Bluecoats getting the shaft this year

[MikeN]

I suspect 99% of replies here can't distinguish between the top corps at the detailed caption level.  In a vacuum, without knowing the placements ahead of time, there aren't many that could pick the exact order of finish.  (In general groupings, sure, but not 1-2-3-4.)

However, I can say for me Bloo is far and away my *favorite* show of the top 4, placement be ######.

Mike

[afd]

1 minute ago, MikeN said:

I suspect 99% of replies here can't distinguish between the top corps at the detailed caption level.  In a vacuum, without knowing the placements ahead of time, there aren't many that could pick the exact order of finish.  (In general groupings, sure, but not 1-2-3-4.)

However, I can say for me Bloo is far and away my *favorite* show of the top 4, placement be ######.

Mike

Great.

[MyKids#1Fan]

12 hours ago, jsd said:

Wow, what? 

If you would like to dispute any assertion I have of Bluecoats show from last year, please do. I am capable of having a civilized dialogue. 

Did you miss the part where I wrote that the show was a blast to watch?

Not worth my time

[skevinp]

11 hours ago, ContraFart said:

I both agree and disagree simultaneously

I feel the same way, except for sporadic bouts of ambivalence.

[Sideways]

4 hours ago, 3PoC said:

I hesitate to post this in this thread as I'm not going to argue scores and I'm not going to cut on any other corps here. I'm just going to make a case for the depth of Bluecoats show design for some of you who think it is just a fluff show or inferior retread. I will offer just my opinion that it is a much more difficult visual and musical book than last year, but in a year where GE and analysis judges seem to be weighing execution more heavily than content, any argument should be about DCI priorities and not nitpicking the other shows that are scoring better. Anyway, follow on if you have a moment (I do have an extensive professional background in this type of thing)...
 

3PoC's totally overly verbose analysis of A Jagged Line from a design perspective:

Firstly, it's a MUSIC show. For all of the "'coats are so pushing the envelope" talk, musically they are playing actual full movements of songs like we did back in my DCI days, including a drum break that is it's own complete musical movement just like we did every year I marched. Anybody here remember Stone Ground 7, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Black Market Juggler, New Country etc...? One Study/One Summary is very much in that lineage. The music book, from beginning to end, makes sense together - adventurous contemporary music with progressive metric and polyrhythmic motifs and strong melodic elements. It's a coherent playlist that is of a kind.   

So what kind of music is it really? Well, it is clear that the designers, because of the irregularity of the rhythms, the way many of the melodic themes jump around in pitch and are bounced around, often in a hocket style from instrument to instrument. decided to go with the adjective jagged. The idea of "jagged" is inherent in nearly every phrase of the music book and it's simple word with a clear visual associations,

I believe the designers likely already knew they wanted to further explore a few significant developments they made over their past few years, particularly; a backstage type area so that performers could exit/enter view to highlight and focus on what they wanted to feature; motion on the x,y and z axes; surround sound design; full ensemble dance and emphasis on personalizing the performers. They took basic extensions of the idea of "jagged" such as zig-zag, back and forth/side to side, leaving and coming back, contrast, black and white, high and low etc... and put it all together to make a show that you can totally enjoy even with no attention paid to deeper underlying thematic concepts,

But they are there. Let's look at some of the significant thematic implementations:

The big center stage - well obviously it's a massive jagged line, but it also creates two fields - a here and there, a front and back, and a down and up. The show starts with an individual with a trumpet slowly going up and back with the words "Leaving on a train, don't know when I'll be back again" playing, and ends with a phalanx of low brass rapidly back down and forward as the music returns "home" to the main opening theme. They also return to using both sides of the field evenly as well as to a reprise of the signature move of the show, the fast side to side run that sums up the to and fro idea (and just looks cool). In between the leaving and the coming back bookends, the group journeys far backfield on side 1 where, beginning with innocence (notice the children's choir sample in the intro)  they grow til tall, then during One Study/One Summary they make their way, starting with exuberance and near the end collapsing as they form a huge arrow pointing to the opposite side downfield, yet they rise in the end to triumphantly conquer the Zomby Woof in style on side 2. The center prop frames the scenes in the (imo wonderfully understated and unobtrusive yet effective) narrative.

