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N.E. Brigand

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N.E. Brigand last won the day on September 2 2020

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  • Your Drum Corps Experience
    Just a Fan
  • Your Favorite Corps
    Phantom Regiment & Boston Crusaders
  • Your Favorite All Time Corps Performance (Any)
    Santa Clara Vanguard 1999
  • Your Favorite Drum Corps Season
    1989
  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Cleveland, OH
  • Interests
    J.R.R. Tolkien, Cinema, Herpetology, Early Music, Theatre

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  1. Well, I hate to say this, but new evidence suggests that garfield and MikeD may be right after all. Not sure yet. Need to read some more. But I'm definitely seeing a future where I write Matt Stoller and ask him to explain himself. For those who want to solve this mystery on their own, here's a hit: Mary Ann Powers.
  2. Also what do you make of this statement from the closing argument (p. 38) by the attorney for Quinnipiac University? "You may recall about how the team used some pompoms in the one 45-second portion of one performance during the year in which they were actually required by Jeff Webb's company to use those pompoms, which by the way he also sold to the participants." Is he saying that there was just one year in which teams were required to use pompoms? Or is he saying that there was a year in which teams were required to use Varsity's pompoms?
  3. OK, the first thing I should do is note that I forgot your post when replying to garfield. Apparently you agree with him, and thus he's not alone. Which is fine by me; I agree the judge is not clear. You do a better job of parsing his words than garfield did, in my opinion. But here you're replying to my request for Webb's words. Yet what you cite is not Webb's words. You're quoting the judge's description of what Webb said in trial. I'm not saying the judge is lying. What I'm saying is that nobody yet seems to be able to find what Webb actually said about this.That's not the actual transcript of Webb's words. And that gap in our knowledge is frustrating attempts to get to the answer. Because the subsequent press reports on the trial took the opposite position from you and garfield. - - - - - - - - - - Wait a minute, I think I realize the problem. Does anyone else realize, looking at the text below, why I haven't been able to find Webb's words? "Indeed, testimony at trial revealed that the NCA’s scoring system was intertwined with the promotion of Varsity Brands. During the 'spirit' portion of the competition, cheerleading teams are awarded points for using props, such as pom poms, sold by Varsity Brands; the more props a team uses, the more points that team receives." I'm not sure I'll have time before the weekend to investigate my hunch. Happy hunting to anyone who wants to get there first!
  4. Way back when I was a freshman in high school, our marching band played Neil Diamond's "America" (although not in our contest show). That was from his movie The Jazz Singer, but while the movie is generally considered a failure (I saw it on TV many years ago and it's pretty dull stuff), I still like the soundtrack a lot. It looks like a handful of corps played this one back in the 1980s and 90s; did any of them bring it off?
  5. Naturally. Does anyone know if that judge is still available for comment? Maybe we can get him to explain what he meant.
  6. But apparently there are people who even today think those fine young men were suckers and that cemeteries like Arlington are filled with losers. People who would stand next to the father of a veteran at his gravestone in a military cemetery on Memorial Day and say: I don't get it, what was in it for them? People who would suggest that it would be better for military parades not to include amputees or other visibly wounded veterans because: nobody wants to see that. I do tend to be a little wary of patriotic displays myself, because I think they can risk glossing over the messy (but aspirational) nature of our history, but confronted with statements like those, I really need an infusion of some national spirit. Lots and lots of corps have played Morton Gould's American Salute (derived from the Civil War tune "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"), although I think no DCI or DCA finalist has used it since the Sunrisers in 1999. (Corps have played some other Gould songs; I'm curious which of his tunes are people's favorites.) Maybe it's time another top tier corps had a go. I saw two marching bands do excellent versions with the piece in the past five years, including Broken Arrow, who placed fourth in Bands of America's finals two years ago.
  7. As garfield says, given they have no expertise in this field, then presumably the former if they are hoping to make inroads beyond selling uniforms.
  8. Yes, sometimes judges are wrong. That's been true for as long as there have been judges. Dred Scott (1857)? Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)? Korematsu (1944)? Nobody would defend any of those rulings nowadays, and they're all more than 75 years old. So let's not pretend this has anything to do with "today's society".
  9. I hate to be a pest about this, but we need to be clear that still haven't seen Jeff Webb's actual words on the relationship between props and scoring at Varsity's competitions. All we have seen are the words of the judge and the attorney for the defendants in the case in which Webb appeared as a witness. Most people interpret those words as indicating that in at least one event, higher scores were awarded to those groups that used Varsity's pom-poms. You have offered an alternate and not unreasonable reading of the judge's words. You may yet be shown to be right about that, but at the moment, you do seem to be pretty much alone in that interpretation.
  10. Does the quote exist? I think it has to, but no one yet seems to be able to find it. I mean: we have yet to read what Webb actually said in this trial about scoring and the use of props. All we've seen from the trial documents on that subject are the defendant's attorney's and the judge's characterization of what Webb said (which, as I have said, is debatable, as your own reasonable interpretation shows). We've also seen later reports characterizing what Webb said, but it's not clear to me that those rely on his actual words or on the judge's description thereof. Those later reports I mentioned refer, as you say, to this happening at just one event. But the judge doesn't say that. I'm inclined to agree with you that this may not have been the regular practice of Varsity's events, but we really don't know. Given this lack of information, I think we're stuck on this point and just have to move on.
  11. Because it was a disappointing show by their standards (though a miracle recovery compared to what they were fielding earlier in the season), I forget that Minnesota Brass played "Hurt" in 2017. And then they were gone.
  12. Have drum corps really never covered a song written by Johnn Cash? (Trent Reznor wrote "Hurt" and June Carter Cash wrote "Ring of Fire".) He penned so many hits! Here's one that might have worked in Suncoast Sound's 1984 show, among others: "I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been Each week we lose a hundred fine young men."
  13. Can you quote from that transcript? I read what I believe is all of Webb's testimony at the trial, and I can't find where he says what the judge and the defendant's attorney say that he said. I am baffled and would really love the help, please.
  14. Just fyi, based on his reading of the judge's decision in the case, garfield disputes that claim from that Houston Press article (which doesn't actually quote Webb saying that, although it's important to remember that they gave Varsity a chance to comment before publishing, as most journalists do, and Varsity didn't deny the claim). I agree with you and think garfield misread the decision (although the judge could have been clearer), and I think the closing argument by the defendant's attorney in that civil case futher bolsters that claim, but I have failed to locate Webb actually saying so (or anything one way or the other) in the trial transcript. Edit: And I see you've now noticed the same thing yourself, so feel free to ignore this post.
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