Stick Stack

If the dog can do that AND play a saxophone, then we'll talk.

Some of these posts are very humorous. If the question is, who will win the battle between Pioneer and The Magic, it is going to be the Magic. Hands down. Perhaps, if the question was who will win in the battle of eating Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches on tour, I don't know, maybe it would be different. There's no reason to get all existential about what winning is, or what the meaning of is, is... To me, it's pretty clear that it's a question of competitive greatness. And many will argue that it's not about that, but to many other people, when choosing a corps, placement does matter. But they're all winners, aren't they? ^0^ Some of the winners just won't be included on the top DVD's or CD's, that's all!

"Solar powered Contra players work in theory, but as you can see there are some obvious disadvantages."

"Just because you missed your cue does not mean you need to put the cymbal through your head! There will be other notes!"

After she died, she was resurrected, or reborn. How was she resurrected? Probably Phantom's incredible brass sound. It's been known to wake people from the dead before. Or at least a deep sleep! ^0^ No seriously, though, the angel that pulls off the death shroud resurrects her. She's reborn into a heavenly being.

How about the part in 2001 in the third movement where the hornline is spiraling and jazz running. It's a follow the leader type move right before the "family portrait". Does that count? I know the guard has done a few arc reshapes, but it's usually when something is staged. So, to answer the question, no, the hornline and drumline never do arc reshapes and the guard hardly ever does either. And the drill sets when I marched sometimes changed every 4 counts, but it's not because they are tracking subsets. It's generally because there are direction changes for somebody in the corps every 4 counts or so. Case in point-The deli slicer in the opener of 2003, and the caterpillar at the end of the ballad in 2001. As I recall, all charted, and each had 4 count drill sets with direction changes every 4 counts for somebody... I think. ^0^

Really? I noticed the demon head though...

That answers my question! I was wondering why it looked liked that mello had a soprano coming out of his bell! :)

If that last part is true, it was only on the level of consultant...more likely along the lines of "Hey, what did you think of the show?" at a big regional after a show... or "What do you think their uniforms should be like" or something like that. This is news to me. Not saying it's impossible, I just never SAW it happen.

Kind of... what they did was they announced every score after the show... but I THINK they stopped after Phantom's, announcing the 96.8 and acknowledgin the gap between them and Bluecoats. They didn't announce Bd's or Cavie's... I think. Then at retreat, they started announcing at 3rd place...with a score of 96.whatever it was... which clearly wasn't Phantom's, you knew it had to be someone else. And then they announced with a score of 96.8 or whatever, and you knew 2nd had to be Phantom. I just thought the whole thing was a little odd. I'm being nitpicky. I know they had to cut half of retreat cuz it would take too long, but I'm sure that could have been improved. It seemed a bit of an afterthought.

Watched the broadcast obviously... And I loved the critiques of the corps, as well as showing the rehearsals and pointing out errors. That is just an ingenius move, and it may seem a little mean at first, but think about it. These kids get criticism from their instructors way worse than that. And part of drum corps biggest goals is that quest for perfection. It really helps to understand what they're looking for and to help establish why certain corps do so well. I think this in a way mirrors the way they cover figure skating and other subjective scoring systems- they'll give coverage as it's happening and make notes in technical mistakes and performance qualities so you have half a clue of what's good and what isn't. What a GREAT idea. I really enjoyed the format, the brief histories and the behind the scenes clips were really varied and well paced. Thumbs up! Thumbs down- Ok... I have to say this. When I was watching Phantom's show, it was great to see it and all, and I got really excited at all the guard close-ups, but after awhile I was like "Wow, is there a corps in there somewhere?!" The first thing I thought was that as soon as I get on DCP I knew people were going to be talking about how little they showed of the overall corps.. I appreciate trying to communicate the story, and the clips rocked... but there needs to be more of the entire corps, and the HUGE visual GE moments in the drill and the corps as well. Question: Is that broadcast the same as the multi-cam that goes on the DVD's? Anybody who saw last year's show know the answer? Also, did they not kill the suspense when they showed Phantom's score, then at retreat announced the 3rd place score, and THEN said the name Blue Devils, then announced the 2nd place score- which if you remembered was given to Phantom, then announced Phantom etc etc... That's a wierd way of explaining it but hopefully someone understands what I'm saying...

Context is important! "Of the 183 members, we have 48 aging out this summer and 75 are Phantom Regiment veterans (we aged out 41 last summer). Aside from those 75 Regiment vets, we have 60 members who have marched from among 27 other corps, including at least one member from 12 of last year's top 14 corps." This was taken at one of the camps, and was not the final numbers. However, there was still a vast amount of members that marched from just about every other top 12 corps beforehand.

As far as I know, you don't count rotations when spinning a baton. Also, in colorguard, a baton is considered a prop, not an actual piece of equipment...

Regarding wrist and arm strength... this isn't entirely true. If you use the correct mechanics of a toss, it has more to do with velocity than anything. If your arm and wrist moves quick enough you'd be surprised. Also, the amount of rotations does not always correlate with the height of a toss. In fact, it is much easier to toss "higher tosses" if you make the equipment spin faster and not necessarily higher. The speed at which the equipment cuts through the air will propel it higher. 12's, 14's, and yes, 16's, are not mechanicly impossible.

