lawdn

And it will stir up controversy as well but hopefully that it is part of the preseason fun.

Fair enough. I’m not sleeping on Mandarins, though, and will be watching to see if they can keep strengthening their performance captions.

Yes, it has been a frustrating pattern! However, they have come back strong usually after their drops, and I hope they do it again.

I think I did a prediction just after it was confirmed SCV would compete that put them in 9-12 range. I have since changed my mind and see them in 5-8 with a better chance of 5 or 6 but it really is a wild card in my mind. As much as I liked them in 2022, they need a much stronger show design if the MMs are younger in order to place well.

I met up with a high school friend, a horn player and the best musician in our band. She married another horn player she met in the community orchestra. I said, “Oh, that must be nice to have that common.” She replied, “Why would I ever wish the French horn on someone I love?”

IIRC he was usually ###### off at brass or percussion, so I’m not sure you would have been safe 🤣

I had a band director who threw chairs, batons, pencils, etc., but he was more a woodwinds guy, so it wasn’t just the percussionists! Completely inexcusable, and perfectionists should probably not be teaching middle school band!

Seems like the competition will be really tough this year. I still see 2023 top 4 continuing to be alone in that grouping, and can’t say more at this point other than BD being the favorite until they are not but wow Bloo looks to have a great music book, again. After that, PR and Mandarins should stay strong and keep pushing after last year‘s momentum, and Cavies have a chance to build off their percussion if they can get some of the 2016-2019 caption strength back in other places. Hoping Colts and Troop keep getting stronger and that Blue Stars cone back strong - so much talent in that corps. SCV a bit of a wild card but a solid bet for finals and very good shot at 5-8 range. I am not counting out Blue Knights, Pacific Crest, Crossmen, or Spirit, but it will take a stellar show design and hitting on nearly all performance captions to crack top 12. And finally, hoping for good progress from other corps - they all showed a lot to like in 2023.

Hope you are doing ok @MikeRapp. These transitions are rough, and sometimes no matter how well you execute your part of a project, it just doesn’t pan out. Been there. Peace and good wishes to you.

It would be great to see Scouts have a strong season!

As I read the recaps, in this era you may not have to beat BD in Visual but it sure helps, and you probably have to take at least one visual subcaption to keep it close. Then you have to close the deal by beating them in GE and Music in aggregate.

I read the reference to SCV having a strong “brand” as meaning they are capable of good staff retention (which seems to be the case) and robust recruitment. I agree that if these and strong show design and execution lead to strong performances, that would be the only valid basis for strong placement.

I love having more reasons to get psyched for Bloo's 2024 show!

Bloo won’t announce any details about their show until five seconds before they step off at their first show.

Congrats to your son on coming back for another year, and may this be a great journey for him and all your family!

I appreciate the respect for BD and understand this is not a diss on the Mandarins. I do expect that while BD’s staff depth and stability and reputation led to a very strong recovery post-pandemic, Crown, Bloo, and BAC will continue to close the gap and one of them will capture the Founders’ Trophy soon, with the others not far behind. But BD will get their share. And I am looking forward to Cavies, Mandarins, and PR upping their game as well, as well as hoping for a strong reentry from SCV.

I saw too few Cadets shows in person so will limit my comments to those. 1987: impeccable. For me, still one of the touchstones of drum corps. I saw it live only at semis. The brilliance of their relatively minimalist visual paired with rich intricate music. It set up a contrast with a superb SCV show I also loved. I don’t know how anyone could pick a winner, but I was fine with this one winning. 2013: my reintroduction to Cadets with terrific music and drill and such impressive technical fundamentals. 2015: at San Antonio they had put in the near-final closer and finished 1st IIRC. I thought they would win at that point. I think they changed unis after that. By finals week it was clear they had been passed up but I was a huge fan of their drill and music. 2018: so emotional, and after all they had been through, it was so impressive that they didn’t water down their technical demand, even if they couldn’t get it all clean. So glad I saw it live. 2023: thrilling to see Cadets coming out to take on the challenge of rising back to the top. One of my favorite shows of a great summer. It makes it sadder that this was the final Cadets show but at least they were The Cadets all the way to the finish. I have loved other shows I have seen in the recordings but in my experience, the Cadets’ shows, like most corps’, can’t be fully appreciated other than live. P.S. based on other posts here I am going to dig up all the recordings of 90s Cadets shows I can.

