MikeRapp

He was, and insisted on being, the sole figurehead for everything. It was his very predictable downfall. He simply refused to listen to anyone he differed with, and especially those who were imminently more creatively qualified. Cadets are infinitely better off without him.

I fully understand and appreciate the importance of brands, and the Scouts brand. At the same time, you don’t honor history by being irrelevant today. You have to change with the times. This activity is nothing like what it was even a decade ago, let,alone three. It seems there is a very sizable contingent of Scouts alums who will never, not ever, let go of being an all male corps. They would literally rather finish 16th than change. Unfortunately it seems these alums also do not donate much money to Scouts, so you have the worst of both worlds. Being a Vanderbilt fan, its the same as Vandy football. They believe they deserve to compete in the Sec, but yet refuse to put the resources in to compete with the other members. They continue to finish at or near the bottom every year, and make the excuse of being a small School that cares about academics. And they keep cashing that fat SEC check, while overpromising and underdelivering to it’s fans every single year. They want to have their cake and eat it too. There are many challenges that Scouts have failed to meet. Show design is one of them. But when you can’t recruit anyone but teenagers it’s impossible to put high danger shows on the field. When you finish outside of finals, it’s almost impossible to raise funds. And so long as a huge contingent of its “supporters” both refuse to support change and refuse to donate enough money to stay afloat, nothing can change. No one can empirically prove that becoming a coed corps would help or hurt their standings and viability. There are plenty of coed corps that are not competitive. Personally, I would hope that they could return to relevance as the Scouts. But I would rather thy return to relevance, period, than be subjected to misery.

He had no taste. Period. The guy had no business designing shows. Zero. None.

I often wondered if GH did this sort of #### knowing full well it was roasting hot garbage, knowing it would #### everyone off, knowing it would get hugely embarrassing feedback, just to prove no one could tell him what to do. Thank God Cadets can finally get back to being a force again.

Sounded like they had a great run. Bluecoats are just in their groove now.

Mannequins. Cadets. Enough said.

Pardon me for piling on, but last night I was just thinking about how absolutely ridiculous the whole Statues crap was from beginning to the bitter end. That was, for me, the single worst drum corps show concept ever put on the field in the modern era. How anyone with ANY drum corps experience at all could think that was a good idea makes me utterly dumbfounded to this very day.

Congrats Cadets, breaking 80 tonight!

It’s the nature of a scoring system that tops out at a predetermined score. The scores are not necessarily reflective of what you accom0lished, but rather what you accomplished as compared to other corps, and projecting forward to finals night. It’s a strange system but I guess you gotta pick one.

It’s not to say corps don’t improve their relative scores, it’s that as scores climb closer to 100, they will by nature get closer together, you can’t gain two points a night for the rest of the tour. The concept of the dci scoring system is to land in the correct order, not necessarily with the correct points. As such, placements are more relevant than scores and margins.

Thank you for taking the time to respond, and for trying to solve this crisis while also managing all the other stuff related to the show. Best of luck for the remainder of 2018.

As I said earlier, margins have to shrink as scores climb closer to 100. It’s the nature of a closed scoring system.

Very good job by Mr. Litzenberg, and shameful for the school that promised housing and then pulled it at the last minute. I’d like to know who did this. If this is a public school, someone is gonna get a carefully worded email from me.

First year in world class, and they get to go on before cadets and crown. It’s a pretty cool experience if you ask me. First year in world class, and they get to go on before cadets and crown. It’s a pretty cool experience if you ask me.

What a rush for MCDC to play lead in to Cadets and Crown!

The music is taking her places she can feel. It’s sort of the spirit of jazz, it has a transcendent quality for the performers and listeners alike.

Nvm.

