Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Re: My comments on Finals and PBS broadcast
From: cputnam@vax1.umkc.edu
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 06:30:17 GMT
Organization: University of Missouri - Kansas City

In article <1992Sep7.142324.15439@husc3.harvard.edu>, fath1@husc9.harvard.edu (Michael Fath) writes:
> 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?  

One of my friends that is a Star instructor guaranteed me that Curt would NOT
return next year!!!  Thank goodness!!  My brother said he heard that they were
going to try to get Bob  Costas to be Steve's partner, but the Olympics kept
him from doing so.  Anyone heard who will replace Curt?  Let's face it, they
don't have someone who knows nothing about baseball to do the "color" for major
league games, why have a DCI clueless person doing the telecast?
 
> 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 sound is definetly(sp?) not as good as it is live.  But, then again, that
would make it less inviting to go to the finals.  The sound could never be as
good as live because the feeling and emotion can't really be felt through the
screen.  The CD's are coming in a couple of months, so I can't wait for that. 
Of course, it is kind of hard to hear things like the Devils' screaming
Mellophone in the opening when the drum majors are talking about their show. 
That got VERY annoying.  They could at least figure how much time they would
have between corps before they start deleting out the performance to do the
rest of their stuff.  Don't get me wrong, I loved having the old performances
on before each corps, but I wanted to see THIS year's corps, not the 1976 one.
  
> 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.

I have to disagree there.  I saw that drop live and I was on the other side of
the stadium and up high.  Also, the producer already pretty much has what he
wants to show in mind.  He works the nights before to see which cameras to go
to when.  That's why they had the dancers in Phantom's show and all the good
sex scenes in the Devils' show.
  
> 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?  :-)

Well, they have "Mr. Sports" in the booth in Curt, so might as well use his
talents  :)  "Pretty good, I bet."  What a moron!!
 
> 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.

I agree.  Don't show us second place!  I want to see the best, not the second
best.  Maybe they showed the Madison cymbals because it was "neat", but don't
show us the second best snare drummer.  He didn't do anything that spectacular. 
At least not that the number one guy didn't obviously beat.
 
> 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."

Curt is full of insight, isn't he?  This sloppy move is why the tick system is
gone.  Those of you that want it back, just look at that innovative and
creative move and think what DCI would be without that kind of stuff.  Good
idea, but poorly executed.  The producer does seem to miss th e"big" moves
every year, doesn't he?  Last year it was Star's cross "rotation" where the
flags got all the TV time.  This year it was the Cadets' silent front.
 
> 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!

I don't think they're all that small.  I think it shows that they are running
out of good moves.  If you read the Marc Sylvester article, it points to his
lack of ideas for DCI.  They really do need to get a new drill writer.  Someone
who won't try to emulate Zingalli so much.
 
> 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.

Unfortunately, Star lost the competition before it ever started.  They had no
chance because "the Cavies should have won it last year."  That is why their
awesome performance was not rated higher.  It wasn't all that accessible. 
There were parts you could recognize, but not many.  I loved it!
 
> After Friday night, I put the odds for Saturday as follows:
> Star 50%
> Cavaliers 40%
> Cadets  10%

I had it at:
Star 5%
Cavies 95%
Cadets 0%


Let's take this last part a bit at a time:
 
> What can I say about the Cavaliers - I believe that they had the best overall
> show design of the year.

I was told that Brubaker only wrote the Cornish/English Dances section of their
show.  It shows.  This was not at all a Brubaker style show.  No parallelagrams
or triangles or the like.  In my opinion, their drill was worse than the
Devils'.  I'd have put their drill about 5th or 6th.  Definetely not what I am
used to expecting out of the Cavies.

> 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.

I remember seeing the dropped flag on a fairly easy exchange on the 45 yard
line, side 1.  That type of drop is the type of mistake a much younger and much
less capable corps makes.  Not a world champion.
  
> They performed the show with an incredible degree of intensity and confidence

Again, I must disagree.  I felt that they were flat every night.  They just
never had that note or section that got me excited.  Like the drum feature
stuff where they'd have the guard hold the drumheads.  That type of
hype-producing section was gone this year.  It seemed fairly boring this year.

> 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).

I can't disagree, but would someone please tell me why the Devils' persussion
is so low?  (See my next post)

> People often criticize the Cavalier horn line - I think this
> year they put on an outstanding performance.  

Again I disagree.  Was that their best soprano player that botched the final
solo?  I imagine so.  The book was relatively easy and agian, uninspiring.  Not
as much emotion as Star or as much excitement as the Devils.
 
> 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."

Well, I don't feel they were "handed" the championship.  It was much easier
than that for them.  They just had to show up and perform 11 minutes of what
would pass as music.  Then they could pick up the trophy on the way out of the
stadium.  Did anyone look at the trophy?  I wonder if their name had already
been engraved on it...  Seriously, though, they may have had to work at it, but
they didn't deserve it.  I felt that 4th would have been more than fair for
them.  I hope now that we may continue on with fair finals now that DCI has
appeased the Cavies fans for last year's loss.  Of course, now they have to
appease the Phantom fans.  Eventually, they will have to take care of the
Devils' fans, as we are growing tired of 4th place.
  
> 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 agree that this was the most entertaining finals.  I could tell that it would
be when the music was announced this year.  The corps played some excellent
tunes. 

> 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.  

Unfortunately, Jackson is out of my heat index.  No need to go there to sweat
like a pig.  Unless I march, I'll see you all on TV.

IRC nick-BlueDevil

Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps