MikeD

Amazing show in 2004...one of my faves of the past 5 years or so.

It's the same in NJ...most kids playing WW up through tenor sax-size own them. The school owns a few of those instruments and the bari saxes, plus lesser used horns such as contra-bass clarinet, Eb clarinet, soprano sax... but just about every kids owns their own flute, clarinet, alto, tenor sax, oboe, bassoon.

Blue Rock's closer in 71....The Association's "Requiem for the Masses".... They got the corps over the end line by forming a diagonal front with half the corps in the end zone and half still on the field...then did a center wheel until the whole corps was standing just over the end line. A GREAT closing move, IMO.

If you go WAAAY back in the day, like the 60's, lots of corps opened that way...stretched out along the goal line and then marched across the field with their opener. My corps did so for the last time I recall in my first year, 1970...Gounod's "Queen of Sheba" company front to open our show from the goal line. :)

OK, you are close minded.... Just doing what you asked, Mr doesn't-like-people-to-be-black-and-white. :P

Of course it is a matter of opinion. I say DC and MB are all part of the same thing...you say they are different and unique. Two different OPINIONS on what DC is.

No reason you couldn't see both at the same show, with some corps adding whatever they wish and moving to a new division. The Cadets MB, Blue Devils Jazz Ensemble....etc....I think it would be great...and that is MHO....I don't expect you to agree... ...I also don't expect you to call MHO "BULL", fwiw.

Yes! That was their concert. It was OK...but then again concert was almost always my least favorite part of a corps show.

Drum corps is, and always has been, something that already exists.

Because I happen to enjoy what drum corps has always provided...and still does...and based on history...always will. That may be wrong, I guess, if something very untoward happens, but nothing I have yet seen or heard about as distant thoughts makes me believe I won't like it down the road.

Why would you want the future of DCI to be taken from the past? Not me. let DCI keep moving forward, as always. Mike

Oh, feel free to not attend shows...just commenting on the 'black and white' comment YOU made. Seems as if you are pretty black and white about it yourself, which is OK.

IMO, corps demonstrate their "marching, timing, interval/distance, musical skill, drum skill" in their show...my personal POV on a compulsory set of things like that....UGH! Hmmmm..."drum skills" are distinct from "musical skills"? :P Or do you mean everyone has to play a Broadway tune to demonstrate "musical skills"?? :P

Well, Mike, I'm not sure I want to see Keith Hall "in something slinky...draped over a Lambourgini", but if you want to...fine by me! :P Oh...that's not the person you meant by the word 'you'???? :) Maybe one of the "babes" can post a pic........ "in something slinky eating a plate of Linguini" :P

Except a wonderful timbre to the overall sound generated. :) Not sure what you are getting at then. I know an existing large scale stadium lighting is pretty bright, as I noted in my example. Maybe I'm confused on that oneas to what you are looking to do. Oh, creating the video is nothing...relatively speaking...I mean the investment in video display hardware on a scale large enough to be visible more than 10 feet away from the monitor.

Hmmm....their World Open finals video DVD is available at www.drumcorpsvideos.com Might be the same one you can see on their site...Charlie and Jackie Haas who taped the shows (among other shows) had kids march with Blue Rock. If you never saw or heard that show...you are in for a treat...that was a GREAT year for them (worst luck, as they were almost always justthisfar ahead of us! :) ). A Larry Kerchner brass book and Joe Morella percussion score. American Salute Quiet Village/Baby Elephant Walk Camptown races (my LEAST favorite part of the show) Requiem for the Masses....a great closer tune from The Association. Plus some other stuff I forget...that is from my oooold memory. :) Mike

Great post Ryan! I happen to like both as well...I happen to see no reason why there can't be the Cadets MB, the BD Marching Jazz Ensemble, etc....along with the Madison Scouts and Blue Knights Drum Corps....all called drum corps and all performing at the same show.

