dcialumni1989

So, as a designer you know this pretty far in advance, but you still decide to write an insanely difficult show? Probably their first mistake. They really don't have the best show out there. As I mentioned above, it is too hard for them and that is part of designing. Also, it not effective. Is it intellectual? Yes, but that is only part of it. The trinity of effect is emotional, intelligent, and aesthetic. There is also part of the effect sheet entitled "excellence as effect." Something that SCV is lacking. Is it better than Regiment? Maybe, but it is not as well performed so Regiment gets the edge. Is it better than BD? I don't think so, but even if it was it is not anywhere near as well performed, so BD gets the obvious edge. Ok. So, if wearing an aussie and a star means that much, why again is 70% of the corps rookies? Don't get me wrong. I believe that being a part of a corps is a lot more than what the green shirts think. SCV has the Aussie, feathers up, and the star. Cavaliers have gears (among other things). Bluecoats have pennies. The list goes on and on. BUT, while many folks will buy into the traditions of the corps, that is not enough for everyone. Many people come to corps like SCV with the idea in mind that they will get massive audience applause as well as a chance to compete for a championship. If people don't get one (or sometimes both) of those things they are more likely to leave (see your quote about 70% rookies this year). Right or wrong, that is the way it is.

I am not sure you realize what he was actually saying. He mentioned 77,78,79,89,& 2006 for a reason. Those are all of the years that Regiment got second. In other words, he is a Phantom Regiment Alum and he was being funny.

LOL! What?!?! I love progressive shows. The people on here you are talking to I imagine do too. The problem with SCV's show, at best, is a show that is written for a drum corps that they do not have currently possess in regards to their current talent pool. At worst, it is an attempt to be intellectual that collapses upon itself with it's own pretentiousness and poor performance. Personally, I think they show MIGHT be pretty cool... but it is doubtful that we will ever know since the hornline will probably never be able to perform it.

But aren't performance problems ALSO design problems too to a certain extent? I mean, I am sure the if the show was played perfectly it would be a more enjoyable to more folks, but isn't it the responsibility of the designers to write a show that is achievable by the members? You can't write a show in a vacuum. All the time you see people on here bag on high schools for attempting to do drum corps shows or programs that are just too hard. How is this different. SCV's hornline is not good. Plain and simple. They need an easier book so they can achieve it. You see people on here saying that SCV is going to be dangerous when they can play the show. However, once they play the show, then they will have to work on PERFORMING the show. Going beyond the notes and the technique and connecting to the music and the audience. As of right now, it is July 18th and they still can't play it. Meanwhile, other corps are performing, cleaning, and tweaking (changing) their shows to get them just right. One of the great things about the 2009 show for them was the fact that it was super simple. They had so little visual demand it was crazy, but you know what? Nobody cared! They sounded awesome, the drill looked cool, and the show was easy to follow. They were easily a crowd favorite that year. I am biased towards The Cavaliers and the idea of giving the noose back to SCV is not one that I would like to embrace, but in 2009 I would have been completely ok with SCV beating Cavaliers. They did more with less and they were far more entertaining. To me, that show was the example of good design. Intellectual, aesthetic, emotional, and most importantly: achievable. If I am going to give an example of how to write a show within your means, 2009 SCV is the model. Conversely, if I am going to give an example of how to write a show over your head, 2011 SCV is probably the example (well, at least from a brass standpoint).

Ok... what are you getting at?

I think you missed the tongue in cheek nature of his post. He is a Regiment fan / alum and he listed all of the years that they were second.

Well. Kind of. The show format was Michael Cesario and Karl Lowe's brain child, not the participating corps.

It depends: At some shows each corps drops off a flash drive and all of the MP3's are put on them. At other shows they put them on an external site like dropbox or mobileme. At other shows they use tapes.

Yes they do still use them at some shows. Last year was the first time they did anything digital. This year most shows are digital, but not all.

Because there are no show reviews, no recaps, and we don't know how the new sheets break down... so we gotta talk about something...

They most certainly did. This is DCI though. They are far from state of the art in pretty much everything that they do. They still use tape recorders for cryin out loud. Low rent is pretty much DCI's middle name.

Ok. Are you implying that someone had an advantage? If not, what is your point? I am not foolish enough to think that there are not people voting from afar, but my guess is it is happening with every corps and no one group has an advantage over another.

I think we are in agreement here. I could definitely see Phantom finishing higher tonight than normal in this regard since it is their home crowd. To me that is ok. I like the idea of corps getting a "home field advantage" once in a while. Speaking of, I have not seen a recap, nor do I know how these new sheets really break down, but I heard there were some strange ordinals within some of the captions. This would not be a big deal except it was within the "entertainment" captions. The folks judging entertainment had very different opinions than how the audience voted. Would like to see that recap just to see how the new system breaks down.

No need. Not a big deal. I still feel like the performance and the fans in the stadium is the largest contributing factor. I would have felt that way if Phantom, Crown, or Cadets would have won tonight too, all for different reasons.

You did? I belong to The Cavaliers FB group(s), but got nothing from them.

My guess is he is under the incorrect assumption that people have to pay to text vote - much like American Idol

I had no idea it was the same number. Being that those posts on fb and twitter were from almost a month ago I am not sure that they had much of an impact. My guess is the fans voted for who they liked.

The information for fan voting is plastered all over, just like the Tehas show things. Many voters were not in the stadium. Yet there was no info on how to vote on The Cavaliers website, facebook page, or twitter for this show. Could it be that their show is more entertaining? Nah.... I am sure the conspiracy theories are correct.

No. There are a few people making bad sounds. Under the old brass staff, there were guys making bad sounds out there too, you just couldn't hear them because they were tucked in and playing mezo forte. The brass staff there now WILL refine it and they will be in the running for the Ott at the end of the year. They are running their tails off while playing a lot of notes. Also, the harmony in the show is very dense. BD sounds great, but they stand still a ton. If you do more there are more ticks and the cavaliers are doing more and ticking more right now, but they will clean up.

Please do share.

Reread the posts. That was someone else.

Fiedler supported the G7 stuff as far as I was told, but I could be wrong. The Cavaliers did not want to see this happen, but they also didn't want to be left out and saw the writing on the wall that it was going to pass with or without them. The groups that were the most in favor of it were BD, Cadets, Bluecoats, & Crown. Surprisingly, even though it was Hopkins idea originally, it was Gibbs who really pushed it hard in the meetings from what I was told by folks that were there. However, when they decided that the first show would be with the top 8 in TX, Dave wanted to scrap the whole thing. Anyways, this is off topic and has been beaten to death enough. Any reviews from the show tonight?

You know, you bring joy wherever you go on here.

Not all of the corps were part of the planning and they were not a united front.

I am not a fan of it either. I marched what is now a G7 corps, but you gotta understand that some of those corps don't want to see the division either. They were outnumbered. Don Warren started DCI. Do you think he wants to see corps pulling away from everyone else?