Maneuvah

Not gonna work, based on the experience of most years since 2000. The design staff SHOULD NOT STUDY WHAT THE BLUECOATS, CROWN AND BD ARE DOING - and yes I'm shouting - if they want to be the Cadets. The Cadets design team should formally solicit ideas from the scores and scores of alumni, fans, and future MMs with the creativity to offer coherent design concepts and ideas. Arguably, no organization has that kind of engaged alumni and fans. Evidence: the Cadets thread here on DCP every single year is much larger than any other corps. Sure, some of that's from critics, but BD has at least as many critics as Cadets. The Cadets need to Know Themselves. But that doesn't mean navel gazing and closed innovation. Their design team is simply not as effective as other top 5 corps. Evidence: the MMs talent outperforming show concepts most years since 2000. GE being the major weakness. That means subpar design, nothing more, nothing less. Until I hear a better idea from someone about how to improve the Cadets design team's show concept development process - better than Open Innovation - I'll continue to be pessimistic about next year, and the year after, and after that. The Cadets should be the leaders in innovation, creativity, demand, and achievement. If they're not, there's a problem. No excuses. Ten years ago, Crown and Bluecoats weren't even sniffing top five. Now they're on a finals winning streak versus the Cadets. That's a problem. Change is necessary. Change is good. Innovation on the field requires innovation in the design team's approach to design.

Narrative, meaning, and emotion sell. Abstraction - especially abstraction from music that was written for the most profound narrative, meaning, and emotion - will make everyone feel flat. Because the show concept itself was flat. If the Cadets had a great show concept this year, even with their hard run-and-gun drill, etc., they not only would have medaled, they would have likely gotten gold.

Interesting. The Cadets don't even make most people's top 5 so far. Considering that they marched and played better than anyone, that means the judges were right that the GE was the major weakness in the show, and that is about show concept and show design. Why, oh why, can't their design team get the message that most years what they do regarding show concept development is broken? All design decisions stem from the show concept.

Vets should go to the organization at which they will learn the most, have the best experience, be able to contribute creatively rather than simply be ordered around, and in all, where they can achieve their highest potential. Carpe diem. 21 comes all too quickly.

What "I wish" is that BD would perform shows that were as demanding as Crown, Coats, or especially Cadets, and then see who actually is better. BD winning the Sanford is laughable, for example. Cadets book was harder, and the drill/movement demands on the Cadets drumline was arguably twice that of the Devils. Yes, BD's show concept was great, and the staged design very clever. Much more coherent and impactful than the Cadets. But to pretend that BD's show isn't aimed at the judges by deftly managing risk and playing to the sheets every single year is willful ignorance. They win because that's all they care about. Don't believe me? Talk to a MM or alumnus. Ever since the 80s, all they care about is the rings. Whatever it takes to get yet another, they'll do. That's not a huge knock on the organization, because they are able to consistently do that better than anyone, but to imply that they're somehow playing to the audience, like maybe Madison, is just silly.

No. Sorry. The Cavaliers starting in 2000 became the masters of sleight-of-hand drill: all the most difficult playing is done when not moving, or moving very little, or only part of the corps that is playing the difficult music is at a standstill or mostly at a standstill. Most all of the really difficult drill the Cavies ever did was while no one was playing. The judges and fans ate it up. I just found it to be risk management, rather than truly trying something difficult. What is always going to be the hardest is simultaneous demand. The Cadets have had that in spaces since forever. Unfortunate, though, that the judges don't really value it. A hip thrust or crab walk to them is movement enough to be simultaneous demand. But it's not even on the same planet of demand as marching backwards at 226 bpm while playing.

And by 50+ people who can help with design input and feedback, I mean volunteers. People who love the Cadets and have loved them for decades, and who want them to succeed. No one needs to be applying for a job. How could more voices in the ideation and decision process not help? How could open RFPs and idea evaluation and test marketing not help? Answer: it obviously would because that exact method of innovation has helped many thousands of organizations across the country over the last couple decades. And it would help the Cadets too. Period.

