mr1138

I'm not sure I completely understand your point... those two things aren't mutually exclusive. When you perform in (and learn to LOVE) a show that is dark and dissonant, and others don't seem to get it, it is vindication when the judges give you credit anyway. We all knew that we had some fans out there who LOVED our show as much as we did, and we were performing for them... not for the ones who just want ear candy and are immature enough to boo when they don't get it. Yes the booing DOES motivate both show design and performance, especially when performing a show that is supposed to be dark and abrasive. But I don't agree with your choice of words... "angry and bitter," because that is such a negative attitude, and nobody I knew in BK had a negative attitude towards the situation. To know that we worked our butts off and earned what we were working for, it was really just a sense of satisfaction that the judges sided with us in the end. Nothing against Crown, who I actually really like... it just felt good to know that the fans who booed didn't get what they wanted, because they were being ridiculous and immature and quite frankly didn't deserve to!

As a member of BK 2006, I feel like stressing how true this is. We got booed when we beat Crown for 7th place at finals... Considering how much we LOVED our show, and how much DCP seemed to hate it; OH MAN did that feel good!!! ;-)

Any idea when they practice? I will only be here until July 5th so will miss the Aug performance. Hope to catch DCI instead by then! Been here 4 weeks already. Ironically I haven't even made it to the Vatican yet. Its actually a bit out of the way and all the ancient ruins (plus Architecture studio) have been keeping me quite busy! Plenty of good eats around town if you just stay away from places clearly targeted at tourists. Ate fried artichoke today in the Jewish Quarter and it was FANTASTIC!

Yeah I heard... and it is extremely sad indeed. But it's not as though there is anything inherently dangerous about Rome for Americans. Except for those dumb tourists not prepared for the heat... and man is it HOT! Feels like San Antonio the third week of July. ;-)

Well it is hot here... apparently somebody died of heat stroke at the Vatican the other day... but it's certainly no hotter than some of the days of corps tour I remember! Valuable lesson from corps: it's all about drinking lots of water!!!!

GO BK! Way to come out swinging! Greetings from Rome, Italy.

I always thought that D1/World Class basically meant that the organization has been asked to join the "club" so to speak; as the DCI Board of Directors essentially consists of the directors of each of the member corps. It isn't based so much on talent, as many of the top tier Open Class corps could probably beat the lowest tier World Class corps. Unless the upstart organization is run by a director/board of directors who'd already earned the respect of the DCI organization (as I'd imagine Bill Cook had), they sorta have to "earn their stripes" and prove their professionalism as an organization before being asked to "join the club."

Fair enough. I guess I just disagree that this show tells a story or is meant to tell a story. To me it's just "Alien Birds" and not a whole lot more. It may not be an all out JABOM/M show, but I'd say it has more of a "theme" than a "story." It certainly isn't anywhere close to as literal as something like Phantom 08, nor do I want it to be. I personally feel that if the "story" were any more prevalent than it already is, then it would cross the line from "playful" into the realm of "cheesy" and that's something I hope to NEVER see from my BK! Edit: Just to be clear, I'm not saying that all story shows are cheesy... I happen to LOVE PR 08, SCV 04, BD 97... but I absolutely feel that making too much of a story out of "alien birds" would cross the line into the cheese ball category.

Well said!

Sorta surprised nobody has mentioned it yet, but my fav. of all time is BD 03. The way it built from the initial snare solo, gradually layering in elements of the ensemble for the first min or two was absolutely BRILLIANT, and incredibly musical.

And as I pointed out above, I find it odd that somebody would object to BK of all corps doing a JABOM/M show. With the possible exception of their snow-themed show in 09, I can't think of any show of theirs in recent memory that was anything other than "just movement and music." Back when I marched we made a POINT not to muck up our shows with a "story," 2010 was definitely that way too (3 unrelated pieces of European music put together into a concert), and the only discernible "story" in last year's show was "English music." "Just a bunch of music/movement" seems to be what BK does best!

