BoyWonder1911

SCV music program this season is on another level than anyone else. Maybe Crown's brass has a slightly better tone, but compared with the difficulty of what they're playing, SCV could take brass. They can probably sweep all music captions, and if they do, and nab one of the GE's, they'll win by at least a point. I believe two weeks from now, SCV will be performing their show twice.

I think Boston beat them tonight. Would be the first time this season. Who knows how many years it's been.

I'd love to see that. Unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen. Not tonight. Maybe not at all. Crowns brass is just too good.

Way to go, BAC. Favorite show of the year. Dang they look and sound great. Secretly hoping they pull out 5th. Well not secretly anymore. No offense to Cavs.

I would add Crown 2013 and maybe 12. I know 12 didn't win, and BD 13 wasn't their best, but those two shows were beasts. 2009 crown honorable mention, for music. Absolutely wonderful musical program. One of the best ever IMO. I would not put this year's SCV in this category.

Just be aware there are always two sides to every story and there will always be those who jump to conclusions. It's best not to automatically take anyone's word as 100% fact if you do not know all the facts yourself, and spreading rumors is never a good thing. Demonizing someone or someones is easy to do. Just don't. If people are getting sick at one corps or another, I'm sure it's not done on purpose. Now people are going to be pointing at Pioneer admin saying "LOOK WHAT THEY'RE DOING TO THEIR KIDS!" This is not a perfect world.

It seems obvious to me that an audition camp is more than just trying out for a spot, but should be more like an educational clinic. A good educator would run their audition as such. I mentioned I tried out for regiment back in Nov 2002. My sister also came with me to audition for guard. She was relatively inexperienced and didn't expect to nab a spot, but her experience was a bit better than mine. Coming from a marching band that did not compete or put out a competitive product, there was a lot to learn, and her experience with guard tryouts was more like a clinic and she did learn a ton and did have some positive contact with other members and felt somewhat included. My experience with regiment brass was different. There were a lot more auditonees. I am introverted and didn't talk to anyone. The sound in that gym was huge though. Wow. They went on to take 4th that year with Harmonic Journey. What a show that was. I remember one baritone kid, young, maybe 16, was phenomenal and wasn't offered a spot. He was told to call Colts as was I. There's more to do with it than how good of a player or marcher you are. Everyone has different experiences. My experience was somewhat less than positive, and my sister's experience was somewhat positive, at the same corps on the same weekend. It all depends on the person and what the corps is looking for. Obviously Regiment was ready to compete for a medal and was selecting new members as if they were. Being a rookout would have been incredibly difficult to be offered a spot.

I wonder how often this is true. Many top corps have just a certain number of age outs. Say for example 30. So the next auditioning camp some will say "they only have 30 spots open". This is also what I heard at PR's audition camp when I went in 2002. As far as I knew, every spot was/is open. Except maybe DM. I wonder how often a member is unsuccessful for re-audition. I can see how some members might become hostile and jealous toward a new member who took the spot of a friend. I'd like to know more about this. Like someone said, you got 150+ 16-21yos all.living together for 12 weeks. What could go wrong??? Stuff is going to happen and there is not one thing staff can do about it. And if members feel stifled at one corps, they'll go to another. You have to attract and keep members in order for the organization to thrive. It's highly competitive in that regard. If you do x, you'll lose members. If you do the opposite, you'll lose members. Have to balance the act. And there will ALWAYS be those with thinner skin that just won't be able to handle the emotional demands of touring. It's not fair that one member comes forward 5+ years later with all these allegations and no way to verify everything or anything. How do you respond to that?? It's all hearsay. Not trying marginalize the OP of that Reddit thread but the OP goes on to say that 99% of the corps is perfect. Just not his experience and that nobody should affect their decision on what he said Well why the hell not? If your experience was as bad as you say, then why would you NOT want to dissway people? Says a whole bunch of stuff then says the complete opposite. Maybe the member just wanted to get it off his chest. If that's true, then why not go a little further and analyze your own behavior and try to see if maybe you acted a certain way that triggered certain people to become abusive? NOT blaming the victim. But there were times during my adolescent years where I acted out against "the bad kids" and blamed them for bullying me, when in retrospect my own behavior kind of led into it. Kids (even 21) are kids and haven't fully learned to have healthy productive relationships with others and the kind of environment touring brings with it is not ideal for that. Corps do not want to become babysitters. But the leadership of a group can foster a mature environment by setting a great example. Kids need great examples and corp leadership has to recognize this, especially in an age where our culture is seemingly fostering this idea that feelings matter a whole lot more than they did. "Get over it" or "suck it up" is no longer the proper or constructive response.

I said highly doubt, not completely not gonna happen. But given how far Cavs are behind Crown, and how close Crown is behind BD and Bloo, it's obvious the judges have crown and bac in different tiers of competition. 14th to 12th is.different than 6th to 4th. It's different because you're dealing with a lot higher level of competition. Cleaning things isn't going to help you overcome that spread because the next corps is cleaning just as well, and by this.point, you're starting to max out your program. Judges have crown as the corps that has more room.to.grow. BAC winning in guard and still way behind. The only reason they were scored this close to.crown tonight was because Cavs weren't there. And neither was anyone else in their tier.

Crown doesn't surprise me. When I saw their Bellissimo show, I had a feeling they were gonna be the next big thing. Cascades surprises me how far they've fallen. They and Magic of Orlando were supposed to shake.things up. We see how that turned out.

They've competed against each other directly 6 times this season and Cavs came.out on top all 6 times, ranging from almost 3 points to .2 or so in San An. Boston will have another shot come Friday in Murfreesboro and then again Saturday in Atlanta. I.think they might do it.

I don't recall they have this season. Maybe close. They are beating them in some captions.

