OK so ... somebody explain the Cadet's show
Stu
How much marching? Any good (drill and technique)?
Rudimental drumming?
Commas, rifles, flags, toys?
Amplification/narration?
Sound quality?
I don't even know what selections they played (yeah, I know I can find
this stuff at the website. I want to hear it here).
Stuart E. Rice
www.marchingresearch.com
drum...@aol.com
spin.
That explains it enough for me.
Alan Mundy
@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
> Alright, let's hear about this nigh-unto-perfect show.
>
> How much marching? Any good (drill and technique)?
>
> Rudimental drumming?
>
> Commas, rifles, flags, toys?
>
> Amplification/narration?
>
> Sound quality?
>
> I don't even know what selections they played (yeah, I know I can find
> this stuff at the website. I want to hear it here).
It was a solid drum corps show with 18 layers of nonsense on top.
--
Alan Mundy
mellobrass
I'll give it a try...
>Alright, let's hear about this nigh-unto-perfect show.
That's the problem, isn't it? Many people who have long been involved
in the activity seem to feel it wasn't the greatest show of all time or
a tie with that. In '02 I was at Madison and it seemed as though
nobody doubted too strenuously that the Cavaliers were doing something
pretty incredible. It was an achievement and many saw it that way.
One thing seems for sure, most everybody felt that the Cavaliers won
the show in '02, even if they wern't "the best drum corps ever" (in my
opinion they made the short list of the all-time greats).
This year that's a tougher equation. The Cadets were very good, but to
many not the winner and certainly not the greatest of all time or
within that realm. I thought they were an excellent corps, but not the
winner. Great membership and a fantastic staff with a show concept
that left people cold or, worse, alienated.
>How much marching? Any good (drill and technique)?
Surprisingly less than I'm used to from Cadets. There were some
extremely uptempo things, but there was salso ome parking and barking
(a thing that we never saw in DCI for years - now, apparently, it's
okay again). There was one move during their ballad which was a
killer. The battery moved backfield stage right while the hornline's
movement brought them forward stage left. This was done during a
crescendo that went on for some time. It was an example of great
competence and I think many thought it was "the moment" of the show.
>Rudimental drumming?
We all pick our spots and, not being a drummer, I defer to those in
that area to provide a better answer.
>Commas, rifles, flags, toys?
I did not notice a lot of "strange devices" being used, but thought the
guard was extremely good and that the equipment work was complex and
executed very, very well.
>Amplification/narration?
Not an enormous amount, although the drums have a moment where they
sang their parts (amplifies) instead of playing it. I find this an
"effect" and liken it to horn players using electronic effects on their
horns etc. I suppose it's hip... but it really proves nothing.
>Sound quality?
The hornline was one of three I was impressed with. Cadets, Phantom
and BD (unfortunately BD's best moments were in the parking lot and not
on the field). It's a Gino Cipriani line and it has all the signatures
of such. Power, excellent technique and an almost seething sense of
drive that reflects accurately on the guy doing the instructing. I had
them or Phantom winning brass - I think I lean Phantom.
Cadets were a very good corps in a season that I thought delivered
three elite groups, three in the neighborhood and then also rans. I
think that somewhere along the Cadets became the "fashionable" corps
that the cognoscenti seemd to gush over - when that happens it can be
unstoppable. I thought Cadets were tight at the Finals performance and
feeling the heat. It didn't matter, this thing had been over and
decided for a few weeks. One man's opinion, kids.
--
Dave
Gary Matczak
"voices of reason" to Drum Corps World,.............
"mellobrass" <mello...@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:1124224526.7...@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
jjayboyd
music was played brilliantly... percusion was splendid... guard?
outrageous..
put them all together in an abstract, 'we need something different just
to be different' enviornment...
add clown costumes... let sit for 2 to 3 months...
serves 4
Jason
Sis
> "Stu" <chore...@juno.com> wrote in news:1124209534.349557.44270
> @g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
>
>
>>Alright, let's hear about this nigh-unto-perfect show.
>
> It was a solid drum corps show with 18 layers of nonsense on top.
Exactly!
Jackie
>
Fran Haring
Tony
I wouldnt say its the best show of all time, but then we all have a
different view on that topic! I didnt agree with the number last time
it was given out either although i think this show was as good if not
better than the other one.
I am a percussion guy and i tell that drumline was movin and playin
like crazy out there! TI was most impressed with the dynamic control
they display while maintaining their visual responsiblities. Very good
highs and lows. They had some nice ram moments also. A nice quad
feature, some nice solo and small group playin, and the pit had some
killer sounds happening. Not my very fav percussion of the night (that
would go to Phantom/BD for me) but i can see why they got the number.
