corpsband Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 And you carefully avoided every single point in my reply and decided to pontificate. I really don't see the point replying to your posts when you're entirely unwilling to reply in turn. Maybe it's because you HAVE no reply. Competition is Competition; Entertainment is Entertainment; and Figure Skating, Drum Corps, Basketball, Football, Competitive Cheerleading, ad infinitum have both entertainment and physical competitive aspects deeply entrenched in their activities. People are entertained by the dunking and ally-oops in Basketball, the musical sounds in Drum Corps, and the almost gravity defying leaps in Figure Skating; and while entertainment of the ‘immaculate reception’ in Football may not be musical in nature the entertainment garnered was just as aesthetic as the musical entertainment garnered in drum corps. The competitive nature, just like the entertainment nature, is just as intense in Drum Corps as that within all other physically demanding contests. And more to the point, just because Drum Corps has a musical element does not change that fact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) I far from take myself seriously; however calling someone an a** and then posting a photo of the rear-end of a horse certainly is a personal attack, not humor. That's actually NOT what I said (again with the misquoting). You insist on replying to nearly every post I make but are unablle make a coherent reply. You're married to some silly idea about a marketing slogan defining reality. And I posted a humorous pic illustrating your irrational marriage to an idea that's been debunked hundreds and hundreds of times over. And you're whining about an attack? If we were in a courtroom setting every reply you post would be objected to as non-responsive. This coming from the guy who rails against other posters for not being in-touch with "absolute truth". Freakin' ironic, don't you think? Edited March 11, 2014 by corpsband 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 > Basketball is not a performing art. But it is an athletic competition; and DCI is an athletic competition. And Basketball does have artistic elements (see the antics the players do in their dunking, dribbling, etc... which are for the artistic entertainment for the crowd and have nothing to do with sport of basketball). > Playbooks are not musical scores. But musical scores are playbooks (The terminology of a battery score is called what? Hint, it starts with a B). And those books are Playbooks and certainly ARE written to reflect the talent and abilities of the performers just as all other playbooks in all other athletic contests are written to the players. > Basketball teams compete directly (head-to-head) against their competitors. DCI corps compete 'directly' against each other > Basketball (and the NCAA) have changed since 1980 Let's put something to the test. Let's look at the rule sheets and scoring criteria for 1980 DCI, the rule sheets and scoring criteria for 1980 NCAA Basketball, and watch videos of the 1980 NCAA Championships as well as the 1980 DCI Championships. The compare those elements to the 2013 versions of those same activities. Which activity has changed a little, and which activity has changed in a 'considerable manner'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) That's actually NOT what I said (again with the misquoting). You insist on replying to nearly every post I make but are unablle make a coherent reply. You're married to some silly idea about a marketing slogan defining reality. And I posted a humorous pic illustrating your irrational marriage to an idea that's been debunked hundreds and hundreds of times over. And you're whining about an attack? If we were in a courtroom setting every reply you post would be objected to as non-responsive. This coming from the guy who rails against other posters for not being in-touch with "absolute truth". Freakin' ironic, don't you think? Was I not called an a** along with the photo of the rear end of a horse? If so, I am pointing out that goes beyond debating issues, and beyond humor, and into the realm of personal attack. That is not whining. Also, my opinion that DCI is an athletic competition which contain musical elements is based on far more than a slogan; you have just fixated on that particular aspect and disagree, or more accurately disregarded the other reasoning I have put forth to support the position that even with the musical elements DCI is still an athletic competition. Edited March 11, 2014 by Stu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2muchcoffeeman Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Or maybe the next big thing will be to combine the modern visual and speed with the musical content and volume that you say was sacrificed. Maybe that trend even started last season, with one particularly successful corps. Indeed, it is dangerous of me to suggest that we have reached the peak of the performance ability of the members. I don't know if it's true, but there's a story that, at some point in the late 1800s, a U.S. Patent Office official remarked that there was nothing left to be invented. Technology has reached its apex. The Fairchild Washing Machine was as good as it was going to get. Ahem. Crown's staff got a kind of sound out of their horn line last year that was something rarely, if ever, heard before. So perhaps there yet remains some "headroom," some place to innovate, elevate, and advance the drum-and-bugle-corps form that