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cf144

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Posts posted by cf144

  1. Strange turn of events…

    all the end zone seating were wristbands, some rumor was going around at semis that they were 2,000 seats away from a sell-out so pushed the wristbands to the sides...the wristbands to the side part was true, don't know about the other but good tickets for finals the day of the show were still around

    During finals, in good seats, there were plenty of marchers in the seats, some were using their phones to check tickets on-line and then grab those seats that went unsold. And around me, I had parents of MM that had a few extra seats and their kid brought way too many of their friends after they marched to snag all the seats around then shuffle as people showed up or left their seats

    (Cow note: I have a new corps that I’m not too keen on due to their marchers' behavior and comments, I shall root against you next year as punishment)

    Now I KNOW I'm old!

  2. Maybe a little off topic, but I think a corps should do a Maynard show next season. August 2016 will mark ten years since Maynards passing. I could see BD or Crossmen doing this.

    Would LOVE to see Crossmen get back to playing that style again. When the Crossmen sounded like the Crossmen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcgwqwBMvgU

    The concert piece from that show (Something) is one of my all time favorite concert numbers

    • Like 2
  3. I'll take the disks any day of the week and twice on Sunday unless or until the digital version was identical quality in picture and sound. But to do that, the file size would be enormous. Typical file size of a 1 disk Blu-Ray movie clone is about 40GB which would take hours to download unless you have an extremely fast connection.

  4. Our activity is not like sports. Sports have definable scores for definable actions. Drum corps is a new set of subjective eyes awarding subjective points based on a sheet they designed. You can't compare the two, IMO. The "Best" in our activity is the highest score on Saturday night, and I'm really very fine with that.

    Very good point. But of course being subjective, "best" is a matter of opinion at least at some level so there will always be disagreements.

  5. Well, those are the rules, and of course BD won fair and square by those rules this year (just as Phantom Regiment won fair and square by those rules in 2008), but . . .

    What makes those rules better than what 1956OPR has proposed?

    Likewise, what if the caption awards were changed to be based only on the Finals performance rather than three nights? Would that be better or worse than the current system, and why?

    Just because it's always been done this way doesn't automatically make it superior to the alternatives.

    I do think that captions should be based on finals night only. The reason being that this is a competition, not a tournament or a series. The team that wins the game on Super Bowl Sunday gets the Lombardi.

    Is this the best way? I think so, but WTF do I know? :satisfied:

    • Like 5
  6. Thanks, N.E., and while it might be human nature to slather congrats on everything and everyone for being part of the higher attendance ("Just keep doing what they're doing!", some might say), I think it continues to be prudent to try to identify specific things done that can reasonably be attributed to the success. For example:

    Did the corps play more "accessible" music? More "fan-friendly", less esoteric shows?

    What the competition tighter because of tighter scoring sheets, or mandates to score differently?

    Did DCI do something with the schedule that made it easier for fans to attend?

    Was it simply the lack of a FN DVR that drove fans to attend shows?

    One of the concerns that I have, as a fan and contributor (among other roles) is understanding what was done so that it CAN be duplicated. Is it possible that things would have been even better had DCI/the corps done something different, or the same thing differently?

    I'm just cautious of the activity being lulled into complacency and falling backwards for not understanding what drove attendance this year.

    In my opinion it is mostly that. Probably not a coincidence that attendance was going down when the shows became less accessible and is going up now that they are far more entertaining.

    I was strongly debating whether to continue shelling out the bucks for Friends and all the other expenses associated with traveling to championships because I was bored by most shows - even as a drum corps lifer. If it hadn't begun to turn around a few years ago I don't know if I'd still be going.

  7. As much as I loved SCV's take on Phantom in '88 and '89 I think they should leave those two shows to speak for themselves. That is a show that barely missed the title in '88 and took it in '89 and is still looked at as one of the all time great shows. To revisit it now would lead to comparisons with the original which are not likely to be favorable. It's hard to compete with an all time great show. And anything less than a title would be seen as a major disappointment and would diminish the legacy of the originals.

    When Phantom Regiment resurrected Spartacus in 2008 they were taking a show that was loved at the time but never looked on as an all time great. It can be seen as never achieving its full potential finishing 4th both years they did it (1981 and 1982). By revisiting it in 2008 they were able to breathe new life into it and take it to a place the original never got to.

  8. Interesting because according to some people who were "in the know" that I spoke to at the time the Crossmen moved to San Antonio they were supposedly all but set on bringing in the staff who took Crown from middle of the pack to champion and when it fell through they ended up at Crown (and the rest is history). No idea about the validity of that story though.

  9. For sale: Official judging sheets from finals. Perfect for fish wrap and lining bird cages.

    Bridgemen actually did something like that in 1982 in Montreal. They were selling photocopies of the Percussion Execution judge's sheet from a show that year (forget which show) that they got a near perfect 19.9 (a single tic the entire show).

  10. Perhaps the timing was just coincidental, but Cesario requested the Corps be a bit more fan engaging with their shows a couple of years back. ( DCI was losing fans at the time, and thats never a good busness model for success ) The DCI judging sheets were tweaked a bit with verbiage to add substance to that request of his ( example.. added the words " how compelling is the show to audiences " ?). Shows do seem to have more melody with the brass arrangements with more of the Corps than a few years back,in my assessment. Could the fact that attendance is a bit up the last few years be a result of the fans finding the shows a bit more entertaining, ie " compelling " ? I'll let others here decide for themsrelves on that. But I would say " yes ", on the whole, the shows are a bit more engaging for audiences than a few years ago... and perhaps that is accounting in some ways for the encouraging uptick in attendance of late.

    That.

    I have to admit that I was beginning to lose interest several years ago and questioning why I was paying thousands of dollars every year (Friends of DCI, hotel, plane fare etc) when I was finding the majority of the shows very boring and unengaging. Well performed - yes, but dull and not entertaining. I think it is a huge part of why my now 22 year old who was going to DCI shows since he was 6 had zero interest in marching when he was old enough - he sat through the shows with dad and was thoroughly bored.

    Happily the pendulum has swung back the other way and the past few years I have found the vast majority of the shows top to bottom to be extremely entertaining with only a small handful being "meh".

    • Like 1
  11. OK - I don't pretend to have any ability to listen to something and "hear" a drum corps show buried in it. That said - I think that Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson would be a great place for designers to look for source music - particularly the Bluecoats. Very modern sound with very rich instrumentation that I think would be right in Bloo's wheel house.

  12. What about a friend source at a bar or some such at a Stadium. ? Can we use that unnamed, anonymous source for citing what we heard, and have that work on here ok ?

    I had a drink with a guy at the bar at 2am who is the dog sitter for the next door neighbor of a guy who knows the sister-in-law of the hairdresser of the wife of the drill designer's cousin . . . . and HE said . . . . . . :satisfied:

    • Like 4
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