PopcornEater1963

I have a $5 stub from a 6-7 corps show in Chattanooga, TN in 1978.

With due respect, the question wasn’t whether you watch Cosby. It’s whether you threw out all tv sitcoms because of Cosby…

Unfortunately, misconduct will continue. What has to change are the consequences for misconduct. I’m for dropping the hammer on offending individuals AND their corps administration with a rifle shot approach… not just putting a brick of C4 in Indy and blowing up the whole activity.

I’ll qualify this statement with the context that I’ve followed Spirit since 1978. I have a sibling that marched Spirit in the Jim Ott days. I’ve always been a fan and supporter. So I’m sad, disappointed, and more than a bit angry that SOA appears to not only have fallen asleep at the switch, but perhaps never installed a switch to begin with. There are clearly issues to be addressed at SOA. They’ve lost their way. But that’s not where my thoughts are as I read this thread. My thoughts are with the “burn it all down, I’ve seen my last show” crowd. I have some questions. 1. Did you stop watching all sitcoms as a result of Bill Cosby’s deeds? 2. Did you quit watching movies when Harvey Weinstein was convicted? 3. When Ray Rice beat up his girlfriend on video, did you boycott the NFL? 4. When it became clear that Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds all cheated to capture Hank Aaron’s home run title by taking steroids, did you quit watching Major League Baseball? I could obviously extend this indefinitely… but I’m sure you get the point. Why are so many ready to throw an entire activity out the door over an incident in one drum corps? Or even multiple drum corps?

So… looks like my tongue in cheek sarcasm was recognized. Yes…all of these organizations handled similar situations wretchedly. And yet…none of them “blew it all up”. I do not accept what happened at SOA appropriate. Not even close. There should be legal repercussions. But I’m a little perplexed that we don’t seem to understand that this is a phenomenon associated with placing youth directly under the charge of adult staff just like the rest of those organizations. And it seems like where progress truly took place with them was in the area of specific law enforcement of individuals breaking the law… not shutting down the overall organization/activity. I’m trying to remember if Penn State football even missed a season on the field…and suggesting shutting down college football over what happened at Penn State is obviously a non-starter.

It seems DCI should be consulting other parent organizations who have dealt with similar problems of adults working with youth in close quarters and benchmarking their best practices to manage. organizations like: The Catholic Church The Boy Scouts of America The International Olympic Committee The US Women’s Gymnastics Team The Penn State University Football team The Ohio State Wrestling Team The NCAA in general to name a few. All have been faced with very similar problems. How did they handle it beyond “ just burn the whole thing down “?

...that maneuvered through a tricky season all the way to Finals on Sunday night. I have to wonder if there is a hybrid model of some virtual shows and larger "regional" live shows for DCA seasons in the future. But that's probably because I live in Atlanta and am a hardcore Atlanta CV fan. I admire their grit knowing year after year they are going to have to "load up and go North" a couple of times per year and rarely if ever get any reciprocation from Northern Corps coming to the shows in the South. Perhaps more Southern DCA corps would spring up if they could compete virtually with the exception of more centrally located live shows. Just a thought. Congrats to the Caballeros and the Rogues Hollow Regiment on your Open Class and Class A titles!

To make the show draw a better reaction from the crowd. The ones that buy tickets. That buy t-shirts. Im not against competition. Many years of posts here will bear that out. I just thought it was an interesting perspective. Said differently… they competed this year. For crowd reaction. To “raise the bar” night after night. To leave a show on the field and think…”I’d hate to have to follow US tonight…” Just not for a 19.6 in brass versus someone else’s 19.5… in the opinion of one person as opposed to the reaction of thousands of “paying judges”.

I tend to agree. Then again, no one goes to an outdoor music festival with multiple bands with a scorecard in their pocket. And those events definitely charge “good money” to attend. Which would transition this conversation to “sporting event” versus “musical entertainment “. Which I believe has been discussed ad nauseum here🤪

"There's nothing wrong with judging and competition. But I was fine and would be fine in the future without it. Removing the "judging" aspect would make positive changes, for members, staff, and administration. The staff wouldn't be up all night listening to tapes after every show painstakingly deciding on what to "pay attention to" and what to "let go" from judges in the quest for a "higher score". Judge's insights can certainly make a show better, but in the end, judges just have an opinion like everyone else on what is working and what it isn't. For members, undertaking rewrites of music, drill, etc. would be more accepted and palatable if everyone knew it was to make the show more engaging and not the possibility it was just in the name of a "higher score". For Administrations, it would allow them to focus on Instruction Staff whose primary focus is to EDUCATE members, inspire excellence, and let the chips fall where the chips fall. I can almost guarantee you that there are one or two key staffers inside each organization whose sole focus is on "winning". Winning is fun. Winning is good. But when "winning" becomes the focus of a staffer trying to boost their bonafides in the DCI ecosystem over teaching and inspiring, then we all missed something somewhere..." -My son, last night, after our flight home from Indy while watching the Rebroadcast on Flo-Marching. No...he didn't say it in THOSE words. But our conversation was in-depth enough that I can paraphrase it with mine. I think he's spot on the money.

You remember him all the way back from Atlanta CV days, yes? I believe y’all met at a rehearsal near Baltimore in 2016. Lot of water has flowed under the Drum Corps bridge since then. He and the corps had a great run last night. All is well, and 7 years of being a marching performer have now wound down. On to the future!

Nope. Used that the very first show on Lacrosse! 🤪

My son Davis, will be conducting the Cavaliers tonight having learned this morning that his grandmother (Mom’s side) passed away last night. When he stepped on the podium in Madison a couple of weeks ago, it was on the 10th anniversary of losing his other grandmother (my Mom). I’d like to think they’ll both be together tonight enjoying their grandson’s final performance in a 7 year run of drum corps from above. Peace to all… PopcornEater

Yep...and it will be interesting to see how Corps are able to recruit and gear back up after the 2020 exemption. Watching the Cavaliers age-out ceremony in Lisle the other night had me thinking..."Is the whole CORPS ageing out?" I'm sure Cavaliers won't be the only Corps to face losing what was basically 2 classes of age-outs in one year and show up pretty young next year.

Now we know where Raymond landed after he got fired. As the Chief Sound Engineer for Flo Marching.