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I must admit to being impressed by the appearance of this eloquent turn of the phrase on this forum: "...that would just be insane schadenfreude..." And that really is the point. Perhaps a "real world" anecdote would add perspective. A while back, I heard Rita Moreno sing with a trio at a local caberet. She appeared for 3 nights, two sets per evening, all of them recorded. I attended "finals". At the performance in question , she began by saying, "I have a bit of a throat on this evening and may miss a note or two. It won't bother me. Don't let it bother you." She did have one little unintentional crack. When the recording was released, it wasn't there, and that is as it should be. It was an anomaly, not truly representative of Rita Moreno as an artist. Those of us who witnessed the actual event will just have to store her miss in the audio of memory. One wonders how many versions, revisions and edits exist of the Mona Lisa, Sunday in the Park, Finnegan's Wake, the Gospels of Matthew, War and Peace, and Saturday Night Live. If you were there, you witnessed the event. A recording will never be able to replicate that. Reverb, compression, ambience, fades, equalization, sampling rate and a host of other technical travesties must be visited on any other mass-consumed mechanical version. It's just a ghost of the actual happening, an impression, an "editorial", like any other historical document. It reflects someone's POV. And that, my learned colleagues, as Mr.Sondheim wrote, is the art of making art..."Putting it Together".

I'm quite familiar with the Boston Crusaders, both Junior and Seniors, having spent considerable time there in both the late 60's, and then marching again in the early 90's ( also we spent time marching together in the 26th Yankee Div. Drum & Bugle Corps in the mid 70's ). The 60's Boston Crusaders were unlike the 70's Boston Crusaders, just like the current 2000's are unlike the previous decades Boston Crusaders. Both former BAC alums above are describing their own personal experiences that for them was a personal remembrance of how it was at their moment in time. Keep in mind that The Cadets of today are different than the 50's Holy Name Cadets, as well as the Garfield Cadets of ( for example ) 1977. That said, there is a common core of survivability against all odds that keeps these remaining Corps whose heritage goes back over half a century alive. Scores and placements are exceeedingly important to these groups, but it has never been allowed to define them. This was true as much in 1960, as it was in 1980, 1990, 2013. There have been lots of Corps over the years that placed scores and placements as all encompassing. Such Corps would rise to the top or near the top for a few years but when their placements went down in succeeding years, things quickly fell apart, and they'd become extinct. Boston in fact did have period of time ( 70's )when its young marching members pretty much ran the Corps almost entirely themselves just to keep it going.( ask former BAC Director George Bevilaqua about that period just before he came in ). They have also had a period of time ( 60's ) when then BAC Corps Director Joe Dowling ran a tight ship, and you only sneezed when he gave you permission to sneeze. If you had alcohol on your breath at practice with brass instructor Ed Denon in the 60's ( and later with the Sr's in the early 90's ), you would be close to receiving bodily harm from big Ed.... so it all depended on the times with BAC. Boston has a rich history of both the good, the bad, and the ugly. But the one constant throughout it all,... at all times ( from the 40's to now )... was the unshakeable belief that next week, next month, next year, will be better for the Boston Crusaders than today. And if it turns out that it wasn't.. well.. we'll bust our ###, as theres always tomorrow for us or for those that follow.

Who hurt you along the way? These aren't the best ever, but in a world where the '92 Glassmen uniform exists, not sure how worst ever could be used here.

Leo, As of right now we have 3 competing corps, 3 Alumni corps (including us) and 1 junior corps in the show. We will be adding one more corps so its a mix of a show. A lot of people think if we added the competion part we would draw more of a crowd and since we already had 2 DCA competing in show we decided to do it while keeping some exhibition corps. See you there! George

I say.. Hawthorne Then again, I would

When did DCI start editing the audio of Finals shows? I'm aware of their clumsy snipping of timing pistol shots in older recordings, but I've never heard clams fixed before. The Blue Devils' piccolo trumpet soloist missed a note during Finals, but the recording was edited for the commercial release. I would think that DCI would want to steer clear of any possible controversy caused by misrepresenting what actually occurred at Finals performances, but perhaps having a mistake-free commercial product is a higher priority for DCI? Will they soon be digitally editing the video to fix equipment drops? I can understand the desire to have a clean product to sell, and the videos have never looked or sounded better than this year, but I think DCI should be careful about giving unfair advantages to certain corps considering how much work all the corps put into creating clean performances. I'm sure that the videos are poured over by fans and members alike who try to reconcile the Finals scores with what they see and hear on them, so they really should be left, literally, as a frank and honest record of events.

Boston Crusaders to receive new uniforms and more, with their new Band Shoppe partnership. Exciting things happening with the Corps! Read more here: http://www.bostoncrusaders.com/news/386-bandshoppe

I think it's alright to edit small fragments of the Finals performance as long as its from that weekend. The shows have already been judged and at that point the DVDs are about entertainment only and why not try to deliver the best product.

