gbass598
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Posts posted by gbass598
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9 minutes ago, wonker said:
According to their FB post announcing the new adds, they specifically say "joining" and list Hannum as well.
I'm not sure what Hannum is going to offer in the program at this point. Mike is clearly listed as a percussion arranger, which was Thom's job before now if I'm not mistaken. Maybe its just as a consultant in the background just to give him a title but his role is clearly (and probably rightfully so) diminished as they transition.
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36 minutes ago, MGCpimpOtimp said:
They're awesome. Had a ton of really great content all summer and have had articles about every staff announcement. They link to the actual press release in the article. Pretty legit.
Fair enough. I didn't doubt that the news was true but the link looks like something that could easily be fake. I would have preferred to see the direct link to Crown's website before another secondary news source.
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16 minutes ago, MGCpimpOtimp said:
Kevin Shah and Mike Jackson officially percussion/sound designers at Crown. Wow!!
This website hardly looks like a legitimate source of news.
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1 hour ago, Cappybara said:
It certainly doesn’t. Crown’s design is very much in your face with an obnoxious amount of cheese while Mike’s compositions are very subtle and create a soundscape. Hannum’s battery arrangements matched the overall design very well, loud, loud and louder. Hopefully bringing Mike Jackson on is a sign that they will tone things down in general
Maybe its just the musician in me talking but I like a lot of musical contrast in a show. But that will need to involve the horn line picking and choosing moments too. Sometimes Crown reminds me of the drum corps version of Dream Theater. I had high hopes for Crown's show this past season but then they didn't really evolve and it got stagnant by midsummer. I would love for them to take me on a musical journey of highs and lows and different musical styles. If that is the route they choose to go, they'd better be committed to making sure the show design process fits.
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2 hours ago, BlueStainGlass said:
They left the same time Bluecoats changed the activity. I don't see how you dont see show design changes since then. Electronic, movement based, choregraphed body, and less militaristic uniforms being done more than marching and playing. I dont have a problem with either but since 2016 we have definitely changed.
Depends who you look at. I don't see Crown, Blue Stars or Blue Devils designing differently today than 2016. Bluecoats yes. They found their niche and unique voice. Boston changed their programming when they brought in a whole new staff. Otherwise musical design and composition seems pretty similar for most groups, just more costumes and less band uniforms. To me, theatrical presentation is a visual change but groups still present their music packages the same way.
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1 hour ago, BlueStainGlass said:
The activity was also less theatrical than it is now. They wanted to approach it like they do with Pulse and POW which is now more than ever how they could run things. I don't think Grom is looking to do the Drum Corps grind now.
It was only 2016 when he was at Blue Stars last as I recall. I don't see any corps show design being that drastically different since then. However, that just goes back to my original statement earlier. If Crown wants to improve their percussion, they need to adapt their show design process and not just plug name X into the slot. I also don't think being successful in WGI will directly applies to DCI. Tim Fairbanks has floated around DCI for years doing visual design without a ton of high end success that even matches where he made his name in the WGI activity.
Show design is a real struggle and it just needs to be the right team collaborating to make everyone successful. I struggle trying to get my voice heard in my marching band program as a percussion teacher and arranger. I don't like to be told when to play and not to play. I want to be more involved in the design conversation to have more control over my program. Sometimes there can be too many hands in the cookie jar and sometimes someone has overbearing control of who can put their hands in the cookie jar. I don't know which bucket Crown falls into but I do know percussion has been a problem for them no matter who they have had teaching them. I hope whoever they bring in has the trust to make that program theirs and is allowed to put their stamp on it instead of playing backup band for the horn line.
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10 hours ago, mingusmonk said:
FWIW, Mike's position at Bluecoats was Caption Head. The current role of Roger Carter. He never wrote or arranged at Bluecoats. The arranger was always Tom Rarick during Mike's years in Canton.
That being said, Mike's work at BK was enthralling.
8 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:i agree. not sure his design vibe fits Crowns approach, but who knows?
I think Mike left Bluecoats to go to BK for a couple of reasons. One being he wanted to be the arranger. The other is that he is a BK alum.
