southtxbones
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Posts posted by southtxbones
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so is there no i&e during championship week then this year?
No.
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So I&E is this weekend in San Antonio for those who didn't know.
I understand the move and everything, but why isn't there any promotion for the event at all?
I can't seem find any info on DCI.org about it. Is it still open to the public?
All the info I have is that its at the Judson High School Performing Arts Center in Converse, TX.
Saturday, July 24, 2010 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Sunday, July 25, 2010 from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM
If a corps marches on Saturday then their I&E is on Sunday and visa versa.
How big is Judson's performing art center?
How will making the competition a 2 day event affect judging?
I just wouldn't want to be the very first entry on Saturday, and then have the competition end 24 hrs later.
Are there going to be less entries this year because of the change?
Thoughts, comments, and anybody have anymore info?
Edit: I also heard the winners will be announced at the ATL regional.
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you want to know what's going on with the Crossmen?
their director blogs daily
News coverage: http://www.wlwt.com/news/24228478/detail.html
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Remember when Blue Devils did really good playing jazz ?? Remember when Crossmen did really good playing Jazz ?? Silly argument, no logic.
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I didn't say anything about placements. Yea I'm keeping tally of who's getting what and rooting for corps to be at certain spots. I'm talking about entertaining. Thats why I go to shows, to be entertained. Jazz just comes off as cheezy, its just a personal taste. When some corps did it, it worked. I'm just tired of people referencing new years to old ones, just let it go already thats why they sell dvds. It just wouldn't have the same effect now.
That's a bit too simplistic a take on it, I think. Jazz can be very exciting in drum corps if done properly. And there's the rub. It's VERY hard to pull off, and that's one of the big reasons why a lot of corps stay away from building an entire show around it programmatically these days. Even the Blue Devils. They pick and choose their spots to go all out with it, and when they do, it's usually some of the best and most exciting stuff on the field.Well said.
If I could rephrase what I said, and change boring to cheezy, I'm not saying it all is, just my personal taste.
I mean I loved BD 03. I think I'm just caught up with everything thats going on, everybody always trying to push the envelope, I'm just waiting for the next new thing...not in terms of gimmicks, but musically.
...and it could be a combination of when in high school and college everything that was chosen to play was some sort of latin jazz, I'm just over it.
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OK, I'll play...
It's easy to armchair quarterback, and they certainly have their issues for sure. Definitely not above being criticized. But a couple things I'd like to address:
1) They ain't moving back to PA. It's silly to even bring it up.
2) They ARE young and inexperienced. They can do a better job of recruiting and attracting more talent in the state, IMO, but that's a conversation for another day, and for the people who are more directly involved. They took a hit with a lot of vets jumping ship after last year and they're dealing with the fallout. A return to a show and some music the corps has had success with before was not, to me, the wrong idea. The members seem to really like it. Fans seem to be liking it more and more. We'll see how it goes by the end of the year.
3) Arrangements. I'm an enormous Pat Metheny fan. I marched in the 1991 Crossmen Metheny show, I taught the 1998 and 2002 Metheny shows. You're going to hear a lot of differing opinions when it comes to his music. I know many '91 folks who hate the '98 show. I know many '98 folks who hate the '02 show. You're not going to please everybody, especially when you decide to play music that the corps has played before. Comparisons are inevitable. I'm sure a lot of '84 Cadets and their fans hated the 2009 version of WSS. It happens. All they can do is work to make this the best and most exciting show for them THIS YEAR, and not worry about comparisons to corps from the past.
And when you choose to play songs like Heat of the Day and First Circle in drum corps, you're talking about two songs that are like 10 minutes long each. You have to chop them up to some degree. Will anything be like the 1998 show when it was about 95% faithful to the original arrangements? No. Drum corps has changed. His music is amazing. It's also repetitive and has phrases that sometimes take an extremely long time to develop. Listen to the '98 First Circle and that wonderful pit feature in the middle. Some of my favorite stuff ever. Was it absolutely necessary for them to play through essentially the same very long phrase TWICE however? Not really. I'm glad they did and it worked back then reasonably well, but they didn't absolutely have to. The show may have moved along more quickly, perhaps, if that second nearly identical phrase was cut out. My guess is the same kind of treatment of keeping all that repetition in would not work in today's DCI. One thing that gets hammered these days, right or wrong, is when a show is too laboriously paced. Too much time developing phrases and the show is perceived to lag. Do I agree with it? Not always, but sometimes I do. That's why Metheny's music is so difficult to translate to the field, and that's why so few corps have been able to pull it off with any degree of success.
