MikeN
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Posts posted by MikeN
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Pacific Creat will finish in front of a lot of corps. It’s not an indictment of Madison, it’s a recognition of how good PC is this year.
Mike
posted from the DrumScorps app
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4 hours ago, xandandl said:
Cavaliers do it well and even wear the classic green at Finals Retreat. Wearing it while they played Somewhere at St. Monica's for Don Warren's funeral tied all those Gearheads together from 1948 to today, even those years when Cavies wore blue (their original color.)
Yeah, I got that. Thus the green and black text.
Mike
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Just now, George Dixon said:
Cadets should have a classic set for parades, concerts and finals retreat and a show costume
Boo. That would never work. Seriously?
Mike
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15 hours ago, MikeD said:
There are a number of variables to a stay or leave situation for a marching member. Some probably are just interested in stepping up to the highest level corps they can. Some look at the staffs and who would be teaching them. Some want to stay and help their current corps, especially if their experience in their current corps is great.
It is incumbent on the current corps to make the experience as pleasant and rewarding as possible, to foster an environment where members want to stay.
There are probably as many reasons for staying or leaving as there are members, and IMO that is just fine.
A million times this.
Mike
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16 minutes ago, ftwdrummer said:
oh, I know. I just wanted to amuse myself a slight bit.
He did get his spats that year, after all.
And a baldric, citation cord and scarf.
Mike
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3 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:
This is totally different than the urban feel.
Yup. We want to keep trying new things.
Mike
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Crown’s show feels very old school in its structure. Opener, production, ballad, closer. Musically, that does make it a lot of fun to listen to, but it does seem a little, forgive me, conventional, up against the top 3. It’s a much improved Crown show, especially compared to Beast, but I miss the oomph they’re more classical programs had.
Mike
(Crown fan since ‘93 - y’all are all young’uns!)
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2 hours ago, Cadevilina Crown said:
I think part of it is that the Denton show got moved to a much bigger venue this year (UNT's Apogee Stadium), which drew a lot of corps that wanted to experience a bigger crowd and a higher vantage point for the box judges. Meanwhile, the Belton show is at a high school stadium.
It's a nice stadium, lots of open space around it, though the trailer/bus lot gets crowded fast. Generally ok, except for the part where it was like 110 on the field last year. Once the sun went down, it was closer to merely awful instead of unbearable.
Mike
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Finally got to see the show for the first time, after hearing it several times. The uniform change is kind of wasted in that it takes like the whole middle 3rd of the show. Also, if there's a thread/plot going on out there, I'm totally missing it. 😞
From my armchair designer perspective, it seems like this would be a much clearer program if they had put the drum break before the ballad, played the full ballad without interruption, let Joan pray up to the big hit, burned up Joan during the big hit (sorry, Joan), tossed the black uniforms on the pyre, and then played Vox Populii as an upbeat (and much more electronic/modern) closer about taking Joan's faith in a better world to heart. And I would have put the bright ending trumpet fanfare from O Fortuna at the end instead of a restatement of the dark opening lyrics.
Mike
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On 7/14/2019 at 12:36 PM, HolyNOLA said:
I guess the original point of this thread was to see if smoking was even still allowed, since I do know our corps had banned it in the early 2000's. Also with the vaping epidemic, are corps putting restrictions on that as well?
My group is down in Open Class, and we tend to trend younger in age. That makes it easier for us in some ways. Our policies do ban smoking for everyone in the organization from the time you arrive for operations (beginning of camp / start of move ins) to the time you leave (end of camp / go home from tour). Thanks to our first trip to Denver last year, we also had to add a ban on substances that might otherwise be legal in the state.
Honestly, it never even occurred to me that there might be corps that still don't have no-smoking policies. 😐
Mike
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12 hours ago, Cadevilina Crown said:
Don't think it will be nearly as bad as last year, though. I still cannot believe how hot it got in Texas that week...
I can. 😔
Mike
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16 hours ago, Incognito365 said:
Umm, cleaning body movement to an extent is much harder than cleaning drill. Not everyone's body can move as fluidly as the other. I would much rather clean drill all day, every day than run the same body movement over and over and over and never really getting anywhere because some people just don't know how to move their body. Rhythm is not something everyone has...
Drummer here. Ain't that the truth...
Mike
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2 minutes ago, MikeN said:
Palladio - Karl Jenkins
Top Hat, Tie and Tails - Irving Berlin
Suit and Tie - Justin Timberlake
Across the Universe - The Beatles
Mike
This was our first show tonight. Definitely had those debut jitters, but we’ll move onward and upward. I’m so proud of the members. They’ve had a lot of curveballs thrown at them this summer, and they’ve managed to hit them all!
Mike
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28 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said:
Thanks!
Palladio - Karl Jenkins
Top Hat, Tie and Tails - Irving Berlin
Suit and Tie - Justin Timberlake
Across the Universe - The Beatles
Une Valse a Mille Temps - Jacques Brel (still coming)
Mike
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Guardians debut tonight! Woo!
Mike
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I mentioned this over in the show thread the other night (as well as here), but the back half of the show from YPG on is *excellent.* The opener is a bit of a slow burn (hah!), and the ballad doesn't do a ton for me yet. It's a little weird to see the hopping and jazz running in the scout uniforms, but my brain made the adjustment by the end of the show.
I'd *love* to see Madison next year veer a little more towards fusion/electronic jazz, a la Pacific Crest, Spirit and Crossmen. Modern DCI seems to be set up well for it with instrumentation and judging, and it still fits into the wheelhouse of what Scouts fans expect to hear.
Mike
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I have my own thoughts about Cadets' 2015 scores, and they rhyme with "full spit." Absolutely a championship-level show and performance level. Grrr.
Mike
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Guardians hit the road today! (Finally!)
Had an amazing preview show last night. We were housing in Ganado, TX (south of Victoria), and for a town of about 2,000 - we had roughly 500 in the audience! Funny enough, it was also my first time seeing the show. I like it a lot! The kids made it look easy, which was no mean feat due to the heat (over 100 most of the day, finally down in the high 80's once the sun went down).
First performance is Saturday in Memphis - likely won't have the closer due to the earlier stomach bug delays. We oughta have the fully operational battle station ready in time for Texas though.
Mike
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9 hours ago, Cappybara said:
BD has had some incredible ballads since 2014 and I'm honestly having a hard time choosing which one I like the most out of all of them.
I'm trying to rank them, for the time being my feeling is
1. 2015
2. 2019
3. 2016
4. 2017
5. 2014
6. 2018
2017 is one of my favorite BD ballads ever, and one of my favorite DCI ballads, to boot. It was just so amazing to hear that "classic" BD jazz ensemble sound when the full brass comes in with the chorus - I honestly didn't think they'd ever try something like that again. (Of course, now it makes me want them to try a big-band styled show a la Bluecoats!)
Mike
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10 hours ago, SimonSays said:
Why isn't Crown playing at venues with more of the top competition? Who decides the tour route each corps takes. I imagine if Crown went head to head with bloo, scv, bd, or even bac, they would get more into having to really fight for it. I think I read someone else point this out a couple days ago...just re iterating the thought.
Shows and tour routes are set many months in advance. We had a good idea of where we were going to be back before the new year. DCI does a pretty good job of mixing up the top groups, I think, trying to spread the headliners out on the various legs of tour.
Mike
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Madison’s.
Mike
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2 hours ago, garfield said:
That, or focus on building more corps that would catch the "walk-aways" who try out just once, get cut, and then go home.
This! Even from my view at the bottom of the DCI pyramid, this just kills me every year. These kids have the determination, the work ethic, yes the money, and we’re just saying “nope. See ya.”
Mike
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1 hour ago, garfield said:
An issue most forget to include is that today's caravans of corps vehicles makes it almost impossible to get all eight (say) performing corps' vehicles into a school parking lot. For this reason, early-performing corps are usually shooed out of the stadium so the later corps can get their equipment in to the performance venue. Parking logistics have taken on as much importance to show logistics as getting the corps on and off the field in time.
Oh holy cow can I attest to this. It's absolutely amazing the games of Jenga the equipment managers are doing with trucks and busses today. (To be fair, though, I've also now seen the same thing in action x10 at larger band festivals too!)
Mike
2019 Madison Scouts!
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
Having intimate experience with two different corps food programs, I can't imagine having the guts (or even a *reason*) to fire the long-time food person. They are about the most indispensable person in the entire corps.
Mike