AlexL

YOU, ME, HOT DOG STAND. WE'LL SETTLE THIS.

#### YOU. INT HAD THE BEST SHOW OF ALL TIME. OF ALL TIME!

Very well written OP. I'm not sure what the 'solution' is, but it is something i have noticed as well. Demand vs clean is one of the balances every corps has to strike. I've often wondered if maybe 'clean' is a bit unbalanced in that regard. And why is that a negative? Well, if nothing else, in terms of entertainment value greater demand will often have greater returns. Past a certain point, each degree of clean has increasingly diminishing returns for your average fan so if anything the balance should tilt towards demand instead of the opposite where it lies now. Some reading this thread will take it as a hate on BD, but honestly it shouldn't. BD just understands the game. If the game changed to something that rewarded differently, i'm sure they'd excel at that as well.

Music City is not on that lineup. I assume its an error.

I'm not afraid to dive into the muck sometimes, i do get bored from time to time. I love how you accuse me of making you into something i'm not, then turn around and do that to me. I never made it about 'my contributions to the activity'. You are really taking the projection game up to 11. There's the problem. Those are all arbitrary measures of the activity, when by and large these changes have occurred not in sweeping fashion but gradually. Somene in the 70s could say the same thing about 80s, 90s, or 00s, and i've been on DCP long enough to know they did. I never said you only like 90s drum corps. But there are a lot of drum corps alums that think that all changes that happened after they marched are generally bad changes, and you seem to be one of those. The change that allowed drum corps to be what it was when you marched is ok, but that natural change continuing after you marched is somehow not, and you arbitrarily get to decide what is and what is not drum corps. And i say that as one who has also watched plenty of drum corps. I may have marched starting in 05, but i started following a few years before that, and watched a lot of dvds back in the day. They were all enjoyable in their own ways, but the universal constant was that those things kept changing. The fact that you think this and Just makes me feel sorry for you. You apparently go into shows just so blinded with hate that you're unable to see the amazingness that is out there right now. Honestly though, if it has this effect on you, you probably should just walk. The one universal truth of drum corps is change and growth. It is not going to revert to what you want it to be.

As i already noted, the vast majority of them are completely fine with where things are right now. The vast majority of them also steer far clear of DCP because it has a massively poor reputation within the activity as being full of old people who just ##### that drum corps isnt the exact same as when they marched.

I cited the only source that has hard numbers. You provided anecdotal examples. I can provide plenty of other examples of people who obviously did decide to march.

"clown costume". Man, in the real world most people would consider the typical marching band uniform just as 'clown costume' as anything else being worn now. Id wager the cost is a much bigger % of that concern. Everything else you provide is purely anecdotal. The fact is, even in the best of situations, 99% of people who watch drum corps in high school aren't going to march for a million different reasons, the time commitment and the cost being the biggest ones. The fact that you've been able to identify a few of those doesn't really mean anything.

Key words: You believe. You have no facts to back up any of your assertions, other than 'i believe' statements, and 'everyone i know is saying this' (its quite possible that's true, but you're just in a bubble). Meanwhile, the only numbers we really do have, attendance numbers that show that there has been growth, say differently. Aside from contrary evidence, that is the best indicator of 'is the activity headed in the right direction'. And i'm going to take major issue with your assertion that people aren't marching because of these changes. I spent 5-6 years fairly disconnected from the activity after 2010. I was brought back in last year when my sister marched and i spent 40 days on tour driving. Yes, the product has changed somewhat. But the core of the drum corps experience, the hours perfecting a product, the closeness created through the crucible of 100 degree rehearsal days and long nights on the highway.. when i watched those kids coming off the field in tears, when i watched those kids in the parking lot after finals not wanting to leave each other, i could see concretely that the core of what that summer means was no different now than it was when i marched. Drum corps at its core was providing exactly the same experience that made me love it. This is why i will say without hesitation, anyone who would not march (or anyone who would advise them not to march) because of the changes we've seen is utterly missing the point.

Just because i agree with a portion of your sentiment does not mean I agree with the majority of it. The activity will continue to evolve and change. And quite honestly, for as much as you talk objectivity and facts, you seem to be doing more of the opposite, presenting your opinions as facts. The fact is, for the vast majority of the audience, these changes arent all that controversial. Most of the controversy occurs within the 'insider' niche, meanwhile the audience apparently continues to grow and grow.

But you are the odd duck out here. As someone who is much more redditor than DCPer nowadays, but certainly have my share of DCP time, that opinion certainly isnt universal. In fact, most on reddit seem to take a more nuanced view- that while it is a shame that some 'identity' is lost, there is also a lot of gain in being able to commit completely to the show through show-specific attire. Its merely following what the guard did all those years ago when they went from wearing the corps proper uniform to wearing something that fit each show better. DCP certainly tilts more 'traditional' but even within the drum corps community DCP is sort of viewed as a running joke by a large percentage of people, where its well known that it tends to have the reputation for being a bunch of old fogies who can't handle any change. And the drum corps 'inside' community itself is only a fraction of the audience, making DCP a particularly extreme niche within a niche, which means it effectively means nothing. And its funny, all these things you say about the current attire choices... people outside the activity? They think the same thing about traditional marching band\drum corps uniforms. I'm not saying all changes have been great. There are some areas i wish DCI had taken more time to fully evaluate the benefit of past changes before moving farther down the path. But man, you are way out there in this thread.

Becoming more competitive often has little to do with having talent in your local area. So much that has to happen and go right behind the scenes for things to move upward.

I had similar issues, there were only a couple seats left in a terrible location for my theater, so i opted out. Of course, this theater (which was different from past years) had it on their smallest screen, so i'm not sure its an increase in demand.

For sure. A week ago they probably thought they had 3 shows left. They got 1 thanks to this and having to pull out of Rome show.

Yeah, they did. Annoying that theyve switched that.

Absolutely.

Worth noting, between the last score and finals last year cascades went up 4.088, surf went up 1.088. If Cascades see a similar rise as last year, they will be fine. Hoping they do, given they already lost a show this week and they don't do a ton of shows to begin with.

Yeah, especially socks. Actually, i think i just got new socks halfway through tour as well. They might have lasted, but new socks made rehearsal much nicer.

Define prudent measures. I surely wouldnt go out of my way to prevent something statistically nonexistent, no. Living in fear is a terrible way to live. And even moreso when other people start intruding on other people's lives because of their own fear.

Aware, no harm. If you see something suspicious, report it. Injecting more and more inconvenience and hassle for a statistically nonexistent threat though, that's where it seems some seem all too happy to go.

And 99.9999% of them are correct. You're more likely to die of a million other things on any given day than a terrorist attack.

Of course that exclusive right used to be for a much smaller period, so that things actually entered the public domain relatively quickly. That's the tradeoff- we grant a limited exclusive license so that the public might ultimately benefit. One might argue that that transition should be at least that fast if not faster tody as the world has increased in pace. Instead that right is now almost perpetual as corporations (disney) have bought increases in the copyright term.

One that (maybe obviously) comes to mind for me, was blue stars 2007. Full volume from the first note.

Also its the largest metro area in the southeast.

Is it certain DCI dodesnt have a deal for the new stadium for next year? I heard they did this summer.