Weaklefthand4ever

So just out of curiosity (and this may have already been answered and I'm just too lazy to find it,) what is the draw for major marching band shows like both live and with streaming? From what many here are saying (and it makes sense,) the potential revenue gained is FAR outweighed by the cost of adding additional housing, transportation, staff, food and uniform costs. So the corps lose money no matter what it seems. The only angle I can see (and we don't have to worry about it again until 2022,) would be if the crowd sizes in the stands and online are so amazingly high, that additional shows could be added to increase corps revenue. Someone who follows this stuff more closely than I do would have to clue me in.

There's far too much logic in this statement. This is the same in generally every industry that exists. Ideas generally cost money and I've found that ideas that don't cost money, generally don't get much traction and even when they do, they are short term solutions with little true impact. I remember as a very young instructional designer sitting in a big office in Atlanta with Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank talking through some Tier 1 training for their first Home Depot call center concept. We had a great plan (we thought,) but when the question came to "how much will it cost? Who is paying for it and what is the impact," I didn't have those answers. Welcome to project management 101...the hard way. DCI is a business...plain and simple. And to put an idea out there without being able to show proof of concept is just plain silly IMHO. There...I'm now ready for the 'Ok Boomer" comments...even though I like 25 to 30 years too young.

I think the general consensus from current marching members (granted that's only 5 people this coming season) was that DCI is only DCI sans-woodwinds. I still feel like it's the same as it was in the 80's when I marched, which is to say "If you want to march DCI, pick up an instrument that's part of the existing ensemble and put in the work to learn it." I don't feel like that's a prejudice. Things have rules that make up the framework of the activity. If you play american soccer, you don't use your hands (unless you're the goalie.) If you want to use your hands, choose a different sport or gain the skills necessary to compete within the context of the activity. I would like to think that most kids who would have the skills to march at the DCI level would be able to pick up a new instrument fairly quickly and work their way up into a corps. The kids now seem to have pretty high skill sets already. Just my opinion though.

I remember watching championships in 85' with dad when Star sung the whole "MICKEYMOUSE" thing. I thought dads head would explode in a flurry of "that's not drum corps" diatribes. I'm not a huge fan of the narration and singing either. Even last years PR show, I wasn't really much of a fan and I actually really liked that show. But I will agree that if something is done well and actually adds something to the show, then I can at least appreciate it.

I hear you. Peart was an excellent drummer for the style he played in the time he played. But I want to punch a kitten every time I hear someone who isn't musically trained call him (or anyone for that matter,) the greatest that ever was or will be. There are SO many examples of cats from Krupa to Chambers to Simon Phillips who were/are technically "better." I think that's why I usually prefer to really only talk in depth about music with other musicians. We can all generally agree that you don't have to dig something to appreciate it.

I'm so glad I marched battery. All of this talk of embouchure, horn angles, valves and rotors and such just makes my head hurt. I'll keep my hunchback and hands that look like knurled tree limbs from playing on kevlar as long as I don't have to learn to count past potato. You guys had too #### much to think about.

With our luck that's now the working title for the sequel to Mr. Hollands Opus....we're now all doomed.

Was going to do something similar and then I realized all I had in the fridge was a left over bottle of Korbel...you know...the Schlitz Malt Liquor of Champagnes.

Interesting. I've run into that in some ways even at my very young 48. But mine is specifically for the fact that Britt is 29 years old. We ran into exactly what was stated here at a place which shall not be named (Yellow Deli) where the waitress basically said "This really isn't a 'your dad' kind of spot." Well guess what kid...I ain't her dad. Most of the coolest people I know are my age or older.

Sounds like it's time for a t-shirt design....

And you can tell it's a battery just by looking at their feet. I tried to stand "straight footed" once and almost fell over.

I think that if the mods found or find it offensive that I, as a college student some 30 years ago, played ANY music loudly regardless of the instrumentation or style and chose to ban me, then it would be one of the silliest bans on DCP that I have personally seen. But your point is well taken, and quite frankly, people generally love to find points of contention and reasons to be offended regardless of intent. As an additional aside, I don't mind bagpipes. The guys nest door didn't seem overly fond of them, but that was kind of the point. It could have been a playlist of several genre's. The effect would have most likely been the same at the volume levels I was using.

That's one of the things I would love to be able to see on all corps is actual judging comments.

I think I used PR's show as the model. I love PR, but last years props did absolutely (and literally,) NOTHING for the entire show.

We had a similar discussion during the early part of the 2019 season. I think the way it was basically phrased was "which would score higher...a great show musically with no props or a "meh" show musically with tons of interpretive movement, sparkly GE stuffs and props that were either poorly used or not used at all." I don't think we ever ended up with a definitive popular answer, but it made for interesting discussion.

You have an advantage then and I can respect that. Still, others will listen with different ears and see with different eyes.

Back at UA, I used to do that to the cats who roomed next door to my room. I had a set of old Polk 4.5's and when they would get a little out of control, I would face them right at the wall and full blast some bagpipes until they stopped. I presume that it might actually have killed one of them.

I can't agree more. If.....IF there were an actual viable reason for doing it that I could see tied into the overall survival of the activity, I might consider it. But DCI is just not the platform for all "all instruments" activity IMHO. I'm not going to pass judgement on it until 1. It actually happens and 2. I see the product on the field and how corps use said instrumentation.

As was my brother. He was a 1st chair all state clarinet player who ended up marching Baritone in DCI. It can be done with talent and lots of hard work. I would, however, think it's a little harder now as the talent level just keeps escalating across all MM positions. You used to be able to get away a little bit of talent, a killer work ethic and a whole lot desire to succeed, even if you could only count to potato (such as in my case.) Just come to camp, bust your ### and don't leave until they tell you you're cut. Now, it seems these cats come out of the womb being able to move and play and high levels of skill.

I think we beat this to death a couple of years ago again, but this is just another example of why DCI needs a team to actually handle legitimate complaints as well as monitor social media. We have multiple teams at my job that do nothing but scour the internet and reach out to customers who have an issue and would prefer to air those grievances online. They of course have that right regardless of what we have in place, but it significantly improves our service delivery and optics. And let's face it, DCI has some horrible optics. Regardless of whether the responsibility for the issue (whatever it may be,) lies with DCI or the member corps, DCI is the face to which the name is attached. Ignoring it or saying it's "not my problem" is like an agent getting angry at a customer because "they" weren't the ones who did the customer wrong. Sorry I'm grumpy....

Point well taken. I'm sure there are avenues to a lot of corps as far as short term volunteering goes. But with all of the chaos that is a tour season, I think some would-be volunteers get "lost in translation." This is where a volunteer network of sorts would be a great idea. Granted, I know that there are larger pieces at work to include background checks etc., but it's not something that couldn't be handled. EDIT: Just to say this, I would also think most corps draw their volunteers from parents of current and past MM's or past MM's themselves. And that's fine. I would love to volunteer for any of my former corps and have, in fact, contacted each one (to no avail.) Unfortunately, that leaves (most likely,) a good number of people out who would gladly volunteer for ANY corps at specific events which had a need.

I've actually heard that. I know University of Tampa hosted several cheer camps as well as some pro baseball camps in the spring. Obviously, the pro camps were a little less low-key but both had large-ish numbers of participants and staff. I can certainly see how increasing numbers would lead to some issues with housing. I would think DCI would have accounted for that in their walk through of the proposal. But then again, I used "Think" and 'DCI" in the same sentence.

Correct. The Sisters of Mercy were attached to the Jesuits from the Nashville Diocese. They weren't quite as evil as the Jesuits were. More like the the Diet Coke of Evil...Evil Lite. They still would give you a good rap across the knuckles if you broke a word in cursive or whatever. I survived because I was funny in my irreverence. Like when I stole the clicker they used to signal when to sit/stand/kneel in mass. In my defense...it was pretty #### funny to try and make a human wave during mass.

At UA in the very early 90's (started in 1990,) we had something around 350. It was more like marching large, gelatinous blobs very slowly. The blobs did have shape though.

LOL. It didn't. But basically this is "what had happened was...." In every Jesuit Catholic School, there is a supposed to be a crucifix above every door. So we're sitting is Sister Mary Rebecca's class having our weekly Satan discussion when a new kid walks in and slams the door. The crucifix falls off the wall and hits the floor. Jesus' head breaks off...rolls across the floor and hits Sister Mary Rebecca in the foot. For whatever reason, in that moment, any semblance of self control I had was lost and I started laughing. Sister Mary Rebecca reaches down to her nun "Bat Utility Belt" and busts out a vial of holy water and proceeds to douse me with it, screaming "Don't laugh...that's what Satan wants you to do!" True story