Leaderboard

A gentleman on my row left some merchandise he purchased when he hurried out after Finals night. As soon as we realized we tried to run after him and locate him, to no avail. I would love to be able to find the owner. I already contacted the corps who the items were purchased from and am awaiting a response, but this young man seemed as though he was definitely in the know on drum corps stuff so I thought he might come here too. So if you left something behind please contact me and tell me the items you purchased, from which corps and your seat location to verify it's yours. I know I would be so disappointed if this happened to me since we all know souvie's are NOT cheap!

Top 10? Come on, son, this is DCI. Here are my Top 12 favorite shows... 12. 1991 Star of Indiana - Roman Images 11. 1990 Star of Indiana - Belshazzar's Feast 10. 2000 Cadets - We Are the Future 9. 2013 Carolina Crown - e=mc2 8. 1989 Phantom Regiment - From the New World 7. 1993 Phantom Regiment - The Modern Imagination 6. 1993 Star of Indiana - Music of Barber and Bartok 5. 1993 Cadets - In the Spring, at the Time When Kings Go Off to War 4. 1995 Madison Scouts - A Drum Corps Fan's Dream (A Day in the Life of a Bullfighter) 3. 1999 Santa Clara Vanguard - Inventions for a New Millennium 2. 1994 Blue Devils - My Spanish Heart 1. 2008 Phantom Regiment - Spartacus

They had a great finals runs. The members did a great job. The show was nice, lyrical, well-paced, smooth and kind of boring. Not a great show nor a bad show. I’d really like a punch in the face next year with better music; heavy, bombastic classical. Spoke with a member after finals and they had a fantastic year, enjoyed it, were very positive and sold on the corps which really is all that matters

Will be at the show tomorrow and am excited to see Alliance's complete show and how far CV's come in cleaning/refining. Also a good opportunity to see Gold again as well as Cincinnati and Sun Devils for the first time. It will be interesting to see how CV scores relative to others who are putting up big numbers in the NE. I know scores aren't the be-all, end-all, but it's still a way to see how they're perceived in the standings. Should be an excellent evening!

"You and me baby. We got it!"

I don't do predictions, and I won't start here...at least with specific placements. I will however place an opinion out there... I think it is going to take a 93 at finals to get into the top 5 and a 96 for the top 3. What a great year it has been for this, the 50th anniversary of DCA. Good luck to everyone on the final push to Rochester. See you all in a couple of weeks! Dan

I neither know enough about drum corps and haven't been around the activity long enough to have a proper opinion about the OP's post.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the longest sentence in the history of sentences:

Oh, I'll give it a try. So difficult to do a top 10 when you've been watching this activity since 1978 (live since 1979). 1. Garfield Cadets 1987 - Still my favorite show of all time, and maybe one of the more beautiful and well designed shows of all time. 2. Madison Scouts 1988 - This is straight-up drum corps with a bit of sophistication in the opener. The closer is to die for, and it's a legendary show. 3. Phantom Regiment 2008 - One of my gold standard shows. I knew they were going to be good at the beginning of the summer, but what they turned that show into was one of the best I've ever seen. 4. Santa Clara Vanguard 1985 - my favorite opener of all time, great staging and marching, and I love the music. This is quintessential drum corps. 5. Blue Devils 1982 - I listen to this show maybe as much as anyone...just for the music. Some of the best music ever put on the field. What a BRASS LINE!!! 6. Star of Indiana 1991 - A monster show with monster brass and percussion, sweet drill by THE Master, and the best end-of-show move of all time. 7. The Cadets 2000 - The Disney Millennium show is one for the ages for Cadets. So much variety, awesome drill, great music, staging, you name it. This show had it all, and what a closer. 8. Blue Devils 2014 - I might have put BD 1997 here (a fab show), or BD 1988 (also a Fab show) but this new 2014 program already makes my top 10. I can listen to it, hum it, and boy did I love the total show LIVE. One of the best performing corps I've ever seen. 9. Madison Scouts 1995 - The baby-throwing show of all baby throwing shows! Great solos, great arrangements, powerful music, killer brass, and about 6 standing ovations at finals. I've never seen a crowd react to a show like this one. 10. Carolina Crown 2013 - E=MC2 has definitely passed up a few of my favorites. Amazing brass, outstanding show design, music that I just love, and this one just gives me goosebumps every time I see it. Other notables: Garfield 1984, Blue Devils 1988, Blue Devils 1997, SCV 1987, Madison 1997 & 1999, Star of Indiana 1990 & 1993, Phantom Regiment 1989 & 1996, Troopers 1986, Sky Ryders 1986 (Wizard of Oz) & 1987 (West Side Story), The Cadets 2011 (Angels and Demons), Cavaliers 2004 (James Bond), Cavaliers 1992 (Gavorkna Fanfare, etc.).

