bawker

1. Cadets 2. SCV 3. Blue Devils B (please listen to this show if you don't think Open Class can hang with World Class) 4. Oregon Crusaders (one to watch in the coming years. Wow.) 4. Blue Devils 5. Crown Jersey Surf gets an HM, but, man . . .they've got to get the performance numbers up. It's a lot easier to sell the "vibe" if you're clean!

Yup. Pour it on, Cadets . . .wring every bit of GE and emotion out of this as the home stretch starts. Still pulling for this to take it home Finals night.

Closed (at authors request).

Dude, it's Wolverine!

Program doesn't try to over-reach for the kids, some nice moments already.

Yeah, putting out some nice volume. Hella impressive for a first year unit.

This only proves . . .again . . .that Hop needs someone to do his PR for him. Between this, the job postings that backhandedly comment on the previous holder of the position and some other gaffes, there just needs to be an internal filter in place before something hits Facebook, etc. No one doubts the sincerity and devotion he brings to the position . . .but, as said "CEO of a 5 million dollar non-profit", it's in your best interest to be as gracious and "PC" as possible, especially in an environment that relies heavily on volunteers and donations to keep going. I get that he's genuinely sorry . . .but there's no reason this should have to happen again.

West Carteret is an excellent program . . .many kudos to BAC for assisting.

Great episode of the Daily Show to boot. . .very cool.

Cadets > BD > Crown

Point is, no matter what the talent . . .the two up front (IMO) take away from the amazing talent of the 250+ behind 'em. Just not my personal cup of tea. . . .and, hey, at least it's not out there in competition.

I certainly would. Reducing 250+ brass to backup isn't my idea of drum corps.

. . .perhaps you need to tell the G7 that, then.

To me (and just me), I'd goose the sheets to make visual GE just a little less important, and give music GE just a slight edge over it. I think that alone could change the flow and programming on so many shows it would cover a lot of the "where's the musical phrasing?" or "chop 'n bop" complaints that people have had over the years about drum corps. Yeah, I know drum corps is about the blending of music/visual ("art that moves!"), but I guess I've always come down on the side of trying to shape the visual production to the will of the music charts. I couldn't tell you too many drill moves from the 1993 Blue Devils, but I know that entire music book in my head (note: this is not an indication that I want G bugles, or some other DINO RAWR SMASH stuff, just an observation: look at the amount of threads devoted to "favorite drill moves" versus "favorite music charts" for where I'm going with this). Not real worried about A&E and other stuff . . .at this point, I just want to be entertained. Anybody knows this far along in the A&E game that you have to cover your bases first with the primary ingredients of brass, percussion, and guard before you look at adding those kinds of things organically, lest you end up with BAC 2004 (shudder). Every drum corps since the beginning of time has programmed to what the sheets want, so any sort of far reaching "change" has to come from tweaking the judging criteria that has been set. I have no idea how to accomplish said tweak above, though.

Please make use of the Open Class forums to discuss other competing corps in that grouping in order to maintain the thread topic. Thanks!

Well, I wish they would spend a year not being "Classical's Greatest Hits". Yes, Spartacus was cool, and you can point to any number of shows like 93, 94 or 2006 and say it works. However, it's been a long while since Phantom took to exploring a single mammoth piece or just a single composer . . .Glass, Walton, Bruckner all offer challenges of their own. Something gargantuan like an entire symphony or oratorio . . . Yeah, 2010 was all Kamen I guess, but that show does absolutely nothing for me, and 2012 (Puccini) was a call back to 1991 to me for the most part. When Cadets (and BD a bit too) this year feel more "Phantom" than Phantom does to me, something is off. Perhaps it's Shaw leaving that's got me a bit off about them lately . . .although the SCV arrangements he's done have been very dry (this year especially). I dunno . . .I guess maybe it's what others have commented on in the thread with. . .the "lost love/journey" thematic stuff seems a bit threadbare now. Then again, my favorite Phantom Regiment show is 1995, so what do I know?

Seconded. I have a weak spot for the New Yorker, anyway . . .aside from Ross' stuff, it's how I picked up on Susan Orlean and David Rakoff.

It makes me cringe to even think about those shows . . .especially after the great opener Crown had in 2004. I'm glad BAC decided to veer far, far away from that show in the following years.

http://www.therestisnoise.com/2013/07/ligeti-at-the-50-yard-line.html (via SCV's Facebook) . . .not a long piece, and definitely focusing on the more avant-garde stuff of the past few years. Might be fun to get his take on the arguments of art v. entertainment we seasonally churn out here and to have someone a bit more objective look at the activity as a whole. Hopefully he ends up revisiting this around Finals . . .

That movie was gold, Jerry! GOLD! Ian Ziering + Chainsaw = amazing.

Nevertheless, I salute your perseverance through a night of ironic beards, vests and fedoras.

-10 GE points if there was someone wearing jodphurs and/or a scarf.

Good Lord, that vocal thing at the end of the show . . .just, no, DCI. Stop. You have 250+ brass players out there, and you chose that to end your show. Turrible. Just turrible. No knock on the talent of the two up front, but choosing that kind of production is wasting some good brass lines as backup. Anyhoo, Cadets have some time to do some visual rewrites; still picking them to win it. They'll catch BD at the next regional or so, although, if BD can really clean that monster, they'll cakewalk at Finals. I think this show might be one of those "if only we had another week after Finals" ones right now. Crown (sans narration) is pretty great, SCV is nice but the arrangements and show pacing leave me a bit flat, and I honestly started to like Phantom and the back half of the Cavaliers show a bit more this time around. Still trying to get into 'Coats. . . but the "Americana" stuff always feels a bit cloying to me, no matter who does it.

. . .every year since it's been offered.

Hell yes. The "cord cutters" (of which I am one) are only going to grow, and the future is in accessing content on your own terms . . . not what the broadcast networks deign to give the consumer.