I highly doubt BAC is coming for Crown. They might catch Cavs. But Crown got 4th locked up.

Perhaps. The first minute of the show is pretty quiet, and the last bit. Probably the best show BAC has ever put on the field. Although 2002 was good. I went to see the Indy show live that year.

Good God, this corps barely made finals two years ago and now they're competing for 5th, but they're too loud.

I felt this way when I auditioned for Phantom Regiment back in November 2002. I felt it was pretty cliquey and snobbish. I didn't make it, but kinda glad that I didn't, as I had no idea what tour was like, and I don't think I would have mentally made it through a season. Some people just don't have the mental and emotional capacity to march corps. It's in insanely difficult thing to do and you have to be in good emotional and mental shape because by the end of tour, you will have been severely tested.

Clean those feet and clean that percussion!!

Scouts - what doesn't work - the haaat, the haaat, the haaat, the haaat

Traffic in that area is crazy almost 24/7. From San Antonio all the way to DFW.

I didn't necessarily have a problem with the backflips. I thought it was neat and a job very well done. No it's not in my skill set. But I can still do a cartwheel without breaking anything. I just don't know what it added to the point they were trying to make. It was just "there". I did like the spinning props with Mandarins and Boston. I liked the uniform change in the Cavs show. Those didn't bother me. Excessive singing does. The singing in the Bluecoats show didn't bother me. It really set the mood and enhanced the point they were trying to make with their show. I put the all time great shows (works of art) of the past on a pedestal, much the way pieces of music like Beethoven's great symphonies or Van Gogh's Starry Night etc are clamored over today as the pinnacles of human art, and this I compare today to yesterday. To me, Cadets 1993 and also Star 1993 and 1991 also are on par with Beethoven's 9th in terms of artwork. Funny how I enjoyed the Rite of Spring arrangements I heard last night. Just watch the first 1.6 minutes of Cadets 1993. The drill matched the music. It told the music in a visual medium. You could feel what were doing musically by watching them, even if you were deaf. It's brilliant. We don't see much of this nowadays.

I'm only 36 and I didn't even discover drum corps until 1999. Watching the beginning of SCV's show that year was probably the coolest thing I'd ever seen in my otherwise boring childhood up until that point.

I know Gaines wrote SCV's drill this season. I have no idea if he had anything to do with the cages, or if he was just told "work with it". He's a paid contractor who gets told what to do and what you have to work around. But Gaines was good at a certain type of program. Just like Sactig isn't Sactig without The Cadets, Gaines isn't Gaines without the Cavs. I guess adapt or die, if that's part of your income source you don't have a choice.

I didn't use Dinosaur to be meant as an insult. Dinosaur is a blanket statement directed toward anyone who shows any resistance to change. But there is good change and bad change. Rolling around, head stands, belly flops, yeah I'm not sure what that all is, but it looks like it belongs in a gymnasium. The back flips in SCV show to me added nothing. I saw it as a gimmick. How did this add to what they were trying to say with their program? It didn't. All it did was give some people in the crowd an "omg look at that" moment. Typical of today's culture. Don't give me anything easy, just give me immediate instant gratification with cheap manufactured shallow stuff. Our society is growing exceedingly hedonistic and shallow, and I'm seeing it show up in this activity. Ok now I'm just getting grouchy. Time for bed.

Ironically, I almost omitted that year from that posting. Good visual program, great musical program, fantastic drum feature, fantastic emotional quality. One of the greatest shows ever. Visually it was great, but I think Cavs had a great program too that year. They did tie for first, I believe. I know, you marched it, I still consider it the best show of all time, and I can say "OMG I KNOW SOMEONE WHO MARCHED THAT SHOW" lol But it was just an example. I really am trying not to be rude about it, but the visual programs from tonight's top 3 really bored me. Blue Devils bored me the least. I'm trying to find out history on The Cadets, who their drill designer was over the years, and I don't know if Sactig wrote 1993, I don't think he did, and I know Zingali wasn't there at the time. Was it Sylvester? I also remember reading some kind of interview with Sactig where he mentioned 1998 was his favorite drill design to create. I think moving to Crown really took him out of his element. It's literally like trying to do the same things you did at your old job, at a new company. I wonder if he is finding it challenging to create something special with Crown, having been with another system for so long.

I had a feeling you'd respond to that. Those were only examples :P Good examples, though. Well I think a visual program needs to tell a story, it needs to be engaging, show off a number of skills (hitting your dots in both block, line and curvilinear formation), needs to keep ones interest intact. SCV hides underneath cages far too much. They do too many blocks. Same with Bloo. To me, visual is all about the drill. With SCV and Bloo tonight especially, there were hardly any impact sets that came out of nowhere. It was all very generic and basic drill. Props don't count as visual product. They're just enhancements to add to the visual product. If you don't have a drill, then what good is a prop? What good is ketchup without a hot dog? Props don't tell the story, the drill does. It's all about the drill. Not the uniforms (or costumes), not the props, but the drill. And the guard exists to fill in the field with color and emotion, to the extent that the brass and percussion cannot. That's why they exist. The drill exists to get the point across in a visual medium. That is why drill exists. If they want to change the game, and have props tell the story instead of the drill, then they better be darn good with it. But you CANNOT replace drill with props and expect to get your point across if all you do is hide under them, and move them around the field randomly. Okay, I'm too busy watching everything else to focus on what you're doing with cages, where they were, where they're likely to be, and why they're here and then there. I'm too busy to figure out what you're doing with it all. I think this is a problem "dinosaurs" have with modern day drum corps programs. There is just too much going on. I want to see good marching. Plain and simple. I hope Sactig opens up a school to train people who to write competent drill. If he doesn't, his brain needs to be kept in a glass jar after he dies and hooked to a computer so that it can continue to put out.