comeonfhqwhgads

Hatred is of course too strong of a word to use for this, but I will have to respectfully disagree. There are two corps in particular that I had personal experiences with while marching in another corps 08-09 that have colored my opinions. Corps A- Their bass line got in a fist fight in the parking lot after the Normal show. With each other. The percussion caption head separated them by putting one in a choke hold. At a later tour stop, I encountered a dozen or so members of their hornline in a convenience store post-show. Several members were obviously down- I thought maybe tourflu or soemthing. To my growing horror the rest of the horns proceeded to basically just trashtalk the guys who were looking down, ripping into them about missing some new body work. Gossip about who's been ticking is nothing new, but I've never seen it done to anyone's face other than incredibly politely- usually you just let the vis tech deal with it or they figure it out. This was downright verbal abuse. Any organization that allows or circumstantially encourages stuff like this is on my blacklist for life. Putting your members in a pressure cooker is not acceptable. Corps B- Not nearly as frightening as the other group, but still a serious competitive etiquette grievance. A little buzzed during retreat is too buzzed. Nobody likes dealing with a drunk. Relatively sure this was just a few individuals and probably limited to one year, but the memory sticks, you know? As for the BD "FYWW" thing, hell, the just exude that. They don't say it because they don't need to. Far too busy pushing themselves farther than anyone thought possible to worry about what you think of them, anyway.

85.8? THE ####?

That's just BD and their incense.

look, normally I'd just blow that off- your opinion, your choice, so be it. Doesn't exactly give a good impression of the non-partisanship of the moderation though. Of course we're all well aware that DCP is a terrible medium for unbiased discussion anyway, bu the staff could at least maintain a pretense, huh?

No one was saying it did. Conveying the themes of a work is different than retelling it.

wow has no one ever read, or seen metropolis? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%28film%29 Theo Von Harbeau? Fritz Lang? ...anybody? and you call yourselves old school.

read that as "cadavers"

Sir, your argument is self-contradictory. You state that the individual corps members have little say as to the arrangement (both visual and musical) of their performance, which is quite accurate. You then go on to say that you can't sing anything they play and that this equates bad musicianship. If I may be so bold, I would venture that you haven't been to I&E lately, where the members play things they have individually prepared and musicianship is patently obvious, even judged upon. "Don't feed me a line of BSH_t about musicianship" when 148/150 of any world class corps membership has been through a high school and college music program. How many music majors marched '83 Madison? My respect for '83 Madison comes from the fact that they sound so good with so little prior training and despite their equipment. Your respect for '10 Madison should come from the fact that they sound so good with so little popular influence to draw from and despite their arrangers.

Oh dear. Serious blow for Gmen tonight. Going into Denver being ranked in a lower group than you are used to will be a challenge- although the past two years have seen the Glassmen repeatedly in the company of corps they end up beating by two or three places come august... Honestly, I just think they're better than last year by a good margin and it would royally suck if they aren't rewarded for that improvement. Not just for the members, but for supporters and potential members... who wants to join a corps that is being leapfrogged? I don't put a whole lot of faith in the actual numbers coming into regionals- judges have to squeeze everyone in there somehow- but the gap between G and BK is telling. To be six-pointed by the corps they handily beat last year is just depressing. Kudos to BK for their massive jump, of course, but

In keeping with the usual standard or perfection that we all strive for in corps you should aim for a 0.00 minute mile something better to look at might be local 5k races. I don't know a whole lot about what sort of numbers you should aim for but under 1/2 hour for a 5k seems to indicate good general fitness and endurance. I can not emphasize enough that any gym-hitting you plan on doing happens sooner rather than later. If you don't start getting in shape for corps until you show up for move-ins you are not going to enjoy the summer as much and will constantly wish you had given yourself a better chance to succeed. also: obviously you can't change your height, and having shorter legs might make things dicey. (I've heard rumors that when possible, good drillwriters will put shorter people on the outsides of pinwheels to make it look like the whole corps is moving faster [the same way the cavaliers "extended step size" footwork works for them]) However- good is good. Obviously the Cadets had no problem with their center snare in '05. If you can prove to the audition staff that you can look just as good, well hey, you look just as good, and proved that you're willing to work harder to get there. One further note on the height-difference thing: I used to stand next to a rather diminutive brass player who often had to hold her bell higher than the reccomended angle to see well in horn arc. It usually wasn't very noticeable, but occasionally I would get a few words from the staff for having a horn angle that low compared to the member next to me.

I'm referencing the final set of the show from (i think) allentown onwards. the name is the only redeeming quality

interesting recaps. Scouts are better in music GE over several shows and different judges, and Glassmen appear to still be having some different interpretations of where the downbeat is >.< Gmen have a massively improved visual design package compared to last year's, and seem to have put in the effort to keep the execution high. The glassmen batter is mostly rookies, if I'm not mistaken- I'm relatively sure the entire bassline is. If they can get on the same page as the brassline (who are on an upward swing after three years of the same caption head-see volume for details ) then the ensemble issues should clear up. The GCG are always a solid bunch, but they were edged out by Madison in 08. Considering that guard was the only reason Madison beat Gmen in the Vis Total caption, I think that unless either corps has some serious changes in mind down the road the Glassmen hold the cards here. When/if they clean up their ensemble tears their music and music GE will go up- probably not enough to clear madison in those captions, but enough to help the totals. Without a drill rewrite madison won't have enough visual punch to top a cleaner Glassmen late-season, particularly if the CGC repeats last years showing. I really hope this duel stays close and the two of them move up over BK- I would hate to see one of these two miss finals by a few tenths. Madison have already shown they're committed to a comeback, and the Glassmen are notably improved over last year, which was notably improved over 08- it'd just be a real gutpunch to see them fall back a place with so much improvement.

