troon8

I agree w/MikeD and many others. Oh that's right, I wasn't listening closely enough, when I thought you were booing the corps you were actually shouting - "THIS IS ME BOOING THE CREATIVE CHOICES OF THE CORPS DIRECTOR, WHICH I DISAGREE WITH STRONGLY ENOUGH TO EXPRESS MY VOCAL DISAPPROVAL OF. THIS DOES NOT CONSIST OF ME BOOING THE EFFORTS OF THE PERFORMERS, WHICH IN FACT, I APPLAUD. PLEASE RECOGNIZE MY ACKOWLEDGMENT OF THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE TWO SO THAT YOU DO NOT MISCONSTRUE MY INTENTIONS." You're mad at a director, be a sport and write him an email. You're not that obnxious guy with the beer hat at the Little League game. (Unless, I suppose, you are.) Don't act the fool.

Some people are talking here as if because the broadcast didn't meet their every Drum-Corps-on-TV fantasy it's the end of the activity as we know it and shame on DCI for even trying. Yes yes...we all know you're clearly a better TV production editor...Good lord, keep some perspective in mind! You could show every minute of championship week live on an Omnimax in 3-D and there'd still be complaints. Along with what they're offering online currently, plus things like the DVD's, CD's, downloads, etc., DCI on ESPN 2 is just one part of the whole picture. The ESPN 2 show is free (if you've already got ESPN 2, that is) and you're liable to come across it randomly if you're a sports fan, so yes, it makes sense to use it as a tool to get new fans intrested. If you're already a hardcore DCI nut, well then, you've got some options online and with DVDs & CDs, and probably would be willing to put a few bucks down to see & hear more since you already know what it's all about. I'm not thrilled with the pricing schemes myself, and it's far from perfect, and they're clearly still tweaking what they offer, but the fact that DCI has so many OPTIONS today to explore is nothing less than remarkable. Hopefully they'll come around in time and maybe start experimenting with using YouTube to their advantage while still finding a way to respect copywright laws. (That of course, is something for another topic...) The program itself isn't perfect, but after viewing it last year with a roommate who had never heard of drum corps before, I can tell you that while intrested in watching the shows, (and I'm sure I'll get flamed for this,) 5 minutes of watching each performance on TV was about all she could handle, since she really didn't know what she was seeing/hearing. That's why the little explanatory "clinic" segments from last year along with marchers & director interviews are so important - they answered a lot of her questions, and gave her something she could connect with more easily than thirty seconds of esoteric shapes from the high cam created by marchers a few pixels tall. She's not about to run out and join a corps now or plop down $100 for the DVDs , but if I had the opportunity to take her to a live show, she'd be a lot more likely to say yes. And sad as it is to the fans of the corps they didn't show, she really couldn't have cared less if they showed 8, 10, or 12 corps (yes, I know you do!) - it was far more about the quality of the program (the TV PROGRAM - more so than the CORPS PERFORMANCE) than the quantity. Meaning that in my opinion. you could get new fans hooked much better with a really well produced segment of / about Pioneer (no offense, Pioneer!) than just smacking the full shows of the Top 12 down without any "behind the scenes" clips.

Every time Delucia or Rodinaro make a comment to imply that it's a live event, i.e.: "I wouldn't be surprised if they take first!" "I'd say their drum score might bring them down some tonight, Steve." "Wow! They jumped two places - what a surprise!" Etc, etc.... You know what I'm talking about! Funny how their "predictions" are rarely very wrong, eh? :P

Ooo! Ooo! I'm first!!! THE HAIKU RULE: "Corps that choose to use vocal narration will be limited to a one-time use of a 5 syllable / 7 syllable / 5 syllable format. For example... Athletes of God ride Criminal horses to Las Vegas. That's all, folks! ...is acceptable. A full-length recitation of the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, or Ayn Rand, would not be.

I can see it now: "On the field..performing their show...'The Works of John Cage & Ornette Coleman..."

