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wvu80

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Everything posted by wvu80

  1. Best Bluecoats ever. They deserve every accolade they've earned this year. Put me down as a huge fan of the drum line. What a great job they do every night. If you get a chance, listen to the FN replay on headphones. Even if you don't watch the video, you'll understand how tight the battery and pit are. Watch the video and you'll see the distance between them, and you'll be more amazed.
  2. According to sources on the Blue Devils Discussion Board, those are real, live mirrors. Very heavy and difficult to schlep around all season.
  3. Those 2v King French horns are sweet! Very light weight, just a nice horn. +++ I sent you emails with my list of horns and pics. These are all 2 valves in excellent to good condition. 2 Deg Sops 1 King sop K-20 (very rare) 1 Deg alto (very rare, brand new old stock) 1 Deg mello (pictured in my Avatar) 1 King French horn (prev. owned by Sky Ryders)
  4. "Revenge is a dish best served dead." Drum corps, on the other hand, is an activity best seen LIVE! As an old guy, you should know this. +++ The FN is not the best vehicle for our activity. It is video and audio at internet quality, not broadcast quality. It feeds the need for us drum corps nuts, but it is truly not for the average person, or a good experience for a first time fan. Big mistake, my friend. She must like you a lot to put up with drum corps just so she can spend "quality time" with you. Now you have to sit through a chick flick with her. I hope it was worth it.
  5. I'm not sure they can. I saw them in June, so I know there's another notch up with the sound, but according to my sensitive but highly untrained ears I thought the corps had a "young" sound to them. Maybe they have a lot of rookies, maybe not a lot of college music majors, I dunno. I also thought the basic balance of the corps with 20 tubas left them without a sop heavy top end, which many of us old people would call the signature "Madison sound." Without that top end, I don't think they will achieve that "power corps" sound that frankly, many corps do have. Power or no power, they have a great show this year. I know you Scouts alumni are proud, and you should be.
  6. Don't make me look this up! I remember just off the opener the drum line marched on the oblique from the left 30 towards the 50, while two lines rotated from a center axis to allow them through. I won't argue with my betters on that point, but that's what I remember which I call "asymmetrical." Absolutely! Young people, take note.
  7. I saw you were replying, and I wondered what your opinion would be. I was thinking along those same lines, that the 1980 27th Lancers were more innovative than SCV, which featured a Zingali drill all the way. Not that my dumb opinion matters, but: 1976 Blue Devils - their style of REPEATING their best tune year after year was copied by all of that era. 1983 and 1984 -Garfield Cadets - I had to include both, because it was the FIRST TIME EVER a championship corps had thrown out their ENTIRE repertoire from the year before and did an all-new show, and the all-new show won. EVERY CORPS to this day follows that "all new show every year" style. 1990's: Star of Indiana - their style and the concept of TAKING CHANCES is still seen in every winning corps today. 2000's - Cavaliers 2002. For the first time ever DRILL replaced music as the key to winning a championship
  8. Happy Days are Here Again - Blue Devils, 1988
  9. Thanks for the clarification of what you are. I won't make the mistake of replying to your posts again.
  10. As of San Antonio, 7th ranked Phantom Regiment had high drums overall in DCI which includes both nights. BD was second, Coats 3rd. It seems reality is in conflict with your opinion.
  11. Let It Be Me. Spirit of Atlanta, 1978, 1979, 1980
  12. 1988 Blue Devils. The guard released the balloons. My WVU Marching Band (400 piece) releases balloons before the pre-game show starts while on the field. Search for that on Youtube, maybe you will find some ideas. The crowd loves it btw.
  13. I have a 2V Deg mello in excellent shape I could let go.
  14. I have a DEG mello in good shape, but only 2v. I just thought I'd offer you a choice. :)
  15. From the specific to the general: Anytime a poster raises awareness of safety and protection for the young people who march in this youth oriented activity, it meets with my approval.
  16. Agree, and well stated. (I saw your reply after I had written my previous post, just upstream)
  17. Mr. Z is correct. State law (not a single national law) prevails, and it is different from state to state. For most laws of this type I'm familiar with, they have de-criminalized rape if the person is over the age of 16 and the older person is within 4 years. It used to be they had rape as the only charge and then the convicted rapist would go to prison for 20 years. The problem became no jury would convict a young person to prison for 20 years for having sex with another young person, so they came up with degrees of rape with lessor sentences, and now they have more convictions. I think Ohio has six degrees of rape, from inappropriate touching, to the most serious charges involving penetration with an adult against a child over a period of time. For older people having sex with younger people, they put the hammer down, as that clearly is a perp taking advantage of a young victim. Again generalizing, if the victim is under 14 it is almost always statutory rape, consent of the victim or not, and regardless whether or not there was penetration. Over the age of 14 consent can be considered a mitigating circumstance in the charges. +++ To me this is a legitimate issue for DCI to investigate, and to check with all its member corps to see there are safeguards in place. I would call on DCI to do just that.
  18. Bluestars are using chairs this year, too. The guard (Houdini) sits on them as they are escaping from being tied up with ropes. Do we have any of the same people who criticize BD, also criticizing Bluestars for the same thing? I thought not. Or are those same DCP'ers being exposed for being the hypocritical corps bashers with no credibility that they are?
  19. "(DCImonkey @ Jul 10 2010, 11:58 PM) * You can't synchronize drill with music when your brass doesn't play for 4 minutes straight." Winner.
  20. LOL! Funniest (and most accurate) quote of the night! The guard guys have to turn in their man-cards after this one.
  21. Of the shows I have seen live (ie, not the Blue Devils): 1. Madison (for the musical selections) 2. Bluecoats (for the drumming and overall show) 3. Crown (for the brass sound) 4. Cadets (for the marching and drill)
  22. LOL! I get it, as the ability to grasp the obvious has always been one of my strengths. I'm sure your recognition of the specialness of the moment of two deserving corps is appreciated by those corps, especially considering your affiliation with one of the great organizations in DCI. That is classy all the way around.
  23. It's late and I'm tired, 2.5 hour drive home after the show and I have to go to work in the AM, so here's the quick review. This are my impressions without seeing the scores or recaps. Columbus, Ohio. Fantastic line up. Weather about 95 degrees at 7:00pm. Large HS stadium, large knowledgeable Ohio crowd. Very polite crowd, little talking during performances. Man and wife beside me were watching their first show of the year, their second show ever. Their son was a Madison snare. Good organization and a well run show. The aluminum bleachers were tough on the back, but good seats were available for $25 at game time. Seats were $25, $22 and the $19 seats helped fill the stadium from the 40 yard line out to the end zones. Parking was free and highly organized by the HS, and the glossy 10-page FIRST CLASS program was free. The two bottles of water I paid 5 bucks for was not free. Madison Scouts: WOW. GREAT show, my personal favorite of the night. No, they won't win DCI but they showed some innovation, played great music, and just in general did a GREAT job. I like them the way everybody liked Santa Clara Vanguard last year. The new short sleeve unis are well designed, you can't even tell they are short sleeved due to long white gloves which go up to the elbow. They used 20 contras, but they lacked the "Madison sound" which is traditionally sop heavy. The sound was balanced, but not loud, and did not have the screamers Madison has had in the past. I wonder if they will turn the lads loose later in the season, or is this all they have? They have a big sound, and I bet they attract new fans who can go away from this show humming the music. I can't say that for some of the other Big Boys who were here tonight. The guard was too effeminate in their dancing for my taste, too much trying to put on a musical (I suppose Slaughter on 10th Avenue) which meant prancing about the field and being theatrical. They should have been bad-### like in the Old Days with the killer attitude and precision gun spins but they just weren't. Still, this is a top 12 show, and I'll say 10th. Blue Stars: They did a Houdini show, and I would say they did the best job of the night pulling off a show using the corps and the color guard in combo. Terrific CG. They used boxes for Houdini as props and they used chairs to great effect with the Houdini CG escaping using straight jackets and later tied up with ropes. They play great and have a good show concept. My second favorite of the night, if not my favorite. Cavaliers: Their unis took a big step backward IMO after last year's great unis. The effect of the guard with those flowing coats is very much like BD's use of skirts last year. They didn't play very loud and they were a bit boring, doing some goofy marching with rubber legs that just looked dumb. The entire brass line picking up rifles was really cool, and they made good use of humor (hard to pull off on a marching field) with the chant from the movie Stripes with "boom chack-a-lack-a, etc." Very cute, good audience reaction. I really didn't like their show after that. I'm tired, so I apologize Cavs fans, I'm sure it's just me who is dull right now. Cavs had the best use of the HUGE speakers, 5 clusters spread from about 30 to 30. It rattled my cage 40 rows up, on the the 40 yard line with the huge low-end rumble, which was very effective IMO. Carolina Crown: Wow HUGE horn sound, with some beautiful playing in the ballad in the middle. I've been reading about their "tears" (sounds like "tare") in the middle with the horns spread from goal line to goal line, but there were no tears tonight, they nailed just about everything. I saw the "new" ending for the first time, and as usual for this group they played the heck out of it, but it left me a bit confused as it didn't seem to take me anywhere. No big ending here, at least not so far. They score BIG points for continuously spreading the corps from goal line to goal line, 100 yards apart. That is OUTRAGEOUSLY difficult, and very effective musically. Is this a championship show? Yes. Bluecoats: This is like a home show for them, and they really looked ready to play, great attitude, lots of energy on this 90 degree evening. I haven't read the results yet and I had to leave before the encore by Crown, but this corps should have won. They looked VERY professional, just like BD does when they absolutely take over a field performance and own the crowd. The drum line was stunning and they are really crisp with the playing. This viewing I noticed the brass feature where the drum line doesn't play for a minute of so, so they are probably not scoring big by standing, but they really add to the show at this point by staying out of that huge beautiful brass sound. You know how to score big GE points? Do a cheerleader-type lift of the guard girl front and center on the 50 as the horn line does a "ta-dah" to end the show. You know how to lose GE points? Drop the girl. That will work itself out later in the season, but I wonder how many points they lost (didn't gain in the build-up point system, same thing) when they dropped the girl? Early in the season, I said Crown had the biggest sound; not any longer, it's Bluecoats. Coats play loud and they play great, and their moving is non-stop. If you didn't know, it's open mike night with the Coats as their soloists play into a mike and the sound is digitally enhanced for effect. The boys can play, but the sound is really different and pleasing. Personally I'm not sure I like the idea of changing the sound, but it is effective. The way the 2 mikes are placed, I'm wondering if they amplify the sound of the entire corps? By the symmetrical placement of the mikes, I would guess they do. I would place Bluecoats in first over Crown, then Bluestars over Cavaliers. Madison was a flat out blast from the past with the most pleasing music and old school stuff made modern and relevant. This is the best Madison corps I've heard since 1988 (I missed some of those mid 90's shows, btw). Madison was well worth the $25 cost of admission. Great show tonight.
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