Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: My comments on Finals and PBS broadcast
From: fath1@husc9.harvard.edu (Michael Fath)
Date: 7 Sep 92 14:23:23 EDT
Distribution: world
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

The PBS broadcast was just televised here in Boston this past Saturday and
it prompts me to finally write and give some of my impressions.
 
PBS:
 
Curt seemed particularly out of it this year.  He even mispronounced Steve's
last name!  Did you notice Steve give a slight glance and smirk to the camera
when Curt did that?  
 
The broadcast did not do a good job of capturing the sound of the corps at all.
Phantom's first hit just blows your socks off when you see it live; but it was
nothing special when you see it on TV.  Speaking of Phantom, what did they    
shout at the end of their opener?  Was it "vive la France"?  
 
The broadcast really accenchuated a lot of mistakes that could have otherwise
gone unnoticed.  One of Phantom's sabres dropped her sabre and the camera
basically followed her for 4 seconds to rub in her mistake.
 
Curt and Steve had some pretty dopey lines this year.
 
Steve:  "Blue Devils brass is batting 0.579.
Can you imagine what kind of contract a major league hitter would command if he
hit like that?"
Curt:  "Pretty good, I bet."
 
That comment, as well as others, bring out the competitive aspects of the
activity too much.  Don't you agree Donald?  :-)

I & E segment of the broadcast seemed short and a bit disappointing this year. 
The Madison Scouts cymbals were cool with their upsidedown playing.  But why
would they show mostly sencond place finishers in this segment.  I think it
is more fair to actually show the winners if they are only going to show one
of each section.

The Cadets of Bergen County had a very nice performance at finals.  Too bad
the broadcast missed the silent company front!  That was their best move.
In the slow section of the show, the handbells were a very nice touch.  But
at least one major move for Cadets was seriously sloppy.  That was when they
formed the giant block parallelogram and rotated it backwards/left 90 degrees.
Messy, messy.
At the end of their show Curt piped up with another brilliant insight:
"The crowd really enjoyed them."

I have one small criticism about Cadets this year.  They pride themselves on
their innovative designs.  In fact, they have a T-shirt that says, "We
zigged and everyone else zigged.  ZAG!"  Well, this year, they relied on a lot
of old moves and did more zigging then zagging.  They brought back the slow-
motion move from 1989 Les Mis and the S-follow-the-leader from last year.
But these are small points - overall a great show!

Star gave an awesome performance at Finals.  Earlier in the season, I was
very critical of Star for their lack of crowd involvement.  When I saw them
in Madison, I realized that I was mistaken.  Mike Hughes and Co. are right
about Star this year.  They put on a very outstanding and accessible show
without compromising on their musical reputation.  In fact, I've gone out
and bought a CD with the Morton Gould stuff on it.  It is really good music.
My excuse for my earlier comments:  I saw Star in June before they were at
the point of "selling" their show to the crowd.

After Friday night, I put the odds for Saturday as follows:
Star 50%
Cavaliers 40%
Cadets  10%

What can I say about the Cavaliers - I believe that they had the best overall
show design of the year.  They had a surprisingly large number of performance
errors on Saturday (flag drops, solo missed notes, lines a bit off).  When I
saw them live, these errors were not evident.  They performed the show with
an incredible degree of intensity and confidence.  I can't judge percussion
because I know nothing about the details, but most people who know percussion
have been in agreement that they deserved High Perc by about the margin they
won it (0.6).  People often criticize the Cavalier horn line - I think this
year they put on an outstanding performance.  

Did they deserve to win?  The deserved it as much as Star and Cadets.  I think
it is terribly innappropriate for people to start to say that they were "handed"
the championship.  They worked their butts off and performed a world class
show at world class level.
Curt's quote about the Cavaliers:  "The crowd's all routin' for them, I guess."

Other comments:

This was an extremely entertaining Finals:  the most entertaining I've ever
attended.  All the corps had shows that were very enjoyable to watch and
listen too.  VK, Crossmen, BD, SCV, Madison, Cadets, Star, Cavies, Bluecoats,
Phantom, Blue Knights, and Freelancers all remembered that the crowd was there
and played to the crowd much more than corps have in previous years.

I especially liked Crossmen forming the ? on the field at retreat.  Nice touch
to a great year for them.

Unfortunately, Jackson in 1993 is outside of my budget.  I'll have to wait
for 1994 in Boston.  

 


-- 
MM   MM FFFFF 	Michael Fath		fath1@husc.harvard.edu
M M M M F	Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
M  M  M FFF     Harvard Medical School         
M     M F       Boston, MA 02115				**Enjoy life!