mfrontz

Breathe and play. Move your feet. It's that simple. Cadets in the 80s, Star in the 90s, Crown in 2007 (and beyond).

That's good to hear. Southwind is just a quarter/semifinalist corps that I used by comparison to a perennial finalist. BTW, the slide of Madison over the years and especially this year should prove to all that performance order/previous placements do not determine the judges' evaluation of the corps. Oh, I forgot - DCI had it in for Scott Stewart...that's why Madison fell out of finals.

You might call it rude, you have called it juvenile, you may call it classless. But you cannot call it "hatred." That is overreacting, as is your call for the Cadets to refuse to step off until everyone is a good little boy or girl. Guess what? The world is full of intemperate people. Maybe even you are intemperate on a bad day. Part of life is dealing with intemperate people. The Cadets know that. Star in the 90s learned how to do that. Cavaliers for the past forever have been learning how to do that. Calling something "hatred" that is not so is not only an overreaction, it can be used and has been used to shut down legitimate debate and will be used that way in the future. It is an appeal to the emotional. The fact is that you don't know why people choose to wear such T-shirts. You don't know what their basis is. Save "hatred" for cases like discrimination, genocide, etc. What we're talking about is people who are in effect wearing a bumper sticker. I personally think that bumper stickers are far too simplistic to be an intelligent statement about anything, but that doesn't mean that everyone who uses them is a "hater." For the record: 1. I don't have one of these T-shirts 2. I liked Cadets' show last night.

Narration? Neigh. :P

Expression of hatred? You are overreacting.

Just for the record, I was 'ing the irony of the response to the post that said we could all agree on Garfield 84.

True enough. Their demise coincided with the arrival of "Blast!" although I'm sure that was coincidence. More likely, park receipts were not what they were before and they had to cut something...

I think the Cadets are doing quite well at dealing with the controversy as is.

Hi GC, Yeah, I know what you mean about needing to go in a new direction. I suppose I'm still emotionally enough entangled with the corps now being from TX that I was looking for some sort of sense that "the Crossmen" are still "the Crossmen." Maybe one year's worth of homage would have helped me, but then again I might be saying, "Same old Crossmen," had they played "Birdland" and not marched at all but jammed in front of the front sideline for eleven minutes (exaggeration, but you get the point). Then you've got someone elsewhere on the board saying "why did they play Birdland again in 03?" Whatever. You just can't win with us fans, and you know it. :) Regards, Chip

You could be right...I am relying completely on memory, and thus am subject to change :)

I think that is the main point in question. Offensive language is a trigger. "Cheater" could also be defamation of character.

I think freedom of expression is something the Cadets, given their theme this year, would be in favor of. I think they can take care of themselves. Part of becoming "magnificent human beings" is learning how to deal with criticism, whether justified or unjustified.

Entertainment-wise, it makes good sense to put corps that are not as strong at the beginning of a show and put corps that are stronger towards the end. That way the audience is able to appreciate the smaller/less strong corps and what they are able to do and the show itself has a natural progression of getting better as you go along. If you drew straws and Phantom went on first followed by, say, Southwind, you're not helping the kids in Southwind because they are going to be compared unfavorably to Phantom. Not to mention that people who were delayed in getting to the show for whatever reason are going to be not so happy that they miss a top-tier corps who draws first.

