blakman7

Yeah so I just heard the clip on the Cadets website and I got wet. If that is with horn players missing and this is only January, holy mother of whatever you believe in, they are going to be on fire. I can't wait to hear it on the field. If anyone has a longer clip, feel free to PM me.

I think that BoxingFred said it best, every corps is a contender in January. Blue Devils were a contender in 05 and look where they ended up....they went to Europe and got their heads and egos blown up by the European judging and came back to the states and got spanked. They played the crap out of a show with a very lame concept and just a 'not a winner' show. Another thing to keep in mind, a show can be awesome standing still. When you put feet to the music, things can turn very ugly. Magic 98 is a very good example. They sounded great but their feet were beyond the low end of the scale and their scores showed. I am not trying to slander any corps, just trying to bring out a point.

Hey ladies and gentlemen, There is an exercise that Phantom played this past summer that started off with a triplet check pattern and then went into 5's and then it started again but it was on a different beat. If anyone out there knows what exercise I am talking about, could you send me a PM as to what the rhythms are? Thanks.

Hey guys and gals, Does anyone know the snare solo in Phantom's 2006 show that is around a little after 2 minutes into the show. It is when the snares are playing with the pit and afterwards, the tenors have a solo. If anyone knows that solo or knows the stickings or even the rhythms, man oh man would I be your best friend. Lol. That solo is just awesome and I have to have it!! :P Thanks.

Hey The Tsar, Is that you Pilato?

I just knew that it wasn't going to be too long before Hopkins decided that he was going to pull something like this out of his rear. I hate his ideas and his "propsosals" crap. I think that he should stick to the USSBA section of the YEA organization because it is obvious that he is trying to turn drum corps into high school marching band....or should I say middle school marching band. I think that he is very unhappy with the fact that Cadets are placing 4th tonight in finals if not lower than that. I think that he wants to get rid of the talk amongst us avid DCI fans. Notice how he didn't have all of these problems in 2005 when Cadets were taking every caption at finals. Little ironic to me. Those 'prop folk' could be used in a section of the drum corps or a volunteer as equipment manager or kitchen staff to keep those hard working kids going throughout the day. I think that he is full of himself and his organization and that he just has on a poopy face about the outcome of this summers competitions. Poor George.....if there were a crybaby smilie on this forum, I would insert it here.

No offense but I think that this poll is ridiculous and a waste of my viewing pleasure. Can I get the 5 seconds that I took reading it of my life back?

I think that it will be close but it is entirely possible

Hate to disagree but I don't think that the Cadets will be hitting 97 this year. 94 or 95? Yes.

Yeah I defintely think that Cadets will be passing Bluecoats rather soon but I don't think that Phantom is going to pass Blue Devils.

I can guarantee you that SCV won't be beat Cadets. Correct me if I am not wrong and this is totally off the subject but isn't George Hopkins on the board of DCI?

DCI Semifinals 1998. I haven't been the same since and the volume put permanent dents in my flesh.

Anyone wanna tell me what exactly the bottle dance is?

Mine would have to be Rod Owens and his wife Kim. They are great people. They were a huge part of a great experience during my time on the field.

