atlvalet

I hear that BD is doing a medley again next year. But this time, they are only going to play one note from each piece of music.

Yup. I spin 2-3 times a week. I do Pilates 1x a week and the gym 3-4x a week. Adding spinning this year really helped. I find it next to impossible to motivate myself to run.

FYI, if you have any sort of muscle tone whatsoever, your BMI is going to be wacked.

You aged out in '06? You're young my friend :) My new recent addiction is spinning. They play mostly dance-type music, and I think my inner drummer enjoys the beat/bass. Anyway, without changing my diet at all (although I eat relatively healthy) I lost 5 pounds in a few months. It's a great, no-impact workout that also tones your legs and butt...not that I care about that, but it's a nice ancillary benefit. That combined with Pilates and the gym means that I may be close to being in the best shape of my post 30 year old life :) Unless you go on a super-strict diet, there is no way to achieve the leanness that comes with drum corps. I mean, first of all you're less than 22 years old and 2, you're outside for 6-12 hours a day practicing.

Good designers know when to stop. Bad designers think "Well, if a little was good, then 'more' will surely make it better." This is true for drum corps along with other disciplines.

Heck, give me BD 1990 over BD 2010. I always loved the Tommy show. I just listened to BD '10 again to try and get "perspective." Holy yuck. That wasn't a drum corps show. It was an eleven minute sound check.

To me, the emotional intensity of the '88 show far surpasses the '89 show.

I wouldn't say Westshore's drums sounded wonderful. I'd say they sounded decent. Were they using the fiberglass angled snares? Those things were hideous. Also, snare guts make a HUGE impact on sound. I have related my Ludwig/Empire Statesmen tale earlier re: snare guts (Prince TopSpin tennis string). And, for the record, nothing is better than making Slingerland snare shells implode with kevlar heads (circa 1992).

What about right hands and left hands? I remember one year (1990?) Railmen had half-scoops on their snares...only on the left half of the drum

Say hi to M. Bolla for me next time you see him ;)

I am basing that on my own personal behaviors and assuming many people my age aren't going to 4-5 DCI shows like when we were younger. Being a "dinosaur" (does aging out in '92 make me a dino? lol), I have to pick and choose the shows I go to (you know, balancing career, etc.). This year that was a trip out to Atlanta and the Murfreesboro show. In 2007, it was quarterfinals and finals in Pasadena.

Because unless you're on tour, you don't see a lot of corps shows. Only the headliners typically. That means top 12.

I have marched and used to teach in my younger days. It's hard to have multiple approaches to technique when you're marching, unless you're marching different corps every year or have a new caption head/tech. I learned Cadets style in 'Coats (from Cadetsnare on DCP...he tech'ed our line in '92 and is a Hannum/Aungst disciple). Are you talking about the S-curve in the right arm? I tend to be more an elbow-out kind of guy, because without that to some degree the palm tends to rotate open/under, and weakens the fulcrum. You won't get nearly the quality of sound. I prefer the top of the hand parallel to the drum. Is that enough info for ya? :)

Well, yes, BD 2010 qualifies and so does Cadets '07 and a few other corps.

I come from advertising, which is the idea biz. Everything starts with a concept. Without a concept, you have nothing. The problem is, in a musical setting, without great music, you have nothing. Having a great concept is fine, but music trumps everything. It should, IMHO, go something like this: 1) Music 2) Design/Concept 3) Visual

Wow, this is the best parallel to DCI that I've seen written. IMHO, it's EXACTLY what's happening...turning the back on fans.

You didn't hear? George Hopkin's next gig is adding Stratocasters to chamber music. And the next big thing is going to be Gregorian Chant rap. Then again, George Hopkins (and others) have no clue what a USP means.

Hell, just pick music that's engaging. I mean, some people complain that they think that people are asking for Romper Room style music with a melody any 2 year old could sing. This isn't rocket science people. Christ, Cadets '91 the freakin' woodblock was the melody and that show was plenty catchy. BD '10 was not. Just pick music people can relate to. It's easy to know within the first 30 seconds or not if you have the crowd hooked or if you don't.

Paul must have really hated those Dynasty drums. I kid, I kid...

I was talking about the ability of an audience to connect to music being the "problem" with Blue Devil's show. To that you replied: "I'm not interested in shows that require no thought or energy to enjoy." which seems to imply that music that people can connect to requires no thought or [mental] energy. And what kind of meaning are you looking for anyways? It's a 12 minute musical performance. This isn't Inception, Memento or The Matrix for crying out loud.

I don't think an ode to spaghetti westerns would necessarily be cheesy. Seeing an adult trying to play a kid named Jeffery and running around making silly faces...now that's cheesy.

Since when did music that's not hard to connect to become mindless and without energy? Oi vey.

The point wasn't to circumnavigate language sensors, it was strictly a drum corps play on "poppycock" which is a perfectly innocent word

Poppycock. Or, since this is a drum corps site, should I type "Hoppycock?"

Let's put it this way...it seems as though a large number of people had a hard time connecting to the musical selection of Blue Devils show this year. Strangely, people aren't saying similar things about Madison. I am not saying they need to do a Madison show, but if you want people to offer up more than a smattering of applause you need to choose more wisely. As I said to my friend after I saw BD, "They're the best corps out there, but if they want people to get up off their butts and applaud, they need to pick music that more people will enjoy."