garfield

Man, there is NO doubt about their confidence. They were Gods when we marched against them. And I remember walking past the SCV contas as we were leaving the field and realizing that they stood a full head taller than me, and I was a skinny 6'1" at the time! BD and SCV were the pinnacle for us common field-manglers.

ooooh, you're right. I forgot about those 2 years! So then maybe this is their rise to greatness in progress?!

Wow! Great for Jeff! I sat in the stands with him many years and what a great judge he is! Way to go Jeff!

Nope, I politely disagree. Modified scatter drill and different guard props is not a watershed moment for DC. Innovation (sorry Lance!) is in the eye of ALL beholders when it's real, not just a few. Witness the constant curvilinear movement, constant playing, no formal drum break, incredible (middle horn) book, breaking the stigma of "Too many notes!" in the drum book, and the dropped jaws (some critical) of the fans. Witness '82, '83 Cadets. Again, who's got the potential for the next Zag? Feels like it might me Crown to me.

To get back on point, it appears that Crown has the capability to introduce a new...something...to DC because they seem to resemble Cadets in so many regards. I haven't decided if they're simply imitating what's been Cadets success or about to do something brand new. I can tell you that, sitting in the stands next to their staff at the early Dublin show, I was blown away with how staff interacted with the kids. Not once did I hear a derogatory word from staff. They were uplifting, engaging with the kids, helping them see the show from the perspective of the stands, and constantly encouraging them to go one step beyond themselves. These are all the same things I saw in GH 20 years ago when he was corps leader and not YEA CEO, and NOT what I saw from Cadets staff that same day in Dublin. Crown staff seems to know they're on the path to something extraordinary and they relate it to the kids exceptionally well. I'm not saying Crown is THE corps of the future, but the OP was hinting that they could be...

What? WHAT? What did I miss? Oh, you mean that "bashing BD" thing? Not me! I LOVE those guys. They've given me the best bathroom breaks other than INT for the last 20 years!

I don't think '76 BD sounded or looked that much different than Madison '75. Other than "tubed" tenors (and a killer drum book! ) what was innovative about them in '76 or '77? Yes, they have a formula that works for them and it's the same formula they've been using for 30 years! I'm constantly reminding myself of the Cadets T-shirt: "When we zig, everyone zigs. Zag." That's an admission of constantly pushing the edge of avant guard. I've never seen that from BD. In fact the most dramatic change in BD books was Cool Blue when the jazz wasn't so hard-corp driving thoughout the entire show. But they lost and the following year went right back to their "formula". Zag?

I don't think this is what Karen and others are speaking of. BD executes a *relatively* simple show extremely well - better than any others at the moment. But it's hard to visualize BD advancing the activity light years like Cadets or Star in their day. BD is the master of what is right now; who will be the avant guard that will go way out on a limb and change the activity? Cadets? Crown? Some other we've yet to see? But I can't see BD being the innovator that introduces the future to the activity.

"They were on the edge of being irrelevant or being great..." I wonder if this is a marker of an eventual sea-change in a corps maturation; Crown has yet to be on the verge of collapse, strife, hardship (beyond the expected trepidations of starting a new corps from scratch). Could this rise they're experiencing now be just the first push up, and are the due for a collapse to close-to-irrelevancy, before another pheonix rise to greatness, ala Cadets '78 to '82? Other than Star has there been a corps that had a straight-line advance to the top without falling back substantially mid-way? In the investment world there is the old "50% rule": every great rise will suffer a 50% decline before advancing again. Is this Crown's future? (pfft. Like any of us know the future!)

Wow, what wonderfully insightful comments on the heart and soul of a maturing corps. Excellent post. And I agree 100%. The activity needs a new push and Crown certainly has the foundation to instigate it.

If you know this would you mind telling me what the stock market will do next week? (Not that I disagree with you, BTW)

sour grapes because you were "tricked" into the thread? Perhaps if it were called the "Phantom" show you wouldn't feel tricked?

I hope htey find the crooks and use the ATV to drag them across some nice, sharp gravel in the parking lot.

Perhaps the judges are missing the best part of the "team's" performance because the "team" is usually in the locker room during halftime.

Doh! I've never seen INT's show! Darn! I'm always out doing something like standing in line at the bathrooms or waiting for food. When I'm in line and I hear INT's music in my head I always think it's 1983!

And, let's see, if all the "folks" take your advice how long do you think there will be a show for you to sit at home and watch?? If you really think watching DC on TV is a similar experience to actually being there you really do need to spend you money on the Dolphins. And can't I make the same suggestion to those who spend large sums on going to football games? Hmmm? Support what you love. I suppose there's a Dolphins forum out there you could join. This is my 2 cents.

I've been to every finals since 1983 and Bloomington ranks very high on my list of "Best DC Stadiums". As to show design and execution: I was watching some old videos of shows and interviews on the not-to-be-named site and saw one interview with a member of SCV in ***1973***. He was lamenting that the fans were constantly complaining that year that DC had changed too much and they missed the "good old days" of the 1960's shows. He said, "The fans just don't seem ready for our new way of designing shows. But we just keep cleaning it - they'll catch on." Hmmm...what goes around comes around. Back in the early '80s I sold MagnaEars to DC fans after watching so many fans "cupping" their ears to get more volume (and to try to block out the screaming fan next to them!). They were designed by an audiologist engineer to focus the sound directly into your ear canal without distorting or losing any of the sound frequencies. They sold very well and, last year in Bloomington, I saw a fan 10 rows above me still wearing his! Wow! The point is that the OP's disagreements with current drum corps are not new and, in fact, have been debated for, literally, DECADES! The term most often used is most eloquently applicable to this geeky activity: Creative Destruction.

I can go to bed now. Life is good. See you all in Indy. GO HNGCBC!!!

muted crowd. They didn't sell it tonight.

This is not nearly as clean as I was expecting it to be. Hearing cracks, seeing feet out of step and time, spacing is choppy. Dunno...watchout.

Boy the guard sure screwed up those ripple 6's. It was way out of time.

No, I don't mean tokin' grass, I mean are they marching on turf or fake turf?

Lots of room in that closer for the z-pull. Come on George, give it to us.

And nobody fell down! Are they on grass?

drive it home!