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We just like the music.

Drum Corps simply isn't big enough to support something like this. The 'MBI' acronym is already taken. By a drum corps. On a serious note, something like this is really a non-starter. Drum Corps simply isn't big enough to support this kind of thing. Fracturing is the last thing it needs.

I think you stumbled into your own answer. For many people, linen goods evoke a homey quality. Maybe the Blue Stars will construct a house from sheets and towels during the show, in an homage to the Blue Devils' 2011 show. By the way, Mao was responsible for the death of a lot more than two million people; he's arguably the greatest mass murderer in history. His "Great Leap Forward" campaign alone resulted in about 30 million deaths (that's a middle estimate), and his other programs and campaigns and purges may have cost as many lives again. As for Adams's foxtrot, I think it is an excellent piece of music--and it's not actually from Nixon in China, by the way; rather, it is a companion work. From Wikipedia's description of "The Chairman Dances", which tracks fairly close to yours, I can't tell what Adams's attitude toward Mao is: is the dictatorial couple being praised, mocked, or merely observed? Anyway, great art can certainly tackle evil subjects, and arguably can even present an evil point of view, and remain great. (Great art can also be created by bad people: if the revived allegations against Woody Allen were proved true, must I deny my former enjoyment of Midnight in Paris?) A friend of mine loves Respighi's Pines of Rome, despite the fact that he believes it to music that supports Fascist ideals. I'm no Communist, but I'm a great admirer of Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, which is definitely Communist propaganda. How does Adams's work fit the theme of this year's Blue Stars show? I'm not sure. It doesn't seem any more appropriate to Santa Clara Vanguard's 2008 theme of "3hree: Mind, Body, Soul", in which this particular tune, as I recall, plays as the guard members represent over-stressed businesspeople. I'll grant you that the Reading Buccaneers' 2011 theme of "A Dancer's Dream" is a more obvious fit. If Blue Stars cared to make sense of it all, they might reply that Mao and his wife, homicidal as they were, were at a family and quite possibly in love with each other, and certainly shaped by their environment.

Having "home" in the title was not a prerequisite. It just happened that way.

Southwind 2000. Top 12 in every single caption...13th overall. Z

I suspect you're right in that many LP* corps are quite proud of the kids they sent to the HP** corps. The problem is that, apparently, some of those HP directors don't appreciate or recognize the contribution of the LP corps. *Lower Placing **Higher Placing

I realize topics like these are merely for the sake of simply throwing some ideas out there. Often just for the sheer enjoyment of ruminating on a subject. But in a day and time when many corps are struggling to field and fund tours year after year, fracturing the unique wonder of what is at the heart of drum corps is not the answer to bolstering butts in the seats. Let's face it, we're an obscure and weird-birded lot in life; we being the drum corps nuts. It's one of my three favorite things in this life, and yet I largely enjoy it by myself for the most part. Sure, I have dragged friends and girlfriends along to shows, many of them leaving completely impressed and thoroughly entertained. But so few people actually appreciate acoustic instruments, such as brass, that it’s just a tough sell if there is not already an established appreciation for such styles of music/art. Woodwinds and other acoustic instruments are not going to make new fans of drum corps; drum corps makes new fans of drum corps. Drum Corps is the amazing and impactful art that it is largely in part to the unique timbre and voicing (and writing for said voice) that is the all brass choir of the hornline. There are plenty of other outlets if you wish to hear woodwinds and strings and such.

"That Chapter 6 Guy". Kind of like the superhero arch enemy of the supervillainous "Higher Organizational Person".

Guys you are missing it. Brad likes the song. I think he knows what hes doing :)

Ok, then please respond to my post #12.

Chairman Dances has an upbeat bright optimistic feel to it (I'm thinking like moving into a home?), despite the background for it which I didn't even know of before you mentioned it. Vanguard's epic opener in 08 and MANY high schools have used it in shows with a happy upbeat theme, so I don't' see why Blue Stars can't do the same. Not like all the selections are that way, it's the only one that doesn't have Home in the title. I think it fits in based solely on the music itself.

How about we keep the negativity out of here? Think of it like the struggles the corps has gone through with the rebuilding of the corps as the home. I mean we didnt have a problem with the song when SCV played it in 08 as the Mind section saying lets all go crazy and kill people...

Maybe they just like the music. I doubt the background of the piece matters much.

The Chairman Dances, which is also part of the Opera Nixon in China, is a programmatic piece about the wife of China’s leader Chairman Mao barging into a ceremony and engaging in a dance with a portrait image of her husband which joins her for a Foxtrot. Mao was a very brutal leader who ordered close to two-million of his own people killed during Land Reform and the Campaign to suppress Counterrevolutions; and he was also someone who idolized Linen. Just curious: How does that fit in with the Blue Stars philosophy of, ‘Where the Heart Is’, and especially how ‘that environment shapes and forms the love of a family’?

Can you imagine Oprah announcing at any show? The schedule would be like this. Introduction Commercial Commercial Commercial Corps Pefomance Oprah Oprah Commercial Commercial Commercial Corps Performance Commercial Commercial Commercial Oprah Oprah Commercial Commercial Corps Performance Percussion Judge bouncing on sofa

http://www.bluestars.org/story.php?story_id=715

IMO ... the 72 corps was the strongest ... unrelenting level of talent ... the 71 corps would give them a run for the money but 72 would most likely prevail ... the 70 corps was the poorest of the three ... could never gain any traction during the season ... Winky cleaned house at the end of the year ... Andy

In no particular order: Jersey Surf 2012 - Bridgemania Colts 2008 - Night and Day Crossmen 2013 - Protest Southwind 2000 - Music of Holst, Horner, and Liszt

"Best" needs defined, please. I vote for Surf 2012 if "best" is left wide open.

2008 Planet X

ok, so since the corps are the ones with the power, and it's their shows that are "being ruined".....if it's such an issue, why haven't they pulled rank and created change?

But the judges are part of the audience. That's the thing that a lot of people who don't judge maybe have a hard time grasping, or even believing: but that is totally the truth. It kind of shocked me when I started judging - I found myself a lot more excited to watch/evaluate performances as an adjudicator than I do as a teacher. When I'm teaching, I'm doing nothing but look for mistakes to correct; but as an adjudicator I'm excited to see performances. I genuinely love when I see groups have great shows, when I see a design that really wows me, when a group has THE run of the season in front of me, when it's obvious students are having fun performing, etc. I love it. And other judges I know (DCI, WGI, local circuits, etc) are the same way. So if a show engages the judge, it can be inferred that the show also engages the audience (since, again, the judges ARE part the audience).

Good golly!!! Thank you for pointing out this is a photo of a lead balloon because that is 'not' what I saw!!!!

I'm not sure "Fanfare" would make for a good Madison tune. Besides, no one could top the 1979 Guardsmen version.