Aren't we forgetting the most "socially irresponsible" weapons of Drum Corps and the REAL threat to our peaceful neighborhoods? Saber related deaths are also at an all time high in America's inner cities. Parents, please teach your children to use sabers responsibly & safely so that lil' Sally doesn't skewer lil' Jimmy...Why, just last week I was roughed up by a horde of saber-wielding Mamelukes! The nerve!

YES!!! Or Samuel Beckett..."Waiting for Hashmarks"...

You rock! Great Haikus! If only narrations Were so brief in shows...

Aha. Indeed. Knew I couldn't have possibly been the first one to bring up that aspect of the issue...

Never saw it live, but in the video to BD 1994, you can hear a male voice shout of (what I THINK is) "I'M STILL WET!!!" Anyone know anything about this one? On second thought, I don't really want to know...

My heartfelt thanks to you all for replying, I had a hunch that no one's really figured out exactly where or how this fits into the grand scheme of judging yet, although I'd say percussion judges making note of drumspeak (as dbc 03 pointed out) does make a modest amount of sense. I think the trickier question yet to be adequeatly delt with will be judging vocal narratives. Not just who will do it, but how. Will they eventually be trained to look at enunciation, projection, & clarity? Voice acting ability? Emotional depth & sincerity? Knobs and buttons on the amps set up well? I'm not saying this would be either a positive nor negative direction for the sport to be heading in, but it seems somehow less-then-ideal to NOT judge vocals placed on the field, (since lord knows they have such a dramatic affect on how audiences percieve shows) though of course we're in such new territory that no system is yet in place for it. For example, many (though no, not all) people have commented how much they love the Cadets current show but dislike the narration, and keep asking, "Why don't they just take out the speaking?" But with scores and placements so high right now, (and fans being far from unanimous on the issue,) And while I'm sure he's aware of some of these comments, I can see how George Hopkins is probably mostly thinking it ain't broke, don't fix it. It may be alienating some fans, but competitively, it seems to be working out just fine, and I highly doubt the kids marching in the corps this year are on the verge of mutiny, so I just don't think it's going to happen for this year's show. On the other hand, if I was a director getting honest critique from judges about how the narration was affecting my show (of course, an extremely subjective thing!) I'd probably take those comments to heart. I wonder if we'd hear narration being used more like Bluecoats 07 & BD 06, and less like BD 05 & Cadets 07 if this were the case. Assuming that for better or worse, it's here to stay in some form or another, I do sincerely hope that the corps that DO decide to pursue narration in the future take it even more seriously. Maybe they are and I just don't know about it...for example, I'm sure they practice it again and again, and experiment with slight variations, but is anyone SERIOUSLY coaching the Cadet's speakers (or any corp's, for that matter) on how they talk? Do they warm themselves up vocally without mics before each show? Are they mindful of breathing, enunciation, projection, motivation, etc? (Please, if someone actually does have the answer to these, I'd be sincerely intrested to know! I'd love to watch a Cadets rehearsal myself to find out sometime.) There's so much more the performers need to be aware of than just how to hold the mic! I have no doubt that all corps that use vocals will be working hard on them up until Finals, but I think that if corps made a concerted effort to engage in the right TRAINING for their vocalists at the SAME LEVEL of demand and detail that they do with music and marching, the results would show, and probably win over a larger percentage of the audience. In short, if some corps are determined to use narration, I don't think it'd hurt anyone to try to make it the best performed narration possible. I'm sure that the kids are trying right now, but to be perfectly honest, I fear they need more support (from their staff, that is) to really make narration live up to the potential that some designers think it could reach. By and large, we're just not there yet.

This post probably reflects my general ignorance when it comes to the judging system, but please don't take it as sarcasm. How is (or will) narration effecting judging? Who, exactly (if anyone) is commenting about it on tapes and scoring sheets? Clearly it's not a visual caption...but what then, Music GE? Indiv. Performance? I'm not at all suggesting that there needs to be a new caption for it, but how are adjudicators interpreting this with the current system of scoring?

I for one certainly would've given them a little more GE love in Denver.

