hkhongkong

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/08/12...uble/index.html

I've used it in Hong Kong for the past two years and have had zero problems.

Think DCI should (and probably does) always try to get as much exposure as possible, but the activity will always remain a niche because it doesn't have the youthful antecedents as organized sports. Kids don't go out in the backyard to toss the rifle around with Dad, and you can't organize a neighborhood pick-up performance of "Malaguena." Sure, a lot of kids have experience with band (and they will always be the core market for corps) but there isn't a person alive who has matriculated through the American school system who hasn't had some personal experience with the three most popular spectator sports -- basketball, football and baseball.

Call: 1983 Garfield Cadets "Beyond Tradition" T-shirt Response: 1984 Bridgemen "Beyond Boredom" T-shirt Also love the Cadets "Are we supposed to clap now?" and "Don't worry, it will be clear in August" T-shirts I miss my Jazz ... Music of the 80s t-shirt

I keep checking the dci.org web site for the Finals wrap-up of Field Pass; when you going to give us some love (and some audio of that final score announcement) Dan? Enjoyed listening all season, but feels like a Super Bowl just happened with no post-game wrap-up.

Complaints about bad behavior on the field while drum corps veterans engage in bad behavior online. Connection? Whatever. As for me, I awoke the next day after Phantom's win wondering if it was all some strange dream. What's next? An announcement that cheap, efficient solar energy methods have been discovered, ridding the world of its dependency on petroleum? Sunni and Shiites, Israeli and Palestinians, Georgians and Russians, the Dalai Lama and the cadres in Beijing, Republicans and Democrats, all suddenly shake the scales from their eyes and ask themselves, "What was THAT all about?" And the inner troll within us all slinks off into some forgotten Web site, contained by impenetrable software walls, and spend eternity quietly tearing each other to bits safely away from the rest of the digital discourse. "To dream, the impossible dream..."

From BD blog: Signing off - Todd Tanji Nice job, fellas. Go and have some cold ones at the Bluebird.

It is cutting a fine line -- smart ### remarks are best left to we on DCP, not a site sponsored by a fellow competitor....

Glad she got that breast cancer beat...

From BD blog: BTW, Indianapolis is an amazing town. Everything is centrally located downtown. Lots of museums, shopping, etc. NCAA headquarters is there. Saw an IU music recital in the skyway. This will be a great town for DCI. Will fit right in. It's killing me to watch all this by blog and FN from Hong Kong while this is all going on in my home state. Bloomington and Indy are fantastic this time of year; to all the naysayers for Indy as a semi-permanent home for Finals, do go there and experience it once before passing judgment... Will be there next year, transPacific flight prices be ######...

1985 Cadets -- This show never gets the love I think it deserves, probably owing to coming at the end of the activity's first corps "three-peat"; 1983 was groundbreaking for the Z-pull, asymmetry and programming; 1984 did more of the same while pulling on heart strings with recognizable music. 1985's "Jeremiah Symphony" opener, to me, seems to have broken new ground and sprinted far beyond. The scatter dissolve into the opening block, the mix of time signatures, the crazy tempos and the challenging nature of the music itself prefigured the Sturm und Drang of the music in the late 1990s and today, both for good and ill effect (like Cesario recently described much of drum corps music as "the sound of screen doors slamming.") When I showed a tape of them at the time to my manager (who marched east coast drum corps in the early 70s) at the restaurant where I worked, he threw his arms at the screen in disgust and said, "That's NOT drum corps." First time I'd heard an old-timer say that, but certainly not the last. Alas. 1995 Madison -- Was there in Buffalo; only been to two finals live, and couldn't have picked a better one. 1996 Phantom Regiment -- Blew my mind when I saw it live early in the season; seeing the result on tape at finals was over the top. 1993 Star of Indiana -- A show most grew to love and admire after repeated viewings on video; just too much to absorb seeing a few times live. To me, a show where they out-Cadeted the Cadets in terms of turning the activity on its head. 2000 SCV -- Musically and emotionally the most effective total package for me. 1982 Blue Devils -- Awesome. And more awesome. The epitome of the tick-era shows. 1983 Bridgemen -- Greatest drum solo. Ever. 1994 Blue Devils -- Hell yeah. The ballad to the end is mesmerizing. 2001 SCV -- New Era Metropolis. Just love it. 1991 Phantom Regiment -- Bookended by two of their greatest tunes on the field: Nessun Dorma to open, Bacchanale to close. (Favorite in Waiting: This year's edition of Spartacus.)

1982 -- the soprano quartet (or was it a trio?) in the middle of "One More Time Chuck Corea" when the center soprano hits the octave -- he nails it with his whole body. Same with the soprano cadenza at the end of "Pegasus" 1996 -- Kristy Spears tearing up at the end of "Defiant Heart." (Quick question -- when I searched to double-check her name, I found her listed on a British Web site for British folks who have marched U.S. drum corps. Kristy is a Brit?)

I watch it from Hong Kong and never have any streaming problems, even during live events. But have pretty up-to-date equipment -- a new 24-inch iMac desktop. And broadband capacity here is quite good.

Watching FN reminds me that most of my show viewing is done via video of finals performances. Was looking up some score archives on corpsreps.com and happened upon some non-finals shows I had seen live and hadn't thought about for years. A flood of memories came back... Evansville, Aug. 9, 1982 -- Fourteen years old and the first show I ever saw. Blue Devils during their undefeated season, Garfield Cadets breaking 90 for the first time, and Bridgemen just -- being the Bridgemen. I was totally blown away and hooked for life. DCI Finals Madison 1985 -- Some great shows that I've worn out watching again and again on video, but if you had asked me walking out of the stadium the show that made the biggest impression on me that night was Suncoast Sound -- I wished "Midnight in Miami" would never end. Preview of Champions, Madison, July 27, 1991 -- Was supposed to go to this show with my college girlfriend but we had broken up just weeks before, and went alone. After SCV's ballad during the "Miss Saigon" show, I was crying real tears. I could go on and on -- curious to hear other favorite moments and times from shows seen IN PERSON.

That's true about distance -- on television or on stage, you don't have to squint to see the speaker. I didn't mention in my original post about how narration and music works on radio -- there's something about disembodied sound that draws you in to what's being said and aids imagination for a pure emotional experience, no matter the context in which you're hearing it. "Embody" the "radio" voices, and you're back to the problems that stage and screen can better solve than a production on a football field.