manoloblahniksabre

Your point? Phantom BEAT Bluecoats this year with an all-female colorguard. I don't see any reason why they could not do it again with another all-female unit.

Agreed. Many top-tiered corps are filling their ranks with more and more college students, especially those actually majoring in some sort of music performance/education. I'll say that corps is certainly getting very elite...one of my biggest concerns about the activity. On one hand we get better performances/performers, on the other hand we close the activity off because of what most D1 corps demand.

Crown and Cadets here, too. I think Phantom did a great job with Gershwin, I'm just not a Gershwin fan.

It does not matter if it is 5 or 15. They are letting guys in the guard, period. Now, I'm sure they will be excellent spinners, and I'm sure that they will enhance their show. I would have just liked to see them keep with tradition. Also, I'm curious to know why only 4 or 5. Seems odd to me from a design standpoint, unless they'll have a smalli-ish all male rifle line.

I don't know. On one hand, I've loved the tradition behind the all-female colorguard at Phantom and would not want to see it go. On the other hand, adding males may make them more competative and I would love to see PR win a title belonging only to them. In the end, though, there is no reason to forsake the tradition. With the sort of talent pool they have to pull from, I don't see any reason why an all-female unit couldn't compete with the likes of the Cavaliers all-male unit. Phantom's guard gets better and better each year and now, with Adam Sage there, the sky is the limit. They finished 4th this year, just .10 behind BD (and IMHO, should have beaten them) and it's only looking up for PR's guard. Wouldn't it be amazing for the all-female unit from Rockford to win high guard come finals night? The ladies can handle this... :) KEEP THE TRADITION! Please. PR has been a touchstone of tradition in this age of copy-paste drum corps.

...and who said they were? *Looks around* Well, not I. I just beg to differ with the little press release. The crowd size looked better than it did back in the late 90's and early 00's, and that's a good thing... Some people on here are so quick to defend DCI AND themselves that I really believe they belong in the Bush administration.

The crux to those of us who have marched and are marching DCI is performing for people. The activity only survives because of the people in the stands. There is a mutual hunger between the performer and the fan. We need to feed one another. I never said that it was the only way to measure how healthy DCI is. I also never said it was the most important. What I am saying, however, is that it is important to know how many people are at championships and other major DCI events. It is one of several factors in deciding the health of DCI. It also serves us well in determining logistics, such as, which venues draw crowds and cater to the DCI environment, and which do not. Would you argue that it is unimportant or begrudge me wanting to know the specifics of attendance? I never opened this thread in the vein of "DCI is dying"; I don't believe it is.

That's how I feel; DCI *should* be above it. I'm just afraid that the activity is headed to corporate marketing oblivion. There, everything is skewed. Personally, I don't believe the exposure on ESPN2 is going to give birth to an explosion of growth in the activity. Rather than going back to the grass-roots drum corps movement, DCI is trying to hit the masses with something that while wonderful, always was and always will be a niche activity. Don't get me wrong...I'm glad we have ESPN2 now, and it may get a few more people in the stands...maybe.

That's all I'm asking. Just the numbers, night to night, including the numbers for those who purchased three-day tickets. I want true numbers because I want to know the true health of the activity. Also, I didn't mean to start any wars or such by opening this thread. Personally, I don't just think the numbers are misleading, I think the semantics are misleading. Yes, I know that in journalism the spinning of words and information is the name of the game. I just don't *like* it :)

Where's Atlanta on the list? :)

I'm not slamming journalism. I just think that what has been represented as fact isn't so, and while, yes, I do believe DCI should present itself in the best possible light, there is no reason for a gross misrepresentation of truth, either. I suppose you can count the same people on different nights and say "championships" instead of "championship", but I don't believe that skewing the numbers in your favor will help you gain an audience. I understand the propaganda behind it, but I still don't agree with it.

Well, as this wayworn PhD-in-progress sees it, spinning (blatant lying, in other words) in journalism AND the media is the problem. Now, I understand DCI may need to over-inflate itself to try and expand its audience, but c'mon...50,000? That's ridiculous.

