bill Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Well, it's not like the older dino-crowd is a beacon of financial support anyway. Look how many have embraced the Alumni Spectacular. What was that crowd last year? Maybe 800? The financial impact alone brought by the alumni corps to DCA with their infusion into such things as lodging (alone) I would ascertain is quite substantial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Matczak Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Gary ... does this mean things are not looking good for me and the PA Drum Corps Hall of Fame? Geez ... your comments are a bit silly. I was only at the meeting to bring up a few business practices that I would like DCA to look at down the road. As for the rules ... they are what they are. I love the change. and I would do more if I could. But ... we are where we are and DCA is where it is. Come on now ... give me a little break. George,........you should have 5 years with a PA based corps along with all of your other out of state experience,............fill out the app, send it to Cecily, and you are in,,............. I disagree with you, rules are what we make them to be,........not "they are what they are" I praise YEA when I think it is due, do some searching and you will see,......BTW, back when the corps moved to PA, I answered a request for help to provide architectural services for the corps hall, I offered, at no cost to YEA,.............but I didn't even get the "thanks but no thanks" response,.............. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) the average age of the audience is old. DCA can't survive on that. I;/m far more ###### about two more years in Rochester Took away the -1 for this one. Where I sit the average age scares the #### out of me. Corps may be getting younger but if a large part of the audience will not be able to $upport in 15 or so years, the future does not look good. Edited December 10, 2012 by JimF-LowBari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 You forgot the rest...."and if it doesn't...PAINT it!" Didn't forget, just wasn't sure if the Navy followed that one too (along with the Army).... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 George,........you should have 5 years with a PA based corps along with all of your other out of state experience,............fill out the app, send it to Cecily, and you are in,,............. Plus you gotta guy your picture taken holding the certificate and patch for the website. Kidding, just picturing that and it's giving me a smile on a dreary morning...... s/ guy whose pic on PADCHOF looks the same way.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kamarag Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 The financial impact alone brought by the alumni corps to DCA with their infusion into such things as lodging (alone) I would ascertain is quite substantial. Maybe, but no one is buying tickets to see them play, which is far more important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Matczak Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 The financial impact alone brought by the alumni corps to DCA with their infusion into such things as lodging (alone) I would ascertain is quite substantial. plus they buy tickets to prelims and finals, participate in I&E, eat at restaurants, etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Maybe, but no one is buying tickets to see them play, which is far more important. Unless those Sunday performers would stay home that weekend if they didn't have to show up to play. Judging by the jackets I've seen there are a lot of them during the competing shows. No idea if they wouldn't be there if it wasn't for Sunday morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Maybe, but no one is buying tickets to see them play, which is far more important. Mutual support of all aspects of the activity is what "should" be important; I see many from alumni corps in the stands for prelims and finals........how about the competing corps encouraging their membership to attend the alumni event. One hand washes the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Henson Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I'll be honest - I'm agnostic to the change. It's being done thoughtfully and carefully (and amidst MUCH discussion, from what I hear), and the approach taken was the most conservative of the options offered, by far. When I look at the problems offered by amplification, three things stand out - nasty synth goo and horn part doubling (which is just pure, unadulterated ######## IMO), annoying/intrusive use of sampling and/or voice, and managing the mix. The first two of those problems are completely precluded under the rules option that was eventually chosen - in fact, there were two options that I saw before the meeting, one conservative and one more liberal (synths, etc) and the directors made the adopted rule even more restrictive than what was proposed as the "conservative" version. Good for them. The mix issue to me is best exemplified by the SCV 2004 DVDs - one of my absolute favorite brass books, and when I popped in the DVD I couldn't hear the brass over the pit. Ugh. That was, IMO, growing pains. The guys who would actually implement this at the staff/design level have done this for years in the marching band/WGI or even DCI communities by now, and they know what needs to be done to get the proper sound. I wouldn't expect a lot of experimentation here - just expect some more expressive playing from the pit. Yay! Can we all agree that teaching kids to play more musically, and with a proper characteristic sound and technique for their instrument is a good thing??? And that gets me to the good part of this. What we risk is some doofuses screwing up the mix here and there. What we gain is, well, actually, it's a lot. The kids who have been taught the proper way to play the instrument don't have to learn new (and BAD) playing habits when they shift to a DCA corps. If you don't think that affects band directors being willing to recommend DCA corps to their kids, well..... I want some of what you're smoking. I had one director tell me, with a lot of passion, that he spent almost ten grand on new mallet/keyboards a year ago, and in the course of just one season they are all but destroyed. At the same time, he can find a full up system to mike the pit for $5-7,000 that will last for a decade, and will allow his kids to play more expressively and not hurt themselves or the expensive equipment they currently bang the #### out of. Yes, amps are actually seen as a way to CUT costs... DCA takes a position of being more able to readly accept former DCI corps into the fold when appropriate. I'll refrain from editorializing that point too much, but I think you gather what I'm saying. Position DCA to be flexible enough to pick up any slack if need be. Really, I'm personally of the opinion that they took the wisest road here. They're not allowing voice, and it appears that they actually removed voice from the original proposal - and GOOD on them for that. They don't allow sampling, or synths, or any of the other things that I personally HATE about "modern" BOA/DCI pits. They're just saying, "we don't want to teach kids bad habits, which hurts recruiting, and damages our gear." Seems wise to me. They also gave the corps staffs time to thoughtfuly implement this instead of just rushing into things a'la DCI when it came legal (ugh - that year, just - ugh). It was GOING to happen eventually, and it's happened in the best way it could have - and with pretty good timing, too, I think. We'll see. A note about George. Lots of folks have told us, he wasn't in the room for ANY of the talk about rules proposals, nor did Cadets2 submit any rules proposals. Even if he had been there, the vote wasn't his to cast. Personally, I think he probably just got bored with the whole meeting when they didn't hang on his every word during the morning session and bagged ### to go tweet and facebook some stuff. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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