MotoSurfBass

This is ALMOST my line of thinking, but it feels like Bloo changed their approach this year, and their show isn't gonna run out of steam as badly as it did last year. I think they hold off the Cavies, though it will be #### close. Boston, IMHO, doesn't have a chance of medaling this year. I think catching Crown for 5th would be great (certainly doable!), but they don't have the design just yet to catch the top 4.

Nope. Not buying that tonight, judges.

58.35 Genesis 64.20 Colts 64.85 Madison Scouts 67.70 Blue Stars 67.95 Crossmen 69.75 Phantom Regiment 74.30 Cavaliers 75.55 Carolina Crown

That's it? Cavies gonna beat that.

CLOSER TIME

At Finals, 2011. At any show... not sure.

There are five corps this year that can honestly medal. I thought a week after the premiere I could put them into a 1A and 1B tier, but... truly, with the right breaks, any of these top five could finish between 1st and 5th. Dead honest.

1. I'm picking up a lot more musical cues and snippets here and there, and it helps the whole thing flow so much better! 2. Those red tarps they added make the visual package POP. This show is already on track to be another fast riser this year.

I was hoping the "Well, there's your problem!" would have indicated that I, too, was having a laugh at that. But tone never comes across well on the Interwebs, sooooo...

Any other year, this show would have me saying that Phantom is back on the rise. This year... boy, it honestly could be anywhere from 9th to 11th. There are gonna be a LOT of placements this year at Indy that do not correlate with the improvements of many corps.

Well there's your problem! You're trying to directly compare this to 89, when that was a straight up arrangement of the symphony itself, while this show only uses as a motif and a gorgeous ballad.

I just realized the snares are playing the tenor feature with traditional grip... and now I can't stop laughing while visualizing that over and over.

Shocked that I declare Madison not dead, or that I didn't like the Blue Stars show? Because yeah, it's not like I have a pattern with either of those two things...

If the bottom third of Finals right now is Phantom, Mandarins, Blue Stars, and Crossmen in some order... the Madison is not dead by any stretch of the imagination. Gonna be honest, that show did absolutely nothing for me.

Remember, it's still June.

Or if those yellow boots didn't emphasize the dirt in their feet.

I don't know if any visual design staff has ever put as much faith in their staff's ability to clean and their members' ability to perform cleanly than this group this year.

Yeah, the "sky is falling" crowd needs to tone it down juuuuuuuuust a hair. I see the flaws. The pacing is wonky, especially in the first half until the soloist shows up. The drum tuning was also bleh. But their horns can play, their drums can play, their visual package matches their music perfectly and is pretty clean for this point in the season. Will it make Finals? Honestly, I'm not sure. But that's because a certain purple group got a LOT better this year, and there may just not be room this year. I think this is a better show than last year, or at least it can be.

#### RIGHT THAT GUY IS LIVE!!!! He kills "Sweetness Follows!!"

Funeral for a Friend is absolutely bone-chilling. This show is going places.

I definitely remember Reading at DCI East in both 2007 and 2008, but not since then...

I won't bother trying to reply to any old-heads complaining about concepts, costumes, or any other design things. I agree it's not the greatest, but I still find it a far superior design to the Blue Stars this year. And getting into arguments isn't worth wasting my breath anymore. Same goes for arguing about the administration. Dann and Chris were great to me, and I have nothing but respect for them. Others obviously see them differently, and it's no use trying to argue with those people since, to them, the only people who can have an opinion on the Scouts are those who actually marched in a show with them. It's like arguing with an ancient brick wall. So I leave with this: if you want to clean sweep the administration and BoD and start over, be my guest. BUT, be very careful. If you don't both 1) bring LOTS of money to the table to keep the corps going strong during the transition and 2) find the right people to run things (hint hint, bringing back folks from the past and trying to recreate the "old days" is NOT a recipe for success in modern drum corps), you will find the Scouts no longer fighting to make Finals with the Mandarins, Stars, and Crossmen, but struggling to even make the Thursday night Cinecast with the Troopers and Colts. And believe me, losing THAT exposure will truly tank recruitment. It's time to put up or shut up. Be smart out there folks. Peace.

It's the classic "left brain, right brain" dichotomy show, only applied to the heart. The corps proper and the first half of the show are the literal, scientific function of the heart, while the soloist and guard (and the second half of the show) are about what the heart represents, essentially its spiritual function. I think the first half is coming off a bit too cheesy right now, and the second half needs to let loose a little more. But overall, it's has more room to grow and is far less cheesy than another Wisconsin group I know of...

VANGUARD!

That show has gold medal potential. It just needs to 1) have a no-holding-back closer and 2) for God's sake, unleash that hornline! Their top volume seems so much lower compared to the other top tier groups.