given that there were no food or drink sales going on INSIDE the stadium (those concession stands were closed up), blocking outside food and drink was insane. It was hot out in the sun that day. We saw a ton of bottled water and stuff on the table and got worried we were going to lose the bottles we had just bought from the official concession stand, but they had stopped confiscating them by the time we got there.

You're the only person who's responded to NE Brigand's comments... All your credentials apparently didn't include any training in how to make a point effectively, or communicate politely... You trashed a very impressive Music City show in a thread about the corps' demise. I would personally have expected some pushback. So, feel free to lay out your argument, but don't bother providing your credentials or telling us who you had conversations with unless it's relevant to the point.

I don't think anything was done about this, but it's worth pointing out that the G7 have proposed eliminating any direct DCI support of Open Class. So while the G7 may not yet have had an impact, their plan would surely accelerate attrition of corps at this level.

IIRC, Glassmen used to be able to raise a lot of money by running bingo games (like BD and SCV) but that's no longer possible in Ohio? Because of that, I worry that Glassmen would have trouble getting going again even with no debt. They always ran much higher expenses than other corps in their tier. But with the debt it's going to be next to impossible without significant outside help. They did get an allotment of DCI Finals week tickets to sell and they still ran their "All-Star" show this year. But those are probably just enough to cover debt service.

ftfy

Open Class doesn't get paid for appearing at shows, is that right? Music City had an amazing show this year, and they deserve better. Their show was more entertaining and (as we saw) better performed than some World Class corps. They deserved to be a real part of DCI. This is heartbreaking news.

The fact is that Hop and whoever else supported amplification and electronics (and woodwinds, and 180 members, and on and on) tried every argument in the book to convince people. I'm sure potentially smaller pits were one approach, as was "proper" technique, and being "cool", and appealing to the kids, and bizarre stuff like being able to hear quiet pit solos over screaming brass features (how could that possibly sound good anyway?) or whatever. Anything and everything. Amplification is awesome and will solve lots of problems, but then there's DCI article about a preview of amplification techniques the directors went to in early 2004 and it quotes Hop saying "I've never used this, it's scary and new..." Pretty much every year from the late 90s till 2004 and then 2009, Hop proposed raising the maximum age, expanding the number of members, adding woodwinds, adding amplification, adding electronics in every possible combination. He tried every argument possible as well until he got enough people convinced to "try" it (all of these proposals say it won't be mandatory, but how many corps don't use amps or synths?). The only reason the rule change proposals have stopped is because Hop decided to throw his weight behind the G7 proposal that came out in May 2010. He's given up on changing the rules bit by bit and is trying his hardest to just gain outright control (along with the six other corps)... I assume so that he can finally implement his "Music on the Move" proposal of 1997, which proposed a lot of the G7 stuff (a small permanent privileged class of corps who can put on shows with "no rules" and then relgating all other corps to basically feeder status). I assume the G7 proposal is what the other six corps were willing to support out of the 1997 MotM proposal. But if the G7 do succeed in taking over, expect there to be more fighting over woodwinds, 250 members, etc, etc.

From Glassmen's Facebook page on August 7:

It can be just as unbalanced or more live, but it depends on where you sit and the shape of the stadium.

Yes, very well written. Certainly much better than PR statements from certain member corps...

This was definitely not a problem with individuals' computers. Most likely there were multiple streams handling several hundred users each, and some of those streams had problems and others did not. Either that or one of the streams had far fewer users and thus had no problems. I can think of lots of scenarios where these kinds of results would have happened. As for the email, it was great. Struck just the right tone, made amends, and made promises about improving the situation in the future. If they did get 3000 viewers for finals, even if they were all already FN subscribers that would be $150,000 and could be up to $200,000. That's great to hear, and I hope that as garfield suggests, DCI is investing that revenue in a better Fan Network for next season.

While this would certainly be a fun thing to do with our imaginary millions, I think drum corps as an activity is better served by developing self-sustaining operations like the corps we have now. They generate revenue from fan interest, tour and camp fees, side-businesses, performance fees, and lots of fundraising. Perhaps a wild-eyed drum corps lover with millions to burn would be better off finding ways to help existing struggling corps with one-time needs, perhaps debt relief for corps with that particular issue (hopefully with a promise from the corps to avoid debt in the future) or establishing some kind of endowment for future operational expenses, in particular insurance on equipment, busses, etc, stuff that could wipe out a corps if it were lost or damaged. Beyond that, some money could go towards need-based scholarships for kids to help ensure as many interested kids as possible can be part of the activity. Once you have those issues addressed, then perhaps it's time to start finding the brash, motivated youth on fire to run a drum corps, and help them get started. Invest in companies that provide services for corps management/inventory/personnel/websites/uniforms/whatever and establish a pattern for drum corps aspirants to follow. Then seed three to four new corps each year with enough to get started and start building a fundraising and volunteer network. Expect 80% of them to fail within 3 years, and 95% within 5-7 years, but some of them will survive and thrive. You've started new corps and strengthened others. Now we need more shows! So start establishing new shows or resurrecting old ones. If you have money to throw around, venue and housing providers will become a lot more interested in hosting a drum corps show, and perhaps once they've gotten started and had some success, they will continue on their own. Perhaps an even better idea would be to donate a few million directly to DCI. Have them invest in the Fan Network and DCI online store and website. Put the complete score and event history, and every bit of geeky data you can find on the dci.org. Update the Fan Network to make it look great and work even better. Start adding more archival footage and recordings, and producing more media products. Sell as much of it digitally as possible. If they have a better product to sell on the Fan Network, they'll get more subscribers and can sustain a higher quality of service. All that would be way better than throwing millions at starting and sustaining another Star for 8-10 years, IMO, and it would cost about the same amount of money.

Yes, the whole thing is very confusing, I agree. I've had the Fan Network for six years now and I still find it confusing quite often.