From: drapeau@oglala.Stanford.EDU (George Drapeau)
Subject: Re: A Comment About Zingali & "Two-Seven" in 1980
Reply-To: drapeau@sioux.stanford.edu
Organization: Libraries and Information Resources, Stanford University
	<1992Sep10.003657.29136@polari>
	<1992Sep11.021813.19199@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 11 Sep 92 00:33:05

In article <1992Sep11.021813.19199@hubcap.clemson.edu> rwberry@hubcap.clemson.edu (Robert W Berry) writes:

   We had copies of State of the Art, and we spent a lot of time trying to
   imagine how "wierd" a show could get.  (Awesome version of Caravan
   too!)

Back to this later, because it'll make me stray from the subject.

   (Of couse the "Garfield" of that time was 27th, since Zingali was there.
   Their '80 drill was great too, but it didn't push the envelope like SCV
   did.  I have to believe a lot of this was limits put on him by the
   Bonafiglio's - I hope I spelled that right.  Zingali didn't get *really*
   creative until Garfield '82.)

You know, 1980 was the first year I saw the telecast.  I didn't know
at the time who "this Zingali guy" was, but I do have a lasting first
impression of him being interviewed after the show.  He was bouncing
off the walls, as I recall, because he was so jazzed about his kids.
It was in the interview as the corps was coming off the field.  I seem
to remember a couple of color guard members coming up to him during
the interview, and he took one in each arm and hugged them like crazy,
while he was talking and wagging his goofy head and smiling like mad.
Now that I think of it, it's a nice image because it shows his true
love of the activity and exuberance (I never knew the gentleman
personally).  But at the time, I thought this guy was just sort of
goofy and a little weird.

But that's not what I meant to say about 2-7.  What I meant to say
was, I saw that broadcast again a few years ago (after I knew of
Zingali from the (Garfield) Cadets (of Bergen County)).  I remember
seeing the first drill move of 27, that I seem to remember lasted not
very long at all.  The thing I remember most was that it exploded from
the starting line, and all of a sudden the long segment that comprised
the horn line broke into many many 4-person (I think) little segments,
which allowed the drill to move into its new form at lightning speed
(relatively speaking, that is).  When I saw this move a few years ago,
I thought "Wow, that's cool!  Whoever wrote this drill really thought
about how to get some frenetic movement out of the corps.  Nobody else
is doing this." (okay, maybe not those *exact* words, but you get the
idea).  My next thought was, "I wonder if George Zingali wrote this
drill?"  (I still didn't know I was right).  Then I saw the exit
interview with Zingali after the performance, and I knew.

My point is that, sure, the Vanguard was eponymous that year when they
introduced asymmetric drill, but they still didn't have the sheer
speed of movement that 27 did under Zingali.  I think that there
really were two corps that pushed the envelope, but the Vanguard was
more recognized for its achievements because the shapes of their drill
(and the execution of those weird shapes) were so easily noticeable.
That's my opinion, of course.

My disclaimer here is that I really don't know too much about the 1980
season.  Can anybody help me out here by expanding on what I said?  Am
I recalling things wrongly?

Okay okay, now to the earlier comment of Bob Berry's about SCV playing
Caravan on the State-of-the-Art album.  I guess that pretty much
everybody knows that SCV made some *major* show changes pretty much in
mid-season.  I'm pretty sure that the story I'll tell here (folklore,
really) is well-known to thet readers of this group, but I'll tell it
anyway on the chance that it's not.  I apologize in advance for
wasting bandwidth.

So what I heard (from Vanguard alumni) about 1980 was that the season
was a huge war.  On one side was the instructional staff, who wanted
much greater creative control of the show.  On the other hand was Gail
Royer (the director).  Gail wanted Caravan; the instructors did not.
Gail finally caved in to the instructors, who then made major show
changes.  But Gail didn't really give up.  During shows, Gail would
approach the judges and point out little mistakes the corps was
making.  You know, like "Yeah, the show is nice, but we've been having
some trouble in rehearsal lately doing so-and-so..."  The judges thus
had a very easy time finding errors in the show, thus the seventh
place.

As the story continues, Gail did this to wrest control of the corps
back from the instructional staff.  If he had not pointed out these
errors, Santa Clara would likely have placed much better than seventh,
and the staff would have an excellent case for retaining so much
control.  But the corps' (relatively) poor finish allowed Gail to tell
the staff basically "I told you so; it didn't work your way, so from
now on we do it mine."

Pretty nasty story, huh?  I don't know where it originated, and I have
absolutely no way of telling how true it is.  It would be interesting
to see the scoring sheets for Finals of the top 12 corps, to see where
Santa Clara got dumped (is it possible to get scoring sheets?).  I'm
sure they could not have gotten dumped in percussion; that line was
scary, clean, and *powerful* (man, listen to the Kobold tapes; Stone
Ground Seven was amazing, just amazing).

Does anybody have anything to add to this story?  I'd love to hear
other theories (I know they exist, but it's been so long since I've
heard anything that I don't really remember anymore).

I feel a little bad about posting this story because I like and
respect Gail so much, and it's very hard for me to believe that he
would do this.  The story sounds so much like a sour grapes tale.  So
please take that into account when you think about it.  I thought that
I would post the story because it might be of some interest.

	George
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______________________________________________________________________________
George D. Drapeau			Internet: drapeau@sioux.stanford.edu
Libraries and Information Resources
Stanford University
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps