Tenoris4Jazz

You had to be there. The scores were close, but it was obvious Cadets were winning. That West Side Story show started everything design-wise that came after it.

Go back and look at pictures of the 1982 Bridgemen guard if you can find them. I saw them up close in line for food at the Ga Tech show. They couldn't wear underwear because their pants were so tight. Dromedary digits were everywhere. I'm pretty sure I started puberty standing there waiting for a hot dog and a Coke. Now, that level of, dare I say it... inappropriate... clothing is found everywhere in DCI and high school band. It's symptomatic of our moral standards for public appearance falling year after year, and it's not limited to band uniforms/costumes. I visited a Catholic high school this past spring for a literary competition my daughter was participating in. I was shocked at the (lack of) length of the skirts that were the standard uniform for the school. I would guess they were 6 inches shorter than what I would consider appropriate. It looked like the uniform design had been taken from a cheap porn movie or a 1980's Ratt music video. I later found out that people were paying in excess of $25,000 to send their daughters to that school dressed like that. Horrific.

That's your opinion and you are entitled to it. Some of us have been ringing this bell for years and are glad someone has started actually yelling "The emperor has no clothes!" DCI is a business and when people lose sight of that, well... you go inactive and fold and all your top 12 placements and medals and titles ring very hollow.

With all due respect, you are 100% wrong. There are several corps that no longer exist because of horrible financial decisions made by members of/the entire BOD (Glassmen, Velvet Knights, Cadets). I've been a part of the accounting department for 4 Fortune 500 companies, so I KNOW I have a great understanding of what is going on. If you have no savings and no emergency fund, you cannot spend more than you bring in... period. You most certainly cannot overextend your liabilities to the point that liquidating your assets won't pay the bills. The bottom line is that the BOD is there to ensure that the organization stays viable so that future marching members can enjoy an experience as similar as is practical to the ones from the past. Giving the 2025 members an experience that costs them the ability to have any members in 2026 is an incredible stupid, near-sighted idea.

There is a concept in For-profit accounting called "going concern." It essentially means that all decisions made by a company's leadership should be made with the intention to keep the company running in perpetuity. As soon as you make choices that bring into question the ability of the company to keep running, that's when the shareholders and auditors start bringing out the torches and pitchforks. In a drum corps, the BOD should be responsible for telling the artistic staff how much money they get for a year and then they can spend it however they want. When the artistic staff get to make financial decisions, that's when it goes off the rails. That's how Glassmen went under.

There's one here in Cobb County, the Concord Covered Bridge. The bridge dates back to 1850, and the clearance is only 7 feet. The last time it took a serious hit they decided enough was enough. They installed 12 inch I-beams in front of each side. People got the message.

THIS!!!! We have a railroad crossing in the middle of the town square here, and big trucks are required to detour around downtown because the slope of the road going over the tracks is too steep for most large trucks. At least 4 to 5 times a year though, one gets stuck and the police have to let the railroad know to stop all northbound and southbound trains until it's clear. Problem is, 80% of the train traffic going north/south through Atlanta goes over that crossing.

As a gainfully employed corporate accountant for 27 years, let me explain in simple terms, because there can be a ton of odd things in play, but they usually aren't material. Book value is the net worth of the organization in assets vs liabilities. For a publicly traded company, you take the assets, subtract the liabilities, then divide by the number of shares outstanding. That gives you a book value per share. Those are the tangible assets backing the company's stock. For instance, Walmart (as of 1/31/25) has assets of $260.8 billion, but only a tangible book value of $62.2 billion. Lots of liabilities and obligations going on there. In DCI's case, assets would be everything a drum corps owns (buildings, horns, equipment, vehicles, furniture etc... plus cash and investments. Liabilities are every bill they haven't paid yet and any loans they still owe, including the interest and penalties. As a non-profit, it's not unheard of to be in the red on book value if you have some lean years. As long as current obligations are being met, they are allowed to operate. The problem Richard is pointing out is very few organizations are on solid footing when it comes to having enough assets to deal with the current and future liabilities if revenue sources were to take a hit.

Interesting, because I am the exact opposite. I want to know all the music and don't care for themes. IMHO, the people in the stands should be able to tell if you're screwing up the music or the drill without having to do 25 hours of research. I don't watch/listen to drum corps to think... quite the opposite. But, prior to Troop this year, I haven't really liked a show since 2016, so what's happening now isn't meant to appeal to me anyway.

First, let me say that being an accountant/statistician for 27 years and a college football fan for 48 years, this is my wheelhouse. Not sure the math supports Penn St making the CFP. They're 3-2 against the 79th ranked schedule in the country. There are at least 12 teams with better odds at making the field than Penn St, and I don't think there's a path to them making the Big 10 title game. If OSU loses to both PSU and UM, there's still a 65% chance they make the playoff as a 10 seed, with Oregon at #1 and Michigan at #5. If Oregon loses to Indiana and USC, they still have an 80% chance to make it, without playing in the Big 10 title game. The field at this point is likely to be Oregon/Miami/Ole Miss /Alabama /Michigan/ Oklahoma/Georgia/Texas Tech/Tennessee/Ohio State/BYU/Memphis. All 12 of those teams would likely have 2 losses at worst, and none of them would have a loss as bad as UCLA.

My personal opinion is that SCV was in first until Scouts hit that massive low brass chord at the start of Malaguena-proper. From there to the 5 to 5 finishing move, Scouts moved in front and stayed there.

I've talked to a couple of guys who marched '80 in SOA. Members of Devils, 27 and Phantom came up to some of them and congratulated them on winning their first title. That was based strictly on what they had heard, not anything they saw. But, after listening to the top 4 from 1980 at least 300 times, Devils won that show.

If I recall, Bridgemen lost support from some of their own after embracing the "Marching Bananas" motif. Now THAT was an innovation vs. tradition in show design argument.

When BD's international corps went to Europe in 2015, they performed at the Edinburgh and Basel Tattoos with the Top Secret Drum Corps. Those shows were legendary in Europe and I've been told brought a lot of European kids over to DCI.

You want to increase visibility of DCI by 500%? Have TS show up at your rehearsal or a local show. Better yet, play one of her songs and have her play the synth piano alongside the corps. Hate her all you want, she brings 5 to 10 million sets of ears and eyes with her wherever she goes.