still resides in the physical -- meaning the same form, performed better. There may be room to follow Crown's lead, to push its teaching principles throughout all DCI horn lines and improve the sound of the brass across the activity, and maybe even to squeeze out some more volume. Batteries can, I suppose, continue to thin their books in response to ever-more-complex visual demands, or maybe there's a way to get them to play the thicker books of yesterday at today's levels of visual demand. I hope so. Such hopes reside in the quality of teaching, and the abilities of the performers. But I suspect we're running out of headroom. We've already about maxxed the tempos possible (or even desired). We long ago banished cymbals to the sideline, and maybe the next step is to banish timpani to the keyboards, and while we're at it maybe the bass line -- heck, the whole battery -- to electronics. It would make more marching spots available for brass. I'm being facetious, but the point remains: there is a functional limit to the horsepower you can get out of a DCI corps. The number of members is fixed. The season's length is fixed. The number of hours in a day is fixed. The type of instrumentation has been (mostly) fixed. The top end of the tempo spectrum is essentially fixed, and today's corps are spending more performance time than ever near that boundary. At fast tempos or slow, the lung capacity of a 20-year-old is fixed, and once a performer learns to use that maximum capacity, there is no more capacity to be had. If horsepower, then, can't be increased, how do you add power? Clarity? Tonal quality? Visual impact? Expressiveness? Musicality? You shrink the stage. Or change the instrumentation. Or the musical selections. Or the design. Or the rules. Or the whole point of the activity. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Was I called an a** along with the photo of the rear end of a horse? No that's not what I said. And there's a substantial difference in meaning between the expressions. Your failure to even recall such a simple fact leads me to believe you have no idea what people are actually writing but instead remember your own interpretations of posts. It's kind of like conversing with a someone through a translator who's deliberately changing content without either party knowing. I think it's best if you just stop replying to my posts and I'll do likewise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seen-it-all Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 > Basketball teams compete directly (head-to-head) against their competitors. DCI corps compete 'directly' against each other Yes and no. At the end of the day, no matter how good a corps is, one drum corps cannot directly prevent another drum corps from being better. There is no defense in drum corps. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corpsband Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 Yes and no. At the end of the day, no matter how good a corps is, one drum corps cannot directly prevent another drum corps from being better. There is no defense in drum corps. Correct. Each team is judged and the scores are compared. Hardly "direct competition". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 (edited) Was I not called an a** along with the photo of the rear end of a horse? You were. The two posts in question read as sheer insult and not humorous to me, and I'm someone who is very often frustrated by your debating style. (Try not to go cosmic* so much.) Nonetheless, I suggest you be the bigger man and move on. *Edit: By that I mean not that you question the idea that there is such a thing as truth, but that (in pursuit of pretty much the opposite position) you too frequently try to enlarge the terms of the debate to a scale that loses sight of the specifics under discussion. How many people did you think were prepared to discuss drum corps in terms of Existentialism, for instance? Edited March 11, 2014 by N.E. Brigand 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted March 11, 2014 Share Posted March 11, 2014 You were. The two posts in question read as sheer insult and not humorous to me, and I'm someone who is very often frustrated by your debating style. (Try not to go cosmic* so much.) Nonetheless, I suggest you be the bigger man and move on. Point taken and great article reference; to debate someone who states that there is no truth does lead to a scorched earth situation of going cosmic and I have fallen into that trap. As for the contention of insult, I cannot seem to find the two postings by him in which he directly stated, "You sir are an A**", followed by the horse rear-end photo; so they might have been removed by the Mods. Anyway, thanks for the advice; and as I originally replied to his postings, I will take the high road. *Edit: By that I mean not that you question the idea that there is such a thing as truth, but that (in pursuit of pretty much the opposite position) you too frequently try to enlarge the terms of the debate to a scale that loses sight of the specifics under discussion. How many people did you think were prepared to discuss drum corps in terms of Existentialism, for instance? Point also taken; but for the record while I did bring the words Existential Nihilism into the discussions, BD actually brought the philosophical concepts into the realm of Drum Corps show design with their "Cabaret Voltaire" Dada references. just sayin' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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