MikeN
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Posts posted by MikeN
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39 minutes ago, jjeffeory said:
I can tell you that our pediatric psychiatrist wanted to charge our agency $200 an hour, and we were only being paid $90 an hour by the state.
The average child and adolescent psychiatrist is 65 years old. Not a typo. We're about to have a much bigger supply side problem on our hands in the next few years.
Mike
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3 hours ago, Mello Dude said:
We absolutely need to have more mental health in this country. More and more unhinged people.
Mental Health Professional here. They've always been there; they've just gone unnoticed, uncared about and generally dismissed. That's one good thing that's changed in my time in the industry - we've made great improvements about reducing the stigma of mental health issues.
Mike
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Got to watch the Tour Premiere tonight. Phantom sounds good so far but looks fantastic. Seriously - they absolutely nailed the visual and drill and uniforms. I’m very pleased with the show so far, and I’m certain that, regardless of placement, we’ll look back on this as - great step one of the rebuild.
Mike
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Just got to see the tour premiere. Holy God Coats are trippy and awesome and that keytar song is already the defining song of this season and we are like one show in. They are head and shoulders over everything else I’ve seen this year so far. That is all.
Mike
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29 minutes ago, greg_orangecounty said:
As Al Davis said "Just Win Baby!"
Is there really a disconnect between what the fans want and the judging sheets.....?
I'm not so sure on that premise.
What did Phantom present in 2021? Cadets? Cavaliers? Bluecoats? Boston?
What did Phantom present in 2022? Cadets? Cavaliers? Bluecoats? Boston?
We literally have a case study of what judges' sheets do to show design.
Mike
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Is there a link to Boston's? I haven't seen those yet. So far, BK is winning the pageant.
Mike
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It was... ok. Feels like it's just the framework of a show at the moment - there's a lot of vanilla look and sound. The closer really felt like it pulled it all together well.
I'll have to watch this one again later down the line - it definitely has potential, but it doesn't really have oomph yet.
Mike
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Back half of the show is awesome. First half of the show is definitely aggressive, but ugh, Stephen Melillo was a bad fit for corps 20 years ago. It's just so... generic. Personal distate of symphonic band stuff aside, the brass sounds way improved over the last time we saw them compete. Drums were an echo chamber but still sounded beefier than the recent past? All in all, it's a very solid production, it sounds like. Let's see what they can do on the move now.
Mike
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... not the greatest look, TBH. Extending piping onto the shoulders just makes everyone look frumpy - wide and short. Bottom layer is ok, but honestly, for as innovative as BD can be sometimes, this is pretty much the same look they've sported since 2017.
Mike
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40 minutes ago, jjeffeory said:
I still don't know why they have to be so super secretive of their show rep, otherwise I'd comment on the specifics of what I heard.
I can certainly say that some things they are playing this year are in the public domain, so....
What I heard was great and will be awesome in August!
It was trendy back when on the other side of the pandemic, but after two years away from competition I'd think groups would want extra time for hype. Still excited to see them though.
Mike
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I want to say yes. I know we at Guardians did, and IIRC, DCI put it in as a requirement? Ours cost you about $20 and was good for a year.
Mike
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5 minutes ago, mjyaub said:
Really! When I’m there early I do think about the lack of support. Just look around. Can you imagine how even a semi full crowd would affect the performers that take the field at 10am. And yes plenty of snobbery in drum corps. Let Crown open the day at 10 and see who shows up!
Thursday (prelims/quarters) is always the toughest in Indy, not so much due to fan support, but because of travel costs. Far, far more people fly in on Friday for the weekend. It's been that way for as long as I can remember, honestly, and I don't really take it as a slight against the little guys - not so many people are there at the end of Thursday night, either.
...that said, I'd love to see more people support OC. Finals in '19 was a wild experience - a lot of *really* good drum corps, in an in-your-face stadium, for very cheap.
Mike
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13 hours ago, Smug Trumpet Guy said:
I'll be getting a closer look at how open class operates in two weeks. One of the corps is doing a 2 week stint twenty minutes away from me and I'm going to check out their rehearsals. I'll get back to you on this one because I don't know much about open class
I was involved with the BoD for one - happy to answer any question you still have afterwards!
Mike
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10 minutes ago, Smug Trumpet Guy said:
So that semis and finals are more competitive.
The administrative and logistical requirements of World Class would drive all of the OC's out of business. On-field product aside, there's a *massive* gulf in funding and structure between the two.
Mike
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2 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
and again, i don't normally disagree. But i think the world has gotten maybe too trigger happy? Must not be that bad if the Rolls Royce of DCI organizations brought him on board within...what hours?
Nope, still ok with it. I'm all for engaged and active board oversight, and managing opportunities/risk in a proactive manner, even if it means ED's have to put up with it. 👍
Mike
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12 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
normally i agree. but they seem exceptionally trigger happy in most cases..but not all
That's ok too. Active oversight is a good thing. Drum corps is rife with examples of what happens when it's not present.
