seen-it-all

Nope. It never sounded great. It was usually a mess. A bunch of hornlines out of tune with each other, barely playing two notes together in time, with dummy lead trumpet players purposefully hanging releases.

Weird. I used to love that song when I was kid. Now, I will leap over furniture to turn the radio to another station whenever I hear that song.

Not always. Sometimes, people just like to try and reinvent the wheel. Others have tried before in this regard, and none of them have really turned the tide in terms of how corps generally march in this activity. I don't imagine many corps switching over to this style, and to be honest, I don't imagine Bluecoats sticking with it long term either. That's pure speculation on my part. As I said, reinventing the wheel isn't always necessary. Who said there was? He was talking about how he thinks it LOOKS. And I agree with him, both from a practical standpoint AND an aesthetic standpoint. I have no issues if they are rewarded for what they're doing, so long as it it performed uniformly (which it sounds like, based on his review, it wasn't). But that doesn't mean people have to like the way it looks.

They'll take care of it, I'm sure. This is a corps who used to put a scaffolding in the end zone so they could make sure the drill was clean from the side, where certain visual judges (whom the staff took prior note of said judges' on-field movements from show to show) would do their most traveling and observing during a performance. Yeah, I have no doubt that this will all be sorted out and performed, like everything else they do, with the kind of exacting standards we've come to expect from them.

From George's facebook page: Change day - part 2 with the Cadets. We are adding drill to the end of the first movement, we are changing the end of Medea and we pushed a little more into the drum break. More to come. Our commitment is to do all we can to have the best show possible. No do not settle. (I think he means 'We do not settle,' but as usual with Hop, some or the words get jumbled. At least he spelled them correctly!)

I don't recall the exact wording of the rule change, but the spirit behind it was that they be bell-front, with valves (hence, no trombones), pitched in any key, and that they visually "resemble" the (as then) current paradigm of drum corps bugles. Hence, no sousaphones.

But a trumpet is a trumpet and a tuba is a tuba, whether they are used in marching band or in drum corps.

Then call them whatever you want. Me personally, I prefer to call a trumpet a trumpet and a tuba a tuba. Because that's what they are. I'm nutty like that.

Some possibilities: - Something along the lines of what we already saw (and many diehard fans complained about) with the ESPN broadcasts. It's the current Olympics model where they show less and less of the actual events and more and more of the human interest stories. Compelling TV when done right, but I'm afraid that's not what the OP and many old school drum corps fans are looking for - Something along the lines of American Idol or the movie Drumline, perhaps with celebrity judges? Or perhaps drum corps becoming back-up groups to celebrity artists? Take a listen to what passes for popular music these days. Is that what you really want to hear drum corps play more of? - Shorter shows (or more heavily edited versions of existing shows) so advertisers can air more commercials - Look at drum corps in its current form. Now ask yourself how relevant the things which make it unique would be to advertisers or a more broad viewing base? Would they care about the traditions? Would they care about the instrumentation (or the "look" of the groups, with uniforms, rifles, etc)? If the activity was asked to CHANGE some of those things in order to expose it to a much wider audience, would you be OK with that? Even if it meant more electronics? Or eliminating the bando uniforms? Or use your imagination. Think about what a TV focus group of 40 or 50 average Americans who don't know a thing about drum corps would say about the activity when shown, for example, the 2012 DCI Finals and asked what changes would they like to see if they were to watch this on prime time national TV? Think about that and ask yourself, is this really what we want?

If you're really being sincere about pursuing a much broader audience for drum corps in this country (especially as it relates to getting more exposure on television), be prepared to see more changes that you might not be all that happy with to the activity you claim to love.

The last year Jim Coates spent any reasonable amount of time with the Crossmen was in 1999 when he was their director. They didn't move to Texas until after the 2006 season.

Oh, don't be surprised to read a few "it's a slap in the face to the fans" comments in the reviews if a corps dares to not march a complete drill. Or if they don't have all their show silks yet. It happens every year.

Emotionally void?? Seems like an odd comment. I've yet to see a show in mid-June from any corps that was emotionally gripping or compelling. That stuff usually comes around later once the shows are refined and performance quality rises. Some of my favorite shows over the years came out of nowhere and affected me emotionally in ways I never could have imagined when I first saw them in June.

You make it sound like they're going out there in purple and red pseudo-leotards with neon yellow polka dots and two foot long peacock feathers strapped to the backs of their heads. What they're doing is simply a theatrical use of show theme-specific costuming layered onto the existing SCV look. It falls along the same lines of what they've already done before, whether it was Fiddler's caps and the prayer shawls sewn onto the tunics, or the Russian fur hats, or Phantom masks, or totally switching the color scheme around (eliminating red as the primary color) and adding more overtly military enhancements for Miss Saigon. And based on the comments here and elsewhere I've seen and heard from fans, along with what I've heard from my friends on their staff, it hasn't cheapened anything, as the feedback they've gotten so far has been overwhelmingly positive. I think back to what they said on the PBS broadcast in the old days, they're "putting an opera on the field, with scenery and costumes and all the theatricality one would expect from a Broadway show on a football field."

Like: Cavaliers, Phantom, Vanguard, Troopers (minus the leg thing and "grouped" buttons on the jacket) Fence: Blue Devils, Crown (but I'm leaning towards liking them both because I can count on the fact that they'll most likely be utilized and showcased properly in the overall visual design) HATE: Bluecoats (no words), Madison, Colts, Blue Stars (I simply don't recognize this corps anymore)

I don't know what "weird alternate universe" you've been living in, but I see the Santa Clara Vanguard utilizing a more thorough sense of theatricality in their costuming (of the corps proper AND their color guard) in order to present their musical program and overall theme on the field. Not dissimilar (but maybe more of an extension) to what I saw in 1986 and 1987 for their Russian fantasy shows, 1988 and 1989 for their Phantom of the Opera shows, 1990 for their Carmen show, 1991 for their Miss Saigon show, 1994 for their Red Poppy show, and 1995 for their Nutcracker show. They're doing Les Mis this year. If anything, considering their actual history (and not some weird alternate universe), this is the kind of look I would EXPECT from the Vanguard for this type of program.