As it is, all I was looking for from these arrangements for the modern day Crossmen was for them to capture the spirit and overall sound of Metheny as best as a modern corps could do. I actually think First Circle is the best thing in the show. I think it's about as faithful to what those particular phrases should sound like as I could have expected. He really doesn't mess with them much at all. The other tunes he takes more liberties (mostly in Minuano), but each song has their moments when it sounds as much like Metheny as it's supposed to. When he deviates, I think he's at least deviating in the right area, especially since the First Circle rhythm and melody are SUPPOSED to be what tie the show together. It's hard for me to knock the arranger for going back to those melodies when that's what the show is about. The circle is the whole point, visually and musically. With that in mind, I think the arrangements are suitable, way more often than not.
4) Excellence is what is currently keeping them back. A lot of that is inexperience, some of that is getting used to new staff, but that's where they're at as a drum corps right now. Inconsistent performance. Average talent. Again, would people think differently about this corps right now if all those vets who left to march other places came back and the corps was performing a lot better? I actually think they would. I like the show. It's pretty no nonsense stuff. The Crossmen. Pat Metheny. No story lines. No vampires. No narration. No abstract ideas or preaching concepts. It's all pretty simple to understand. And to be honest, as concerned as I was before I heard the show this year, when I got there and listened, it brought a smile to my face just hearing those songs coming from the corps again. Call me sentimental and naive if you like. All I expected and hoped for from the Crossmen this year was for me to like what they were doing on the field. I could always stand for better execution, but I actually like this show, and I'm a bit surprised more people don't. And maybe I'm just listening too much to the DCP folks on this. I haven't seen them perform live since their preview show in San Antonio, so I have no idea how crowds are reacting to them. Maybe more people like it than people are giving them credit for. All I know is that I like it, and based on what I know of the members, they like performing it.
5) Style and identity. People have been asking about it, wondering if the corps knows what it is or where they want to go creatively. I think this is the first year of trying to re-establish an identity. It's not going to happen in one year, and I think if they use this as the foundation, they can build upon it in years to come. Whether that means bringing in new designers as they do, or tweaking staff here and there, as I would expect, then that's what will happen. But for me, this is the closest show to what I want to see from the Crossmen as a fan and alumni than anything they've done so far since moving to Texas. And you can throw in the last several years up north as well. You can't change the world with this stuff in one season. This will take some time, and I get the sense from talking to those involved that they are using this to build forward. I'm willing to give it a chance. If people somehow expect to wake up tomorrow and see them look and sound just like the 1992 Crossmen, they're going to be disappointed. They deserve to find their own way in a rapidly changing activity. They do respect and honor the Crossmen corps of the past, and find great motivation by what those corps represent, but I think it's entirely appropriate for them to find their own voice and direction. They dropped the ball last year in a big way. They're paying the price for that and are trying to rebuild. Give it time.
as always.
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I have been a longtime Crossmen fan.....and have not been a fan of their change in the direction (away from jazz). I can understand the temptation of trying something different once in a while but.....if you have a niche/identity......why shy away from it ? You should embrace it. Especially when you have been successful with it. Successful with placements and successful with the crowd.
Because jazz in drum corps is boring....especially latin jazz (i.e. Madison)
If anything makes drum corps sound like a HS group, its jazz......not even the HS that goes out to BOA competitions, or any rather.
Remember when phantom did really good when they played jazz....oh wait.
If I was a perspective member and a corps tried to market jazz to me as their forte, I would definitely bail.
...and those complaining about it sound too "soleily" , it seemed to work for phantom in 08 when they used a song straight from a cirque production and put it in their show.
old dinosaur is old.
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The Crossmen will be at Mt. Hope HS, the show site on 6/2/10, I believe they're departing after the show instead of staying an extra day.
If you check out their website and hover your mouse over tour 2010 then click on calender, you can see where all the housing sites are.
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Crossmen
Pemberton Township High School
148 Arneys Mount Road, Pemberton, NJ 08068-1313
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Love Crown But hope they arent going to do the uniform change thing SCV did way back...it was cool for SCV but I would hope these people wouldnt try and copy
I've seen high school bands do the SCV uniform switch with the tunnel.
I hope this is more like what they did in 09 with the main character....or BD 07 where it was right in your face....or something new and unique.
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As stated in aother post, DCI has goofed and now killed this potential money maker. Format and lack of historical references and shows have killed this. Do not expect to see this again with this type of turn out. First couple of years, I went, standing room only. By playing on the last couple of years shows ( who everyone has seen and or has a copy of the dvd) why go?
Another smart move DCI. its like they are purposely trying to kill this activity
I thought it was fine, and the very crowded theater I was in seemed to really like it a lot....most of them were high school kids who clapped after the classic performances even more than some of the 09 ones.
I honestly don't want to see an entire countdown of older shows (00 or 01 and earlier) they just come off as tacky after awhile, but the clips they showed was just good enough for me and very tasteful.
I dislike the voting system because its not a voting process of which shows the public thinks is best its more of "which corps has the most alumni with internet access", then they go see their own shows. If they changed it back to a fan vote I can guarantee we can predict right now what the line up will be....unless they rule out any shows that has already been on the countdown previously. That would be a nice twist to it.
Not everybody has the dvd!
Just a lot of people on dcp. A lot of people aren't willing to shell out $100 for a dvd.
I've only bought 1 and its because it was my age out year, and I really enjoyed all the shows that year.
I haven't bought the 09 dvd year because I would just be paying 100 to watch crown and bluecoats over and over. So I'd have to wait till the price comes down or until I won it from the street team competition. So I haven't seen drum corps with an audience and great quality since finals, so its been months and I was ready to see it.
The nearly full theater I was at was probably half filled with people who never seen any 09 show or much less kept up with the 09 season, or drum corps at all for that matter. These events are a great tool to introduce people to drum corps to push it into more of mainstream entertainment and it worked at my location. Yes DCI has made a few choices I'm not happy with when it comes to certain things but I still support it and spread the word as much as I can about it.....nice to see you support and spread the word about it too.
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With attendance figures coming back as low as 6. That's right....6 people. And a few theaters getting a whopping 30 people, will DCI realize the countdown is a waste of money?
Surely these theater things can't be cheap to pull off, so wouldn't you rather see that money going towards....say....improvements on the fan network? A new show site?
I know many would return to watch the countdown if it returned to the CLASSIC countdown format, but how many?
Honestly I'm thinking the countdown was a lot cheaper then you might think.
Im assuming they spent the most on making a deal with fathom because what they recorded at the shows is going on the dvd anyway, so the footage is working "double duty".
The studio they used was at a local university, which I'm sure they worked something out. The set wasn't too elaborate, just a couple of pictures, Christmas lights, and a screen....not even a green screen was used, so it was faster and cheaper to make. I'm pretty sure they cranked shooting out in just a couple of hours, and editing in a couple of more.
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I don't understand why volume is an issue. Watching Iron Man 2 last week the theater was practically shaking at times, yet they can't bring up the volume enough to kinda sorta simulate the live music experience? This was a problem when I was at the original countdowns and it seems like they still haven't corrected it.
The volume was fine at my theatre, even thought a little bit more would've been nice, but it was nothing to complain about.
As far as Iron Man, they spent a very long time compiling that together just for the theatre....while the countdown is a live recording, so many variables.
I'm not an audio expert by any means or know a lot about sound recording, but I think the dome ruined the sound a little for the show.
The parts where the any brass was just letting it out were fine they could've been a louder (the audio not the actual members) but if the volume was turned up it would've been too loud for some of the high pitched sounds coming from the from ensemble. (certain cymbal crashes or any metal type equipment )
Same as the classic clips, it was nice a loud due to them being outdoors, but certain metal pitches from the front ensemble was a little loud.
Who knows maybe it was just my ears....i'm 23 btw.
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About 30 at the Nashville show. Considering the Opry Mills location was under water still,,I was shocked. I guess people are sending a message to DCI that 12.50 is too much for this production. I won't pay more than that for quarterfinals if anyone is listening.
I see where you're coming from.
But is it DCI or Fathom Events that is really responsible for this?
I'm pretty sure both need a good cut in on it, hence the high price....along with it being a special event.
I was thinking about the price when I was watching it, It was equivalent to paying to see each corps for 2.50, which doesn't sound that bad.
