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wvu80

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Posts posted by wvu80

    Cadets and bankruptcy

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, jwillis35 said:

    Sigh...I've seen many drum corps fold over the years. But this one is a real heart breaker. Thanks for the memories, Garfield Cadets...  (respectful Snip!, just wanted to reference the post.

    I certainly share your sentiments my friend.  I think you speak for a lot of us.

    I haven't spoken to you in a while, it's good to know you're still around and kicking.  -Dave in West Virginia

    • Like 1

    DCI Stock Market 2024

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by wvu80

    HOLD:  =====

    Blue Devils.   A Blue Chip stock, as it were.  After being on top for so long it has nowhere to go but down but no matter the placement it's value is still there and the future looks bright.

    Carolina Crown:  Quality everywhere.  It won't take much for their show to fight for the top spot, all of the pieces are in place thanks to top notch management.

    Cadets:  Great 5th place finish in 2023 except if the Vanguard had marched this year and achieved the same score from 2022 then Cadets would have finished...6th, same as last year.  Mid pack is the prediction for next year, the same as the last two years.

    BUY:  +++++

    Mandarins were undervalued this season.  I see their stock rising.  (hey, I think I found their show theme for next year!)

    SELL:  -----

    Blue Stars - Top quality talent with questionable leadership.  Whoever on the show design team that thought a alcohol/hallucinogen based show theme for an under-21 age drum corps was appropriate needs to go find an over-21 senior drum corps to work for.  I'm not waiting around for next year's meth based show to figure out this ship ain't sailing.  They will continue to sink until quality control change is made at the top.  Better choices must be made.

    Santa Clara Vanguard - I had a large of amount of SCV blue chip stock from the past 5 years and their valuation went from ten billion to zero almost overnight.  This actually happened with a real medical devices company the last few years BTW.  Vanguard did not do the Bud Light drop through woke marketing and therefore I feel they may reorganize and rise again under a new label.  Until then the old brand is dead and time moves on.

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    Finding past show merchandise

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    51 minutes ago, 1992AllOverAgain said:

    There is an old picture somewhere of me wearing a Star of Indiana shirt. No idea what became of it...

    lol I was thinking the same thing!  The OP wants a vintage t-shirt from the early 2020's!

    Like you, I also have a Star of Indiana tee shirt I recently found in a drawer.  It doesn't quite fit me any more.  😎

    • Haha 5

    2023 DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    I haven't seen it mentioned, did you notice the DCI World Championships banner did not have a year, 2023?  Just the name of the event.

    ++++

    I'd also like to know what people had as their favorite/best uniform.  Make separate lists for marchers color guard if you wish.

    Color Guard - Blue Devils.  I like that they created a uni which makes the women look female and the males look masculine, that's hard to do.  I hate when corps put a frilly dress on a CG male and make him look feminine.

    Marchers, traditional - Cavaliers, Scouts.  Both had a modern and clean visual effect on the field with a distinct connect to their roots.

    Marchers, non-traditional - By far Bloo.  I usually hate green based uni's on a green football field  but Bloo's use of color made formations easy to read.  Blue Devils were also innovative with the pink sash early in the show somehow changing to the red based dual sashes later.  Very visually effective and blended in perfectly with the show design and progression of the cutouts theme.

    • Like 6

    2023 DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by wvu80

    24 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

    I'll do you one better.

    Scrap the competition and share the take home winnings evenly. Or, heresy, base it on who traveled the furthest to get there.

    I think I know what you mean.  Have the competition, but you're not allowed to keep score unless you're the grandmother of one of the participants.  Brilliant!

    It sounds exactly like how little kid's soccer games are played. Everybody gets a trophy and all the parents go home happy! 

    Related true story:  I used to own a pee wee cheerleader and so off they went off to nationals and competed.  There was a division for every possible combination of girls possible.  Large, small, mixed, age, hair color...

    For the traditional end of the year banquet all the trophies were given out.  One table had a huge amount of trophies and the label "National Champion" and had each girl's name engraved on it.  National champions.  What an accomplishment!

    But I was a bit confused.

    One of the cheer leader moms was just beaming over the National Champion trophies, she was so proud of the accomplishment the girls got in the Small Under 8 left handed blind in one Eye division!  Being the idiot I am, I started a conversation with her:

    Wow, that's great!  I didn't know our squad won National Champions.  But I thought we finished fourth?

    Without hesitation and still smiling, she said and I swear this is true;  she said "they're all national champions."

    2023 DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by wvu80

    40 minutes ago, Vuitton said:

    Making top 4 today is an enormous feat. They all deserve medals IMO.

    Because the top corps are so phemoninal, I'd like to see the traditional system to determine Gold scrapped. 

    Instead the top scoring corps is declared first overall.  Any corps scoring within 10% of the winner is Gold.  15% is Silver, 20% is a Bronze medal.

    This system is used on the world stage with the FIM  International Six Days Enduro, the toughest cross country race in the world where surviving with your body and bike intact is the goal for most normal pros. To earn a medal is a cherished lifelong achievement.

    I've brought this up in the past.  NOBODY but me likes this idea.  😢

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    2023 DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by wvu80

    5 hours ago, skevinp said:

    To me, this was the most entertaining top 6 in the 28 years I’ve been watching. (respectful Snip!,  just wanted to comment on...)

    My favorite Cadets show since 2011

    This was my favorite as well.

