Tenoris4Jazz

I disagree. We ran rehearsals on Thursday nights before the Friday football game, in the stadium, under the lights. The only people there were the staff and some parents who came early to pick up their kids. We put on some unreal performances on those nights, some of which made the director cut practice off 30 minutes early. We didn't care that there wasn't an audience, we only cared that 1) WE knew we had nailed our own individual performance, and 2) we knew what it sounded like. The audience always amps up a performance, obviously, and there is no economic viability of the activity without one. But you can perform in a vacuum and still know how well you performed based on your own self-evaluation.

This happened to us in 2007, in the middle of the housing collapse, and what happened relates to this discussion. My wife (Electrical Engineering degree from Ga Tech and an MBA from Ga State) put together all the figures from a dozen comps, including recent home sales in the area showing a DECLINE in home values, not an increase. If the face of her rebuttal, they said that their algorithm for determining assessment figures was "complicated." She informed them of her academic credentials and said, "Try me." They then had to admit that the increase or decrease in assessed value of homes HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH CURRENT MARKET VALUE OF PROPERTIES!!!! It was an arbitrary decision based on need/political will. After several dozen similar confrontations over the next 12-14 months, the tax assessor's office completely changed the methodology for assessing home values and property taxes dropped 15-20% across the county, matching the drop in development and sales in the home building industry. The moral of the story: ulterior motive. I question why this change is needed in the face of an underwhelming amount of evidence showing unavoidable harm to judges and "visual clutter" to fans eyes.

First: don't take the annuity option. The rate of return they give you is crap. You can make 10X more investing in safe mutual funds AND have access to $625 million in two weeks. You spend 15% and save 85% and you live off of $25 million in income for life without ever touching the principle. Second: I'd invest a portion of the money to cover all rights fees for all of DCI and DCA every year. Let anybody play anything they want. Third: I'd set aside the same percentage for my favorite DCI and DCA corps as I do for other charitable entities. That would mean $9 million up front and $500,000 per year forever. In case you're wondering, I've been a corporate accountant for 20 years and I have a spreadsheet that calculates every amount about winning the lottery. I did it on a dare about 8 years ago and I update it every few months. If you tip the guy who sold you the winning ticket 0.2% of your take home after taxes, that would be over $ 1 million.

Apparently, The Rose Bowl is a home game for Stanford? They were banned from going to away games for this entire academic year (2015-2016) because of violations of the school's policies. See below: The Stanford University marching band will not be allowed to travel to road games for one year after a university investigation found the band had violated multiple school policies, the school announced Friday [Editor’s note: Friday, March 2, 2015]. "Violations included a tradition in which a band member was given an alcoholic concoction intended to make that individual vomit publicly; an annual trip in which some band members used illegal substances; and a band selection process in which individuals were asked a number of inappropriate questions on sexual matters," the school said. I grew up in a place and time where college marching band equaled the Georgia Redcoat Band and the Jacksonville State Marching Southerners. You won't find two better programs anywhere. JSU's long time director Dr. David Walters passed away last week, leaving behind a four decade legacy of turning out music educators, performers, and just plain fantastic people. THOSE are college bands. I just wish Cal's football team would run over the Stanford band EVERY year!

I specifically listened to Crown to check on this. It sounds like they used the semis performance because his solo is very clearly amplified the entire way through.

I spent 45 minutes typing a reply and then hit one wrong button and *poof* it was gone. I'll just say this: what I like about drum corps (dominant horn lines, jazz, cool drum lines, equipment work, reinventing and replaying beloved songs) was phased out about 5 years ago it seems. I have 30+ years of cd's full of what I liked, and that will do. Today's DCI is for a generation that grew up with YouTube, winter guard, and Bb horns. That's not my style.

It was the opener, not the closer I was referring to. And it is a different system now, and one I just don't like. The entire judging guide rewards all the elements I used to ignore in a show. Guess it just boils down to the fact that I don't like the way the activity works these days. They've basically shut all the high school kids out of it, they've made it so expensive that most kids can't afford it, and the shows require too much "thought" to enjoy. I'll leave it to you guys who can tolerate it. I'm out.

