Jeff Ream

that's because TOB and Cavalcade have cultivated relationships with the local press. With my involvement with TOB Chapter 6, I have the email addy to every local paper to funnel news to, and some respond, some don't. the great thing is most people sent to cover the event are blown away by the kids work ethic. But man, do some of the shows confuse them

maybe to a small degree it is......but, seeing a lot of band stuff as well as corps, i'm inclined to believe no, not really. we keep being told that this is art. well, a true artist knows he has rules, and creates from there. the genius of drum corps shows past was they took music not written for this "artform" and made it work. now that, to me, is innovation and creativity. think SCV last summer...all those string parts spread out between the voices, especially mello and pit. THAT'S CREATIVE! I am ok with amping if it's just the pit. despite how it was presented originally, we all know it was never to be just that. I however feel electronics are going to be bad. People will become more and more dependent on them, kind of like we see in WGI percussion now. Soon, it'll be like WGI...where you have to have it to get the show concept across....and IMO, too often, they actually hurt the product I think a lot of us want to agree. Unfortunately, I think the cynics among even the most positive of us see it happening at some point in time. At this point, I'm not sure to what to think about them, except for what knowledge I have first hand talking to a few of them and some stories told from some board meetings 2nd or 3rd hand. Needless to say, outside 2 of them, I can't say I feel really good about it

that'd be awesome. and in case i forget or no one else says it, thank you for being so upfront and open with all of this

well, i'd imagine bands have more, and here's why. most bands compete at shows primarily close to home, making it easy for mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, 14th cousin 19 times removed etc to attend. Take away a big show for a circuit like their finals, and most parents can see their kids every weekend. And even where I teach, with finals usually less than 2 hours from home, we don't see all the parents at finals we see at local shows. Now factor in the multitude of high schools and circuits out there...yeah overall bands will draw more people. But, you don't often see a lot of people who show up just to watch and have no ties, and those that do usually try to find ways to scam their way in. In DCI, a kid's closest show to home may be an airplane ride away. With luck, the parents may get to see the kid 1/2 times, extended family less. local shows will have more causal fans than regionals or finals, but the family connection will be harder to maintain. if we have a kid that marches, i know if I want to see the kid perform a lot, i'll be a volunteer, because otherwise, I can't just pick up every weekend and fly to wherever they are unless the mortgage gods really smile upon the business

Nah, I won't withhold vital food needs. Kathy Hepner would have me committed. but I do find that a bummer....hearing those tapes are a huge educational tool for those that teach and judge

honestly, easiest way to shake things is up is to adjust the point toals on the sheet like WGI uses...make performance more the score.

1) 2003 2) some change is ok, as I'm not opposed to all change. I'm even ok with amping pits, but I saw thru the proposal for what it was and what else it wanted to add. 3) amping alone, not vocals etc.

not always. and in some cases, some of them that have brought "innovation" to DCI have been flops

show me a band circuit that gets 20,000 fans to it's championships. I'm talking paying customers, not kids in the stands because they didn't make finals and got freebies

that's where i think non drum corps people on the board...real business folks with experience in marketing...would be a huge help. take a record executive....they know stuff like Jonas Brothers, etc will sell to a certain audience. As such, they don't try to sell Metallica to the same crowd. i find it greatly amusing that 99% of the arts knows how to cater to its audience without making drastic changes to their product, but drum corps doesn't. They just keep trying to add more crap all the time that only dilutes the product

my issue is if band became more innovative, then maybe it was time for drum corps to get some new designers.

i hope future content includes judges tapes. getting rid of that was a dumb decision by DCI

every time i see anyone ice fishing, i just think of the Grumpy Old Men movies and laugh

ok, i'll throw a spark on the fire.... does DCI do anything to try and recruit minorities? knowing what I do about education and disadvantaged schools, those types of place are the kinds of school that really, music is 4th class, if it even exists.

right. so let's just take a unique activity and try to make it all things to all people. you do realize that is a universal failing tactic for any kind of business?

i'll be honest. I used to tape a lot of shows ( audio only), then still ended up buying the finals cds, videos/dvds etc then i stopped except for when I did a show write up...helped to go back and listen while i wrote it up for DCW. now..I just stopped. not because of difficulty getting the tape recorder in. I just started feeling like I shouldn't. I mean I never made copies or posted em anywhere. so....i guess i learned, but i did buy the finals stuff too. it was always fun to hear how the shows changed over the course of the summer

very good deals!

at least it was still acoustic and didnt have woodwinds

well, now we have 20% of the total

the Cavies book had some stories about what they experienced

may as well be

well...sometimes, in an 11 minute show, you dont have time to elaborate on tape as much as you'd like, or you end up missing whats going on. honestly, the new system sounds like it will lead to tapes sounding like tick tapes, while mentioning whatever topics of what the staff told them about preshow.

edited to make it truthful