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Yeah. A 99.65 last year, BD definitely needs to be re-evaluating their design team....

That is what he said. That is what Dmitri Shostakovich said.

Sounds like an old girlfriend I used to have.

I'm gonna be bold: 1. The Cadets 81.90 2. Blue Devils 81.80 3. Carolina Crown 81.70 Wishful thinking, I know.

Great run by Colts! Great to see their improvement over the past two weeks.

This Crossmen show is the DEFINITION of 'fake plastic GE' with no meat, IMO.

Most improved corps over 1st two weeks...BAC!!

My prediction is that Cadets win tonight. Even though they're tired. Cuz of the seven parades they did today.

75.

This year's Cadets is fairly straight-up, traditional drum corps. Not many frills, a few props, only minimal narration (in a 3rd person kind of way), and mostly exciting and demanding music paired with fast and exciting drill and awesome staging. The show has the recipe to finish top 3 for sure, and could win. Is it modern? Probably not, but I think it's modern enough, in particular with the things they are doing in the ballad and the waltz. If people complain that they are not modern enough, well I'd say you can't have it both ways. You can't complain about a corps' use of narration, a big stage up front, too much cheese at the end of their show, etc., without there being some effect. Until the Cadets changed the ending of their 2014 show (where perhaps too much cheese was added) I actually really liked that show. I thought it was, by far, their best use of narration, and the stage up front didn't bother me. They didn't use it enough or effectively and it did make it difficult for the percussion to be brought forward. But still, to me that was a really nice show. But it needed an elegant ending, not cheese. At any rate, when people tend to complain and gripe about Cadets shows, Hop usually pulls back and goes fairly traditional. Most Cadets fans love it. We know we are going to get fast drill, killer brass parts, amazing percussion, great guard, and all the other goodies. But I find it odd that all these other corps this year are doing vocal ballads, massive amounts of electronics, heavy synth work, K-Pop dances, yet if Cadets try any of that they get roasted. Now, in all fairness, the Cadets haven't always been so good at the electronic/synth/microphone/amplification thing. I hear they purchased a new sound system and mixer. Glad to see them making the investment. Because with everything that is going on this summer with the other shows, do not think for a moment that Hop is not going to jump back intro the fray and want his designers to create a modern looking and sounding show.

I was one of the pilots on the flight. What a nice group of young people, they represented your organization well. The flight attendants had nothing but good things to say about them. I've enjoyed watching the BD for years, can't believe I just happened to be working that flight!

Nice job Cadets and Crown on being so close to a phenomenal champion like BD. Cadets only .75 out. Lots to clean for Cadets. BD also was kind of dirty if you ask me. Boy do I love Boston's show. I am still in amazement at just how far they have come from Akron (I was there live). I love the color in this show, the props, the singing is gorgeous and well done, and their brass and percussion are starting to get that Boston sound. They are probably my sentimental favorites for this year (being their 75th and all). I really think Bluecoats can take it all after seeing this show. I know they were not here, but I just think they have the best GE. Just need to get those performance captions right there with the others, which you know they will. At any rate, congrats to all the corps tonight. Fantastic show!!!

Who knows how the season shakes out, but I do find it amusing that the Cadets have inserted themselves into the Ott discussion. :)

Here we go again with this...

I'm not always sold on BD shows, but last year was a masterpiece.

Tonight: 1. Blue Devils 82.75 2. The Cadets 81.90 3. Carolina Crown 80.80 Calling it :)

There was a pretty great moment when Santa Clara took the field tonight.. I wish I had gotten a few pics of it. The storm was back-building a bit to the west and south, and as Santa Clara got to the climax of their opener, the lightning went crazy! as if on cue. We were sitting right in front of Visual Analysis judge Frank Miller, and heard him comment about wishing he could give them some credit for getting the sky to cooperate! it was amazing.. the lightning was a perfect backdrop to "Spark of Invention" go Santa Clara!! breakin 80!!

Oh, hey, Colts beat Spirit tonight!

Way to go COLTS!!!!!!!! Hopefully the first of many jumps to come!

I guess those 23 parades warmed cadets brass up

Crowd on their feet for SCV, too. What a hornline. Now removing my Colt Cadets tshirt to reveal the Colts tshirt underneath. Hoping this uniform change will boost my GE score. ;)

Boston went last so they won the show?