    The Angels and Demons show was such a masterpiece.  I've worn out the disc in my Blu-ray player with the number of times I've watched this show.

    I've put together a Home Theater with a purpose built speaker system so I can play drum corps shows and have it sound like you were there. 

    My configuration had been up to 9 speakers this season but for Finals weekend I went with 7.4.  That means 5 base speakers L/C/R, and a change from Klipsch with 6" woofers to LARGE side surrounds w/15" woofers and Front Height with 10" woofers.  Everything is horn driven, meaning it takes horns to play horns.

    To calibrate this system to my ears and not to the standard room corrections software, I used Cadets 2011 show as my reference standard.

    I wanted to hear the dynamics, the CRACK of the snare line and even the subtleties of the pit.  I wanted to hear the timbre (pronounced TAMber, as in tambourine) of each horn section and it had to be able to play LOUD without distortion.  This setup gets pretty close to distortion-free drum corps level LOUD.

    I'm sure I've played the drum solo over a hundred times to fine-tune the sound to what I know it sounds like live!

    Back to the story:  Cadets had my favorite show this season for a variety of reasons, all good.  Nostalgia is first as I've loved Cadets shows ever since they burst onto the top of the heap in 1982.  I can't stand the preachiness of Cadets shows from the last 12 years.  "We can all do better."  Yuck.

    Enter Cadets 2023.  Great drill, source material that I enjoyed and corps arrangements very true to the originals.  Drill was exciting where it needed to be, they had the best ballad of the year which included a gorgeous cornet solo which included a second cornet for a perfectly played duet.  Then towards the end of the season, Cadets added narration which I thought was cringe.

    But you know what?  As they neared finals they changed some of the phrases and timing to where it wasn't bad.  In particular they changed a part which ruined the ballad talking over the playing "we are Atlas" (cringe) to a similar phrase just BEFORE the ballad, "we are immortal."  Not bad.  The solo was from a British Brass Band piece called "Immortal." The narration at that point in the show was timely and appropriate.

    When Cadets showed the openness to change (which I never thought they would) this entire production became my favorite show of the year.

    Thank you Cadets for a great show which improved every time I saw it.  Aside from playing the notes on the field, Cadets taught me this year that sometimes to make things better, you have to let go of parts the past while returning to the parts of the past which worked, both on the field and in life.

    Thank you for bringing me back as a fan.

    My humble system:

    360136684_6854071011292326_3046438898954501804_n.jpg?stp=cp6_dst-jpg&_nc_cat=103&cb=99be929b-3346023f&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=0f5592&_nc_ohc=JWej3fFsZ9oAX8S-r0V&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&oh=00_AfBGpqWH4Xc3e4ri5TM-lo-c1igTSPTyCJYm2CaCvXU_8A&oe=64DD987F

     

    • Like 10

    2023 DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by wvu80

    9 hours ago, Den8uml said:
    9 hours ago, wvu80 said:

    If you understood, you would agree.

    I very much understand it and have been involved a long time.  

    This is what you said in your previous post on the subject:  "Answer: they can’t except by judges who are not consistent and not fair and are definitely biased"

    If you truly understood then you would know why this is not a legitimate answer.  It's a tired worn out excuse to explain why corps X lost (or gained) points.

    Just because a person has been around drum corps a long time does not mean they are more correct than anyone else.  A person should be judged by the competency of their observation and not on how old they are.

    I remember this type of whining about the "unfair/biased" judges and "DCI politics" since near the beginning of DCI. 

    This is nothing new, it was in the the Letters section of the news paper Drum Corps World. I rejected that false idea then of unfairness as I do now.

    No evidence, just complaining, which by the way, posters here are allowed to do.

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    DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SEMIFINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted

    1 minute ago, ContraFart said:

    Again I vehemently disagree with the judging result and again I will be flamed by the BD people. BD is not a point and a half better.

    I 100% support your right to post your opinion...  👍  😎 ...even if it is wrong.🤣  I'm only surprised the gap for Quarterfinals wasn't 1.5, the 1.5 gap tonight is totally right.

    I define "wrong" as any opinion which doesn't agree with mine.  🤓

    For the record I am not a BD person except that I like their show.  My favorite show is Cadets.

     

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    DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SEMIFINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by wvu80

    3 hours ago, Red Dragons said:

    Yikes I hate the Cadets unis but they sound great!! 

    Time to stop hating on the Cadets unis.  😎

    I am a huge fan of the traditional cadet style uniform but if you're being objective, the Cadets visual appearance especially on hi-cam is spectacular. 

    From the waist and down and especially the white socks which I like, the white makes for crystal clear forms on the field.

    You want GE from your musicians, you got your GE going on here.  Tonight's Cadets look great.

    • Like 12

    DCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SEMIFINALS

    in DCI World Class Corps Discussions

    Posted · Edited by wvu80

    12 minutes ago, jasgre2000 said:

    Has BD ever come into Championship weekend undefeated and lost?

    Now you're just making me mad.  🤣

    One of my all-time favorite shows was the 1988 Blue Devils.  Gray unis and shoes, Happy Days are Here again, etc.  What a horn show they had!  Undereated that season until the weekend of finals.  World Champions in any small stadium IMO.

    However the finals were held in a large venue and those gray unis just disappeared into the background, along with their undefeated season.  Third place.

    Vanguard had the first of two Phantom of the Opera shows, and the Madison Scouts rise from 6th the year before to 1st in finals with the Malaguena closer is the stuff legends are made of.

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