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jasgre2000

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Everything posted by jasgre2000

  1. I agree and disagree with you. I agree that they don't care about audience reaction and getting a loud standing ovation at the end of their show (though I think their new ending is a lot more exciting than the old one). I loved BD's show the first time I saw it, and yet ... I never felt compelled to stand up and cheer for them. It just isn't that type of show. It is still one of my favorites though. At the same time, though, I disagree that they are not tying to "get the crowd." At least with respect to a certain segment of the crowd. There are a lot of people that really like BD's show this year that aren't "BD honks" (as the critics like to call them). I think the BD staff knows that the people who will like the show are there and are catering them. They could care less about those that only care about playing loud and familiar music. BD is certainly not going for mass appeal, but I do think they are trying to impress a certain segment of the crowd that likes more abstract and creative art that causes you to think. Those people are in the crowd, despite the assertions of some.
  2. Interesting that Crown is getting beat by Phantom and Cadets in some of the visual categories now too. Is that a new development? It seems like they have been 1 or 2 in all the captions except percussion most of the season.
  3. LOL ... I caught that too. I actually enjoyed their show a lot more tonight than I have so far this season. I don't know why ... maybe I gave it more of a chance than I have in the past. I still hate the Jingle Bells part, but the show is really well designed and they are performing it well.
  4. The kids were fine. It was the 40-50 year old that was the ###### bag.
  5. Can you point to something specific? I just don't see it. I see a lot more flaws in Boston's show that I am not seeing in the Cavies' show. Maybe they just do a better job of hiding them.
  6. I would actually suggest that if you want to see how well they are executing, that you try to take yourself out of the overall concept and just focus on the way they move for a while ... and then listen to what they are playing. They are executing the show amazingly. I love the show as a whole (both visually and musically), but if you try to take yourself out of theme and just focus on specific aspects of their performance, you will see why they are scoring so high. Maybe just focus on one particular performer for an extended period of time. Not that the other corps aren't performing at a high level also. Crown's performance tonight was amazing.
  7. Where did I rip them? I expressed my opinion ... just like you did. Quit being a tool.
  8. I can't help but wonder if the Cavies would be placing in the Top 4 right now if they had started the season with most of their show done like they did last year. I am obviously not an expert, but I watched the show tonight it didn't look that much different than other Cavies' shows from the last 3 or 4 years. Is the Cavies performance level really that much different than it has been the last few years? I admit there were a couple muddy spots in the music, put I could also point to dirty parts in almost every other show as well. With that said, I don't know who I would put the Cavies above this year. The Top 6 are all phenomenal this year. I just think the Cavies have ended the season belonging in the same conversation with the Top 6, and I suspect that if they had started the season higher they would probably have been placing somewhere around 3rd or 4th this year. Am I completely off base? Are they making mistakes that I am not seeing? I am actually liking the show design much more than I did even a few weeks ago. I am a little surprised that they are so close to Boston in score. I love Boston (in fact, I like Boston's show better than the Cavies'), but they look a lot more sloppy than the Cavies to me.
  9. Ugghhh ... anyone else have to deal with ###### bag drum corps fans during the theater show? My theater was not very full, but a bunch of high school marching band kids were there to see some of their friends who were marching in various corps, including the Blue Devils. Sitting right in front of them is this big middle age guy with a Troopers shirt on that yells out as the announcers are talking about the Blue Devils, "Their Show Sucks!" at the top of his lungs, as if the whole world cared what his opinion about the Blue Devils was. I was pretty disappointed with the theater show overall, to be honest. Not only do you have to deal with obnoxious people making rude comments during the show, but I wasn't that impressed with the video quality. I thought the shows look much better on the high quality internet stream on my HD TV. As for the weather, not much DCI could do about it ... although how often do you see an ESPN or other TV broadcast of a live event go out because of weather? I am positive they could have avoided the technical problems if they had better equipment. It might have been cost prohibitive to get better satellite equipment though. I'm guessing the stadium has a fiber connection (being as new as it is) ... they should look into finding out if they could use that to avoid weather problems in the future. Didn't they have weather problems last year too? The corps were all impressive. It felt like everyone stepped up tonight. I was surprised that Crown wasn't closer to BD. I thought they were phenomenal tonight, and wouldn't have been surprised if they had beaten BD tonight (though I like BD's show better than Crown's this year). The spread was bigger than I thought though, and it looks like BD winning is a foregone conclusion.
  10. But even if it is recognizable and accessible, what good is that if it isn't also appealing? Maybe I am totally off-base in my judgment, but I imagine there are a lot of non-DCI fans that would see the show and decide they wouldn't ever be a drum corps fan. Compare that to Crown's 2011 show or Jersey Shore's show this year. Both of those shows are also recognizable and accessible, but they are also shows that I feel would excite a non-DCI fan. Perhaps I am completely overlooking a particular non-DCI fan demographic that would get excited about the Christmas show.
