Rocketman Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 The talent issue with the Regiment (IMO) is not with the members. (I think you know where I'm going with this.) They can only perform what they are given. What's the saying, 'you can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig.' The overall design was NOT top 12 material (again IMO). There were several better designed shows between 13 -15. It could be suggested that 'reputation' kept them (barely) in the top 12. I know I'm burning bridges here, and will probably never be welcomed back in Rockford, but I don't care. It is wholly unacceptable for the organization to be in this position. That they can't seem to keep, attract, or develop top level design talent is distressing to me. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queenanne_1536 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 10 hours ago, kalad's_phantoms_regiment said: To me Crown's music overall was almost as much of a mess as the visual — everything sounded great on its own of course, but the book as a whole had no cohesion and the shifts between styles were often really jarring. If I Fall was a beautiful ballad, but... did it really belong in Beast? The front ensemble stuff in between the Bruckner and the double tongue feature sounded cool, but did it have any relation to the show? Phantom's music, on the other hand, felt connected throughout the show to me. It wasn't incredible arranging, but for the most part it had a sense of unity. I agree with this wholeheartedly. Like Regiment, little of Crown's show made any sense from a structural standpoint. Musically, there was nothing that indicated Beast. I thought it should have been called Bore. I'm a huge classical music buff, too, and I was just bored throughout Crown's show. When we look at Inferno, everything about it was nearly perfect, including the music. The music spoke Inferno, the music to Beast didn't. Inferno was a complete knockout. I was very upset when they lost, even though I cannot make an argument for BD not winning, just as if Crown won I wouldn't be able to argue they shouldn't have. Both were great shows and title deserving. I connected to neither Crown's nor Regiment's shows (musically or visually). For me, personally, they were the two least effective shows (as a whole) in the top 14. Regiment was just boring musically, too. Why do Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 again when no corps will ever be able to do it as well as Regiment did in '89? That makes no sense. The arrangement tried too hard to be something new and fit the mold of today's drum corps, and it was just dull. The odd thing was when I saw an early season video of Regiment I thought that had something good to build off of. I expected the show to be improved from the start of the season, but much like Cadets' Awakening, I feel it worsened as the season progressed, unfortunately. I hope Regiment surprises us this summer, and we see a big improvement. But, after watching the Scouts and Cadets declined, I'm not very optimistic. That's another thing I don't understand - Madison has laid the blue print for what not to do. Why isn't the staff of Regiment heeding that? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queenanne_1536 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 (edited) 26 minutes ago, Rocketman said: The talent issue with the Regiment (IMO) is not with the members. (I think you know where I'm going with this.) They can only perform what they are given. What's the saying, 'you can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig.' The overall design was NOT top 12 material (again IMO). There were several better designed shows between 13 -15. It could be suggested that 'reputation' kept them (barely) in the top 12. I know I'm burning bridges here, and will probably never be welcomed back in Rockford, but I don't care. It is wholly unacceptable for the organization to be in this position. That they can't seem to keep, attract, or develop top level design talent is distressing to me. I too think reputation kept them in the top 12 last year. I thought they should have been out and Spirit should have been in, but I remember I am not qualified to judge one caption, much less all captions simultaneously from a computer screen. So, I take my assessment with a grain of salt. I will agree with you that the members are not given good vehicles to work with, and that definitely hinders them in a major way, but they do have an issue with membership talent. Sure, maybe the membership talent last year was better than that of an 11th place corps, and maybe as good as an 8th place corps, but it certainly wasn't as good as a top tier corps. So, we aren't going to see Regiment in the top tier again until that changes, and as I said before, that change needs to start with design. Lastly, welcome to the life of a Scouts fan (although I love both Regiment and Scouts, and Vanguard). Three favorite corps. Cadets #4. Edited April 30, 2019 by queenanne_1536 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocketman Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 There are so many good themes to be designed and the last 3 for the Regiment have been disappointing and I'm not sure 2019 will be any better. Hope I'm wrong, think I'm not. Then again, they don't consult me any longer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queenanne_1536 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 10 minutes ago, Rocketman said: There are so many good themes to be designed and the last 3 for the Regiment have been disappointing and I'm not sure 2019 will be any better. Hope I'm wrong, think I'm not. Then again, they don't consult me any longer. I think it's been a big problem for them since 2014 and has gotten progressively worse each year. It's baffling. What works is out there for all to see (BD, SCV, and Bluecoats) and what's not working is out there for all to see (Madison), so I'm not sure why the Regiment staff can't get that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phd-student-TTU Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 2 hours ago, Rocketman said: The talent issue with the Regiment (IMO) is not with the members. (I think you know where I'm going with this.) They can only perform what they are given. What's the saying, 'you can put lipstick on a pig, but its still a pig.' The overall design was NOT top 12 material (again IMO). There were several better designed shows between 13 -15. It could be suggested that 'reputation' kept them (barely) in the top 12. I know I'm burning bridges here, and will probably never be welcomed back in Rockford, but I don't care. It is wholly unacceptable for the organization to be in this position. That they can't seem to keep, attract, or develop top level design talent is distressing to me. I think we all know why that happened. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim K Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 Some folks are blaming the music, others are blaming the design. I did not find the music all that horrendous, and the design, while not great, was not a disaster either. The problem from my perspective was the music did not fit the design, and the design could have worked with another show. To me, this indicates a communication problem. I think the same held true for Crown last year, music and design did not always fit, but there was enough content and talent to place at least 4th. Phantom did not have that luxury. i do see some reasons for concern moving forward. Communication skills and collaboration take time to develop. I think more than talent, much will depend on how folks work behind the scenes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandandl Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 6 minutes ago, Tim K said: Some folks are blaming the music, others are blaming the design. I did not find the music all that horrendous, and the design, while not great, was not a disaster either. The problem from my perspective was the music did not fit the design, and the design could have worked with another show. To me, this indicates a communication problem. I think the same held true for Crown last year, music and design did not always fit, but there was enough content and talent to place at least 4th. Phantom did not have that luxury. i do see some reasons for concern moving forward. Communication skills and collaboration take time to develop. I think more than talent, much will depend on how folks work behind the scenes. and of course, communication skills and the ability to collaborate are the Life Skills more important to develop in a corps than mere dots and scores in the Big Picture of Life: marriages, parenting, being good neighbors and citizens, faithful and zealous employees, etc., etc. You are correct. There is reason for concern. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queenanne_1536 Posted April 30, 2019 Share Posted April 30, 2019 44 minutes ago, Tim K said: Some folks are blaming the music, others are blaming the design. I did not find the music all that horrendous, and the design, while not great, was not a disaster either. The problem from my perspective was the music did not fit the design, and the design could have worked with another show. To me, this indicates a communication problem. I think the same held true for Crown last year, music and design did not always fit, but there was enough content and talent to place at least 4th. Phantom did not have that luxury. i do see some reasons for concern moving forward. Communication skills and collaboration take time to develop. I think more than talent, much will depend on how folks work behind the scenes. I think the design was a failure, visually, even more so than it was musically. It was a complete disaster in my opinion, and that 11th place finish was proof of that. Their continued downward trend is proof of that. The props weren't used in any sort of interesting or compelling way. It was as if they were just there because the design team thought they had to be there. The way they were used was haphazard and sloppy. Even their alignment on the field was sloppy. They added absolutely nothing to to the show. This is exemplified when you compare to how the top corps are utilizing their props. The whole tarp thing across the front wasn't used in any effective way either. And then ending drill - barf! The rifle ensembles guard work, in the segment where they were integrated with percussion line, was so unbelievably remedial. The entire guard book for that matter was so remedial and not interesting in the slightest, even the design of the solo work was so sloppy. The guard themselves seemed like they weren't interested in, or enjoying what they were doing, to me. The color of the guard uniforms was an awful choice. They blended in with the field too much. The choice of the corps proper uniforms weren't much better. If I was on any other staff in 2016, the first time I saw the Bluecoats I would have said, "Next year, traditional is gone." It was still too traditional. The future is here - Regiment needed to embrace it in 2017. I'm totally picking on the guard here, but not on the members, on the staff. That guard had to be way more talented then the terrible book they were given. It is such a shame. Musically, as I said before, it was just so dull, unimaginative. A really poorly constructed book. I would have to re-watch the show again to give more specifics (I haven't seen the show since finals). Nothing, literally nothing, about This New World was successful. It was a disaster, IMO. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DFA1970 Posted May 2, 2019 Share Posted May 2, 2019 I agree with what some are saying. The Joan of Ark show is another show style they have done before and to me they are not trying to push into the top elite 6...they are just trying to NOT to fall from finals. Mandarins last year was innovated, interesting and designed better than Phantom's show and totally deserved to be ahead of PR. It would not be a big surprise if Phantom didn't make finals in 19. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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