gak27
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Posts posted by gak27
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13 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:
That’s why I didn’t march for two years.
My junior high band director LOVED drum corps. He would play Yankee Rebels and Cabs for us. He invited Norwood to hold camp at the school and that’s why I joined!
Nice!
My HS band director tolerated drum corps b/c he knew the type of member he'd be getting back after the summer. I never went to summer band camp until senior year due to tour timing, and yet never had a problem learning the (very) basic box formations and music (no flip folder for this drum corps horn player). And, I was never a member of the "Fanfare to the Earth Worms" brigade (horns down at a 45 so as to see ahead of you and see the music). Horns to the box! 😁
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19 hours ago, JimF-LowBari said:
Used to give them baritones but that was when they had a longer practice season to learn.
Wonder if anyone has to mark fingerings and learn that way anymore. Had to do that as was a trombone player
"mark fingerings" hahahah!!!
I started playing brass (soprano) when I joined my corps (valve/rotor and eventually 2-valve) - when I went to HS and they gave me a trumpet, I looked at it and the music and literally said "ok, now what?"
😆
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12 hours ago, Jurassic Lancer said:
And award for the best use of color coded text goes to ...
Gar.
Field.
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On 10/5/2019 at 8:01 PM, IllianaLancerContra said:
IIRC that is where & when the DQ happened.
'twas...announced as they were leaving the field/trooping the stands after retreat. A horn (I believe it was a baritone) flew out of the horn block after the announcement was made...
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4 hours ago, oldsoprano said:
I first met Don in the early summer of 1976 in Atlanta, and quickly realized that he was a show marketing genius. I had just graduated from high school, and our band booster club was sponsoring the first DCI show in the southeast later that summer at Georgia Tech's Grant Field, part of a tour and series of shows that Don was promoting for DCI. I, along with our drum major, were marching that summer with the Birmingham Charioteers, a Class A corps from Alabama.
Don flew into Atlanta for a week and he, my h.s drum major and myself spent several days going to all of the TV and radio stations in Atlanta pimping the upcoming Drums Across America show. It must have worked, because 14,000 people showed up at Grant Field to see the Blue Stars, Royal Crusaders, Crossmen, CapitolAires, Sancions, Black Knights, Charioteers and Bleu Raiders.
Don later moved to Atlanta and started a very successful parade production company. Rest in Peace, Don. DCI sure could use your expertise now in maximizing the tour model.
I remember that tour well. It was also the inaugural stop for Sevierville, TN (in fact, we picked up at least two members after that show). As I recall, every stop had MANY people in the stands and their response to (in many cases, I'm sure) their first drum corps experiences was very enthusiastic.
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3 hours ago, denmum said:
Because of the reverb we decided to drink at least 1 Molson product per corps. After 3 corps' and five Brador's we were feeling no pain or hearing any reverb. Brador was their malt liquor.
Ahh, Brador. I went to college in Detroit and would frequently travel across the river to Windsor for beer runs....and "guard" practice...
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12 hours ago, Continental said:
Cool overhead view of Phantom's '81 show - from prelims in Montreal.
I loved the '81 and '82 shows! My Dad and I are somewhere in that mass of humanity (if memory serves, about the same level and a little to the left; I took '81 off) with our Labatt's 50s...with ice...God, it was hot that day in the stands...
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28 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:
Alternatively, I could perhaps have run the polls not by placement but by corps, asking everyone to identify the best BD, Crown, Bloo, SCV, etc. show of the decade.
I figured that was going to be an inevitable series of posts - "Rank and Rate XYZ Corps Shows of the Decade"
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Very interesting concept on this one - there's no possible way to have more than one BD show on the list. For me, it was quite difficult in that I couldn't make my preferred multicorps selection configuration happen without having both BK shows stay (sorry, "I Remember Everything" didn't do much for me at all) versus having 3 Bluecoats shows...
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10 hours ago, cybersnyder said:
I'll probably get banned for this, but in all honesty, I think WGI's model is going to win. We love the the "Is it live or is it Memorex?" effect of a large corps, but you can get close to that indoors with smaller ensembles. Rhythm X's fees, for example, are $1500 for the year. Stuff a single charter bus to capacity, maybe a rented equipment truck, keep it more regional and shorter tours. It has built-in a lot of the limitations and effective spending caps to make things more competitive - eve if you spend twice as much as another ensemble - what would you spend it on?
150 people dancing on an outdoor field or 50 people dancing on a basketball court. Is there a huge difference?
With varying degrees of tongue planted in cheek:
- Volume (the more non-amplified, the better) and Impact.
- Brass. Lots of it.
- Visual complexity and expanse that numbers and square footage give you.
- The opportunity to experience the performance without being in a booming echo chamber.
- Number of, and proximity to, the "shriek for every toss/spin/catch" crowd
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Babylon - Downside Up - Angels and Demons
As for the others, my rankings would probably be pretty close together, although Metamorph/Felliniesque would probably rise towards the top. As for E=mc2? I just can't get past the ballad narration (the opening narration was cool) - I just can't.
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InfernoTiltCommonGoodTheBluecoats
TiltInfernoTheBluecoatsCommonGood
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you get the idea...wound up voting for Inferno, but geez that was hard...
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On a side note: when did FLO start offering archives? Is this part of an attempt to retain subscribers who would otherwise bail after Finals?
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27 minutes ago, ThePlanets said:
Another tough one. Given it's basically the same 3 corps (and one Cavies show) I feel comfortable ranking these.
10. Cavaliers Men are from Mars- total miss for me and I am still bitter it passed the jagged line
9. SCV Les Miz- I am just not a musical person, espicially this musical...blah. SCV did a nice job though
8. Crown Second Chance- the weakest of the 4 Crown shows here. Great musically. Just hard to latch to and some dull moments
GAP
7. Cadets Power of 10- the Cadets had their act together and at the beginning of the season I thought they might have another championship run with this show. 2015 was such a strong year and this show got the shot straw.
6. 2016 SCV Force of Nature- Absolutely beautiful eloquently performed show. Underscored and underrated
5. Crown Beneath the Surface- Somewhat sterile but absolutely beautiful brass and they moved a lot. Percussion issues fixed. Should have grabbed 3rd.
4. SCV 2014- I think this is the best of the 4th place shows but not necessarily my favorite The opening with the trombones and the percussion is just OMG.
3. Cadets 12.25- bizarre choice after a championship but still a fun, great, clean, easy to follow show. It was fun to see all the Christmas shapes on the field.
2. Crown Beast- this show finished appropriately but it doesn't get enough credit. I personally felt the beast looming the whole time. Loved the ballad and the feature (THATs how you celebrate women), and the closer. I was into this show the whole time.
1. Rach Star- Personal preference and I don't need to explain.
Really though 1-7 on my list were close.
Using your post b/c we've had very similar thoughts on several of these recent polls:
Personally I'd have the SCV shows as almost a tossup between Les Mis and Force with 2014 trailing - I am a musical person (to an extent) but for a LONG time, NOT that one. Then I actually saw it. I wound up picking Force of Nature b/c it was SO beautifully constructed and performed. Personally, I was just meh on 2014 but darned if I know why. Agreed on the percussion though.
Although I didn't see it live, I really liked Power of 10, even with the black unis.
Despite the performance prowess, was NOT a fan of Beast. Even with being somewhat sterile, I liked Beneath the Surface a lot more. Can't comment on the other Crown shows since I haven't seen them in any format.
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34 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:
Well, over the past decade, the designers seemed to be aiming for elegance only to have him layer kitsch on top of it.
"That is what he said..."
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1 minute ago, ThePlanets said:
Great idea! I was thinking of this myself espicially with regard to Bluecoats and Crown. To some extent SCV too.
and PR.
I'm sure these will surface soon and, for some corps, generate some INTERESTING rankings and discussions...
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My vote went to SCV 15 - yes it's kind of a honk vote (see sig) but so much of that show struck a chord with me - and yes, there are a LOT of good shows in this list. Also really liked "Juliet" and "Music of the Starry Night" (even though the tag add on felt a bit forced). In the "subcaption" voting: BC 17 over 13 and Cavies 19 over 16.
I have some interesting opinions that came to mind that I am looking forward to the next set of poll/rank and rate questions: "Rank/Rate the Shows of the Decade: XYZ Corps"
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35 minutes ago, BranchHill said:
But I am writing today to additionally sing the praises of "Phantasm."
32 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:Wild
Blue
Phantom.
Or as I started to think of it - the drum corps version of Bond's "Oh, James..."
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33 minutes ago, cixelsyd said:
That is an exaggeration. Yes, Flo quality suffers for a multitude of reasons. But YT videos made via smartphones suffer from the following limitations:
- None are multi-camera.
- All are shot from a seat in the bleachers, with view compromised by the heads of surrounding spectators.
- All audio is compromised by crowd noise. Most have heavy compression (automatic gain control), and the few that do not still cannot be cranked up to satisfying listening levels because of the crowd noise.
- Many suffer both A/V from being in a cheap seat, like on the 20 yard line.
No amount of interns or crowdsourcing will fix those issues. You need better equipment and staging.
What I would agree is "better quality", though, is the ability to simply watch a performance without pixel storms, freezing, or the halo of death. That, however, is mostly owed to YT videos being played back by random individuals on-demand, as opposed to everyone having to watch the live stream at the same time. If the Flo service was a next-day-upload, on-demand format instead of live, all these quality issues could be addressed.
Exactly.
Not to mention the fact that all of those "crowd-sourced" videos on YT aren't (to the best of my knowledge) legal.
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A surprising amount of variability in "appeal" compared to 10th - 12th. As @ThePlanets said, not really into a lot of these shows (Behold, Game On, Phantasm, The Fall and Rise) and really have no opinion on others (La Reve, Where the Heart Is). I went with Folk Song Suite because I liked that show a LOT.
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4 minutes ago, OldSnareDrummer said:
Ditto. Once they focused less on and toned down the guitars, I found that show much more entertaining.
To be honest, until my friend pointed them out at the end of the show, I didn't even know there WERE guitars....kinda muted my overall enjoyment of their show when I saw their "histrionics" at the very end...
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On 8/16/2019 at 7:55 PM, HouserCD said:
1978 Boulder Prelims is the first time many in the drum line actually saw what the overall drill looked like upstairs. Pete Emmons who designed the drill had videotaped the show on high cam and showed it to us before Finals. He of course was in the broadcast booth for Finals at Mile High Stadium. Always loved the opener “Overture to a New Era” by Giovannini both in 77 and 78.
I LOVED the '78 show! A great combination of nuance and power - I particularly loved the tenor writing (including the soft mallet choice) at the beginning of "If You Believe" and the guard clicking their heels 3 times before the big push. I also liked this year's version of "Lezghinka" than 79's...
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9 hours ago, Slingerland said:
I've been lucky enough to personally witness some of the legendary live performances in the history of the DCI era from the mid 70s to now, but the one I'd give anything to have seen live, based on the recording, is '74 Muchachos at Finals.
THIS is an excellent choice. I was there, and the ENTIRE night was a slow, intense increase in crowd excitement. My dad brought his trusty Panasonic tape player/recorder and recorded the entire show live from the stands. The tapes still play and sound decent for their age and I 100% agree with you about the Muchachos show - even 40+ years later, those tapes trigger a memory response of seeing it live.
2020 Phantom Regiment
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Not a PR recruitment vid, but here you go: