FTNK

No car is going to perfectly fit a corps' personality, but for The Cadets I'm thinking the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione. It's fast, sophisticated, high-tech and classy. Its style might not be for everyone but it's true to itself and its roots, which go back to the 1930s. And it looks great in a deep reddish color.

"Performance-wise, the 2003 corps probably deserved a ring more than any Cadets corps this decade" ~ rough paraphrase of Rick Brown

I like to look for the middle ground...marching isn't as terrible and unmusical as some people think and as it used to be. However, the job of applied professors is to make you as good as you can be on your instrument...and marching is not the way to do that. Not that it's not a valuable learning experience, but realistically you WILL be better if you devote a large amount of your summer to dedicated practicing and lessons with a highly regarded teacher. Drum corps has its limits; let's face it, even now at the top level it's not going to provide the same level of depth of musicality as other things. Also I feel like a lot of people get into the mode that drum corps is their life to the exclusion of other opportunities and interests. I ultimately decided not to march my age-out because I decided that in the long run, since I didn't want to be a marching band/corps instructor for my life, that working on grad school and getting good at my instrument was more important for my long-term career and life. Sometimes I feel like people get so wrapped up in the activity that they have trouble moving on with their lives and going to new things.

This is a very good discussion topic. For me, my marching years were kindof tough because I felt like I had to live a double life: if the corps people knew I was a bassoonist, they would have been looked at me differently than a "real" brass player, and if my music professors knew I was doing corps, they would have thought I wasn't dedicated enough to my instrument. So my bassoon professor never knew I marched, though after every summer he said my sound was improved and my technique had cleaned up. In an audition the one semester I did marching band in high school, the Wind Ensemble director asked me what I could possibly be doing in marching band. When I said tuba, his slightly annoyed, disappointed reply was "Well, at least you don't have to learn a new clef..." But not all teachers are like that. My new bassoon prof was in the Michigan marching band for 4 years playing tenor sax despite his teachers' objections, and he was a big fan of DCI especially in the early '90s. I wore my trusty Cadets hoodie into a lesson once last semester and he said "Cadets, as in Cadets of Bergen County?" I was very pleasantly surprised and we've talked about corps a few times; he wishes he could have made time for it in his life. Now, in terms of choosing corps over other things....I'll have to think about that whole thing some more.

How about the end where the guard guy basically gropes the guard girl and then she leans against him with that happy satisfied orgasm face?

Oh man, I love the opening sequence of SCV '07 -- so sophisticated. How about '99 BD? The jazz/latin style isn't my favorite and BD isn't my favorite corps but this show is absolutely off the hook in terms of performance and design. The colorguard is awesome and brings a lot to the show. I think its would be very accessible and shows off all three sections of a corps very well.

In response to whoever said Cadets 2006 had a killer opener, from a performer's standpoint I came to view the whole show as one big opener...if I got through that long, physically taxing opener, I was home free, except for a few seconds of chaotic gasping-for-breath marching at 204 and jazz running at the end. I actually feel the opposite--I prefer the beginning to the closer!

I'm not usually a Madison fan so I was pleasantly surprised. Generally the show managed to recall classic elements without being cliche, which was good. The opener was very '80s in style, and featuring the rifles (classic Madison strength) was cool. I liked the repertoire overall and thought the show was performed well with a lot of energy. The music and drill didn't take a lot of chances but it was effective overall. The guard really shined through variety and staging, for example the rifles in the opener, body work in the beginning of the closer, etc. The shiny white guard unis were...interesting. Overall this is a nice Madison-style show with a good rep performed well. I enjoyed it but I wasn't totally blown away.

YouTube is fine and all (except for the whole copyright infringement issue and DCP's stated policy against it), but there are a lot of shows--the vast majority--that aren't there. Youtube videos tend to be the champions and a few other famous shows, and a random assortment of other stuff. Please, go try to find Star '92 on the 'Tubes.

Oh, and I eventually want to watch all or most of finals in '82 and '83 to understand exactly how revolutionary Garfield was then.

What were the first shows your viewed through Fan Network? I bet a lot of people have shows they've wanted to see but haven't, and when the Fan Network came out they were the first ones they went for. Mine were Cadets 1986 because I wanted to see why it was so different and to see Jeff Sacktig's contra solo with a sop mouthpiece, BD 2004 mainly for the ballad, Star '92 because I wanted to see how it fits/doesn't fit between '91 and '93, and Cadets 1995 because I've heard a lot about how great it is but I've never seen a video. I think a lot of shows I am going to watch are going to be the less talked about ones, since it's pretty easy to find video of champions/most famous shows. Next is 1997 Cavies because I want to know what was "wrong" with it, Star 1990 for the hornline and 1989 to see their take on Porgy and Bess, and SCV 97, 98, and 2000 to 2003 because I love their shows in that era (a style they seem to be going back to). Also, I notice that 2007 has no streaming video--I assume they don't want to kill DVD sales?