Mike
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3 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
it seems to me the board has a lot of power when it comes to things. probably because of the revolving door of directors the last 10 years or so
As well they should.
Mike
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15 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:
Tim Hintons newest podcast talks to the directors of Colts, Surf and Madison, and a staggering thought came up, which i know has been debated in many threads here.
the average cost to house, feed, transport and of course things like insurance is $9800 per kid...and dues run in the $5k range. they specifically stated the costs that led to that number, of which equipment, props, uniforms/costumes etc weren't part of it.
so for 60-70 days of housing, fuel/bus and food is $9800 a kid. so say $165 a day.
think about what you spend a day on food, travel and housing.
For our OC corps, the armchair math came out to about $90/day in 2019, though we didn't really count it like that. But including move ins, it was about 56 days total, so a much shorter tour.
I do agree - I'm just not sure how this is sustainable in the long run, especially asking kids to foot a higher and higher bill. While I do get the argument that $5,500 is a relative bargain, it only matters if you have the $5,500 to begin with. 😞
Mike
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14 hours ago, ThatGuy2900 said:
For reference AAU basketball, traveling baseball/softball teams, all star cheer, and dance teams can cost upwards of $10,000 a season. Usually the parents are driving or flying the kid around the country too.
A gifted music kid taking private lessons, attending summer music camps, attending workshops/seminars, playing in the local youth orchestra, etc. can easily cost $20,000 to $30,000 a year. Have you looked at what it costs to attend Interlochen? The full six week summer camp is $9,950.
Just finished two years of AAU. Cost $2,100 the first year, including hotels, and cost $1,200 the second year, and we had to provide hotels. Very few kids are participating in the "national" touring teams, and those that are aren't paying it themselves.
Mike
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On 5/15/2022 at 3:00 PM, Hook'emCavies said:
Michael Gaines
Ditto. His stuff is so distinctive - every move is a massive form to a massive form. No lines peeling off or sections acting on their own. It's just big and grand and logical from start to finish, and it's so cool...
Mike
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On 4/19/2022 at 2:12 PM, karuna said:
Favorite drum corps intro of all time. Yes -- the rest of the show never quite lived up to it. But my god what a start.
Oh, absolutely - such a great kickoff! it's still in my rotation. The first half of the show through Danzon is awesome - for me it lost steam in the back half, and they never could quite nail the ending. Can't deny the brass talent they had though.
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2 hours ago, Tenoris4Jazz said:
As a professional accountant for 25 years... not likely. They would have to finish 2nd in every caption, with the 1st place corps finishing 3rd or worse in others to balance it out. The closest I remember to that happening was 2000. Cadets were 2nd in every GE subcaption, every visual subcaption, but still won Brass, Ensemble, and Music overall.
There were years where Crown had the best visual and brass, but percussion was lagging in 5th or 6th. Devils usually still took GE to win. It's hard to lose GE and still win the title.
According to the liner notes, Star in '91 tied in three separate captions, but didn't win any outright.
Mike
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5 hours ago, GBugler said:
It was my last Finals as a spectator. Haven't been back since. I agree, that was pretty much it. Everything since has been retrograde.
Was my *only* finals as a spectator. Yeah, I don't think I need to go back. 🙂
Mike
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1 hour ago, DrummerParent said:
So you have no ideas that would decrease the cost an amount that would substantively make the activity more affordable. I’m not against your ideas, particularly props. I don’t think there’s a savings in uniforms. I just don’t think the reduction in tuition would be anywhere near enough to make any real change in cost. With zero props, corps would still rely on money outside of member tuition to fund them for the year.
As a former DCI BoD member (at least in the suburbs of Open Class), transportation, food and salaries - in that order - were the big ones. Most of our costs were supported by member dues; we just didn't have many secondary streams of income. When I started for instance, we didn't have *any* merch sales. I suspect you can count on one hand the number of corps that have figured out how to generate consistent extra revenue, honestly, and we all know who those are.
As for other expenses, once we went to digital uniforms, that cost (about $130) got passed on to the member, so it actually saved the corps money. Props weren't a massive line item, but then again, we weren't toting around Mandarins' 12,000 pound stage either. We upgraded the battery while I was there to a one-year-old Mapex indoor set, it ended up costing us about $5k after selling the old falling apart Yamaha line. We replaced the tubas four at a time each year, and we tried to replace one of the other three sections entirely each year so it would be a three year rotation for brass. We never did replace out front ensemble, and our caption head let us hear about it in my final season as they were... um... very janky.
But the big costs were getting there, eating there and teaching them. We rotated a bunch of staff in and out, like most corps do, and our caption heads were pretty much told "here's your budget" and they created their own schedules from that. We also lucked out in that our bus company was owned by a DCI alum, who was ok with us not getting hotels for the drivers.
Mike
Abuse in Drum Corps
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Couldn't file their taxes, that's where they are. 😞
Mike