totaleefree

I went to Crowns show in Winston Salem a few weeks ago, It was packed over 10,000 filling the stands. I thought to myself what if DCA had caught on in NC back a decade ago. Back then there were 2 Florida Corps, Alliance and CV going strong in ATL there was a Nashville Corps Could having a full DCA champs there have revitalized DCA South. I was in Iraq at the time perfecting my waterboarding techniques so that I would be able to deal with folks on DCP a decade later so I didn't go nor really talk to any principals involved with that show. However at that same time there were several strong corps in Upstate NY The Crusaders, Empire Statesman, and the Brigadiers., at least 16 of the past 20 DCA Championships have been held in Upstate NY and it didn't save those corps or make many new one flourish. Having champships held there may have helped White Sabres, but no huge movement of New York Corps happened because all of DCA came to NY for Labor day weekend. I think maybe the stadium in WS was too big for DCA, 5,000 in attendance would have a half empty stadium. From what I heard from people who were there it rained that weekend and it dampened peoples spirits and that may have affected attendance. Also it was a July show, and you can't really compare mid season turnout to what would would happen a championships. I know I am kinda random here but thoughts are coming in a weird order. When I was watching practices in Winston Salem most of the corps were practicing on baseball fields with lines drawn on them by the corps. I spoke to two of the band directors from the schools being used and they said they had to fight hard to allow the corps to use their schools at all for fear of a football field being damaged in late July. Fortunately there was pressure from the tourist people and school board that let them use the schools. If it took a lot of work to secure practice sites late July for one morning of practice I imagine it would be majorly difficult to secure practice facilities after school has begun and once football is in season and actually needs fields to use. 3 days of using a practice field would probably drive the Football coaches nuts and the band directors said they drive the train in that area. One good thing is that Gold after taking a year off after that experiment got back on its feet, managed to win a class A title a few years later and hosted 2 greatly scaled back DCA shows in NC.

If you just signed up this week you will get DCA in your month. So you could go to the DCA forums and complain about the shows. I am sure they need more folks to say that aint Drum corps. Then when Cadets 2 come on you can join in with a whole different group of Hop bashers. You may even get to see some people who didn't get to do DCI put their best effort out on the field to entertain the crowd, I am pretty sure there will be some bad camera work to complain about also, though the connection speeds will probably be much better since there will be a lot less people watching.

About 200

Do we have a bottle dance coming up ?

Finally we will get to see battery Marching cymbals, I think we have waited about 2 hours to see more cymbals.

I actually like bloos show good high energy groove. But the old school in me cringes when I see the speakers on the field.

Flo did a much better job with Cadets than in Allentown. Cameras caught much more of the shows feel

I am liking this Cadets show more each time I see it

They figured out that SCV percussions we secret is in the cymbals

I have to look at Guardians from Texas, It was founded a few years ago by some 18 and 19 year olds, I think the director is 23 now. I didn't care for their show but they had no problem getting 150 kids to pay money and perform with them. I think the real issue with old school corps is finding kids who want to do it. It would almost be like doing civil war re-enactments of how things used to be. I hate that it is no longer someone, a veteran or a priest taking a bunch of teenagers off the street, teaching thenm something musically and giving them a competivie drive to beat teh kids from the town next door. BUt that phase of corps is gone and I don't think it will ever come back,

Back in Jan when things were being planned Gold probably thought they would have a chance at DCI SouthEast,, and they had planned doing Alliances DCA show. They still did the DCI/DCA Show in the ATL area. So they thought 3 ATL shows maybe, going to Southern SHowdown would have been 4 trips to ATL which is only slightly shorter trip than going to Reading. The MD show was less travel than going to ATL. Not knocking CVs show, I know that they have put a lot into making a good show happen in the south for many years, but the Reading show will have a much larger crowd to perform in front of. Also it helps them get acclimated for Rochester Weather.

If you go on you tube and see Company 4 years ago This show is more traditional than what they were doing in DCE then

I guess Indy is in a different time zone than Michigan City. I had hoped to see the OC Corps I missed on Tues

Another reason that SCV deserves the win is that they march the best cymbals in the top ten. V

I think BD is very good, almost too good for others to compete against. But as an old school corps person I think BD always wins when you watch the feet. Inhumanly clean.

I think SCV should win because I have 5 SCV tee shirts bought during some of the less great years. All the young people I hang around with think I am stuck in the past reliving the glories of 1980's Drum corps. If SCV wins I can be cool and in with the kids who are wearing Bluecoats tee shirts this year, next year when they will all be wearing SCV shirts.

They had one DCA show cancelled in GA. Normally they would have done DCI Southeast at the Georgiadome, but with the new stadium not ready they didn't have room for them at the smaller DCI Atlanta this year. They asked Crown if they could go to Nightbeat to at least get a show in between early July and the end of August, and they have helped Crown in the past, but Crown had 14 corps lined up for Nightbeat. So Gold will only have 3 judged shows before finals only 2 of those DCA They will be at Reading teh week before finals. They want to do more shows but it costs a lot to travel up North. This has been a tough year getting scores for most corps outside of the NorthEast.

I think some non show related things are hurting them. To me it seems the guard is AWOL pretty much the first half of the show and that hurts their GE. However I think the percussion is much better than the 8th place ranking it got in Allentown. I think that because other areas of the show lack they are also marking down the percussion score. I can't really judge based on watching a video and I am not a huge Cadets fan but I do think they are getting beat up more than they should be by judges and internet posters.

What disappoints me with Cavies is that they have talent and a great presence but this drill writing is choppy and doesn't let them cut !oose and challenge for the top spot.

Genesis seemed cleaner marching wise than all the corps before them. But an easier drill marching in straight lines.

Does Flo release viewership numbers for any of its broadcasts?

They are just so good, as much as I liked Bloo BD just has that much more.

The !ittle red jumpers that the guard wore mid show I think took away from the show. Made all the frantic running look just like that.

I would love to hear them play a full minute and a half of the song with or without vocals. I think 8 second snippets lose a lot of the power of that song.

That was called when Alliance decided not to field this summer. While it is tough for the corps to lose a show, it is like a domino effect for the smaller geographically dispersed corps. Less corps means less corps to show up for shows, and less shows means less opportunities for corps to perform. That is why when I see corps who want to do lots of shows can only get 3 shows in for the season, it aggravates me to see someone canceling a paid show appearance. Back on the original threat with C2, I made a donation to the Cadets organization in the past and in about 2 weeks after DCI is over I expect to get an email saying now that DCI is over we need 20k to make sure C2 can get to DCA. It wouldn't at all surprise me if the deficit is exactly what the Everett show would have paid. It seems that here in south every time you think the beginnings of a reasonable circuit with a good schedule in the south could happen something happens to tear it apart. 5 years ago there was Tampa, The Sun Devils, CV, Alliance (Inactive for 2 years), and Gold, you would think with Southern nights coming on they could have a real regional thing going with lots of show opportunities, but the Florida Corps fell apart, Alliance who seemed to be looking up decided that this year was just not feasible and suddenly there is only 1 DCA show in the south for the season. Fortunately the DCA/ DCI open class shows give them some performance options. Hopefully next year there will be a reasonable Florida Corps and Alliance to give a good quorum for southern shows again.