Silly Me

[skluyuk]

..the next somma##### that tells me their knees buckle when they hear a few boos at these "competitive games ", I'm going to laugh out loud. There is no sports or athletic competition anywhere in the world where occassional booing or heckling is not sometimes evident. If you want to trumpet these kids as tough like college athletes, then stop the wimpiness when the ineviteable boos are heard. These are either geeks who perform..... or athletes who compete....... and all " athletes " are subjected to boos and heckling when on the road to " away games ". DCI has made a conscious effort to market these shows as " athletic competition ". With that, comes the good..... and the not so good (the booing )

Just drawing a little bit of a parallel here. I'm not sure if anyone watched the Cubs/Dodgers game last weekend where the Dodgers beat them 11 to 2. When the Cubs pitcher was relieved and leaving the field he was summarily and loundly boo'ed by his home crowd. Instead of flipping them off (or taking a bow) he just pointed to his ear and mouthed the words "I hear you...I hear you." It looks to me like he took the criticism constructively rather than complaining about it. I'm willing to bet he will not be the pitcher that an opposing team wants to go against at his next home game.

I think it's great that George Hopkins wants to be innovative and push the state of the art...just don't change the art itself. Philosophically, us diehard fans of drum and bugle corps feel like something is being taken away from us with such radical diversion. Woodwinds do not belong in drum and bugle corps. Drum and bugle corps is not a theatrical play on Broadway. Narration should never be the primary focus during a drum and bugle corps show. Just my opinions/criticism. Some people may agree. Others may not.

[ssorrell]

Then hey...if I'm Spirit and Colts and it's the freakin' MISSION STATEMENT of our organization to have a full 4 minutes of coverage on the ESPN2 broadcast then I guess those corps need to work a little harder to improve their position.

BUT, I can assure you...that's not WHY they do drum corps. That IS NOT their mission statement. And by finishing the season in the top 12, I would guess that's not necessarily in their MISSION STATEMENT either. They came to Californial to provide education and life experience to their young people and to entertain the audience. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

First, I didn't cite that I thought Spirit or Colts needed nor deserved four minutes of air time...but is one minute too much to ask?

Did I claim that Spirit and/or Colts did not achieve their desired goals or fulfill their mission statement? No.

I simply stated that the members of those corps would have ample reason to be disappointed in their part on the telecast. Nothing more. Is it too hard to believe that they can be happy with their season and the final outcome at finals and at the same time be disappointed in their exposure on TV?

[cowtown]

From where are you sitting? There were way more people in attendance at the Rose Bowl than last year in Madison. More people were in attendance. Also, over the past two seasons, more viewers have watched the ESPN2 broadcast. 2006 was more than 2005. I expect that treend to continue when the numbers are announced this year.

So, there are your hordes. And guess what...they don't include you. So, pick up your ball and go home...or to a different field...another game. Your viewpoint is out of touch with reality. Your refusal to accept reality speaks volumes regarding your mental state. I'm concerned over this angst you feel. It might be better if you just sought out a better outlet. Perhaps some DCA performances. I believe they may be more to your liking.

its official, I've got a stalker

thanks

[crown fan]

Telling those corps and their fans that whine about not having enough air time that they simply need to improve in the rankings to increase their show time is quite insensitive. I think they were treated unfairly.

Steve - I feel your pain. I too thought S@JSU did not get enough air time. On a positive note; "THEY MADE TOP12" yea!!!!

Personally, overall, I was pleased with the dci/espn broadcast. I liked the back ground info on the corps, and the bd history.

The issue as i see it is dci has a split personality. On the one hand they want the activity to be an educational youth activity. On the other hand they are "selling" it to espn as a competitive sport. This means some people/fans/members/staff/alumi are going to get their feelings hurt.

Truth be told in 1980, SOA was what? in 2nd or 3rd after prelims, and I can tell you my last thought was not educational youth activity, ........it was WIN, WIN, WIN!!!!!!