Again, this intellectual crap is why I can barely stand drum corps now. If they MM's are just robots following orders, why the hell should anyone march!?!?!?!? If the show is so #### high-minded that the PERFORMERS CAN'T GRASP IT, it's time for the designers to take a hike.

I'm not talking about loud for the sake of loud... I'm talking about loud where loud is REQUIRED, not suggested. Listen to the final chord of Georgia SOA 1980. That's a perfectly balanced chord, it's just played at fffff instead of fff. I watched/listened to every one of the top 15 corps this year 4 times, once live at the Ga Dome and then all three shows of finals week. Maybe once did I hear a horn line play what I would consider ffff, and no one touched fffff. And you can't tell me there weren't moments where it called for it. Read the link I posted a week ago. The G bugles had more dynamics to their sound and they projected better. Listen to the Caballeros alumni corps... those people aren't half the musicians that Crown/BD/Cadets are, but they sound like all three hornlines put together. Maybe I just prefer the days when part of the allure of the brass line was how powerful it felt and sounded. I only heard that once this year: Crown's closer. You used to hear it once or twice from every corps.

I beg to differ. If you don't have memories of getting your face blown off by 64 G bugles, you don't realize how weak modern Bb horns sound. Read this, it's an excellent reference on the difference between G bugles and today's horns. http://www.drumcorpsworld.com/?p=5433%C2'>

And this is exactly why I don't like DCI much anymore. Why does a show have to have a d*mn concept?!?!?!? Best show I ever saw was '86 Devils. The show concept was "Compared to us... you suck."

But not an entire show, and that's my point. What happens in bad weather when it's not safe to march? They play a standstill or go indoors and play. I've never seen a show where the staff said "Well, let's not play and just march." This is just my opinion, but I heard the USMC Drum Corps in 1987 play on stage at the auditorium where they were hosting the awards presentation for our spring band competition. So much of the impact of the USMCDC is their incredibly tight military drill, but that night nobody cared that it was a standstill concert without marching. They blew the doors out of that place and had 1500 high school kids going nuts! Maybe it's the fact that I've spent a good part of the last 27 years listening to DCI Finals performances from 1972-2005, music only. Maybe it also has something to do with my photographic memory (which used to be MUCH better!) and the fact that I could "see" the show in my head while listening to the music. Maybe it has something to do with giving up the G bugles and that unique sound that I loved. Whatever... if the music is going to be less and less of a focus, I'll support the activity by seeing live shows and just go back and listen to the 30+ years of recordings where the music was the thing.

*sigh* and that's where I started liking DCI less and less. The visuals are usually cool, but if you can't close your eyes and get into the music, what's the point? I've said before that I've seen hundreds of performances with a corps standing still and playing and I've yet to see one where they march and don't play.

Here's my deal with cd's vs. dvd's... I listen to drum corps 1000x more than I watch it. I listen in the car, at work, while I'm doing yard work, etc... I've always been more about the music than the visuals. I really just want cd's of the music now and I'll wait months or years before I care about watching the shows.

Along this same idea, the Oscar winner for Best Film rarely ever goes to the highest grossing film of the year, and the best films rarely ever gross much. Titanic, Return of the King, and Forrest Gump are the only such films in the last 20 years. I would equate that to the best show design does not always get the biggest crowd response, and the most crowd-friendly show doesn't always score well.

You got a phone with a camera?

For probably 10 years, I never listened to Cadets or Star when I listened to '93 cd's. They just didn't appeal to me, especially compared to Phantom and BD. It wasn't until a decade later that I began finding something to like about those two shows. I still prefer Phantom's music to what Cadets and Star played. It is strictly a matter of personal taste/appeal.