Good point... this very well could be one of those "not everything's set in stone after Prelims" years.

Yep. I'm hoping for big helping of no-story, take no prisoners bad###ness.

A lot of people don't like early season shows...but I may be perhaps in the minority...I like early season stuff as it was originally intended before it is changed for whatever reason...

They can't be good in the rain. Instead of keeping the water off their heads it looks like they would catch it there and fill up like a bowl. If you are going to do that, make them clear and add a goldfish.

The quality in DCA continues to rise. I expect prelims to be a real dogfight, and then depending on how that shakes out, finals will have serious intrigue as well

Take this in the positive spirit in which it’s intended please, but … No one noticed you were missing. Quite the opposite, what we noticed were giant crowds – fans squeezing in from end zone to end zone – from Nashville to Atlanta to Charlotte to Philly to Indy (and probably plenty more cities I didn’t see with my own eyes). And they weren’t down on the Bluecoats bending the pitch with something other than embouchure. No, they were too busy loving it, praising it. No, there were more than enough people buying tickets and more than enough applause to matter. DCP can split hairs, spill milk and cry all it wants, but the OP is right: We loved drum corps this summer and cared not a lick that some of our favorite shows were powered by something more than talent and imagination. It wasn’t just Bluecoats either. Blue Knights were transcendent, using voice in tandem with music to deliver a moving program. Electricity enhanced the visuals too; the clock’s flashing lights might mark another new era. It is a new era for drum corps - an era in which we eagerly bought tickets to shows where electronics were obvious. We can quibble whether fans were actually jumping up in acceptance. We can’t quibble about the acceptance. HH

The Cabs are the corps to beat this year. I posted a couple years ago that they really seemed on a roll. Looking back at my beloved MBI championship, there is something incredibly energizing to an organization when they come close like Cabs did last year and MBI did in 2010. I won't be surprised to see Cabs on top this year and it makes it all the more impressive what the Buccaneers have accomplished over the past decade. It is a challenge to be the standard bearer and target. All of this is great for DCA. I think MBI will be a challenger. So are a few others who are scoring well. Let's keep this going and get a centrally located mid season show where all corps can compete together. We have been blessed to sponsor DCI Minnesota which for a couple years was the first head to head competition for the top corps in that circuit. (Outside by the way, which is how it should be but that is my personal bias). Wouldn't it be great if we continue to have close competition and then add in a mid season all corps show? I understand the hurdles. But dream big. My hope is that instead of focusing on why not, people will focus on how we can make this happen.

I believe Prelims and Semis have hosted the eventual champion every year as well! (Sorry, send evil glares my way now, but I couldn't resist)

Sorry, but the Blue Devils won the Stanford show in 2013. Crown was 2nd.

The minor league baseball team complained to the city that PR's march to Lucas was blocking fan access to the stadium. They have made this trek with a police escort for 6 years. The compromise made was to leave 6 minutes later than scheduled the night of the finals. They were in constant communication with DCI staff and were not to rush or break routine. Most members did not know they were a little late until it was mentioned at their breakfast banquet the next day.

I just can't get enough of this show and it will go down for me at one of my all time favorites. The whole show, start to end is amazing and that closer, well does it get any better? That nasty hit right at the end of the pitch blend before the final chord is freaking awesome. Congratulations indeed on a show you didn't have to try making sense of, it just plain worked!

Doesn't matter what judging panel you get it's the access by certain corps get to them to threaten err.. indoctrinate them on what is good and bad. Judges IMHO should be impartial and not have any association with ANY corps. Wanna fix part of the problem go back to a build up tear down system. Field judges can easily do a tear down whereas judges up top can do build up.