The cavaliers 2000 soloist tossed a 9, and from what I heard he was extremely consistent, except for finals... now he can toss MUCH higher. I didn't see all of the shows, but I know of at least 3 different guards this season that had lines tossing 7's (Crown, BD, Phantom). The standard for the top 6 is a 6. I know of at least one sloist who tossed an 8 this summer. The biggest cap outdoors is the wind. Indoors, at the world class level, it is not rare to see 7's, 8's, and solo 9's. It is not uncommon, but it is not rare. As for rifle length, it looked like BD did spin rifles shorter than 39", but I'm not sure exactly the length.

There were simply different cues lined up with the traditional announcer spiel. We had a spot for on the field, and judges are you ready, is the corps ready and so on and so forth. The timing of it was sort of felt out with, guessed at, played with and tweaked until it lined up. The biggest problem was, not all announcers do the same traditional spiels (Some don't even say on the field, or they read a long spiel sheet of the show, or they do strange little quirks like "Phantom Regiment....YOU may take the field in competition!"). And the timing didn't always line up quite right... I remember more than a few nights where it would end up, "Phantom Regiment you may take the field in DAH DAH DAH DAH!!!!!!"

I don't think Star 91 has a ballad either. It has that one slow section with the pit sound effects but I don't consider that a ballad. Totally agree about Phantom 96! That show never stops!

Perhaps, yes. Sadly, 'tis not the case. I remember a topic about this awhile ago where people debated this very subject. What should be the case and what is the case are too different things. Example- If a kid who marched Crown badmouths the Blue Devils, he's obviously not speaking for the whole corps but still in people's minds it downgrades Crown's reputation. I don't think this is right. But members of corps, in some way, will be associated with the corps they marched with even many years after they march.

At least in the Super Bowl you get to be on TV! 13th gets nothing! Not even the CD's now! Of course, you can always buy the DVD's of 13-21 or what not, but most people get the top 12 and stick with that, considering the price. Yes, 13 is quite unlucky! :(

Ballads are extremely important because they change the mood and pace significantly, and is a nice breather for the audience and performers. However, Cadets 2003 did an awesome job of a show programmed without the ballad. They are close to non-stop from beginning to end. I can't help but believe that some of this came from the backlash of the serious parking and playing that came from the years before. (Especially during the ballads) This is a part of show design in which the envelope can be pushed a lot further! Slow building intro/Opener/ballad/up-tempo jazz or dark song/ closer with recapitulations gets predictable.

This just seems absolutely absurd to me. I don't think it's any corps business with the personal websites. Sure, they may say things that make themselves look crazy on there, but everyone knows that it is only their opinion since it is their PERSONAL website. As for the kidnapping thing... I still don't think it's the corps business to address the entire corps about this. It's like hearing a corps director giving a speech about drunk driving... it's just really not relevant to the activity. As for corps kids posting on DCP, this is a highly debatable and interesting topic. I have heard different things from members in different corps. It was not even brought up where I marched. However, I still believe that many corps marching members either do not post on DCP or severely hide their identities because there is a huge stigma against members posting on DCP. They don't want to misrepresent their corps, so often times if they do post they have to put huge disclaimers. Ever seen the phrase, "My opinions in no way reflect the views of my corps or the organization" or something to that affect? Yup, it's cuz they don't want to screw it up and get hit by that stigma of "you screwed up our reputation". That and they don't want to say the wrong things and have it misinterpreted in general. This is why you don't hear tons of people after the season is over coming on and talking about their summer experiences. (Unless it turned out REALLY bad and they wish to tell the world) We do get some posters, but I guarantee you not nearly as many as the members who read the forums religiously yet are afraid to post for the reasons just discussed.

Actually, the funny part about that is that it doesn't sound the same! When they reverse the drill, the melodic lines descend instead of ascend. Also, much of the guard's movement is cut out because the drill was not meant to be performed backwards and it was difficult enough to simply get to the correct sets. The show ended up with 230 sets, the most ever? (Give or take subsets and sets that were removed)

I'm sure the results would be interesting, but I don't think that would solve who had a better hornline with those criteria. Playing at forte or above? That is one of Phantom's highlights. However, judging Cavaliers based on what Phantom is not exactly the answer. Since their styles are so different, judges have to judge them on how well they do their own styles. They each have very different strengths. Phantom plays really loud for really long periods of time, Cavaliers have a great balanced sound all the time.

It was on the jumbotron after they showed Faust chasing after Marge out the stadium. I don't know if that translates to what's on the DVD's or not. Also, they don't always show much footage on the DVD's before or after a show, so I don't know if it'll be long enough or not. (Because it happens quite a little bit after the ending)

Also look for... The black hood flag that flies over regular Faust and transforms him into what I have dubbed as "Evil" Faust as the show begins. The handshake between Faust and Meph in the intro. (Sealing the deal) Faust trying to get to Marg during the waltz, but being blocked by the trumpets. The demons attacking Marge by tossing their rifles over her and the trumpets. Faust reaching out in vein, failing to rescue her at the end of Scythian Suites. Faust praying in the church during the Ankh-like cross, with Marge in the distance (Kind of like his vision of her) Lots of fighting between angels, demons, and the hornline to each other during the concerto. The angels stop the hornline from getting to Marge, although they fail to stop the demons. Also, Faust takes off his mask right after Marg is killed. (Coincidence? Yes) Marg comes back with a new look from under the sheath, resurrected. The Faust and Meph battle right before the big Mahler hit, when Faust captures Meph's hood. That's all the storyline I can think of that hasn't been mentioned yet.