Agreed on Crown vs BD. I love the BD360 videos, but I shouldn’t have to watch videos to understand the storyline and concept. From a technical standpoint, BD always excels at designing a show that demonstrates a wide variety of playing and marching abilities. They always have the most experienced corps, so they are always going to have a big advantage because of what they can design and then execute. Call it cleaning or layering, Scott has the tools and creativity to design shows that improve and perfect as the season progresses. That said, this show seems very disjointed, and currently it lacks milestones that anchor the story. This was a strong point of Tempest, and as the season progressed those milestones got stronger. This year, I don’t really get the story at all. It’s not unlike Crown, where I don’t really feel like the show pays off my 11 minutes of commitment the way SCV, Boston, Cavaliers and Bluecoats do. In the past, BD was often criticized for designing shows to the scoring methodology, and the concept took a back seat to technical execution. Scores were often long series of clips from disparate sources, pieced together to gain points with judges. But in the last few years, they seem to have changed their direction and focused on the overall story first, and built an emotional journey. This has been the path to winning under the newer DCI scoring methodologies and it has imo brought much more fan friendly shows. This year, I love the idea behind this show, it’s very unique and interesting, but the show design itself never really works for me. I never feel the journey, I’m ever really more than an observer. Contrast that with SCV and Bluecoats and even Boston and Cavaliers, where I always seem to be “in” the concept from beginning to end. no team knows how to build shows better than BD, and they have the talent and Creative chops to change and build as the season progresses. There is no doubt they have the technical skills in all areas to medal every year, and they will be hard to push out of the top three because of this. But both BD and Crown have work to do, imo, to remain in the hunt. Both shows lack something significant in storytelling and GE.

I can’t believe SCV aged out as many members as they did and came back with this show. It’s an incredible display and an amazing musical book. And I really love the uniforms. The year of the mellos is being led by SCV, and they are a joy to hear. Amazing show. Truly shocking how difficult so much of their book is, from beginning to end. Conceptually, Bluecoats is the most cohesive and polished show, and is a blast to watch and listen to. Unlike last year, they have mastered the flow and evolution of the program and they have a unique concept that is being performed at the highest level. They are leading the pack for a good reason, they have no weaknesses and they have the best show concept. Still my pick to win the gold, but won’t be surprised if SCV takes it. Boston and Cavaliers are polishing and moving up, and both corps know what they want to do and do it well. In the end I suspect Boston will emerge because their guard and percussion are amazing. I’ve not been a fan of the Cavaliers’ show designs in the least three years but there is no doubt it is working. They push the limit with guard and march their butts off. Boston, though, has the better talent and especially percussion, and I won’t be shocked if Boston takes bronze. BD always has the oldest and most experinced corps, and therefore they can polish and layer better than anyone. That said, of the top six shows this show concept lacks any wow moments (even the ballad is underwhelming and feels tagged on). There are cool moments, esp the drum taking, but why is that there? Unlike the Tempest show, I don’t really know what the story line is and the drill doesn’t give me any milestones. I have loved the last couple of BD shows, but this one has no there there. History and technical skill likely keeps them in the medals, but watch out for Boston. Crown has the most recognizable brass sound as usual, but like BD this show seems to lack purpose or concept. The props do nothing for the show, they could lose them all and it wouldn’t matter. I love listening to Crown but the show just doesn’t feel like it has a pace or purpose. The entire last third of the show is flat. Crown isn’t going away, but I sense this could be the year they fall to the bottom of the top group.

At the risk of pissing off some old-timers here, just remember that as we get closer to a 100 score, the margins between placements will shrink. It is the nature of the scoring system. You have to look at the gaps relative to what is remaining. In this respect, a one point gap between two groups scoring in the high 80s has approx twice the weight has a one point gap between groups the scoring in the low 70s.

Great job in Orlando, Cadets! Keep pushing!

Not liking something and not getting something are two different animals. I don’t like Cavaliers but I get what they are doing.

No. Tied.

The props do nothing for the show at all.

What is there to not get? I don’t understand how you can watch and listen to this show and not be blown away.