I am still trying to wrap my head around the logic behind Lucas Oil Stadium. DCI has made it clear they will be there for the remainder of their 10-year commitment, despite some obviously serious issues with the acoustical environment.

Their solution?

One possible strategy for the future, Dorritie suggests (via a history lesson), is for each corps to find a way to work with, and not against, the sound characteristics of Lucas Oil Stadium.

I have an idea: how about we hold finals in a stadium that works with, and not against, the music that the corps are performing? DCI had the option to bail after a year, and considering the difference between 2008 and 2009, I think the logical solution is to hold finals in Bloomington, or resume having finals in different venues every year.

When DCI first began talking about Lucas Oil they marketed it as a venue that was being designed with acoustics in mind. That was obviously a lie. Their new approach is to now pretend like that responsibility is that of the design staff of each corps. While any smart corps will tweak their approach to the finals stadium to maximize the recordings, what will we gain from asking show designs to cater to indoor design? 98% of the season is not at finals.

When I watch a drum corps show, I want there to be clarity in the sound. Specifically, I want to hear the same notes that the performers are themselves producing, not a mix of what they are playing and what they played 2 seconds ago. If the stadium hinders that, especially the stadium for finals, why should I continue to spend a large amount of money to travel and attend it, especially if the activity is strapped down there for a decade?

Thank you for your interest in the Move Media player. We do not currently offer
support for any distribution of the Linux kernel. Supported operating systems
include Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X 10.4+.

We hope to offer a Linux-supported version of the Move Media Player at a future date.

Grain of salt anyone?

Haven’t heard anything from NBC.

I will be the first to admit, I have very little experience when it comes to economics, having taken a poorly taught class in high school and a very entertaining and well-taught class at Anoka-Ramsey when I was doing my generals.

One question that has been nagging on my mind for awhile is if competition is no longer viable or is reaching the limits for what it does for business. You have Wal-mart who is hell-bent on offering the lowest prices on absolutely everything. Then other businesses need to lower their prices in turn to stay competetive, and often they don’t have the sheer purchasing power that Wal-mart does.

What happens next? The business loses profit margin, or they lose sales to Wal-mart. Either one of those means cutting costs from their bottom line, usually meaning employee benefits, cost-of-living increases, or going out of business completely. Then, you have displaced or under-compensated workers in an environment where jobs, especially well-paying jobs, are hard to come by. They can afford usually less, so they go where the prices are cheap: Wal-mart!

I’m using Wal-mart as an example, but competition has pushed the profit margins of businesses to mere slivers, and some lose out completely. We then lose a large deal of potential competitors, meaning the survival of the so-called fittest, who then move closer to having a monopoly over the situation.

It’s a vicious cycle that I don’t see ending soon.