Talk:Drum & bugle corps

Please see Talk:Drum and bugle corps before doing anything with this page. While there are some valuable points to be made on both sides of the story, I think the current reading of both pages is right on the edge of NPOV against the modern drum corps. Please see the "other" talk page for my plan to resolve this tomorrow. Thanks! MattJ 23:35, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I don't think there's any doubt about the lack of neutrality in this or the other article; I've added the NPOV disclaimer to the top of both.

The content of this article needs to be combined into the Drum and bugle corps article and then become a redirect. I'd rather not be the one to do that as I am not particularly knowledgeable about drum corps history, but I will if these articles and discussion pages remain idle. I'm fidgety and I hate to see the Drum and bugle corps article in such horrible disarray. If nothing else, I will try to give the article some structure, but it will be impossible for me to resist the urge to delete a bunch of stuff and rewrite some of it.

Lazytiger 13:33, 21 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Catherine Burr responds
Interesting misspelling of the link with my name on the "other" talk page - not alleging a conspiracy (unless the shoe fits) because it doesn't matter.

What does matter is what is becoming more and more of an intelligent setting-forth of the differences between DCIA corps and drum & bugle corps (which is the same thing as "drum and bugle corps" - I just like the ampersand). BTW, it's a fair attempt, Matt - but attempting to make the distinction between camps by varying and/& puts too much to chance. Most people will read the main page, and IMO not all will read this discussion page. Thus, I've referenced both pages at the top - along with the DCA and DCI links on BOTH pages (nice try there, Lazytiger).

As to alleging that DCIA opinions are somehow "factual" and classic alumni opinions are not (or dead or stuck-in-the-past or whatever), puh-leeeze. Drum & bugle corps people were drummers and buglers FIRST. It's our opinions that matter and are deserving of respect - such is yet another drum & bugle corps value which DCIA has got rid of for the "latest and greatest" - and the unbiased observer can easily see the political implications and the feeding of divisions on both sides, of young against old.

I feel sorry for corps rookies today who cannot feel as we did - and do - a continuous part of a glorious past activity that will be passed on intact. In two years, what you have spent so much money on and so much sweat on will be "old" and "outdated" and no one will care. The only thing left will be the resume credit and you'll get to say you marched. You'll also have a DVD. Whoopie. I'll take being a part of a proud tradition, of drum & bugle corps at large, and being one of the many, some of whom I first marched with 34 years ago who are still my drum corps brothers. We earned what we did, and still own it, intact, while with all of DCIA's money and politics (stolen from us, whom they never credit other than to market themselves) you have to beg to even be recognized as a genuine drum & bugle corps - by alumni who love drum & bugle corps most. That's really sad. That so many people (who are becoming fewer and fewer) I know actually encourage young people in this is something I find abominable.

Let what DCIA does - and whom they really are - stand on their own merits, such as they are. I checked your page Lazytiger - you're 25 years old and haven't lived through the changes I have. That's not to say that I'm smarter because I am older than you. I will rest my arguments on the merits. It's up to you to neglect my experiences or not - many do.

I have marched in pre-DCI corps (including Velvet Knights), DCI corps (Velvet Knights first making associate membership - against a total of 46 "Class A" corps, when there were 46 or so Class A junior corps who would make the trek), to Blue Devils (my first real experience with what I call a DCIA corps, and an experience I can't recommend to anyone), to DCA in Minnesota Brass and Kilties, and now I am FIRMLY committed to the classic alumni camp.

I was never interested in marching band. Concert band, YES (have recently done this in a brass band). Orchestra, YES (which I did as a violinist). Choir, YES. But no one is really interested in marching band other than people in marching band - or in a parade or band shell. And no one is really interested in drum & bugle corps other than drum & bugle corps people - or in a parade, for military honors or on a football field doing a genuine drum corps show, which TAKES THE FIELD, from end zone to end zone. Morphing mutated sperm just doesn't do it, and dancing on a football field is ridiculous except at a half-time - where the band ISN'T the main event, but a diversion.

Such is what it always has been, is and always will be - not because I say so, but because of the nature of the genres and their settings. Anything else is an experiment - good at best, but also sterile and incapable of healthy, wholesome growth.

And remember - Gore Vidal points out that conspiracies are the human condition, except when geniuses are involved. And DCIA got rid of their geniuses (or they died off) a looooong time ago...

Fortunately, drum & bugle corps still has 'em.