Not sure if this qualifies as a bona fide review, but here's a small sampling of comments I got from one of my DCI first-timers friends we brought to the show...sometimes it's certainly intresting to hear from someone without bias or preconceptions! Please be advised that the following opinons are her own, not mine, and take them with a grain of salt, (especially guard members,) her brain's a little fried these days from med school. ;) Just thought I'd share, we love you Carole! ON PARK & BLOW ROCKOUTS... "I hate it when they wiggle! It looks stupid! If they're supposed to be rocking out, they need to MOVE!" ON COLORGUARDS... "I think a lot of them were distracting. They can add a lot sometimes, but some of the corps would've looked great without them." ON PACIFIC CREST'S GUARD UNIFORMS... "Nice pants, I want a pair!" ON CROSSMEN'S CAPED ENTRANCE... "HARRY POTTER!!!" ON THE GLASSMEN AS THEY ENTERED... "Are they pirates or gypsies?" ON THE BLUE KNIGHTS... "Dark? But the flags were so bright and pretty!" ON CAROLINA CROWN'S GUARD UNIFORMS FROM THE TOP OF THE STADIUM... "They look like pieces of Bacon!" ON THE BLUECOATS... "Where the fudge did all those briefcases come from?! How did they DO that???" "It feels like I'm watching a magic show! I have no idea what's going on..." ON THE CADETS ENTERING THE FIELD... "I love how they enter (in a block, straight down the 50,) they look like an army!" ON THE CADET'S NARRATION... "Couldn't understand what they were saying half the time."

A great night for Drum Corps here in Denver. Excellent stadium acoustics, the weather cooperated just fine, the crowd was large, and very receptive. I felt that all 12 corps gave an awful lot of performance energy out there, and cranked out good shows all around. Just a brief disclaimer, I'm often disgusted by the tones a small, but overly vocal handful of people take when it comes to commenting on these reviews. If you disagree with me about something, by all means, you're entitled to that opinion as much as mine, and I'd be happy to hear from you if you want to discuss it civilly about why our opinions differ. But if all you've got to say to my "Z Corp's brass seemed a little off tonight" is "OH YEAH?! WERE NOT! WERE SO NOT! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, U R DUM!!! WAH WAH WAH!" <**> don't be especially surprised if I decline to respond... TROOPERS Oh, they're back all right! Had the privelage of watching their drumline warmup in the lot. They came out there tonight with plenty of pride and a lot of love from the Rocky Mountain crowd. A pretty entertaining show. Not the cleanest, but certainly a rousing start to the night. MANDARINS Between the uniforms and some of the flags, their color scheme struck me as less than ideal. While the "bamboo" poles seemed like a good concept, the drill only really utilized them once or twice. Having tall, half-scattered poles of a green just off from the color of the field made for some eye aches. Still, they rocked out the teiko drum section, and did a great job representing their style. SEATTLE CASCADES One of my favorite musical and visual first impacts of the night. You could almost here the crowd go "Oh! It's a CONCEPT show! 3...I GET it!" at that moment. Thank you Cascades for proving that sometimes, simple themes are better. They communicated with the audience very well through out. Also thought that the show seemed to be a particularly good fit for the corps in terms of demand. Along with Academy, my favorite pre-intermission corps of the night! PACIFIC CREST Some of the melodies got a little muddy coming from the low brass. I might have picked a trumpet instead of (I think it was) the baris to lead off the theme to "Viva Las Vegas," but oh well. "Love for Sale" swung pretty well. The very brief narration was just ok - didn't make me want to puke, but didn't exactly make me want to stand up and cheer either. I felt it really wouldn't have made much of a difference if it was their or not. Kudos for really picking music that said Vegas in a variety of moods! Also a special thank you to the guard for giving us a taste of show girl attitude that was in fact, tastefull. And fully clothed B) CROSSMEN Our group's (with many DCI novices) first reaction with the capes was HARRY POTTER! Thankfully, not. Really creepy, dramatic use of said capes! Great shout out to the fans with all the little licks of X-Men shows past before tranisitioning into a respectable rendition of Russian Christmas Music. Didn't quite have the gravitas of SCV's, but still gave me chills enough. A little sloppy visually, but pretty high on effect, and a much harder drill book than the previous four. THE ACADEMY BELEIVE THE HYPE!!! b**bs This corps means buisness, and if they don't make end up making the Top 12, I still think it'll be very very close. Brass line was smoking, guard was fun to watch, loved how the three guard characters really propelled the action. And pretty darn clean, at that! GLASSMEN Entire corps did a great job of being in character for the show! Sections of the music seemed to drag our attention to bit, but others had us going "Ooo!" Thought they weren't quite as hot tonight as Academy, but still pretty solid overall. (Author's note - It was at this point that we managed to not so stealthily leave our seats on the third level and way out on the 25 yrd line and following a tip from a friend book it up to the top of the stadium darn near center. So try to keep in mind that my perspective, both visually and audio, was VASTLY improved for the last five corps! VANGUARD This show did a LOT more for me than Crown's, probably for purely personal aethetic reasons, so don't get all in a huff, Crown fans. Vaguard's definatly made a push back to