Wrong about me, as I've loved the Cadets since the mid-80s, and not only left on good terms, but have donated over the years. I actually agree with everything you said regarding the MMs performance. The problem was GE more than anything else, and that's due to show design. If 2015 were just one example of bad show concepts in the last 10-15 years from this Cadets design team, well, then, no problem. It's been more consistently bad design decisions that have torpedoed shows, and wasted top-notch talent, as the MMs have been forced to outperform more or less incompetent show design (like a stage obscuring the field for much of the audience, or ridiculous tarps, or incessant and sometimes cringe-worthy narration, to Christmas in July, to performing Shostakovich and completely disregarding the meaning of the music and thus diluting the emotional impact, but more, trading that for a nonsensical abstraction, so instead of meaning, we get kindergarten counting as the pseudo-'meaning', and thus, they get passed by shows with more narrative, meaning, and emotion, and thus better GE). I want demanding shows. That's the Cadets brand. I've been pulling for the run-and-gun innovation from them for years (posting as Zig Zig ZAG for a reason, because I want the corps to ZAG). But now I'm more on the side of the MMs, and less on the side of someone whose ego is getting in the way of the creative process. The post by one corps director says a lot: "Me and the design team" was the exact phrase. Me first. Design team next. (And other voices in this process, well, all you can do is just wait and hope.) That kind of closed innovation usually doesn't work in business or the non-profit world these days. (Full disclosure: I own an Open Innovation engineering company, and we've consulted with companies as large as $5 billion on improving their new product development programs, so I know a bit about how to innovate, plus I happen to have a degree in music composition, as well as an MFA in writing, and have volunteered consulting non-profit arts organizations, so I know a little bit about how the best such organizations innovate and remain at the top in their markets). I am absolutely positive that there are 50+ people just on these boards whose ideas would help not only inspire the Cadets design team, but arrive at some clarity about their ideas before committing to them. Do you actually think that in the "real" world, companies commit to major decisions without trying to get ideas from the crowd (ever heard of crowdsourcing?), or soliciting ideas from as many experts as possible (look up how Nine Sigma and many other open innovation networks partnering with most major R&D companies opening up their innovation to anyone anywhere in the world with open RFPs), or even more popular, the use of things like market research, focus groups, product testing, etc. What the Cadets have been doing is too closed, too antiquated, too blind to their audience, and obviously, not what the judges value most highly. Sure, this year's show was obviously, far and away the hardest on the field, and the MMs were far and away the best performers giving the best performance, since both the Ott and Sanford were well-deserved, especially considering the marching and movement demands on the MMs, as well as the books, were much higher than Devils, Crown and Coats. Cadets GE just tanked them. And I knew that it would tank them back in November (and posted about it, and got scolded for 'jumping the gun' or being a 'troll" etc. etc.) because the show concept was arbitrary and silly and abstract and by definition wouldn't connect with people because it was ignoring the essence of the music itself. My goal is to point out problems in the way the Cadets brainstorm and decide on show concepts, and help them make sure that they are making the best decisions that empower the MMs to achieve their best and be rewarded for it with shows that connect on every level with the audience, and as a bonus, get rewarded by the judges, rather than demoralize the MMs when they come to realize, as they have so many times in the last 10+ years, that they just don't have the show that allows them to achieve their best.

Hop needs to use Open Innovation for show design, and to cede more creative control to others if the Cadets are not going to continue to lose ground to younger, and now from a creative standpoint, better organizations like Coats and Crown.

Spot on. An abstract concept unconnected to the music necessitated a show design that relied too much on technical aspects and technique, rather than communicating meaning or narrative. Terrible, terrible decision to choose the "10" rather than the "Shostakovich".