Pretty much most of them. I marched with Andy too. How in the HELL did Bluecoats beat Cadets?!?!?!?! I'm just kidding. I've watched this show over and over and they are incredible. I can't wait for the APD or the Blu-ray to come out. I will be blasting that show for the rest of the year. I watched the finals performance on the Fan Network and that crowd reaction at the end of the show was so loud I had to take off my earphones. CONGRATS BLUECOATS!

\ This is exactly the problem: corps directors (i.e. DCI) have agreed to certain rules, and the format for judging. Some kind of addition needs to be made to more highly value demand and risk-taking, to value real over simulated demand, such as drill vs. staging. Also, a rule that bans amplification to augment brass lines should be passed. Most importantly - GE should have more sub-captions, more guidelines for what constitutes GE. No one knows what the heck it refers to - how much 'effect' a run and gun drill and simultaneous playing generates? (not anymore). Or how well risk is managed, body movement is integrated, and how cleverly a 'production' is 'staged'. (dominant today). I'm sure other rules need to be passed. What do the experts and fans on this board recommend?

Kinda OT, but I have always thought that DCI should start some kind of travel endowment fund to help make it more possible for groups to travel West (and for Western corps to travel East, for that matter). It would take a few years, ok, maybe a decade, but once enough $$ was in place, corps could be "financially encouraged" to travel more without risking the farm.

Said by a friend (who knows nothing about music: "But saxophones are brass. right"?

flammaster drunk posting on dcp...

Maybe you misunderstood what he posted... he said he would leave if and when the woodwinds come in, as for him he believes it would be time to go if it ever came to that. Why not just respect his choice if it comes to that, and let it be, and for perhaps others to replace him as a fan if it comes to that point ? Why scold him on what he prefers to enjoy as a paying customer to an entertainment show event ?

Poor little thread, it never had a chance.

The only Endorers I know of are the Ewoks. Sorry, I'll show myself out.

I thought out of the three that Colts had the most interesting use of narration, were the least trite and it’s use was most critical to the show. I also think the ‘failure’ of Cadets show was narrations effect on the rest of the show design as opposed to the narration itself, which I also disliked

Close: according to CorpsReps, it was Concerto for Guitar and Jazz Orchestra by Paul Hart (b. 1945), about whom the internet has surprisingly little to say. He seems to be best known for Cartoon, which BK performed in 2001. I'm quite fond of his "Remembrance", at least as played by Scouts in 1990 and 1998. It's most interesting to learn from AllMusic that he has arranged for the King's Singers.

