Cadets 2017

[drummergirl]

After coming home from work and finally getting a chance to read the posts from today, a thought came to me. A challenge to other posters perhaps, including myself. For all those that are tired of the content in this or any other thread or who have complained recently, why don't you start a new thread about a topic that is of "high value" or merit. Come up with something we can all chime in on. If we want to see certain types of threads then we need to be willing to start them from time to time.

It's late. I'm tired. Forgive me if this doesn't make sense. I probably should have started this as a new thread actually. Oh well!

[Jeff Ream]

I've heard him say many unusual things over his years at Cadets, but this to me seems one of the strangest. I'm still trying to discern the hermaneutic, the meaning and implications.

I'm sure many who have marched either would have different takes, not necessarily opposing takes. Both corps seem to have their fun.

In a mailing about C2's championship win in Rochester,

"Serving as the Director of The Cadets and Cadets2, Hopkins added, "In many ways, this experience is more enjoyable than the Cadets. Being weekend only, the corps can breathe, the outcome is not life and death and the rehearsals are a combination of intensity and fun. These kids love C2 and that love allowed them to take a good show and make it great. Many of these kids have never been this good anywhere and that joy in their eyes when the crowd erupted the past few nights was a gift to see. It was nothing short of amazing!"

Hopkins concluded, "Congrats C2 - all of you, from the bus driver to the donors and everyone in between. It's really more than words can describe!"

i get where he's coming from. The DCA schedule does let you breathe. the pressure isn't on 24/7.

[Jeff Ream]

There is no such rule.

there was.

[Jeff Ream]

My agitation is the problem? Anyone care to dispute me on the issue of DCP's fairness to Hopkins? Probably not.

HH

at times he gets what he deserves. others not. i try to be fair, and thats all i care about

[Jeff Ream]

I don't see that any of the above would come close to being an attack (except for the fat buffoon and stupid jerk part, of course!).

I don't agree with your assertion about the judges...that they are not being honest in their evaluation because they judge a few band shows for USBands, but I don't see it as an out-of-bounds attack on Hoppy...if anything, you are making a veiled accusation about the judges.

I dont think he's accusing anyone. he is pointing out what many others have said. I dont suspect any collusion, as judges at the national level have to be tied to a local circuit, which USBands is considered. Judges report their affiliations to the circuit. I'm pretty sure the way the corps threw down this weekend had Team TOB or Team Cavalcade of Bands been on the panel the results would have been the same.

[Jeff Ream]

Did Hopkins pick the judging panel? Nope.

actually directors can protest or lodge complaints to remove people

[MikeD]

I just don't want to see anything cast a shadow on Cadets2 accomplishment. My one and only concern.

Exactly.

[MikeD]

I dont think he's accusing anyone. he is pointing out what many others have said. I dont suspect any collusion, as judges at the national level have to be tied to a local circuit, which USBands is considered. Judges report their affiliations to the circuit. I'm pretty sure the way the corps threw down this weekend had Team TOB or Team Cavalcade of Bands been on the panel the results would have been the same.

That was the first time I ever saw that mentioned here on DCP.

Plus, I was responding to the below statement. IMO the parts in red are veiled digs at C2's accomplishment, and make it look like Hoppy and the judges are hiding something unseemly. Judges judge all over the place, and USBands happens to be a large circuit with a lot of shows. I personally doubt that any judge, let alone 8 of them, are going to throw away their honesty over a couple of band show assignments. As to the part about Hoppy "not disclosing those facts", I doubt it even crossed his mind, while the statement makes it appear as if he made a conscious decision to hide something. IMO it is in poor taste, and not like most of the great posts I have seen from garfield.

"For instance, can I say that the exuberance for C2's win might be tempered by the knowledge that 8 members of the weekend's judging panel judge for for YEA? I'm not taking away from his exuberance because, obviously, he knows that fact. Is it a reflection of him personally that he doesn't disclose those facts as readily as he does his personal reflections of the corps win? Is it a personal attack if others do?"

[MikeRapp]

i get where he's coming from. The DCA schedule does let you breathe. the pressure isn't on 24/7.

I imagine it might be refreshing to work with kids who have other interests beyond music performance. When kids come from normal activities during the week, I would guess the conversations are a bit broader tha in a world-class corps.

Unrelated, how common is it to have co-creative directors?

[garfield]

Again, I'm not sure that's true. I'm not sure that we love the same things about drum corps. Not you, Garfield. I'm not sure many posters on DCP actually love drum corps.

It really seems to me that many posters here - now and through the years - prefer to run this activity down. And X's choice to ignore the essential qualifier is a great example. Here we have a director sharing his thoughts on his corps' triumph. He's thrilled and proud. Maybe he's a little sloppy in his language, but he's a drum corps director, not a novelist.

And X reduces it to ridicule. Not in the third iteration. Or even the second. Right from the start. Ridicule. And you know what? This is a DCI Cadets thread. Making fun of him after C2's DCA win in a DCI Cadets 2017 thread is nothing but ugly. Doesn't even rise to the level of gratuitous.

HH

Maybe I'm being naive (it won't be the first time I view the activity and its attendees through rose-colored glasses) but I'm having a hard time believing that, in today's busy world, such prolific posters as X would spend such amounts of time here with only a destructive motivation. It especially doesn't fit when his history with the Cadets organization is recognized.

I will admit it seemed unusual to post a Hop comment about C2 in a C1 thread, except that it contained Hop's reference to the Cadets itself, which surely made it fodder for the World Class threads.

And while I'm not one to give any quarter to Hop in his postings, I would caution all against accepting the angle that he's "a little careless" in his wording and deserving of a pass because he's not a "novelist". I don't buy it. Hop has been around this barn hundreds of times and he knows full--well that his writings will be scrutinized. And he's keenly aware that his word choice has cost him his desires in the past. I'm fully confident in his level of wit and his writing exudes his determination to get what he wants. To dismiss his word choice as so much unintended gaffery, he has taught us, is to invite utter surprise at the consequences because he meant exactly what he wrote in the way he wrote it, It reminds of the sage: "Fool me once..."