Duelling Decisions in DeKalb

[jjeffeory]

I've often read on this site that some people don't hold TOC show scores with much weight. Why is this? What is so different from TOC shows from regular shows?

From what I recall, DCI USED to use the TOC to experiment with the judging. When DCI went from the older system to the current one a couple of years ago, they used the TOC events to test out the new sheets.

That's what I recall is the reason people don't put much weight into those shows....

Now, I think the TOC shows are different and there is no difference in the sheets. So, I'd think that they would just like any other big show, except the money goes to the TOC corps and not DCI ( split more ways)? Something like that...

[jjeffeory]

Of the top 5, the only corps I kind of feel doesn't have a chance at the title is SCV, but that doesn't mean they can't medal. I just don't see the championship potential in the show. Nothing wrong with that. I could still make an argument for Carolina Crown as a potential champion. I can easily make an argument for Bluecoats, especially since I think they have the lights-out GE to beat anyone if their performance captions hold up. And certainly we are all in agreement that the always mighty Blue Devils and the Cadets are in the running.

• You know the Cadets will clean that visual execution to a T come finals, and I believe their guard will be top 4 in the end. That could be enough to win.
• The Blue Devils will be consistent in all performance captions but will need Vis GE and Music GE to carry them, which could be tough this year since I do not think they have better overall GE than Cadets or Bluecoats
• Carolina could potentially win high guard and brass, be right up there in visual ex, and their music GE is really good. For them it might come down to Visual GE, which I think is kind of plain jane at the moment
• Bluecoats have a GE monster, more so musically, and their brass and drums can hang with anyone. For them it will come down to guard, visual ex, and visual GE.

SCV's show is just as worthy as the other shows. Lots of GE, both musically AND visually. Innovative use of electronics. The show design is great. Horns are good. Drums are good. Guard is good. Just need to clean and tweak. If Crown isn't out of the running with their stellar guard and brass, SCV is not out of the running with their percussion and visual design. Just my opinion.

[Lincoln]

Be honest. Did you read Dante's Inferno. Be honest!

I never read Dante's Inferno but I did go see the Towering Inferno.

https://youtu.be/nch1URmJvMA

Edited July 14, 2015 by Lincoln

[KVG_DC]

I never read Dante's Inferno but I did go see the Towering Inferno.

https://youtu.be/nch1URmJvMA

138 floors of office cubicles with some fire? Close enough to hell for me.

[JohnZ]

Time to intervene.

while one of you takes a little siesta, this might be a good time for the rest of us to grab a cup of our favorite beverage and take a quick refresher romp through the Community Guidelines.

spirited debate is always encouraged. Trolling and personal attacks, not so much.

carry on.

z

[Cappybara]

From what I remember from reading the book 7 years ago, the characters left hell at the very end of the book.

[Tobias]

Dekalb Tour of Champions

7/12/2015

Congratulations to all the marchers for an incredible show. If the show scores were based on the marchers performances, it would have been a nine-way tie for first with a score of 100. Yayyyy kids! [/ positive]

WARNING: The rest of this post is criticism of designers who control the activity, so if youre unable to understand or criticize thematic design, theatrical staging and drill design stop reading now. Thanks. Also to Pavlov's drum corps planet meat puppets who continually post negative comments on my reviews with things like "Relax, dude" or "Pseudo Intellectual Crap", I have included in bold at the end of every paragraph a simplified six-word summary version that you may be able to comprehend.

PS: Don't comment on this post unless you have read at least a synopsis of Dante's Inferno. That's the line of demarcation. Otherwise, you'll reveal that you're completely out of your league, and that you're a drum corps meat puppet who follows orders and is incapable of critical thinking or understanding the complex thematic designs of these shows.

***

REVIEW

Most of todays DCI scores are reflective of the quality of the show design, not the execution. So, lets give praise to the designers for their successes, and begin the evisceration for their failures. Let's hold drum corps designers accountable for their laissez faire, amateurish efforts. Let's send them their pink slips, stat.

Dekalbs Tour of Champions show revealed that many of the corps show coordinators and designers are amateurs with no theatrical staging experience. There. I said it. Based on some of these confusing shows, its clear that designers have a hard time conceiving and conveying basic dramatic action (or visual impression) with their staging. Appalling but true. Some even have trouble clarifying the main theme in their show, and designers are even having trouble setting up clear stage pictures, avoiding clichés, defining the action between characters, and trouble finding endings with resonance. (For example Blue Devils' ending had no resonance, no completion-- only a small flaw in an otherwise impeccable show.)

Overall, this activity has grown so sophisticated that many of these show designers and coordinators are apparently just crumbling underneath the weight of the annual task of selecting a repertoire with a theme, and then creating a set of visual components that support that theme in a clever, original way.

Dekalbs audience was filled with erudite college graduates who are former marchers. These art-savvy watchers, despite their sophisticated palates, sat dumbfounded during many of the shows because the staging was unclear. Audiences shrugged, I dont get it. And not like a cool Jackson Pollack I dont get it. But like a, "I see what theyre going for, but this doesnt work. I dont get it.

