Blue Devils 2007

[byline]

DCP isn’t representative or huge. What it is is one of a small handful of drum corps gathering spots. If you want to know what’s going on in drum corps, DCP is one of the very few choices. So you come here and see this provocative thread about the Devils. You might not participate. But you read and assimilate and maybe pass the news along.

Which goes along with something my editor used to say. If we read it in a letter to the editor, pick it up as gossip on the street or hear it in a call-in show, usually that's just the tip of the iceberg. It means that plenty of other people are talking about it, too. So the best course of action a reporter can take is to pursue that lead and see where it goes. Keeping that in mind, BD and/or DCI might want to take the lead and address this issue. Obviously there's not going to be Woodward and Bernstein, or some senate committee, calling them up, so they may feel that if they say and do nothing, it will go away. Which, after a period of time, it probably will.

[84BDsop]

Hey, there's an idea! Use a scanner to identify the wireless signal frequency, intercept the signal and insert their own naration!

Dude....where was this back in June of last year??? Someone REALLY mean could've had all SORTS of fun with Cadets!!!

And it's not too far off the mark...in 05 (I think) Renegades were down here and we shared the Torrance HS practice site...Dream on our usual field, and Renegades on one on the other side of campus.

Surprise abounded when we started hearing THEIR instructors through OUR Long Ranger as their radios happened to match ours!!

[FieldofBlueDreams]

This is too much of a big deal. Conspiracy theories abound in this puppy. Doesn't cheating usually imply an unfair advantage to win? This has no advantage at all, its just kinda cool... in fact, half (yes im generalizing to prove a point) the people in this thread had to ask what exactly you were talking about. Blue Devils dont need to cheat to win... im sure the staff didn't think of this as cheating. Since nobody said anything about it at the time, they probably assumed it to be okay, probably something like this:

"Hey lets put a demon laugh in this... can we use this thing?"

"I dont know, the rule is kinda unclear and it doesn't really specify...i guess DCI will probably tell us if we cant."

"Cool"

If anybody caused a "cheating scandal" its been DCP. Take it up with those who can do something about it instead of waiting for them to read your post and respond, because they probably wont. And seriously, who is going to attach their name to a thread that aims to call DCI's most successful corps nothing but cheaters?

If you want to take it up with DCI, write a letter. Write to Dan and explain and im sure you'll get a response or at least an acknowledgment. If not, at least you did something..

(If you already have written to DCI, i apologise... i didnt read all the previous 61 pages of this)

In response to the corps with the delay, i would argue that it was probably taken care of right away because delay is not "live" sound. Regardless of octave, the laugh happened when the laugh happened. Delay would not be the same thing as an octave adjustment.

I agree the rule is quite vague, though. My only problem with this thread is your attempt to criminalize and denounce the Blue Devils. They only did what DCI said was okay. The rule should be reworked or rewritten to avoid this in the future.

Edited May 31, 2008 by FieldofBlueDreams

[MikeD]

But on the other hand, did age rules apply to all contests back then, or just the VFW/AL Nationals/States and the fledgling DCI? Brassmen did not compete at any of those championships in 1972. World Open was their big show - the same World Open that allowed Crossmen to compete in 1976 after they had been disqualified from three weeks worth of DCI shows.

AFAIK they did apply, at least in my era. Not sure about later re Crossmen

[MikeD]

Well, OK, then that jibes with my interpretation: DCI, being new, wanted to enhance its credibility. It needed to establish that it was in charge and that corps really were going to have control over their own destiny (but thru DCI). If the pre-DCI establishment did encourage that scofflaw atmosphere, then DCI had an interest in cracking down on that lack of oversight.

Yes, I wasn't disagreeing about that point at all.

So, flash-forward to 2008. If BD's usage of a disallowed piece of equipment is not addressed, and other corps decide that they can skirt the rules with impunity, DCI will need to crackdown at some point, or else risk its own survival. It's a parallel situation to the overage member problem. DCI is not new, but the equipment IS. To prevent things from getting out of hand, DCI has to tackle it, and sooner means easier.

Unless DCI decides that a piece of equipment is not allowed...it IS allowed. It's not "skirting" anything, and IMO it is not a parallel situation. A corps member was overage or not. The Brassmen guy and the priest KNEW he was overage and he marched anyway.

DCI has not said that the equipment used was illegal...and was used anyway...so IMO the situation is not the same at all.

[MikeD]

In the end, MikeD is correct: DCI's "interpretation" is the one that counts. They could end it all by standing up and pronouncing judgement. Its credibility rides on making its rules stick; therefore, letting things slide is dangerous. I hope this is not the case here.

The interpretation over half a season says it all...there were no penalties assessed at any show.

Nothing is let "slide", because that assumes that the BD did something illegal, which they did not.

[MikeD]

From what I hear they're teaching open mindedness, something you could use a course in. All you've done in this entire thread is regurgitate your same old arguments and how you're so convinced not only that they cheated, but they intended to cheat. Spitting venom with a closed mind doesn't accomplish anything.

EDIT: Mods, are cowtown's posts really what passes for productive discussion around here? Geez your standards are low.

While I find the 'BD cheated' commentary to be odious, we don't close threads based on 'productive'.

[madscout96]

That would require re-writing the rules to eliminate mixing boards. Doing that would be at least a tacit admission that DCI had been incompetent, even if only in part, and a tacit admission that amplification critics were right, even if only in part, (as well as a possibility that electronics opponents will be proven right too.) [Certain DCPers heads might implode if that ever happened.]

I don't know if DCI could muster the courage for that. After all, it seems unlikely that we'll ever see any statement issued about what BD did and DCI didn't do, let alone any reforms to prevent future occurence. And that's small potatoes compared to what you're proposing.

I don't really think my suggestion would be considered by the people currently running DCI, especially after they totally ignored all of Tim Kviz's proposals. If DCI was run by other people, then maybe...

[Lance]

As silly as this whole thing is, I'll bet that if the Cadets had supposedly cheated, this thread would be six thousand pages long by now and at least six thousand times as silly.

[glory]

Take it up with those who can do something about it instead of waiting for them to read your post and respond, because they probably wont...

I'm quite comfortable having a discussion about this and many other topics without any expectations of results beyond my own satisfaction.

So I'm not writing any letters. I don't think I have to. And I don't think honest discussions of this sort need be confined to whispers and private correspondence. Quite the opposite, I think this activity benefits from open discourse even if it is occassionally misguided or even wrong. BD is big enough to stand up to the likes of me, don't you think?

HH