Cadets 2007 is another good one for me--I didn't like the narration (not the concept of narration, but the execution) and I felt like the show was a bit of a retreat to 1998/2000 (which I still think is a valid point) but I like it more and more the more I watch it.

In 2004 I remember seeing BD in Allentown. It was the first time I'd seem them, and my reaction was "To paraphrase Cartman, 'that show sucked balls.'" By the end of the season I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially finals night; their performance was on fire and I loved when they took the train into the tunnel. I really like the responsorial blues trpt. solos and the ballad. Cadets '05 was the same; I heard all summer about how amazing it was, then saw it in Pittsburgh a week before finals, and was just like "What? I don't like that at all." Of course by the end I was loving ever minute of it, and made a point of staying for their encore at finals. It's probably my pick for best show ever and it's the reason I marched Cadets. I feel like a lot of people who hate that show just saw it once, and it was a show that needed repeat viewing--but I don't want to get into a big argument about it here. The point is, what shows did you not like in the season that by finals (or later viewings) were your favorites? I guess you can go the other way too, but it'd be nice to be positive...

I would like to see a corps have every member jazz run the entire show.

The only thing so far is that it seems like shows take forever to stream...I have to wait for it to load for a long time to watch them...

Correct.I was gonna come it to say Will Plenk, 2003 Cadets in Fanfare and Allegro. He went on to be a great drum major and leader.

This is a great idea! One of the great things about the fan network is that it makes this kind of thing possible. Also, in terms of looking at drum corps from an academic/musicological point of view (which I like to do...I'm convinced that the marching arts are a legitimate musical genre worthy of analysis) and analyzing musical and visual style, corps identity, etc. this makes things a thousand times easier.

I maintain that the level of achievement for every corps the top 5 in 2007 is almost definitely higher than, say, SCV '89.

I gave up on trying to use jackets and ponchos and stuff pretty early on. I mean, you're going to be soaked one way or the other, from sweat or rain, and it's just not worth the hassle of rain gear IMO. Nick, I think you might be thinking about Nebraska--the Lincoln show? I just can't remember there being something like that in Kansas, but in Nebraska you could see the massive thunderhead coming and then (I'll never forget this!) I was out in the middle of drill and it felt like someone opened the door of a refrigerator right next to me. That was the night the storm hit during arc and Gino/Chad gave us permission to run across the street in uniform to take shelter. We stood around outside as the news went from "show delayed 30 minutes" to "show delayed an hour" to "standstill" and then Gino just came in and said "We're going to Denver!" and the whole corps got fast food then did, in fact, go to Denver. Am I right or are these separate incidents?

I agree, it's a great thing, though I don't agree with the "frustrated with the evolution" part, and think from another perspective that it will prove how much the overall quality of both corps performance and design has increased.

Nah, they need to get Ricardo Montalban to do it: He can inject the title with a nice retro 1975 vibe...good for Scouts...

Wow, someone's self-righteous, egotistical and narrow-minded. The best is when those qualities are combined with trying to sound smart! So if any piece of art isn't perfectly clear on first viewing it's a complete failure? Or maybe the viewer needs more "life experiences," depending on what you think? (I guess that would mean marching Scouts or something ) You have to understand everything about a piece of art for it to be valid? Give me a break. I don't think even Sully could have said it better. Oh noes, not that argument/flamewar again!

Lots of corps as well as DCI itslef have been experimenting with multimedia content for a while, i.e. CrownCAST. Member diaries, audio and video of rehearsal camps, and so forth have been popping up on a lot of individual corps' sites. I remember that DCI had tiny videos from Semis on their website in 2003, and more recently they've been doing the Field Pass stuff. The Cadets started doing audio reports from the road in 2005, then launched All Access in 2006. I guess some smart people at DCI said "Hey, since we and all the corps are experimenting why don't we combine all the multimedia content from every corps in a central entity, combine it with on-demand archive media, and put it all under one roof." Brilliant!

Seriously, BigSnareline? Just because his sig picture has The Cadets in it? I think you have taken you ability to be petty and lame to a new level.