jthomas666

Same thing happened at DCI South in Birmingham. Phantom started lining up on the back line while a corps was still performing, and the crowd just went, "OOOOOOOOOooooohhhhhh" Definintely one of my favorite Phantom shows.

Question-- Is there a way to see how much a corps spends on music licensing for a given year? Kind of curious as to how much the Blue Devils paid for a few bars of Kashmir.

Good point. However, if what you say is true, then if GE is reduced in value, design will still be driving prospective-member interest. Or is it marching for a potential champion that drives potential-member interest? If that's the case, then again, reducing the value of GE will not dampen potential-member interest.

I like it.

And it's a natural consequence of several things: Electronics--you have not just the cost of the electronics, but the additional insurance, techs, etc. Increase of membership to 150. I know people say that it was done to maximize bus usage. Perhaps it was. But if member fees alone aren't enough, and you increase the number of members, you're just digging a deeper hole. And, of course, props. Some work, some don't, but they all cost. I still don't know what those giant things Crown had on the field were. Or, for that matter, the yellow luggage carts PR used in 2018. At least the Troopers had the smarts to use their sunburst prop for multiple shows. There are a lot of costs corps can't control--gas, house, and food are the obvious ones. But the things that can be controlled should be controlled, and if the goal of DCI is to protect the activity, then here's a perfect place for them to take action.

Oh, I love Wicked Games! Such a dark ending.

Club Voltaire is stunning on a technical level. Movement, musicianship. It also has one fo the best balanced hornline BD's ever had--they usually favor the upper register. But yeah, it doesn't get me up off my feet like other shows--like Madison's JCS show. Now THAT'S a freaking ride!

His videos are great--he's good at poining out technical stuff I never would have noticed, but at the same time, as you noted, he gushes over stuff--he absolutely raves about Regiment's Mellos, this year and last year. His early season video on Boston was interesting--he basically said, there may shows better designed out there, but this is good enough and if they clean it enough, they could win. And in his review of the finals run, the cleanliness of everything was his main topic of his comments. (Mine too, actually--I told my wife "I think you'll want to watch the DCI champion." "why?" "Because I don't think their color guard is human.")

Birmingham, DCI South, 1981

Madison could probably do a good KPDH show... And if you haven't watched it, you should. It's SOOO freaking good.

This year saw a lot more marching than we've seen in a while...And while there were the usual examples of chop and bop (I'm looking at you, BD-Kashmir), there were alsoplenty of instances where songs were allowed to fully develop. I'm kind of with you on the uniforms--I get the need/desire toe have the costumes enhance the show, but at the same time, it's also nice to see the uniform and say--look, it's PR! In fact, PR has done a pretty good job coming up with costumes that also echo that tradition. But just as importantly, innovation has given us some absolutely stunning shows. I've complained about the directions the activity has taken, but it has finally won me over.

Two things struck me overall about this year's finals: 1. EVERYBODY brought their A game. Most years there always seem to be a handful of corps who pick the worst night to have a bad run. Not this year. 2. It was delightful seeing so much emotion out of the members, before, during, and after. Hell, The current SoA kids were clearly over the moon watching the alimni corps.

Me neither, but this was such a step up from last year's show. Accessible music, effective use of props... I figured they'd pick the end of the first movement for BC. Just about any other corps would gleefully kill to have that as a closer; for BC, it was more of a "Trust us--you just aren't ready for what's coming".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baHsoEAAMZU

If Benedict Cumberbatch shows up as Khan, I will NOT be held responsible for my actions.