ContraFart
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Posts posted by ContraFart
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10 minutes ago, HockeyDad said:
If you don’t like it, shut up or go away? Yeah that attitude had nothing to do with it. AxelL nailed it.
Sometimes you need to tell the vocal minority to shut up. Their #####ing brings nothing to the table. The activity was going to evolve with or without them.
In the past 12 hours I think I have seen at least 4 dozen comments on social media on how props and electronics are the reason why corps fold and that is just brain dead wrong. If you want to have a serious conversation about the activity, at least understand the issue.
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Now it's just going to be brain dead takes on why electronics and props are the ruin of drum corps.
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1 hour ago, 1992AllOverAgain said:
Also glad to see the return of Boerma and Ryan Ellis 🥳
Didnt Boerma arrange 2023?
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2 hours ago, kdaddy said:
The BAC designers described the white whale as the elusive DCI title, not necessarily BD.
And I'd guess they changed the ending on finals night just to throw a curve ball, similar to what that design staff did at Crown with the redemption ending on finals night in 2016 (I think just finals night - unsure). I'd bet it had nothing to do with BD winning.
I think the redemption ending started in Atlanta or Allentown
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3 hours ago, Orwellian Wiress said:
I've been thinking a lot about alternative readings of shows and this is a really interesting one!
Sorta off topic but here's my pet conspiracy theory: White Whale, SOS and Wicked Games are a trilogy. The marching members in SOS are survivors of the White Whale incident. They later found their own colony, got swept up in religious fanaticism and started witch hunts, leading to Wicked Games
Wouldn't that be a backwards trilogy, with a garden of Eden in the middle?
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22 hours ago, greg_orangecounty said:
It will be for me, and I think it's inevitable. I just hope I've checked out before it happens! For the "Dinos/Traditionalists" Drum Corps would lose, it may pick up more fans/interest from the woodwind-bando crowd and be a net gain.
I would just ask they let us have a proper funeral.
I don't think it's inevitable. I think it would be such a deathknell to the activity that it probably won't happen. People are dumb, but not that dumb
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2 hours ago, Zanjero said:
When they allow woodwinds, please just go ahead and allow auto-tune.
I think adding woodwinds would be the last straw, even for more progressive people in the activity. I can see maybe allowing solo instruments, but you can do that with an EWI and change the sound.
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4 hours ago, Triple Forte said:
I don’t think anyone would say the activity should not evolve. Obviously the rub happens when we discuss to what degree should things evolve? At what pace? Fans (including myself) don’t want to see the activity evolve to the point the activity is no longer recognizable.
Seeing speaker arrays , miles of cable , non-members (as many as 5 people sometimes) manning soundboards, wireless mics for one horn player for each horn section (trumpet , baritone..etc.) to augment the overall brass sound and condenser mics covering the entire field is expensive completely detracts from what makes a drum corps sound unique compared to other musical groups/activities . There is always a breaking point to evolution and change and hopefully the powers at be will pull back a bit .I think I agree and disagree with you at the same time. There is a breaking point with evolution, which is why I believe 99% of us would oppose adding woodwinds as marching sections. I am not opposed to the sound mixing (although I do not want brass reinforcement). I think the Bluecoats do it best with their speaker placement and it sounds like a complete product while other corps have everything up front and it can make them sound artificial. There is still a lot of experimentation with amplification that needs to happen to get it right so I think there will be things that are great and things that are far from great before we get to what we can call a standard.
My breaking point with evolution is with visual. I do not mind choreo, but I think I have finally figured out what has bugged me about BD and that is their approach to the visual program and their near abandonment of form to form drill. Is it completely gone? no, but it feels more like a stage show than a marching show to me.
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3 hours ago, LabMaster said:
Not lamenting evolution. It is necessary, but some amount of control is needed. I heard a rumor that the mic’g would change for next year based on the BOA approach. Soloists can be mic’d, but no mass mic’g of voices throughout the ensemble. I hope that front sideline mic’g is still good. IMO, no other mic’s should be allowed on the field. Also, Max the amount of speakers a corps can bring out. These minor changes may help corps that don’t have a few hundred k to put into amplification and electronics to produce a milli vanilli production. Rein in amps and electronics to level the field for all corps. World or Open class. I would love to hear more of the natural sound of brass and percussion performed with less augmentation electronically or with sampling. If there are folks smart enough to create it, there should be folks smart enough to appropriately reduce it. Just my $.02.
I think the mic limit was discussed at Januals and defeated. I would not mind mics for solos an small ensembles, but I am with the dinosaurs when it comes to entire section reinforcement.
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1. Mandarins
2. Bluecoats
3. Crown
4. Blue Stars
5. BAC/Troopers
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2 hours ago, jjeffeory said:
I counted and I don't remember exactly, but it was in the upper 50s to lower 60s.
It seemed all 4 top units had age out numbers that high.
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13 minutes ago, troopers1 said:
I don't know if I'm allowed to disclose this or not, but it's too shocking to keep quiet.
No one is hiring me to be on their staff.
There, I said it.
nobody is hiring me either, but if your show is alcohol themed, I am your man for production design.
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49 minutes ago, jjeffeory said:
A CANVAS?
What a beautiful way of presenting this, but they're ALL on the SAME FOOTBALL FIELD.
One man or woman's canvas is EXACTLY the same as another's drill sheet. Calling a burlap bag a silk dress does not create "haute couture", it just comes off as pretentious.
The one thing that the Blue Devils do better than the other corps is their unique visual technique. Thanks Todd Ryan! It feeds the visual scores. It augments the GE scores. Everything else is comparable to the other corps.
My question is what technique are they using? Since so little of their visual program is form to form marching, are they being rewarded for dance positions and body carriage? They use a fundamentally different visual vocabulary and skillset than the rest of DCI, which you really cannot do with other captions, so to me it becomes comparing apples and oranges.
To use your example, wouldn't calling staging, marching come off as pretentious as calling a burlap sack "haute couture?"
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I dont want to hear about anyone going out west until somebody comes back to Florida. I feel like I am on an island down here.
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17 hours ago, hostrauser said:
I liked this show a whole lot more than I expected to.
Quick question, though: who provided the voiceover/narration for this show? He sounds EXACTLY like Clavicus Vile from Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (voiced by Stephen Russell).
Its based on a recording by JacobTV and Masanori Oishi. The same voice is used in the recording and its even modulated the same way the Bluecoats did it
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11 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:
I think the same can be said for any 40-year period. 1980 and 1940 were both tick system - in that comparison, the creativity and general excellence of 1980 is off the charts.
But I would say that the developments over that time had very little to do with visual innovation. Sure there was expansion of the musical book, but that had more to do with the evolution from single rotor bugles to 2 vertical valve bugles. I guess we should ask the question was there more progression in the activity from 1940 to 1971 or from 1972 to 1980 because getting away from the design restraints of the VFW probably did a lot to move the activity forward.
As far as general excellence, by 1980, we had many more marching members who were actual high school and college musicians then in 1940. Today, you need to be a top tier player to be in a top tier corps.
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I am with you on 1993. That is where I was introduced to drum corps as well. It was a magical year with tons of innovation. Phantoms pit placement, SCV using hand bells in the pit and a soft ending going off the field. Cavies and Cadets bringing the cutting edge of the band repertoire. BD and Scouts both playing the same piece, but in completely different and entertaining ways, the Phantom crab walk, and then there was Star, redefining what music can be heard on a football field. 30 years later I can still hum entire shows from this year in my head.
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14 hours ago, Jurassic Lancer said:
Well, I hope you don’t hate me, but I loved it too. And I am as true Bloo as they come.
I dont hate people, and I am not going to yuck your yum.
My point is that BD uses a completely different skill set and vocabulary when creating a visual program that is such a departure from the paradigm of what we think of drum corps. When it comes to brass or drums or even spinning guard equipment, you cannot rewrite the foundation, because the skill sets and vocabulary are going to stay the same. It seems corps like Bloo are being punished by the judging community for not keeping up, even though their visual program was absolutely gorgeous and near perfectly performed. I want Bloo to win. they have finished second to BD 4 times in the past 10 years. If Bloo is going to win consistently, I think we need to figure out why the judging community values the completely different visual approach of BD so much and how to be "strategic" about movement, without giving up identity. Beat them at their own game in a way.
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10 hours ago, Metalbinky said:
Yup, no dot books for BD. I Can 100% confirm this.
For 2023 Bluecoats I was completely in love with Bump. I think that was my favorite music section by any corps to be honest. I can’t wait to see what Bluecoats have in store for 2024.
Bump, as far as ensemble timing and spatial responsibilities is the hardest thing I have ever seen put on a football field. It was awesome.
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14 hours ago, Cappybara said:
Whenever BD is given “good faith” criticism, somehow you are always in the thread. Weird coincidence
And you are always right there too to give me snark.
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17 minutes ago, resipsaloquitur said:
BD doesn't use dots. They move as they go. I believe someone timed all the top shows this year and BD by far did just as much marching and playing as anybody. This is the part from 11:55
Honestly the only timing I have heard of was based on last year's shows. Bluecoats moved and played much more than the rest of the top 5, but BD was second .
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7 minutes ago, Chief Guns said:
As a BD honk, I am all for criticism of BD as they are NOT above reproach from anyone.
It's the lies, and false narratives that I personally have a problem with.
If I lied or provided a false narrative, call me out. I'm a big enough person to admit when I am wrong.
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5 minutes ago, LabMaster said:
Not sure I’d believe that. I know the guy who has designed and written their drill for years. Jay Murphy. I think he still is doing that for them. And maybe lately it’s more collaborative with a lot of freedom while they develop over a season. But usually, they are well planned out.
I am not saying there isn't an outline, but they don't use dot books or drill books.
If you teach choreography for a stage musical, there is usually an outline and written counts, but it's not put on paper like a marching drill.
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21 minutes ago, CAtenhut said:
Comparing them is one thing. But what I'm reading here is coming across more like pettiness and bitterness.
Anytime BD is given good faith criticism, BD fans think it's pettiness and bitterness.
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Cadets Suspend for 2024
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Everything adds cost, but in perspective, how much is that cost? Using the SOA numbers, it's not much in the grand scheme