the early 2000's avant-garde geometric era, but with a lot of new visual tricks up their sleeves. Music took my breath away with those peeling tones and big fat chords during the ballad, and I thought their whole percussion section was integrated especially well with the horns musically. And I don't really care what judges have to say technically - their battery is awful fun to watch! I'll take their aggressive attitude over a technically perfect but phsyically frozen drum line anyday. BLUE KNIGHTS They were dark. They danced. It was dark. Did I mention they danced? It was hard not comparing their opener with Phantom's Shostakovich of '02, but I thought their arrangment worked well for them. I liked their visual staging better than years past, but occasionaly they hit diagonal lines that made me (and my buddy who's been intermittentally on their staff this summer) cringe. I don't think they have a chance in beating Crown, but keep cleaning it up, and they could still go far. Uber dramatic ballad and closer. I'm definatly eager to see some of the hornline dance moments close up on the DVD! BK is very true to themselves this year, I'll say that. ^0^ CROWN You know, as pretty a sounding, and as clean and swift moving a corps as they were, conceptually, it just seemed so...yes, I'll say it - silly. Maybe I was still recovering from the bitter sturm and drang of BK. Really, those two corps couldn't be further apart from an emotional perspective! I do want to thank Crown for something very specific (other than that ridculously lush brass line that everyone's been talking about!) and that's for giving us a show that I have no doubt 100% of the audience knew was about horses by the end...without having to give us an epic monologue about the special bond between horse and man, proper care and feeding of equines, the storied history of Bluegrass country, etc. etc. Yes, you see where I'm leading with this...But seriously, Crown is was a fun, if at times cheesy show. BLUECOATS Was skeptical from pictures, but LOVED how the uniforms looked in real life! We were nearly blinded by the reflective shield on the helmets too, wonder how much polish they go through. Very high velocity show - there was never a dull moment! Theme couldn't be clearer, and while yes I just ranted some about narration, I thought that if you've got to use it, Blue did it in the most friendly and effective way possible - by keeping it short, simple, and to the point. I was really impressed by their guard, though a guard friend felt they were mildly sloppy. Consider us a hung jury. Sound was solid, and as always, the corps looked like they were having a lot of fun out there. CADETS Before I watched it, I thought I'd have something profound and special to say about this one and the place (or misplacment) of narration, but the fact is, I don't. You can put me in the same category as the many who've already said it - really great drill, really great music, really REALLY gross narration. Did she just say "Athletes of God?!" :sshh: Please George, if you're going to give us a scripted theatrical performance, take a poetry or playwrighting, or best yet, haiku class. But trying to find a positive spin even on this, I will say that I thought the "Music-saved-my-social-life" kid gave a surprisingly heartfelt performance. I know his part has been ragged on a lot, but as an actor, I can sympathize - I suspect that some nights this comes across better than others. Oh yeah, while the guard was terrific, their first stick-figures-holding-hands flags were deicdedly not. Looked like some sort of non-profit social work organization's logo. But trying to end on another postive note, I'll say it again - dang fine marching Cadets, and your hornline blew us away!!! No surprises with scores or placements, though I did disagree with the judges slightly in a few cases, so here's my own rundown: MY RANKINGS: 1. CADETS 2. BLUECOATS 3. (Tie) CROWN & SCV 5. BLUE KNIGHTS 6. ACADEMY 7. GLASSMEN 8. CROSSMEN 9. CASCADES 10. PACIFIC CREST 11. TROOPERS 12. MANDARINS JUDGES RANKINGS: 1. CADETS 2. BLUCOATS 3. CROWN 4. SCV 5. BLUE KNIGHTS 6. GLASSMEN 7. ACADEMY 8. CROSSMEN 9. PACIFIC CREST 10. CASCADES 11. TROOPERS 12. MANDARINS Thanks for reading, have a great night!

