Tenoris4Jazz

It's on the sheet, but given some of the "marching" and visual performances I've seen over the past 10 years, it's obviously taking a huge back seat to the design. BD got perfect scores in visual in 2014 and I counted 5 missed forms in less than 2 minutes. Visual now is "That's a great design! Don't worry about all those bad lines and intervals and poor marching technique... what you're TRYING to do is really awesome!" Seriously... it's more participation trophy than actual critical assessment of what was really done.

########. A gack is a gack... that's not an opinion. Go listen to BD '89 and tell me that's an opinion. Dropping a rifle is a measurable fact. Screwing up an interval, not having a straight line, missing a rest, blowing an entry, phasing... all objective mistakes that can be judged objectively.

Bingo! Plus, Star's show in '93 was too much, too soon. It gave us a glimpse of the future, but it wasn't anything people wanted to see or hear in 1993. The audience shouldn't have any influence????? Then what the #### are they there for???? The audience response is why Phantom won the #### title in '08. Of COURSE there is going to be bias... we're human beings, it's part of who we are.

Oh good grief, I'm going to have to go there... From 1983 backwards, you were judged on your execution of your show 1st, the appeal to an audience 2nd, and the design 3rd. The point of the competition was... to perform well, score high, and have fun while accomplishing something, which might be a ring, a medal, and a flag. It was, above all else, A COMPETITION. Was that the best thing? Maybe not, but it worked for over 5 decades that way. Today, I don't see the point of scoring. Execution is all but abandoned, so what are they assigning scores to? Give 'em one score for the staff's design of a show, one score for doing it, and one score for whether the audience likes it or not. You only need three judges and they can use whole numbers... problem solved.

Things actually overheard during Cadets' '16 show: "Why is the groom by himself on top of the wedding cake?" "Is he just going to stay up there the whole show?" "So, he plays a couple of times and stands there the rest of the show?" "Why is that guy just standing there doing bodybuilding poses?" "Is he not going to play, or twirl something? He's just going to pose the whole show?" "What happened to the color guard scaffolding up front?" "Did they rewrite the music AGAIN?!?" "If you have to explain it, you messed up the design." The actual story gotten hidden behind the constantly changing visual design and the two guys who got (literally) put on pedestals and left there.

We lost a show in FL to another band from GA who used fireworks at the end of their show, which were illegal in GA, but legal in FL. Their style copied the Bridgemen, including the raunchy outfits for the color guard. For years the people who marched that show still referred to losing to "the fireworks and hookers show."

See Cadets 2016

Does it have be groundbreaking? Can't they just wear something appropriate without having to rewrite the book?

Late July... 90's and 95% humidity... watching a fog of sweat bees just descend on the field and no one is supposed to wave or swat at them. Civil disobedience of the highest order!

Haven't seen the show, but I have a question: why make her do all that running et. al. right before a solo? In the "caveman" days of drum corps, soloists stepped out of formation and spent a few seconds prepping for a solo. If the choice is between nailing the solo and staying in formation, I'll take the clean solo every time. There shouldn't be a deduction for having a soloist take a few seconds to get ready for their feature.

I know what you meant here, and I will give you the Cincinnati Reds as a comparative. Reds fans have been sold anything but a competitive or fun team for a decade. The players simply get paid to keep playing baseball. You march where you can if what you want is the experience. Why do fans keep paying to see Reds games? They love baseball, win or lose. Some MM's want competition, some just want to learn from marching. There's room for both.

DCI won't exist long enough for anyone to get close to BD's streaks. However... Bucs have won 14 of the last 16 DCA titles and finished 2nd the other two years. In fact, the last time Reading finished lower than 4th was... 1997. That's 20th century folks!!! Of course, the last time BD finished lower than 5th was... 1974.

or to The Museum of Drum & Bugle Corps History

Look at the reactions of Spirit and SCV. Spirit went from being one of the worst offenders to being the leader in prevention and education. SCV... just turned a deaf ear and a blind eye and said "Speak to the hand"... about abuse, questionable hiring practices, financial management, hanging MM's out to dry... the list is long. They practically ASKED for all this spotlight and scrutiny with their horrible behavior.

Ask a Catholic priest about attacking a group for actions of a few. My pastor had to stop letting kids hug him for about 2 years because he felt someone was always looking for an excuse to start letting accusations fly.