I think, in a very real way, Vanguard was a different corps going forward after '92. They moved on, but a very big part of what SCV was went with Gail. RIP

You are talking about ancient history... I'm talking about modern history, since the 1950's.. Up there, football is still a game. Down here, it's as much a religion as where everyone goes on Sunday. Now, I'm not saying it's GOOD that it's this way, just that it is. By the way, did tobacco disappear? No, I still see people under the age of 30 smoking every day, and they've been told their entire lives how bad it is for them. The same thing applies to football... they're willing to take the risk in order to play the game. Also, don't overestimate the power of "Mom" to decide what sports Junior does or does not play. Usually mom doesn't get to tell dad what his son is or isn't going to play. A lot of moms think their kid will be the one to make it to the NFL and bring home all that money and get them out of poverty. If you've never experienced a football season in a small rural community in the south, then you really don't understand. You don't have a frame of reference to compare. It's all they have and the more you try to convince them to quit, the more determined they are to play.

I guess my high school was an oddity. We had a nationally known championship band from the mid '60's through the early '80's. At the same time, the football team recorded 53 consecutive winning seasons. We had full stands for every game from kickoff through the start of the third quarter. If the score of the game was out of hand (and it often was a 20 or 30 point lead at halftime) everyone would stay to see the band, and then some would start trickling out during the second half. At one point, over 33% of the students were either in the band, on the football team, or were cheerleaders. That was with an enrollment of 1000 kids.

I live a couple of miles from Kennesaw Mountain HS. They have won the AAA national title at BOA twice, most recently last year. I attended a football game there just recently and was shocked. The football program stinks and the fans go out to show support for the kids, but the game is unwatchable. The band is there out of obligation. Their halftime performance was barely 5 minutes, and it was seriously lacking in effort. The entire event hardly seemed worth the time and money. I believe in situations like this, the marching band could survive without football, but at the same time, there are less than 140 members in the band out of an enrollment of over 2100 students. Participation rates aren't very high anyway. There are only, what... 100 or 150 programs that could exist without football as a means of support? 95+% of high school bands would disappear without football halftimes to play. If it costs $300-$500 to march WITH support from football games, how much would it cost to march WITHOUT IT? I doubt there would be more than 5 bands in the entire state of Georgia without football. That being said, there is no fear of football disappearing in the south. It's just not going to happen. Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas... these states have MASSIVE high school football participation because so much of the small community structure is built around "Friday night lights." Kids may wait longer to start playing, but by middle school, there will be football.

Wait... he pulled his permission AFTER he got his money??? Isn't that a finalized contract? How does one get to do a "do over" on a signed contract???

I was out of the loop back then... what about Phantom 2008 needed editing????

I've always felt the recordings were meant to record, for posterity, THE ACTUAL EVENTS THAT HAPPENED! It's not a "DCI Finals Week's Greatest Hits" recording. It's a recording of what happened on Finals night. If you don't want something ugly on there... nail your performance. I'm sure Buckner would like to splice video of him properly fielding a ground ball into the 1986 World Series Game 6 tape... but it happened, and it's there. One set of the '89 cd's has the actual Finals show of BD, frack and all. I like having both.

How about this as a compromise: modern drum corps, as a 100% artistic endeavor, started with DCI in '72. Until then, under the various AL and VFW rules, it was part military display and part art. Maybe we start at the point where you no longer had to go through inspection? Or, how about we start when marching over age members was no longer a common thing? Sometimes events happen that make a natural, obvious dividing point in things. The NFL-AFL and NBA-ABA mergers are perfect examples. The leagues that emerged from those mergers played a very different game than the NFL and NBA had prior to that. The passing game from the AFL took over offenses in the NFL. It made the game more exciting, it led to higher scoring, and it appealed to more fans. The post-ABA NBA featured a more wide-open game as well, with more scoring, showcasing better athletes and preparing the league for the Bird/Magic era. Relaxing the rigid rules from the AL/VFW days allowed more artistic freedom and opened up drum corps to new fans and new participants. You can't compare eras in drum corps, just like football or basketball... too many changes to the actual gameplay have happened to make that possible. There is the pre-DCI era and the DCI era. Blessed Sacrament won both VFW and AL titles in '58, but do they compare to the 2014 Blue Devils? No, because the activity was 95% different from one era to the other.