Seriously, BD could tear into that. If you haven't listened to those tunes in awhile, you'll be amazed at how much good stuff is there. And to play it. There is some very sophisticated stuff.

"Dancers wear dancers belts" OK, time for me to weigh in. Crown has been having male marching members wear dancers belts since last year. They didn't ALL wear them in 2013, some did. Personally, I think they look better WITHOUT them. (The male guard members have probably worn them forever), I know this because I help with the sewing and part of what we do is distribute all the uniform parts to the members. There is no way around the fact that male marchers have what they have. Tight pants or stretchy pants are going to show it. Back in the pleated pants days, things didn't show because pants were not tight across that part of the body. I can also predict that stretchy pants are the wave of the future, for a lot of reasons. Whether people like it or not, there is going to be more and more dance (aka body movement) in the shows. These pants make all that so much easier for the performers. They are also a breeze to launder, and they don't have to be pressed. They are also much easier to alter. Laundering uniforms now takes only a fraction of the time it used to take (and we don't have to scrub the mud out of those cream pants anymore, either!! :)

Beautiful Vaughan-Williams stuff. She's really doing a great job. I'd like to hear this live with a better balance. Tough high note!

That's been done. Suncoast '84.

Huh?

Standing O for Blue Stars. What a fun show concept. Loved all the cool visuals. Stadium lights started coming on during Blue Stars and are fully on now. Cavies entering the field.

This post has been brought to you by the letters D, C, and P, and by the number 10.

Dada 2: Electric Bugaloo

Ballad of the year.

Best guard this season IMHO. Insane.

Such is the nature of tight pants. The same thing occurs in other sports such as football and wrestling yet no one bats an eye.

The worst thing to hit dci this year is singing.

No fears on this front, Cappy. I found the whole thing very, very humorous...and in some ways, enlightening.

According to the post above yours, there will be a full panel.

As long as "pseudo-intellectuals" and whomever else keeps buying tickets and soaves to support the corps, I personally don't mind what they say about the shows, the corps, the designers, the directors, DCI, whatever. The members of the corps know they have the support of the fans by the number of people in the stadium seats. Even griping about something means that something is being discussed and has hit a nerve, generating interest. I've had people complain about things I've written, which is fine, because it means they're reading what I write...ultimately the one thing I want them to do. Complaining about the corps shows means those people doing the complaining are watching the shows and they've been inspired enough by the productions to talk and write about them. Complaints about drum corps are better than no reaction at all, being that no reaction would mean drum corps no longer existed. Now get off my lawn!

I've read all your posts and I get the idea of what your trying to say, but you can't have one without the other -- and it all starts with execution (AKA performance). Design is important. Good design brings about General Effect. Going from concept (on paper) to actual GE on the field requires execution of that design. GE Visual isn't as effective when intervals are sloppy, when marching technique is inconsistent and poorly executed, when forms don't materialize, when the flags can't spin together or can't move in sync with consistent body work. The Visual caption and its' performance-related sub captions directly affect GE Visual. GE Music is directly affected by Brass, Percussion, and Ensemble Music captions. Poorly played impact points, choppy phrases, bad attacks and releases, balance issues, tonal inconsistency, phasing, and much more directly affect the audiences enjoyment and the impact of the music. I'd say that shows up on the judges GE Music sheet, not just on the performance captions. You couldn't just give the Blue Devils 2014 show to anyone and say, "There is your championship design. Go learn and you will win." How many corps could have PERFORMED that show? Cadets, Bluecoats, Crown. Going on what I saw last year, those might be the only 3 that could have...maybe. You see, BD won more so because of performance, not design. The design itself was great, depending on your tastes in drum corps, but it could have been a disaster if the corps couldn't perform such a show. It's the performers that brought that design to life, and, in fact, it was the great performance capabilities that allowed BD's staff to make changes to the show (mid season) that added even greater weight to both performer responsibilities and GE possibilities. I agree that adult-created content is part of the game. The better the adult-created design (as you guys like to put it) then certainly the better chances the corps has of being successful. Then again, this is no different than a teacher's responsibilities in school, or a parents' responsibilities at home. We are the product of a good education, which involves teacher, parent, student, environment, and school infrastructure. The same is true in drum corps. The best have good equipment, facilities, funds, alumni and adult support, administrative staff, designers, caption heads, techs, and good performers. Ultimately, how all the above comes together in a PERFORMANCE is paramount to success. This is what we should want, just as we do in the schools.