actually nope, it was just as terrible as it looked. 08 members tend to refer to that set as "grandma's teeth". that said uniform heights are great and do look better. Yes, people are cut for weighing too much or looking like they have some physical incapability to keep up with the visual and fitness demands of tour. However, I believe what is more often the case is that the rigors of the top few corps attract people who are already excellent specimens. If you are 240 and 5'5" you probably know better than to sign up for the Cadets. if you are 240 and 6'6", the cadets PT program will have you down to 200 by august. There are relatively large people in Spirit or Teal Sound because they can still keep up, although it may be very difficult. It just isn't possible for overweight members to march BD, Cadets, and Crown, so they don't. They know it, the staff knows it. The Cadets are more likely to take on a third sop who isn't the hottest player but can handle their program than a 240lb, 5'5" lead bari with mad chops and a twelve-minute mile.

Wait, isn't that the trooper's equipment truck?

they won't drop, just stagnate. you'll see three-night spreads of 80.25, 80.3, and 81.75

I thought the Scouts were already in front of Gmen?

no no, that was last year's g-men show

Ah, Clinton Prairie. If the corps managed to have a decent ensemble despite the foot-tall grass they should be good to go. the brassline is enormously loud. Louder than the Bluecoats, at least even with Phantom. I don't know if you could say they sound fantastic when turned up to 11 though- still a lot of individual sounds poking through. For sheer volume intensity though, a very pleasant surprise. Just goes to show what actually keeping a good brass caption head for more than two years does for you.

I'd like to nominate the decline of regionalism for part of this "decline in distinctive identity", real or perceived. If your corps consists of only the most hardened street-kids-turned-buglers from south Boston, they'll all act like it. If your corps consists of the cleanest-cut, best-auditioning band kids from seventeen different states, they'll act like it. So while an identity used to be more heavily determined by the actual members and their attitudes, now it is more of a case of a member showing up to camp and being told he's supposed to emulate a certain identity. You can no longer walk into the corps bingo hall and find half the hornline hanging out because they just got out of school and all live within ten minute's walk. An auditionee today is going to have to drive or fly a few hours almost without exception, so if they didn't get what they wanted out of their first corps and the plane tickets are only 40$ more to corps B, who's to stop them? It isn't like there's a corps around the block anymore. Additionally, if you think about how corps work now it becomes clear that some diversity was sacrificed to survive. Every corps on the road has the same basic bus/equipment truck/souvie trailer/food truck setup because otherwise they wouldn't be able to operate. This homogenizes corps. I'm also dubious about those who say that in the 80's corps all had specific sounds. Corps are certainly more vanilla now that manufacturer contracts prevent sawing off leadpipes and welding your own replacements in, playing meehaphones, or marching a wide variety of brasswinds- (King flugels aren't cheap, and I'd imagine aren't included in a discount program.) However, in saying that BD, the Cadets, and Phantom all could be recognized by sound in the parking lot, you aren't saying anything at all- these corps still have distinctive sounds.

lets see here -yes -yes -yes -yes -yes -yes -yes

there are many things in this world that look good when they jiggle. plumes are not one of them.

I don't know that- but I do know this: in 2008 the Glassmen learned a preshow that they never performed. The preshow would have included a CD track ( ) being played over stadium systems (or possibly from the pit) during setup, with the corps proper coming on from the side1 endzone in a "carnival train." The pit played from about 1:00 or so on and the horns came in around 2:00 playing backfield, with the first chord of the show as the world knows it at 2:35. It would have instantly boosted GE not only because it was cool in and of itself, but because parts of the show later on ("the carnival is over: reprise) were heavily dependent on the audience knowing what was being reprised in the first place.Obviously it never happened. The horns learned drill and music and the pit learned music and practiced playing with the track at the glassbowl, but for any number of reasons (questionable legality, particularly if the backing track ran long, less pit setup time, difficulties of synching things across the ensemble, questionable stadium audio quality, etc.) it was pulled before the first show. I'm not 100% sure but I remember Brian Hickman telling the corps it was in a gray area and not to expect too much. So I don't know if this sort of thing is legal now, but it would certainly be if Hops gets his way. It would still be very difficult to use effectively, but every new rule change opens up room good and bad.

I did more than a few camps this past season on the following timetable: 8am Friday- wake up, go to classes 4pm Friday- nap for an hour 9pm Friday- last class of the week stay awake until- 4am Saturday- leave for camp drive until- 7am Saturday- arrive at camp 7:15am Saturday- eat breakfast with the corps, who just woke up rehearse until- 11pm Saturday- return to housing site, notice vision has begun blurring, pass out on sleeping bag repeat every other weekend. getting up for Sunday mornings was always a reeeaal pain.

seconded.

CB why'd you have to ruin it