Swine

You were there? Really? Can I touch you? <g> I was there, as well, and I just went back to the video. Again, I can guarantee that he has ****NEVER**** reacted like that. The biggest crowd responses in 1992 were Phantom's 2-spot drop and Star dropping to third. It was 10x louder in 1988 when we could barely hear him announce Madison's score. It was incredibly loud last year when we could hear him announce Phantom's score. Inflection can tell us much about this. Again, I think he's great, but there was something more to his reaction to the 1992 Cavies than "meets the ear." Take 1989: SCV finally wins again. His voice is pretty controlled/even. 1990 Cadets... reads his script. 1991 Star... not that excited. 1993 Cadets...not that excited. Go back to the 1992 video.

Brandt Crocker is great. I know he's done all DCI Finals after Montreal except for 1986 and 1987. That fellow wasn't very good. He was the one who yelled about the booing at '91 Preview, and sounds like he's 104 years old. Brandt, though, is a Cavaliers homer. Did he march? Check the 1992 scores when they 1st won. He absolutely screams their name like he's crying. He's NEVER that excited when any other corps wins (not even the 2 huge upsets: '88 Madison and '08 Phantom). And in 2002, he referred to them as "undefeated" before announcing their score. He didn't do that w/ 1994 Devils or 2000 Cadets.

<ahem> NO CORPS HAS GONE UNDEFEATED ONLY TO LOSE FINALS. That was the argument. Blue Devils 1988 and 1995 were undefeated until Finals Week. Garfield was undefeated in 1983 but lost Semifinals.

Remember when it used to be about repertoire? "Did you hear what _____ is playing?" Now, at Thanksgiving, we get the big announcements of these magical, mystical themes and ask, "What does that mean?" I remember GH explaining Garfield's 1985 production: creation and destruction. Yeah yeah, Bernstein was "young and angry" when he wrote Jeremiah, but without talent (and Candide), that show would have been hopeless. The only persons interested in "creation and destruction" were George Zingali and the GE Visual judges. We got form, field coverage and speed. Audiences didn't care when a form was torn down or whatever. Many, MANY musical/visual innovations and state-of-the-art designs are great enough for mass appeal. I guess I'm under the assumption that a certain revenue comes from people who aren't at dci.com every day and just want a nice night for the eyes/ears. If DCI loses that $, it sinks. We may not see this as a Big Business, but it is...and it needs our revenue to survive. No government funds can help --- unless we're willing to lose the tradition of Cavies/Scouts. I'm not criticizing the 'Coats' entertainment value this year. They were always a holdout from all of this non-tangible Like It Because We Say So.

Art is subjective; wasn't there an uprising when DCI (rather than playing to the audience) was---like those paintings---making us put our hand on our chin and having to interpret what we saw in order to "like" it? I remember when the Bluecoats were in it solely for the crowd and NOT to one-up their design neighbors. "Last bastion of rigid conformism." Talk about selling out.

In 1993, Star beat Cadets the first two meetings; then they tied at Preview prelims. Star won Preview finals. One week later, Cadets won DATR and then Texarkana. Star won DCI Prelims; Cadets won Semis and Finals. No corps has gone undefeated only to lose Finals. (Cavies beat BD last year at DCI East.)

This was a fairly nice show tonight. I didn't take notes (and my program is in the car), so the order is typical of this week: Holy Name (77.5) beat Crown by 0.9 with Boston almost at 70. Glassmen and Colts bring up the world class rear; Capital Reg was the only Open Class corps. The word for the year is MUSIC!!! Welcome back! There were some very nice arrangements and all six groups were (yes) entertaining. Colts, G-men and Boston *should* all make finals. If any of them miss, the Top 12 will be among the best ever. Although there wasn't really much state-of-the-art, there was much to like. Capital Reg will probably compete for the Open Class gold; they just need more guard members (6). They sounded pretty good and have a nice show that is not beyond the members. Colts are strong with a huge, feisty guard. I was told that "youth is their enemy this year" both in membership and staff, but hey...great job getting all that on the field!! Very strong corps! Glassmen, an annual snoozefest, did their homework and said, "How can we keep the audience's attention?" They did it by picking very nice music and giving it a visual splash. The pacing is so much better than the past few years. Boston beats us over the head with the "Bacchanale" theme from beginning to end, but it's interwoven masterfully. Jay Kennedy was a judge; he knows what works. And the Crusaders look very big! I usually do my Rain Man counts of horns/drums/guards, but I just enjoyed the performances tonight. Really.. it's been a while since I just sat back and enjoyed the entire experience. Crown's 15 basses should give us more bottom in the sound---that's the one negative in this show. I expected more "wow" in their ensemble. Wait. One more negative: I don't care for the olive green. Something more grassy would make more sense, given their show theme. They play and drum well--- Top 4 again? If I had to decide today, I'd say no, but I never saw them early last year, so what do I know? They're good, but let's see what happens with a full judging panel. Guard would probably be a point under Holy Name at this juncture, but we won't have that judge until July. Holy Name is just sick. I'm so tired of WSS, but this is pretty clever. I already prefer it over 1994. The crowd was sucked in right from the beginning, and HN was by far the favorite. Their two June strengths: a beautiful ensemble sound and an INSANE color guard. They were amazing tonight, and I rarely watch guards until August. The weapons are very exposed (I didn't see a drop tonight, but the ###### corps is all over the field all the time!); the silks are tremendous. They had a few tosses that were just dynamite. Something tells me that this show will be much different in August. Nicely organized show---ample parking (though they need police helping there. Come on! This is Dublin, OH... the police have NOTHING else to do!) Nice stadium, too. CROWNTICKETS.COM got me some of the house's best seats, btw. Check it out.

Great seats still available for the Dublin, OH show tonight. $10 from me or spend $15 at the gate! PM, please.

I have three tix for the Dublin show next Tuesday. $12.00 each, very good seats, near top, 45-ish y.l., aisle. They are will-call tix. Send me a mssg. Capital Regiment, Colts, Glassmen, Boston, Holy Name, Crown. Incidentally, I ordered through crowntickets.com which is an excellent resource!