Weaklefthand4ever

I would tend to agree with this. PR's show this year just has too many large GE questions marks. I think they have the ability to stay in the top 12 if the stars align but it's going to take some major re-thinking of the show. The MM's are pretty capable I'm sure. The question will be if the design staff is willing to take what has been said (hopefully) by the judges and turn it into something successful. I would LOVE to hear some GE tapes of PR to find out what their feedback is.

There is still potential in the show for 11th or 12th place. As I said in a previous post Spirit is going to be tough to beat. The question in my mind is who has the most potential growth for their show. Some have said the home show numbers are skewed, but I would humbly disagree. I think they were right on par with what I saw.

They are definitely gonna be jam up for sure. Gonna be hard to beat 2010 PR for best 6th place ever show though IMHO.

My life story LOL. There are so many things I could have been better at if I was willing to put in the time and effort to practice them. I chose.....pool....because I'm dumb.

Yep. From a DCA perspective I know we were always told not to "feed the trolls on DCP" and to leave posting to the senior members of CV (at the time Corpsvets.) As time went on, I understood why, although I found a few good folks insightful and honest. Those are the folks I still post with today like BigW, Jeff, Terri, George, JimLow, Fran and a few others. I'm pretty sure with us all having made our way through the business world we could flame with the best of 'em but we don't. On a side note, I love the reviews of shows when they come. But I don't expect them. It's not as if people are getting paid to write them after all.

Just follow the corps jackets and you'll never be alone no matter where you end up. I only get scared when it's a Star jacket because those folks are CRAZY (I hear the same about the cats from Westshore too.) Spirit folks are tame BTW....just sayin'

Nom...... That's something we don't have in the south...good delis.

Me too! (And if you believe that, you'll believe anything.)

Haven't been to the Eagle but Tavern on South is pretty decent. And if you happen to enjoy a game or two of pool (probably just me again...) Brickyard Billiards isn't half bad for Indy.

Lancer, you forgot that you have to scratch your head at some of the $4000-$8000 a bottle wines before you hit the "kick you in the ###" shrimp cocktail. The food there is just wonderful.

The usual really from 20 years ago should be fine. 1. Clear plastic bag of some sort to carry stuff in. I can't remember what size it has to be but it's not really very big. 2. Sun screen in case they decide to not close the roof 3. Good shoes 4. Lots of money..LOTS...not like Disney World lots...but close. Food is very expensive there (I think a hot dog was $5 or $5.50 and beer was definitely $7.) The good news is, they MAY be reducing prices soon like Atlanta did and, just like Atlanta, there are about a zillion stands to get beer and food from. 5. Patience - getting out of that stadium is HORRID 5. A beach ball. That's just me though and I miss them. When's the last time we saw a beach ball at retreat??

I find it very odd that any news of corps is even LESS this year than any previous years in my memory. I haven't even HEARD from CV this year (apart from volunteer and funds requests,) and I'm an Alum. With everyone getting into finals this year, I would have thought the death grip of secrecy would have lightened up a bit.

I think this is a pretty accurate description. And there probably is not a gigantic pool of folks who check every box on that list. I would agree there is trendous alumni talent across all of DCI. And though not all could design a successful show, their talents in most cases are under utilized. But it's also difficult to manage if you add too many voices to the conversation. The staff has to get behind the design and not have infighting. I imagine that's not the easist thing to manage. Now alumni campaign designated to specifically hire the best of the best..... I can get behimd that. #### it worked for Star even though the money was made / donated in a different way. People can sneer and go on about the best drum corps that "money can buy," but it works.

I wish I would have been more involved in the boards back then, but such is life. I have yet to see the original G7 documents, though I've heard marvelous stories of merry wonderment.

Oh I absolutely don't think you did. I think that could be the FEAR though that many organizations could have. I think the offerings of Alumni support are vitally important for any corps. Far too often, I think many organizations look to Alumni as a financial piece of the puzzle only. Though a poor comparison (And I know I'll be called out on it,) think of the current situation at my Alma Mater (U. of Alabama.) they gave back a 21.5 million dollar donation. They cited (though it's debatable,) that they feared the donating party was demanding that changes which he demanded be implemented in return for his "gift." Although drum corps is different, the fear of losing creative control could be an understandable one even if it doesn't actually happen. In regards to professionals being used who are alumni, I feel this is great. As long as they can be vetted, their expertise could be very much of use.

I feel like many think the lack of response to alumni is because of the threat of losing control or having to share creative control or power. Most program coordinators would probably shy away from being involved in a situation where their designs could simply be overriden by a group of alumni. But I don't truly believe ot would work that way anyways. I think the fear of alumni is that they way want to go backwards sometimes to the "Back in the day we did ______" types of things. The designers are always trying to move forward and the fear that a strong alumni control could hold a corps back visually might be very real. What's needed is a balance. I wish I knew what that looked like.

Well....this week Yeah...

Jeff can probably get a few hundred extra posts just arguing with Stu. /runs

This right here. I said in a post yesterday some of the same basic things. If something doesn't add to the design then it's just a distraction. Right now, there are a lot of distractions in this show. A slow moving opener with no direction and a drum line ramming notes to the backfield makes no sense. It adds nothing. The "I am joan" yell.....same thing. What is it adding? You just hit a big formation and haven't played a note....we already KNOW you're getting ready to try to melt our faces. I like certain sets like at around 4:30 and then the last 2 minutes of the show. The rest seems disjointed. The ballad is too spread out for me. Again, I was distracted with the "why are we spread from the 20 to the 20?" Too much to focus on the small brass ensemble guard work. The props sitting at the backfield doing nothing just bugs me. If you're going to have vertical staging then let's use it. The show has potential and I'm not going to doom it. But it needs some real guidance and a willingness to accept the feedback that the GE scores are showing.

1986 1986

They had a score increase last night which is good. It didn't jump 5 points but it's not going to at this stage. Gonna give it time for it to develop. By regionals we will know for sure.

I've now listened to the show 3 or 4 times. Why do I have this feeling that somehow it's been worked backwards? The last 2 minutes of the show are SO much stronger than the middle or opening segments. They have beautiful, full sound that last 2 minutes. The sets are fairly solid as well in the closer. It's from the starting gun to like 4 minutes in that seems very under rehearsed. I know the kids and staff are busting their #####, I'm just wondering if I'm seeing things wrong.

I drum on our chiweenie constantly. In fact he and I just jammed out to some '87 SCV. His flams are a little flat but his left paw is better than my left hand any day.

Spirit looks and sounds pretty strong, but I'm also biased. Their sets are cleaner (noticeably) than PR is at the moment and I believe their drill drives the GE scores up, not down. Again, as many others have said, I don't think PR is doomed to miss finals. I truly believe that they'll get it together. The show just isn't being performed to it's potential yet and the drill needs some serious looks and feedback (see my post from this morning for my personal take.) I'm going to watch X-men tonight and see what I think about them. I hear good things. Oh...one thing I didn't say in my earlier post. PR...I freakin' LOVE your uni's this year. Just enough of the old school to make you know who it is that you're watching and modern enough to be comfortable for the MM's. Now go work on that high mark time into the goose step thing because although I <3 you guys, you look like baby giraffes trying to walk for the first time right now.

THIS. I would agree 1000% with this statement. And it seems to be a trend. Phantom is doing the same thing. Movement without purpose is just a distraction. We say it in teaching all the time right? One of the things that I think BD and Bluecoats seem to have really caught on to (and SCV did it last year pretty brilliantly,) is the concept of that if you're going to use a ton of vertical staging, you have to move and play through it well. Otherwise, it's just a prop and those died out long ago.