An Open Letter to DCI

[BigW]

As for the one post before mine, Allentown is a notoriously 'hard' audience for the DCI corps. They know what they like, and enjoy. That being said, if they LIKE it, they will give it up for that corps more than anywhere else will give it up. It's not a golf-clappin' must-be-polite crowd whether we dig it or not bunch.

Yes, egos are large, immense very fragile amonngst some design staffs and individuals. They put a lot of time into trying to make things awesome, and I believe in some cases, seriously over-think themselves into a corner. They also can be like the Emperor in the fable who walked out buck nekkid into the street. Allentown is the place where the kid who tells him he's not wearing a stitch of clothes on his bod tends to be in the DCI season.

[Kamarag]

"Have a good band show with your bugle corps..."

Did anyone ELSE feel a little queasy at that -- while laughing at the same time?

I think that was the point :)

[Kamarag]

As for the one post before mine, Allentown is a notoriously 'hard' audience for the DCI corps. They know what they like, and enjoy. That being said, if they LIKE it, they will give it up for that corps more than anywhere else will give it up. It's not a golf-clappin' must-be-polite crowd whether we dig it or not bunch.

Yes, egos are large, immense very fragile amonngst some design staffs and individuals. They put a lot of time into trying to make things awesome, and I believe in some cases, seriously over-think themselves into a corner. They also can be like the Emperor in the fable who walked out buck nekkid into the street. Allentown is the place where the kid who tells him he's not wearing a stitch of clothes on his bod tends to be in the DCI season.

What was simply amazing, and made me question where the heck I was, was the Allentown crowd giving it up for EVERYONE this year, both nights. That has never, ever happened before.

[ContraFart]

I can see the OPs point, but there is also an essence of "all change is bad" that permeates throughout old school drum corps people.

Bringing in amplification and electronics is like adding another tool to the tool box. Some corps have been very tasteful with the addition, while some have not. Where DCI has failed with this change is not adequately incorporating it into the judging.

Why BD 2012 is an important corps to bring up in this letter is because with their victory tonight, their esoteric WGI style is now valued more by the judges than the superhuman drill that Crown performed. It is a paradigm shift in the activity. If this trend continues, then it could be an end to form to form drill as we know it. It is a change that is more dramatic than just adding another color to the palette, it changes the entire definition of the art.

I think there were several very entertaining corps this summer and that it is not as bad as the OP projects. There are so many good things that are happening and the level of performance has improved drastically. (I watched my 99 Crossmen performance thinking that show may not even make semis in 2012). It saddens me when I hear how old time drum corps people do not like what they see today.

[breezemont]

How many scatter drills, 6?

Body poses that are completely unexposed due to randomness?

How does that NOT knock them down?

If we reductio ad ubsurdium, 100% scatter drill with 100% random body poses should net a score of 100, yes?

[CuriousMe]

Arguable on difficulty. Very, very arguable. If you'd have said Crown had a more 'likeable' show, then I think there'd be more agreement.

BD beat Crown on Effect Visual Rep on both judges sheets.

BD Won Effect Music rep against Crown with one judge, lost on the other. That's 3 out of 4 Effect judges having BD ahead on Effect.

Visual Proficiency/Rep, Crown by a tenth. Visual Analysis/Rep, BD by .4 over Crown. Easier visual book than Crown, evidently... NOT according to that judge. BD Color Guard wins by .3 on Content over Crown's. Easier than Crown's? Not by that judge's call, either.

Crown wins by .1 over BD in both Brass and Music analysis/Left Box. .1 is not a lot of difference in difficulty.

BD Wins by .4 on percussion book over Crown. pretty clear from that Judge who had the most difficult percussion book, and it sure wasn't Crown.

So with BD gapping Crown over almost every difficulty/content oriented subcaption except for Brass and over all music, and there only losing by a tenth in each... how can one make any valid argument BD's show is easier than Crown's!? Maybe in Brass. But that's not the whole overall picture. A fantastic sounding horn line doesn't win by and of itself, and I think a lot of Crown fans are thinking that should be so. It ain't how things work.

Do you see the disconnect in using the judges' scores, to contradict the assertion that the current judging system doesn't recognize demand as effectively as the Olympic system?

Edited August 12, 2012 by CuriousMe

[MikeD]

It saddens me when I hear how old time drum corps people do not like what they see today.

