Slingerland

Ah - sorry for the misread. Personally, I'm encouraged to see less predictability in the captions night to night. Maybe we're finally getting back to the time when a performance is judged on its merits rather than on what's "supposed" to happen.

They were 3rd in DeKalb and 2nd in LaCrosse, facing most of the same competition. They might not win drums at a show, but they're consistently just under the top, regardless of who wins. I'd say that's a better mark of consistency than not.

Did you see my post about clown paintings earlier in the day? That was a clown painting encore.

no offense to the kids in Crown...but for the love of all that's sacred, please make this encore stop.

Ouch snares. 16th notes, dudes!

clearly the spinning motion isn't that disorienting on this contest, since it's two nights in a row when the kid ran right to the flag

I think Cavaliers are safe over Regiment tonight.

People, hats off, and hands over the heart on the National Anthem. It's not that hard.

You could hear him speaking the lines from the platform in DeKalb at the pre-show, when his mic wasn't working. He's not lip synching.

Whatever it is, let's hope it's not from the Sue Mengers collection again.

It's cool. My note was not related to the texts (which often use an alternate spelling - but the pronunciation is still the same as "lour'd.") I'm simply hoping someone on staff sees it and corrects it, since they probably don't want the Scarecrow to sound like he's from...well....Kansas.

Tip to anyone on Colts staff - the word "lour'd" in Shakespeare is pronounced to rhyme with "soured." It's an older English word that has changed over time to what we now use as "glowered." The clouds were looking balefully at the House of York - they weren't sitting on it. In no case is it "lowered" as in "lowered the curtain."

Considering that his mic wasn't working last night during the pre-show bit, but you could still (barely) hear him in the stands, he's clearly delivering a live performance. Can we just snopes this whole thing now?

Easy. They don't place anyone in a spot. They judge their caption, and the total is what it is. It's a very competitive year this year, and all of the top corps brought their A-games to the field. If they're 4th at Finals, but the audience likes the show, then who cares? That fan appreciation will be worth more to them as an organization than having a trophy sitting in their office, since every person who likes them enough to buy a t-shirt, make a donation, or show up in November at auditions is what keeps these corps going, not placement. As for the patch, I was in DeKalb, and agree that there was a noticeable drop-off in volume when they transitioned in and out of it. Diminishes the effect pretty badly.

Usually the same people who like this. Cadets went with a concept (using Lincoln Portrait's basic concept and expanding it to two other Presidents). We can quibble about whether they're doing that effectively or not, but the aesthetic behind the concept is hardly cutting edge, given that Copland's piece is 60 or 70 years old, and has been a staple of the American orchestral rep since the day it premiered.

Short and sweet: the show is about the idea of transition (specifically in a 1960s context). It's actually a pretty good idea for a show using these two composers. And yet, what should be the central action of the show (the act of transitioning) is non-existent. The actual metamorphosis from the Mad Men 1960s to the Carnaby Row/Haight-Ashbury 60s never happens on the field except via costume changes in the guard. Shouldn't there have been a piece of music that was very specifically arranged to highlight this radical shift in style and sound? Probably, yeah. It's a good idea that was never fleshed out past the barest essentials.

PR /Cavies gets less interesting the more often Rosemont wins and the bigger the spread becomes.The story for Cavaliers now is more about where they are in relation to Vanguard, I think.

How do you feel about Lincoln's political, sappy, sentimental views?

You can make more money doing one little parade than you can doing a DCI contest. Not doing them on days when you know they're out there makes no financial sense. Some of the corps will do two or three on July 4th, which goes a long way to filling the fuel tanks and buying the food for that week.

1) Blue Devils 2) Bluecoats 3) Cadets 4) Crown 5) Cavaliers 6) SCV 7) Phantom Regiment 8) Madison Scouts 9) Blue Knights 10) Boston 11) Blue Stars 12) Spirit 13) Troopers 14) Crossmen 15) Oregon Crusaders 16) Colts

The only thing that matters in guestimating current rankings (which is all any of us are doing) is the present day. Real time very recent results show that Vanguard's numbers have been closer to BD's than Cavaliers'. It's reasonable to use that information in positing that it's most likely that were they to be on the same field, right now (not in two weeks, or another month), that Vanguard would have a slight point/placement advantage over Rosemont. If you want to know, my guess is that by the end of the season, Cavaliers will actually end up placing on top of Santa Clara, and that they might even have an outside shot of beating Crown for the 4th spot. But that's for time to tell; right now, they'd be more likely to finish 6th in a G7 matchup rather than 4th or 5th.

I've watched the show numerous times, and it's just not selling yet. The visual stuff that's cool/hard is so dirty as to be un-rewardable upstairs. And the shape of the show feels pretty random, rather than being built around a thesis that's developed and resolved. Good elements in the writing, and some interesting ideas, visually, but they've got their work cut out for them to get the whole package ready for prime time.

It's all about the spreads, Kemosabe. BD was 2.7 up over Vanguard on Sunday, and then 3.9 over Cavaliers last night in Iowa. When you don't have head to heads, relative spreads are the next best thing. Is it possible that Cavaliers would be outscoring Vanguard right now? Sure, but if you look at the spreads between corps A and B, and A and C, and see that C is spread out further than B, it's a safe assumption that were all three to be together, that they'd be ranked A, B, C.

Not really. Two different panels, two different shows. The real spread is probably closer to 2 to 2.5 points between BD and the Bloo/Cadets/Crown pack, with SCV and Cavaliers hanging in a 3 to 4 points off BD. We'll see how this weekend goes for them, but I have a feeling Regiment is going to be hanging in the 7 spot on their own for awhile.

Saw them last Saturday in Madison. Forms are much cleaner, marching technique has been tightened up further, and the horn line is doing a much better job of supporting the phrases (the fallouts on long notes have been greatly reduced). The show always had more GE and Analysis potential than Regiment's, so I wasn't surprised to see them push past. Until they see SCV head to head, it's going to be hard to know who's really in the driver's seat for the 5 spot, since program design wise, they're both equally solid (neither is championship material, but neither are either 9th place stuff).