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We will be in the Tampa area during the auditions. Excellent. We’ll stop by for a couple of hours.

Username checks out :)

Actually there was a corps who used a full field tarp last year. Unfortunately, it looked exactly like a football field so no one noticed.

Earlier tonight at the Bands of America "Super Regional" competition in St. Louis: Will we soon see this sort of thing in DCI?

I am here in St. Louis right now live, I got the awesome chance to live blog for this event! Long story short, this show is unlike anything I've ever seen in terms of the scale. And not just the tarps, in the choreography and whole visual design as well. And, well if you didn't read my comments I loved it. It was absolutely enthralling, I want to watch that show 20 more times just to catch everything. That is close to the most fun I've had watching a marching arts performance, and the music. That show has left a HUGE impact on me. Think the activity is dying because of it? No. The buzz created by this show is something else, we can't stop talking about it here. And ditto from the guy next to me. :)

just a matter of time for dci

I know it seems impossible to believe but.. yes there were supposedly some folks who had a "feeling" but with no concrete reason why. THis really was, in essence, a complete bolt from the blue.

They have been doing this with live recording for decades. When I have recorded live orchestra concerts, I ALWAYS record the rehearsal as well. If something goes wrong during the live recording, I always have something I can pull from to fill in the gap. With digital audio, it is nothing more than highlight, copy, insert, and click.

Boston is expanding their audition locations this season, and its quite impressive. In addition to including Video submission tryouts formats for consideration, Boston will hold on site auditions this off season in Boston, San Antonio, Tampa, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, and Dallas.

Never know, we might see one of these soon. Most of the time a corps rolls out a tarp I cringe. The only effective tarp I have seen was Blue Devils' use of the wave effect in 2016. There may be one or two more examples that I am forgetting about. Mostly I find tarps lacking in anything, visual or GE. So I guess if you really want it to be effective you cover the whole field or a large portion of it. I've seen Crossmen use them over the years, Troopers last year, and I just find nothing appealing about them. To me, what Crown did with the banner that flew over the corps in the 2015 show, or their use of the see-through-silk that they used over the brass, is way more effective for visual and GE.

Was that? Used to compete against them in High School after they bumped up to ISSMA Class A when school enrollment grew. They tried for years to catch Ben Davis (who was the unbeatable back then) with all sorts of props, tarps, mylar, etc. The year they finally caught them was the year they went stripped down straight up marching band.

Guess I'm one of the few who didn't really care for Annapolis. Our seats were under the overhang, and we could not hear anything that came over the PA...and it wasn't really due to the noise from the concession area either, although at times that was distracting as well. As for the previous poster that said his rooms for Williamsport were cheaper than Rochester, I have been looking for the better part of the last month and I can't find anything that was even remotely CLOSE to being as affordable as what I was paying at Rochester. Almost everything I've seen in Williamsport is north of $150 per night, you have to get 30 miles or more away to get into the low $100's. Air access for those of us who are not in reasonable driving distance is also problematic for Williamsport. Seriously considering skipping 2019, already have tickets for next year or I would seriously have reconsidered that.

Was that particular tarp on springs?

"This year was the last year of a multiannual contract with the Parkstad Limburg Stadium. The contract needs to be renewed, and it is also a year in which we needed to make decisions on several new investments. The question for the DCE board to ask is how we can keep the foundation healthy (in regard to the organisation and the finances) in the short and long term." This is a direct quote from the official DCE website; so they are oficially stating it is about the money.

Would it be legal in DCI? At least a few years back there was a DCI ban on tarps if the field was grass. Unaware if that is still in effect. And I concur. O forbid GH would give us a larger than life size Oprah or even a picture of himself.

Wow. There was a smaller band on at the Indy super-regional who did a partial field tarp with backdrops to reduce the performance area. It was a very WGI patterned thing but effective in making them seem larger. Avon on the field now.

Cool idea, though a totally white field makes interval and form errors pop out like neon. Solution? Use totally white uniforms too!

Yes was the Conductor in 2008 but he was speared by the assistant Conductor in a coup. The assistant conductor was Koji Mori who's surname coincidentally if translated from vernacular Latin (the language in Spartacus) to English is: to die.

Madison Scouts update today... Brass staff : http://www.madisonscoutslive.com/mainsite/2017/10/scouts-welcome-dave-cooksey-announce-brass-team/

PLEASE - NO TARPS! THEY ARE DANGEROUS, DEADLY, CRIPPLING, AAAAARRGGGG! DEATH TO TARPS ON THE FIELD!!

Bottom line... we were looking at last year's list. LOL

I did like the Blue Knights show in 2015 anyway..... well, just because.

Maybe you're right, but I'm not sure the audience finds the current situation unfair. I took my older sister and her younger son to their first-ever drum corps show this summer, at Centerville. She liked two groups the most, and equally well: Cavaliers and Cascades.

yes, I know that. I still stand by the position. I will mention corps names as examples of my point. I do not intend disrespect to any of them. But right now Open class is a hodge podge, an objective mess of various performance abilities, training levels, and travel possibilities. Les Stentors are in amongst BDB and SCVC, both corps which soundly defeated some lower end World Class units. A holdover of the G7/8 debate was whether all the corps in World Class should be in World Class based on competitive scores alone. I posit that there should be division 2 for corps like BDB, SCVC, Pioneer, 7th Regiment, Michigan Legend, Louisiana Stars. etc. The Canadian entry from Sherbrooke, the Racine Scouts, some seasons the Raiders, etc should be the third division. World Class directors for units such as Pacific Crest, Oregon Crusaders, and Seattle Cascades probably don't want any juggling of classes. But I ask what is fair to the kids and what is fair to the paying audience? I understand that the move from the three class to two class system had nothing to do with competitive success at that time but rather the practicalities of there being fewer corps. I don't believe that it currently is a system of integrity when divided solely between corps that tour a lot and corps that tour not as much. A greater education value needs to be posited for the kids, the audience, the judges; not just the egos of the corps directors in World Class or Open Class. I would prefer a system of Premier Class, National Class, and training class. One size does not fit all.

This isn't anything new for Tom Blair and his crew to handle. In 2006 The Woodlands High School from Texas had a singing+wireless mic issue in BOA finals that was very similar to the issue Crown had. TB and co spliced the audio from an earlier round and made it seamless for the finals DVD. Not like this is a problem that has just cropped up in the last couple years.

I'm a computer/ internet savvy millennial but I would prefer to have a Blu-ray disc rather than only digital. I have every DCI finals on DVD/Blu and it would be pretty disappointing to no longer have that option. I guess maybe it's a new version of preferring vinyl over cassette or CD.