Hop weigh's in on the Cadets/Crown rivalry...

[relmquist]

Hopkins made a controversial show design decision by not having a ballad, nor a drum solo.

You guys are missing what he is up to, trying to get the judge community to shift the scoring weight

in the direction he chose to go, uptempo and bordering on out of control.

His remark that Crown is not aggresive or whatever smacks of trying to influence the judges, and is totally over the line for a corps director to put online. Many corps banish their members from being online to prevent postings like this.

IMHO the judges will smack him down for this blatant attempt to change the scoring outcome.

I agree that he is trying to influence the judges, but every director does this. The judges will not "smack" down the Cadets because of this. If there is one thing I will praise George about it is that he is ALWAYS for the Cadets. He always takes their side and stands up for them. This is how it should be. That is his job!

George, I do not always agree with you and oftentimes don't understand where you are coming from, but I respect the hell out of you for your dedication to your kids (the Cadets)!

[Canuck DCGroupie]

Hopkins made a controversial show design decision by not having a ballad, nor a drum solo.

You guys are missing what he is up to, trying to get the judge community to shift the scoring weight

in the direction he chose to go, uptempo and bordering on out of control.

His remark that Crown is not aggresive or whatever smacks of trying to influence the judges, and is totally over the line for a corps director to put online. Many corps banish their members from being online to prevent postings like this.

IMHO the judges will smack him down for this blatant attempt to change the scoring outcome.

Hey can I have some of what you are smoking!

[jwillis35]

It seems to me that calling out another drum corps for not being aggressive is a rude and unprofessional thing to say, coming from the director of a drum corps that is being beaten by other said drum corps handily. Especially when the other said drum corps is far from "not aggressive".

You'd never hear things like that being said from people like Bruno, Jeff Fiedler, Rick Valenzuela, David Gibbs, or Kevin Smith.

Oh well, guess some things never change.

Wow. Sorry, but you are totally off base with this assertion. Hopkins did not call out another corps. Reread the post and look carefully at what you see. He gave a characterization of how he views one style vs the other, and there is nothing wrong with this. We often get upset in politics, sports, and here in drum corps, when we tend to get these ultra nice, pay everyone respect, don't say anything that really indicates how you feel types. Then someone actually says what they really think, which is what we all want...but then if we disagree with that person, well...we don't want it.

You know what, there was nothing he said that was bad. It was his opinion, his interpretation of the two styles, and he is the director of the Cadets, so you would naturally think he has a slight love for his corps and what they do. And he should!

Some people want these director types to just say nothing, be behind-the-scenes administrators and do nothing but get the corps down the road and back home. Well, not me. I want to hear what they have to say. I want to hear their true opinions, their ideas. Do you realize that one of the most read drum corps sites, in all of the activity, is George Hopkins' blog. I kid you not. Know why? Because he speaks out. Whether you like what he says or not, he is open and honest, and that's pretty cool.

Just because other directors choose not to speak out on this forum, or any other, does not mean they are any more "gentlemen like" or classy, as you suggest in your diatribe. How does one man giving an honest opinion that was not offensive, come across as unprofessional or cheap or rude?

I have found that more than not the people who chastise Hopkins' every word or comment are generally folks who do not like him and try very hard to NOT like him. If you don't like his ideas, fine. If you hate him, that is another thing. Don't be blinded by your hate or your anger because he chose to say something honest that didn't agree with you. He was very complimentary of Crown, but you would have to know how to read to see that!

[fecontra]

Myself, I am anxiously awiating the Z-Pull.

I am not a Hopkins hater, in fact I don't think DC would be what it is without him.

On the other side of the coin, when the scores are not what George wants these posts start popping up " the judges just don't get what we are trying to do " , and unfortunately they are coming much earlier than usual this year.

Next you'll be hearing some more scores are irrelevant to life experience quotes and etc.

I was hoping that a show like this would be contending for the title, and not be misunderstood.

[BOSMarcher]

What's going on?? DCI is going on. And the East Coast has an official rivalry for the first time in forever. And I couldn't be more thrilled about it!

This is very true. We are witnessing history! The EAST has never been stronger!

[chris ncsu]

On the other side of the coin, when the scores are not what George wants these posts start popping up " the judges just don't get what we are trying to do " , and unfortunately they are coming much earlier than usual this year.

I actually don't see any judging complaints so far. He said:

"what has happened is that on three of four nights, 5 judges have been scoring Crown over the Cadets. Before that, the 5 judges scored the Cadets over Crown.

What is different? They are better, we are better, we have an ending, and they have fine tuned.

[...]

And at the end of the day, with a double panel ... there will be 16 people deciding who they like the most.

Our job, of we choose to accept it ... make it clear, make it easy"

He lays out what's going on, and doesn't blame it on the judges. In fact, he says there at the end that 'we gotta play this game, and make it clear and easy to see HNC as the best come finals'. Play the game = tweak the show, and clean, and keep trying to figure out what's in the judges' heads while not losing what the show is.

He does preach that scores don't matter in the end, it's that you performed as well as possible. That doesn't mean they don't try to figure out what the judges like and don't like, because the ideal would be that you performed as well as possible AND you're judged to have performed the best.

[GMichael1230]

This is very true. We are witnessing history! The EAST has never been stronger!

The East has never been stronger ?? 1980: 2nd and 3rd place were from the east.

1981: 4,6,and 7th place were from the East.

1982: 27th Lancers, Garfield Cadets, Bridgemen, Crossmen make finals.

Oh, and since Crown is really from the "south"

1980 saw Spirit of Atlanta in 4th place. Thats three of the top four from the "East"

- The East coast is far from Strong.

Geoffrey

Edited July 6, 2009 by GMichael1230

[Fan of the Arts]

Myself, I am anxiously awiating the Z-Pull.

I am not a Hopkins hater, in fact I don't think DC would be what it is without him.

On the other side of the coin, when the scores are not what George wants these posts start popping up " the judges just don't get what we are trying to do " , and unfortunately they are coming much earlier than usual this year.

Next you'll be hearing some more scores are irrelevant to life experience quotes and etc.

I was hoping that a show like this would be contending for the title, and not be misunderstood.

Hold onto to that hope :) we are only a couple of weeks and some change into the season. The contenders are right where they're suppose to be and not where you want them to be. When August comes the usual suspects will be front and center vying for a[nother] title.

Irving

Fan of the Arts

[supersop]

The East has never been stronger ?? 1980: 2nd and 3rd place were from the east.

1981: 4,6,and 7th place were from the East.

1982: 27th Lancers, Garfield Cadets, Bridgemen, Crossmen make finals.

Oh, and since Crown is really from the "south"

1980 saw Spirit of Atlanta in 4th place. Thats three of the top four from the "East"

- The East coast is far from Strong.

Geoffrey

I get the feeling the DCI Geography has changed these days. There is no more "South". It's East, West and Midwest. If you look at it in that perspective you can say that 86 was also a strong year. Cadets in 4th, Suncoast in 5th, Spirit in 6th. It's all relative.

Knitpicking Hop's words isn't going to make what you THINK he meant to be true. His post was well balanced and carefully constructed. Probably the most "Directorly" post he's done in quite some time. Btw, this is about 2 weeks old. Things aren't the same anymore. Let it go. Just wait for hop to do his blowup post now that all the judges are on the field.

[jwillis35]

This is very true. We are witnessing history! The EAST has never been stronger!

It is great that there is a rivalry on the East. Some arguing and some fun chiding is good. It's all in good fun, but it is a rivalry.

Having said that: the East has been better and stronger.

There was a day when the East was the place to be. With 27th Lancers, Boston Crusaders, and North Star all out of the Boston region, not to mention Alliance (I think, but forget the name). Then there was Garfield (The Cadets) and the Bridgemen out of New Jersey. There was also the Crossmen and Muchachos out of PA (at least for a while), Suncoast Sound, Spirit of Atlanta, and others. This, of course, was mainly just the DCI era. Go back before that and you have many others.

And two of the Canadian coprs that were typically good contenders in their day, Dutch Boy and Venturers, also competed in the East once they made their way across the border. Dutch Boy had some great years, and the Venturers were one of the best all-girl corps I have ever seen. Allegiance Elite also had a great corps for a while.

The East Coast used to be a hot bed for the activity. Things shifted in the late 80s when some of those corps mentioned above were no longer with us. With the resurgence of the Bluecoats out of Canton, OH and the Glassmen from Toledo, Ohio was becoming a nice fertile ground for corps. The Pride of Cincinnati was also good for a while, but now just exist as a world-class WGI Guard. However, Capital Regiment has filled that gap. Because of this, the Midwest became very strong in the late 80s and early 90s, with the older titans, like Phantom, Cavaliers, and Madison Scouts, being joined by Star of Indiana, the Colts, the Ohio corps I just mentioned.

Sadly, the Midwest lost Star of Indiana, the Geneseo Knights (a great corps in their day), Pride of Cincinnati, and a few others. However, if all the Midwest corps were to appear at a show together (which doesn't happen that often these days, something DCI needs to think about when needing to market and sell tickets), the lineup would look like this:

Phantom Regiment, Cavaliers, Bluecoats, Blue Stars, Glassmen, Madison Scouts, Colts, Capital Regiment, and Pioneer. That is just world class corps listed, and that is pretty impressive.

California and the West Coast have gotten better over the years with Academy, Pacific Crest, Troopers looking better, and others all in the mix.