Frank Mulvaney Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 You are not old. The first of three Finals I marched was 1975, and I feel like I'm getting younger every year when I sit and watch the wonders that are unveiled in front of my eyes and ears on the field. Like you, I find it remarkable, and it's so invigorating it fills me with a sense of perpetual youthfulness. Drum corps keeps people young at heart. Michael,your comment really struck a chord.I have been an observer of this amazing evolving art form since before you marched.Enjoyed reading your columns over the years.Have been a Cadet vol for a dozen years. Even after a couple hundred shows my heart rate still jumps when I get near a stadium and can hear warmups.Not a typical fan. Heavily involved in Jazz world including as columnist covering college jazz.Got three live doses already this year including Cabellero show last Sat.This will be a year to remember. May the flame always burn brightly . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldskl3rings Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 DC started to lose its soul with the introduction of the pit. What was once an activity that featured the beautiful sound of a brass choir, mixed with the precision of rudimental drumming and marching now included the cling, clang of whatever they could bang on by people who don’t march a step. Now they’ve added amps, pianos, synthesizers, amplified voices and a whole range other noise pollution that has utterly corrupted that beautiful brass sound. Compound that with creative teams who like to impresses everyone on how smart they are and a judging community that only rewards certain types of programs and what you get is soulless boring shows. What hasn’t changed is the member’s commitment to working their butts off to present the best of what they have been given. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
c.l. Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Geez... commenting on a post you never read is like commenting on a musician's music you've never heard played. Do you think its a good idea for us to reply to posts we've never read ? Just asking, mind you. It doesn't matter, because I said I wasn't commenting directly to his/her content of the post. So no, it would be different if I stated that earlier, but I was specifically commenting on the title, which could be used in conjunction with a number of similar topics in the first few pages (i.e. not hard to look up). Of course the OP is entitled to their opinion, it would be silly to say otherwise in a public forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 DC started to lose its soul with the introduction of the pit. What was once an activity that featured the beautiful sound of a brass choir, mixed with the precision of rudimental drumming and marching now included the cling, clang of whatever they could bang on by people who don't march a step. Now they've added amps, pianos, synthesizers, amplified voices and a whole range other noise pollution that has utterly corrupted that beautiful brass sound. Compound that with creative teams who like to impresses everyone on how smart they are and a judging community that only rewards certain types of programs and what you get is soulless boring shows. What hasn't changed is the member's commitment to working their butts off to present the best of what they have been given. I was wondering how far back people would go. Nobody has gone earlier than this, I think. You're entitled to your opinion as much as anybody, but I do think it's important to remember that the "judging community" rewards exactly what DCI hires them to reward based on what DCI tells them to look for on judging sheets that DCI creates. It's not some autonomous group of people wearing green shirts that determines the creative direction of DCI corps. Quite the opposite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldskl3rings Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I was wondering how far back people would go. Nobody has gone earlier than this, I think. You're entitled to your opinion as much as anybody, but I do think it's important to remember that the "judging community" rewards exactly what DCI hires them to reward based on what DCI tells them to look for on judging sheets that DCI creates. It's not some autonomous group of people wearing green shirts that determines the creative direction of DCI corps. Quite the opposite. That’s not entirely true. I’ve heard judges say via their tapes. I don’t like that, you need to change it. Not, that wasn’t clean or the corps intonation was bad in that section, just I don’t like it. A lot of the mid-season re-writes are to conform with the judges tastes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lance Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 That's not entirely true. I've heard judges say via their tapes. I don't like that, you need to change it. Not, that wasn't clean or the corps intonation was bad in that section, just I don't like it. A lot of the mid-season re-writes are to conform with the judges tastes. Yeah, based on what DCI tells them to look for and reward. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Other Mike Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 I was wondering how far back people would go. Nobody has gone earlier than this, I think. Go back and read my post,. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flugelswerebugels Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 LOL @ Original Poster... Sorry... People from all other corps have been migrating to BD since the early 80's. When travel and the corps rehearsal schedules began to allow it, people started going there, including kids from PR. You paint it like the corps devotion prevented that. People have been drawn to winning since the beginning. It wasn't until the rehearsal schedule and tour of corps changed to allow members from long distances to come along, that things got like they are now... and that was almost thirty years ago. We had "imports" in BD from before I started. At that time, most of them were from Southern California. A whole group of Canadians (and from Ontario, not just up the coast in Vancouver) showed up in '79, and I know there were others before that. There were others from the east coast, the midwest, everywhere. For some reason, people have liked the idea of moving to California and being in a top-quality organization for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Well I haven't totally checked out. This is actually my first year out of it in many years. Being out makes you really see some stuff. I care cause I care about the activity. Change is fine but what are the options? It'd be nice if people just saw the bigger picture. This year is better than last year for sure! Maybe you should find a couple of shows to view. I dunno, I'm continually torn. I have many friends like you, who feel the same way for sure. It's rough... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjeffeory Posted July 11, 2011 Share Posted July 11, 2011 Actually, I thought the era from late '80s through early '90s was excrutiatingly boring. While there were certainly some great shows, taken as a whole there were too many Cadets style copycats and corps abandoned jazz and popular styles for classical genres. Almost lost interest back then but things picked up with shows like BD '94 and Madison '95 We're opposites then. One of my least favorite shows was BD '94. I LOVED late 80's - '93. '94-'99 were pretty dark years for DCI. Lost me and several friends for a while there. Yes, there were some great shows in that time frame, but the majority of the shows were as the OP says, BORING. Now, I'm struggling with the arranging style of most of the corps. I'm gonna stick it out though and see where it goes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.