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Weaklefthand4ever

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Everything posted by Weaklefthand4ever

  1. I would agree. The competition is getting tighter and tighter and the visual component is meaning more and more. I think SOA is on the right track. The thing about DCI is that if you fall out of the top 12 for too long, you begin to lose staff as well as returning membership. Those corps who fall out tend to fold unless they have some pretty serious support by the way of donations from alumni (SOA and Madison are good examples.) I just wonder sometimes if DCI is truly a model that can help corps sustain long term.
  2. I'm proud of what the MM's, volunteers and staff did this year. My hope is that they continue to grow and make positive change moving forward and that the corps accepts the help of volunteers and vets a little more openly this coming season. I do understand though that the feedback and suggestions given need to be positive and framed in such a way that they are constructive criticism's with actual PLANS to institute change and not the cringe-worthy rants/demands of people who clearly just want what they want. I do hope Will Pitts comes back in a capacity that he can be fully successful at. I truly believe this year, he was out of his element. Whether he asked for that additional responsibility or it was dropped in his lap is of no concern now as long as something was learned. I'm not on the inside of PR as I am not a vet so all I can do is sit back and watch and remain openly positive and supportive as I did this past season.
  3. Money is ALWAYS a factor. People have to be paid. You can't attract top staff with air or the "glory of being a part of something bigger than yourself." I can't think of any corps other than Star and Spirit who ever secured a corporate scholarship. I think Spirit might have reached out also to Delta and Coca-Cola early on but it was always vague. I'm surprised that no one has had any luck with the Ted Turner companies (considering he'll sponsor just about anything.)
  4. HUGE gap between 2nd and 3rd. Good to see Bush in there though. Those scores do seem a little low for two weeks out but since you can't get scores from anything but championships on the DCA website it's hard to say. My memory is absolute garbage now. I will say that the caption scores for percussion seem VERY high across the board. Low to mid 80's in the bottom half and low to mid 90's in the top 3. Maybe everyone just has absolutely #### clean lines this year.
  5. Lol. I'm pretty used to that so it moght have been fun to see. Logic and emotion can rarely live peacefully in the same space at the same time. Not every idea is good. But all ideas are worth at least the respect of an ear.
  6. Yep. The key is having an open feedback loop where ideas are actually discussed and considered instead of being dismissed out of hand.
  7. Only if there's a bass drop happening at the same time. Then we would have to hear Jeff say "See! I told you ######## that bass drops were gonna kill someone!"
  8. I still wish Renegades had listened to my comment in 2005 (I think I said it to Kelly when we did LMS) and thrown baby dolls into the audience in hopes that they would be thrown back.
  9. As they say......If it's too loud, then you're too old! Fortunately for me, we didn't really wear ear plugs in the battery in the late 80's and early 90's so I can't hear a #### thing anyways.
  10. Cadets have handled things the right way since everything came to light. Could that statement come with an asterisk in hindsight? Sure. There wasn't precedent for what happened or how to handle it. It's like being a parent. You can always look back at specific things and probably find a better solution to things. But overall, I think they did a pretty good job at doing what they had to do this year which is moving forward. It's going to take years to rebuild. The first job when a warship is damaged is to get it back to port and make it safe to sail...not to make it pretty again. Give Cadets time. I've never been one to say "I love the Cadets" including when I was marching corps. But man you gotta give them props for moving the needle in the best direction they could.
  11. That's 100% correct. A director at my job approached me a few weeks ago in an absolute TIZZY. She was acting childish and hurt because of one her projects she as working on took an absolute belly flop early on and I was asked to come in and try to pee on the fire. We did some quick thinking and the launch went off as well as it could have under the circumstances. In a post-mortem meeting this past week, she was EXTREMELY critical of some of things I had put together and done to move things in the right direction. My response to her was simple: 1. You've come with criticism and no solutions to a problem that you created. Don't complain about what others with more vision had to do. Come with solutions and remember that doing something in the face of adversity is almost ALWAYS better than doing nothing 2. I asked the question "Exactly HOW could I have done things better? And be very, very specific. I don't deal in vagueness and saying 'I just don't like it' is neither a suggestion nor a reason to shift my judgement." There are people who believe that Phantom is some form of death spiral. Some are vets, some are fans, some are neither. Change needs to occur. People have been open to that. But to say "Fire person X and get a new staff" is not a solution until you can say "And this is how you can accomplish that." That would be like me saying to someone who lives paycheck to paycheck to fix their financial woes by "just paying all your #### off and making more money." Great suggestion there Sparky...now explain how they do that...and be very specific. And if it doesn't work, remember that the people who howl at the moon the loudest attract the most wolves when their ideas don't pan out. Just sayin'
  12. Honestly, I would give up streaming completely to have the old PBS broadcast back. Maybe it's a nostalgia thing. Mike is right. This isn't an "us" problem...it's a "them" problem. That being said, I would boldly guess that DCI has no contingency plan, alternatives or the chutzpah to force flows hand. The best thing that could happen would be for flow to partner with one of the MANY wireless companies to give them some advice on capacity and stability IMHO. Just my .02
  13. Is that what those were? Britt referred to them in Atlanta as "Wheelie thingy doo-dads." I think the exact quote was "I really like the wheelie-thingy doo-dads. They should paint pictures of the Beatles on them then they would make sense." This leads me to believe she's starting to become one of us...one of the collective.
  14. You can't fight perception and people don't generally like change. That's simply a universal truth. DCI is a unique microcosm because it's been relatively stable with the types of performances for a VERY long time and that leads to people who have been around through it's longevity to say "It's always been this way and it was successful so why change it?" But what happens when all of those folks are gone? You HAVE to keep your audience involved and growing. I marched in the late 80's and early 90's. I LOVE the late 80's and early 90's. But here's a reality check. I'm 47. My girlfriend is 28. She's seen the shows of the 80's (especially the ones I marched,) and is....well...let's say supportive of them. She understands they're great shows FOR THE TIME. Now compare that to seeing Bluecoats this year which "gave her goose bumps" or BK to which she declared (loudly) "That's ####### HOT!" in Atlanta. It's a different generation of fan that's going to be driving this bus forward. If you want the whole thing to die, then go ahead and keep doing shows that don't appeal to the new base. I get bored at times trying to figure out if vertical staging, interpretive dance and electronics make things better than what I grew up on and then marched. But I also get that I'm not the 14 year old in the crowd saying "I want to do that" anymore. If I don't like a show and it gets too "trippy" for me, then try to pull out things from the show that I DO like. I didn't care for BD this year. It was too frantic for my taste. But I appreciate the performers, designers and staff for putting out something that made the current generation of watchers (aka, the next generation of performers) stand up and cheer.
  15. And there it is. I said it mid-season. The deciding factor in a bottom 3rd show is going to be how much room you have to maximize the score. When I marched (and I'm sure most who marched would agree,) it was about peaking at the right time. But you can't focus on peaking when you're just trying to tweak and fix minor things you're getting feedback on just to make it to finals. If I have .75 points of growing room and you've got .50 points of growing room....well...the story speaks for itself. And don't get wrong...I LOVE SOA. I want them back solidly in top 12. I was actually trying to volunteer for them this past summer but they have a tendency to not respond back to their volunteer forms the last few years it seems.
  16. Bluecoats - Not a Beatles Fan. But you gotta go with what drum corps is designed for (entertainment.) I loved the show. But when Britt leaned over to me and said "This is the only show that's given me goose bumps"....well that just speaks volumes. Cavies - As has already been said, great brass book and wonderful ballad. Blue Knights - Great brass book with recognizable music. I wasn't as hyped about their battery as some where but they were still hot.
  17. Yep. And everyone from BD was / is always super laid back and nice. And it's quite frankly easier to maximize rehearsal time when you take the mentality of chasing a title instead of an another corps. It's kind of like playing pool at a pro level. You can't control the greatness of the other guy. You can only control what you are doing and play the table. You practice to make those moments mechanical and as close to perfect as you can.
  18. I think it's a good thing in some ways. As a vet, it drove me nuts how few shows we did in prep for finals. As a spectator, not as much. It's going to be good to see them before finals. They were pretty dirty in Atlanta quite honestly. Then again, we weren't ever super clean in Atlanta when I marched......I just forget that sometimes. The avant-garde nature of the last few shows is taking some getting used to, but they're doing an excellent job at settling into keeping up with the times. I'll say the same thing I said before to some of the other alums: 1. Percussion is super-strong and well written. Atlanta was not their best show. Some of the newer folks seemed to have some issues with the dome and it caused some fuzzy moments. 2. Guard looked good though a little spread out at times. Whoever is designing the outfits and the silks for CV is REALLY good. 3. Brass sounds good though I feel like there were some tuning issues in the middle range in Atlanta. Maybe it was just the dome. I don't know how that works with horns quite frankly. 4. I feel about CV the way I felt about PR this past season. The big impact moments sound fantastic. The brass hit at the beginning of the show is high energy and made me stand up. The hit at the ballad made me stand up and the final hit made me stand up. Most of what was in the middle felt a little disjointed. I didn't connect with the music as much as I usually do. Again, probably me. They're still an amazing corps and I'm proud to be a vet.
  19. And that's what is needed. 1) Proper outreach to show the value and 2) Directors and Boards that are willing to listen. DCI and DCA should be ACTIVELY involved at some of the larger band conferences.
  20. Makes sense. And in those circumstances, I can see where they're coming from. In a small band situation, you wouldn't want 20% of your members missing. It's a shame since the band director would be getting (most likely,) a better marcher / player with strong work ethic. In the South, we have very large band programs. Even those band directors though are not allowing (much less pushing) the kids towards the high level education they would get in corps. The band directors who marched corps have all retired. I guess it's a balance thing. My band directors always wantes the students to get the best education possible. For 3 of us, that was corps. I'm not saying directors don't have that same level of desire for their students anymore, but it does bring a strong focus back to if they truly understand what corps can do for them and their program. My participation in corps helped me to convince one of my directors to hire corps staff for techs. We had some pretty decent lines that grew into monster lines (for a high school.)
  21. Oh I know you have. I've been reading you saying it for years. The bad part of it is that I would almost bet that they could get quite a bit of it done for practically free if they would just ask. There are how many vets in this activity? Surely some have experience in this type of thing that would volunteer some time.
  22. So the general consensus would seem to be that corps do the following: 1. Steals away the top talent 2. Forces scheduling issues for football games 3. Looks bad for the band director because he or she can't control his or her membership. If all that is the case I would say DCA needs to do some serious investing in PR. I would also think that the corps themselves should be ACTIVELY engaged in changing the existing dynamic. Again, my first band director was a corps guy and had some connections to winter guard in it's infancy. My second band director marched Troopers and the man ENROLLED me in my first audition camp fpr Spirit. He worked with my father to track down Gordon Cagle as a private instructor to help prepare me for DCI. My last band director was from Spirit and stayed on me CONSTANTLY to prepare for auditions and camps. We all went to corps shows as a band and I never heard ANY of the issues as described. So I guess the question is, how the heck do you change the dynamic?!?! Drum Corps is a life changing experience which should be embraced. I can get parents not being too hip to it because of 1) cost and 2) little Johnny (who they think is the greatest thing to ever carry a horn) most likely won't make it their first try. It's a competitive activity. MUCH more competitive than say...All State (which in my experience was just a chance for band directors to get their name in the school newspaper.) I learned NOTHING from All State. I would GLADLY talk to band directors about the benefits of the activity. That being said, corps directors don't like to give up control of how they're viewed. Alumni have to have a place in this. I just wish I knew what it was so I could give back some of what the activity gave me.
  23. See...that worries me to no end. The directors of those bands should be happy that they have kids who are reaching out for an additional source of education. Do they somehow get penalized for marching holes? I'm guessing this comes down to outreach from DCA and the corps themselves to the directors and school system. Missing a competition because you're at rehersal with your corps....that I get. But a halftime show?!?!? DCI I can kinda get. I know when I marched, I had a director who had marched troopers and one who had marched Spirit. They understood that I would learn the drill and music and would be all in when I came to the next rehersal. I just want to know what happened. Surely not all of these cats in charge of band programs have gotten somehow screwed by kids marching corps. I think my directors also understood that if I was given an ultimatum, corps would win. The level of learning was much higher and I was gonna go where the talent was. Getting an A in band was not as important to me as being the best musician I could be was. You want an All State level player so you have some bragging rites? Then let them learn from the best in the business. This all sounds like an ego contest to me.
  24. I think part of what's missing is alumni involvement honestly. I can't even get my former dca corps to answer emails. They're busy though so I get it. I'll be going to a big band competition down here soon. And I'll be wearing both dci and dca alumni swag. Edit: In my area of the country, we went through an odd phase. In the mid to late 80s, all the band directors were former DCI guys and gals. Hell, my band director my freshman year sent me to my first camp with Spirit. They used their experience as alums to push the talent towards DCI. If you missed a show or camp, you used your corps experience to learn fast, catch up and lead. The next generation of band directors HATED corps. I truly don't get where it went so "wrong."
  25. And it's a niche audience. One thing I took notice of: One of my coworkers has a son who's a senior in high school. Their band director bought a subscription of Flow so that he could stream DCI finals for the kids. That's a whole lot cheaper than 100 kids going to a show. I've gotten at least 4 inquiries now from those kids about how they can march corps. Ive pushed them all to CV because 1) I know the staff and caliber and 2) I'm a vet. If DCA wants a fan base, they could easily get a reduced or even free subscription for school music educators. It can't POSSIBLY be that hard.
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