It is a design 101 issue. Want to do a "deep" show? Fine. You better have crazy talent out the wazooo (can I say wazooo?) that can pull it off and allow judges to look the other way at some design flaws or areas that are't really coming across early on (Devs the last six or so years), OR, you pull them in to the show in such a clear way that the audience and judges get it immediately, and are then hooked for the entire 10-minute journey (see Blue Knights 2014- brilliant). If I remember the spring training podcast correctly, when asked about the show, I thought that describing the past finalist SOA shows as "big glitz and Broadway" came across as dismissive. I believe it was stated that the intention was to now be more darker and introspective, yet staying true to their roots. Many people refer to these types of shows as "Childrens' Tears in the Moonlight" shows. Well, if that is really what you want to do artistically and competitively coming from 17th place, there are several things you will need to do successfully. For the children's tears show: Children- we need to clearly hear or see children. maybe both. Tears- we need to know these children are crying, Moonlight- we need to know its night time, and we need to see the moon AND, we need to give a rip. Who are these children exactly? Why are they crying? Why should I care beyond the fact that they are children? Why is it night time? What does that matter to the show overall? Are they just going to cry in the moonlight for ten minutes? Will we see the children gathering? Will we see them being lead out of their tearful situation? Where is this all heading? Will they stop crying? Will they be happy? Be saved from crying again? Will the no- tears scene happen just as the sun comes up and the moon goes away? How do you want me to feel at the end? In Spirit's show, we could apply the same approach to key words in their show description. I will in part borrow from a previous poster, 2muchcoffeeman "Disaster? Catastrophe? Despair? Tragedy? Pain?" add to that, shock, hopelessness, questioning, struggling, all followed by perseverance and triumph. Additionally, they state they want to honor their southern heritage. Listing "Tara's Theme" strongly suggests that the show may be the burning of Atlanta during the Civil War. Without going on, this all seems like a really tall order. really tall, for any talent level group. I can tell you Devs would not touch it with a ten foot pvc pole. Unfortunately, many of the words listed in their show description are difficult to portray (hopelessness, struggling, despair, shock, etc.). Most all require acting, but with context clues that help us get it, costumes, flags, electronics, role playing, etc. SOA's competitors are doing: a horse show, clearly with horses, corral fences, Copland-esque music another is doing a reboot of SOA's own NOIR show with characters and narration, sound effects one is playing accessible Mary Poppins music, and doing it well etc. I get not wanting to be like everyone else, but show design clarity is an absolute must in all competitive ranges, especially the one you are in. 2muchcoffeeman used the term hyperbole. That is a perfect word for what is happening with this show design. If you sit the members down in the gym and say "The arrival at letter A is pain", "this phrase is the struggle", "these chords represent empending resolution", "this major chord is the triumph"- that is all good and fine, but the audience needs to get it without having to be sat down for a show talk in the gym. Come on SOA, give your talented members a fighting chance.

Just read on their FB page this is Jersey Surf's 25th season....congrats and good luck on the first show of the season tonight!!

HAPPY 75th ANNIVERSARY BOSTON!!!!!!!!!!!!

I heard current admin. did a scouring of U. Washington music programs and ensembles and discovered a number of students and grad students with previous DCI connections and experience from notable corps. Seems to have successfully induced some of them as volunteers to augment Cascades faculty for pre-season and others to volunteer in various capacities for tours and camps. Seems like a positive move toward growth of Cascades.

And in 83 as well

I saw the CA shows too.. SCV Was by far my favorite show and performance.

I thought they did 13 parades today and 7 parades yesterday. :) Seriously though, if I had to bet on an endurance competition, the Cadets would win.

Go BAC! Make the alumni crowd proud! (Disclaimer: I am not actually a BAC alum)

I like it............

PNG... wasn't that the name of an electric utility company in NJ??? LOL

The comedian Ron White has a saying. "You cant fix stupid". Just sayin. That GE comment.............proves it. Now back to being NOT stupid . That GE and lack of member contribution comment may be the dumbest thing I have heard on DCP.