Geneva

My best memory of that 1971 season with Geneva was U.S. Open finals. We started very slowly that year and were lucky to have fielded a corps at all at state. We gained momentum quickly over the next couple weeks. Sure, the 7 horn players we used from Tri-Town helped, but we had a solid 37 of our own! Ahh, the memories.

Utica Yankees filed the protest.

Keith, in reference to St. Joe’s being “snubbed” by DCI, I think more likely is that this was a corps at the end of its game by 1971. It is perhaps an indelicate subject, but this was a corps that perhaps set a high water mark for overage members. To be sure, it was not uncommon for many of the national contenders of the day to have some overage. However, with St. Joe’s it was more than a few. I competed against this corps week in and week out from 1966-71 and I can remember standing next to them at retreat as a 13 year old in 1966 thinking that when our average age was 18-20 as theirs appeare

(Left to Right) Norm Peth, Bill Calhoun, Jack Pratt

Sad to hear. He was a valuable source I used when I wrote the history of the Geneva Appleknockers for Steve Vickers’ “A History of Drum and Bugle Corps” vol 2. He was a snare drummer in the Appleknockers senior corps circa 1947-51 as a young man. When he learned that one of my sons was a drummer, he mailed me several of his drum solo books for his use! I was impressed by his kindness and generosity.

Anyone else note the irony of Madison’s, “A Young Person’s Introduction to the Orchestra”? It was first played by SCV and was a part of their 1974 show which upset Madison for what would have been their first DCI Championship.

I think this show concept has promise especially if paired with some of the movements of Carmina Burana. Having performed some of this work of Carl Orff it’s power and beauty would be well suited. Phantom has not had the power and drama for which they are reputed for several seasons now. This could be the ticket. I hope they steer clear of being overly literal with their presentation or making this into a female version of Spartacus.

My thanks to N.E. Brigand for filling me in on the competitors prior to my group (Brig Juice). The quality of the performance space was much appreciated! Crowd was enthusiastic, but I would like to have feen a few more butts in the seats. Nice to know that we also had an online audience.

Yes, mesmerizing and driving at the same time!

What I like a bout BK is that the music is more central to their show

Well, definitely not your dad's drum corps! I think they broke some new ground which is hard to do in today's corps world.

Fits their weird theme.

Nice feature on Mandarins with whom I am less familiar.

I wish that Flo would fill some of the dead time between corps with some program notes on the upcoming corps. I feel that I am missing a lot about show intent.

I agree. It was a nice balance especially with the initial old school look.

Interesting that Troopers changed to a retro look

Impressive embouchre and airstream control on the trumpet/flugelhorn soloist

Well, I certainly disagree with that placement. I felt that Cavies show was cutesy and cacophonous while there was so much more style in Bluecoats show which for me was much more entertaining.

I hope so. I think it is a better show !

J Willis I appreciate your viewpoints. Thanks for taking the time to share them.

In an attempt to understand the criteria by which the judges are arriving at their scores, can someone explain or direct me to a discussion of caption determinants. I am old school from the tick days. What I notice is the subjectivity, the increased value of color guard and visual, and percussion being subsumed within the music caption. In regards to the latter, this makes sense to me since due to the equality of percussion and brass in the old days, when most observers were more tuned into the bugle caption, often led to surprising outcomes for the casual observer. Thanks for helping m

Best of luck to your son and SCV! Loved them ever since first seeing them while standing on the ready line with my corps in 1969.

Probably a good approach. Some of the storylines are so abstract or their depiction is so distracted that it just makes me a feel like I am viewing a lot of frenetic energy leaving me puzzled as to what the objective is and leaving me unsatisfied.

Good point about how refreshing it is to just enjoy great music and visuals without wondering if there is something in the storyline that you are missing. I was very impressed with the show end trumpet twosome! Some really excellent playing!

I get where you are coming from. We agree to disagree!