The punishment should fit the crime...I think it'd be fair to lock her in a gym with the corps, (plus every alumni they could gather) and all their instruments and let them have their audio way with her. For a start. Then maybe they could take her out to the field and have her lie down on the 50 and then...you get the idea.

One of my friends checked it out and got the scoop on that freakin' bell from a stadium staff member. We were told that it was from a freight elevator (we were far on the end and had a clear line of sight [and sound] to it) that runs up and down all night AUTOMATICALLY, whether anyone's actually using it or not. When asked if maybe just the bell could be turned off, he was told "I'll look into it." Riiiiight... :sshh:

Amen. One of my friends went to try and do something about it. He was told by a stadium staff member (DCI's event staff understandably had no clue what was up with it) that the freight elevator it was from near the end zone runs up and down AUTOMATICALLY whether it's being used or not. When asked if just the bell could be turned off, he replied "I'll look into it." You could just hear hundreds of teeth grind in our section and beyond every time it went off and smell the ambient rise in blood pressure. SO aggravating...

The disclaimer: This isn’t the most technical of reviews. That’s partly because I’m just a fan (or groupie, as my aged-out BK friend calls me ;) whose experience beyond HS marching is only extensively in other artistic mediums, but also because we were near the very top of the stadium and my eyes and ears just ain’t that good. And I don’t believe in using the phrase IMO – if it wasn’t in my own opinion, why would I write it?? So keep in mind the whole thing is. WOW, what a year! The overall talent of the Top 12 just keeps raising the bar higher and higher. Incredible showmanship and performance levels all around. There wasn’t a single corps I saw Friday that I wasn’t looking forward to seeing again on Saturday for one reason or another. We unfortunatly were late on Friday, and only got there in time for Colts and Crossmen first, and I would’ve loved to see either of those shows in Finals, too. :( SPIRIT: Rousing start off. A lot of surprising and impressive ensemble drill moments. Wished they had focused on fewer songs and extended them, instead of the sampling hodgepodge, but it was all pasted together nicely, without awkward transitions. I bestow on them my: BLUE & GREEN CAN (SOMETIMES) GO TOGETHER AWARD! While the neon green triangles were a nice little touch, some of my group didn’t even notice it until it was pointed out, due to our extreme height. GLASSMEN: Dvorak tango? Jaws? Why not? I had a good time, and it certainly looked like the whole corps was too. Beautiful, simple ballad. Overall, music was more memorable than the drill. They tie with the Cadets for my THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX AWARD! I’m curious at what point in the show development process the words "New World Symphony" and "Tango" were uttered in combination. BLUE KNIGHTS: Maybe I’m just overcompensating for my geographical bias, but I thought they had decidedly less impact Saturday than they did Friday. There was a few uncertain minutes before their show when it seemed that they might get delayed due to weather, so I’m sure that didn’t help. Regardless: Their musical book was a lot more sophisticated than most of Spirit’s and Glassmen’s, and it was handled well, though it didn’t always grip me. What did grip us was their visual work. My GOD that hornline can bust a move!! They get the DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION AWARD, hands down! Great guard staging and their dancing was especially impressive. One of my friends, a knowledgeable and experience aspiring pro dancer in New York commented that the guard’s level of performance was up to the standards she’s learned to expect at auditions. High praise indeed. SANTA CLARA VANGUARD: Mind you, I had some bias about this one. I already have a special emotional attachment to Russian Christmas Music, so I don’t care if it’s 5 year old with kazoos playing it, I’m still going to get chills. So when I discovered that VANGUARD was dusting it off again, I was excited to say the least. And you know what? Despite the marked difference in score and placement from last year, I wasn’t the least bit disappointed! Loved the guard outfits. While not the best color guard of the night, they carried themselves with a certain grace throughout. A very different visual feel for them (least of all because their new uniforms look uncannily identical to my old high school’s. Blasphemy, I know! But it’s true!) The iconographic (now THAT’S a bad Russian Orthodoxy pun!) drill forms were far more impactfull and exciting than I ever would’ve guessed. The drill overall was really hit or miss, but they brought in the Big Noise, and woke us up and out of our seats. RUMORS OF THIS CORPS DEATH HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED AWARD! goes to them with pride. BOSTON CRUSADERS: Ah, the home team…Another very big brass sound. Lots of tricky circular drill, and exceptionally demanding drill near the end. Great jam session! They win the: FUN WITH DRUM KITS AWARD! CAROLINA CROWN: Nice show. Tear – jerker ballad. From Queen to Sarah McLaughlin…I’m curious what’ll come next year in that sequence. Lush, full horns, good use of whole field, and great usage of pairing during the ballad. After last years beatnik misadventures, I gladly bestow upon them my BACK TO BASICS AWARD! My roommate’s typically a Crown basher, but he grudgingly admitted that this was his favorite Crown show yet. :angel: MADISON SCOUTS! b**bs AYE! MUY caliente!!! This entire show was just an inferno of pure of Madison energy. Musically, visually…I think all those sirens in the beginning was a way of warning us to hold on to our seats. ”Carmen” in that flurry of red streamers was one of the great moments of the night. Oh yes, the girl in red...Totally engrossed in her character. That field became her stage. We were surprised Bluecoats beat them on Saturday, but I’m getting ahead of myself. This show is awarded by going my a list of 101 REASONS WHY MADISON ROCKS! BLUECOATS: Also a really terrific, total package performance. Friday night we couldn’t decide if we liked them or Scouts better (and that was before we learned that the judges agreed) but for Finals, Scouts