brassboy

How very brave of you in these forums! :) Ugh, the schedule I've seen has Cadets going on last at 10:43 CST! We're not gonna get scores until LATE!

DCI did not do Academy any special favor. It was decided upon very early BEFORE the season actually began (I saw the memo dated April 3, 2007). There are three major shows at which at least one Div. I corps would be missing (Academy, Mandarins and/or PC)--Allentown, Atlanta and San Antonio. It was stated that for the Allentown scores (July 7 and 8), Mandarins' score from June 30 and Academy's score from June 23 would be used; for the Atlanta scores (July 14), all three corps' scores from the July 14 Long Beach show would be used; and for San Antonio, PC's score from Long Beach will again be used. This plan may have been slightly revised, but this was at least originally the plan.

Thanks for the great review Ryan! Question for you, since you were the announcer. With DCI's new timed script, have they mentioned anything about altering it? The reason I'm asking is because there were two VERY noticeable differences in how they did the announcement at the Atlanta show yesterday. First, they were NOT always waiting a full minute between "Drum major(s) _________, is your corps ready?" and "Drum Corps International proudly presents, the ________." Many of the corps rely on that full minute because of the way their show is programmed (e.g. "pre-show" performance), and I noticed that BD saluted long after they were announced to begin. Second, now they're saying "Presenting their program entitled '_____', Drum Corps International proudly presents..." This, I think, is a nice adjustment since it will at LEAST give the audience a LITTLE better idea of show concepts. Anyway, I was just wondering if that change was made known to all show coordinators. I know you HATED doing it at the Mt. SAC show. :)

Considering the fact that it's the same judging panel (albeit in different captions), it would be surprising to see Academy make a 2 1/2 point jump in one night unless (1) they really are 2 1/2 points improved over last night, or (2) everyone else's scores go up about the same. Either way...an 80--which would no doubt hype them up, and rightfully so--still won't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things until that 80 happens with everyone else in the mix.

But what's majorly different this year is that PC already had a long outing out east/midwest to compete head-to-head with a lot of the other corps. Since PC was consistently in the thick of it (with regard to Madison, Seattle, Southwind and Troopers), and Mandarins are relatively close behind PC, it's reasonable to predict that both corps are in a pretty good placement range for semi's right now.

This is what I do have now... 1 79.950 Boston 2 78.625 Colts 3 77.375 Glassmen 4 75.550 Spirit from JSU 5 75.200 Blue Stars 6 73.150 Madison Scouts 7 73.075 Crossmen 8 ? ? 9 ? ? 10 70.300 ? 11 66.075 Pioneer

My feed went out just as he was announcing 10th place! It came back on in time for 5th on up... grrr....anyone have the scores handy?

I have the same curiosity. After all the hype, I finally gave in and bought their APD from the Walnut show. Based on the music and writing alone, I have some concerns for them. Yes, the kids are obviously talented, as evidenced by a remarkably clean performance so early in the season, and there are some nice challenges in the book (brass runs and rapid articulations). However, when sitting there and listening to the performance, I couldn't help but wince at the jarring pacing of the musical book. The first few minutes in particular come across as disjoint, with three very different musical thoughts--each about a minute long--each coming to a complete end, then moving onto the next. It lacked flow, which when put against programs of other finalist contenders may hurt (relatively speaking) their GE scores. Also, I noticed that the brass writing consists primarily of sub-section unisons. With the exception of some repeated cluster chords, it sounds as if the brass book consists of nothing more than unison parts within sections. In other words, no splits for trumpet 1, 2 and 3, etc. When you listen to their ensemble moments, the chords are formed mainly as a result of each sub-section playing one note of each chord. It sounds great because it's loud and well-performed, but something about it sounds less mature to *me* (just my own personal opinion, so please save your flames). In some ways, it can even be argued that it's a "safe" approach because (1) you won't have such balance concerns where 1st trumpets are overpowering 2nd and 3rd trumpets, for example, and (2) it's easier to create that wall of sound when EVERYONE is playing the same note (stagger breathing is easier to achieve because of the number of people playing the same note). Again, this post is NOT a flame against Academy--the group is OBVIOUSLY very talented, the writing has given the members some nice challenges, and they're looking like an easy shot at semi-finals and a real shot at finals. But since this thread was a place where people were bringing up potential obstacles, I figured I'd add in my 2 cents...which are really only worth about 1/2 cent...1 cent at best. :P

For a two point jump, I'm guessing that their GE numbers were significantly up tonight, which would be highly probable if they had a strong "hometown crowd" out in full force (I know they're from Canton, but close enough as far as drum corps goes...).

Scores should be on their way soon. SCV was scheduled to go on last at 9:08. Given 17 minutes per corps, that wraps up the show at 9:25. It's 9:36 right now here on the West Coast...

Although if you recall in 2003, PC did the same abbreviated DCI trip (in fact, I believe in 2003 they ONLY flew out for championships) and wound up in Semis despite the lack of shows.

In Division I or any division? If we're talking any division, Mandarins won 5 Div. III championships (including a 4-peat) in the 90's (92-96-97-98-99). If you're only talking about Division I, then I believe you're correct. Then, of course, there are technicalities...BD has easily won 5 championships within a 10-year period, but not necessarily an actual decade... :-)

Were you listening to the APD's streaming, or just the streaming performances of the shows? I bought a couple APD's and thought they did a fantastic job balancing the amplified pits to the rest of the corps...ESPECIALLY compared to last year.

DCI just updated Phantom's score... 96.025

So, uh, what happened to making them available an hour after a corps' performance? The most recent APD's I can see are from Div. II/III Prelims. Any ideas? EDIT: Never mind...about 10 minutes after this post, they started appearing. :)

DCI.org just posted... Southwind 77.950. They haven't posted Mandarins' score yet, but Chris Nalls reported it as 78.375. So, despite the bump out of the cinecast, it looks like Mandarins gets to perform tomorrow!

Not sure...possible, but seeing as how Mandarins and Seattle both beat Southwind last year to make Semis, it wasn't really the same situation. This year, Mandarins seem pretty well-primed to make it to Friday night, but they'll miss being seen live. I agree that it's an imperfect system. Perhaps more weight for the "averaging" should be given to the focus shows that occur each week where all (or almost all) corps compete head-to-head.

But it wasn't an issue of Mandarins not attending enough shows. They were at DIFFERENT shows from Southwind, and based on the judges at the differing shows, scores were high/low. Allentown, though different nights, used the same panel of judges for both nights and Mandarins' score was once again ahead of Southwind. Seeing as how Mandarins beat Southwind at EVERY meeting (which were the major DCI shows), it seems a bit ridiculous that Southwind landed in the Cinecast.

It's very likely it WILL be. When the DCI-Pacific shows are split up (multiple shows), the DivII/III shows don't tend to get reported in a timely manner, it seems.

I'm pretty sure the original poster was referring to the 4 corps who seem to be on top THIS year. And yes, we all know that not all of them have gone head-to-head this year so we can't tell for sure whether PR is above BD and SCV or not, yada yada yada.

Yeah, I'll do a Div. II/III/Senior Pics thread on the General Discussions forum. Look for it in a few minutes. :)

I'll go ahead and put a post in the "General Discussions" group and post a few pics of each. It'll be up in a just a few minutes. :)

I have a few pics of every corps, but some pics came out better than others (still trying to figure out how to get the correct lighting at night without sacrificing the focus). Which corps did you have in mind?

Since there has been so much talk about Arizona Academy (I was fortunate enough to see them this past weekend), I thought I'd post a couple of pictures I took at the Stockton, CA show. This at least gives an idea of the size of the corps.

I love reviews...if you have the time and desire to write one, please do! Thanks! ^OO^