  11. Thanks! Anyone know what the story is with the Cavaliers' 2011 music?
  12. I was just rewatching some shows from 2011 on the fan network, and I noticed that large portions of The Cavaliers' show were silent with the caption "Audio removed for copyright purposes" (or something to that affect). That might be old news to some, but I thought I remembered watching the show earlier this year or last year without the editing. I presume that there is some type of DCI requirement that corps get the live performance rights to all the music they are using in a particular show. Should there also be a requirement that corps make sure they get the rights to have the music recorded before they can use it in a show? If DCI plans on having the fan network and DVDs as a source of income, it would seem to make sense to require corps to make sure they are using music that can be incorporated into recordings. Am I totally off base here? Would this be a requirement that would be too burdensome on corps?
  13. You are right. It is the concept that I am not a fan of, the design if very good (except for the arrangement of Jingle Bells, which I find pretty cheesy). I should have been more precise. And for the record, I have no problems with the religious aspects of the show. I am a devoutly religious person myself. I just don't really like Christmas music, and I hate cheesy drum corps shows. I am not really criticizing the choice of Christmas music though, just trying to understand what the thinking might have been behind it. Thanks for your insights.
  14. The Academy is a relatively new drum corps (is it the youngest corps in DCI?) that has made a lot of progress since being founded in 2001. Who was behind starting it? I certainly think there are plenty of places that could support a corps if the right people are there to support it. Salt Lake City, for example, is a place where people place a lot of emphasis on the arts. There are several quality marching band programs there that could place people in a local corps.
  15. I have been trying to figure out why The Cadets decided to do a Christmas show this year. Were they thinking that everyone likes Christmas music and therefore a Christmas show would have a lot of audience appeal? Is it about a message they are trying to promote? Did they think it would appeal to the members of the corps, because it is cool? Is it an attempt to build the DCI fanbase by doing a show a lay person could easily understand? In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a big fan of the show design (I am one of the few that doesn't really like Christmas music all the much). However, this post isn't meant to rip on The Cadets or to criticize the show. We have talked a lot about what the Blue Devils are trying to do (or what message they are trying to send) with their show design, but I think in many ways The Cadets show is as much of a statement as the Blue Devils show is. Based on recent history, my guess is that the show was designed as an attempt to try and bring in non-DCI fans by doing a straight forward easy to understand show. In my opinion, if that is the goal, it is not successful at doing so. I think most people that are not already drum corps fans would laugh at the show, but I also admit that might just be my personal bias against the design speaking. I could be wrong though. Perhaps they just thought that it would be appealing to kids that wanted to participate in the corps this year. If that was their goal, then it probably was a success as the members of the corps are performing very well and seem to have bought into it. I hope this doesn't offend anyone ... that isn't my intention (though it seems to happen regularly regardless of my intentions). Just thought it was an interest topic that I hadn't seen discussed this year.
  16. I would love to see more live shows ... if only there were live shows to attend in the half of the country I live in.
  17. I have no idea when you marched or where, but my understanding is that where I grew up (Colorado), high school marching band really started to develop as a competitive activity in the late 70s and early 80s, right around the same time when there was a major shift in the size and approach of DCI. It would be interesting to do more research on this issue to see if my speculation is correct, and if it was a nation-wide phenomenon.
  18. Yeah ... I don't think that makes very good business sense. It takes a lot of money to start a corps. If there is no demand, there is no reason to focus on starting more corps.
  19. You do realize that the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the organization that awards the Academy Awards) consists of a bunch of old white men that have been a part of the industry for a long time, don't you? It shouldn't be surprising that they awarded something that appealed so strongly to their sense of nostalgia. If all the judges in DCI today were drum corps participants in the 60s and 70s, I imagine they would be fond of a retro-style show too. Also note that if all contemporary movies were like The Artist (silent films), people would stop going to movies in today's world. Celebrating nostalgia can be heart-warming, but abandoning the progress that has been made over the years in favor of a return to the past is a guaranteed trip to the dust bin of history for DCI. You also have to recognize that The Artist was very well directed, acted, and produced. It didn't win only because it appealed to the nostalgia of The Academy (though the nostalgia was definitely a factor). It won because it was a GOOD movie that appealed to the nostalgia of The Academy. If a corps does a GOOD job of designing and executing a show that appeals to the nostalgia of drum corps, I'm sure the judges will be more than happy to reward them.
  20. But why do we need to grow to the number of kids there were in the past? Don't we need to answer that question before making any drastic changes? If there isn't demand for more corps (and based on how difficult it is for some corps to keep their numbers up, it seems like demand for more spots is low), why would we change the entire model of DCI to try to create more corps? I think the decrease in the size of DCI has as much to do with kids not feeling the desire to participate in drum corps (because they are satisfied with marching band) as anything else. Are there people clamoring to join a corps that don't have the opportunity to do it?
  21. There are less kids participating in drum corps, but there are more kids participating in high school marching bands and other marching related activities. Drum corps has just literally become the "major leagues" for the best high school marching band students around the country. That is certainly a change from the way things were in the past, but I don't know that we have enough information to decide whether that is a good or bad thing. High School marching band is a MUCH different animal than it was in the 70s and 80s, just like drum corps is MUCH different than it was during that period. Things have certainly changed ... it is not clear that it is a bad thing. Are there kids that want to participate in DCI that aren't getting the opportunity? I doubt it.
  22. Clearly there are people that are willing to give them extra money to watch a live stream of finals, but will never attend finals live (for whatever reason). That is free money that they are leaving on the table. It makes no sense at all.
  23. Is attendance down for the regional DCI shows that are streamed live? I don't but this excuse.
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