BigW

I was happy to see all of you, It was like medicine for the soul. Hanging with your Dad makes me feel like I'm in my teens again at practice with Rook. There is no price I can attach to that.

I have no idea if anyone's looking, if anyone cares, but I figure I'd at least start to get the review up for the contest. It's the only contest I'm headed to this season, and I had concerns. I'll start by saying that a lot of things I feared didn't take place. The Hosts did an excellent job getting the reserved seats resolved and sold quickly. The food and hospitality were fine. The stadium can have a way of cooking the spectators due to sun angle and stadium facing but starting the show later in the day alleviated those issues. It was a very hard day to rehearse in, for which I offer all of the performers my appreciation and respect. I've not been feeling exactly well of late. I think the effects of COVID have hit on all of us in one way or another. I'll go through the show in order. When Listing estimated counts, if I'm off a bit, be understanding. I realize that certain people were missing in various corps in various sections because of positive tests and I hope their health is good. The Skyliners (11 Front Ensemble, 9 Battery, 14 Brass, 6 Color Guard... NOTE: EVERY corps exceeded 35 total membership whether or not that is being enforced now. Just sayin' in response to some folks who carp on that issue.) are performing a show based on the classic "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue". I believe the brass book has a lot of very thoughtful and imaginative content. It looks back to the past yet is very fresh and contemporary to today's activity. The performance left me to believe there's still a final section to be added to the total package. The corps is very young. Right now, the Brass is still in a process of gaining confidence and finding themselves and where they contribute. When everyone is confident, they project a solid sound for being so small. There seems to be a lack of feel for the continuity of the show, how each phrase and element flow into one another. When things are going right, one can feel a seamless transition as one idea hands off to the other musically, and right now, it seems the Corps understands each individual chunk, but not how each of those chunks flow into the next idea. The Snare section performed with confidence and excitement, which was appreciated. There's a really fine Baritone Solo in the program, and I encourage the player to play with confidence. They know what they're doing, but I sensed some nerves and hesitations. They have the right stuff, play with self-confidence. Once this show is complete, flows, and is performed with confidence, I believe it can really be a vehicle to really move the audience. I know the team is hard working, dedicated, and is capable of performing with all the details that are needed.

4 Years HS. 6 Years DCA. Many in Alumni Corps. Years instructing or as a School educator. Been around.

One of the basic rules of photography is to photo down-sun, not into the sun. Once I had that explained to me by people who do it seriously, my pictures became MUCH better. My guess is lens filters can solve some of those issues if you have the know-how and hardware, but you just don't want to do that with sun and the lens, period.

Watching online, maybe. With all the grousing in regards to online streaming of DCA and DCI... who knows.

Oh, yay.

100% as we say at work. Talking to family of the Father and Son team yesterday, for instance, they have to have two settings for the Skydome for the roof closed and open because of broadcast interference from the CN tower. Set up for the Olympics was far ahead of it to check everything. Again, Jeff, you pay and pay well for excellence in that field. There are few who do it well. Great job opportunity for those who like travelling.

Hmm... A former student of mine and his Dad as well as an old family friend work in this field. One was with ABC developing a lot of the initial tech-NASCAR in-car cameras, etc. Later on, they started outsourcing to companies like my Father and Son friends work with because frankly, the travel's exciting, and the money was fantastic, but the intense travel can wear you out unless you like it. Not many people can do this stuff at any level, let alone at a professional, competent top end level. They wouldn't have their arrangements with ESPN/ABC, NBC, TV Globo, et al. unless they were really good at it. The outsourcing company they work for covers the various Pro Sports, the Olympics, Cycling events, Helping with the David Letterman/Paul Newman stunt with the balloons, Helping Robert Ballard and David Cameron set up the video when the send stuff down to the Titanic... they're very, very professional. And... they demand and get a ton of money for their services. My friends involved live nicely. The questions I have would be this: I have a sinking feeling Flo is getting people who aren't as top end to do it. To do so would be very expensive. VERY, very expensive. I know for fact Cameron shelled out beaucoup to the gofer in Newfoundland to get stuff for the trip to the Titanic. Most of us would have loved to be paid that money and given a nice rental car to drive to hardware stores and the Wal-Mart for stuff. Also, it sounds to me that they're tossing in these people without any chances to test anything beforehand audiowise. One thing I do know from listening to the guys I know is that stuff needs to be tested when you're into unfamiliar territory. Once they understand what's needed, how it's needed, what kind of equipment is needed, then they can attack the problem professionally and consistently. They solve problems. They're very smart, adaptive, and innovative. Reading between the lines, they've never sat in a venue with a corps for any significant time to test everything out, have they? Testing to find issues, try and corroborate to solve the issues...but that time takes real money. Serious money It would arguably take rehearsal time away, but if it's audio, the Guard could get things done while the rest of the ensemble plays. If it's the front ensemble, just test that. Just my mulling on the matter. Until they can sit down and hammer out solutions regarding hardware and software directly testing, this will continue to be painful.

Looking at some very deep thoughts here, a lot of this has to do with how an organization puts certain things in perspective. Good example: My Brass technician told me he's got a friend who marched snare in a couple of top end DCI corps. They lost a contest. People in the guard were crying. This cat shook his head and said, "Why are you all crying? It's taco night!" If it's all about numbers/placement... things usually head to a bad place in so many ways. Things need to be in perspective. If a team ends up consumed... it rarely ends well. I'd like to meet this guy and ask him how good were those tacos, because I'll definitely have some.

This brings to mind a mid '90's show coordinator not in DCI telling me that he made sure the staff was Paid. That experience really had him pretty messed up at one point. I don't think I've ever seen this person that upset about anything when he told me this. Eventually, that whole situation did get righted. The organization's kind of swept that part of their timeline down the memory hole. Personally, my thoughts are that you need to remember where you come from, even when it's uncomfortable and it hurts. It keeps one humble and things in perspective.

Lots of things told to me quietly over the years to the effect "X was never paid", "Y never got the money they were promised, only a part of it"...

There's a lot of cool stuff out there now from c. 1969 on when things began to become videotaped here and there.. Things from a lot of well respected corps from their time. A Lot of stuff from Quebec corps that were very thoughtful and innovative. The Patro Laval (later L'Clique Alouette) montage videos are simply marvelous. Some things haven't changed since c.1955 if you watch those. Camaraderie, getting unis ready, the town parades... good stuff.

Jeff, you reminded me about the time Rook and I were in his Suckmobile listening to a cassette dub of the Longshoremen's 78RPM recording of their 1946(?) VFW Championship performance. We're listening to "Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life" and I asked Rook why it was so rhythmically stilted and ironed out. He explained the 1946 VFW regs had a rule where the performance had to fit between x and y beats per minute tempo throughout the show or get a penalty. I think one conclusion reached that it was no wonder Corps eventually broke away from the AL and VFW sanctioning bodies and rules. But hey- they were the best under that set of rules and scoring system. For 1946, Pretty cool! Another thought about rules that you've reminded people for years and individuals seem to forget- Since 1965 for DCA, and since 1972 for DCI, the member corps make the decisions about how they're to be evaluated and scored. Not Judges, not any other interest groups. Haven't heard any rumblings from either circuit to re-work to a tick system ever since they decided to change it.

