quietcity

"Italian designer" does not readily bring to mind visions of efficiency.

Well, an hour hand and a minute hand.

"De rigueur" means trendy and fashionable. Perhaps you meant "passé"? Or "gauche"? Or "superannuated?"

Cool idea, though a totally white field makes interval and form errors pop out like neon. Solution? Use totally white uniforms too!

I gotta say, if a corps gets thrown off by an errant soloist, they are doing something wrong.

I could make a further distinction: pre- and post-Gail Royer shows. Gail was the force that developed the musicals, the pageantry and the "semi-classical" shows. After his passing in 1992, SCV gradually moved into the more austere, modern and less sentimental kinds of shows. They have floated back and forth between these styles ever since. I loved Gail's influence and tastes, but I am very happy with SCV's current musical direction.

Yes, my mellophones, yes!

Those are tactical assault bugles. They cost $1million apiece.

As much as I would love to see it, wearing aussies for the last shows of the year is a terrible idea. Doing so would affect the marching members' carriage, head placement and vision, and they would not have time to adjust to the changes. This would lead to deleterious impact on intervals and lines of sight. Maybe FloMarching can add a virtual reality feature that digitally adds aussies. How about it, Flo?

Can DCI provide pre-recorded footage of the corps competing in the show? Would the station accept this? Better than nothing.

SCV keeping up with BD, me likes! (And yes, I know, different shows, blah blah blah). And Boston, just 0.1 behind SCV in brass, impressive! SCV, clean that brass, my friends, it may be the difference between #1 and #2 this year.

I donated! Good luck Pioneer!

If memory serves, BD was first to perform two years in a row at TOC in DeKalb, 2014 and 2015. They still won both times.

I was wondering who that bearded guy hanging around practice was!

My family and I took a road trip from Chicago to beautiful Oregon, IL, to watch SCV rehearse on the day of the DeKalb show. The corps members struck me as mature and highly disciplined but also relaxed, with what appeared to be a lot of camaraderie and playfulness when at ease. Watching the interaction between the instructional staff and corps was, well, instructive, and I got a much better appreciation of this Swiss watch of a show. It really helps to see such this complex and fast-moving presentation broken down into component bits and pieces. It was like watching a slo-mo of a fast soccer game. My favorite part was hearing one of the instructors telling the corps that their performance in the last show was great, but felt too safe. He urged them to push emotional boundaries, to give more to the audience. It is a confident corps that can be told to take some chances! When I watched their performance in DeKalb that night, I felt a deeper appreciation for the show. This was from seeing some of the mechanical underpinnings, but also from witnessing some of the human interactions that go on behind the scenes. A real thrill for this alum! I will post some pics if the day allows.....

I wonder if the Flo app is at fault. I don't use the app. I watch through Flo's website, connecting my computer to TV via HDMI. Works fine. DeKalb even sounded fine, much better than Minnesota a week before. No glitches or freezes. Using wi-fi for my connection.

This is a odd detail to overlook, especially for Cavies. This stadium has been used for drum corps for decades, and every mid-western corps is well acquainted with the infamous echo-chamber created by the vertical concrete wall beneath the cantilevered stands. (You can't really see this unless you are standing on the field.) Brasslines were always instructed to elevate their horns a little more than normal, to avoid the overhang. My first corps, the Fox Valley Raiders, held a weekend camp there in 1977(!), and we horn players had great fun applying the stadium's reverb effect to Jethro Tull licks.

What would be the effect of simply eliminating score caps during the championships? This would mean a judge could score over 20 in a caption, and over 100, but only for the last show of the year.

We have had no technical issues with Flo so far, the service has worked flawlessly. But, I do find fault with a couple things. Sound is anemic, lacking in detail and with poor sound-staging. I have an excellent home theater set-up (Marantz processor , 5.1 Triangle speakers), so that is not the problem. I keep turning up the volume hoping to get more nuance and richness, but it is simply not there. I am guessing part of the problem is mic placement in relation to the corps' speakers. Also, the multi-camera work is pretty bad. There are too many extended takes on minor details, while missing major visual impacts. I have yelled at the TV more than once. It reminds me of the awful Finals videos from the early 1980s. I will assume Flo is still learning each of the shows and will improve multi-cam by Finals.

Pasadena 7-1-17 BD 74.50 SCV 73.850 Just sayin'

I saw Troopers a couple weeks back in Lisle. I agree that the tarps add nothing, and are kind of a distraction, because it is not obvious why they are there. I contrast this with Bluecoats' more successful use of tarps at the corners of the field, where they become visual focal points for the drill, and help frame the center stage. That said, Troopers sounded wonderful, and they have a certain esprit de corps that always makes viewing them a happy experience. The crowd was definitely on their side.

From a purely graphic-design standpoint, that shirt is a little seizure-inducing.

The almighty visual art from is mandated by the almightier judging standards. Whatever artistic or musical merit a show aspires to, it is designed ultimately to generate points as dictated by the current scoring system. I too disdain the Cuisinart musical style of modern drum corp arranging (I find Crown's opener this year a particularly egregious example), but as long as it gets rewarded competitively, we are stuck with it. If you want a more musical experience, you have to start with changing the judging sheets.

My thoughts and condolences (and a donation) are with Phantom today.

and perform the Bottle Dance while playing Music of the Night.