Keep in mind that Mike and Kevin Shah were a huge part of the design team at BK. Maybe even the main drivers of their design process. We've seen how BK has been since they left. Would Crown give them the same carte blanche in the design process? Who knows. Maybe they are due for a change. I feel like Crown's shows are always similar regardless of who writes the percussion. If Mike and Kevin are the ones brought in, I think they also need to be given more say in the overall design process than previous percussion designers to shake things up a bit. Not sure if they are but they "could" be the missing piece of the puzzle.
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11 hours ago, DrummerParent said:
Sounds like they are going after someone currently in WGI. As mentioned by kdaddy, Mike Jackson (founder of and composer for Broken City, formerly SCV, Bloo, BK) seems to be the lead based on rumors. John Mapes is the other name I’ve heard (Pulse Percussion, formerly Blue Stars, BDB). Both highly regarded as arrangers and instructional leads with strong WGI connections which could help with recruiting. They’ll have the connections to build a top notch staff.
I'm not sure if anyone will really change where they finish to an extent. if you look at the top groups, they are all filled with people who've been around a while. Rennick, McNutt, Rarick, Scott Johnson, Aungst. maybe its a bit of a "good ole boys" network that makes it hard for new names to break into that group.
I have always loved Mike Jackson's writing but BK never got out of the bottom 6 while he taught there. Many of those Broken City guys go to Bluecoats because of Roger Carter. John Mapes has also dominated the PIW and PSW classes of WGI in recent year but his years running Blue Stars didn't really move the earth in DCI.
I've always felt Crown's musical design process is so horn line dominant that percussion is always an after thought that will limit the potential for success no matter who teaches percussion there.
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4 minutes ago, GREENBLUE said:
He did the hazing???
I'm so confused.
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1 hour ago, GREENBLUE said:
I believe Concerto No. 10 was a mash up with the Floor is Lava leading up/including the hit during the ballad. Starting right after the soloist section.I could be wrong but that’s how it sounded to me.
Maybe. I'm not familiar with the piece. They clearly used samples of Steve Miller and the rest of the show is all by one band so maybe they didn't include the offending piece in their release because rights weren't obtained yet.
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1 hour ago, BlueStainGlass said:
If DCI operates the same as WGI licensing the group gets the license and sends to them. I've always had to get the rights from tresona or others on my own. We did a One Direction song 6 years ago when they were popular and it was a simple task that we did before we started writing music. Another year we did ABC and got Michael Jackson rights. So I'm curious how they lost rights.
This is the posted repertoire as of the end of May in their program announcement. I'm going to assume it was Concerto No 10 for Brass Band that was the issue.
- Fugue in G Minor BWV 578 by Johann Sebastian Bach
- Fly Like An Eagle by Steve Miller Band
- Way Too Long by Bent Knee
- Tarkus by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer
- The Floor Is Lava by Bent Knee
- Concerto No. 10 for Brass Band by Ludovic Neurohr
- Queer Gods by Bent Knee
- Being Human by Bent Knee
- Sign of the Times by Harry Styles
I've also heard of situations where rights holder X takes forever to grant permission. Mike says in the podcast it wasn't a problem 3 months before tour or a month before tour but suddenly became an issue a week before tour. Either they took for granted it was going to be approved and waited too long to get an answer before going to plan B or the rights holder was very hands on in the process and didn't like how they were going to do it and said no. I think its pretty common knowledge among us that the Bernstein family is very picky on how his stuff gets arranged over the last 10 years. I know other composers can be very difficult too.
Tresona says to allow approximately 45 days for the Neurohr piece.
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17 minutes ago, year1buick said:
From the 2020 article in the Inquirer:
“Since the assault in the apartment occurred in 2010, before a recent amendment to Megan’s Law, Hopkins is not subject to sexual offender registration.”
He was sentenced to two years of probation, fined $5000 and referred to by the judge as “flatly disgusting” and and a predator.
Being a vile human being who made poor choices and being a legally registered sexual offender in a government database in the eyes of the law don't have to be tied together.
I'm sure there are plenty of vile, disgusting human beings who attend drum corps shows as spectators each night. Nobody seems concerned with them being in the vicinity of members that they have no direct contact with.