Congrats to the MMs for being, to my ears, the best hornline, drumline, and marchers in DCI this year. No one was close. The drumline deserved the Sanford, but that trophy doesn't take into account the physical demands of the drill placed upon the line. BD's percussion didn't have half of the drill demand as was placed on Cadets' line. Sorry, BD, but that's the objective truth if you watch the video. The quality of the performers of Cadets 2015 will go down as one of the very best, even better than a few years that did win gold, in my opinion. They really did outperform the show design by a good measure. Any "disappointment", as Hop said, should be laid at the feet of the design team.

Hop needs to run the organization and inspire the kids. Hop shouldn't play such a major role in show design. Hop isn't an artist. He's a former percussionist. He's a brilliant manager of an organization. Every success the Cadets have had since 1982 has been to his credit. But also, every inept or downright awful show design that wasted tremendous MM talent has also been his responsibility. My guess: he's muddling up the show design process, people with more design and artistic talent don't feel the kind of freedom to create, and he's holding on too hard, like Charleton Heston. Let go, George. Trust the community you've built over the last thirty years.

Yes, one of the most demanding shows ever. And one of the best performed too. Too bad that the show concept didn't allow the kind of aesthetic unity and meaning and emotion needed for the GE that this amazingly talented group of MMs deserved. "Me and the design team" will be back next year with a great show design? Because Cadets' show design is all about ME, is exactly the reason this group of kids didn't win gold. The Cadets have been passed by Crown and Bluecoats in the last five years. They got crushed by Bluecoats actually. Demand or no demand, the Coats had much better show design, more innovation, more creativity, and just, well, better. I have no faith in the Cadets design team anymore. They're too egotistical, Hop is too much in control, too egotistical, and if I were 19 or 20 again, I'd not march Cadets until they make some fundamental changes in how they do show design. I'd march Crown or Coats. Sad to say, but there it is. The Cadets have way too much tradition, way too much talent and potential, to cede the field to organizations that are now what the Cadets once were: "the thinking man's drum corps".

As Kurt Vonnegut once requested to be his epitaph: "He tried."

And by fail, I don't mean the MMs. The Cadets and all the 12 corps tonight are executing amazingly well. The Cadets marching and playing is non pareil. Their major weakness isn't the color guard. It's what the guard was told to do. Most of all, it's the fact that the show concept doesn't communicate enough "general effect" emotionally or aesthetically when compared to the shows that will medal, which are more coherent, emotional, narrative, and thus impactful. But the point of this recommendation isn't to harp on Cadets. The point is to challenge corps design teams to do better by empowering their communities, the most important members of which are the future MMs they must recruit for 2016.

Nope. It's my therapy for not being able to convince anyone in November that "the power of 10" was incoherent and silly, and would fail in the end. Here was my post about the folly of incoherent design and abstraction for the sake of abstraction, which I posted the day after I read the announcement of "the power of 10". I loved the idea of doing Shostakovich, but hated the number because it made no sense. Note that most people just called me a troll. I wasn't a troll. I'm a longtime fan and alumnus who loves my corps, and was trying to avoid yet another disappointing score on Finals because the GE (which is mostly show design) would become a weakness. http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php/topic/161291-the-tyranny-and-folly-of-abstraction-an-open-letter-to-the-cadets-design-team/