As ever was...1971 was 'the year drum corps died' according to a t-shirt and an editorial in Drum Corps News merely because the Cadets, Scouts and Cavies did themed shows. Legacy fans in 1976 hated Bayonne for changing from the St Andrews Cadets style unis to the 'banana' unis....and so on as show designs changed over time. My dad never got over corps being able to start and end on the field...he loved the old off-the-line and exit numbers best.

[kickhaltsforlife]

Arguable on difficulty. Very, very arguable. If you'd have said Crown had a more 'likeable' show, then I think there'd be more agreement.

BD beat Crown on Effect Visual Rep on both judges sheets.

BD Won Effect Music rep against Crown with one judge, lost on the other. That's 3 out of 4 Effect judges having BD ahead on Effect.

Visual Proficiency/Rep, Crown by a tenth. Visual Analysis/Rep, BD by .4 over Crown. Easier visual book than Crown, evidently... NOT according to that judge. BD Color Guard wins by .3 on Content over Crown's. Easier than Crown's? Not by that judge's call, either.

Crown wins by .1 over BD in both Brass and Music analysis/Left Box. .1 is not a lot of difference in difficulty.

BD Wins by .4 on percussion book over Crown. pretty clear from that Judge who had the most difficult percussion book, and it sure wasn't Crown.

So with BD gapping Crown over almost every difficulty/content oriented subcaption except for Brass and over all music, and there only losing by a tenth in each... how can one make any valid argument BD's show is easier than Crown's!? Maybe in Brass. But that's not the whole overall picture. A fantastic sounding horn line doesn't win by and of itself, and I think a lot of Crown fans are thinking that should be so. It ain't how things work.

From what I see on the field and what I see on the recaps there is a lot of BS going on. Across the board. Not just between Crown and BD. And you can tell that there are still plenty of judges judging by the old criteria.

Basically you can't use the numbers to argue which show had and didn't have whatever. You weren't really able to in the past. But now especially. Judges were all over the pace this year. The only thing really consistent was overall placements. Which are more or less where I think they should be. No one is far away from where I think they should be placed. I also think the only reason Cavies aren't behind Madison is because off the TOC G8 bull ####.

But that's all just my opinion.

And there are a lot of the opinion that Crowns show was harder than BDs. I agree with that opinion. And I'm not saying BDs show was easy. I just thought Crown was not getting near the credit they deserve. Only BDs drumlins made me go wow. And that one Section where the trumpets and baritones STOOD STILL. and played some awesome licks! Crowns show I had my jaw dropped throughout the entire opener everytime watched the show.

Edited August 12, 2012 by kickhaltsforlife

[ContraFart]

From what I see on the field and what I see on the recaps there is a lot of BS going on. Across the board. Not just between Crown and BD. And you can tell that there are still plenty of judges judging by the old criteria.

Basically you can't use the numbers to argue which show had and didn't have whatever. You weren't really able to in the past. But now especially. Judges were all over the pace this year. The only thing really consistent was overall placements. Which are more or less where I think they should be. No one is far away from where I think they should be placed. I also think the only reason Cavies aren't behind Madison is because off the TOC G8 bull ####.

But that's all just my opinion.

And there are a lot of the opinion that Crowns show was harder than BDs. I agree with that opinion. And I'm not saying BDs show was easy. I just thought Crown was not getting near the credit they deserve. Only BDs drumlins made me go wow. And that one Section where the trumpets and baritones STOOD STILL. and played some awesome licks! Crowns show I had my jaw dropped throughout the entire opener everything I watched the show.

You are far from alone in that opinion....I am willing to put it out there that Crowns show was the hardest in the history of the activity.

[BRASSO]

As ever was...1971 was 'the year drum corps died' according to a t-shirt and an editorial in Drum Corps News merely because the Cadets, Scouts and Cavies did themed shows. Legacy fans in 1976 hated Bayonne for changing from the St Andrews Cadets style unis to the 'banana' unis....and so on as show designs changed over time. My dad never got over corps being able to start and end on the field...he loved the old off-the-line and exit numbers best.

The difference was that from 1971 to 1980 far MORE fans increasingly came out to DCI Drum Corps shows across the country as there were more shows in general. Also, while there were a few disgruntled fans that did not like the changes DCI was bringing to Drum Corps, more fans were coming to the shows to watch the shows in the 70's and early 80's than today. The economy during the 70's Carter Presidency was awful too. But the fans came out..whether they were disgruntled or not... especially at Championships week.

Edited August 12, 2012 by BRASSO