Cesario steps up as DCI's Artistic Director

[thirdcoast]

What is "entertaining" is purely subjective, and naturally varies from person to person.

I think it pays to look at what it is they are trying to address here: IMHO, it's the fact that although their current structure of judging allows the selection of a "winner", it is often felt by fans that the most impressive performance did not win. Folks are left disappointed, in some respect.

That they are recogognizing this, and attempting to fix it, is a plus IMHO.

However, I'd like to see them simply "look back" (to paraphrase) to Drum Corps history and identify what it is that makes the activity so exciting, and separates it from other forms of marching music. For me, it is the difficulty level and excellence in execution, in a competitive environment. (I don't know if this is true for every fan though).

To increase the reward for this aspect, they could simply re-adjust the emphasis back to the technical areas, the brass, percussion and guard, and place much less emphasis on "GE", which has always seemed the most subjective and undefined caption area yet is a huge part of the current scoring.

What makes me scream is astounding skill in a performance. Not so much an astounding "story line" or "prop" or amplified "effect". In fact, I often find myself having to actively ignore those aspects, to focus on the substantive aspects, in many of the shows. And its getting harder to do each year, as they add layers of these distractions.

I'm not saying I'm "right", just that it's what defines "entertainment" for me, gets me screaming, and it would be simple to adjust for, with the system they already have.

It would also have the added benefit of being more readily quantifiable, and seem less subjective overall.

AJMHO

:-)

Not a bad post. It will be interesting to here more from MC.