Before my review, a quick(?) story... So I'm returning my rental car on Sunday, and who do I walk past in the parking garage but Scott Johnson and his wife (assuming). I had to congratulate him and the kids for their amazing performance. Later, as I prepare to disembark from the short IND-ORD flight, who do I see four rows in front of me? Scott Johnson. Since we had to gate-check our bags for the small regional jet, I got to briefly talk to him again and related my BD audition story (short summary of it in my profile) which got a chuckle out of him. Both conversations combined probably didn't amount to two minutes, and in my super-geek-boy-fandom-ness I failed to introduce myself either time. So, if ScoJo happens to be lurking here or if this finds its way to him: Hi Scott, I'm Kevin. It was a pleasure to meet and chat with you. And you were right, it was Todd Ryan who "let me down easy" at my audition. HOSTRAUSER'S ALL-PURPOSE DCI CHAMPIONSHIPS COMMENTS - The Drumline Battle Championships in the plaza on Saturday afternoon was PACKED. At least 1,000 people there, minimum. I don't know if SoundSport was similar, but it sure looks like these auxiliary events are really taking off. - I know DCI has no input on the concessions prices inside Lucas Oil Stadium, but Jesus. - Semifinals seat: right-side 20-yard-line, field level, 7th row. Finals seat: left-side 48-yard-line, field level, 2nd row. Front and center. - Souvenirs purchased from Bluecoats (hat and keychain), Phantom (t-shirt, bumper sticker, conductor's baton), Crown (polo), and Patria (sunglasses). - BLUE DEVILS B: So, how long until the Blue Devils put TWO corps in Finals? Want to start taking bets? My placement: 82.500, 17th Actual placement: 82.325, 15th - OREGON CRUSADERS: Show design felt REALLY stale, and they were the worst offenders of the "body movement for the sake of body movement" sin. A lot of it did not mesh well visually or work with the music. They're still new at this. They'll get better. My placement: 81.700, 18th (Note: I did not see anyone before BDB on Friday as this was when I did my souvenir shopping.) Actual placement: 80.100, 19th - THE ACADEMY: I really liked "Vanity Fair" and thought the corps sounded great. HUGE improvement over last year. I hope they are challenging for a Finals spot again soon. My placement: 83.500, 15th Actual placement: 81.875, 16th - SPIRIT OF ATLANTA: Their brass was WOW AMAZING. Just a couple of intonation errors, which you expect at this range in the standings. Nice usage of the trombone for the soli. After hearing all the doom and gloom about trombones, I quite like how they were used (Spirit, Madison, and Vanguard). Visually this show was a bit of a mess, though. My placement: 83.100, 16th Actual placement: 81.550, 17th - TROOPERS: I can't believe I'm saying this about a Robert W. Smith/Paul Rennick show, but Troop's musical design was very poor. It was boring, it felt like every minute or two they ran out of inspiration and went with an obvious and saccharine "AMERICA, EFF YEAH!" moment. I though the show was WELL below the abilities of the performers and held them out of Finals. These kids can PLAY, and I honestly feel if they had a better vehicle they would have passed Colts and Crossmen for 12th. My placement: 84.400, 14th Actual placement: 84.775, 14th - COLTS: The exact inverse of the Troopers. The show design was GENIUS, one of my favorites of the year. When I first heard the concept it sounded like old territory, but they did a very fresh take on it. Kind of a Patrick Bateman in Oz story. But the visuals seemed above the ability of the performers, and they just couldn't quite squeeze out enough juice to push into Finals. Still, I liked the show a lot. My placement: 85.600, 13th Actual placement: 85.350, 13th - CROSSMEN: Another great Chuck Naffier brass arrangement. They seemed a little tentative in Semis, Troopers and Spirit brought a lot more power, but Crossmen were oodles cleaner. They did NOT seem tentative at Finals, they brought it all and a bag of chips. I was simply amazed that a 12th-place corps was pinning me to my seat. I don't remember that happening with G bugles. Sure, the Blue Devils and such could do it, but the 10th-17th place corps were rarely capable of parting your hair. It's a really simple concept of music: the better your tone quality and intonation are, the easier it is to be loud. And these Bb horns have much, much better inherent tone quality and solid intonation than the old G bugles. It's helped the 10th-17th place corps to become far more amazing in the brass department than ever before. My placement: 86.800, 12th Actual placement: 86.225, 12th - MADISON SCOUTS: Another corps that really seemed to be holding back on Friday. The Scouts were fine on Saturday. But just fine. Their show is just kind of there. They don't do anything exceptionally well, they don't do anything exceptionally poorly. The show didn't really seem to have a musical or emotional arc to it, just jazz jazz ballad jazz okay we're done. It felt unusually tepid for a Scouts show. The soloist at the end nailed it on Saturday night though. My placement: 87.200, 11th Actual placement: 87.575, 11th - BOSTON CRUSADERS: One of my Top 3 show designs of the year. "Animal Farm" is a very caustic, allegorical novel about the Russian revolution and descent into Communism. Every "faction" in the book parallels real-life: the pigs represent the brutal Stalinist regime, the horses are downtrodden and abused Russian populace, etc. Boston was on top of this, cleverly using patriotic Russian and very anti-Soviet music, and matching the moods to the book. In Boston's show, the pig imagery accompanies the brutal, violent sections of music, the horses show up in the ballad, etc. Just really well done, my favorite Boston show in many years, maybe since 2000. My placement: 89.000, 9th Actual placement: 88.950, 10th - BLUE STARS: A visual delight. Holy moly that guard! The worked well with the "clutter" on the field, though I must say the music didn't particularly thrill me. I put BAC ahead because I loved their show, but these two corps really were very closely matched. Love the red plumes, please keep them. My placement: 88.900, 10th Actual placement: 89.600, 9th - PHANTOM REGIMENT: They were on fire at Finals. There were some ensemble balance and blend issues between brass and percussion, and the corps had about a billion interval issues visually, but man did they bring the energy. I know I'm a Phantom homer, but I really thought they were underscored. They weren't even close to BK's level on Friday but really stepped up their game for Saturday. My placement: 92.300, 7th