BAC G7 Set

[N.E. Brigand]

Love the show..hilarious. The G7, Testes, BAC, Pit trombone joke, and the gotta-pee drill. It's all in jest yet speaks volumes re. the current state of DCI. And, the corps members "know' about their drill and its significance. Great show this year, Boston -- and seeing the triad of self-importance and negativity discuss this is even worth the spam. Keep it up..Great organization/future there, Crusaders.

Wait, what? Approximately where in the show should I be looking for that joke?

[theyremovingit]

Am I in the minority in thinking the set is childish and has no place in the show and shows a severe lack of maturity from the design staff?

Not at all.

While I think it's clever considering their history with DCI and the G7, but I think it's an unnecessary jab that is only going to further the drama and subverted conflict between DCI, G7, and BAC.

[theyremovingit]

I'd like to see how Velvet Knights would go about parodying the current state of DCI.

[jjeffeory]

Not at all.

While I think it's clever considering their history with DCI and the G7, but I think it's an unnecessary jab that is only going to further the drama and subverted conflict between DCI, G7, and BAC.

Yea, I can see that it's unnecessary too.

[GUARDLING]

I'd like to see how Velvet Knights would go about parodying the current state of DCI.

no doubt with humor that all sides would smile at, and to be able to do that is an art in itself.

[N.E. Brigand]

One could do worse [than the Corleones] (even without the killing).

But, even you (correctly) asked [about Boston including the G7]: what good is accomplished?

Well, I also received an answer to that question, which may be worth some further consideration. But I'm more intrigued thinking about this:

It's interesting that you cite The Godfather, as that also is a work that seems to mean different things to different people. When the film was released, many critics, both those who liked the film and those who did not (and there were more than a few of the latter), understood it to be an attack on the idea of American business--even among the film's liberal critics, who might be expected to be more anti-business than pro-business, thought the film went too far in this regard: no, they said, every businessman is not really a vicious Mafioso; the film is too heavy-handed with that metaphor. But among the film's critical admirers were many who said, well, not exactly, but by putting financial interests ahead of communitarian ones, your average businessman is as much like a mobster as, to look fifteen years back to Arthur Miller, a Communist was like a Salem witch--the comparison is close enough. And why does The Godfather now regularly place in the critics' top ten polls, only a little behind Citizen Kane (also understood as a righteous attack on the idea of the American dream) and Vertigo (which shows that heroes tend to be dangerous obsessives) and some foreign films you've probably never heard of? (They're quite good; they just have never been well-publicized to Americans. By all means see one of Yasujiro Ozu's masterpieces if you get the chance.) Partly because the film, in (some of) the critics' views, has the guts to show how businessman abandon their morals for the all-mighty dollar. Does it extol family? Only insofar as its members don't act for themselves. The film concludes, after all, as Michael has his henchman to close the door on his wife.

Well, that's one prominent critical view. And yet I daresay most of the flim's fans among the public don't think of themselves as enjoying it for its attack on business!

(Nora Ephron seemed to grasp this dichotomy with her use of The Godfather in You've Got Mail.)

Similarly BAC's show this year is a clear and well-deserved renunciation of the G7 to some but clearly not to all.

[Eleran]

(Nora Ephron seemed to grasp this dichotomy with her use of The Godfather in You've Got Mail.)

It's just business!

Joe: It wasn't... personal.

Kathleen: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me. It's *personal* to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway?

Joe: Uh, nothing.

Kathleen: Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.

[frachel]

Love the show..hilarious. The G7, Testes, BAC, Pit trombone joke, and the gotta-pee drill. It's all in jest yet speaks volumes re. the current state of DCI. And, the corps members "know' about their drill and its significance. Great show this year, Boston -- and seeing the triad of self-importance and negativity discuss this is even worth the spam. Keep it up..Great organization/future there, Crusaders.

An issue I can see thought is this - a large majority of people have no idea that these are parodies/inside jokes/comments on/etc things in DCI. You'll notice a lot of post about how ridiculous the "gotta pee" stuff is from people that saw the show but had no idea. Of course someone replies telling them what it's about - but that's only going to reach very few people. For tons of people in the audience watching the show, it was something ridiculous. In some cases I've heard people say they felt bad or embarrassed for the kids that have to do something so ridiculous. BAC is not known for satire or comedy like VK or Bridgemen were, but rather as a "serious" corps so I don't think the point comes across. Maybe to other corps and the judges it does?

[georogers27]

I don't quite understand how including the G7 set is inappropriate. Maybe if they had an FU G7 that would be over the line. I have no idea, but it seems to me a kind of joke, jab, and topic for discussion why it was included. I think most forget, but the G7 powerpoint presentation was never supposed to be leaked to the public, the rest of the corps were never supposed to have a say in what was going on. The idea was to simply fire dan acheson and take over as the permanent board of directors.

I mean, if that is something that shouldn't be "aired" in public, and us fans have no say what goes on in our activity, seems a lot like the soviet union to me.

[N.E. Brigand]

An issue I can see though is this: a large majority of people have no idea that these are parodies/inside jokes/comments on/etc. things in DCI. You'll notice a lot of posts about how ridiculous the "gotta pee" stuff is from people who saw the show but had no idea. Of course someone replies telling them what it's about--but that's only going to reach very few people. For tons of people in the audience watching the show, it was something ridiculous. In some cases I've heard people say they felt bad or embarrassed for the kids that have to do something so ridiculous. BAC is not known for satire or comedy like VK or Bridgemen were, but rather as a "serious" corps so I don't think the point comes across. Maybe to other corps and the judges it does?

That's an interesting point. It reminds me of something my favorite film critic, the late Stanley Kauffmann, wrote about Sidney Lumet's Network (1976):

"All through his spotty career Lumet has seemed most comfortable shooting in and around New York City, from Stage Struck (1958) to Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Here he is so easy that he even indulges in some private jokes. The best kind: if you get them, fine; if you don't, you're not left out in the cold. A Wasp executive of the network dies and we see Dunaway come out of his funeral. Lumet shoots it outside a well-known synagogue on West 83rd Street. Finch visits the headquarters of a huge multi-national conglomerate, and we see him going up the marble stairs--of the New York Public Library."

(Emphasis added.)

This sounds like your concern: Boston's jokes leave some audience members "out in the cold". I do wonder why people would complain more about the needing-to-urinate pose than about the endless squatting other corps are doing this year. And is Boston's "G7" any more bewildering than Vanguard's "2" to most of the audience? For that matter, people even on these forums ask what "BAC" means.