My music player on my laptop is set on random, and I guess the artificial mind knows it is drum corps season, so it has been inundating me with 12 minute vignettes of drum corps music. The NBA ended its season a short time ago. I guess the Knicks won. The Chicago Bears want to move to Hammond, Indiana? Does the rise of artificial intelligence create laziness? What do all these things have in common? These are all things I have just stopped following. Did they pass me by? Maybe. Or did I just grow out of them or see no use in them? Possibly… Let me reflect… hopefully you join me on the journey…

Drum Corps International is a youth activity similar to high school or college marching band. The Drum Corps within this activity play brass and percussion instruments, they march on a football field, while playing incredibly challenging music and they dress themselves in uniforms or costumes based on the shows theme. Imagine the high school field show as the sport, and the football field is their stage. No safeties or touchdowns here.

I haven’t followed the drum corps activity like I did 10-20 years ago. There are some trends and issues with the activity that do not appeal to me. I feel this particular item has outgrown me. It has passed me by. I don’t feel angry about it. I just feel nostalgic about it. In the past decade the drum corps activity has evolved the visual portion of the activity to resemble the Winter Guard International activity in many ways. The corps don’t wear traditional uniforms of their identity. The military or scouting traditions of the drum corps activity are absent or missing now. The G-bugles of the 20th century have been replaced by B-flat or concert pitched brass instruments. Amplification and specialized sounds or samples have invaded the acoustic realms of the shows. The trends get more wild by the year.

I never thought I would be on the outside of trends with the drum corps activity. I actually appreciated some of the developments, but the visual changes to uniforms and corps identities just lost me. The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps from Canton, OH was the big trailblazer here. The Canton, OH corps traces its history back to the Canton Police Department. They wore dress blue uniforms with helmets and plumes. This all ended about 10 years ago, when the corps wore a uniform that was more dance leotard than uniform. The costume lent itself to visual motif of the show. The helmets were gone. The corps did not resemble the traditional corps. The music of the show incorporated all kinds of electronics. It felt like the horn line took second stage to the front ensembles electronics. The show was creative. It was groundbreaking. It left me behind as I wanted to see the Bluecoats, not a winter guard parading as a drum corps.

I’ve attempted to get into the new shows each year, watching video clips or audio bits from drum corps content creators. There are some nice things. Phantom Regiment from 2025 was the first show I had seen in years that made me long for the activity. My favorite corps the Blue Devils doesn’t quite look like or sound like the Blue Devils anymore. The music writing is dependent on the visual, instead of the visual being dependent on the music. The Santa Clara Vanguard, Madison Scouts, or Cavaliers have all strayed away from real established traditions to stay relevant within the activity of drum corps. I feel old and outdated as I watch this new trend in marching music and pageantry. I can understand how the classic marchers of the 1970’s felt, watching the developments of the 1980’s and 1990’s evolve away from their military roots. Sometimes, one has to let go of their traditional ideas to foster the evolution of an activity. I have yet to do that. Economics have shortened the drum corps season to about eight weeks from the twelve it used to be. Shows are incredibly designed, and the music is more motivic in nature to match the visual. The performance levels of the kids playing bury the standards of 25-50 years ago. …I just feel like they have progressed, while I stood still… Nostalgia is a deadly thing, I guess…

I haven’t watched the NBA in decades now. Shortly after the Chicago Bulls second championship three-peat in the late 90’s the league stopped being interesting. The brutal defense was softened. The perimeter and finesse game with more traveling (4 steps,) turned me off. I miss that triangle offense of Tex Winter’s design. The stars of the league seemed to be dictating results within the league. Parity improved, but the refereeing looked suspect as series would often go on way longer than necessary to maximize revenues. The changes in playoffs also reflected the goal of maximizing revenue rather than develop the sport competitively. Everything seems to be about showing the stars perimeter shooting than focusing on competitive matchups of the 70’s-90’s. I miss that kind of basketball. Did the sport outgrow me, or did I outgrow the sport? I feel this is an equal split of both. The WNBA is far more like traditional basketball than its brotherly league. Those rivalries are vicious. I don’t watch much WNBA as it is during baseball season, but if it were on in the winter I would watch it more.

The NFL no longer appeals to me like it did before my stepson’s passing in 2019. I was getting irritated with the personal celebrations of wide receivers and running backs who made outlandish gestures to celebrate a 7 yard gain, or a first down. The 20-30 seconds between plays and listening to self important announcers talk about nothing began to grate on my nerves. The changes in the kicking game for player safety, I feel, have watered the game down. As has the officiating. The days of a great running game have been replaced by pass happy offenses. The violence of the game has lessened. I understand why. However, this violence is why people tuned in. The hits of the 80’s are now consider personal fouls or unsportsmanlike conduct. The techniques of that time are gone.

With the Chicago Bears and some other teams over the past 10-15 years moving around all over the place for cushy stadium deals at the public’s expense and more revenue, I have become disillusioned with their selfishness. The Bears are no longer my team. They have held the state of Illinois and Chicago hostage over stadium issues. If you want a new stadium, build it yourself. If not, turn the Bears into a non-profit publicly owned franchise like the Packers. Then we can fix Soldier Field appropriately and remove the UFO that landed on it. I also feel it is disgraceful that St. Louis keeps losing teams out of greedy owners. I have stopped watching the NFL primarily. If I were to select a new team, the Seahawks would be on the short list. Has the game outgrown me, or have I outgrown the game. I feel here, that I have outgrown the game more than it has outgrown me.

As for Artificial Intelligence, I think it promotes laziness. I feel it quells curiosity and a desire to learn. If we let AI do the work for us, how will we evolve to be smarter, quicker, and more innovative thinkers. I think the rise of AI is nothing more than a wheelchair for lazy brains. Has it outgrown me? No. I know how to live without technology. I could easily live an analog life. I take breaks from my devices to read real books. Engage with the world one on one. I am anti-data centers. I would rather have water to think than give it to a computer to do the thinking for me. I know, I know, it is so helpful… The struggle is how we grow. It shapes us. Learning is good for us…

Did it outgrow me, or did I outgrow it? There isn’t a wrong answer here. All I did was reflect on it. When you are getting ready to start a new orbit around the sun it is fun to surmise and reflect on where one has traveled, or is set to go. It is fun to look at how one changes or evolves. These are my opinions only and do not allow them to alter yours. If you like where drum corps, the NBA, the NFL, or AI is going… enjoy it. If you don’t, no big deal. Just reflect on it. Reflection is the greatest tool of the mind. It allows us to ponder, plan, and look forward. Enjoy…

…so it goes…