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Okay, Chop n' Bop time to see if I can beat the 500 error problem!

 

Pre show Eats: Mad Chef, East Petersburg, PA. Good eats to be had less than 10 minutes from the contest.

 

Stadium: About the same seating I had at Milton. The stadium is father back, causing some differences in visual readability.

 

(Insert bass Drum 128th note splits here while the snares dut loudly)

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Sky Alumni: Chop n bop highlights and kudos,

-Classic Hy Dreitzer!

-Fantastic French Horn feature in "Puttin' on the Ritz, worthy of Pepe and Danny Fitz. Those old piston-Rotor French horns are awful instruments, well done!

-Fine Flag Pre using "Victory at Sea". Great vibe!

-A fine Bari feature in "Harlem Nocturne"! :worthy:

-Great feature Soprano and Mello work in "Elk's Parade"!

 

-Bob O'Connor's percussion battery, a definite two thumbs up tidy, tasty, and a great example of the traditional percussive style.

 

-Kudos to Sky for coming out in the sun and heat as they usually do. Tough old Schoolers gettin' it done! :worthy:

 

(Tenor feature with 3 sweeps and a butterfly while the snares march around with their sticks parallel to their torsos acting tough)

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Encorps:

 -The show is entitled "This is how we do it!", about a young man who doubts his ability to be in the corps. His friend encourages him. Success ensues.

 

-Many old schoolers in the audience swore they heard a gravelly NY Metro/NJ voice yelling "Ahhh, just cut dat bum!" during the opening show dialogue. :laugh:

-Encorps has a lot of young people with great potential.

-The Larry Kerchner charts are really fresh, latin-jazzy, enjoyable and relevant to the modern activity.

-The devil is in the details for Encorps. If the corps can discover the great musicality written into the brass book and draw it forth as the season progresses, this can be a really exciting, lovely, and scintillating program.

 

-The brazen and unabashed ad to buy a T-Shirt was great. It got me to buy one. :biggrin:

 

(gratuitous extended snare feature while the brass runs around frenetically)

 

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Before Bush went on, Fran admitted his first language is Esperanto. :innocent:

 

Now for Bush...

 

-"Pablo: A Homage to Picasso" has a lot of varied selections. While Latin-flavored in general nature, the mix of "The Canyon" and "White Rabbit" actually makes sense, even if a bit jarring, like some of Picasso's work.

-The Percussion battery, particularly the Tenor feature, is pretty good!

-There are some field spread and finesse issues to be worked out, the program is still incomplete.

-Six Tubas! A pretty high tuba to rest of brass section ratio! It makes for a rock hard foundation to a smallish horn line, but very cool.

-I think this program could be a really exciting and rather delightful show when completed and ironed out a bit. I look forward to seeing it later in the season.

(Another snare feature to show off more, cutting off the horns in mid-phrase)

Edited by BigW
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Fusion Core:

 

-Why do people keep spelling it Fusion Corps? Jeez! If I can spell it correctly for Lord's sake...

-A thought popped into my head as I listened this week. Even with all the careful and smart staging and arranging the brass still has to play the show well, and indeed they really, really do. This is a really fine horn line. The Mellos are stepping up well.

-Great solo work in "Apollo 13" this week!

-"Abram's Pursuit"... As Spock says...

 

captain-im-detecting-large-quantities-of

 

However, Spock also detected some tears and a need to push tempo, but it's still early.

-Without the energy and excitement the members of Fusion Core have when they perform this show, it just wouldn't happen. They really bring this really solid show to life, and really excite and inspire. I don't know where this will place, but it's a really fine show that's scoring well visually right now. I'd think the music numbers have to start to lift as well.

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C2:

-Maybe some subtraction by addition of more show material occurred. It can happen, it's a possible part of the process. I'm not panicked.

-The French Horn and Trumpet features at the beginning... :worthy::thumbup: I'm definitely impressed.

-Will they eventually push the opener say... 8 beats per minute more? I hope so. I think it would really heighten the sense of urgency.

-I really was able to see more things and think about them. I'm really liking the overall steampunk visual vibe.

-I really got into what was presented as new this show with the "Big Apple" segment. There are some front-ensemble/brass balance issues that will get ironed and smoothed out for certain, and it appeared the guard and drill was still incomplete, and I'm wondering... is that the actual musical ending for the show? :huh: If it is... I have a feeling it will need some real tweaking to really establish the program's ending.

-C2 will have to dig in visually to try and line up better with the Bucs from the looks of the recaps and ordinals. Can they? Sure, but we'll have to sit back and watch this unfold. I look forward to seeing this program in a state of more completeness at Nazareth.

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Great stuff so far, W!!!

 

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Thanks, Fran! Now to the Bucs:

 

The new shakos remind me of something out of a Dr. Seuss story, and I do like Dr. Seuss. They finish off the rest of the uniform rather well. I like 'em! 

One take I got from Milton and this show from the old timers is this- The show might be nuts... but Dear God, can the Bucs PLAY. Yep, they do.

 

The big take I got was how much cleaner the show got in only 2 weeks. I'm thinking... how did they do it in such a short amount of rehearsal time? I really felt like this:

 

The show's clarity of intent is also really settling in well. The addition of the Picnic Blanket, other details, fine features and solos from the brass like the Mello, Bass Trombone, the Baris, and the Tenors in the percussion section are really driving the show forward.

 

The only real negative I can dig up... perhaps the "BWOOOOINNNG!" sound effects might be a notch too loud. :lle: I don't want everyone thinking I just pump up the Bucs and never complain.

 

I know some use the word 'cute' to describe the show.. and I thought about that. "Cute" can be a pejorative term, and I wanted to avoid that because If I say that about this show... it wouldn't be meant that way. I'll describe it more as whimsical, humorous, a bit of a rascally wink of the eye and a devilish grin in play from the Bucs?

 

I'm still partial to Rome and conZENtric... please permit me to have my personal super-faves, but I do enjoy and appreciate this show very much even though it's quite different from a corps who usually goes after a more grand and monolithic approach.

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