NakedEye

Could you elaborate a bit about what the story is supposed to be? It seems to involve something about one girl being tempted or approached by the dark side (like a Dracula-ish idea), but it seemed to fade in and out and I didn't really clue into it.

That's what she said too..lol

That is true. A friend who was in the '90 guard was just mentioning that to me recently. She said they had been working extra hard for it and were really excited. Then when it was canceled, they thought they would at least get a free day or something. Instead they had rehearsal and were p*ssed. lol

Yes, I'm pretty sure it appeared no later than mid-season, though not in its final form. With this discussion, I went back and rewatched that show. Surprisingly, I think I am liking '09 more because it is just such an exciting ride. '94 still has many great moments, though. It just has that more jam session, loose feel as opposed to the "OMG that's crazy!" adrenalin rush.

You forgot one

I'm of the general opinion that staff members need to be cut a little slack, with the exceptions being them having running loud conversations during the show, and especially if they are being loud during another corps' performance. These people give their hearts and souls to bring the best out of the kids all day long for months, and when you are older than marching age, sleeping on the floor and constant travel and exhaustion does the body no great favors. Audience members need to remember that the staff is technically still at work during the show. It's not leisure time; they're carefully watching and evaluating the performance, and figuring out what needs to be addressed in rehearsal the next day. Outbursts sometimes occur when Jimmy finally nails his set that he's struggled with all season or Susie completely blows the new section of guard work that she totally zoned out on during the afternoon block. The show has been the staff's total life for months, so chances are they're going to be vocal about some of it, usually without thinking. I just know from personal experience that our intentions were always to be courteous at the shows, as we knew the importance and rights of paying customers, but that sometimes we DID get loud and overexcited, and sometimes sourpuss audience members around us had reactions which I felt were unfortunate. We were so emotionally involved in the show, our "baby," (plus being hot, tired and dirty), and stuff does happen. Ultimately, the vast majority of staffs really, REALLY care deeply about the kids, the learning, the creativity, and the performance, and they usually aren't getting paid tons, but are really trying to make a difference. If staff members are being rude during another corps' performance, by all means call them out on it, but if they are trying to hype their own corps, try to step back and think about what their greater goal might be. In this "Holy Name" instance, that is right before they start the most truly insane and difficult part of the show, so it might be just a little reminder to the kids that this is it, time to find that bit of extra energy to finish with a bang (and they no doubt need everything they can muster to do that). Now, loud, rude band kids? They should all be strung up in dungeons..lol

Yeah, you pretty much said it. With that uniform, they can get maximum readability out of any interesting shape they create. But they create very few interesting shapes. Instead there are all these little bits and pieces that sort of move around on their own and then connect into something larger. You can't tell where one piece ends and another begins, so it looks like a holy mess. How about some continuous forms that flow and reshape instead? I think they did a lot of that in the '93 drill that was so good. The "vibrating strings" idea is fun once or twice, but it pops up too often in this, and starting the whole show with mirrored diagonals? Disaster waiting to happen. I think even if they set it correctly, it looks off depending on where your seat is located and your viewing angle. Also, let's bag the storyline. Not needed at all. Just express the lush emotion of the music instead. When a b*tch slap is your big GE moment, something is not working. Some poor choices all around, and such a shame, as they really do sound great. I'm sure they'll learn from this for next year.

The have the Garfield G on them - Gold flag with copperish metalic arrow-G. The "Cool" ones have three darker blue stripes, which I think may be a take on the uniform sleeve trim. On the whole, I agree that this is indeed one of their better shows for color usage. They use it very effectively to depict the two sides of the conflict, and when the oranges and greens come together at the end of "Boy Like That/I Have a Love", you totally understand the point. Their choices really are pretty similar to '94. They used a lot of gold/orange and blue for "Cool" that year as well. Difference was it was the same flag design the whole show - 4 vertical stripes. They just kept changing the color combos. I wasn't totally in love with the guard costumes at the start of the season, mainly because the diagonal front strap truncates oddly on the girl costumes that have spaghetti strap tops. Appear sort of tacked on, but the overall look does reinforce their idea of history and I think its effective. Four of the top five have fantastic color usage this year, I think. BD-great. Cavaliers - their silks are gorgeous and remind me of the work of my painting mentor, who did incredible series about the Grand Canyon and other Western vistas, using tons of colors like that. SCV- gorgeous as well. It took me a while to figure out it was that giant skirt they were wrapping around themselves for the first 3/4 of the show, but it really works and is totally Martha. Then there are the people with the green fetish, but we won't discuss that.

