contraguard05

You're not alone in that sentiment, I love a good flag feature as well, and so do the crowds. It might be envy as a low brass person, but I love hearing screamers at important moments. But you don't top a steak with another steak, otherwise you'd get whole shows like this: https://youtu.be/-UxdCqOWVcA?si=sKWETwZNtM96Nx_C

By hiring instructors to stay on all summer, you preclude them from lines of work that are NOT teaching. This is particularly challenging for color guard people, as we do not teach it as a class for any real compensation outside of Texas and a few select suburbs. I can't think of an office job that would give me the whole summer off to go on tour, nor could I imagine being away from my young children for that long. Regarding your comment about the lack of cohesion, that is by design. Multiple lines in music call for multiple visual elements, so 15 minutes of unison would not live up to the depth and complexity of what we are hearing. That would also make the big moments far less impactful because we'd already seen so much unison. The flag hit from SCV 2017 is a great example of this.

I've gotten to work with two groups. Both times I was only available for a couple of weeks, as were the majority of the staff. I showed up, worked with them when I could, then went home. Same with everybody else. We generally had 5-6 guard instructors in front of the students on any given day. That breaks down to a dance person, 1-2 weapon people, 1-2 flag people, and someone in the tower. About the same as what it was when I marched and had the same five people on the road with us all summer long, minus the burnout.

By play Malaguena, I mean plug your ears and cover your eyes to how much the activity has changed since that was a recipe for success.

100% the vibe of the "playing Malaguena will fix everything" contingent of Madison alumni.

There is the possibility that he needs to be with the right group of people to produce results. I don't think Troopers(who have proven capable of making finals without him) would have brought him on board if he didn't bring something to the table. I'll wait until we see the show.

The UB40 tune? I wasn't expecting that 😅

Yes. I have vague memories of that guard spinning their hands off.

Between the music and theme, it feels like a mix of Mandarins 23, Colts 22, and Madison 2016.

My favorite is zooming in so close to the guard soloist's face that you can't actually see their solo 🤦‍♂️

Camera crews with a working knowledge of the marching arts. IE: not zooming in on the rack player during a tacet while the horn line or guard is doing something major.

It's like the Douglas Adams quote on technology: 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. 3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

You're right, it is absurd. And that person hasn't earned the time you would spend researching it for them. Short of surveying a substantial portion of auditionees across multiple organizations, I can't think of a way to gather that kind of information.

The burden of proof is on the accuser. Tell them to provide non-anecdotal evidence.

How difficult would it be to set up a marching arts endowment? Could member organizations pay into it for a period of time? Could the 3 main governing bodies (DCI, WGI, BOA) all benefit from it?