exitmusic

BD mirror, just in case: http://marchingvids.com/blue-devils-2014-runthrough/

uh... Lincoln didn't make it that long.

I have always and will always love the Cadets, but everything I've read/heard this year makes it seem like this show might be absolutely cringeworthy.

members are not employees... marching is not an "occupation," so i don't think OSHA matters. it still covers the staffers who are corps employees though, right? maybe?

matt harloff just posted a video of crown's brass playing "Flight of the Bumble Bee" on facebook. a zillion notes, because we can. It's official: Crown has become what the Cadets were 20 years ago, but even better.

more practical... don't let the box music judges see the corps. make them judge on sound only. will never happen.

dude...

Watching the video of Crown during ensemble (posted in the Crown thread) makes me sad, because I know for a fact that the Cadets won't have anything as cool as that anywhere in the show, but they will perform what they are given at the highest possible level.

STOoOOOOOPPPPPPPPPP

whhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Fixed that one for ya.

The Madison thread delivers each and every year, without fail.

great post

The Cadets are basically the Barden Bellas and BD/Crown are the Treblemakers (but not rude/nasty). they just need Anna Kendrick to teach them to "remix this s***" in an abandoned pool, and everything will be fine. and if you don't get this joke, go watch Pitch Perfect immediately. serious.

i'm not even sure that's possible anymore. back in 04-08ish, there was still some goodwill, but at this point i don't even think there is anyone left here who would argue that the recent show designs are defensible.

i don't think anyone ever accused the blue devils of being passe or cookie cutter or outdated. they've been on the cutting edge of the activity since 1994. some shows worked, some didn't, but you'd never say that they were out of ideas. regarding the other corps, no other corps made its bones being THE innovators, only to fade into the background. sure, some corps have had runs of being "state of the art" (cavies 2000-2004ish), but the towering heights of the cadets innovations are baked into the very dna of the modern activity. imagine that martin scorsese's next movie is "jack and jill part 2"

It has nothing to do with winning or not winning. It has to do with being a forgettable, skippable track on the blu ray and the CD. Heck, one of the Cadets most iconic, forward-thinking, and (dare I say "innovative") shows got 5th place in 1989. the point is that the Cadets will always march and play very well, but that *what* they are playing has felt very dated for several years now. the shows designed by george and company are no longer state of the art. that's what i mean by "passed by."

its more like "what book is he listening to in the car?" and "what was the latest lesson from the (not at all cult-like) Landmark Forum?" i am very, very worried that the activity has passed them by. this would be the sad irony of sad ironies.

Great post. At the end of the day, it's just kids running around on a football field.

Stu. "People in this thread have stated that Amazon Smile is a great way for a corps to procure supplemental income" "and then those people feeling good about themselves thinking that they along with Amazon are really helping the organization stay solvent with 'supplemental income'" The position that you have manipulated is that the "people in this thread" all assume that they are "helping the organization stay solvent," which I do not believe is something that anyone has said. No reasonable person believes that the $0.07 donated from the purchase of a pack of AA batteries is going to keep Miss Amana rolling for a week. I do not get your fascination with drum corps not-getting free money.

"Sounds cool!" -me, circa 1988

This is the strawiest strawman argument that ever strawed. Nothing to see here, people... keep calm and Amazon on

Why are you so adverse to corps getting money for free, with no overhead? Sure, the $0.04 from the Cheerios isn't a lot, but do you know what the corps spent to get that $0.04? NOTHING! $1 is always greater than $0. Personally, I spend thousands and thousands on Amazon each year. Amazon Prime has changed my family's shopping habits. Why wouldn't I designate a 501c3? What is the possible downside?

I haven't seen anyone arguing that BD is particularly "innovative," as much as they are "avant garde" with their programming, and that this puts some people off.