We have a handful of corps that have the talent to win gold, which is outstanding. The sheer number of great ideas this year is more than I've ever seen in DCI, and I've been watching (or marching) since the mid-80s. What pains me most is when show designs hobble great talent, that demoralize almost as much as inspire. What I love to see most is a show design that empowers MMs to achieve their highest potential as performers, as people, and as artists, making the show itself into a work of art that transcends the idiom of drum corps. Usually, it's the show concepts that either click, or fail. A great concept will most always lead to a string of inspired, aesthetically-unified, and effective (GE) decisions in all captions. A poor concept will fail to a greater or lesser degree in all regards, including demoralizing MMs who have to live with it, act like they love it, but hate it secretly until afterwards, when they just end up regretting the decision they made to trust the design team and join the corps. That's the worst of all possible outcomes. Solution to poor design = Open Innovation Here's how to do it (though versions of this have been tried in the past, I'm well aware): 1. The design team must let go a bit and open up, instead of being like Charleton Heston ("...FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!!!"). Egos must be shelved. It's OK, we have to tell the corps directors and design teams. You'll still get your salaries because you're paid to CO-innovate and collaborate, to execute the designs, and hardest of all: to teach a group of young people how to create art. People out there, including potential members who will actually perform the show, have great ideas. Closed innovation doesn't work anymore in business, and it doesn't work well in DCI, at least for several corps, and even sometimes for the very best organizations. (Object lesson: 12.25, 10, Yowza, etc.) 2. They solicit show ideas from fans and alumni, but do so in an organized way, requesting concept, music, arrangement, visual, uniform, flag, prop, etc., ideas that communicate that theme. A standard format and strict requirements for submitting show design proposals must be communicated, just like any professional proposal. I'm talking actual RFPs (requests for proposals). And they could even require that the ideas if rejected cannot be used by other DCI organizations, which would keep the IP (intellectual property) within the community, as it were. Even better: they could request (or even require) individuals and/or teams of future MMs submit proposals. Could be a component of their auditions. 3. They allow the community to view the ideas, comment, and vote. 4. They give the community 50% of the votes, and their team 50%, and the best idea wins. Maybe the second or fourth best ideas will win the following year(s). How could you go wrong with the above? The days of the dictatorial corps director mucking things up are numbered. Just like the days of white guys in cigar-filled rooms deciding which candidate from which prominent political family will represent their party for governor or president. (Oh wait.....) Closed innovation, top-down, dictatorial decisions are so 20th century. So pre-social media. So Greatest Generation. Charleton Heston died angry, red-faced, half-crazy, but reports say that he was holding his wrinkled shrunken antique piece. Don't let this happen to you, top-5 corps. Let go. This is the Millennial Generation marching. They want co-ownership in their organizations. They want to lend a hand, to be empowered, to express their voice, and invest everything they have in its success, from concept to execution, from paper to the Gold medal around their neck at Finals. Trust the alumni, fans, and most of all: future MMs, not just yourselves. Open Innovation will avoid show designs that are inept from the get-go. Open Innovation will yield gold.

Well-written from a grammatical point of view, but in terms of your (anti)aesthetic pov, I just think your view is incoherent. And it's wrong. How do I know it's wrong? The gap between performance and GE. The MMs are outperforming the show design. Hence, the show design is a failure. The show design is the reason this show isn't putting the Cadets on top right now. No corps in the last 15 years has so regularly had gold-medal talent, and has so regularly out-performed the often inept, and sometimes downright laughable, show designs as have the Cadets. Back to 2015. Emotion only exists in this show in the abstract, and as derivative of the emotion of the narrative and emotional and biographical content of Shostakovich's music. Some Borg swallow whole whatever the Design Team throws at them, and they themselves mythologize it as if it deserves mythologizing. To focus on the number of a symphony, rather than the meaning of the music itself, is only heroic if we're celebrating the arbitrary, disjointed, and aleatoric. I might be wrong, but as far as I know, the Cadets aren't doing John Cage this year. They're (un)doing Shostakovich. And that is why they're sitting in fourth, and slipping. The shows ahead of them - even though less demanding, even though the Cadets outmarch and outplay them - are ahead because they were put together by better design teams, and the shows have aesthetic unity, authenticity, narrative, and more profound emotion. They use the music to tell the story and communicate the emotion, rather than abuse the music by missing its point entirely. You know I'm right, but you are too Borgy to admit it.