Good on you! But fair warning to anyone sitting near you - that shirt is gonna be awfully ripe by the end of the summer! 🤣

You have made a profound observation, one that goes to the core of why this is so disturbing and awful, even as the abuse on its own is a tragedy.

I didn’t intend to glamorize him. I was long-winded and unclear to you, and you were succinct. I agree with you. I wish they’d caught him sooner, before he attacked more people. Secondarily, maybe then this corps would have a future.

I think you touch on something important when you allude to this being like a Shakespeare story, and I don’t mean to glorify anyone in saying that. My disclaimer is that I didn’t start to follow DCI politics in any way until 2013 and by that time GH struck me only as a narcissist whose “artistic” input only damaged the shows and who took credit for the work of amazing staff and MMs. Be that as it may, he was in senior management when the Cadets blossomed spectacularly and led an enduring revolution in drum corps, and I have got to believe he was an important contributor in some way to that. Unfortunately, he was using that position of power to abuse people directly and indirectly, it seems. It would take a treating psychologist to diagnose any specific pathology here, so you and we will never get the real answer to why. Going back to Greek tragedy and Arthurian legend, tragic protagonists like Oedipus and Arthur fell due to transgressions that were either unknown to them or of a magnitude far greater than could be known to them at the time they committed them. That is not at all what we are looking at here. We see so many contemporary examples of people who do great things and lead lives of service who are brought down by character flaws, often doing great harm through those flaws. And art through history, as with Shakespeare, has explored that theme. Here’s the thing though - in a situation like the Cadets, the evil was never necessary to the artistic and competitive greatness (and wouldn’t be defensible even if it did!). It never is necessary, and very arguably, the evil is ALWAYS working against the positive things a drum corps can achieve. The evil-doers must be separated from the activity and their actual and potential victims. What works against this is that power structures are often (nearly always?) structured to protect their power over all else, intentionally or unintentionally. For me, the history of this corps (and others) on the administrative and governance side demonstrates so clearly the critical role of oversight on compliance, and that oversight needs to be vigilant, independent, and feel at least a bit intrusive and uncomfortable to the overseen organization, at least until the compliance mindset is so integral to the organization that they welcome oversight as a means to better maintain compliance. Sorry for the rambling. I struggle to make sense of it all. This is a horrible tragedy for those who were directly abused by some Cadets leadership and staff, including this plaintiff, those who spoke up, and those who remained silent, and for those who suffer as a consequence, including the countless alumni and staff who brought us so many glorious performances on the field over the decades and those who might have been The Cadets of the future.

I liked 2023 so much. One of my favorites in a strong summer. Your son and you should be proud for being part of it.

Thank you, Cadets, for the wonderful shows and performances you brought to drum corps fans for so many decades. I will always remember you for the high standards you set on the field. My heart goes out to the countless alumni and staff and supporters who brought us this positive legacy of education and excellence. My heart goes out as well to those who suffered abuses within the corps. Let us hope and work for the dsy when the drum corps can be experienced and enjoyed without the fear of suffering of any MMs or staff or volunteers. Peace to all.

I happened to be staying in what I think was the SCV hotel, unofficial or official, in 2018, and happy doesn’t begin to describe the alum in the hotel bar after finals. They had made such a strong charge in 2017, and it was wonderful to see that corps and the show in 2018 recognized with a gold medal. It was pretty undeniable out of the gate at Stanford, even if BD won a few early season matchups. I got to see them twice in Texas that summer and it was pretty clear by then no one was catching SCV. I really appreciate this thread. I hadn’t known “Pathways”, and it is great to discover it belatedly and hear and read the perspectives of those inside and outside of the show. Thanks to all!

You weren’t in Indy in 2013 IIRC. My first finals experience. I was pretty stunned by the dislike for BD, but I guess it was manifested by silence instead of booing so that’s a win for civility? Of course, a dark, edgy, jazz-based show performed at a high level was right up my alley even if it had some clear design flaws.There were a number of shows I didn’t care for that year but I was jazzed to be there and stood and cheered after every show. To each their own. I do geek out on trying to understand and embrace the concept of each show on its own terms. I almost always get there but not always. And both you and @Chief Guns are cool 😎, but he is a phenomenon of cool 😂