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I find it interesting on many levels that Bluecoats have more longevity than Carolina Crown. Obviously they have been around a lot longer than Crown, but these stats might prove just how hard it has been to have longevity in this activity. It’s also a huge thumbs up to Crown, for being so consistent, and so darned good during their entire existence.

I also think all corps directors and art directors can and should look at the corps that have reinvented themselves successfully. That is so so hard to do in reality. You can put a lot of stuff on paper, it may sound right and doable, but the reality is so much more demanding. We humans love consistency and hate change. 

Cavaliers, Bluecoats, and maybe arguably SCV have emerged from what they once were into something else. Cavaliers and Bluecoats are nothing whatsoever like what they were a decade or more ago.

Of course us oldsters will talk about what Blue Devils once were, which is actually not dissimilar in many ways to what Scouts used to be, and have changed into something that literally no one from that era would likely recognize today. And wow, so darned excellent on every level.

I have never been more excited about the potential of this activity this morning. It is somehow becoming something new and very demanding, very creative on many levels, and very, very entertaining. Those three things are so rarely found together. 

I mean let’s face it, only a handful of corps could execute the top three shows this year. It takes too much creative, technical and athletic skill, and too much training and planning. But I dare say that most corps could execute the Mandarins show. They could execute last year’s Academy show. They could do Blue Stars’ show this year. Blue Stars are a perennial finalist that is quite young, and so they always seem to look sloppy and forgettable in June, and then slowly become pretty darned good. 

Maybe those shows aren’t progressive enough to win a medal, but they certainly can be a step in that direction. If you are a corps that is looking at Finals night, especially at the medalists, and feel lost, don’t. Look at the opportunity that risk taking and raising the bar can do for you and go for it. Hire some really talented planners and directors and make a new way to wow people who watch and perform.

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Bluecoats really push the bar creatively while Crown relies on gimmickry in desperation to do anything to win coupled with an in your face smugness by their fans who had the nerve to come here and boo us when we beat them at our home show which is why I simply can not stand them.

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28 minutes ago, flammaster said:

Bluecoats really push the bar creatively while Crown relies on gimmickry in desperation to do anything to win coupled with an in your face smugness by their fans who had the nerve to come here and boo us when we beat them at our home show which is why I simply can not stand them.

What? As in actually in attendance at the Bluecoats home show? Are you sure they weren't "bloooooing?" I took a friend a long time ago to a show and when the Bluecoats entered the field she was shocked at all the booing. I had to explain it to her.

USED to be a big Crown fan (2006-2015) - haven't really cared for them since. Gotta say I don't see a lot of smugness out of them. 

I also don't think they do gimmicky and desperate things. I don't agree at all with the vocals from last year or the entire show concept this year, but I think they are tyring new things from a design perspective. It doesn't work in my opinion, but I applaud the effort. I'm glad everyone is not the same. I liked them from a musical perspective this year, but I thought from top to bottom and left to right the entire visual design this year was a huge misfire. 

Hopefully, they bring me back next year.

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43 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

I find it interesting on many levels that Bluecoats have more longevity than Carolina Crown.

Can you please explain what you mean here? Since 2015, I have much preferred Bluecoats over Crown, but I'm not sure if you're talking about competitive longevity. Since 2008, Bluecoats have only beaten Crown at finals in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2018. So competitively I don't see it (yet) but I'm not sure that's what you mean.

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1. We are happy where we are, and we are willing to finish where we finish so that we can be true to what we want to do and what we have done in the past. Even if that means finishing 10th, 15th, or fourth, it’s what we do.

2. We are not happy with where we are, but we are not willing to change the fundamental things that made us successful to this point to get to a new place. We do not feel we can risk where we are to get to somewhere else.

3. We are happy where we are, but are willing to embrace change, and are willing to change some of the things that we are most comfortable with to become better. Our goal is to win medals.

4.  We would like to be a medalist Organization, but we do not have the administrative resources, money, Board of Directors, and market to support a doubling or tripling of our budget to get there.

5. We have a delusional leadership group that thinks we are one small change away from going from 12 to first.

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31 minutes ago, queenanne_1536 said:

Can you please explain what you mean here? Since 2015, I have much preferred Bluecoats over Crown, but I'm not sure if you're talking about competitive longevity. Since 2008, Bluecoats have only beaten Crown at finals in 2010, 2014, 2016 and 2018. So competitively I don't see it (yet) but I'm not sure that's what you mean.

I was referring to a post from earlier this morning that tried to put a lonevity number on each group. Sorry, I should have referred to that post.

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12 minutes ago, queenanne_1536 said:

What? As in actually in attendance at the Bluecoats home show? Are you sure they weren't "bloooooing?" I took a friend a long time ago to a show and when the Bluecoats entered the field she was shocked at all the booing. I had to explain it to her.

USED to be a big Crown fan (2006-2015) - haven't really cared for them since. Gotta say I don't see a lot of smugness out of them. 

I also don't think they do gimmicky and desperate things. I don't agree at all with the vocals from last year or the entire show concept this year, but I think they are tyring new things from a design perspective. It doesn't work in my opinion, but I applaud the effort. I'm glad everyone is not the same. I liked them from a musical perspective this year, but I thought from top to bottom and left to right the entire visual design this year was a huge misfire. 

Hopefully, they bring me back next year.

 I think it would be interesting to ask ourselves if Carolina crown could do Babylon or session 44. Could there approach to design and arrangements embrace those two styles of shows. I have to say I don’t think so, but I think it would be really cool to see them try something new that wasn’t forced into what I would call their predictable design patterns of the past.

I love the cleanliness of their triple tonguing passages, but if you watch them over the years it does get predictable and a bit, I don’t know, disappointing I guess. Maybe if I was in charge of Carolina crown I would say well that’s who we are and that’s what’s made us great and that’s what people love about us. They can win medals doing that, so technically there’s no reason to change other than creativity and excellence.

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2 minutes ago, MikeRapp said:

 I think it would be interesting to ask ourselves if Carolina crown could do Babylon or session 44. Could there approach to design and arrangements embrace those two styles of shows. I have to say I don’t think so, but I think it would be really cool to see them try something new that wasn’t forced into What I would call their predictable design patterns of the past.What I would call their predictable design patterns of the past.

That's interesting. But could SCV pull of Session 44 and Bluecoats Babylon? I think so, from a excellence and comeptitive standpoint, but to me those shows are so Bluecoats and SCV it would be weird otherwise. I loved the idea of Beast for Crown. I just don't think it was very Beast. I did love the music though.

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