Marie Czapinski

[saxfreq1128]

Good observation. Some think the G-7 poisoned the judging pool in May by stipulating that in the G-7 proposal, these 7 Corps would get to hand pick and manage the judges in their selective shows and sites for next seasn. Now if you are a judge, would you rather be judge in Annapolis next summer judging the top 7 Corps... where you get to smooz with all the college band directors, VIP's, equipment and uni Mfg.'s in the snazzy hotel lobby..... or would you rather not be selected by the 7, and be sent to the middle of nowhere in mid week to stay at a holiday Inn ? I know, I Know. It's a silly question as one is a good career move if you're a judge and the other simply isn't.

And..... so Lo, and behold..... what do we have here ? Well, As Gomer Pyle would say " SURprise...surprise :

The G-7 Corps all made the top 7 placements at DCI.

Well, waddya know about that.

Circular logic, no?

The G7 self-selected because they saw themselves to be the highest performing / most "brand name" corps of the lot -- with brand name status being a product of reputation and placement over the years.

It's not so far-fetched that a group of corps that tend to place 1-7 would, yet again, place 1-7 on their merits alone.

I'm all about critiquing the proposal, but conspiracy theories? We can do better.

Edited August 15, 2010 by saxfreq1128

[oldtimedrummer]

...most color guard people wouldn't know a basics block from a toe ring.

You're joking, right?

[Phantombari1]

She doesn't have to cheat but she certainly checks out when Phantom is performing. With the amount of conversation going on about her prior to semi's it also wouldn't be far fetched she would tone down her tanking of PR.

I have the pleasure of being close to her during a show and heard her comments prior to PR performing. Needless to say the judging echoed her pre-performance comments.

Edited August 15, 2010 by Phantombari1

[silvertrombone]

Well, that tells me you're a whippersnapper. Marie has been around forever. Seriously, she's a very good judge.

Well, I'm not old and gray. I've just never had an inclination (or until recently, google) to look up such information. Does DCI have this sort of information on its judges backgrounds on the web site anywhere? Might be helpful/informative/interesting.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a leg to stand on as far as criticizing a guard expert. But simple fact, this is not WGI. Different beasts entirely. If the CG has morphed into a true WGI unit surrounded by a drum corps, that explains a lot. Interesting information to learn.

And yes, CG is part of the whole. But to ignore trend and history and numbers...and then call ME a homer? Come on. How many years would you like me to find proof from? Perhaps the appropriate question is...how many DECADES?!? That's a problem.

Interesting revelations. Especially Ms. Czapinski's presence in my own industry, finance and real estate. Amazing thing, the Internet!

[oldtimedrummer]

Well, I'm not old and gray.

And I'm not young and naive.

[Kamarag]

Two things bother me in the world. Politicians and DCI Judging. The two, like the well-worn joke, bear striking similarities to baby diapers, and for much the same reason.

In browsing the scores from Semifinals just now I was amused to see that the 6th place Phantom Regiment was ranked 8th by Cavaliers bus mom wannabe and GE Vis 2 Judge Marie Czapinski.

Wait a second. You have "Vice Chairman, Board of Directors, Overture Youth Advocacy through the Arts (parent organization of Forte D&BC)" in your signature and you're going to publicly insult a credentialed DCI visual judge? Really?

Wow. Way to represent your corps. It doesn't matter if your argument holds water or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to do something. Guess which way you picked?

[silvertrombone]

Part of my questioning has to do with questioning the qualifications of individual judges DCI has had since I was marching. It occurs to me that, if the corps have made as many improvements as they have in the last 15+ years, why, oh why, are we still using the same judges??

Replying to myself? Oh, my.

Keep in mind, that Marie has a slight bias toward color guard. She has been a color guard judge, and a good one I might add, for years. I don't always agree with Marie, but I have have never, ever. found her to be be a cheat. PR down in Vis GE? Easy. She's probably right.

Wanted to highlight your point.

WGI has taken over the visual caption (as a whole). Color guard people are most prevalent on panels across the board...and thusly the CG portion of the act is evaluated with great insight and WEIGHT...most color guard people wouldn't know a basics block from a toe ring. Ensemble marching is degrading in quality because of this shift...basic notions of space and line are missing even from the best corps. The cure, IMO, is a required, compulsory, routine *everyone* must be evaluated on, in addition to their field show...oh, and don't have Clarke Williams relegated to Open Class Finals...just sayin'...age is normally a great benefit to *any* profession, until the elder person fails to keep current, then it just may become a liability.

cg

Yours as well.

These comments get at the jist of my problem with the GE caption more than any other thread I have asked about it in. Thanks, guys.

This is a real issue, then. These comments tell me that we should no longer by 'marching,' but 'moving' utilizing either...some would call it 'dance'...others 'choreographed movement.' Whatever. But if GE Visual is soooo dominated by colorguard, which seems to make sense according to the comments above, then 'marching and mechanics' shouldn't really enter into the equation, either. In that regard, uniforms seem strangely inappropriate to the GE Visual caption and should be replaced with 'costumes.' Whoever does that first and abandons traditional, military-style uniforms (shakos? come on!) for truly artistic and production-appropriate costumes wins BIG bonus points!

Thank you for your further comments, all. NOW we're getting somewhere. Either on this topic of WHAT GE is...or how it is judged and what its TRUE criteria are...or the affect this sort of "judicial review" (pardon my snarky/sardonic/humorous/punny shot) has on design.

Lots of good stuff to discuss further. I must ponder this further. Thank you.

Marie still has to go.

Well, that tells me you're a whippersnapper. Marie has been around forever. Seriously, she's a very good judge.

I'm assuming that you're joking. Gigging me. Ha-ha. I won't go for the flamethrower. But only because you said 'Seriously,' which would mean...you were only kidding. I would hate to think that you would be dismissing my argument based on your assumption of my age. I have a higher opinion of you than that, drummer. There's a smiley just so you know that I love you!

[silvertrombone]

Wait a second. You have "Vice Chairman, Board of Directors, Overture Youth Advocacy through the Arts (parent organization of Forte D&BC)" in your signature and you're going to publicly insult a credentialed DCI visual judge? Really?

Wow. Way to represent your corps. It doesn't matter if your argument holds water or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to do something. Guess which way you picked?

Ironically, Forte's strength this year was colorguard. I'm questioning a judge's well-known record of adjudicating another corps of which I am an alum.

I get your point. Noted. Thank you.

[chaos001]

I'd like to think, again, that we have enough highly talented or potential adjudicators out there in the ranks of alum, band directors, professors, etc that we don't have to SETTLE for such blatant bias. For or against ANY corps.

Again, unless it can be pointed out that PR's performance was simply flat on Friday night, the only other explanation is that this bias needs to be dismissed and shipped off to Holland or BOA.

BTW, I seriously doubt that a Homer would have been as critical of their corps as I have been. Rockford doesn't even return my emails any more. Call me a Homer if you want, but I think that I have earned the right to defend PR on occassion if I am the one willing to call them out as well. Honk if you please, but I criticize those I love the most. That's just me...to each their own.

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. There is literally a facebook group titled, 'Fire Marie Czapinski.' Who knew?!? It would seem that Ms. Czapinski has the same effect on the BOA crowd as she does on the DCI crowd since this group is specific to BOA.

Did her husband get fired from James Madison High School in the late 70's as well? Yikes!

Anyway, I would question booting her off to Drum Corps Holland after all...don't want the Dutch cursing our names, you know.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=7127...&ref=search

Simply amazing. And would appear that perhaps I'm not all alone in my little rubber raft, eh?

leave the Vaderland alone, please! they're still trying to get over losing another World Cup championship...

She doesn't have to cheat but she certainly checks out when Phantom is performing. With the amount of conversation going on about her prior to semi's it also wouldn't be far fetched she would tone down her tanking of PR.

I have the pleasure of being close to her during a show and heard her comments prior to PR performing. Needless to say the judging echoed her pre-performance comments.

Speaking of proximity to judges, I think I will be speaking with Dr. Jones sometime this year before I graduate (MS in Ed). I'd like to hear her take on things.

[chaos001]

Wait a second. You have "Vice Chairman, Board of Directors, Overture Youth Advocacy through the Arts (parent organization of Forte D&BC)" in your signature and you're going to publicly insult a credentialed DCI visual judge? Really?

Wow. Way to represent your corps. It doesn't matter if your argument holds water or not, there's a right way and a wrong way to do something. Guess which way you picked?

opinions are like ########s, we all have one. i love how we have to think that every statement on DCP is required to have some sort of value judgment with it as well. sometimes statements can be just that, without positive or negative influences.

Edited August 15, 2010 by chaos001