Cadets' guard 5th in achievement? Seriously? Where were all these mistakes that I didn't see?

SCV's show is just too good. Their whole concept and design is very clear without excess fluff. It all makes sense and they are almost at the point of mastering the performance aspect. Crown has a more convoluted theme that doesn't project with as much clarity and I think the contrast is becoming more apparent as everyone else in the upper group cleans up.

LMAO. That's awesome. As far as non-story shows, I always liked anytime the Crossmen did anything with Metheny. There were never storylines, but always a good time.

Well YEAH, but that removes the thrill of the hunt!

You may or may not find it toward the end of a clips vid of that year

This is nothing new or anything indicating some massive sea change. See Sky Ryders 1987 - West Side Story with the corps split into three sections: white, black and gray. Nothing remotely military-looking about the simple, featureless outfits, which included the shakos modified into pointy shapes. When they did their Oz shows in previous years, the outfits looked somewhat like Munchkin attire as well. See Star of Indiana 1989: full-on British. It was completely different from the fuschia/star identity they had established for several years. 1990-91: full-on Roman appearance. All for the themes. Various corps experiment with this from time to time (I designed that way for the corps I worked with too), but at the same time you see others go backwards, to more traditional looks (Cadets, SCV). Frankly, if a corps insists on doing all sorts of body movement with the hornline, I wish they WOULD wear something other than a military-ish uniform for it. As much as I can appreciate well-done movement, I think it pretty much looks universally stupid to prance around, do graceful arm and leg gestures and attempt to "emote" while wearing a blocky-shouldered, military parade-inspired suit. It's a visual disconnect. If you really want to do that, go to something more flexible and athletic. Even the jumpsuits Blast! wears would be an improvement.

The Snuggie™ - it's not just for relaxing!

LOL "Snuggie robes" Thanks..that made my day! lol

Huh? They were much stronger in both '07 and '08 and I believe they've been outscored by Cadets' guard in every head to head matchup so far. They aren't terrible by any means, but there is a noticeable slip.

Wow. That's about 8 times the size of the old press box. It is a pretty small stadium, but fun because the seats are really close to the field.

LOL sure! If you're serious you can PM me or contact me through my website. I love to design and consult (as long as I don't have to sew any of it..lol)

Actually, I think the green detracts from the overall theme. It is rather a red herring, so to speak. You don't need it to convey the idea of searching for something better, and then coming back home. Instead, it causes some confusion, and puts too much focus on the color in the show title, rather than the meaning of the phrase. What it reminds me of is what happens when you run with your first idea, rather than sleeping on it for a bit: First Design Meeting: Designer 1: "HEY, since the title is The Grass is Always Greener, let's make EVERYTHING green!" Designer 2: "I love it! I love it! GENIUS!" A week later... Designer 1: "You know, I thought about this green business some more, and maybe that's just too much. Not enough contrast." Designer 2: "Agreed. Let's go in a different direction." Except they never had the second meeting... For the record, I really didn't like it when Phantom did an all black and white Miró-inspired show in '94. Same problem - not enough variety. Different colors help to set mood and emotion, and if you eliminate them, you lose a lot of impact.

No, not really. They were what..8th in '98 and 10th in '86? What's the deal? I didn't really care for the overall design early on, but I thought they would at least perform it at a high level. This is surprising!

YES!!

Oddly enough, it was like none of them had ever done a standstill before. At least 3-4 corps looked confused when setting up an arc, then had to shift it, bring it in, or tighten spacing in it. I thought that was weird, as most of them routinely do encores. Perhaps there was something different about the setting. Phantom was by far the most prepared, with their organized block and tuba seats.

Forcing Gulag prisoners to wear those would violate the Geneva Convention.

I'm not sure Western Europe is far enough away. Perhaps Antarctica...