A lot of people in the audience are saying "I don't get it."

PHANTOM

This show is so uneven it ends with Coco Chanel dancing with shopping bags to Lohengrins Elsa. Clearly an egregious mismatch in styles and lacking in any clear concept. Really really awful. Cut her at the end. (I'm not talking about the brilliant performers who are professional quality. I'm talking about the crackpot lazy designers with no experience who would actually bring back a Coco Chanel framing device to the end of freaking Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral in Lohengrin by Wagner-- she's wearing sunglasses and carrying shopping bags! My freaking God that's awful.)

Phantom should change the point of focus of the show to be stepping back in time, piece by piece. Start with Coco Chanel in the 1960s, and step back gradually and end in 1887 with the premiere of Lohengrin in Paris. By the end of the piece, we have transported back in time to 1887, the costumes have changed as we go. By the end, Coco and her sunglasses are nowhere to be found. By the end, we see a full on classical en pointe ballet troupe at the end of Elsa, maybe the opera house dance troupe in 1887. The corps exits completely transported to the 19th century Paris and all of the front facade photos are transformed to be black and white. Its a living, breathing time machine stepping back in time. But right now, Coco Chanel re-enters with shopping bags at the end of Elsa and it gives the viewer a sick, vacuous feeling, and decimates any gravitas youve built up through Clair and Elsa. Device: reverse timeline, common in film, commercials and literature.

What's the sunglasses lady doing in Elsa at the end?

CAROLINA CROWN

An exquisite, brilliant production of Dantes Inferno with only two problems that need to be cleaned up. First, who is the red caped guy? We dont know. We can guess who it is based on the text, (Dante, Virgil, or The Devil himself), but its not clear. It should be a concern to any show designer who adds a character to a show with no stage business, no objective, no interaction, no emotion, no activity and no transformation. The character disappears as quickly as he entered without any memorable lasting impact on the rest of the story. Red flag. Second, we need a big costume change under the red silk, or to break out of the silk to indicate the escape from hell which sets up the transition to the final Ode to Joy. Get it? A major emotional transition. Without this escape from hell transition, the audience is confused and wonder why the corps is upbeat all of a sudden if theyre still in hell.

Recommended revisions: costume change under the blood river silk; horn line rips apart the silk and escapes hell. Devices: Journey and redemption.

The last tune is happy. Why? Are they out of hell all of a sudden?

BOSTON CRUSADERS

Frankly, the staging in this show is confusing. Were just not sure what the point of focus is in this show and the end, as a result, loses emotional connection. The show seems unfinished in parts, even at this late date. At some points were not sure if there are specific narrative elements, or just glimpses of visual pictures of the Game of Thrones era. In several parts, characters stand still without stage business or choreography, one poor young performer standing frozen for almost an entire movement in this show. (Performers, question your designers! If you feel uncomfortable, we do too! Designers work for you! Demand that the designers fix it!) When this show ends, were not sure what happened, were not sure if specific story points were being conveyed, and were not sure what our emotion should be. Whoever is getting paid to write these shows needs to take a couple hundred bucks out of their paycheck and take a basic directing class. And if thats not possible, just look up character, location, stage picture, point of focus, dramatic action and resolution on Google. Boston had a similar problem with Animal Farm with no clear dramatic action or transformation or range of emotion.

Recommendations: Give the red caped girl a soloshe could be your through line. Right now there isnt one. Find a through line quick. Its not that hard.

Is this supposed to be Game of Thrones?

CADETS

Cadets Power of Ten is a thematic miscarriage. It fails just like Bluecoats Tilt which relied on the brazenly care-free casual theme These composers were off kilter. Bluecoats show relied on visually tilting things, an embarrassingly literal play on words, with no other social commentary or thought about the composers or why they were off-kilter or anything to ground the show in a thematic argument of any depth or resonance.

Whats especially sad about Cadet's show is that Shostakovichs tenth symphony was a time of amazing battle of tradition versus innovation, both of which appear in the original composition.

But theres no hint of that depth or meaning here in Cadet's show-- not even an abstract hint of any social commentary, or impressionistic nod to the time period or what this piece means to the performers or how it relates to modern day sensibilities. Any show, no matter how abstract, no matter how impressionistic or cubist or non-linear or must have some hint of depth to ground the audiencea soupcon of allusion to deeper meaning. This isn't a concert, this is a drum corps show.

Sadly, this show visually is embarrassingly based on literal wordplay with no artistic merit, meaning or grounding:

Lets play with the number ten for Shostakovichs tenth symphony.

Okay, ten ten ten... lets see. Lets do something between the ten yard lines.

Oh, Thats in.

Lets make an X which stands for ten.

Oh thats in.

Lets have a quantity of ten French horns do a solo.

Thats in.

Okay were done. Lets rely on the poor drill designer to do the rest!

