BDContraBlaine

Thanks.

Are the step-off times listed on dci.org Pacific Time?

If I ever find out who yelled "Frank is an American ######" in the middle of my ballad in 2000, I'm going to kick him in the nuts. I'm so sick of hearing that on the recording. Whenever I played the recording for friends and family, I always got asked "what was that guy yelling?" If your going to yell something in the middle of someone's performance, have some taste.

That is not something you say to someone immediately after beating them. Do you remember who won the next year? It wasn't the Cavaliers.

You have a funny way of showing respect.

I marched BD in 2001 and I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm sure whatever happened, it was because the Blue Devils organization is completely classless and not because a few people made a bad judgement call in the heat of the moment.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying. You're basically restating my point. I know they're just kids and sometimes kids can be jerks. But I would never say that the Cavaliers are a classless organization just because of my experiences with a few people. That's why it offends me to hear people say that the Devs are classless because of a few bad experiences. There are a lot of amazing people involved with the Blue Devils that I have the utmost respect for; including staff, members, volunteers, and everyone in between. I apologize if any of you have ever been offended by a BD FMM or a fan, but please do not condemn our entire organization because of the mistakes of the few.

I have wondered about this myself. Because lately, it seems like more and more people hate the Blue Devils. I would love for someone to explain to me why that is. They haven't exactly been dominating with only one title in the last 7 tries, as opposed to five by the Cavies. Those of you claiming that the Cavies are always the epitome of class, are making a broad generalization that is not based on fact. Every corps is guilty of classless behavior here and there, yes even the beloved Cavaliers. I'll give you two examples. There was a group of kids decked out in Cavies apparel sitting next to my wife and I in the stands at Finals Saturday night. All I heard all night was how boring and talent-less BD and Phantom were and how superior the Cavies were to everyone else on the field. They said all this loud and clear right next to me, as I sat there with my BD member jacket on. The Cavies are bringing new fans to the activity with their innovation, but it just seems to me that most of these "new" fans tend to be Cavie fans ONLY and could care less about any other corps. And they love to talk trash even though they've never marched anywhere but their high school band. My other example of classless behavior comes from an actual marching member of the Cavies. In 2002, immediately after the awards ceremony, a friend of mine and I went over to congratulate a Cavie standing nearby. His response was "Thanks. You know we only have a few age-outs so we're going to be even better next year!" Now, all this being said, I don't by any means believe that all Cavies and Cavie fans act this way. Like I said, every corps is going to have it's own fair share of goobers. But to say that the Cavies are not hated because they have class is not fair to the other corps. I would say that all the other corps have shown a lot of dignity in being shallacked by the Cavies for the last 7 years. Wouldn't you all agree? Now others have said that the Cavliers are not hated because they always have entertaining shows. While most would agree with you, you cannot speak for the masses. Whether or not someone finds a show entertaining is a personal opinion and a matter of taste. People who don't like jazz generally find BD shows boring and people who don't like classical music generally find Phantom shows boring. It's all a matter of opinion. Me personally? I have never seen a BD show or a Phantom show to be boring. Believe it or not, some people actually find the Cavies to be boring every once in a while. In fact, before the year 2000, a lot of people felt that way. I actually find Cavie shows to be very entertaining. Some might think this odd but my favorite Cavie show was 1997 when they played Firebird. The more modern Cavie shows I find very entertaining as well, but I often find myself wondering what qualities the fans are really enjoying. As I observed the crowd reaction Saturday night, I found that a good chunk of the crowd reactions came from, dare I say it, gimmicks. I hate to use that word because I mean no disrespect by it, but it's the best word I could come up with. These gimmicks that I'm referring to are the syncronized head and arm movements, and other choreographed movements that don't involve actual marching and playing. This stuff just doesn't do it for me. These are things that you could teach any schmoe off the street to do. This is an extremely talented drum corps, easily the most talented corps over the last 5 years. I would much rather see the design team really take advantage of all that talent and really push those guys to do something great. I suppose I should hate the Cavies because they kept me from getting a ring, but I just can't. They're good at what they do and it's fun to watch. I did go through bouts of bitterness after aging out in '01. I was just frustrated that we were able to win 3 captions while Cavies won only GE, but by such a large margin that it was enough to give them the title. But, I've made my peace with that since then. The Cavaliers are great and there's no denying it. If they could get rid of the gimmicks and replace them with some more substance, it's scary to think how good they could be.

I don't know which shows the original poster saw, but I absolutely loved the shows. There is one exception that I'll explain below. Spirit: Extremely enjoyable show. Loved the tributes to the Spirit of old. Excellently performed. Probably the best 12th place show I've ever seen. Light years better than the 12th place show that I marched in back in '97. Glassmen: WOW. Never been more entertained by a Glassmen show. One of my favorites of the evening. Boston: Not my favorite BAC show by any means, but still very enjoyable and the kids definitely made the most out of it. The music sounded great. Could have done without the props, but they weren't as distracting as some props tend to be. Scouts: Not quite the type of show we would expect from the Scouts, but they definitely performed the heck out of it. I found myself humming parts of their show all week. Crown: Never have I been more proud to be a Crown alum than I was watching this corps. Everything from the show design to the kids performance was top notch. I know there were some great groups ahead of Crown, but I can't help but think that they got the biggest shaft job of the night from the judges. Just seemed too great to be an 8th place show. In my opinion, they deserved at least top 6. Blue Knights: Best I've ever seen from BK. My only complaint, is that the staff has abandoned their identity in favor of trying to be too much like the Cavaliers. It is possible to field a great corps without copying the Cavies. SCV: Didn't expect them to drop a spot. If anything I thought they would jump another spot. They just seemed to get stronger and stronger as the summer went on. SCV always has an intensity and a personality that I can't get enough of. I have never been disappointed in a Vanguard show and that certainly didn't change this year. Cadets: Show design aside, the kids had a great performance. They performed the heck out of the show that was given to them. That being said, I have to admit I didn't like the show design at all. I love the fact that the Cadets want to be cutting edge and want to improve the activity, but I think their design team is leading the corps down the wrong path. During their performance, I honestly felt embarrassed for the kids. They got practically no reaction from the crowd. With the exception of a small contingent of devoted Cadets fans, you could hear crickets throughout most of the show it was so quiet. Bloooooooocoats: I would give this corps the award for most improved over the last 5 years. Their design team keeps cranking out entertaining shows every year and the corps just sounds better and better every year. Congrats to them on their highest placement ever. Keep up the good work! Blue Devils: My favorite show of the evening (tied with Phantom). A perfect mixture of precision and emotion. So many subtle qualities that with each viewing, I discovered something new that left me in awe. An instant classic. Right up there with my other favorite BD shows: 76, 80, 92, 94, 96, 97, 03, etc. Phantom: My other favorite show of the evening. If I had to pick one show for the Devs to lose to, (of course my best scenerio is always BD winning!) it would have to be Phantom's show this year. And sorry Cavies, but Phantom should have claimed the Jim Ott award. Flawless performance from the hornline. Cavaliers: Great visual design as usual. It certainly kept the crowd engaged. However I did find the show lacking, musically. This is of course only my opinion, and an admittedly biased opinion at that. I don't mean this as any discredit to the performers because I think we all know how talented they are. I just don't think the designers gave them music that could properly take advantage of such a talented hornline. However, I still believe that it was a championship show and have no reason to disagree with them winning. But in my mind, Phantom or BD could have won just as easily. I think the spread between the top 3 should have been smaller. These were 3 amazing shows.

This is exciting news, but I'm no too sure I like the idea of Finals being in the same place for 10 years in a row.

No trip to Madison would be complete without a trip to the Essen Haus!! One of a kind atmosphere. All the waiters wear lederhosen, they have live polka bands on weekends, and delicious German BEER! :mmm: You can even drink your beer from a 2 liter glass boot if you choose! If you do, be sure to share the boot with the rest of your table. I don't recommend drinking one of those all by yourself.

I can't decide. When I first saw the stripe in pictures, I hated it. Now, it's kinda growing on me. I'm pretty partial to the uniform that I wore, but I'll reserve my judgement until I finally get to see them live this week in Madison.

What a great example to set for your kid. Hope their attitude is better than yours. Looks like your an LSU fan, so I guess I'm not that surprised. May the best corps win. Go BD.