1993 Star of Indiana 2004 Santa Clara Vanguard 1997 Cadets 1998 Cadets 2001 Glassmen

Hello all, I know that this is pretty late in the season to be bringing up this topic but I think that not enough people are understanding what they are doing with this year's production. I have recently seen the Cadets show from Massillon,OH. I must say that after hearing all of the talk on this site about the Cadets, I was a little impressed by them. Not impressed enough to think that they are going to pull some last minute DCI upset and win but I was impressed. By adding in the twilight zone melody, Cadets show that this show is still about dreams, the mind and imagination. The 2005 show was entitled "Dreamscapes in Four Parts with a Door" and the 2006 show is entitled "Beyond The Looking Glass" and the connection is starting to become a little more clear. For all who don't know, the 2006 production is still supposed to be taking place in a dream state of mind and what may happen in those dreams. I mean come on, who dreams about tea parties, red devils, mirroring effects and people flying off of pink tables on a daily or even monthly basis? I know that I don't. I know that if I hear about or see people jumping off of pink tables, I say to myself "am I dreaming?What the ####?" This is the same effect that the design team at Cadets is going for from what I get from it. The new beginning in of the show in my opinion is very, I repeat....VERY effective. And pretty loud too. b**bs. I like it a lot better than the history repeating opening that they had a few weeks ago. The new beginning shows that the show is more of a part dos to last year. For all who aren't familiar with the term....'dos' is spanish for 'two' :P It brings back a lot of last year and I think that it gives the audience more of a perspective of where they are coming from. Even though the history repeating opening that they once had is supposed to be a flashback of last years show, I think that this new opening gives the audience more of a "deja vu" effect. The music is similiar but not same. Just similiar enough make one seem as if the same show is taking place again. Anyone who has had deja vu before can tell you that when it happens, you feel as if you have been in that situation before but then after a while things go back to normal. After the Kill Bill section of the opening, things go back to normal....or do they? In this show, after the deja vu of last year, things are still in the dream state of mind. In my opinion, "The Garden" (name of the main opener after the Kill Bill reprise) is very "trippy", just like their uniforms and the backdrops in the backfield. The uniform backs and backdrops go perfectly with what the Cadets are trying to get across. Think about it, those uniform backs are like 70's hippies trippin on acid and hallucinating. That isn't an insult to hippies, I love hippies. :P But seriously, it all makes sense. Is it weird? To some maybe. Is it out there? #### yeah it's out there. I guess that's the "pushing of the envelope" talking. You know what kills me is that when Cadets played the history repeating production of the show, so many people complained about it. People complained that the lyrics couldn't be heard, people complained that it was ineffective, people complained that it was a weak opening and that it didn't connect to what happens next. Whatever a complaint could be about what the Cadets were doing in the beginning of their show, you name it, it was said. Now that the opening has changed drastically, what do people do about it? They continue to complain complain and more complain. Let's make up our minds people. I can't see anyone in their right mind saying that the new beginning is ineffective. It is in my opinion the best choice that could have been displayed to start a sequel to a previous production. The drum feature is hard folks. Let's be serious. I think that any percussionist can attest to that. It is rudimentally hard. There are a ton of notes that have to be played clean and it is just not clean yet. Will it be clean? I think so. The drumline is so sick that it isn't even funny. Practice makes consistent, not perfect. No one will ever have a perfect performance no matter what profession one is in. The drum feature in time will get to where it needs to be, that time is just not now. The ballad........well the ballad is the ballad. It is beautiful, warm and lush. A very good selection for displaying good brass. It shows that all brass can sound amazing. This is going to be my only bashing in this thread. I think that the use of a singer is completely ridiculous and below the "drum" and "bugle" corps principle. Does the singer sing well, you better believe she does. She sounds amazing and has a very powerful voice but folks, drum corps is not a broadway show. That is what Blast is for. Amplification in the pit is effective because the pit is often buried by the brass and battery. The pit provides a ton of musicality to the whole drum corps, even the colorguard. Not a fan of a singer stealing a drum corps production. Like I said, she sounds great but could have been one more brass or guard member. (The drumline is already huge....10 snares, 6 tenors, 5 basses.............well I think it is 9 snares now) The singer's part could've easily been written into the pit or hornline. Even a duet would've surficed. Enough bashing for me. The end of the show is great. The new ending is very effective as well and holds firm ground to how a part dos of last years show should be. Especially with the loud ending which I am a fan of. In the ending, the theme from Kill Bill is repeated, a part of the production entitled "liquid" from the 2005 show is in there, and some of Madea is in there. It is a basic recap of this years show and last years show, I feel that this is great. Is the execution quite there, absolutely not. We all know how Cadets do it, they usually push at the end of the season. Like I said, do I think that they will win? No but I do feel that they will make some credible improvement before August 12th rolls around. Whatever the score or placement is for the Cadets this year, they are still going to play the #### out of their show. Some people will love it, some will hate it. That is already evident. But the point is is that those kids are playing to the best of their ability and the staff is pushing them to perform and are also trying to make their production the best that it can be. An example of this is Stat of Indiana 1993. Many people as I do feel that that show was one of the best shows that DCI has ever been offered but where did they place? 2nd. Santa Clara Vanguard 1998 played the absolute crap out of their show and still came in 2nd. Now this is not a bash to those corps who won that year but is an example of what scores and placements mean. They mean nothing but a ring because just like with the president elections.......whoever wins, someone is going to be upset about it because they were going for someone else. Sorry folks, it happens. I hope that there is someone out there who agrees with me or even partly agrees with me. Please leave your comments whether they are negative or positive towards my thoughts.