OK, the mosquitoes really weren't that bad until we got our funnel cake at intermission and they had a party with the leftover powdered sugar. Jersey Surf: Hooray, Brian Prato! Your corps sounds good and you must be proud of your trumpet line. I also like the uniform changes in the guard. The backdrops make sense. Actually both Surf and Troopers had very good soloists. Troopers: Kudos to the aforementioned good soloists. Good brass sound overall. Nice use of the wooden barstools in the percussion feature - good touch. But could you please stage the feature better? CONGRATULATIONS on returning to the field. Crossmen: Congratulations also to the Crossmen on coming out strong just after a cross-country move. Much nicer visual coverage of the field. I like the accents on the uniforms and the guard "metamorphosis." Also, very nice low brass sound and a couple of really nice sounds from the mellophones. Trumpets are still a bit shaky. The one thing I would complain about: the show is too subtle. The "historical themes" Birdland, Appalachian Morning, First Circle, etc, are not developed far enough nor are they played up enough to get a reaction from the audience. The only real impact point in the first 2/3 of the show is "Russian Christmas." That got a response from the crowd, but then it was back into cerebral theme-weaving. Perhaps this can be attributed to a young, mostly new corps, but even in the "solo show-off" sections, it seemed as if Crossmen has lost its ability to project with the crowd - one of their year-in, year-out trademarks. Note to designers - Writing subtle for Bones is like entering a Corvette in a fuel-economy competition. Blue Knights: I really liked this show. I thought the brass and percussion writing was excellent and the execution pretty darn good as well. I was amazed at how active the hornline was - not just in playing, but in throwing their bodies (and their instruments) around, body-sculpting, dance, WHILE playing. It is a wholly unfamiliar skill set to me but they do a wonderful job at it - the sound does not noticeably suffer. I also thought that both BK and Crown had moments where amplification allowed for an excellent blend of pit percussion and brass, something IMO would not have been possible without the dreaded amps. Finally, the colors and textures in BK's flags were what we have come to expect. Intermission: funnel cake. Carolina Crown: Wow. What a great show. They had a lot of supporters in Chocolatetown tonight. Very accessible, very artistic, lots of fun to watch. When they held a chord in the opening, my arms went up when they went for twenty-four counts. Then they decided "oh what the heck, let's go for thirty-two." No noticeable holes in the sound that I could hear over very happy people. I used to hate Carolina Crown's visual every year, but not anymore. I thought the use of color in their show to communicate the theme was excellent. I don't know whether or not it will show up as well on screen. The only thing I thought was that they didn't feature their guard enough, but now I see that they won guard. Shows how much I know. Blue Devils: I don't know who criticizes their drill and why, but they move out there. Their drumline is fantastic, constantly moving all over the field (remember when drumlines stayed around the center X?) and the hornline just sounds like a pipe organ at times. Musically, their show is a tour de force of technical virtuosity. For ten minutes. Seriously, I love the wings, and does the transition from black in the beginning to white at the end mean anything? If I closed my eyes during the closer, I might have had an Isaac moment: "The corps on the field is Phantom Regiment, but the hornline is the hornline of the Blue Devils." I felt it was more symphonic then I'm used to hearing from them, but then (again) what do I know? The Cadets: I hate to admit being wrong, but I was wrong. After seeing it, I think it works just fine. The narration serves in this show to provide/heighten dramatic tension that the musical and visual ensemble then resolves. For example, the opening where the four different flags representing diversity, practice, expression, and something else start in different sections of the field and then they come together and suddenly at the big hit everybody has the same flag. Effective. The trumpet section is tremendous. The whole brassline is so good that it's just that much more effective when the drumline, behind all of them, hits you between the eyes, carrying OVER a Top 3 hornline playing full bore. As noted somewhere else, the guard had a couple of drops tonight. Maybe their hands were sweaty - it sure was hot last night. I thought that the narration blended very well, but there was a timing issue with the narration in the opener, which leads me to my critical comments on the narration. I'm sure the narration is being judged on the GE Music sheets. That's where it belongs. And Mr. Hopkins, please make sure that the narration is up to the quality of the world-class hornline, drumline, and guard you have. Make sure that the narrators (pit players, all?) BELIEVE - hah! - in what they are saying and can communicate to the audience. Their tone quality, expression, etc. is just as important and perhaps more important than the hornline playing to the end of a phrase or a drumline attacking together. The little things will be the difference from a convincing piece of music (like "Lincoln Portrait") and something that is unconvincing.

East is definitely in Allentown at least through 2008.

This is a YEA! sponsored show; they would be the ones responsible for publicity. I kept getting the postcards from them. Hershey Spectacular, as I'm sure you well know, used to be run by a local outfit, Five Star Brass, so they did much local pub. Leaving in an hour... B)

bump - it's nearly neck and neck.

I voted for the Cadets as well.

I think the idea is more that having tried to play to the crowd in 1992 and not getting any love for it, Jim Mason, the director of Star, felt that he no longer needed to try and please a crowd who was set on hating Star anyway. He felt free to explore a show design that would not be "pleasing" in the traditional sense. But I wasn't there. I'm just going by intuition and what Cook said on his site. He says "I guess it was Mason's revenge," but I don't think you get that creative a product just by thinking about how to get back at the fans.

I am also quite looking forward to seeing Bones.

Am I not correct that this will be the first time Cadets and Devs meet this season?

Well, it has been done to death...but oh well, not a problem. Why not talk about it one more time? Bill Cook's Star of Indiana Recollections (available at starofindiana.com, click on "history," click on "Star of Indiana Recollections") is the definitive online insight into this show. Read both recollections for 1992 and 1993. I will say here as a kind of teaser: Cook says that 93 was not designed to be "liked" in the traditional drum corps sense. There are certain elements in every drum corps show that every fan expects, just like there are certain elements in an episode of Law and Order, a romance novel, a quest story, a symphony, or any kind of genre you can imagine. Star 93 rearranged or flat out ignored the traditional narrative continuity of a drum corps show which did not endear them to many people. With an understanding of this and repeated viewings, I think this show has grown on many people who didn't like it when they first saw it. Big speakers also help. :)

Are you channeling Snapettes Mom?

I do indeed remember it. Were you in Glassmen that year?