They were somewhat blocky. Two of these period charts, I've listened to fairly recently. Don't forget the Mahler from the Optimists, which I also listed to. For its day, very innovative and groundbreaking, especially on the visual side... I played a piston-rotor horn for 4 of my six seasons... I know the game in period. I listen to a lot of the period things and realize listening now that they were quite good for the period, but could have been so far more musical but were hedged and constricted because the style demanded cleanliness and clear cleanliness first, musicality second. By 1979, BD, Phantom, others, were trying hard to knock on the door. But they still had certain things held under restraint of the system. As for Channel One... Directly compare 1976 to 1986. One major difference is clear, the far, far better two valve Kings over whatever piston-rotors BD played on then. Then listen to the dynamics, timbre... the stylistic interpretation of the chart. All noticeably better within that 10 year span. Look at the visual package (though I do have some picky things there that because BD could blow white heat, they could get away with), the more musical and less military guard work. It's absolutely no coincidence things got that radically improved in that 10 year span being coincident with the change in how things were judged. It's no knock on the '76 corps. They were clearly what it took to win and be the champions at that time. Ground started to be broken. Things started inching towards a point where ticks weren't as accurate a reflection of the realities and where the arrangers and designers wanted to take things to. Two things allowed George Zingali to turn himself loose. He discussed this at length in a 1984 clinic I was lucky to attend. One: The Cadets gave him total artistic freedom to take things in the direction he wanted. That was not the case previously. If folks want to argue that... That's what I heard, that's what he said. Sorry if that steps on any toes. I'd deliver sworn testimony on it. Two: The changes in evaluation also gave him the opportunity to take things in the direction he really wanted to go. It began to become worth it to take certain risks because they could be recognized and credited. You could afford to be less conservative. I do like corps from all eras. There was a dynamite Baritone solo somewhere of Larry Scott playing the "Student Prince" online in the mid-50's. Considering he had to work around a G/D bugle, wow. Listened to old Rockets, Sun, Cabs stuff from the 60's, I can go on. Early 70's Argonne recently. The thing is, you have to look at it, respect it, and appreciate it for the era it was developed and created. It was that way for various reasons. The bugles weren't great to play on. They didn't have composite materials to construct percussion instruments from. The best were the best given all of those issues and how they dealt with them.

Well, we moved when we were static to the point that one of our visual staff (Who last I knew was judging DCI fairly recently) asked us if we were acting in a Seka film. I think our response was... "YES!". I think he tried very hard not to laugh. Nuff said. 😋 Dunno how much credit to assess in terms of physical challenge. Lots for Effect.

Yeah... the attitude of. "We have our tickets and seats, we can show up at the show a half hour late and won't miss anything. Maybe we watch (Crown/BD Coats) warm up some first." Sad is an understatement of how I feel about that attitude.

Also, when one listens to brass sections from the tick era, I can't help but notice the 'blockiness' of the performance/stilted phrasing/chopped off at the root releases/compromised musicality... why? To avoid ticks. and any questions or doubts about cleanliness. And yeah, I was in DCA when this was how it was done. There are no doubts in my mind shows became a lot more multi-dimensional when the ticks were dropped. I don't think you'd have had the creative explosion and more dynamic shows without that change. Everyone would keep the Concert numbers, reducing risk... Guard work, far more military to keep consistency... Horn books far less adventurous and played less musically to make sure that it's presented as clean.

At West Chester, there were and likely are still a ton of 1-2 credit classes covering all this stuff. And in the case of the Pass/Fail things, GPA didn't matter. You wouldn't get the degree or pass a particular course. The Guitar Pass/Fail was a part of Secondary teaching methods. The Voice and Piano requirement were necessary for the actual degree. I remember running around a lot for lessons and rehearsals. Scheduling wasn't simple. Mike mentioned being a percussion major- In my time at WCU some of our best people were percussionists. Tom Aungst, Scott Litzenberg, Bill Pease, Rich Fitz, some fine, fine folks. Also masterful musicians. Mike's point on HS evaluations having to be more broad-based, you bet! In the early days of the HS Band circuits, there tended to be a brass-centric feel because mainly the judges stemmed from a corps experience. That began to change in the early 80's, BoA (Known as MBA back then) I believe really drove that hard. The Tick hieroglyphics were double complicated because of that. IIRC WW ticks had bars stickling out to the left, brass to the right.. Percussion ticks were... Not sure if those differentiated between snare, Tenors, and Bass and Xylos. By the time you got the correct hieroglyphic stuck down on the right category of the sheet, called it... unless you were FAST and QUICK with the Pen.. how many would one have missed in that time? Food for thought.

I took five semesters of Voice Classes/Private lessons, and had to sing in three different choirs for five total semesters to meet requirements for my B.S. Mus.Ed. I also had to take a course in Choral Conducting. I had to pass/fail a vocal competency test that might scare some people. (One part... here's the first note, Sight read this tune acapella and we'll find out how much you drifted off key) I have experience conducting Elementary, Middle School, and High School Choruses. I'd venture most judges have come through a similar curriculum or have more than that at the DCI level. As for guitar, I had to pass/fail a minimum Guitar competency test. I'm no shredder but I have an appreciation and respect for the instrument. I had to take at least four semesters of Piano classes/Piano lessons and pass/fail a pretty involved competency test for that as well. And this... from a Euphonium Major. My corps experience was quite valuable, by the way. Trying to keep tonal centers on a G Bugle and singing a lot of passages together in rehearsals were a huge help. The crux of this is, good musicianship is good musicianship. Musicality is still musicality whether or not it's on the Judge's Major instrument of specialty. When those things take place at a top end level, it slaps you in the face as to how good it is. The real issue is at the DCI level where splitting of sub-atomic particles is the norm.

It was also a game as to how one could properly put the right hieroglyphics on the sheet for what brass instrument and on what proper line of the sheet. Or in some circuits, hit the button on the grocery clicker as well.

I never felt that way. The only season I have felt disappointment and disgust with was the one where we had three ring chasers cause a lot of negative drama and make things miserable and toxic. That... in spite of having the best Horn Book and hornline I played in. The season after, when we threw everything together in six weeks and showed up at prelims was far more enjoyable and satisfying. I think we're agreeing that the young people are still very much the same as we were in the most important ways. To their credit, I think they're a lot less tolerant of bad food and bad organizations.

Interesting point. Would the typical young person fork over $5k "for the experience" without some kind of score payoff when that 5 k could be better spent on x college credits, a car... etc.? The answer is perhaps, or maybe. I don't know.

There's an unwritten rule in design: If you overdesign to try and get top box analysis numbers, the show becomes a rather tedious, droll, and nasty hot mess. The trick is to put just enough in to show you are capable of those things and get the credit, but also capable of presenting something that's watchable, enjoyable, and accessible. I think Mike Cesario would agree on that. I hope he would!

I think that there is satisfaction from having your efforts acknowledged by what amounts to an intensive peer review. But, there are times where one can't let that dictate what to do and how to do it if one's beliefs are that strong. The problem starts there when one is so obstinate that they refuse to adapt to the environment and either pack up their toys and leave (As did Holley in WGI decades ago) or in the case of a more recent former DCI corps, end up a rather bizarre embarrassment and sad joke because of what amounted to malfeasant and quite stubborn management.

The Simeone Museum in Philadelphia lists the following awards given to it: 2019 #1 Ranking of the Top 100 Classic Car Collectors 2017 International Historic Motoring Awards "Museum or Collection of the Year" 2014 International Historic Motoring Awards "Car of the Year" - 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe" 2014 Historic Vehicle Association: 1st automobile added to National Historic Vehicle Register - 1964 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe" 2012 International Historic Motoring Awards "Publication of the Year" - The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles" 2011 International Historic Motoring Awards "Museum of the Year" They also award a "Spirit of Competition" award to a deserving individual from Motorsport.... BTW, a great experience. The Concours D'Elegance around the US are judged and awards given for the various vehicles entered in various categories. Many of them are indeed, works of art, particularly the examples with French Art Deco and post-war Italian coachbuilding. I've spoken to the judges, who are knowledgeable individuals in the automotive field. They use what they refer to as a "French system", which basically is open to what that judge believes is good and bad based on their experiences. No rubrics. Penalties can be assessed if the vehicle can't run. Judges usually ask at times for the cars to be started, partly for that reason and also if the engine has a distinctive sound or various quirks. ( Does the Voisin's Sleeve valve engine run quietly and does it not exhaust too much oil?) Would people go to the event... and would some of the well-heled collectors bother to show their vehicles if there wasn't some kind of friendly skin in the game? I don't know. You'd have to ask them. I do know one husband and wife team have won several times at the Pebble Beach event.