MikeRapp

I saw the mandarin wink…😏

Why Glassmen?

You marched with Glassmen? I’m from Toledo!

Love it! Congrats Troop kids! Nice work, great season!

I love these troopers costumes, splattered with oil!

What is the show concept for the Marine Corps band? Props?

Inferno was a story. E=mc2 was a story.

That’s sort of the point. It isn’t inviting it. It gets it. The idea that the crowd contributes to the show CONTENT is not new. And they made a good run at it, it just doesn’t work. And when your entire show concept IS audience involvement… What I do think was the really big mistake is not changing it. They just kept rolling the same thing out night after night with the same results.

Rach Star had a concept. This show is a show about everything. Which means it’s a show about nothing. Rach Star had an idea that people thought was fun because it was based on a cool concept. This show is 100% dependent on people in the stands constantly chanting and clapping to RHRN. Why would we do that?! A show BASED ON audience participation is a very risky idea in this genre. The kids perform it at a stellar level. Not their fault. You want audience participation? End Act 2 with a kick ### keytar solo.

How about this one: Compete. If you want a band exposition then don’t score the shows.

I was thinking about this last night after Bluecoats leapt forward with a show that brought down the house. A lot of things can be said about drill a design and props. But to me it may come down to one simple fact: If your show DEPENDS upon crowd involvement—you’d better have one hell of a show concept. Because if your show requires audience members to clap and chant phrases from the literal beginning to end, you are taking one hell of a risk. This idea simply falls flat. Because people do not participate. It’s awkward and cheesy. Crown needs to focus on what they do best and trust that. And stop pushing so much cheese and crap onto the field. Inferno. Do another one of those. Please.

SO GO MAKE SOME MONEY AND COMPETE. Is there really any other solution? If you know of one, please offer it.

Could happen, but I expect Crown to say eff it let’s go out and give this one last run.

You are saying things I did not say. The pursuit of excellence in any activity requires resources. PERIOD. It is literally impossible to succeed in any competitive venture without resources. I currently work for a very well known technology company. I work alongside hundreds of very talented and very well paid people. Very few of these people would be at this company if they had no opportunity to succeed in their craft. The fact that they are paid well doesn’t mean they aren’t altruistic about their creative craft. In fact the two almost always go together. You and I are never going to agree so we should just agree to move on. Bottom line is, your idea of how DCI should run would lead to the end of the activity in about a year. So I choose the model that is working.

Don’t hate. Innovate!

Wrong. You are just wrong. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Financial success and creative success are not mutually exclusive. And it is inarguable that to be successful in any competitive activity you must be well funded. ANY competitive activity. BD is an organization of brilliant people. To say they are only doing this to make money is imho totally incongruous with everything I have ever seen or heard about their leadership. Are they crazy like a fox? Yes. And I am always articulate about my disappointment with this. But to even infer that the organization is cynical in how and why they do what they do is really beyond the pale.

No moves.

Or doesn’t.

Every org is different. Many have unique advantages others do not. If you want to be successful you build a business plan. If you don’t have bingo you do other things. Or you are happy being a feeder corps for the perennial finalists. I’m in Nashville, heart of the SEC. Vanderbilt will never compete with Alabama and the other mega state institutions in football. They have a student body of 4,000 kids who mostly leave the area after graduation. Donors at Vandy don’t donate to build a new football stadium; they donate to Vanderbilt Hospital, where they are solving the AIDS crisis. But Vandy has the most dominant baseball program in the NCAA. They rout Alabama more often than not. They play to their advantages. I don’t despise BD for being successful. I only tire of their formula and that the activity continues to reward it.

Every successful non-profit runs its org as a business.

What is your point? DCI is a trade org, not a franchise system. As such, members run their own org by their own terms.

Well if you don’t run it we a business you won’t have a corps. Plenty of defunct corps can attest to that.

There isn’t an instructor in the activity who will argue against experience, because experience makes it possible to put more challenging shows on the field—and execute them well. Historically there has been a direct and inarguable correlation between age/experience and achievement. This is why I have asked to see the average and mean age of world class corps. I would bet it is 90% aligned with the final rankings. Feeder corps are the best way to build institutional experience and ability. Thus: BD B and C, and SCV Cadets. Winter Guard has probably had more to do with the growth of drum corps guard books than anything else. The top world class corps are semi-professional level memberships. Taught by professionals. The lower tier corps are part time organizations with part time and volunteer management, and their memberships are mostly high schoolers in their first or second years in the activity. If those members stick with the activity they will almost all move to the orgs with more stability and resources, because it provides a more rewarding experience for them.

Whatever.