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".

Forgive me if this has been discussed to death elsewhere (if so, mods, feel free to close after the re-direct), BUT, having just seen this years version of the Cadets, a few things occurred to me and I am interested to see what the rest of you think: Cadets 2013, originally titled Both Sides Now (an obvious allusion to a desire for resolution to the problems between certain G7 Directors and the rest of DCI), then re-titled Side By Side (seemingly an allusion to the drum corps nuclear option of the G7 breakaway organization Music in Motion), seems to tell the story of the last few years of internal strife within the DCI organization. This post is about what I think I saw based on my initial viewing, though I will stop short of applying the interpretation to specific events of the past few years. Perhaps others can help fill in the gaps if you agree? To start, the towers are purple and we have two sides. The music here is the Barber Adagio for Strings, a piece known to be played as a requiem (at the death of FDR, JFK, Einstein, many times after 9/11, etc.). This sets the scene for what is to come. One side goes to join the other and there is a good deal of turbulence through Symphony No. 1 as both sides are working. As the second production begins, we have some back and forth call and response and the towers change from purple (both sides) to redish, showing us what is happening on that "side" only (or perhaps that things are controlled by that side?). The Adagio continues to hang over and haunt the production as things get more and more intense leading to a big clash at the end of the red tower section. The towers turn again and show us what is happening on the back "side" of things as there is much lamenting over the issues at hand. The final tower turn brings on the mash-up of Medea and Adagio and brings us to the viewpoint of the other "side". After writing all this out, perhaps I will try a stab at applying to specific events: Purple: G7 goes to DCI board meeting with the G7 Presentation, arguments ensue. Redish: G7 Directors are ousted from DCI Board of Directors and DCI is controlled by the other (non-G7) "side". Muted Yellow: A period of sadness follows. Bright Yellow: A resolution is reached by the G7 "side" to break away from DCI and exist "Side By Side" with it as MiM. They are playing Medea to remind us of the last thing that was played on a DCI field by Star before they broke away (successfully) from DCI to pursue another venture that was not exactly drum corps, but used the drum corps model at first. They are playing Adagio as a requiem for what DCI has been and has meant to them, providing personal closure to the issue before breaking away themselves. They bookend with Adagio and leave with their backs to us because they do not intend to come back after 2013. Thoughts?

I dunno, how many fans would go to hear Shostakovich 5 or Beethoven 9 or anything else if they already knew the notes ahead of time?...oh wait. I do tend to be a believer in conspiracy theories in general (ie: I was pretty sure the government was in bed with Google and whatnot so that they could look at all our "in the cloud" stuff), and I definately remember that little yellow piece of paper that fell out of the judge's pocket some 8 years ago in TX with the scores from the previous night written on it, BUT, I also feel that in general the judges are doing their best to get it right for the corps, and I feel like once Cessario broke the judging community away from a propensity toward slotting earlier this decade (remember how exciting scores were in 2011 when they were just judging what was on the field, not who?), the rep/perf boxes have been being used better and better and it can cause some of this drama from time to time (which is great! Any given night baby!). It does seem worrisome for Crown that BD took BOTH of the rep subcaptions in GE, only falling to Crown at the moment because performance wasn't quite there of that rep yet...

Unrelated to conducting, but can someone who happens to have it on hand post the story of the corps singing YNWA to the girl in the wheelchair? Do I remember correctly that this was part of how it became the corps song? So touching as I remember. Thanks!

Great post! It had been cool to see the sub captions being used better and better to recognize these things in the past couple seasons.

That does make a lot more sense, although for about 24 hours there it did secretly have me hoping to see some really weird stuff going on!

Interesting descriptor on the side of their truck there.... Gives me the impression that they will be following BD down the same rabbit hole with the opinion that BD hasn't gone far enough? I hope to one day see a pic of the Cru at the top of this Google Images search, more in line with the tasteful, modest pictures of course: WARNING: Explicit Images ahead, click if you dare! Google Images Search: Performance Art

Wern't Cadets practically tarred and feathered for that not too many years back?

Disclaimer: I am not a BD honk (if anything, more of a Cavies and Crown fan, well, at least earlier '00's Cavies) I was about to post this in the latest anti-BD thread, but it was locked by the time I finished writing. Throught it might stimulate some interesting conversation: In the circles I travel in it is generally accepted that from around '00-'08 the Championship was Cavaliers' to loose. With the way their design staff was putting together music and visual, if they didn't push too far such that they couldn't clean it up ('03), or pick something that did not have a strong enough visual component ('05, '07, and '08 itself), the gold medal was theirs. None of us could see how any other corps would be able to put together music and visual in a way that could beat Cavies in the years when their staff got it right. But then in '08, the Blue Devils showed us all something we hadn't seen before. I remember seeing Constantly Risking Absurdity live for the first time and being blown away by the game changing nature of it. Though they had won in '07, it was only because the next greatest challenger was Cadets with "This I Believe...", and THAT is saying something (not to mention Cavies with Billy Joel, a show I LOVE musically, but a theme which has little to offer in terms of strong visual connectivity). BD '08 was a clean break with what they had been doing for the past 7 years or so. I remember almost feeling like the Blue Devils staff got tired of waiting around for Cavies off years and their own ON years to line up (I mean, they freakin lost with The Godfather Part Blue!!!! that must have hurt!!!). When none of us could see how anyone could beat Cavies in the game of combining music and visual, BD went out and changed the game in an important (and in my opinion exciting) way and has been pursuing that same model ever since. The Championship is now BD's to lose and has been ever since '09. Don't like it? Figure out what's next.

Now you are ascribing them the role of Milton Babbit in the Downfall of Classical Music. You are only making Jeff's case for him. "Who Cares if You Listen?" epitomized the carelessness that mid-twentieth century composers had for the audience and rather aggressively pushed them away... Look where we are now with less then 2% of all music purchased being classical (down from 3% five years ago as the generation that grew up with it is dying off).

Question of the Hour! Are Bluecoats still using the toe first forward technique?