In this article on Yahoo Finance, it claims that nearly 50,000 people attended this years World Championships in Foxboro. Now, I'm assuming they've added the total attendances from all three nights together to get one large number. But how many people attend more than just finals? Several thousand, I'm sure. Also, would most people foreign to DCI understand that there are three nights of competition? This is very misleading. I'm not sure if DCI supplied these numbers to them, but, nonetheless, I would say it's sloppy journalism at best. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050825/255348.html?.v=1

Only in America do you have competitive eating contests sponsored by an antacid makers. We're killing ourselves in this country and everyone thinks coronary artery disease and diabetes are sports. "How fast can we get on the needle? Let's eat a bunch of ####### #### and find out!!" It's amazing to me that youth activities that promote discipline and physical health are, for the most part, shunned. But I am the bearer of bad news: drumcorps continues to grow into more of a niche activity, and, even though we now have a slot on ESPN2 late Sunday night, it's always going to be reserved for what the wider world sees as summer camp for band nerds. Didn't this activity used to be more inclusive with more support from the larger community? Didn't kids used to have more options? I'm not old, but I know when I started marching, I did. Drumcorps is shooting itself in the foot. In general terms and general definition it is still a good activity for young people; but Blackstar is right. How many really have the opportunity to do it? It becomes more exclusive each year. It's getting more sleek, more glossy, more packaged, more refined and is slowly losing it's identity while it morphs into something between what it was and nothing but competitive marching band for the talented only. I'm afraid DCI won't have the chance to accomdate some who may get interested through the wider audience that their deal with ESPN hopes to reach. There were only NINE Div II corps competing this past summer and only twenty Div III corps, including some from Canada and other countries. Are they are trying to promote growth while chopping the arms and legs off Div II and III? Seems like a conflict of logic to me. I am going to be VERY curious as to how much time is devoted to Div II/III on the ESPN2 broadcast. We'll see. I'm not a drumcorps purist (I'm too young for that) but I do have to say that something is missing. Where's the thrill? Everything seems bottled now. Maybe I'm just getting older and more cynical and can't approach it with the same enthusiam I used to, so I'll leave that possibility out there and still continue to support the activity and great corps like Phantom Regiment and SCV.

Phantom's guard did not win that year, as I've said in a previous post, because of demand (although there was a decent amount) and bad technique....well, in my opinion, anyway. Colorguard is still rather exclusive. Most brass/percussion people don't know that much about what is going on with the colorguard. This goes for fans in general. I seem to be on of the few vocal colorguard people on DCP (besides byline and a couple others). I think it is the responsibility of the colorguard community to inform everyone else about what exactly colorguard is and what everyone should be looking for, since the colorguard caption is becoming increasingly important in corps scores.

I LOVE 1987 Sky Ryders! They had other great years as well, though. That is one of my favorite colorguards. ...and no "great guards" list would be complete with some of the Spirit guards of the 1980's.

I'll tell you why. Phantom's guard used to have horrible technique (especially weapons) back in the 90's. They have since corrected that, however. I liked 1996, too. Visually well designed and pretty clean. But there *were* better guards that year.

But you're cuter... ^0^ Yes I am actually saving that for later. Careful, though. I shoot straight from the hip. Lucy has left the building. :)

Are you stillll sore with me? Today around 9:30 pm-ish. What's the number again? 867-5309? :P

Nikk..."Lucyfer" here. :) I'm guessing the "Crimson Brigade" is all-female and is expected to tick erraticly at least once a month. ^0^ I personally like: The Stewie Griffins (sponsored by WEA, World Eradication Association) The Beekeepers (like the Bluecoats, the "k" will not be capitalized) The Babies on Spikes (also called "Rack of Babies") The Russian Front (not a good idea) and.... The Executive Transvestites What do you think?

1. Why didn't I hear abou this, Niikk? And that being said, WHERE ARE YOU? ;) 2. See, I told you everyone wanted to be just like you.

Cavies '95, '00 SCV '99, '00, '04 Cadets '92,'93, '95, '96, '97 Crown '99, '04, '05 27th '80 SKY RYDERS! :)

Trying to make me bloody cry, Nikk? :) I remember that noise. The statical noise florescent bulbs make, the buzzing of electricity being transmitted. I dream about corps on a regular basis, normally 2-3 times a month. Usually I’m in a practice field in South Carolina with the very people I marched with practicing a segment of the show from 1998 with the double-handed sabers. For some reason in my dream, I’ve missed work we’d learned and I can’t seem to catch up. I’ll neglect from doing a Freudian dream analysis, as it probably would reveal more about my subconscious than I care to know, let alone the community on DCP. :) I do have many dreams about colors, shapes, and patterns, as well as choreography and actual weapon/flag vocabulary. I’ve often made flags for groups with designs I’ve dreamed or wrote in the actual vocabulary from my dreams. I’m sure this all completely unhealthy. :P Love to read your articles. You have a linear, yet eloquent style that manages to make the words and imagery accessible to all readers.

It does have an "ego expandable" sunroof. Comes with all new Acura models. I'll let you eat the bugs. :P

Everytime I'd hear "The Machinists" I'd think of the movie with Christian Bale "The Machinist". This would envoke visions of the first all-male corps in history to be comprised entirely of 115 lb anorexic insomniacs. Wait...that sounds about right. :) Phalanx. Show announcers would have lots of fun with that one. :P