Actual placement: 91.425, 7th - BLUE KNIGHTS: Phantom threw down the gauntlet and BK picked it up and answered the call. Amazing show, maybe the best 8th place show ever. But while I had them over a point ahead of Phantom and close to the Cavaliers in Semis, in Finals they may have been TOO amped. They had several visual tears Saturday night that didn't happen on Friday. And I think, in the end, that is what cost them. Still, along with Phantom I felt BK was underscored (ESPECIALLY on Friday). Also, this may have been mentioned many times, but it wasn't until the end of their show Friday that I realized, "Wait! All their narration is from 'American Beauty'!" My placement: 92.000, 8th Actual placement: 91.150, 8th - CAVALIERS: I liked this show a lot more than I thought I would. I liked it so much I didn't take hardly any notes, but now all I can really remember is the crazy marimba feature. Still, it is good to see the Cavies back into the Top 6 where they belong. And I don't think they'll be going away again any time soon, but who knows? DCI has gotten so ridiculously competitive. Interesting note: the parents of a first-year member of a bottom-half-of-Finals corps sat behind me at Finals, and it was their first DCI show EVER. So I got to hear some nice, unjaded opinions from "true newbs" as the saying goes. This was their favorite show of the night (Bluecoats were 2nd). My placement: 93.400, 6th Actual placement: 93.675, 6th - CAROLINA CROWN: Along with BK, this was the corps I really felt had a better run on Friday. They just felt off to me at Finals, and I noticed several uncharacteristic mistakes from their brass line. A couple of fuzzy attacks (including a solo) and some hitches in the big 16th-note runs when transferring voices. I'm actually surprised they were still only 0.1 back in brass. Don't get me wrong, they were still AMAZING. But I felt they were obviously "only" the 2nd-best brass line this year. Crown's visual wasn't as clean as last year, and their percussion book had more meat but also wasn't clean enough. Still an enjoyable show and one I think will have a lot of "replay value." My placement: 95.200, 5th Actual placement: 95.675, 5th - SANTA CLARA VANGUARD: Maybe the best visual design Pete Weber has ever done. Just loved how much of a spectacle for the eyes this show was. Opening impact was immense, after that the brass left me wanting more. One could argue both Cavies' and Phantom's horns were better on Saturday night. But Vanguard's percussion was amazing, and their overall package was so good I thought they should have been well ahead of Crown (at least a point). My placement: 96.700, 4th Actual placement: 96.075, 4th - BLUECOATS: As the Bluecoats' drum major saluted before the Finals performance, the guy to my left said, "He wants to beat The Cadets SO BAD." That was the impression you got from the entire corps. Like the Blue Knights, Bloo was almost TOO amped up. But they held it together. The finale (of course) sent the stands through the roof. 3rd in brass and percussion, 2nd in both GE captions, all well deserved. I thought The Cadets had them after Friday's show, but Bloo came out like a steamroller on Saturday. The last time I went to Finals before this year was 2010, so I'm beginning to think I'm good luck for the Bluecoats. My placement: 97.500, 2nd Actual placement: 97.175, 2nd - THE CADETS: It's like a flashback to 2007: a show design I absolutely cannot stand but holy moly can those kids play. Sitting only two rows up you could not see anything but faces and shakos. And this was an NFL stadium. I wonder how many high school stadiums The Cadets performed at this season where 50%-75% of the audience couldn't see a darn thing. This was a show wholly and entirely designed for the press box. Even worse: it was cheesy. The Cadets blatantly tug at the Americana heart-strings about once every decade, but it's such a tired concept by now it feels more frequent. All I can do is report what I saw: without hyperbole, other than myself I saw NO ONE who was not wearing maroon in sections 139, 140, or 141 applaud ANY of The Cadets impact statements during the course of the show. Another spectator thought, since they were going so blatantly for the patriotic angle, why not troop the colors up onto that stage for the grand finale instead of a bunch of people just standing around and saluting? Ironically, I like his idea, it would have been a nice effect statement from a show that needed it. My placement: 96.900, 3rd (based on the technical abilities of the performers alone) Actual placement: 96.875, 3rd - BLUE DEVILS: I'm not going to explain in detail why the Blue Devils visual book is so superior. I'm tired of arguing with people who don't want to learn or don't want to understand. A few years ago I was just like you, I ridiculed the Devils shows for being nothing but jazz running and scatter drill, frustrated that the judges were throwing them 19.9s and 20.0s. It's laughable in retrospect: the trained experts who judge are picking up on nuances Mr. Armchair Quarterback on the web is missing? YOU DON'T SAY. Thankfully, I had a couple of friends who are visual designers and explained to me (in great detail, because I asked for it) exactly how and why the Blue Devils are superior in everything from dance to staging to uniformity of technique to subtlety. Yes, subtlety. I don't know if you've noticed (and, judging by the vitriol I see on DCP, you probably haven't) but the Blue Devils have little throw-away sections of visuals that are as hard as anything any other corps attempts in their entire show. Just one example: in the jam session about midway through this year's show, some brass players march backwards and sit WITHOUT LOOKING on the stage platforms that have been placed behind them. As a friend said, if I put a chair 16 feet behind you and told you to backwards march a perfect 8-to-5 at any tempo you like then sit down without looking, would you land in the chair? (At least half of you that just said "yes" are wrong) Anyways, onto the scoring. There was little doubt that BD was the best at nearly everything this year. As for the 20.0s, look at it this way: there is no such thing as perfection, but if BD truly deserved a 19.98 in Visual Analysis and a 19.97 in Color Guard, which is more fair: rounding up to 20.00 or rounding down to 19.90? My placement: 99.300, 1st (though I joked they'd probably end up at 99.125, getting stung by that 0.025 once again) Actual placement: 99.650, 1st - The Blue Devils have now had a Finals score of 98.0 or higher thirteen times. Every other corps in DCI history combined have done it only fourteen times.