[Tom Brace]

I'm waiting for the members of Colts and JSU to come and tell me how disappointed they are. Hey members...I've heard from the spokespeople...the spinners out there...now...let's here from you. Please tell me how disappointed you are with your lack of tv time.

Like this generation even sits down long enough to watch tv. Their way too busy for that.

[SCVsopAaron]

As a Colts alum, I was upset that I saw all of 2 seconds of them.... lame.

[Michelle]

I'm waiting for the members of Colts and JSU to come and tell me how disappointed they are. Hey members...I've heard from the spokespeople...the spinners out there...now...let's here from you. Please tell me how disappointed you are with your lack of tv time.

Like this generation even sits down long enough to watch tv. Their way too busy for that.

Because I'm not disappointed? I wished they would have shown the ballad instead of the closer, but whatever. I knew Spirit and Colts would only get 45 sec. of airtime. It's the nature of the beast.

[ssorrell]

Because I'm not disappointed? I wished they would have shown the ballad instead of the closer, but whatever. I knew Spirit and Colts would only get 45 sec. of airtime. It's the nature of the beast.

45 seconds would have been a definite improvement!

[X DM]

Jaysus.. you called me out, ya did. I AM an old codger, no mistaking it ... but I wasn't referring to DCI fans (all 30,000 of them at the Rose Bowl FINALS - why a whole one-small-American-town more than you'll find at one mid-week Lakers Game - erm.. as many as were in the stands at the WNBA game preceding ESPN2's DCI broadcast tonight), I was referring to the general public, ya know.. the millions who had access to tonights program. My guess is (as sad as it is) the ESPN crowd might be a lit-tle larger and mayyyybe a lit-tle younger than the PBS crowd.

I got a great idea.. how about we ask Martha Raye and Rip Taylor to plug DCI and we can get thousands of 80 year olds itching to march (or better yet - tap-dance!) in DCI.. or we can get 5 members of 2 corps to go on Family Feud for some REAL exposure.

DCI did exactly the right thing.

And please.. you know the difference between a Steve Young endorsement and a Rita Mareno endorsement. If not, ask any 16 year old.

the typical 14- 16 year older who plays trumpet in his H.S. band never heard of Steve Young. They were either unborn or in a crib when Steve Young played, Either way, if you think the typical 14-16 year older from a middle or high school band relates to Steve Young, you are kidding yourself.

Edited September 6, 2007 by X DM

[jwillis35]

I'm so sick of hearing that...so much of what DCI does is not for the die hards, it for the new fans that never really appear

All those screaming, faceless hordes just waiting at the gates of DCI to become a part of this activity but in order to get them in we have to do this….add that….cancel this….change that,....it’s for the children, the horde children...now they’ll show up because I said so and I work with children, I’m not out of touch you are out of touch – the hordes are closing in, they'll be here any second, just you wait because we changed the rules again....

Maybe its time to realize the hordes are not coming or that DCI is incapable of attracting them, maybe it’s time to do something for the die-hards other than insulting them by always telling thenm to take a back seat to the never-appearing hordes?

DCI did plenty for you. They had a season, they offered numerous shows, there were amazing drum corps to see, there were many regionals, an amazing finals where tons of people showed up, and they offered the fans all kinds of services like web casts, the cinecast, videos to download, APDs, and more. So when you say it's time for DCI to do something for you, I say you need to take advantage of what DCI DID DO for you. If you can't and you don't like it, then go away, quit, walk out, whatever, but stop trying to make it seem as though the ESPN 2 broadcast needs to show all the drum corps, or all the top 12. It can't. There is only so much time.

DCI has done plenty for the fan, so pardon them if they now wish to advertise a bit and show select cuts of corps shows and other footage on a broadcast not exactly designed for the hard-core audience (and it is 3 weeks after the season). We all had our chance, it's called the SUMMER. If you missed the summer or if you didn't see as much as you wanted, well...that's a YOU problem. That's not their problem. It's a YOU problem. I don't blame DCI when I don't get to enough shows in the summer, and then I especially don't hold them responsible when they don't show me all the corps I want to see on the ESPN broadcast because my needs were not fulfilled.

JW