HockeyDad

Oh, NUTS. I was agreeing with you earlier today, now you roll out the trite Borg "you hate Cadets" screed. It's the NARRATION people aren't liking. THE NARRATION. NOT THE CADETS. If the Michigan Marching Band started playing the Ohio State fight song in Michigan Stadium, I'm guessing the home crowd would not be liking it. Not liking the Band? NO. Not liking what they're doing? Yes. ###### at the band director? YES. Sorry - 92 percent (of a poll that means nothing, right) don't like narration crammed down their throats. Ignore it. BTW, it seems to me that DCP is overly represented by Cadets homers. Therefore I would think that polls about narration and electronics Underrepresent the percentage of fans who don't care for them.

There was NO BOOING of the Cadets or any other corps last night. The crowd seemed to be very polite and applauded Cadets several times during the show (the musical impact points or drill impact points. Strangely, no one applauded any spoken word). So, no apology will be needed for this show.

30 years, this summer. You? If every corps placed in the same place every night and every year, how incredibly boring that would be. I said that, perhaps, the true placement for BAC in this caption should be in the middle between where they scored 5 days ago and when they scored last night. You concede nothing, and make yourself look like nothing like a homer who can't see through your BAC-colored glasses. Yeah, BAC was nothing special last night. Maybe they had an off night.

Oh, and BTW, thanks for taking a shot at me. I see you couldn't help yourself.. Do YOU understand the judging captions? If so, why aren't you judging? You can "design" the best dots in the world. But if you go out and miss them, you're saying it should have no effect on score? You don't even need to take the field, and your score should already be assigned? Riiiight

From what I saw, no way should BAC be beating Cadets in this caption. No way. So maybe their scores from 5 days earlier were way too high. Maybe the score should be somewhere in the middle, between where they were scored 5 days ago, and where they were scored last night.

Exactly. BAC did not impress me at all visually last night. Were they "clearly better than" Blue Stars and Madison? No, not from what I saw there, 50 rows up on the 50 yard line. Is it possible they were scoring too high earlier?

How would you like to be a DCI judge? Low pay, long hours, and you can NEVER make everybody happy. I was there last night. BAC is a corps I love, but, last night........ I don't know. Is is possible the earlier season scores were too high??

Disagree completely about Cadets - I thought their narration added nothing to the show. Nothing other than pandering. Take it all away and there would be no diminishment. Bluecoats had ZERO narration last night - must have been an equipment malfunction. Guess what? I figured out what their show was about anyway. Must have been the two guard members dressed as boxers and boxing on the 50 yard line. I guessed it was a takeoff on Rocky. I must be smart.

And belittling people who give their honest opinions

Funny. As I sat there watching, my stomach kind of started to hurt. Like, if you had ice cream for every meal. Hey, ice cream is great, but, I can't eat it morning, noon and night. Crown was like - eating chocolate sundaes all day long. I couldn't take it any more. It was like 20 great endings to 20 masterpieces - I can't keep one 11.5 minute emotional high anymore I guess. (no Viagra jokes needed here)