Tony
Sis
I'd think you'd be more interested in the Cavalier's show!
Jackie
Skycabs
Let's hope that next year will be better. But, I doubt it. Bring on the
saxophones !!!! I want saxophones in DCI next year !!!!! They have such a
great sound. Put them in the pit so we don't have to heard the pit anymore.
Amp the saxs and what a sound you would have.
"Stu" <chore...@juno.com> wrote in message
news:1124209534....@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Sis
> Alright, let's hear about this nigh-unto-perfect show.
>
> How much marching? Any good (drill and technique)?
>
> Rudimental drumming?
>
> Commas, rifles, flags, toys?
>
> Amplification/narration?
>
> Sound quality?
>
> I don't even know what selections they played (yeah, I know I can find
> this stuff at the website. I want to hear it here).
>
Remember back a few years ago when Hopkins declared that warm-ups were
for the parking lot and wanted to end the on the field warm up? Why oh
why didn't they just let him end it? So instead, the Cadets start the
show with a "moving" warm-up. A "moving" warm up, is one where the
corps starts "moving' around whistling. Whistling, apparently is a good
"warm up". Either that or whistling was such a good idea last year for
the Cavaliers that it just had to be done again! Anyway, the whistling
is approximately 2 notes whistled over and over again in a way heard in
the movie, Kill Bill. When some people heard this difficult piece put
to lips on the football field, they doubled over in glee and looked
around at other people in the seats gasping "It's Kill Bill. It's Kill
Bill". Wow! At this point, a heretofor unnoticed drum major furthest
away from the audience in the backfield throws in an additional timing
movement (salute), which will be picked up by one person in the audience
and passed on to everyone else by word of mouth either in the stands or
on the internet. From this point on, that salute will serve as the
beginning of the show.
Standing on the 50 yard line is a large black box, on the front of it is
a door and the number 1313. The first 13 stands for the first DCI corps
ever to take 13th place in DCI finals, The Cadets. The second 13 stands
for The Spirit of Atlanta/JSU whose DCI Placement during 28 years
averages out to 13th place (or 12 with a remainder of 5, close enough).
If you don't count the whistling, or the color guard dressed in sperm
coustumes, or the girl walking around the stadium before the show
"looking for something", THIS is where the nonsense starts.
Well, that's the first 30 seconds. Should I continue?
Jackie
Percussion Educator/Adjudicator/Arranger/Composer
lately has been concise, relatively unbiased and correct (biased opinion
on that one sorry). Kudos to Dave, You Rock
Sis
Eleanor O'Sullivan has been critiquing movies for the Asbury Park Press
since I was in high school. When it comes to movies, Eleanor and I
don't agree on jacksquat. When Eleanor likes a movie, I know that I'm
not gonna like it. When she pans one, I take that as a cue to go and
see it. As with movies, when reviewing a drum corps show, I pretty much
know how a judging panel "this year" will score a show. 99 to him, may
very well mean, I don't wanna see it! 88 to him, may knock my socks
off! Ya just gotta consider the source!
;-)
Jackie
Percussion Educator/Adjudicator/Arranger/Composer
all summer.... (Now, sarcasm aside, please do continue, this is great stuff)
ns787980
Stuart..
I don't have the expertise you may require, but here is my take..
I gave the utmost attention to each corps and tried to give each show
the respect that it deserved on it's merits.
Clearly.. I have a specific notion of "merits".
Given that.
What?????
Personally.. I would like these kids that actually marched, played and
interpeted some of these shows to tell me what THEY think!
Perhaps it would be better?
Sharon
Sis
Some amplified narration accompanies the warm up. The narrator tells us
that we are about to enter "The Zone". *strike a chord of creepy music*
Wouldn't it be cool if at that point they were to head towards the
"Zone" and start the show on the starting line? Oh that would be
silly... unlike this show of course.
I don't know why it's "Catholic" school girls. Maybe in the original
screenplay or book or whatever it is that "inspires" a show of this
nature, the school girls were Catholic. It doesn't seem to matter at
all to the plot; whatever the plot is. Perhaps Catholic school girls
are more prone to moments of illusive behavior. I don't know. Seems
strange to me, but it is what it is, so we'll "go" with it.
Have you ever seen a junior high school play where the kids overact?
