ftwdrummer

To be fair, probably less amusing in the actual military than in a drum corps inspection. What with one of them being the military and the other being band.

It wasn't about BD...buuuuut it wasn't not about BD, either

Stop sealioning.

If you wanted to do Sibelius, could do a general Scandinavian thing. Bring in some Ludwig Goransson or Johann Johansen as well. If you're me, you title it "Smiles of a Summer Night," and also incorporate the bits of 'A Little Night Music' that aren't Send in the Clowns. ...also I now want a year where as many corps as possible do takes on Sondheim and now I may go sit down and game this out because I'm a dork. (Offhand: give me Phantom's A Little Night Music, Mandarins' interpretation of Pacific Overtures [that also incorporates Nixon in China]; Troopers' rendition of Assassins; Blue Stars or Blue Devils' version of Follies; Bluecoats' Company; Crown's Sweeney Todd.)

Give me a redo of Star '92 that puts the correct closer on it (American Salute). Ideally someone like Crown, but Troopers will work too.

If I recall the explanation Rondo tried to give on the theater broadcast, it had a pickup that receives the vibration, rather than vibrating reeds.

I finally figured out when the Milestone capsule on Colts mentioned their Sunday in the Park with George show that 'Dreams and Nighthawks' and 'The Cut-outs' are versions of 'Sunday in the Park with George,' for Night Hawks and The Snail respectively.

True, but I think it's less from a strictly performance order perspective, more of an 'amount of time' perspective. Later performance means later EPL, means you can start the day a bit later... Though as I'm saying it I'm having to remind myself that encores aren't really a thing anymore outside of home shows (as I understand it), so there's slightly less of a discrepancy on timing than there was, say, in the era of full retreats everywhere when every corps stuck around until the end.

I mean, knowing the BD folks, their reaction might honestly be, "eh, sounds like fun."

I reckon they win in 2026, if they continue following the path they've been on (massive leap forward in design etc. followed by a show implicitly or explicitly about wanting to be first that falls back to fourth). That would mean next year is an off the wall design that incorporates their best features while still being a thing that no one would think works, then the two years after that are 'look what all we can do' pushing harder than anyone else and breaking through that second year. Am I just describing Crown from 2009-2013? Maaaaaaaaaaybe.

No clue! Honestly, my thought process was, "Hmm...so the last time they needed a new executive, they grabbed a respected director from a northern Ohio corps...wait, didn't Glasgow step down as corps director a few years ago? And the financial resurrection and stability of Bluecoats is one of the success stories in the activity on that end...yeah, that would maybe work."

I know what you mean here, but it amuses me to imagine a verse in Genesis that says 'The Blue Devils won their title, and there was evening and there was morning..."

They did some emoting in the Carpenter show, but in general yes.

I mean, that's happened and they kept rolling. Gibbs transitioned out of the day to day running the A corps and they just kept rolling; Downey retired and Meehan took over that slot and it was barely even noticable.

And maybe, just maybe, a hint of Tower of Power off the top. So we can have Live from Sacramento again.

No basis for this whatsoever in terms of having heard anything, but throwing a name out there that would seem to make sense: David Glasgow.

If my secondhand quasi-inside source (i.e. I know somebody who knows somebody who would know) is correct, he's teaching at Prospect High School and content doing that and spending time with his family. Which is mildly annoying for me personally because I want him to go home to Cavies, but that's neither here nor there.

I've wanted someone to do a Mars Volta-based show for fifteen years or so now. Yes please. With the obvious caveat that with very few exceptions (one specific one that should be obvious in mind), musical selections come from the show, rather than the show coming from musical selections.

Takeaways from last night: -The Troopers ending on the ground with the saber worked better than the lever machine anyway -THE STICK WORK IN CAVIES -I finally figured out that, much like BD 2000 is the show Blue Stars should've done in 2011 and Crown 2015 is a mid-90s Phantom show, Sinnerman is the show Bluecoats could've done between Jagged Line and Session 44. This is not at all a bad thing and if Mandarins keep in that vein I am here for it. -Boston finally fixed the ending! It was so much better that way. -Also, I think I realized that Boston kinda takes turns doing "Boston" shows (White Whale, the first half of SOS, I think Zoom but I never had a good sense of that show) and "Crusader" shows (the second half of SOS, Goliath, Paradise Lost). Wicked Games is both in this paradigm. -It was nice to see as many corps have their best run on Finals night as happened last night.

Are you or someone you know the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk? Do you need colorful Post-Its? Call 1-800-BD3PEAT now.

A full review now that I've had sleep, complete with my notes from texting my folks. I was in theater, they were at home. Spirit: delightful show, good to see them back in fine form Crossmen: Crossmen who look vaguely like mid-90s Phantom from a headgear perspective is weird. Good music. Could've used a more straightforward presentation of Letter from Home. Overused Long and Winding Road. Still my favorite music book of this grouping Pacific Crest: felt like a bit of a nothing show, truth be told. BK: weird by BK standards even. Lots of voiceover that felt very sound and fury signifying nothing. Colts: "You Should Really Call Your Mom" the drum corps show. (It worked; I called Mom on the drive home to discuss what we watched.) This year's winner of the "which corps made ftwdrummer cry" award. Dome Sweet Dome was hilarious. Not my favorite anniversary show titled "Where The Heart Is" from a Midwestern corps (love you Blue Stars 2014), but still wonderful. Troopers: felt like a bad run from the prop. Don't think the concept coheres as much as last year's did, but that may be my affection for There Will Be Blood clouding my perspective. Appreciated the booth commentary explaining why the harmonica was a usable instrument (uses a pickup to get vibration). I paid more attention to commentary and interviews after INT. Blue Stars: dramatically helped by Blair's crew's direction, and by the one question they had time for for Shapiro. Still not a fan conceptually, and it's not their best work, but improved here. Cavies: dramatic improvement since San Antonio. Wish it didn't take after the weakest of the Saucedo championship books. Also if you're going to do the step-over have enough guys there that everyone has someone to step over. Good gosh that percussion. Also I appreciated the gears out for this show--was that in previously? And thought I might've seen at least one guy with multiple necklaces, which to me reads as bringing his dad's on the field with him, which is delightful. Cadets: tried to stuff too many things between Cavies and Cadets, so Bilby's one interview question came as the show was starting which was ineffective. Guy next to me in the theater audibly said "what the hell is that" when he saw the uniforms. Not a fan of the narration but it helps with the scores, I guess. Enjoyed the ending drill. Vento pointed out that like the unis or not they were a good fit for this show specifically. Phantom: GREAT interview with Tony Hall. Lots of discussion of how he sees exogenesis in this show as planting the seed for Regiment of the future, tarps as framing for the new planet they find themselves on, frames as the portals they travel through. I really enjoyed how Phantom they looked even though they have none of what we think of as the Phantom hallmarks. The Rachmaninoff was delightful. Good work getting the leg kick. Rondo noted that he wished less of the Phantom sound was coming from the amps, which I found interesting. Mandarins: appreciated the discussion with their program coordinator, noting that she thought of the color dichotomy as less good vs evil, more who you are underneath vs who society wants you to be. Never thought that Mandarins would be the hot jazz corps on a show, but it's impressive. Video from inside with spinnerman was mind boggling. Crown: at one point this year I worried I was tired of Crown brass. I'm not, it's just that this year's technical section just isn't as well woven in as years past. Enjoyed Rick Subel straight up saying that he started with the crown set and worked back from there in terms of figuring out the show concept. Appreciated Vento talking about how she only watched her son during Crown's show (shouts to him on his age out). Bloo: was good getting our annual State of the Activity with Dean Westman. Lots of jokes about "you mean no one else's design room started with poems from 1789?" Noted that this was part and parcel of their 'experiential' design philosophy that kinda started with Downside Up. Shouted out Lagola's color palette. Show itself: much improved over previous. Bump rocks. Visuals are still way too busy and don't read well against the turf. Wouldn't mind another shift in color philosophy. Voice work worked better now than earlier in the year. Boston: decent interview with Keith Potter. Noted that it was definitely designed to be a metaphor for the drum corps season and chasing the unattainable. Noted that the revelry was intended to be an evening stuck on the boat while waiting to find a whale. Show itself: rough run from the piccolo soloist. The guitar riff from Shipping Up to Boston doesn't translate well to brass--needs more of a hard rhythmic feature at the start of the note, which I don't think wind instruments can really do. Maybe a bit too literal at the end. I want to like the show, same as I want to like most Boston shows...but it doesn't quite work for me still. Also the last quote is in the Skyfall zone for me--in that, much like I wanted Albert Finney's character in Skyfall to be played by Sean Connery but that would've also taken you right out of the movie but you were kinda taken out of the movie anyway because you immediately thought 'that should be Sean Connery,' using the Montalban presentation of that quote would take you out of the show but you're taken out anyway thinking 'I wish this voice were Montalban.' Devils: really appreciated Dave Glyde's explanation of the WWII influence in the first drum feature. Discussion afterwards about how the Devils complete an idea in that there's very little else to say about it afterwards. Everything just worked. They execute better than anyone else, and they have more depth in what all they've thought about with the concept. Both Sides Now is delightful, though I wish they were doing more of the original Joni Mitchell version than the Herbie Hancock interpretation. Scores: I appreciate that they left space between Boston and Cadets for where Vanguard's fifth place island (a la 2015) would have been Predictions: I would probably put BD tops because they continue to have the deepest layering of concept and because they clearly execute more cleanly than everyone. But I don't think someone else scraping things up is out of the question. The wild card, bluntly, is Cavies (assisted by the ability to go back and readjust numbers after everyone, and a lesser impact from Cadets as well). Percussion scoring wasn't particularly close in 2010 (not were the overall placements--Devils were typically ~a point up during Finals week), but the percussion scores at the top were depressed relative to other captions because the percussion judges, being conservative, generally gave Phantom scores that left space for 3-5 corps over them, just in case--the top percussion score at Finals was a 19.6, compared to 19.8 and above elsewhere. I don't know what effect that has on the competitive dynamics in the top four--does percussion have less impact because there's another corps likely over top of them, so everything else matters more? Does it have more impact because the percussion rankings tend to have more discrepancy from the rest of the rankings and suggest that there's more potential to drop? I'm not sure.