This show design is so casually improvised around the word ten, so without any of the depth or richness of the original music composition's historical context, it makes you wonder where the brilliant designer of Angels and Demons is. Someone please pick a thematic argument for this show! It doesnt need character or costumes or words or anything else but it needs some depth beyond a single meaningless, sterile word: ten. And I suggest you start with Shostakovich himself. Not a representational character, but a hint of his anarchy and struggle against tradition, rather than on the sequential number of his symphony and counting to ten. Such a really empty and dry concept.

"The number ten. I get it, but, what does it mean beyond just a number?"

CAVALIERS

The Cavies show is technically interesting to watch, and has some understated character work by the guard which shows the raw emotions endured by dedicated sportsmen. But theres no depth beyond that. These pairs of wrestlers or fighters do not transform in any way by the end. And thats a shame. Were aching to see one get hurt and the others rally around. Or one sportsman slow down at the slow motion finish line and the others drag him across. Dying to see some depth and richness of the bond between athletes. They could easily add this "finish line" set piece which would provide mountains of resonance to the ending, and add ten more points, easily. Were dying for the humanity of these sportsmens triumphs and camaraderie to be infused into the show.

Maybe these sports guys can change by the end or something.

Santa Clara

Santa Claras Tesla themed show curiously added a theme from Willy Wonka, and its so odd, so off-center, so delightfully unexpected and mismatched that it takes you away, and your spirit soars watching it. This show has expository problems like the restwho is the couple dancing? Is that Tesla? None of the 15 audience members around us knew. Red flag. Give us a clue and well ride with you.

Recommendation: If the male dancer is Tesla, have him come in with a welders mask on which he removes as they begin dancing. Otherwise, you might as well put him in a Barney costume.

Is that guy supposed to be Tesla or Willie Wonka?

Blue Devils.

This exquisite, brilliant corps starts out like gangbusters with a magical, eye-popping single visual element. Storybook characters emerging from life size storybooks. This device instantly gets the audience on board. Thats great theatrical design. Thats expository brilliance. That storybook visual encapsulates what were about to see-- characters from storybooks in unique interpretations. Instantly, everyone knows what will happen. Unfortunately by the end, BD completely tosses the story book into an empty garbage can. Clunk. We cant tell what the hell the corps is doing on the zero sideline in the last number, why theyre there, and why they decide to come across for the final pass across the field at the end. Make it clear. If you're turning a page in a book, from left to right, make it clear to us.

Recommendations: Have the magic flute guy, whoever that character is, we cant tell, maybe the pied piper or magic flute guy, have him beckon the corps muddled and hiding in the sidelines to explore the field, come back out and traverse across the fifty in the final fanfare. Then we know who he is. He is the muse who ignites our sense of story and invites us to come listen. Otherwise, without this final action, there is no resonance in the final moments. No one gets who he is, and you flush your final resonance down the old first place toilet. The only other way to build resonance into the end is to have all the characters pop back into their story books at the end, a framing device.

Whoever Blue Devils designers are, they seem to have taken a right turn away from that horrible spell where they were doing overly-abstract garbage with people tight rope walking down the 50 for absolutely no reason, and establishing no pattern, stumbling around with plenty of elephant tusks and not a shred of relatability or narrative grounding, and now theyre enjoying the spoils of story, in this case, narrative and linear, but it doesnt always have to be. Just breathtakingly brilliant. Wow. The future of the activity.

BD should change the ending. Why the end zone?

PS: Don't bother posting comments to this thoughtful review like "Did you even march." Or "I've won a lot of awards." Or "LOL." If you think this is nonsensical garbage, you have no idea what you're watching when you see a corps show and you sound like an absolute troglodyte. Why do you even go to corps shows if you don't understand them, you ridiculous meat puppets?

Sound like a social progressive. They hate everything,,.

[chaddyt]

Dekalb Tour of Champions

7/12/2015

Congratulations to all the marchers for an incredible show. If the show scores were based on the marchers’ performances, it would have been a nine-way tie for first with a score of 100. Yayyyy kids! [/ positive]

WARNING: The rest of this post is criticism of designers who control the activity, so if you’re unable to understand or criticize thematic design, theatrical staging and drill design stop reading now. Thanks. Also to Pavlov's drum corps planet meat puppets who continually post negative comments on my reviews with things like "Relax, dude" or "Pseudo Intellectual Crap", I have included in bold at the end of every paragraph a simplified six-word summary version that you may be able to comprehend.

PS: Don't comment on this post unless you have read at least a synopsis of Dante's Inferno. That's the line of demarcation. Otherwise, you'll reveal that you're completely out of your league, and that you're a drum corps meat puppet who follows orders and is incapable of critical thinking or understanding the complex thematic designs of these shows.

Dear Holier-Than-Thou,

I'm commenting on this just because, even though I haven't read even a synopsis of Dante's Inferno.

Love,

Proud Meat Puppet

[exitmusic]

Why do you even go to corps shows if you don't understand them, you ridiculous meat puppets?

Why do you go to corps shows if you clearly have a strong distaste for pretty much everything about the activity? I am thrilled for you that you were able to get your pseudo-intellectual rocks off here, but man... it's just marching band.

[geluf]

People. You're being trolled so hard right now. Recognize it and let it go.