cfirwin3

Yeah... I don’t think I'm saying that. If it SOUNDS safe, then it sounds safe. The show sounds safe, IMO. Technical passages are exciting, interesting, impressive and fun in the same way that high velocity drill increases value for spectators.

Shot in the dark? Or do you see some evidence of a decline? It's one thing to say that they may not win... but it's another to say they will be out of contention. Seems to me that would require a decline of some sort as they are almost always in contention due to performance scores alone.

I think you are spot on with this. There is some solid material in there with that competitive spark of difficulty... but there are an awful lot of sustained chord progressions and minimalist/layered ostinato patterns saturating the program. The Cavaliers nailed down a lot of historical wins with that kind of approach, and even the Bluecoats have had some success with it... but with Crown, Boston, Blue Devils, etc. out there, Bloo needs to bring the heat with respect to showy/flashy musical features that don't defer too much weight to electronic soloists. We need more scale patterns and runs. They would go a long way to write in some more Mello runs on the sustained sections and add a few trumpet embellishments. It shouldn't be hard to do... I hope someone from Bloo takes notice. With the great visual design on top of their GE, I would hate to see music suffer due to a minor lack of competitive content.

There still is. There have never been more corps (since very early in DCI) that can field a winning program than we have right now. It's just that a few of them are more consistent at getting the mix just right. I think that fans just talk in terms of the contending field year to year and it creates the impression of some great superiority. Was it 2009 where 8 corps had all won 1st over every other corps either directly or by competitive comparison? Groups have only gotten more proficient and talented since then.

That sounds more like what I would expect them to discuss on the air... and it is the reality.

Oh my. I had never heard about that one.

I would also suggest that the potential competitive group is much larger than 3 (it's more like 7 or 8). The issue in a particular season comes down to design. You gotta dance with the one that brung ya, and there's only so much alteration that groups can make before something is improved into a failure (there was a string of Cadet shows like that not too long ago, Crown 2014, Bluecoats 2018 etc.) You can have all the resources and just get locked out by design concepts, in fact that's most of the championship game every year.

Oooo. Talk about saying the quiet part out loud. Can anyone confirm that commentary? To play Devil's advocate (pun partly intended), there is a reality to that assertion that doesn't necessarily violate the ability that corps have to be competitive. The issue is that if THIS is how it was put into words... it was a bad choice of words for this particular audience. But truth be told, the older I get, the more this whole thing becomes like "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"... where everything is made up and the points don't matter.

People have been saying things like "playing to the sheets" since forever. It's all nonsense (much like the accusation about spending money on props and electronics). The fact is that pretty much any two of the contending groups could swap material at spring training and nail down the show just as well. None of these groups is significantly better at anything than the rest. Aesthetics, style and concept is what differentiates the field, and there is no template or cookie cutter design to follow. Far more high entertaining shows have won championships than not. Folks that say that they can spot the significant differences between 10ths of a point are fooling themselves.

For vocals... blame the Cadets. That one is entirely their fault, long, long before Crown's fairly tasteful use of the technique in the early 2010s. Ugly uniforms that change with the tide... blame Star of Indiana.

I have never blamed BD for anything. I was using their competitive design as a comparison. I loved BD long before I became a Bluecoat and they have always been and still are the ones to beat. My point is that the Bloo program is closer to the Devils approach to design than it is to themselves. I can't recall anything musically about the program after the first viewing. I can recall THAT there were moments of high writing and execution, but nothing sticks in my mind apart from the novel group visuals. All of that is fairly unBluecoat. As I said before, it's all quite imaginative, but it's less characteristic to the tried and true mission to rope in the audience, all the time, at all cost... to send them away with the show deeply etched in their minds. It's very Blue Devils. Just don't group me in with folks that don't like the Blue Devils. I'm happy any time that they win. It's not 'bad'.... look at the recap! To do as well as they did visually against Boston... it's a very Blue Devils show (Bloo needed to up their visual game). I will be curious to see how they manage with Crown (and BD, Vanguard) musically.

I am a Bluecoat. Don't take me for anything but a fair critic. This show is not like anything they have ever done before, and it tracks closely with the contemporary Blue Devil aesthetic. Pretty sure that I'm not saying anything that is remotely controversial or contrary to fair observation. On another note, you may know of the Slurpee tumor by another name, "brain freeze" or "ice cream headache".

That's the most whacked Bloo show to date... by a long shot. This might be the only real commentary that I will have time to give this year, as life is crazy busy lately. But jeepers. This program is like a Slurpee tumor immediately following a jalapeño sinus cleansing. If they cram in some more brass features and a couple more visual impacts near the end... then they very well may take BD on their own terms of gratuitous exhibition of pretentious BS. I hope my Coats pull it out, but the aesthetics are a bit off the mother ship for me. Killer execution and imagination though.

Ehh... People talkin'... talking 'bout people. But yes, holding off announcements is a top rate flame retardant.

Hmm... Not sure I care about this one all that much. I'm definitely looking forward to some good 'filler' drumcorps this season while things crank up again for the following year. This just feels so much like the SCV Phantom of the Opera back to back shtick in the late 80's. A sort of... "well let's try that again" sort of move. Obviously this is not the same thing, but it just has that vibe. And to be honest, they pretty well maxed out as much Beatles as I think I want to see in drumcorps in '19. Was hoping for something more 'cute' in a different direction. Perhaps they payed big for Beatles rights and they want to make good on the investment? I will reserve any hard judgment though. My Bluecoats have never failed to surprise me.

Yep.

Just putting this out there. I know that some personalities on here are currently in contact with and participating with the corps. If the leadership of the corps is looking to 'broaden' the idiom with rules changes and new instrument allowances... Please do so by proposing a new division of competitive ensemble and not by proposing divisive changes to the current (albeit stretched) idiom of drum and bugle corps. The Drum and bugle corps idiom is not broken... nor is it outdated... nor does it need to be disbanded. There are no ethical faults in the existence of instrument exclusive ensembles. We need not force organizations to 'catch up' to our ideals by successfully passing highly divisive radical changes. Sometimes being innovative means being more clever than all the others with what one has. Anyone can just add more stuff... that's not necessarily innovative or clever. I hope Bloo doesn't fall into that type of self serving and isolating naivete. And with that... I'm excited to see what Bloo has to bring to the field in 2020. But if my assumptions serve me correctly (and they may not), I find myself unimpressed by what Bloo may have been putting on the 'field' today. Innovation within an idiom is infinite. If we can't see the possibilities, then we aren't thinking hard enough. Just some thoughts from an alumnus, fan, supporter and friend.

That's unfortunate. The proposal, not the failure. It's naive... not considering the greater consequences.

If it's secret ballot then we won't know who supports/opposes it unless voting members make statements. Just would like to know which organizations are on board with this direction. The instructors caucus doesn't really mean much because there is a tactic to voting passage for a proposal in order to deliver a clear defeat in the final vote.

Anyone have the vote tally? That kinda matters for the future.

Work with me here. Work with me.

Violas at carry. 😇

Ultimately, it's a likely outcome in the long run that there will be a split among organizations over this issue (on top of others). A D&B division will emerge somewhere.

Just thinking into the future here... I'm pretty sure that the first time that I see flutes pop to the press box... I will throw up in my mouth a little. Pretty sure.

I agree. If DCI wants 'inclusion' (again it's a false narrative), there is no reason why they can't essentially have a Field Band division.