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Time to Say Goodbye, after 15 years


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1 hour ago, Tim K said:

Well said. People forget that a major, if not the major reason DCI was formed was due to the restrictions and judging of VFW and American Legion. It was formed to keep the activity moving forward

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It was because of $$$$.  If you think otherwise you are deluding yourself. 

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“Keep the activity moving forward “. Haha haha. What does that even mean?  Nothing but a feel-good. 

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1 hour ago, HockeyDad said:

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It was because of $$$$.  If you think otherwise you are deluding yourself. 

Wrong Wrong Wrong Tim is right But youre a little right. $$$$$ for corps before DCI like many things were a hot mess. Delusion is actually part of the reason you don't see as many corps today. A refusal to see the world was changing and support was not going to be the same and doing the same old same old was not going to work. Now that was delusion. I will admit sometimes with good intentions BUT

Edited by GUARDLING
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3 hours ago, cybersnyder said:

From what I've seen from the tax returns, dues do not cover all expenses, so adding members will only result in cost savings if they can bring new sources of donations or at least fill vacant seats on buses. Their food costs are the same. Uniforms are the same, well they need gloves with fingers cut out.  

they raised it to 154 to fill seats. anything more than that requires another bus, a lot more fuel, insurance, food and housing costs

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1 hour ago, HockeyDad said:

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It was because of $$$$.  If you think otherwise you are deluding yourself. 

money was part of it, but not the sole reason.

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First marched in drum corps in 1981...and times have changed. Participating in DCI did two things for me -- made me a better musician and resulted in new friendships and relationships. Those two valuable things still occur today for members so I am still "in" and enthusiastic. And supportive.

That being said, my opinion is that WGI is rat poison to true drum corps; the overuse, emphasis, and discussion of props is silly : use of amplification  for anything other than mallet instruments in the pit and a minor dose of vocal overlay now and again is distracting and artificial, and that the true art of marching and maneuvering has disappeared.

 

Oh -- and general effect scores are a bunch of BS, and way - overweighted.

 

But... I ain't leavin the activity as a fan or as an alumni. Still a good expreience for the marching members -- oh yeah -- cell phones should be banned on tour. 🙂

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7 hours ago, rysa4 said:

First marched in drum corps in 1981...and times have changed. Participating in DCI did two things for me -- made me a better musician and resulted in new friendships and relationships. Those two valuable things still occur today for members so I am still "in" and enthusiastic. And supportive.

That being said, my opinion is that WGI is rat poison to true drum corps; the overuse, emphasis, and discussion of props is silly : use of amplification  for anything other than mallet instruments in the pit and a minor dose of vocal overlay now and again is distracting and artificial, and that the true art of marching and maneuvering has disappeared.

 

Oh -- and general effect scores are a bunch of BS, and way - overweighted.

 

But... I ain't leavin the activity as a fan or as an alumni. Still a good expreience for the marching members -- oh yeah -- cell phones should be banned on tour. 🙂

I wonder if anyone has ever researched (or at least given some real thought,) to when the mental shift occurred from the "old drum corps is the only drum corps" to the "change is ok but amps and props are ridiculous" to the "old stuff is boring" phases. I fall somewhat in the middle and started marching in 1987. I can accept that things change and look more at the performance and skill of the musicians and I try (and sometimes fail,) to ignore the periphery of things like electronics, new instrumentation and mega-props. That doesn't mean that others who came before or after "my time" can't see it that way...but most I talk to fall into what I have always thought of as "drum corps generations." 

I'm not trying to bring up some type of ageism because I don't see it as a prejudice really. But it's interesting to think about. For example:

Father - Drum corps fan since the 1970's. Hated electronics, props and "all things hokey" as he put it. He liked straight, clean lines, traditional uni's etc. He did like the change in drill that occurred in the mid 80's but it reached a point where he thought it was hard to judge because the movement was such that feet were impossible to see at the stadium seat level. 

Me - MM from 1987-1990 and then again in DCA from 2005 to 2010. I say my first DCI show in 1984 in Birmingham. I love the drill of the mid-80's through up around the last 4 years. Now it's more of climbing up and down off of vertical staging than actual marching and maneuvering. I don't hate it...but it's hard to follow sometimes. I'm ok with electronics as long as they aren't overused. I don't care about amplification if it's tasteful and not used to mic an entire horn line. I like SOME of the new "uniforms" (which some will call "outfits") because I remember how ####### hot it was to march in even the old bibbers / coat / etc. I'm sure MM's of my fathers generation would tell me to quit wining. 

My Girlfriend - Fan for all of 2 whole years and she's quite young (28.) She "can watch" what she refers to as "old corps" and appreciate some of what we did, but only in small doses before she's back to scrolling Facebook. She LOVES the staging of shows now and stays focused for hours. Loves the idea of amps because it's more of a "music festival experience" for her. It's funny because even in the lot, she'll ask things like "Could you have played that when you were marching?" My response is generally "We DID play stuff like that when we marched. We just didn't do it moving at 180 BPM." She also has ZERO MUSICAL BACKGROUND as a marcher or musician. She looks at things purely from an entertainment standpoint. 

Sorry for the rambling but I had to be at work at 7am for my 70th hour this week so my brain is stuck on wide open and I don't have many brain cells left to rub together and spark conscious thought. 

Edited by Weaklefthand4ever
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17 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

that #### American League adding the DH. 3 generations of pitchers weren't able to hit .100 for their lifetome

This is why I don't support AL teams.  Makes a pitcher than can hit more valuable and rounded player.  It's kinda like having a second set of runners for everyone that can't run.

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17 minutes ago, Mello Dude said:

This is why I don't support AL teams.  Makes a pitcher than can hit more valuable and rounded player.  It's kinda like having a second set of runners for everyone that can't run.

I thought the designated hitter was universal. I don’t really follow baseball much, obviously. Maybe if they changed their uniforms....

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9 hours ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

I wonder if anyone has ever researched (or at least given some real thought,) to when the mental shift occurred from the "old drum corps is the only drum corps" to the "change is ok but amps and props are ridiculous" to the "old stuff is boring" phases. I fall somewhat in the middle and started marching in 1987. I can accept that things change and look more at the performance and skill of the musicians and I try (and sometimes fail,) to ignore the periphery of things like electronics, new instrumentation and mega-props. That doesn't mean that others who came before or after "my time" can't see it that way...but most I talk to fall into what I have always thought of as "drum corps generations." 

 

To me this is impossible to do,  as they are integral elements of drum corps today. Trying to do that is like saying I love the brass, but I am going to ignore the mellophones. It puts a person on the road to failure in liking modern drum corps, IMO.

I started in drum corps in late 1963, when I was 10. We had single snares, single tenors, flat "thumper" bass drums and cymbals in the drumline. That was it. Of course I loved it, and I still love it. For me, I have to adapt to change, or just walk away. Luckily, I have loved drum corps all through the ages, and I hope to continue. One of my all time favorite shows is from 1969, the Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights from Newark, NJ. On the other end, BD's "Felliniesque" and Crown's "Relentless" are also on the list, as is the Blue Knights "Avian", with a bunch in between. For me, I love what each era has done with the activity.

Edited by MikeD
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