MikeD Posted January 20, 2008 Share Posted January 20, 2008 Apologies for my digressions. As long as you spray, no problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Brace Posted January 21, 2008 Share Posted January 21, 2008 Out of curiosity, have you been watching the "National Treasure: Portrait of Colbert" series? Yes...and YES! I'll be visiting DC on business the second week of Feb and its on the destination list. Ahh, to urinate in the proximity of greatness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BD2Rings Posted January 24, 2008 Share Posted January 24, 2008 (edited) Small clarification. I also marched during the 70's and have known the original poster since the fall of '73. We played baritone together, much of it elbow to elbow, for 4 years. I know of his qualifications, as a marching member, as well as a member of the board. If he states concerns about the financial strength of the activity, of DCI, of a corps, then his concerns are very well founded. I remember DCI prelims (as there were no quarters nor semis) of '74 in Ithaca, Cornell University campus. They ran over 3 days, with everybody shooting to get into the finals. I just checked corpsreps and there were 57 corps competing in prelims. The number of corps present was substantially greater that our more current numbers. Anyone think the reduced number of corps has been caused by non financial reasons? How many poor financial decisions have led to the demise of a corps? Has this not also led to the reduction of our beloved collective activity? Is 22 really better than 57? What is the drum and bugle corps activity? It use to be youth activity, where the best a corps could be was based on it's weekest link (think captions people). We went out and did the best that we as individuals could possibly do (or even better) to support the collective efforts of our corps. It is becoming a football field stage, with attempts to emulate Michael Jackson's Thriller with all the special affects. Was there even a bugle used anywhere in competition in Pasadena? How often do we get to hear the true precision of a battery, or technical ability of the brass, without any electronics hiding the above mentioned weakest link? Jeff my friend, you hit the nail on the head. Rather than debates on what we can do to achieve Thriller, we need to severely limit our continual efforts to increase the costs necessary to support a corps. My Kudos to efforts such as those made by The Acadamy. They have put an emphasis on sustainability first. Blue Stars, you have also done very well. How many corps have there been, previous finals participants and all the rest, that are now only in our collective memories? I also believe "The focus of this activity is all out of whack.". With the loss of a television broadcast, we continue our slide into a collective introverted suicide. Why do we spend so much effort on Thriller, when we increasingly cannot financially support our activity? As wonderful as drum and bugle corps is, it should be growing. Shouldn't it? How can we possibly do this without a link like televison? For anyone to learn about DCI now, they will have to buy the DVDs, and who wants to do that about something they have never heard of? Edited January 25, 2008 by BD2Rings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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