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48 minutes ago, mingusmonk said:
You're overly simplified language in describing this thread is both telling to me and insulting to victims that are working advocacy within.
No.
You are judging. This topic started because GH went to a drum corps show and then veered off topic into something that was discussed ad nauseum and handled by the courts and DCI more than 2 years ago that had zero to do with GH attending a drum corps show as a common spectator. I have not and will not insult any victims of any form of assault. I'm sure the actual victims of this would like to move forward with their lives and find solutions and their own way of dealing with things they've lived with. I'm sure the last thing they want to do is talk about GH constantly. If something like that happened to me I wouldn't want it brought up and discussed constantly on an internet message board by people who don't know me.
I prefer to look towards the future and learn from the past, not dwell on it. I feel many people here want to dwell on it. People may not agree with me that is fine. I don't have to agree with you but if you think am insulting anyone who is a victim you are mistaken. Let's talk solutions and the future and how we learn from the past.
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3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
grossly inaccurate
62 pages of worrying about where GH is tells me otherwise.
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Just now, scheherazadesghost said:
I'll reverse the question.
Say a corps could wipe their staff entirely and start from scratch.
What would this community want to ask its board to know whether they'd done the work needed to safeguard future marching members?
I feel like Spirit of Atlanta is fair game for this question.
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18 minutes ago, IllianaLancerContra said:
If DCI came to you and said ‘fix abuse’, what would you do?
I think if you ask a lot of people here, the answer is "worry about where George Hopkins is located right now on DCP" instead of creating proactive solutions and ideas to protect the activity and try to prevent it from happening again.
The steps to fix any problem should always be looking towards proactive solutions instead of dwelling on reactive fixes after the fact. To my knowledge, no individual person on this site has the control to fix the issues but if there are collectively strong and viable options many people can get behind, you (we) can help foster change.
GH attending a show as a spectator is not the real issue here. DCI's clearly reactive response to say "Bad George, Don't come to any shows" like's he's a new puppy who pee'd on the carpet is not the real issue here. He is already removed from the activity and has no control over anyone in the drum corps activity. As has been pointed out, there are still people in the activity who have had accusations (unproven or not) around their behavior. Stopping and preventing those should be the focus.
I certainly don't claim to have the answers but dwelling on the past doesn't fix the future.
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On 8/6/2022 at 10:46 AM, Weaklefthand4ever said:
I want to be clear on something and I preface this by saying you all know much I luuuurrrvvvveeee PR. So much in fact that people ask me if I marched PR. I did NOT. I got cut from PR in 1989 very early.
All of this being said:
Unfortunately, it's going to have to be clean in order to bring up the scores. There was a pretty solid lot video from ATL that came out this week. I would challenge any of my percussion brothers and sisters to take a listen and see if you hear the same things that I do. It's just not clean. The hands look "heavy" almost like they are pushing too hard (especially taps and going into rolls.) I don't know if it's just interpretation from player to player or what. I also notice that those really grey rolls clean up the lower the volume gets (makes sense as less tension and "intention" in the hands because of lower volume would balance the sound from player to player.)
Let's say this. It's a good battery (especially the bass line.) But it's 2nd tier top 12. If it was clean, I would put it top 6 (maybe 5th) as the book is pretty good. I do NOT think that with as little time is left in the season, we are going to see significant changes. The snare feature is an interesting little beastie. But said beastie is super exposed. I watched a video of maybe 3 runs of the same block and picked up some hair on each run but at different spots in general. Think of it like dirty anything.....if it's dirty, DON'T EXPOSE IT.
Not sure if you watched the Agedout podcast review the Atl lot video or just the video itself but this is exactly their assessment.
very heavy handed. I love me some strong quality taps but you can push it too far to the point it doesn’t feel comfortable or flow out of the hands.
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23 minutes ago, MikeN said:
That stadium was the only nice thing about it. Bad parking, bad food options and so-so hotels. Admittedly just my opinion, but I think the new place is way better.
Mike
I got my wallet stolen from the gym when I was in Div III in 1996 so there is that. I do recall the stadium being the only nice thing about that area.