It's not mainly a color issue, though the black actually does make it harder to see how amazingly well the corps marches, a demand that's probably twice that of other top 12 corps. The Cadets' GE issues are because the show design is incoherent and essentially meaningless. People - including judges - understand and relate to meaning, mostly from a narrative arc, opposition/contrast, and emotion. Pure abstraction, especially when it castrates the meaning from the music, results in incoherence and saps GE. And it results in a squandering of gold-medal talent. Again. Yet another year of what could have been. How did this mess start? With "10" itself. Dumbness snowballs. Then you get the truly dumb idea about the tenth element. Then you get a whole series of stupid and unnecessary groupthink decisions that torpedoed this show the second the design team settled on "10", rather than looked toward the meaning of the music for inspiration, or at least, for some kind of larger meaning that the music actually communicates. It's not just sad. It pisses me off. Does the design team consult anyone, ever, who's not part of the hive mind and/or dependent on YEA for their salary, before they announce a show concept and start the typical Cadets hype machine, blindly sprinting at 226 bpm toward a GE brick wall, like they've done most years recently? I can't think of another corps that has such a gap between talent on the field and inept - or at least confused - show design. It's the concepts that are the problem. Bad design concepts lead to bad design decisions and incoherence in general. However brilliant is Sacktig's drill, for example, doesn't conceal the incompetence and incoherence of the concept itself. No amount of brilliant - gold medal - playing and marching can cover incoherence and abstraction-for-abstraction's-sake. The MMs have just so consistently marched and played beyond the design potential of the shows most years in the last 15, Cadets fans get just enough greatness out of the corps to be complacent. That's also kind of sad. The Borg are so eager defend any and every decision made by the Queen of the Borg. And I could be called a Borg myself. He said with love and squalor. And then he turned away from the muddy blackout and inane counting and Borgy of "10" everywhere to marvel at the truly beautiful products of the design teams of SCV, Bluecoats, Crown, Devils, Blue Knights, and a few others who had show concepts, narrative arc, meaning, and profound emotion that pulled people in and brought tears to some eyes, including mine. The tears that come to my eyes regarding the Cadets' show are of frustration at the squandered talent when you are performing well above the show concept. The kids deserve better. The fans do too. But people at the top are too stubborn, too blinkered, too egotistical to see it. What a waste.

And who exactly is asking for a show about Stalin? Channel3? I've been calling for a show about freedom, about one vs. many, etc., since last November. No Stalin. And is it so hard to ignore the fact that the music itself is actually about something? Are the Borg also willfully ignorant? Must they support everything that is handed down from the Politburo that is the Cadets design team? Where is the democracy and freedom of expression among the fans, alumni, and MMs? Or is design a dictatorship. Like it or you're a troll. Love it or leave it. 'Merica.

