prophet

Regardless, I think it would kind of stink sending only two corps home, too...

I'd rather have Peyton at this point than Tom Brady...

Boston's new black shirts with the giant Waldo on them were probably the best looking shirts I saw. Something about that red on black looks really sharp.

I would love to see Phantom do a Wagner show.

Sure, but what I mean is that the players on the Mavericks or any other pro sports team always have their contract and will get paid LOTS of money regardless of how the season ends. If they lose, oh well, too bad too sad, now let me go back to my giant california mansion and enjoy a life of luxury. Heck, it's their job. That's why they're called "professionals." I think another reason it might be different is that we all know what the members of a drum corps go through... They rehearse from sun-up to sun-down just about every day, live on coach buses, sleep on gym floors. Anyone that makes that kind of a commitment, (and PAYS for it) doesn't deserve to be bashed, especially by the fans who have gone through it themselves. But yeah, respectful and constructive criticism is fine and should probably be appreciated. I'm just thinking coming out with it and saying "corps X sucks" or something to that effect.

Your comparison to professional sports franchises is pretty unfair, seeing how the players get paid millions of dollars every year whether they win or not.

I think judging by reputation is more of a subconscious thing than a conscious choice. As humans, we are predisposed to like something if we expect to like it before experiencing it. Judges are obviously going to expect corps that have been historically excellent to be that way. On the other hand, if a corps has been at the back of the pack for a very long time, then the judge will probably expect the show to be sub-par (for lack of a better term) and notice errors more because he/she is looking for them just a bit more carefully. I'm not a judge and never have been, so I can't say for sure, but that's always been my opinion on it. And really, in the end there's no harm done, because who out there does drum corps just to get a high score? So I can live with it... if it does exist, that is.

Yeah, I'm sure the whole discipline, focus, and precision aspect of marching band is pretty much tailor-made for Japan. It's amazing how great you can be at marching activities just with that extra dose of effort!

Almost verbatim what I was planning to say.

I have to drink my own sweat and feast on the mushrooms that grow on the field.

I actually really like this idea. I think it would give a more sentimental and mysterious quality, and a less preachy one. It would be cool to just have the girl discussing her mother's life in little snippets and anecdotes, nothing too rambling that would steer attention away from the corps members performing on the field, followed by the music and movement to represent that part of the woman's life story. I think it could work well. What a great idea! Maybe you should drop Mr. Hopkins an email... Who knows?

To build off of this, I think one of the biggest issues with this year's show is that it's simply not believable in the context of a drum corps performance. When I saw it, I could not help but be amused by the way they try to sell a girl young enough for junior corps as a middle-aged breast cancer survivor... This can be accomplished in a stage production simply because stage shows last a long time and give the audience time to be won over by an actor/actress. There is dialog, there is movement, there are specific traits that the performer demonstrates that help build a vision of this character over the course of the show. In this case, we have a girl that simply sits in a chair on a set and speaks about her life. Quite simply, the character is poorly defined... We only know her story, not her personality. And as such, I certainly don't believe it, and certainly don't want to take the time to believe it. I would guess that the audience would prefer to focus their attention on the great music and drill the Cadets bring to the field. Unfortunately, that immediately makes the story and narration aspect of the show a failure, and in a show that is built to present these qualities... Well, you catch my drift. It's just the wrong medium for this kind of thing.

I honestly don't think it's the narration in general that makes a show suck, it's the manner and extent to which it is used. Many world class corps have thrown vocal lines into their shows here and there in the past few years, and they certainly don't cause a show to instantly be labeled as "sucky." The problem with the Cadets narration is that it is written and acted in a way that sounds contrived and ineffective, and is the centerpiece of their shows (whether this is intentional or not, I don't know, but that's how it ends up happening).

Excellent video, and I think it reveals a lot about what the corps is trying to accomplish. So George Hopkins' view is that a drum corps show should tell a story. Well, that's cool, and we have seen shows that really have told a story, by using the music, drill, and color guard... The options that are the foundation of a drum corps show. I think where his vision becomes volatile is when he starts delving into stories that are a bit too sophisticated to tell without the use of voice. Unfortunately, the voice in his recent shows tend to upstage the actions of the rest of the corps, which is truly what we, as fans, pay to see. That's where the Cadets run into trouble. It's not theater, where the people and the characters and the story are the main concerns... It's drum corps, where the music and visual augmentation of the music are what form the fundamental entertainment value of a show. I respect Mr. Hopkins for trying to push the envelope, but by upstaging the basic points of a drum corps show with ineffective and uninteresting narration, it's only hurting the Cadets in terms of entertaining an audience.

Allow me to be blunt. As a newer fan, I have to say that this is definitely a true statement. It does not reflect very well on the older drum corps when all you seem to see on DCP is a bunch of grumpy old-timers whining about the Cadets narration (for the record, I could do without it, but don't take it as a sign of the apocalyplse) and the supposed awful state the activity is currently in. It's the same kind of thing as the stereotypical grandparent muttering about "kids these days" and the problems with society compared to "back in the day." I'm sure back in the 70's when many DCP members marched there were things wrong with the activity that the old-timers THEN were complaining about. Things change with the times, and human nature is to resist change. I for one enjoy the shows of the modern era. They are an incredible barrage of "HOLYCRAP HOWDIDTHEYDOTHAT" jaw-dropper moments that don't exist in any other activity on the planet. DCI isn't going anywhere. If anything, I see it going up.