The Ballad - Why are they going away from us? They are on a journey far away. They were just in your face a moment ago blasting the end of the opener. now they want a jaggedy close/far contrast and to move the narrative away to a far off place where they will experience growth from the journey. The classic hero archetype in literature always has a Yoda part where the hero gains wisdom and strength in a place far from home before they can take on the Vader (or Zomby Woof) character. Why mic them backfield and have the sound come out of speakers on the opposite side? Apart from trying to capture the sound design of the source material which brilliantly dissolves into ambient cacophony with the distant drumming and shimmering and nearly distorting reverberations, they are also going for a spatial displacement effect where the sound literally zig-zags across the field. Narratively, I'm left to use my imagination on what this represents so I like to imagine that it's like a disturbance in the force type thing that perhaps rouses and foreshadows the Zomby Woof movement since that side is where that scene will soon take place. I dunno, may be wrong but it works for me! I've read other interesting interpretations as well. The best song lyrics almost always leave enough to the imagination to me let me find my own meaning.

Color scheme and costuming - most obviously, black and white are contrasting opposites like many others in the show, but I get a distinct black&white silent movie vibe, particularly with the Charlie Chaplin character The Little Tramp. The Fosse movement vocabulary is pretty apparent but some folks don't realize that the bowler hat and cane Fosse character was his modernized version the Chaplin character, whom Fosse admired greatly.  So I see the performers as variations of the tramp character, a good-hearted vagrant or vagabond type who wanders to and fro(!) getting into antics and surviving on charm, cunning and grit. But why Chaplin via Fosse for a show with such contemporary music? Well, I'm gonna suggest that it is precisely because of that contrast - old/new, 

In drum corps terms, this is an old-school format musical product with modern music, wrapped in a new school "theme" which is premised on very old school entertainment vocabulary. That's a pretty jagged (time)line.

Again, I'm not gonna argue scores about this show, but I will argue it has depth of content (including incredible performance demand) that is pretty apparent if you look. The best part imo is that you can not care a whit about thematic construction and still throw babies at a great cohesive show featuring incredible performances of great songs!

In that sense I guess it is a lot like Down Side Up. And that's a good thing.

Peace!

P.S. Your favorite corps is pretty awesome too! Don't let competition ruin your appreciation of the corps your fave is battling. In 2 weeks this will all be history. Savor them all!

Bluecoats are a couple of wooden crates and leg lamps away from calling the "Fragile"

 

[Jim Schehr]

3PoC Brovo and thank you. Like I've said before, you can't put a number on multiple loud standing ovations and the chanting of Bloo in stadiums throughout the country. 

[defeldus2]

Bluecoats are scoring where they are because the top three are performing better across the captions. It's simple math. 

And saying no one will remember BD show but they'll remember this? Give me a break. 

I like Jagged Line a lot but it's a rehash of last years formula and the corps is not clean enough to medal. The brass book is far behind the top three, GE is struggling because of the flow of the show, they're having trouble locking in musically, and visually they're very dirty.

And just to stir the pot a bit, SCV is doing more interesting things with electronics and have been since 2015.

Edited August 2, 2017 by defeldus2

[ndrudy2013]

11 minutes ago, defeldus2 said:

Bluecoats are scoring where they are because the top three are performing better across the captions. It's simple math. 

And saying no one will remember BD show but they'll remember this? Give me a break. 

I like Jagged Line a lot but it's a rehash of last years formula and the corps is not clean enough to medal. The brass book is far behind the top three, GE is struggling because of the flow of the show, they're having trouble locking in musically, and visually they're very dirty.

And just to stir the pot a bit, SCV is doing more interesting things with electronics and have been since 2015.

This show is day old bread, it's not fresh and new anymore

[gak27]

 

1 hour ago, skevinp said:

13 hours ago, ContraFart said:

I both agree and disagree simultaneously

I feel the same way, except for sporadic bouts of ambivalence.

I'm inclined to neither agree nor disagree with either of you, but am hesitant to commit. I think. 

[whitedj2002]

I can't wait to watch the show and await the results from Allentown Friday, 9ish West Coast time! I will then log on to the forums and read as the crybabies bemoan Bloo getting the shaft, yet again! I will enjoy watching the ENTIRE show including the flaws inherent in each individual performance. I will accept ,or disagree with the results according to my tastes. I will learn from some comments in the forums and I will be amazed by the rude, bias remarks of others. I will continue to wonder why there are 2 forums basically bashing the 2 clear leaders of this years activity. Dialogue is healthy, partisan #####ing isn't!

Edited August 2, 2017 by whitedj2002
:)