I can't claim to know what Sully was thinking or whether or not he intended there to be a story or not. I can say though, that back when I was in BK (05-08) we were PROUD to do so called "just a bunch of movement and music" shows. This isn't Broadway! Even the BEST storytelling shows (SCV 04, Phantom 08, BD 97) cannot really tell a story as well as other artistic mediums can. I personally see absolutely nothing wrong with abstract shows that don't have a particular point to make. My favorite show of all time is SCV 99, and as far as I can tell, that show wasn't trying to "tell a story" at all. The great Phantom 96 didn't seem to have a story to it either. This BK show strikes me as being meant as a playful take on a classic piece of music and nothing more. And while I can't speak for the Jetsons quote, I'm pretty sure the Star Trek thing is just a playful ode to BK 93 when they did an entire Star Trek show. You know, kinda like how Madison plays "Malaguena" every single year even if it has nothing to do with their show.

not according to that last instagram... that's definitely BK!

weird... I thought BK was on after Scouts... my bad.

No offense people, but as a BK alum... since when was "Bloo" ever used for the Knights? Either way GO MFBK!!!

lol... not sure BKs show is meant to be "deep." I tend to think of it more as being playful, with a serious moment at the end.

I think it may be best not to over-analyze the "story" too much. Like most Drum Corps shows, I think this is meant to be somewhat abstract and allow each viewer to create their own "story." That said, I think the show, as others have pointed out, is about a transformation (appropriate considering how the corps itself is transforming this season). I was not familiar with the original story of "The Firebird," but after reading the above descriptions it seems to play into what I had been envisioning. If anybody has seen Disney's Fantasia 2000, they interpret this piece of music as a sort of "mythical Mount Saint Hellens" by showing scenes of red, flaming destruction; followed by the rebirth of a beautiful lush forest landscape. I think that's the great thing about symphonic music, it allows plenty of room for re-interpretation within the very loose bounds of the original intention.

Glad to hear it. I marched with some people at BK in 05 who had been members of Revolution when it almost folded back in the early 2000s (I forget the exact year that it happened without looking it up). Their caption heads had found them spots in other corps, and I assumed the exact same thing would happen here. It is an unfortunate situation all around, but I'm glad to hear that attempts are at least being made to place some of them (not sure there are enough spots in DCI for all of them) in other corps.

I apologize if this has already been addressed (there are a lot of pages to read through), but are the kids in the corps being offered spots in other corps at this time? It seems to me that at this point something would have to be SERIOUSLY wrong with the entire Drum Corps system if every single remaining hole in DCI doesn't get filled. These kids have been training and rehearsing as long as everybody, and even if their skills aren't 100% up to par, they would make much better mid-season members of ANY corps than a true rookie (or even any Vet who hasn't been training this summer).

Just for the record about BK's synths... I could be totally wrong about this, because last night was anything but ordinary, but I was in the stadium live and am pretty sure that BK WAS using their full electronic setup. Not only did I see the equipment, but am pretty sure that I heard the "space agey" effects coming from it. What I'm getting at is that I think the fact that the synth wasn't as overwhelming as what we have seen from earlier performances may in fact be a permanent and deliberate change. Like I said, I may be wrong, and it is always possible that something either shorted out or was turned off early on in the show when the rain really started pouring, but I'm holding out hope that the design team has seen the light and really HAS backed off on it. If so, it is a MAJOR upgrade to the show, because Firebird sounds SO much classier without it.

Murfreesboro was a top 8 show in 07 and 08 and we made it both those years.

WAY TO GO BK!!! Way to make an alum proud!!!! Of course they're all working their butts off and not exactly reading DCP right now...

Apparently whoever runs http://dciscores.com/world/ reads these forums because just like that... there are all the scores thru tonight.

That is strange. I remember visiting that site several years ago and completely forgot about it. It is cool. In case you're interested, Blue Knights have a similar though slightly different feature on their website. It is updated almost as fast as scores are released usually. http://bknights.org/bknights.org/scores/standings.asp

Maybe they'll do Phantom's Nutcracker soon :)