OK, I was AT the show last night. Here are my impressions: First, I was surprised at my own reaction that both Cadets and Cavaliers seemed so, formulaic, if that's a word. It's like you know what they're gonna do next. Their execution is great, don't get me wrong. Cavies drill is awesome as always, and Cadets too. Cavies guard work was clearly the best last night. But, you just know what they're gonna do and it seems like they're both following the same formula they've used in the past. I thought both Cavies and Cadets are "leaving the door open" this year. SCV, Phantom, BD..... it's yours for the taking. Step up and do it... BUT, it's June so six weeks to Finals is a long, long time. But I thought Cavies were about 2.5 above Cadets right now and that's how the scores turned out. Narration: No corps used narration except Cadets. I'm unsure if Bluecoats was trying to use narration at the beginning of their show and the amps didn't work?? But they didn't, and their show wasn't lacking for it. Cadets narration: Based on the early season posts here, I expected more narration than last year. It seemed to me to be pretty much the same as last year though. I don't know if I was tuning it out or what, but it actually seemed less distracting to the music than last year, i.e. most (or all?) of the talking was when they weren't playing. The content of the narration, however, seemed to me to have no link at all to the performance. MikeD has frequently said that Cadets 2007 show couldn't exist without the narration, i.e. the narration is part of the "fabric" of the show. This year, it felt to me that the narration was a setup for how I was supposed to feel when watching the subsequent show segment. Didn't need it. And, my biggest gripe, was it came of as a young 20 year old's impression of lifes lessons. Didn't pass the giggle test with this old fart. Example: yeah, I love the kids to death and all, and I do make it to their recitals....but, boy I LOVE that money yum yum..... I LOVE me my job... Yeah.... I'm not sure you want to go there with preaching about what life's priorities should be. And, the "I'm a cancer survivor" thing....do you want the crowd to applaud that? Strange. So my thought is, you could completely remove narration from the show, add one or two impact moments of Cadets trademark awesome drill, and come out ahead. Way ahead. Blue Stars - Wow. Back in the top 12 for the first time since '79? Do we dare to dream or is it way too early? Madison - GET BOERSMA (sp?) back. Their arrangements are a train wreck. Felt so bad for the kids who are trying so hard.

Agreed. I'll be seeing them tomorrow in Madison - I will never "hate" but will approach it with a strong desire to like the show, and take it from there. If not, there's always Barbie's chocolate chip cookies, and maybe I'll bump in to Granny with her faux "oxygen tank."

Keep your eye on the French judge. I think she's in the tank for the Russians. She may be taking money. The Canadians deserve to win, and we all know it. Harking back to last year's thread during Semis and Finals, there seemed (to me anyway) to be some judge bashing going on. Based on that, I'm afraid this thread might not end well. But what do I know. This thread just reminds me of how drum corps judging is a whole lot like figure skating. You're not gonna place real well until you have that reputation built up, for example.

But, doesn't this way of thinking lend itself to the very "slotting" or whatever, i.e. every corps has to get incrementally better every week, therefore everybody's scores go up incrementally... the spacing between corps remains fairly stable.....yes I can think of exceptions as have already been mentioned - 2002 BD. Why Not have scores go up and/or down? Different judges, different results. What's bad with that? Do you think if you finish first on June 22 you should rightly finish first Aug 9?

Unfortunately, I think you're right on. It would be nice, hypothetically speaking, to go away for 4 weeks and be able to come back and see lots of changes from top to bottom. But, it just doesn't seem to happen except for a few cases. Makes it less exciting, to me anyway. For example, is there any chance Madison or Blue Stars will beat Colts at any time this season? Maybe I'm totally wrong - not using full judging panels yet, shows not completed yet, etc. And, I always wonder, does it get demoralizing to the staffs? Or do you not worry about it and just focus on getting your corps performance as good as you can?

True. Just go with the finals placements from last year and you're right on. Not a very bold predicition..

Was Finneas J. Whoopee judging too?

Ummmmm......I think the semis and finals are two different sets of judges.....so they already do that. But I may be wrong.

Don't let it bug you. You could take last year's final standings as a prediction and come close - that's how little things change. The only problem with your brass predicition is that, given the rumored "slotting" that occurs, you pretty much finish with a pretty close placement - so if you're 16th overall, you're probably not going to be 12th in brass, whether you should be or not. IMHO of course. But, just this morning on youtube I was watching the 1974 DCI Midwest Troopers performance - old school classic!

That's really hanging it out there with a prediction...... When's the last time a corps that didn't finish first in semis won the championship? 1974?

What would you say the odds are that a corps OTHER THAN Cadets, Cavies or Blue Devils takes the championship? When's the last time that happened? 1999? Even that was a tie with BD. 1996? Same thing. 1991 Star?? Wow. That's an amazing run for those three corps. OR, a living example of lack of diversity in drum corps?? I don't know. Not trying to start something here.

So disagreeing with you = being "bitter." Stop being so bitter.

Hey - where's the "IMHO"?????

Oh c'mon. If everybody comes on here all sunshine and fluffy bunnies, this would be a boring site to visit. Argue and complain away!!

Yeah - those were the people surfing the net for free and NOT attending / spending money on the event.