They were both awesome medal winning shows.

And, in the vein of BD's 2014 success, it will be: Bergmanasques A tribute to the films of Ingmar Bergman using the music of: Fauré's Masques et bergamasques Debussy's Suite Bergamasque (yes, including Claire de lune) Mendolssohn's Bergomask, from Ein Zommernachtstraum ​All arranged in minor keys!!!!

Some exciting stuff is on the way! I've migrated all of my data from the text files being used before to a database. This means more complex and useful queries are now possible. For instance, I could search for "What is the highest score by a corps from California in the first week of June since 1986?" OR "What is the largest jump in score from one show to the next by any Open Class corps?" OR "Which DCI champion won the fewest number of shows in their championship season?" (After second glance, this is starting to sound like some of those crazy baseball stats you see on ESPN: "Such and such is the only third basemen to ever hit a grandslam on Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor day in a single season without recording another hit in any of those games.") These are just a few examples of the types of things that are now possible. The answer to pretty much any question involving events, corps, and scores is now possible. I'm currently working on ways to harness the database in a useful manner within the app. One way will be the leaderboards and score trend charts that have been requested. Also, things are looking good for an iPhone version of the app as well. No timeline yet, but should be ready before the 2015 season rolls around.

1992 Crossmen 2013 Carolina Crown 2011 Cadets 1995 Madison Scouts 2010 Phantom Regiment 2007 Crown 2014 Blue Knights 1988 Blue Devils 2013 SCV 1990 or 1991 Star of Indiana No particular order to the list.

I agree with you that it will take AT LEAST the scores you listed. I think there will be a grouping for the Top 2, with another close grouping in 3rd thru 6th. 7th, 8th & 9th will be higher than normal, but there will be a gap between them and the Top 6. 10th will be a battle in and of itself, but the corps that makes the cut into Finals won't be very close to the Top 9. I could see the following playing out (give or take a tenth or two)..... 1st place - 98.6 (Cabs or Bucs) 2nd place - 98.4 (Cabs or Bucs) 3rd place - 97.6 (MB, Fusion, CV or C2) 4th place - 96.9 (MB, Fusion, CV or C2) 5th place - 96.2 (MB, Fusion, CV or C2) 6th place - 95.8 (MB, Fusion, CV or C2) 7th place - 91.9 (Bush, Sun or Hurcs) 8th place - 90.7 (Bush, Sun or Hurcs) 9th place - 90.0 (Bush, Sun or Hurcs) 10th place - 85.0 (WR, Sky, Alliance, Gold or Kilts - Who wants it the MOST?)

He marched 98, 99, and 2000 in Cadets.

