resipsaloquitur

When I was young, all I wanted to read were pretentious little books. Camus and Tournier and Calvino. If it had a plot, I hated it. I'm tired of 'pretentious' just being used as an excuse to dismiss anything that expects you to have a brain.

Before buying new stock in any corps, I'd like to see the CPI index for 2024 tuition.

Coats '16 Finals night would like a word with you.

Judging by the screen shot at :024, 50+

It’s the"non-accomplishments" that change the world. Pineapple on pizza. French fries with milkshakes. High interest CD rates.

As I said, I believe these type of skills are unique to each individual performer. I don't believe a skill is intrinsic to that performer being an age-out or having experience at other corps. BD tenors had a rookie who graduated HS and was part of WGI open champ Ayala HS. I don't know about BDB and BDC and how they do things. I suspect they do, since their members often rise up to BDA and having gone through the same type of training method would help with that transition.

This is a great point of view. Through the years, I came to understand why BD stays ahead of the game. It's all about your approach and creating from a canvas and not drill sheets. That alone is unconventional in a game where few others choose to do so. Allowing the staff and students to be creative. Treating the staff with respect and allowing them the space to succeed and fail. Nothing about recent BD shows is boring to me. Art can be expressed, and felt, in many ways. Emotions are complex, and a variety of them (beyond, look it's a whale tail!) can be evoked in many ways. They don't need to blow my face off or throw babies. The show themes and show design BD selects are part personal expression, part commentary, and part criticism, having meaning beyond a performance, a rifle toss, a snare break. Like the Met Gala, Drum Corps is another recent example of a much broader phenomenon: the accelerating convergence of performance and art, music and fashion. It epitomizes the rewards, as well as the risks, that come with this marriage of aesthetic industries — mainstream visibility and financial gain on the one hand, and the reshaping influence of success on the other. This cross-pollination has a long history in the arts. Elsa Schiaparelli collaborated with Salvador Dalí on several iconic designs, including the “shoe hat” and “lobster dress” of 1937. Christian Dior ran an art gallery before becoming a fashion designer and later named his dresses “Matisse,” “Braque,” “Dalí” and “Picasso.” In recent years, DCI has taken a form that transcends a drum and bugle corps organization. It takes the approach of a cultural brand with a global audience attuned to the mythic allure of storytelling. As DCI and its corps see the potential to have a greater influence on the culture writ large, they court a broad public, promote shows that privileges accessibility over criticality, and embrace commercial tie-ins. Drum corps, long the province of a niche crowd, thus becomes less insular and more inclusive.

Same here. It was a pleasure conversing and sharing ideas with ya'll. I must admit I won't be making a trip out to Laramie or Texas next year, although I did enjoy the former than the latter, but I look forward to the California shows as always. Stay healthy, and stay creative!

Not sure if this is an answer to your question. There was an episode of That Dan Band where the designer (David Glyde?) specifically said that BD adopts a fluid design process. They design each show to bring out the unique talents of the performers. The guard in the opening hit brings to mind a specific skill, as well as the center snare traversing through the entire snare section during the drum feature. They scour those type of skills during audition, observe them during spring camp, and create staging moments to highlight them. Since they don't use dots, they look for MM who are adaptable - quick to learn, and quick to pivot. I think malleable was the word used. There are specific skills that they look for that are matched to the show difficulty.

That's fair. This was posted mid season (2023): "Park and bark" times... Troopers - 2:40 BAC - 2:40 Crown - 2:30 Blue Devils - 2:30 Music City - 2:25 Bluecoats - 2:20

This is the "drill"

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

That would be something. If you look closely at the member uniforms and even the drum wraps, you will notice easter eggs of the pale blue dot.

Sagan has been done before, per Crossmen 1992 Show: "Songs For Planet Earth". A BD version could be called "Pale Blue Dot", after the Sagan speech. Repertoire would probably include the likes of David Bowie - Space Oddity, Peter Schilling - Major Tom, and (keeping with anime) Makoto Fujiwara - Opening Theme to Macross

Just a wild guess

The trilogy was announced back in the beginning of 2022, and 2024 is going to be a show about Carl Sagan, and preserving the earth. Take a look at the 2022 show announcement. It literally lists out, for the unsuspecting and the suspecting, the theme of the trilogy. Look at the quotes on that page in descending order: Yves Klein (Tempus Blue), Henri Matisse (The Cut-Outs), Carl Sagan (“Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”) https://bluedevils.org/programs/a-corps/seasons/?programID=1&season=2022&module=info

Buy (90< stop order): Mandarins, Colts Sell (90> stop order): Cadets Hold: PC, PR, Troopers Dividend play: BD

Judging from our seats at the ceremony, a fair number at Cadets, Coats. BD had their own seat section. Not surprising.

A Kodak moment for sure. :)

Congratulations to the Blue Devils for an unprecedented three-peat, back to back undefeated season, and a huge 21!

TBH no hate on the Coats but my partner and I almost fell asleep during parts of their show tonight. Maybe we were sitting too high up at 641. Maybe we were just high as the show designers were.

Yea they should design their show to LOSE. Like you would do that if you were a champion. Not.

Or how about They are the best, treat their members the best, treat their staff the best, and completely are devoted to continuing to be the best. Maybe a decade ago they didn’t deserve the win. Maybe. They indisputably are the reason drumcorps still survives today. Have respect for the people that are at the top of this activity.

Yea BD really should change it up for the sake of changing it up so they don't win. Sour grapes. Meh.