I think, then, the question is, "why produce the DVD's/Blu-rays & CD's," as well as "why purchase/watch the DVD's/Blu-rays & CD's?" I wonder if more people buy those products because they like the shows & want to see them again and again vs buy them to scour frame-by-frame and phrase-by-phrase to analyze if the judges "got it right" or some-such reason. I personally have always bought DCI products because I liked the shows & wanted to watch them repeatedly. I'd prefer that product to be the best representation of the show & performance ability vs a 'warts & all' representation of ticks.

Buffy I think your answer is closest to the fact... From Paterson, NJ None the less...lol

In that vein, I would not mind either as long as the performances are identified for historical accuracy. If you take Blue Devils from Friday, just say so. But taking a solo from one day, a song from another day, and the rest of the show from a third performance - no. This is the record of a contest, and it needs to be accurate. It is unfair to fix mistakes in the editing room. They will not be performing a similar service for Pioneer - why should they do this for Blue Devils? If a corps wants to splice the best notes together for their own product, that is fine - but the DCI product should consist of single, complete performances.

89 is the first time I remember hearing about it

Agreed it's all pointless early speculation, but you'll need to account for Madison somewhere in there . . .

Round Rock is a suburb of Austin (though they don't admit it), and they've hosted the DCI show in Austin the last few years. Those are one of my favorite uniforms ever, too. (Back in my day, they wore maroon Blue Devils jackets... ewww...) Mike

While a lot of my friends posted about the performance, DCI posting it on their Facebook page is what actually made me think, "alright I'll check it out." I missed it live and figured it DCI was going to hype it up I owe it to myself to click the link

I didn't see Mission Drums/Lawrence, MA in there either

From the looks of the dec camp bumble bee thing, I think crown has found a niche musically with clearly another year where they have the eyes on the prize. They've definitely become the wind/brass ensemble technique voice in the pack like BD might be jazz or phantom opera. They'll probably have the musics in the bag and my optimistic guess is percussion can't get any worse and it ultimately didn't cost them last year anyway. It seems from what I've heard that they just didn't have the book, not necessarily lack of chops to place in their pack, so I think a better written drum show is a little easier than pulling off a bad news bears comeback in that department. Crown is coming off a champ season, but it was only two summers ago and a few before that where they teetered between 4th and 2nd, and up until semis night last year, it looked like another 2nd. But a #back2back is definitely a possibility, but I think it will come down to their visual package. I'll stick to my guns when I say they can't fool everyone for too much longer with their odd, lackluster vis programs, they won the vis trophy two years now with both viable BD, phantom, cadets, and vanguard corps in the ring with them. I really hate to pull the vis/graphic designer card (as if you could even believe that on the internet), but my readings of the crownband have always been behind a lot of those other corps around them, but I'll concede the clear difference between what I look for and what judges might look for. I've found that even when BD on fire, they tend to be judged against themselves (every corps is to a degree, but BD especially) and they get less credit for genuinely good design relative to the corps around them and I don't think this was more true than in 08 and to a lesser extent 13. so here's my crappy estimates. 1 or 2. BD 1 or 2. Crown (I know, taking the high road copying everyone else's top two) 3. PR-These kids get beat too, but maybe they'll stop trying to repeat 08. 4. SCV-JD knows what he's doing 5. Cadets-I'm not hearing good things show design wise. 6. Coats-maybe one more year on that weird technique and they'll shake the habit 7. Boston-These kids get beat into being good every year. 8. Spirit-I was pretty impressed with their performance, just not their show last year. 9. Madison-I'm sorry, but DCI and their portrayal of things military is absolutely tasteless. 10. Cavaliers-I really think they got mercy-ed into 7th last year. 11. BK-I've noticed the bottom 6 getting a lot cleaner, maybe due to less ambitious shows difficulty wise compared to the previous decade, but hey, it looks good 12. This is a real toss up, so idk

Music. JUST music! No stupid narration EVER!!

Hey everyone! I'm Jason. I'm a 22 year old Mass Communication major at Texas State University. I was a 3 year member of the Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps where I served as a baritone player from 2011 to 2013 (Yep, recently aged out). I had a small solo in 2012 and was the Horn Sergeant in 2013. I now currently work as the Low Brass Coordinator for The Guardians Drum and Bugle Corps, a group who competed in SoundSport's innagural season but is now seeking DCI Open Class designation. I've frequented the forums long before I started marching so I already know a lot of you all, you just don't know me! With the season coming up I plan to be fairly active on the forums, especially because the Guardians plan to have a short season. Looking forward to having some fun here! - J

Well, the best chart on the album (Great gig in the sky) doesn't have lyrics per se, and would really rock. If a horn line could hold it together.