My god! A show using "experimental orchestral" music is so Similacrum! A show about Presidents and using 60 year old music is so Similacrum! A show about a ballet using music from a ballet is so Similacrum! A show about an Italian film director using Jazz and Big Band charts is so Similacrum! Scheherazade? More like Sheherazacrum! I mean, the only "Simulacrum" thing I see here is your cynical judgement of an activity that brings a new direction and change every year. I actually cannot even think of an activity that is more removed from the "Similacrum" as DCI is. Piano playing?? People have been playing piano for centuries! Violin? Maybe that bach violin concerto can be performed for the 9,000,000th time just to show that we are not part of the Simulacrum! Performing intricate drill/movement with wind instruments, percussion and color guard? I think we're coming in at almost 90 years... but really at the level it is now... no more than 40? If having "electronic effects" suddenly makes this activity heavily and sickeningly glorify the Simulacrum than you would be hard pressed to find anything that doesn't... making this whole thesis pretty pointless. DCI =/= Simulacrum

For the first time in in 36 years, I did not see one show. Historically, I have been very accurate with placements, starting from each corps first performance of each and every season starting from my age out year. I was able to hear Phantoms first show audio, which IMO left a lot to desire. While I'm not surprised by their placement as much as others might be, I think some good things will come of the experience learned from this past season. I have since been able to watch a few of their late seasons performances and I am encouraged by what I saw. Let's not forget, this was a building year for the staff. Stability has great benefits. The BlueDevils are the only example of a stable staff. It's pretty easy to see why they are more consistent they everyone. They alone, kept their eye on the long term ball. Having said that, Phantom (IMO) laid the foundation for up coming years with their performance this year. Keep the faith, I'm not usually wrong about these things. You can take that to the bank.

Some other 2015 predictions : Crown will get new uniforms for 2015. Cadets won't do another ' murica themed show production until at least 2020. 6 Corps will do a copycat pitch bends with their Sound Machine in 2015. Blue Devils will draw their 2015 theme inspiration from something found on the Continent of Europe. SCV will place 2-5 points in back of BD all season long. Boston's show will include large props and will have narration for 2015. Troopers will be a crowd favorite and finish 13th. Phantom will be the Phantom Reg. we recognize, but Madison won't be the Madison we recognize.

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On that subject, I was unfortunate enough to direct a "Pagentry Style" band about 25 years ago, and they could not or would not wrap their arms around the concept that all of the dance moves needed to be uniform and precisely performed. I was told that the guys and girls each interpreted the moves differently and well, that was just the way it was. No wonder they had 6 directors in 5 years. And then, they had the nerve to tell me they were scoring low because they were 97% minorities. I told them that the head Music Judge at the time (Jim Prime, Sr.) was a person of color, a friend, and that if I even thought that race was an issue with the judges, I would go to him in a heartbeat and it would be dealt with immediately. They didn't like having their ready go-to excuse blown out of the water, either. All for a massive base pay of $14.1K a year at the time. I left and made more money substitute teaching. Live and learn.

Wow old grump I pretty much agree with you. Some very good points here. You said: I just think it is a slap in the face to Academy, Spirit and Oregon Crusaders for BDB to pop in 15th without the same amount of looks and comparisons within the World Class competitive framework. I've been trying to make the above point in a gentler way. Nicely done. You also said: You had your Finals. Congratulations. That's it. If you want to be World Class, then get your butt on a WC tour and compete against WC corps night after night where the WC judges can get multiple looks against you and your peer competition. I've also been trying to make this second above point in a gentler way. Nicely done. Bolding is mine.

I'm guessing they would say "that's not a Yamaha carrier, it's a Randall May carrier"

Yes. When I see several guards out there this season that are really grabbing me by their efforts and excellence and demand I watch and appreciate their great work, they have to be exceptional. Most of us Low Brass guys just don't worry about them too much unless they're scary bad, or out of this world good.

For sale or rent: One brain. 10 years old. No visible marks, but may cause user to yell uncontrollably if brought into close proximity of shadows. Will consider trade for trip to Kansas.

whoever scores highest wins

I actually think it might be fun to see all of the other 11 corps crowd the front and sides of the field and watch the encore run. Think about it. Many of these corps have never seen the others perform due to schedules.

It was meant to represent the trash can next to the craft service table on the movie set. (I just made that up.)