garfield Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 Here's another thought - what do you think that Royer, Seawright, and other founders or early G7 leadership would think of this proposal? To a man, I think they were in drum corps for the good of the kids and the advancement of the activity. I can't tell you how many stories I have heard through the years of these men "rescuing" a corps who was stranded because of equipment problems or making monetary and other contributions to help other corps stay afloat.Seems to me that this elitism flies in the face of eveything they stood for... Don Warren is still kicking up dust at Cavaliers and, through Adolph, has said they are not on board with anything that goes against the grain of the original intent of the Combine. Let's hope that flame doesn't burn out when Warren is no longer with us. Hopefully today's non-G7 ranks will remember and honor those roots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 Don Warren is still kicking up dust at Cavaliers and, through Adolph, has said they are not on board with anything that goes against the grain of the original intent of the Combine.Let's hope that flame doesn't burn out when Warren is no longer with us. Hopefully today's non-G7 ranks will remember and honor those roots. Your last sentence is very interesting " Honoring those roots " Im not trying to challenge your thoughts at all but was wondering what that means or what it means to each individual person. Does it mean keeping things the same? Does it mean forge forward and think out of the box? Does it mean have vision for the future no matter what popular thing is to do? Does it mean stay status Quo? Or could it mean honor what came before us but dont let that keep you stuck in the past. HMMMM Just interesting to me when peole use that phrase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 (edited) Your last sentence is very interesting " Honoring those roots " Im not trying to challenge your thoughts at all but was wondering what that means or what it means to each individual person.Does it mean keeping things the same? Does it mean forge forward and think out of the box? Does it mean have vision for the future no matter what popular thing is to do? Does it mean stay status Quo? Or could it mean honor what came before us but dont let that keep you stuck in the past. HMMMM Just interesting to me when peole use that phrase. The singular notion on this subject that I took from Warrens' book was that once a corps made it's success consistent enough to attain DCI membership that the corps would be able to look forward to attaining benefits of DCI membership. Those benefits include guidance, instruction, review of a fledgling program, etc. It was called a "brotherhood" for a reason - getting into the "club" was never guaranteed but, once attained, a major point of the organization was to help spur activity, success, and challenge to the winners. Those goals made the activity stronger and healthier in the eyes of the founders and DCI's current strategy of offering help to Open class is an extension of that mentality, IMO. I'm suggesting that playing "capture the flag" with the whole activity is contrary to the intent of the founders, and that returning to those roots have a better change to grow the activity than does splitting 7 "elite" off and throwing the rest under the bus. I think the phrase "Honoring those roots" is perfectly appropriate, especially today. Edited August 2, 2010 by garfield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeyboardGuy Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 Maybe the "roots" of drum corps have changed, but I don't think so. I hope it is always the case where you can strike up a conversation with a perfect stranger simply on the basis of his wearing a faded drum corps shirt. If some of the organizations feel like they have accomplished all they can within the "confines" of DCI, let them put together a Broadway show. Oh, wait, that's already been done... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecoats88 Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 As for your first point alpha...Blast Inc. total income in 2002 alone was about 20.4 million...I think that in itself is a commercial success IMO.As for point bravo...I can tell you really don't know what your talking about... quick question. What is the SOI/Blast organization doing now? I know blast was a huge success, and I saw the show in DC and even bought the CD & Video. I do know the follow up show (Shockwave) was not as big a success, is it even still running or did it fold up shop? Is there still a performing group under the SOI umbrella doing a Blast type show? I believe they had a standing gig in Branson, MO for a while, but is that still around? it's 8 years since Blast struck gold on Broadway, what are they doing now? If this is the model for the G7 working, then will it last more than a few years before it becomes old hat and all these 450,000 new fans tire of it and look for the next great thing? Someone mentiond Cirque, well I believe one thing that has worked for cirque is that each new show they come up with is totally different from the prvious one. How much different is a marching music ensemble going to be each year? The reason the G7 are such a big draw in DCI its that they offer a very high end product for those who are interested in Drum Corps. Take away those fans who want to see a top of the line drum corps show and who else is going to be interested in seeing this more than once? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 2, 2010 Author Share Posted August 2, 2010 quick question. What is the SOI/Blast organization doing now? I know blast was a huge success, and I saw the show in DC and even bought the CD & Video. I do know the follow up show (Shockwave) was not as big a success, is it even still running or did it fold up shop? ? " Blast " was a commercial and financial success. The show designers follow up to " Blast " was called " Shockwave " ( or something like that ). It was a big departure from " Blast ", in that it was much more " out there " in terms of music,visuals, theme, etc........ it folded quickly after theatre goers in droves came out bored and unfulfilled with the performance and word quickly got around. Coincidentally, " Blast " much more traditional in thematic approach, lasted internationally for years after the plug was pulled on " Shockwave ". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecoats88 Posted August 2, 2010 Share Posted August 2, 2010 " Blast " was a commercial and financial success. The show designers follow up to " Blast " was called " Shockwave " ( or something like that ). It was a big departure from " Blast ", in that it was much more " out there " in terms of music,visuals, theme, etc........ it folded quickly after theatre goers in droves came out bored and unfulfilled with the performance and word quickly got around. Coincidentally, " Blast " much more traditional in thematic approach, lasted internationally for years after the plug was pulled on " Shockwave ". Well I just checked their website. their latest production CyberJam is shown to have just ended a run. But I'm not sure of the latest date the site was updated for the below reason. the Blast list of tour dates are all from 2009 (no 2010 dates) in Japan. Seems to me that there currently is no production happening from the SOI/Blast organization. I'm guessing since the management and designers have all gone to the Madison Scouts that the SOI Theater/Blast experiment may have run its course. I was a good run though, and they struck gold with the one show, even though the others that followed were modestly received. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted August 2, 2010 Author Share Posted August 2, 2010 Well I just checked their website.their latest production CyberJam is shown to have just ended a run. But I'm not sure of the latest date the site was updated for the below reason. the Blast list of tour dates are all from 2009 (no 2010 dates) in Japan. Seems to me that there currently is no production happening from the SOI/Blast organization. I'm guessing since the management and designers have all gone to the Madison Scouts that the SOI Theater/Blast experiment may have run its course. I was a good run though, and they struck gold with the one show, even though the others that followed were modestly received. Yes... " Blast " had pretty much run it's course.. Mason, Prime et al went to Madison Scouts, and that was that. Great run for Blast though...a decade of shows around the world was beyond their wildst dreams of initial expectations, I 'm sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin I. Zing Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 . . . The people sitting around me were obviously long-time drum corps fans but, to a person, they admitted that drum corps has passed them by, with some of the esoteric show themes and story lines. There were no raucous standing ovations for them as in years past. They concluded their shows and everyone was left staring at one another and wondering "What was THAT all about?" . . . . One of them commented that the Blue Devils show was like a bad dream. Cadets were "cute". Phantom "wasn't as good as in years past". They loved Troopers, Mandarins, and Teal Sound, not because of their scores, but because their shows were fun and "reachable". Reachability is part of what draws new people into the activity. Some of them talked about how cool it would be to be in Crown, or Troop, or Teal Sound. I may be completely off base here, but I think this "lesser majority" of fans would spend their money to attend the midweek shows where they can see their favorite corps, and forgo the elite performances. Your comments Keyboard Guy are spot-on. I happen to think that there is a recognition among the elite --the G7 that perhaps they have --in fact-- gone too far and made the "art form" less accessible and as you might say "unreachable" to the general public and to a wider audience. I think they run the risk of not only alienating their core audience --that has been their loyal base through thick and thin, but they have little chance of building the overall audience by exposing it to a new and curious fan base in the future. I think they understand this and may even be interested in simplifying or abandoning the competitive judging all together ---although you'll soon see that there is a vocal backlash against this idea and it will start to show up here almost immediately. But all you have to do is go to the scores summary page from the Atlanta Regional on the DCI.org page and click on expanded view and if you are like me, you start to laugh. 10ths of points in 30+ categories for 20+ corps and it is all so subjective and unsupported by fact that it reminds me of Animal House and being put on "double secret probation". I think adding more entertainment value to a show (like Madison has done year in and year out) must be the future of drum corps. And I can see G7 abandoning the grind AND EXPENSE of the current format to stage instead 6 - 10 three-day weekends of a totally rehearsed show format in major stadiums, in major markets across the country. They'd have days off on Monday and Thursday and be available to compete in DCI shows on Tuesday and Wednesday enroute to the next 3-day SPECTACULAR show site. Their show, their format, their outcome can be whatever they as producer/partners want it to be and I think they have the resources to open up as early as June, 2011 with or without the blessing of DCI. Others disagree. But time will tell. Nevertheless. Your comments about making DC more "reachable" are absolutely necessary if it is to grow and build a new audience in order to increase a fan base that will allow them to attract new people who can be grabbed by the ankles, tipped upside down and shook until more money falls out of their pockets. The current fan base has been shaken for all they are worth and they are broke and tired. And this includes parents and sponsors and the kids in the corps too. The pie needs to be expanded as I've said repeatedly in order for the activity to survive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted August 3, 2010 Share Posted August 3, 2010 you can have entertaining shows without going to the extremes you suggest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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