Jump to content

Drum Corps Nation

Members
  • Posts

    169
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Your Drum Corps Experience
    Several years marching and teaching
  • Your Favorite Corps
    Suncoast Sound
  • Your Favorite All Time Corps Performance (Any)
    1989 Phantom Regiment
  • Your Favorite Drum Corps Season
    2000
  • Gender
    Male

Drum Corps Nation's Achievements

DCP Veteran

DCP Veteran (2/3)

53

Reputation

  1. A) BD is clean, yes. That's not the issue though. There is not anything on this year's judge sheets or the previous judge sheets that says anything about "clean". It's all about achievement. It's about can you do something that's really hard really really well? Can you connect with the audience really really well? Can you do these things better than other people can? That's what the DCI judging system is supposed to be about. That's what they're supposed to be rewarding. So if you say "this corps was cleaner, they should win", then I'm sorry, but you're missing the point. B) Point A (see above) is a fallacy because if you do something really really hard, and you do it really really well, you make it look easy, and then you loose credit for it. Also, some captions, the way that they are designed, give credit to corps members for things that they didn't even do. Cadets in 2011 had a visual program that was lightyears ahead of anyone else, and because of that, all the marching members needed to do was create clarity enough for that visual design to be readable, and they would get credit for it. Individual vis credit. Ensemble vis credit. And Vis GE credit. Some of it probably bled into music GE as well. I'm not saying that the Cadets didn't march well. They absolutely did. But other corps could have marched just as well and they would have never gotten as much credit as Cadets over four different captions because their design was simply not as good. This is how the sheets are designed to work. C) Having said everything that I have said, it is still impossible for judges to not include some bias into their decision. Case in point: Someone went on the Texas Band Directors forum TheYellowboard.com today to complain about scores from the Minnesota regional, talking about slotting and corps getting the benefit of the doubt. The poster was immediately told to "take their complaints to DCP" and then were chastised because They obviously had never judged before. The person replying went on to say how difficult it is to be the judge to place someone a spot lower because one kid blows a release or something. As much as it goes against the integrity of a competitive activity like DCI, this is the way a lot of judges think, and the way they are encouraged to think. You're not supposed to penalize a corps for individual mistakes or "ticks". But at what point do enough ticks add up to a trend, a weak hornline, a corps that can't control upper-body... D) I have a deep knowledge of economics as it applies to things like this. If you study the spreads, the scores, the economics of DCI's judging system, there is only one logical conclusion: the system is completely subjective, or alternatively, in no way objective. It's almost statistically impossible for a corps like the Blue Devils, or any corps for that matter, to have had so much success, so consistently, with so many variables, for as long as they have. Nothing less than 5th since 1975? No finals score less than a 90.00 since 1976? If you study any other objective, competitive activity, you'd be hard pressed to find any other individual or team that has been so dominant in their activity as the Blue Devils have been in DCI. The logical conclusion? The activity is not objective, and as such, cannot be deemed as "fairly-judged". E) I believe that the Blue Devils are very important to DCI as an organization and to drum corps as an activity. Personally, I haven't liked a show that they have done since 2003, but I know that other people have liked their most recent shows. I don't hate them, and I don't want them to go away. However. The last time that a corps that was not Blue Devils, Cadets, Santa Clara, Cavaliers, or Phantom Regiment has won DCI was over 20 years ago. I sincerely think that this is bad for the legitimacy of DCI.
  2. That's not what I was told when I marched there for several years. Although, that alternative interpretation of the acronym was used as well.
  3. That what I mean. Take Boston Crusaders for example. Went from a church (Most Precious Blood) to a community (Hyde Park) to eventually an entire Metropolitan Area (Boston Area Crusaders) And now, with the departure of Cadets to PA, are the only World Class Corps in the Northeast. It would make sense that most of their members come from the Northeast, but instead a huge portion of them come from Florida now. Where do those Northeast kids go? It's all wonky now.
  4. The opener is supposed to be a representation of sand (all the performers swirling around doing movement) and then being turned into glass (big hit).
  5. I dunno. Even during the DCI era, there was a sense of East vs Midwest vs Westcoast. Not really communities, but for example, in the 90s a kid living in Ohio was much more likely to only consider marching in an Ohio corps. Very few would fly out to California to be a Blue Devil.
  6. They have filled all their holes with Teal Sound kids and should have them all in the entire show soon.
  7. Those of you seeing the show, answer me this? Are you understanding the theme in Gmen's show? The sand that becomes glass. The representation of clear glass. The representation of stained glass? Seems to me their shows have been too cryptic in the last few years.
  8. I don't get that vibe either, but what I do get from Texas band kids is "I'm not going to stay here and march div 3 or march a corps that didn't make finals when I know I can go to crown or phantom and get a spot there." Drum corps used to be about pride in your community. That has changed a lot.
  9. Glassmen have always been the runt of the litter when it comes to getting these things. Dynasty would take 2 years to replace the tubas. Jupiter can do better, but you can be sure that Phantom and Boston will get thier new horns first before Glassmen get them.
  10. I like the piece they chose for the opener, but I don't like the arrangement at all.
  11. Do they still have the Dynasty tubas or have they gotten the new Jupiters yet? They were supposed to have them by the beginning of July but I doubt it.
  12. Absolutely, but even Crossmen had troubles when they first showed up in Texas. The Bluecoats benefited greatly from doing winter camps in Texas starting in the early 2000s. I think it's safe to say that Bluecoats found a way around competing with all those midwest corps for members by recruiting and getting staff from Texas, and they wouldn't be where they are now without having made that move. Same could be said with Boston Crusaders and Florida. The corps that have been left behind are the ones that have failed to recruit at a national level. I won't name names.
  13. They need it nice and loud incase they decide to play the infinity chord card again.
×
×
  • Create New...