Eh, I can see there being more appreciation for a Broken City book from the booth than the field. But thank you for pointing out it was Romanowski who popped them first--I'd missed that on my first read.

They really are. Possible I'm dino'ing myself and that's...fine, I guess. Or that last night was a bad read for me because of distraction. But I'm probably not making it to a live show this year, so... oh well. I'll probably have strong positive opinions on everything by Prelims.

Last night on Flo high cam was my first read of the season. Some scattered thoughts, noting that (a) I was on Flo, (b) high cam only, so no details, (c) on a 13 inch laptop screen because the room with the TV is being repainted, and (d) in the midst of the show my baseball team traded for Max Scherzer: Madison felt more Madison than last year's show. Probably because what I caught of it around Internet rebooting was hats and Latin. Music City was a solid 'fine.' Same with BK and Pac Crest. I adored Troop but I'm a Troopers mark. Would like a bit less cheese at the end, but really enjoying the body of that show. Harmonica good. I don't think I'd realized quite how much brass arranging in DCI had changed in my time watching DCI until Cavies returned me to the music-that-sounds-like-a-screen-door-slamming era. The show it most resembles to me musically is 2001, which is...fine, if you're pairing it with the early 2000s Cavies visual package. Didn't work as much for me here. But that battery is fantastic, and a nice tribute to the idea that keeping good people in place long term pays dividends. Cadets brass doesn't play much, do they? Kinda wish they had a different uniform--not the classic uniform, but something that feels a bit less rehearsal-uniform-ish. But the uniform reads well, and the visual stuff they're doing is good. I need another read on Crown. Because most of what I got is that I'm getting bored with Crown brass books. They're starting to feel gratuitous in a way that isn't particularly enjoyable--akin to an outdoor orchestra concert I attended several years ago where they programmed Carnival of Venice and about two thirds of the way through the audience started applauding because it was impressive and also because we were bored out of our minds. Phantom doing Muse is confusing but works? Mildly baffled by it. Also baffled as to how Phantom-y they are without really having any of the Phantom hallmarks visually. Also baffled as to how much I enjoyed this. Bloo: I'm tired of their Sixties kick. I appreciate that the narration comes from the source music, but this year's set isn't really my cup of tea. And scorching hot take: Bloo hasn't had an ending that improved the show since 2014. 2015 was fine, but didn't dramatically alter the show. 2016 and 2018 just needed endings that landed the plane and they did that; 2017 was...fine; 2019 the new ending was dramatically worse; they had no clue how to end the show last year; and not sure they do this year either. I might not be cool enough for Bloo. Or too old for it. And that's ok. Boston: it's Crown 2010 redux. And...I feel like BAC can't get out of their way with musical selections in some cases? It consistently feels like they're wedging things in that don't work. It was My Shot and Gonna Fly Now in 2019, Can't Take My Eyes Off of You last year, Wellerman and Shipping this year. Part of me wants to adore this show because On the Waterfront is secretly my favorite Bernstein, but...it was a solid miss for me. BD: not the best BD show ever. Best thing on the field by a mile this year. Overall: based on what I saw last night I kinda want to send everyone's design team home and say try again? There was no great show anywhere on the field on first read with maybe the exception of Phantom maybe, and that's a shame, because they all have elements of greatness. Maybe it was just my read yesterday and I'll have a different opinion next time I watch.

That show would have benefited in my estimation from not having Fan Network that year so I saw it regularly. Start of the year it was "oh wow, they're going there." By the end of the year it was a bit "yes, yes, we got the point, and now you just sound like you're whining." Like, the baby powder was against the rules.