rnk corps last pred diff rate 1 BDEVILS 92.75 94.85 2.10 0.45 2 CAVIES 92.00 94.00 2.00 0.42 3 PHANTOM 91.05 93.05 2.00 0.47 4 BLUECTS 90.85 92.20 1.35 0.42 5 CADETS 91.10 90.95 -0.15 0.34 6 SCV 88.70 88.60 -0.10 0.42 7 CROWN 87.45 87.90 0.45 0.39 8 BAC 85.65 86.80 1.15 0.35 9 BKNIGHT 85.50 86.65 1.15 0.39 10 MADISON 85.45 86.30 0.85 0.35 11 GLASSMN 85.15 84.90 -0.25 0.31 12 SPIRIT 83.35 84.20 0.85 0.43 I am going to take a stab at top 12: 1) Cavaliers 95.25 2) Blue Devils 94.75 3) Phantom Regiment 93.85 4) Cadets 92.20 5) Bluecoats 92.0 6) Santa Clara Vanguard 89.1 7) Carolina Crown 89.0 8) Boston Crusaders 87.85 9) Madison Scouts 87.5 10) Blue Knights 87.35 11) Spirit 85.5 12) Glassmen 85.35

1) Cavaliers 93.65 2) Blue Devils 93.15 3) Phantom Regiment 92.8 4) Cadets 92.55 5) Bluecoats 91.95 6) Santa Clara Vanguard 89.0 7) Carolina Crown 88.85 8) Madison Scouts 86.4

Definetely Cadets 2006 or BD 1995 IMO

Unfortunately, I have it. It is a blessing as well as a curse. Why do you ask?

Just so no one takes my post the wrong way, I am simply saying that you shoud go where you think you would fit best and have a great time. I am not slandering any corps out there because every corps, no matter what they place, is a great corps in some aspect.

This might sound stupid but it does make some sense....go to Cadets. Yes they work their butts off like there is no tomorrow. Yes Hopkins does tend to make things shall I say "childish and bando" but I think that this year will honestly have Hopkins scratching his head and wanting to lean towards more of what 'drum' and 'bugle' corps was and maybe should be. Cadets is a GREAT drum corps and this year is a bit of a bummer for them but the staff there is great and the organization is great. Don't let this years outcome stop you. If you play drums....Aungst is AMAZING. If you play brass.....Gino Cipriani is UNBELIEVABLE. I have marched under Gino for two years and I had the best brass experience that I could ask for. Every corps out there has its ups and downs. If you like a group who acts like their crap doesn't stink, go to Blue Devils. If you like a group who is always looked at as the favored corps and full of guys, go to Cavaliers. If you like a group that is looked at as 'not so good', go to a non finalist corps. Go to where you think you would have an unbelievable experience and where you think you will make some unforgetable friends. Don't be a ringchaser. This activity is predictable yet very unpredictable at times. Do you think that the kids at Cadets are hating it right now? I don't think so. They went there to march and have a great time and I guarantee they are doing just that despite what is happening to them right now. Do you think that the kids at SCV hated it last year? Absolutely not because in the end, they are considered a part of the Vanguard family. Follow your heart and if your pocket won't allow it, it wasn't meant to be. I marched Magic of Orlando from 01(micro magic), 02 and 03. Look at them now, they aren't what people would call great and we weren't 'great' when I marched either but I made some friends that will always be a part of me and I had a great time with great staff. I hope that this was some help to you.

I gotta give it to you, that was the smartest and most well said thing that I have read about the activity this season. Major points on your post.

LOL. I will wait if you say so. Yeah I know I am being a kid about this but I am just so eager to see it since I haven't seen a good ending drill from Cadets since 1999......well no.....2001 was pretty sweet too.

Are the new forms actually pretty cool or are they just cheap variations of the ending drill from last year which was the ending drill for this year for a while?