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Just came back from the show in Mcallen, TX.
Great turn out. I'm really bad at estimating numbers, but I know for a fact a local high school which also consisted of some Genesis drum corps members came in a school bus with about 30 maybe even more people. I took 2 people, knew about 10 other people that were there, and there a lot more that attended. When people walked in a couple of minutes late they just sat in the rows up front because there wasn't a good chance you'd be able to find two seats together.
I got there early, it was great hearing all the corps music before the show....even got there early enough to where they were selecting the countdown off the dish network feed.
Much like everybody else I'm pretty exitcing for Bluecoats show. I'm really glad that Metropolis the movie was an inspiration for the show, I like the uniform change a lot, and really like the music.
Crown.Which was the main reason I went to the countdown to see it on the big screen and experience it with an audience.
Hopefully I'll be getting my 09 dvd soon...since I was one of the top street team promoters for the event.
Overall this was a pretty great experience.
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I should be taking some people tonight who really haven't seen it before, just have heard me babble about it a lot. We'll see how it goes.
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I'll be headed to Cinemark's Hollywood theatre in Mcallen, TX
Looking to see some people and the new Genesis Drum and Bugle Corps from the area will be there supplying info.
My pre stop is school b/c I have a final that ends right at 730 :/ hopefully I can get out sooner and make it on time.
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Crowns & Cavs show logos look very similar.
At least the color scheme anyway.
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um....what?
I'm pretty sure I remember the majority of corps having ballads.
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hmm...weird at all?
So I saw bluecoats repertoire and decided to check the songs on youtube. First went with asphalt cocktail, always thought it was a great song and wanted to listen....but the weird thing is in the related videos were videos to the other songs bluecoats will be performing. For instance Imogen Heap's video was in the related and a video from 160 bpm was there too.
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No it's not blasphemy at all.
If anything drum corps should be thanking the ongoing viral campaign for them. Heck it's how I saw drum corps for the first time (from friends who started downloading videos via certain programs...before youtube was invented ) and if that never happened then I never would've marched. Having and posting their videos is a great tool for people who have no idea what the activity is. If you're trying to introduce it to students and kids, they're definitely not going to buy $99 dvd, or even a $30 one at that. They're going to go online and watch videos. Yes these are educational non profit organizations but this is also an entertainment business.
This campaign isn't trying to get people who already know what drum corps is to go to the theater, but for the people who have no idea what it is to go, then hopefully the bug bites them and they'll make it out to a show in the summer.
Besides even DCI has videos they post up themselves...not of shows, but bits and promos, those are fine as well.
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Wow, the colts and bluecoats' posters look really great.
Sometimes people don't think the whole packaging and poster design doesn't help, but I think it really does and not enough junior corps are capitalizing on it. They can still be turned into profit by selling posters for a certain price if somebody doesn't have enough for a shirt, or doesn't want a shirt. Also it really helps their campaign when they're promoting themselves. If some non drum corps person is presented with a nice professional looking packaged display for donation reasons I'm sure he'd be more likely to donate.
Bluecoats always have great posters.
Does anybody know if their show "Metropolis" has anything to do with the 1927 movie? I just get that vibe from the poster....and the name of course. If so then this is the show I'll probably be most excited for this year.
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Think this kind of exposure is great!
Hopefully people not exposed to drum corps will stumble onto this and go!
I really like the steps DCI is taking to push the activity to the "outside" public.
I honestly see this activity becoming tons more popular within the next couple of years ....it has to in order to survive.
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well alright, representing some metal other than brass.
I believe I'm the first marching cymbal to answer the poll.
Crossmen cymbal 07-08!
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Does anybody have any thoughts about this? I think its great Brandt is in the HOF. The podcast was great. If theres anything else in the summer that I like hearing besides loud brass and clean beats is Brandt's voice...along with Dan's when he announces shows. I remember the feeling I got the first show I got where he announced, and it wasn't a finals week show, and I didn't realize he was at the show, so it was pretty surprising. Great feeling.
San Antonio Housing Sites
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
I'm not sure about the Crossmen staying at Blossom Athletic Center.
I think they're sharing housing with Crown at Madison HS to sleep and using NEISD newer Heroes Stadium to rehearse.
http://www.texasbob.com/stadium/stadium.php?id=1276