Schimmy

I might be mistaken about the perfect scores. I know they had them at Nats that year. The Cadets had a terrific show, not sure it was perfect but it was one of their bests.

Although it didn't involve a judge, one of the most famous collisions was in Whitewater in '84. I was marching in SCV and we had just concluded our Finals performance. I was talking with someone with Spirit of Atlanta while watching Garfield Cadets. They started their Z pull and when the end person was on around the 20 yard line he tripped. This caused a chain reaction and there ended up being around 8 horns on the ground. Ironically, Garfield scored a perfect score in Field Visual and another perfect score in GE Visual two weeks before Nats.

This idea is incredibly bad. 1. The talent shows winners are selected by the audience, not the judges. 2. The The judges are part of the entertainment. I could give the same or better quality critique than some of the people judging these acts but no one wants to hear from an old fat bald guy that they have never heard of before. 3. Drum corps judging is mostly objective and only somewhat subjective. If you have any doubt pick 10 people who have marched drum corps and are up to date on the activity and have them make their own top 12 list. The similarities will be very close to what the judges came up with. Having judges that have no idea what they are judging makes the judging purely subjective and you might as well put Madison in first with the Troopers in second. 4. If you don't like the judging apply to be a judge and fix the problem, if there is one.

Maybe they should stop keeping track of scores in everything? How enjoyable would it be to watch the Superbowl without a winner? The World Series? The Olympics? Drum corps is a competitive event. If you don't like the scores don't look them up or leave before they are announced.

I only saw BD's show early this year but it might be my new favorite BD show ever; right ahead of Gangster Chronicles and their '82 show. I don't think you have to get the show to appreciate the effect that is created. Also, music effect is almost impossible to define in drum corps. However you may define it, please don't think of it as showmanship which is more like crowd appeal.

Voice recordings are samples.

I look for comparisons while looking for validity in scoring. For example, in content Garr gave Crown an 8.9, SCV an 8.1 and the Troopers a 7.5. What he is really saying that the Vanguard's content is better compared to the Troopers (0.6 difference) than with Crown (0.9). While I wasn't at the show I find that very hard to believe.

I agree with you over the last decade the level of cleanliness visually was holding them back. There probably would have been blood shed if we ever looked like that. I loved the hard flanks and took great pride in the fact that we could wear green pants with white stripes and white bucks and still win visual. I also loved wearing my white pants (besides the fact that they fit better)and didn't march any differently when wearing the non-traditional pants. My point is that no matter what style the staff decides it is up to the members to own up to it and make it the best in DCI. .

One of the great things about Santa Clara is the traditions. One of the bad things about Santa Clara is the traditions. The truth is drum corps evolves. With the increased velocity and visual demands it made sense to alter the visual style so that horns wouldn't crack while changing directions. The problem was that many of the corps members refused to make the adjustment and there were very noticeable differences in marching styles on the field. The same thing happened when the corps adopted the straight legged technique and again with the current technique. When I was a staff member of Vanguard Cadets someone, (I think he was from the Cascades), said he knew that the Vanguard was on the same campus when he saw our running block. This was one of the best compliments I have ever heard as it showed that the intensity that we put into everything we did was being noticed. It doesn't matter what technique is being taught, or if you're wearing white bucks, or whatever traditional thing you can think of, the members need to find the motivation to get the technique down and get the show clean.

The Shakers had a policy of requiring abstinence from its members. This policy turned out to be the downfall of the religion. How can you maintain a religion when there aren't any new members? The same thing is happening with drum corps. I have been asked several times by interested people what it would take to start a new drum corps in California's Central Valley, which is loaded with talent and enthusiasm. My answer always is, "first you get two million dollars". Drum corps has seen many corps come and go, but there have been very few corps starting up in the last two decades. Without any new members it is only a matter of time before the activity atrophies into a very small few. With less and less corps the interest will wane and those few will find it harder and harder to get quality members which will increase the decline. DCI as an organization needs to make sure they are doing everything they can to monitor the economic status of all DCI corps to make sure they are fiscally responsible. I don't know the details of what happened to Teal Sound but I do know that there was plenty of warning; you just don't wake up on tour one day and realize that you don't have transportation anymore, or that you don't have the funds to pay for the transportation. As far as keeping performances in regions, that won't help anything. After one long road trip it doesn't really matter what part of the country you're in (with the exception of the west coast), as most of the shows are have similar distances between them.

