Tad_MMA

Someone I know called this "a viciously racist parody." I shot back, "It's a wonderfully vicious RACIAL parody." I'm trying to remember who in Hollywood referred to Rita as "that Puerto Rican Pepper Pot." It was around the time that Sinatra said about (first ever black) Oscar host Sammy D .Jr, "...he looks like a headwaiter in a rib joint somewhere."

In his boring words, Spielberg wanted to show Americans as refugees. We (not him...not his phony Hollywood colleagues) need to be knocked down a peg. The same man who made "Schindler's List" (he begged on Oscar night: "Teach this in your schools!") made the garbage political essay "Munich" which sure as hell sounded like, "Hold on! Let's hear everyone's point of view!"

And nobody counts the Cadets' 1994 WSS among the best-ever shows. Oddly, it's what G Hopkins WANTED '84 to be. "Cool," "Mambo," "Somewhere." M Cesario said, "Nuh uh. We'll open with 'Maria,'" and everybody looked at him like, Whaaa? To have grabbed 13 minutes out of a 2½ hour stage show with only a few "I love that song!" moments was brilliant.

Only 3 shots of the Martians. Spielberg had to have one rush the camera to generate emotion. zzzzzzz And a little girl was more frightened of the spider on her face than scary beings killing everything in sight.

Hilarious. The original FB was better: "...moofie BERDDDDDDDDSION...of The Rink..." Also, at the end, they replaced "Debbie Allen" with "Ruthie Henshaw" (I think.) Who is the latter?

Right. Because machines buried on Earth 1M years ago (AND NEVER DISCOVERED) start right up. Conceptually, it was stupid from the start and stayed there. George Pal couldn't afford the FX in '53 to use tripods; the flying machines were absolutely creepy. And I studied the novel and the original film for post-grad work - you have no case here.

I'm sure you've heard the Forbidden Broadway "Chita/Rita" parody. Hysterical.

Robbins/Wise won (co)Directing Oscars even though Robbins had been fired from the production. Neither thanked the other on stage. Good Heavens, as long as they're remaking HUGE Academy Award-winning films, will Spielberg take a crack at Titanic or Lord of the Rings, ROTK? Maybe All About Eve? I'm sure the completely replaceable Bette Davis could be forgotten, right? His horrible War of the Worlds remake (2005) was a bad copy of Independence Day which was a stinko copy of the terrific 1953 WOTW.

I'd commit a felony or two to see the last minute of BD 1986 high camera. I basically know HOW they get to the company front, but I need to relive it. Plus, I'd like to "judge" BD vs Spirit in Guard. (ahem)

Do you mean a High Camera tape where you actually SEE the company front develop and happen? I swore I saw the full semi final show on YouTube, but I can't find it now. I'll try to upload my copy, but it's old and a bit grainy by now.

The Cadets put out a DVD set honoring the 20th anniversary of their threepeat. Aside from the performances which are already available online, there are two fascinating conversations about how they got where they are -- or were. I think everything is uploaded properly (and I hope they leave it -- there's some great history here). My channel is Vee 10, and the first vid is at

*cracks knuckles* 1985 is simply the best DCI show ever done. Period. 1993 is power, performance and ENTERTAINMENT. 1984 not only set the modern standard (82 & 83 were toes in the water), but it, with '85 & '87, is the epitome of Ensemble. 1995 is their best ever not to win. So much Wow. 1997 was Sacktig's best drill with terrific music. ****************************************************** 2004: I could fall asleep to this snoozefest. 2006: <barf> 2008: <rebarf> 2010: <choke on barf> 2016 & 2017: Lost tradition and identity. Something's gotta give. But it won't.

Is there a recording of their marching warmup anywhere? PBS only catches the tail end. (Steve R: "They're just warming up, folks; you're not missing anything." Oh really?) Still one of the most underrated musical books out there. I just listened to the symphony -- they arranged the heck out of it! Too bad they had to follow Madison. Yikes. Halp!

Let's see. Had Star '93 marched two overaged members all season, would they have been forgiven and forever rationalized, unlike the Royer-less Muchachos and Bridgemen? Would they have won GE Visual on Finals night with two glaring holes and about 60% of last year's drill? Had Star's hornline been as bloated, overblown and obviously out of tune but yet still rated 0.1 behind Phantom's amazing display of sensitivity and technical perfection? Wait...what was the question?

Halp! A friend and I are fighting an all-out WAR regarding the 1991 Best Color Guard Award. I told him in July '91 that the Cadets were going to win it in Dallas, and in his eloquent, dulcet way, he told me I was full of --- excrement. He has high cam Star, Cavies, Phantom, BD -- all of which he said "should have beaten Cadets in guard." (B to the S) I KNOW DCI sold individual high cam tapes back then, and somebody has to have it. I can't find it on YT. Anybody? Also, the Cadets' 1998 show has to have high cam as well. In the drill move closing the first (fast) section, the camera cuts to field level, and it's maddening trying to remember that move (ends in a company front). Halp! (I put this in Marketplace once, but there wasn't any traffic.)

Does anyone have or know of High Camera videos of Cadets from 1991, 1995 and 1998? More DCI stuff keeps cropping up on YouTube, but my search engines said, "ENOUGH!" Halp! Sometimes, the tour videos do a late-season high cam performance (1997 for sure), but not on the 95/98 tours. Boo. For 1991 & 1995, I just want to see the entire guard performances; for '98, I'm going MAD as the videos don't show the drill that ends the first section.

The only corps to make Finals every year of DCI's existence, and they've won High Brass twice ('84 & '87) -- and even then, not outright. If they could somehow get Klesch and Harloff in their camp, they'd win a lot more.

This started last year in conjunction with the judges' added .05. I say ONLY when there is a third decimal in the averaged drum score can a 4th decimal appear in a total score. You disagree; show me. fromthepressbox.com has all the numbers, although they round final scores to 3 decimal places. Look at the dci.org recaps from finals week.

No, it's the new numbers management with the .05 option for a judge's subcaption (10 pt). In GE, if there is an odd 0.5, it will average/total 3 decimal places. Same with the 3 visual numbers. The two Percussion numbers are averaged alone before adding the ensuing 3 music numbers and diving by two. The only possible equation to arrive at a FOURTH decimal place is to have a final drum score of 3 decimal places. e.g.: 19.3 + 19.4 + (19.2+19.25) = 57.925 Then /2 = 28.9625 or... 28.963. I'm sure a mediocre IT person employed by DCI could make it possible to add the 4th (10,000th) decimal place for official scoring & publication. By the way, unless my calculations are incorrect (I've algorthimed myself into a stupor), the SLIMMEST possible margin would be .0125. I used '08's PR/BD numbers and added a .05 to one of BD's drum scores. I (heart) Math.

Welp, this wouldn't be an issue if the drum community hadn't whined its way back to two judges. (Why only one color guard judge? Brass? Visual Analysis?) I know: battery and pit. If it's so important to have Field and Ensemble, then two brass judges are surely needed.

What rule? The last time that was utilized was in 1987 when BD performed after the two-way horserace of Garfield & SCV. They finished a distant 4th-- with a full point below Garfield's 10s in field/ensemble drums (and a 0.8 spread in GE Drums). In 1988, the order of the top 5 was selected by big, gimmicky cards, and Garfield arbitrarily chose #12. Beginning in 1989 and continuing through last night, whoever won semis went last.

Look at 2003 prelims. Cadets' guard was placed FIFTH in prelims, yet they won semifinals. Finals was basically an either/or with BD. But 5th? That judge never did championship week again. Ditto 1987. The TREND was SCV beating Garfield in GE Visual (comfortably) all season. In semis, SCV was scored 14.7 and then Garfield 14.9. In Finals, it was Cavies 14.1, SCV 14.6, Garfield 14.0. The Finals judge was then delegated to west coast only. Hmm.

They re-imagine it frequently. The numbers stay the same--- 10 + 10 = 20 for ALL judges, which is greatly consistent. Gone are the Visual Ensemble, Music Ensemble (both now Analysis like in the OLD days) and Visual Performance (Proficiency) captions. We used to have one drum judge---then two---then one---again two. It's Field and Ensemble again. It used to be Visual judges only doing Visual GE; ditto for Music. Now it's supposedly a mixed bag, though they CAN lean toward their field. The 1994-1999 system was very inconsistent from area to area. GE Visual was 20 pts; Ensemble Visual was 15; Field Visual was 10. The change in 2000 made the subcaptions far more consistent.

A fair example of this is Garfield 1986. After 3 (4?) years of very positive judging and a threepeat, they were suddenly holding around 9th place, losing to everyone including Spirit, Madison and Star (eventual 6-8 finishers). I don't know about the opener, but they did remove some of the brass licks in the closer, adding them to the (VERY good) pit. There was no Tour of Champs or anytime where all top corps competed together until Semifinals (no Thursday until 1989). So, they kept at it and very nearly beat the 3rd place Cavies at Finals due to their 2nd place percussion. The point is that performance caught up with design for the most part. There was still an obvious deficiency in marching, even in Finals (the scoring reflected this), but the Brass/Percussion Effect was undeniable. Seeing them in Canton in June, it was like 1983-1985 didn't exist. They couldn't get out of their own way, and Madison beat them by almost 8 points --- a 12-pt swing by Finals.

"Is that what my hair looks like?" - H. Grainger