I loved their choice of MUSIC. I hated their choice of theme, which is connected in no way to the music. THAT, folks, is the main reason this show is being passed by other shows with more coherent, aesthetically and musically meaningful show designs. Period. Bluecoats, Crown, and BD have better, more innovative, and creative design teams. And they're being rightfully rewarded for their skill and vision in the scores. As they should be. What is a shame is that the Cadets play and march better than the other three corps, in my opinion, and the Cadets show is more demanding. It's not being rewarded because what the MMs are doing out there doesn't have enough connection with the music, and the "story" to be told isn't a story, it's kindergarten counting. Which is silly. Abstraction for the sake of abstraction just doesn't connect as well, because it doesn't connect to the music. It's disconnected, and thus every gesture is random, or cheese (dancing with the guard), or body movement for the sake of movement, etc. I can picture the brainstorming conversation last year. "Let's do Shostakovich 10!" "Great idea!" "What's our theme then?" Silence. "How about 10?" "Huh?" "It's the tenth symphony, so there's that. "And at one point, Shostakovich was, as a matter of fact, ten years old." "Holy crap! You're right." "And he experienced a lot of tens in his life too!" "Like twice a day, when it's ten o clock!" "Wrong wrong wrong. Try 24 times a when it's ten after." "But what about ten till?" "I'm seeing a lot of tens everywhere we look people. We're on to something. We're really on to something." "I agree. This might be brilliant. Tell us more." "But first, let's forget about Shostakovich. He's too political and historical." "And communist." "Was he a communist?" "He wasn't an American and he certainly wasn't a capitalist. And our show last year was all about America. And this corps is about America. We wear West Point uniforms. We never change our uniforms. That's why people love us." "Let's talk Exactly. Imagine The Cadets doing a show that's promoting socialism. That would ruin us! Ruin us!" "I agree. Let's push this ten idea. Just the 10. Not the Shostakovich crap, though." "How about ten little indians maybe." "Nah. Not P.C. Almost as bad as the Washington Redskins. Indians shouldn't be referred to as little. Not unless they play baseball in Cleveland." "Booyah! Go Yankees!" Everyone stands to salute the best team money can buy. "But what about if we did a show that told the story about Shostakovich and his music? Like tell the story of the music itself? Maybe one man's voice against the oppression of the many? A show about freedom and freedom of expression? I mean, maybe Dmitri wasn't communistic or socialistic. Maybe he was telling a story that's the opposite of socialism?" Silence. "Nah! Let's do the 10 thing. Judges and audiences don't want meaning. They don't want stories. They don't want cheesy emotion. They want simple ideas. They want abstraction. They know how to count to 10. So let's give them that." "Yeah! We can use tarps and make every number 10. 10 10 10 10. It'll be 10 everywhere." "Ten." "Ten." "Let's vote. Who wants 10?" All ten hands are raised. "OK, we're done here. The design team has spoken. Who wants a latte?"

Doesn't matter when they planned it. Stupid is stupid no matter when stupid is stupid. They made the decision for "10" last fall, and it was just as incoherent then as it is now.

It's not "taking a risk" or anything admirable, really. It's yet another marketing gimmick, like tarps or fire trucks at finals. It doesn't make design sense for the corps that marches and plays simultaneously better than anyone (if that's a thing that top corps do these days) and has for 30+ years. Would Ohio State change their marching band uniforms for more "impact" at the Michigan game? Or the football uniforms? Fact is: the entire show concept for "10" was stupid and silly and incoherent from the get-go. And this uniform thing - even if meant for Cadets2 - is just another product of the confusion and incoherence. Cadets need a new approach to design if they're not going to squander top-notch talent with cheesy, incoherent, or downright dumb show concepts and designs. And that means they might need new leadership. SO many talented alumni and fans out there with great ideas, and instead, we get dumbness shoved down the MMs throats (like 12.25, etc.) from the top down. Top down dictatorial decisions just don't work these days and for this generation. Is that entitlement? Maybe, but that's what this young generation wants: part ownership of their ideas. How cool would it be if the Cadets solicit show ideas from alumni, fans, and MMs, and make the concept selection transparent enough to be democratic, and that way, it would be the community's show, rather than some guy's show? And in conclusion: the black uniforms are unbefitting of the Cadets tradition, shelved the best uniform in all of DCI, and are a fail, just like the entire concept of "10".

I think it's pathetic all the time that's been wasted thinking about uniform colors. It's a #### gimmick. And it doesn't work. "10" as a theme is as superficial as it gets, and that so many cadets fans are all agog about colors makes me worry about the tradition of the Cadets that I fell in love with in the 80s, and why I drove all those all-night car trips in 1991 from Oxford, Ohio to NJ for their camps, instead of the easy 1.5 hours to Bloomington (for a corps that ended up winning gold that year): because the CBC were the corps that was pushing the boundaries the most, that had the best aesthetic vision, the most demanding staff, and the tradition of Arete that I loved. 100+ posts about black vs creme? Ridiculous. Why not spend time and energy getting the alumni and fans together and working hard to insure that next year's theme and show design is actually worthy of the gold-medal talent of the MMs?