Oh, so you had to open a whole new THREAD for this! :P Sounds neat to me. Talk about expenseive, though. Makes a few amps and speakers look like chump change! One issue people might have is the idea that even with amps, etc..everything is being performed live by the members at that exact moment. I see using pre-recorded video like using pre-recorded sounds. Neat idea though. Issue....day shows....and controlling stadium lights...it takes a long time to bring them back online...and who controls shutting them down. If each corps had to provide their own field lighting it might work...again...makes the cost of a few amps and mics and speakers look like nothing. I like the idea though of using lighting creatively...in our Ghost Train show we had a gal carry a large lantern at the start of the show to be the light on the front of the train. She left the field after the opening hit...and at the start of the second number, a trumpet solo with some guard ladies dressed as ghosts dancing around him, she pointed the light at the soloist and the ghosts, moving it around for an etherial effect. THAT part worked best at a local show as opposed to Giant's Stadium, where the stadium lighting was just too bright to maximize the effect on the ghosts. In fact, the music effect judge, one George Hopkins, made the comment on his tape that it was indeed too bad we could not shut down the stadium lights at that spot. At the start of the show...the gal carried the lantern through the band set up in a block during the micced flute solo to open the show...as she got to the front the entire band moved forward with her. George said something like "Oops..she got me right in the eye with that lantern...I can't see a thing!" :) Could be very dangerous to members...audience....and detrimental to the stadium itself. I don't see THAT ever passing. Adding WW could HELP as well. :) Keep the ideas coming...how about a micced string section set up on a huge platform....let the Regiment play the Shostakovitch 5th complete with strings!

Well...we did miss the first DCI finals in 72, if only due to a penalty...and I really mean in the early years through the 70's...not just year 1. Plus, we are talking top 3 or 4 in this part of the thread, not just finals. If you look at the Cavies...from 56-70 they were top-3 EVERY year...from 72-84 they were as high as seventh twice. In 71, both of us were indeed top-10 material...look at VFW's, World Open, CYO, etc...but not top 3 or 4.

How so? 130 kids from all over the world will have to eat and sleep somewhere....and be availble for rehearsal...and...I don't think a corps will remain in it's "home city" for any length of time in a regional situation anyway...they'll be travelling all over the region, whatever size it is...as yet not quantified. It's not going to be 1971 all over again where corps can stay home all week and just drive to weekend shows. Even then, we had rehearsals during the week...so the members have to remain present. Or...is this idea a "back door" way to push for an old-style corps setup...IMO it will never work...not enough corps or shows. I think any idea of a regional setup has to consist of VERY large regions...and all-summer-long touring in order to work in reality.

Actually, as regards instrumentation, I think electronics will be the next step...not WW. But...why is it 'sad' if I happen to hold a different POV than you? I love drum corps as it was...is...and will be. IMO that is the wrong way to look at it...just about EVERY change in instrumentation over the past half-century has been to move drum corps towards the band idiom...no reason to stop now. OK....I'll bite..."Like WHAT?", he asked. :)

That's totally your right...draw your own line...mine happens not to be where yours is..which is also just fine.

All of that is your opinion... I rarely blame the successful for being successful, in any endeavor. It's up to others to work up to that level...as the Coats and Crown appear to be doing lately...and hopefully Regiment and the Scouts continue to do. Remember, the Cadets were no where NEAR the top when DCI stated, nor were the Cavies.

I don't disagree. If they want to have a voice spot in the show, then they should make sure they have a person capable of doing just that during auditions...even if they do "something else" for part of the show once selected. I don't think it is, or should be, some sort of random selection..."You....over there...the gal holding the triangle...you're singing the solo in the show". Like the twirler the Cadets used...he did other "stuff" when not on baton.

I think the Cadet's speaker had a voice that was in a higher range than Serling's...I said that in a review last year...it would have been better if he could either drop his pitch, or have someone with a lower voice to that spot.