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5 minutes ago, C.Holland said:
It could be lots of things. Point is, anyone who’s been on a few tours know that good experiences don’t produce happenings like these. And bad experiences are often brushed aside until they reach a point of “so we each only get one bagel for lunch?” Which then becomes parents calling, and admin scrambling.
And this is not a drum corps specific thing. It happens in the real world all the time too. I'm sure everyone can cite a source of something in their place of employment that got blown out of proportion and could have been handled better that unfortunately didn't get handled until after it blew up.
The internet has become a really easy place for people to complain about things while actually having productive direct conversation about it with the people who can actually do something is uncomfortable for most people.
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9 minutes ago, rjohn76 said:
One of the members that had been Tweeting all day is indicating that the situation has been addressed.
Sounds like a poorly handled misunderstanding.
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1 hour ago, Trumpet2 said:
Obviously we don’t know the behind the scenes, but something is obviously going on. I saw someone on Reddit make a post that said “do not donate to the members asking for donations”
I mean, asking for random donations to a venmo account does seems suspicious. I'd like to think if specific members are in trouble they'd reach out to people they know like family and friends for help before panhandling to strangers on the internet. Even still, I'm not sure what all this money is getting them. Are they doordashing to their housing site for every meal? Just loading up on snacks at truck stops? I think this certainly requires some clarification before people jump off the handle on this one.
I feel bad if this really is an issue but this could also just be a poorly managed and communicated situation if there are other members disputing things.
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2 minutes ago, Super Don-O said:
You might sneak in, but if discovered they are now within their rights to have you charged with trespass, a misdemeanor, with potential fines and/or jail time. Banning you is a step in a process of escalating consequences.
So back to my original question, was George ever officially banned or is DCI just trying to cover up their own mess by trying to institute a retroactive ban now as a reaction because people continue to give George attention? I feel like the answer is he was never officially banned in the first place but I could be completely wrong.
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7 hours ago, Red Dragons said:
Fans get banned often in sports from attending future games because of their actions. Other than the difficulty of enforcing in terms of identifying the fan later, it's quite legal. And hop is a sexual predator which subjects him to restraining orders as well if somebody wanted to go that route. Read your ticket at an event sometime. It's usually got a license agreement printed on the back.
But he not a sexual predator in the eyes of the law. He did not have to register as one. if DCI wants to go down that slope, are they asking ticketmaster to scan their database of purchased tickets against a sexual predator database and keeping all of them out? There are plenty of former band directors and drum corps staff members who actually are registered sex offenders who could be attending events.
I often wonder how banning someone from a facility actually works. For example, if I run out onto the field naked at a MLB game and get banned from returning to that stadium, do they make every who works there memorize what i look like? There are plenty of easy ways I could get into the stadium without anyone knowing who I am to watch a game with thousands of people. They might remove me from that event but it would be pretty hard to keep me out permanently. I feel like all of those "bans" are empty threats that are never really enforced and therefore never actually challenged.
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1 minute ago, keystone3ply said:
Just to play devil's advocate here; you might try researching the sources where the letter was shared on twitter in correspondence between the investigative journalist & the subject's attorney. It's even been reposted in this thread.
True statement about the internet. But the letter was confirmed by Thomas Bergstrom. Are you a friend, fan, or family member of the subject?
I was researching. That’s why I asked for a source. I now see the info from the person who posted before you who didn’t give me attitude about it. I don’t live in this website and I even went back a day or 2 in this topic looking for a reference to it out of curiosity and didn’t find anything. My bad if I overlooked it.
I have no connection to anyone involved in this at all. I just find it hard to believe DCI has any standing to enforce this. I don’t believe anyone ever mentioned a ban of him ever being a spectator when this occurred. This was handled in the courts and by the Cadets organization. DCI removed him from their hall of fame. Heck, Pete Rose was banned from baseball for life but MLB can’t and don’t prevent him from buying a ticket and attending games just like anyone else.
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Staff Merry-go-round
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
This is true. Mike Jackson has been my favorite battery arranger since Jim Casella left the activity. Pretty different backgrounds and styles. The current father of East Coast drumming vs one of the current kings of the West Coast for sure.