Enter Catholic School Girl. Having finished staring into her little
suitcase, she gets up and heads towards the door. She is on a field
full of color guard sperm and she looks at the door as if she has never
seen a door in the middle of a football field before. But it's not just
any middle of the football field door, it's a much spookier kind of "The
Zone" door. Rather than go play with all other other kids on the field,
she decides to ring the door bell. In a moment of musical inspiration,
an amplified door bell sound fills the stadium. Half of the audience
gasps in recognition of a door bell sound. The other half moans.
For the first time during the show, the smell of hotdogs wafts through
the stadium. Mmmmmmm.
Under the spell of enthusiasm, a concerned fans yells, "Don't Go In
There!". Half of the audience giggles knowingly, the other half mumbles
obscenities under their collective breath. She opens the door and half
steps/half stumbles into "The Zone" *spooky music chord*
We're a minute or so into this musical interpretation and any minute
now, the music should start.
Jackie
mellobrass
appreciate the thought.
I used to RAMD back in '99, '00 and '01 before I tired of the fighting.
DCP is basically not a place for free speech, so I prefer the
unfettered, unmodrated world of RAMD and am, at least temporarily, back
(especially since I'm not marching).
Peace,
D
jeff
take great kids, talented in all ways. Take original music which I am
told was great at times.
ad props and costumes and people talking into a microphone.
then add 40 hits of acid in a 90 minute period.
mix.
shake.
stir.
add in 90 more hits of acid in 3 hours. then for fun, pop a few
shrooms.
swallow percocet.
chug a gallon of vodka.
shake
stir
pour
jeff
funny, i see corps and people ripped to shreds there all the time and
not be banned.
so much for free speech
jki...@tds.net
The program, as a whole, represents a fish. It's kinda hard to 'splain
so I won't even try. Well, not a "fish" per se, but "fishness". See
the program notes.
Sis
Holy shit! What is that? It's, it's...horns! Horns with lots of
sound. Little musical rifts that make you forget for a short moment
that you're in "The Zone". Toes wonder if they should dare start
tapping a little, of what the hell, why not?
SLAM! Oh effin' hell, what now? She's back and she's in a raincoat.
Why? Who cares? Just get her the hell out of my view and start the
horn line back up. The sperm are full fledged boys and girls now and
they have some pretty cool blue flags. Very pretty, very relaxing. Why
is there an umbrella skipping down the side of the field. Just ignore
her, she'll go away. Close your eyes and listen to the music. *Peek*
What the hell is she doing now? Standing on the 50 in the backfield
watching nobody. Okay, good. Stay there. Don't ever come back. Back
to the music. Back to the drums. Back to the blue flags. Aaaaaah.
The umbrella girl disappears!
SLAM! Noooo! It's another girl, dressed in the same Catholic School
Girl clothes, but this one has a Repunzil hat. Goddam it! Now what?
The guard has chess pieces on the fronts of their sperm uniforms now.
You can't see them, but maybe the next time you see the show you'll see
them, or the next time. The flags have a castle and a chessboard on it,
but you can't see that either. Maybe next time. The horns and drums
are again rocking out, half the time they can't be seen as they take
turns running behind the black door. Why is Repunzil leading the
snareline down the 35 or so yardline? Ut oh FLASHBACK - Olympic Stadium
a clown is leading these same people around a field - OH SHIT- Now
*I'M* In the Zone! Breathing heavy, it's time to leave. Time for
hotdogs, time for a pee. But no, you're "In The Zone" and they won't
let you out until this thing is over!
Jackie
mellobrass
>not be banned.
>so much for free speech
Well, it's certainly more restrictive than here, Jeff. It's a
moderated scene and frequently posts disappear etc. I don't see a lot
"ripping" there, but then again I don't spend a lot of time there and
I'm not interested in ripping. I have plenty of friends who work on
the site, but I've also on more than one occasion have had to discuss
fairly inocuous posts with a moderator. I found that a bit silly and
counterproductive. So, without looking for a confrontaional discussion
anywhere, I simply prefer the unmoderated.
Does that make sense?
--
D
Sis
Remember when you were a kid in grammar school for Thanksgiving you
would take a brown paper bag and cut out arm holes and then take your
crayons and color a pilgrim or an indian outfit onto the bag. Well,
imagine you took your bag and colored a Cadets uniform on one side and
the opposite of a Cadets uniforms on the other side. Then get a shako
with two brims and put it on your head. Color the front half of your
pants white and the back part maroon. Look in the mirror. Now turn
around and look at yourself in the mirror with a handheld mirror. What
do you look like? The coolest thing that ever happened to a drum corps
or a freakin' idiot? You decide. There's more music. There's more
drumming, but you're only half into it because SLAM! A Catholic
construction worker is out on the field and the color guard has tools on
a band around their waists, but you can't see them, not today anyway,
maybe next time.
