Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Re: My comments on Finals and PBS broadcast
From: cputnam@vax1.umkc.edu
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 23:52:20 GMT
Organization: University of Missouri - Kansas City

In article <1992Sep8.171946.16340@beaver.cs.washington.edu>, dci@cs.washington.edu (Donald Chinn) writes:
> In article <1992Sep8.003017.1@vax1.umkc.edu> cputnam@vax1.umkc.edu writes:
>>
>>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.
>> 
> 
> I think there were plenty of good new moves for the Cadets this year.
> The parallelogram thingy is probably the best example.  There were a lot
> of new ideas for the color guard this year: the simulated flight, the
> uniform changes (how did they do them without the crowd noticing?!).
> Just because Sylvester reused a couple old moves doesn't lessen the
> fact that there was a lot of new stuff.

Let's not confuse new ideas in general with new ideas in drill.  I was mainly
speaking of new and innovative DRILL moves, not the total visual package.  I
agree that their auxilary instructors/creators are doing an excellent job, but
Sylvester just isn't writing the type of "new and improved" drill that the
Zingalli's and Brubaker's and Todd Ryan.
 
>>Let's take this last part a bit at a time:
>>
>>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.
> 
> I am inferring that because Brubaker did not write the whole show that
> this makes the show somehow a little more inferior.  Did you imply this?

What I am trying to say is 1) They had one of, if not the, best drill writers
in the country.  Why not use his writings as long as he can still write?  2) 
Their drill was no where near as good as it has been.  I  always felt that the
Cavies drill was one of the best out there, not anymore.  It was just very
disappointing.
 
>>
>>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.
>>  
>>
>>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.
>>
>>
>>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.
>> 
> 
> I decided not to go into "line by line analysis" mode, so I have highlighted
> just these three quotes from the posting to make the following point.  The
> quality of a horn line (or percussion line, or color guard) does not hinge
> solely on whether they make every toss, solo, or neat visual effect.  You can
> have a championship show that has noticable performance errors such as dropped
> rifles, etc.  There are 11 other minutes of performance that have to be
> considered to determine whether one horn line, say, is "better" than
> another.
> 
> It's like ice skating (MORE sports analogies!).  It is not necessarily true
> that the ice skater who lands the most jumps will win (although, I suppose,
> all other things being equal, then s/he would win).  (My buddy Peggy
> Fleming says that ... :-) there are notions of grace, lines, interpretation,
> and technical difficulty that come into play.
> 
> True, blown solos and dropped flags are indications of a systematically
> lower overall performance level, but they are only indications.  I would
> never believe that a blown solo, for example, could knock a corps down
> a couple places at DCI.  There's just too much other stuff going on.
> 
> In short, there's a lot more to a drum corps show than the highly
> visible/audible stuff.  (What?!  Subtlety in drum corps?!)
> 
> -- Donald

True, there is more to drum corps than the highly visible stuff.  But... these
blown solos and dropped flags and such are not indicative of a world champion. 
It just seems that if you're going to have a world champion, you don't have
mistakes like that.  It wasn't to hard to catch that flag, or play that solo. 
Especially after 3-8 months of playing or catching.  I'm just saying that these
mistakes ARE indicative of a 4th or 5th place finisher, where I feel the Cavies
belonged.

IRC nick-BlueDevil

Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps