Someone please explain e=mc^2 to me, because I really don't like/g

[bernie_VKpit]

And many, many, many others disagree with you. What makes your opinion so much more valid than mine and that of CavFan930?

I think you two need to take it out back, and duke it out!

[drilltech1]

(To me , at least) Crown's show was not about Einstein per se. Nor was it about relativity, physics or math.

It was "let's crack open Einstein's brain and peek at what sort of things are flying around in there".

Shockingly enough -- this is exactly what Einstein on the Beach seems to be.

If you learn just a little about Einstein, the love story makes TOTAL sense. His views on love vs. the rest of the human experience are well documented (as is his .. umm .. personal track record in the love department).

If you *really* want to "get" Crown's show, watch the first 10 minutes of this. Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson explain it far better than anyone else.

"we had taken a person and made it the subject of the piece. in a certain way, the person

replaces the idea of plot. in other words the character of the person is what piece is about."

--- P Glass

"it's not a historical representation of einstein, it's a poetical work about einstein."

--- R Wilson

Finally -- I'll just restate again: IMHO you don't need to "get" Crown's show at all to enjoy it at face value. It's perfectly good drum corps *without* the need to "get it" at all.

This!

[Big Bad Bari]

Fear not. The Drum Corps activity has never had an era where all the Corps shows were playing the same music, and where all the Corps had the same styles, visuals, uniforms, etc nor any era where all the Corps " played a broadway tune, or a pop song " While there MIGHT be such a fan out there calling for this, in all my years I have never met such a person calling for all the Corps to look the same, sound the same, and all to play the same type of pop music or broadway tunes. So don't concern yourself with something that to our knowledge nobody is advocating.

No but there was a season where 3 or 4 different top 25 corps played "Tiger of San Pedro"

[Stu]

There isn't any such requriement, so you are fine.

I disagree. Granted this is from personal experience, but when I show most, not all but most top 12 performance from any corps from any year during the '80s decade as an initial introduction to a general Joe Schmoe who has never heard or seen DCI they 'get it', 'enjoy it', and typically become 'hooked'. However, when I now take a Joe Schmoe who has never heard or seen a DCI show to go see a live DCI show as an initial introduction in this new millennium, many times they either walk away saying, "Eh, I liked that blue uniformed group who played western movie music but the rest of them play that artsy fartsy stuff and I am not interested", or they say, "I see and hear the quality of all the groups, but did not understand all that artsy fartsy stuff, so I am not interested". Very few, in my experience, get 'hooked' by initially presenting them with the modern era DCI performances. Again this is based on personal experience of trying to increase the fan base (not with Artistic Minded Academic Intellects, but with Joe Schmoe types who fill the stands at other major entertainment events occurring at 100,000 seat pro stadiums).

P.S. I am not advocating to 'dumb down' DCI; all of the performances from all of the top 12 corps in the '80s era were not dumb down designs; but the design staff at that time made darn sure the people in the stands were not presented with intellectual artsy fartsy stuff which is only accessible to a very select few people. And here in 2013 Jersey Surf, Troopers, Scouts, SCV all were vastly differesnt (there is the variety) yet they were all very accessible to others beyond the artsy fartsy academic intellectual mind set.

Edited August 30, 2013 by Stu

[BRASSO]

a Russian named Grisha Perelman proved that you are a donut no matter what dimension you exist in. The reality of modern research is that there is literally nothing certain about the way our universe works. We barely know how it is shaped.

I think Grisha's Donut Theory just might have a big hole in the middle of it. I just can't sink my teeth into it, nor explain why. I intend to give this much deeper and contemplative thought the next time I buy a large coffee & a honey dip at Dunkin.

Edited August 30, 2013 by BRASSO

[MikeN]

I don't get the show at all, but I can't stop listening / watching / humming it.

Mike

[BRASSO]

No but there was a season where 3 or 4 different top 25 corps played "Tiger of San Pedro" :ph34r:/>

No. Thats actually not accurate, BBB. Only 2 Corps ever played this in DCI in the same year. ( Crossmen, Guardsmen in '79 ).

And even with this, the poster Charlie said he did not want all 25 Corps to play " pop tunes ". My comment was thats this has never happened and not to sweat it, as it won't happen in the future either, imo.

[Lead]

I tried to not watch the show from a "here I am sitting in a football stadium trying to understand some deep philosophical concept" point of view, but from a "here I am to be entertained by the best drum corps (corps plural, as in the entire linup) in the world" point of view.

What I saw from Crown was one of my (new) Top 5 favorite DCI shows. The sheer amount of things going on at once that made me wish I had fly-eyes that could see multiple directions was amazing, coupled with the wonderful drill and... eh... the percussion, and the creativity of putting Zarathustra with Philip Glass... wow. I can't fathom how someone could watch the show and have the word 'offended' creep into their mind - unless they had a bowl full of sour grapes prior to watching.

I'm not some high-brow modernist either... my other Top 5 shows are:

Madison 95

Phantom 08

Blue Devils 98 (yep)

Cadets 83

Just... that Crown show was amazing. You didn't need an explanation to enjoy it.

[BRASSO]

Just... that Crown show was amazing. You didn't need an explanation to enjoy it.

While that might be true for you and me, ( and others ) the comments we have heard in some quarters actually tell us otherwise.

Edited August 30, 2013 by BRASSO

[Stu]

There would be a lot more electronics, guitars, and singing, IMO...as well as dancing, and more costuming as opposed to uniforms. If that is what you wish, OK. It actually sounds good to me.

I have said many times that I am not against the idea of progressing the art form using the academic mind set of Performance Art as long as it is promoted in that manner to the target audience (which is a rather small audience base). However, if DCI wants to pack pro stadium venues like other 'professional entertainment' artists they need 'professional entertainers' driving the design bus not the academic educators. And there are many directions in which DCI could go if 'professional musicians' and 'professional entertainers' were driving the design bus. Some professionals would want to push toward the outrageous like emulating Lady Gaga or Insane Clown Posse; others would want to push toward a different value like emulating productions of Rush and U2. We can then let the public market place decide which influences should drive DCI future programmatic designs. However, they, the people working in the professional world, are the ones who know how to pack pro stadiums with 100,000 fans paying high priced tickets not the intellectual academic minded who want to progress an 'art form' through Performance Art.