NeoCervantes II

I will be the first to admit that my mind does at times overreach: At the same time, what exactly are we meant to think when we see this "silly" photo? edited for formatting

Have been lurking around here again after hearing about all this. Haven't seen anyone mention what seems to be George Hopkins official twitter: @HopCadet1934. Searched the forums and found little, but maybe it is somewhere in the 400+ pags of this thread, but can anyone explain the avatar screenshotted here: https://ibb.co/b2y54H At the moment I just saw it here: https://mobile.twitter.com/hopcadet1934?lang=en it is/was the avatar picture. The the only explanation I could think of was that it was hacked? Photoshop? Why in the world otherwise would this be there? Anyone?

I'm not going to disagree with the first part of that. They are one of the best, if not the best in the activity when it comes to changing their game for maximum effect, but if you believe that Blue Devils don't whine about not winning, then I have some wonderful land to sell you...really pristine property that overlooks one of the greatest opportunities for environmental cleanup and rejuvination that you have ever seen!(if you ask most long time BDs that I have ever known, they will tell you that they should have won every single year...)

Nope. Every single one of those members knew what the Cadets are all about. If the audience sees fit to celebrate a corps that can beat them and they don't like it, perhaps they will think twice next time. (though if history shows anything with BD, probably not)

I saw another topic talking about how the Sheets need to be looked at again because of this situation. I do not know that I believe this to be true. So far I have seen all the corps in the bracket with (below) BDB except Academy and OC and I must say that BDB entertained me the most. Disclaimer: I have been picking and choosing my way through the fan network and was not there live. I thought it was interesting that every single placement last night was the same as the corps GE placement with one exception: where there was a tie in GE. Unfortunately for the corps I have seen that got beaten by BDB, while they had a lot of good musical moments going on, visual design and execution was a major issue, to the point where it distracted me from their overall performance far more and far more often than anything in BDB's show. In the end, thought it seems really weird, and I will reserve full judgement until I see Academy and OC, I feel that from what I have seen so far, BDB's placement was justified.

Anyone remember the dude rolling the big drum around the field randomly last season? Or the first ending? They connected that pretty well by the end of the season don't cha think?

Not to mention that it did not hurt the bottom line of the arrangers that did not have to re-write all the voicings completely to sell their shows to bands....

I get that, and i think they look grear on the field, but perhaps they coukd wear some sort of plastic or rubber buttock displacer so i dont have to close my eyes when I "watch" their Lot videos? The back side of those unis dont leave much to the imagination....

I too had always wondered if their staff was just f'ing around when they though up that intro. I mean, '09 had just happened and the Red Violin was a bit of a beat off from their prior success. It is good to know now that in '10 their staff thought really hard, put two and two together and came out with such a transcendent visual moment, not to mention the intense explosion of sound that followed, all wonderfully depicting the life cycle! Go Phantom!

Those are my medalist positions for 2014: Boston - Gold Madison - Silver, etc. In that case, Boston would be a new champ. (Unless you mean that it would be news to them in the sense that they don't plan on getting beaten by Boston, but then I can't figure out why you highlighted "new". Assuming it was because Madison had already won a championship right?)

2014 Predictions? ANOTHER new DCI champion!! 1. Boston Crusaders!!! 2. Madison Scouts 3. Blue Knights 4. etc......

Perhaps he is on probation MLB style after announcing BD for the Ott last year...

At the risk of sounding even crazier, yes, this is where I was legitamitely at yesterday morning. I do have a tendency to overprogram on meaning, so I will grant that I may be overanalyzing. When the Cadets show announcement first came out and then changed, I DO remember thinking that it had something to do with the then very prominent insistance by the G7 (which is pretty much led by George Hopkins and to a lesser extent David Gibbs) that he DCI Board be made up of the top 12 only, giving them de-facto control. I will also admit that ever since reading the initial full G7 report I have had a pretty bad taste in my mouth regarding George Hopkins. If he was willing to stand up in front of his brother corps directors and "present" everything that was in that report, I'm not sure I would put anything past him. But if you haven't read it, you can click the link and judge for yourself.

In this allegory the evil queen = DCI, so, no.

Hmm...perhaps. I would love to be wrong (very much so!!!), BUT, I went and took a look at the show announcement (I had not thought to look before posting): Side by Side: The Music of Samuel Barber and found this quote from George Hopkins: “Indeed, the show is about contrast, comparison, conflict and the eventual resolution, as we expected. But who performs when? Who stands when? Who moves quickly when? All of that has changed as the conversations have changed. We feel as if we will be performing Side by Side,” he said. fecontra is right that this is a very unclear program announcement that leads to the kind of speculation I have put forth here. I must admit that the idea of the show being about the occurred to me back when I heard about the change in show title, but kind of forgot about it until I was wondering what the towers were doing and how they represented the "sides".