The closer. The Catholic school girls are surprised to find out that
they are all different girls. They are the only ones who aren't aware
of this. They run around through the corps like a bunch of little
inconsiderate children on a sugar high who forgot their ritalin. The
horns are playing, the drums are wailing and these escapees from
PeeWee's playhouse have no self control and act like their mommies and
daddies should have disciplined them sometime between the time they were
born and now that they are in this "thing" called drum corps. Were they
"supposed" to look like that? If so, why? A suitcase flies high up
into the air. Was anything else happening? Who knows, you're following
Excederin headaches number 1, 2, 3 and 4.
A few great hits of the horn and drumline and *poof* you wake up
drenched in sweat. What the hell was that? A 99.15. As your eyes
glaze over you hear golf clapping somewhere and your head starts to pound.
"The Zone" in four parts with a door.
Jackie
jeff
Jay
was interesting with the modern concept of the show. Loved it.
the "two sided" visual tricks, loved it.
Visually the cleanest corps out there and musically the best quality (imo)
and the guard was nothing short of perfection doing exactly what they
were supposed to do. Question: How were the 4 "dream girls" judged?
as part of the guard? or overall GE?
You can put anything out there, as long as it is done well and is clean,
it wins. Clean always wins
Stu
wish Medea had won in 93. Or even Cadets 95 (except for Cavies drill).
Great writing, BTW.
Stuart E. Rice
www.marchingresearch.com
Sis
> Thanks Jackie. After part I, I had trouble believing you!
Hehehe. Well, I may have written my own "Urban Legend" about the
origins of the 1313 on the door. But look at it this way, 20 years from
now when looking back on the show concept designed for a high school
band turned DCI Champion, it'll be way more believable than the show
itself! ;-)
Suddenly, I
> wish Medea had won in 93. Or even Cadets 95 (except for Cavies drill).
>
> Great writing, BTW.
Thanks Stuart.
Jackie
Big Rich Soprano
>corps starts "moving' around whistling. Whistling, apparently is a good
>"warm up".
No big deal... Phantom did a moving warm up playing "The Phantom
March"... The played it back field and went right into the show...
Others have done that as well...
Jay
As an aside, this year, the Blue Stars warmup
was their 1977 "off the line", facing backfield, powerful.
Sis
Big Rich,
Shut the f*ck up.
Love always,
Jackie
mellobrass
We have a winner!
"Clean always wins"
That sort of says it, kids. I wish it were not always so and I
certainly wish that we'd have the collective strength to adjudicate
"what we put out there". Than we might really be getting somewhere,
but Jay's point is right on the money. This is the way things
generally are in any circuit.
--
D
Big Rich Soprano
>Big Rich,
>Shut the f*ck up.
>Love always,
Oh look everybody!..
Fan mail from some flounder!
A love letter from a SAND CRAB.... lol...
drum...@aol.com
no?
Sis
> Well, one judge did not pick the winner. Pretty much all of them did,
> no?
Well, sorta. Pick a winner, choose the winner. Same thing!
Jackie
rfudg...@comcast.net
damn they sure executed the hell out of it.
jeff
uncohesion that got a 19.9 in drums!
dm...@adelphia.net
"Alan Mundy" <idontwan2kn...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns96B4A474DDFEAid...@65.32.5.122...
> "Stu" <chore...@juno.com> wrote in news:1124209534.349557.44270
> @g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
>
>> Alright, let's hear about this nigh-unto-perfect show.
>>
>> How much marching? Any good (drill and technique)?
>>
>> Rudimental drumming?
>>
>> Commas, rifles, flags, toys?
>>
>> Amplification/narration?
>>
>> Sound quality?
>>
>> I don't even know what selections they played (yeah, I know I can find
>> this stuff at the website. I want to hear it here).
>
>
>
> --
> Alan Mundy
Absolute BINGO!!! Would have been so much more with less.
Dan M
Big Rich Soprano
High 5 this...
The Central Scrutinizer
I thought it was an attempt to do a drum corps version of Lin Ye Tang's
"Doorway to Hell."
--
James A. Chappell | http://www.amon-hen.com/
St. Louis, MO USA |
Hello, hello! This is Monkey Wrench calling Bunny Hutch Headquarters...