I was standing in the end zone after just finishing our Finals performance with SCV when I saw the Cadets due their pile-up. They still received two perfect scores in visual, and that was two weeks before Nats. I wanted to chime in on the BD discussion. I saw them last night at Clovis and was blown away. For those of you who don't understand why they are getting high scores in movement think of it as a demonstration of vocabulary combined with phrasing. BD's visual package has a greater vocabulary than all the other corps combined and they are doing it cleaner. They show they can march drill very well (which some corps still can't figure out how to do) and on top of that they perform movement that a lot of guards would have difficulty performing well. Their sound is great, which combined with the layered visual elements, is even more impressive. Their show design is also first-rate. The pacing of the show never leaves you wanting and you have the choice of just enjoying the show or using your gray matter to realize the depth of their design. I'm not a huge fan of the quiet ending but it fits well with the theme of being different and unexpected.

I first saw them at DATR. Like everyone else on tour that year I heard what was going on but I wanted to see it for myself before I made jugement. I hadn't really liked any Star shows before that (didn't see '91), so was planning on being disappointed. My reacton was just the opposite, my jaw hit the floor, I was totally stunned by what I saw on the field that night as it was the second most incredible show I had ever seen, the best being '87 SCV of course. The show was not written for everyone. People who don't like this show are the kind of people who don't read books without pictures. In order to like the show you had to have the ability to maintain focus for over a minute at a time and must be able to attain above the first level of Bloom's Learning Domains.

Replyig to the last for simplicity. What everyone seems to be missing is the fact that it doesn't matter what the original content of the music you are playing is taken from. PR this year is not playing anything that hasn't been done before, and when the Cavies did their James Bond show, that wasn't entirely original in origination of the music. But what is original is the way it was put together. You can go out and perform music that was played in an earlier era but it better have an original concept and be performed up to today's standards. The older days were cleaner visually but there was very little demand. The technique used in the old days was also very limited when compared to todays visual vocabulary. I guess the big question here is if you are going to the ballet, would you rather watch the Nutcracker for 50 years in a row and see if they can get it any better, or would you rather see something that has the artists taking chances with some original concepts and pushing the state of the art? Sheherezade was a piece of music that is well known by all. The setting that SCV used last year was very good and design wise was one of the best shows out there. Cleanliness was a big issue though and their placement was lowered. If you look at SCV in '92, the group was phenomenal; they marched and played very well. The concept of the show paled though in comparison to the other modern shows going on around it. Even though SCV was performing at a higher level than other corps (much like this year) the show would not enable them to move to the higher eschelon. My point is that it doesn't really matter what you do. If you want to go out there and try to be funny like the Bridgemen or VK then you have to do it well and be creative in order to get credit.

'82 SCV. Not th prettiest moment, but there wasn't a soul in the audience that could here the music after the first three notes of the Bottle Dance.

I have only seen the show once. Although I wasn't overly impressed with the performance (it was your second show I believe) I did like the programming. But that is immaterial as well. As a director I get all kinds of input on what kind of show my band (not corps) should be performing. Some like it dark, some like it fun, some like Disney, some want pop. Of course I ignore it all. When my staff and I design the show we try to come up with a show that we think will be competitive by the group we have to work with and will have enough depth to make it through the season without members losing interest. After we come up with the theme of the show we start putting together all of the aspects of the show. Hopefully this will involve something new to the activity that my members will enjoy performing and the staff will enjoy creating. The point of all this is that my staff and I have to design a show that we believe will present the group in the best way possible. It doesn't matter if the audience does not appreciate it. I t doesn't matter to a certain extent if the judges don't appreciate it. The most important thing is that my group appreciates and enjoys it. The funny thing about it is the more your group believes in it the more the crowd usually enjoys it as well.