seemed just a hair more on musically, and Blue just a bit more off visually. We found ourselves repeatedly pointing at a poorly covered contra or two. Nonetheless, this was still another “wow” show. Very intense feel for Blue. Haunting ballad, loved all rich musical texturing with the mutes. Loved the slowly unfolding box at the end of the ballad that eventually snaked its way across the whole field. Make no mistake – this corps came to play. I loved this show plenty, but they win my MOST GRATUITOUS EXPLOITATION OF DRUMMERS AWARD! Drumspeak is cool. Drumming is cooler. Could’ve done without it. BLUE DEVILS: This show grew on me after a second viewing, but not by much. The concept itself was fine, but how they approached it just annoyed me, I’m afraid. We could barely make out the narration from our height and angle on Saturday (which might have been for the best) so a few in our group took half the show to figure out what the heck was going on. Yeah, about that narration…How the heck can I be entertained by the show when I’m so busy trying to formulate an opinion about all the talking?! Their visual book was occasionally impressive (like the rotating spoke pass throughs at the beginning) but rarely exciting. My biggest gripe about their drill was that they NEVER seemed to change intervals. Also interesting balladish section. Horns & guard acting all tired and mopey against the drum features was a bit too much of a contrast, but on the plus side I (being a non-drummer) could actually HEAR what the drums were doing. Overall musical pros & cons too. Pros: LOVE it when these guys groove!! Cons: So groove more! I was dying to hear how they’d treat a melody. I’ll finish this up just by reminding everyone to hate the narration, not the narrator. I’ll try to keep it positive, so he wins the BEST MULTITASKING AWARD for playing and talking at the same time. The kid could actually do a decent voiceover too, so I got to give him that. PHANTOM REGIMENT: Spirit of Disney was a no brainier for ‘em. This show was pure entertainment from start to finish. I found myself (and everyone around me) with a huge smile on the whole time. Loved the umbrellas, the tap dancing, the GORGEOUS flag palette, and the ‘40’s attitude. The lone guard gentlemen looked like he was floating on air the whole night and having an absolute blast. He practically skipped around the field at the end. And oh yeah, hornline sounded ridiculously articulated and mature Honored recipients of my CLASS ACT AWARD! Class was a word floating around with a lot of other reviewers about this one, and I agree wholeheartedly. I hate this next word, but I’ve got to say it: Phantastic! CAVALEIRS: Very terrific show! I’m not sure how the spread between them and the Cadets was QUITE so large. Of COURSE they were out of this world visually as always! Hornline was exceptionally well blended. During the “Great Fire” sequence, there was such heavy dissonance, but you could still hear every part, and when those mellos climbed up the LADDERS (in step, of course!) and chimed in so clearly with “Amazing Grace”…OH! Such an evocative effect, ya just had to be there! And Cavs do the BLUES?! Yes indeed, walking (contra)bass line and all! First time I’ve ever seen them really let their hair down (and hats off) and jam. And the “LITTLE” stuff!? There were so many things happening that had us doing all double takes, especially since we were near the top of the stadium. So I’ve got several exciting question, like, “Was that a REAL BASEBALL?” “Did the GUARD just play horns??” and the most intriguing of all, “Was he just playing TWO TRUMPETS AT ONCE?!?” That’s what it looked like on the Jumbotron briefly, at least. So of course, they get the “DID THEY REALLY JUST DO THAT?!” award. Wild stuff. CADETS: Controversy? What controversy? I disagreed with the spread, and I liked the Cavs sound better, but I felt that love it or hate it, the Cadets performed like champions. As one of our group pointed out, they were so visually clean, we didn’t even REALIZE how clean they were! There just plain so little dirt in their show (from our height at least) to compare it to. I barely got a chance to watch the guard with all that was going on visually, I’m starting to understand why their GE scores have been so high. Of course it appears mandatory for me to talk about all the bells & whistles…Their narration, unlike BD’s, was quick and painless, and served to clue the audience in to what was going on efficiently. The uniforms? From our height, a very cool effect. The door didn’t bug me, but that might have only been because I was so far on the side. The 4 girls (or at least personalities) / 4 dreams theme I actually enjoyed, but the Bjork speak just didn’t do it for me. There was plenty of other surrealist stuff going on without it. And marching that good? Now THAT’S surreal!! Winners once more of my: CORPS CHUTZPAH AWARD! There was surely know way of knowing before the summer whether their treatment of the theme would be effective or not. Despite the fact that I’m sure there are lots of people who will always hate this show, you can’t deny that it was bold. AND ONE MORE THING… For finals, we were seated in Section 315, about halfway up that section. OK seats, and I enjoyed the stadium, EXCEPT we had a clear view to a freight elevator near the end zone that had a ridiculously loud bell going off literally every minute or two, frequently during the most inopportune moments. One of my friends went to try to do something about it, and eventually found a stadium employee who informed him that the elevator runs up and down AUTOMATICALLY, and that there was no way to actually turn it off. When asked if maybe just the bell could be shut off, he replied with the immortal phrase of “I’ll look into it.” While I did my best not to let it interfere with me having a good time, it was really the most obnoxious distraction one could concoct, especially considering these were finals. Our entire section and then some could be seen clenching their teeth whenever it went off. While I understand it’s the sort of thing that was probably very easy for DCI to miss when selecting the stadium and getting things ready, we’re still all writing strongly worded letters to them and the stadium, and I encourage others who experienced it to do the same, though I’d gently remind them that politeness and good grammar can get better results in such situations.