whitewing09

I came here because I thought there would be something about Kavanaugh related to math... I feel misled. Math is a means to an end for me. I like applied statistics and work in analytics/predictive modeling.

SFA hasn't done BOA in a minute, huh? That will be exciting! I'm very curious as to the competition between Reagan, Vandy, and TWHS. TWHS looks especially hungry this year.

Does anyone have intel on the new Marcus? I'm v curious as to their development this year.

I'm very excited for this show!

Wow. That's a lot of people on the field. I'm very curious as to how they'll participate in the show.

Has it already been a decade since they've appeared in SA finals?

That’s unfortunate.. with a little bit of cleaning their show could have been top half at nats, imo. It’s really amazing to see how far they’ve come. Their show this year was pretty unique and refreshing.

Personally, whatever get's the job done, I'm good with. You can have a color guard that, frankly, "adds no value" just as easily as a dance team that "adds no value". On the other hand, a dance team doesn't need flags or rifles to effectively convey a visual idea. Personally, I love rifles. It's a real treat to see bands like Avon or Tarpon whose visual books contain as much nuance (or even more) than their musical books. However, I don't think a band should get docked for going a different route. If anything, it's harder to effectively sell a dance team than rifle tosses because tosses just look so cool when you're perched up in the bleachers, so if a band like Vandegrift can do it, good for them!

I think the problem with 2016 was that they were pretty behind when it came to area. I don’t think that’ll happen if they plan on putting their whole show on the field by the end of band camp again lol their show this year would have been as success at state as Chameleon imo. Or who knows, maybe they’ll just skip state again to get in last minute practice! I wish state and Nats weren’t in the same week.

I almost think these mics are needed for larger stadiums. Broken arrow was definitely shotgunning (these mics are know as shotgun mics) and their woodwind runs were a lot more discernible. Even though this may be 'cheating' for brass, I think it really helps to bring out the woodwinds. I was sitting in the section below the judges (I think) and I could barely hear the woodwinds of the bands who weren't shotgunning. These large stadiums can really swallow the sound.

I think a lot of the issues that sprouted up for Round Rock had to do more with their design. I say this because I thought they played tf out of their show in finals, but the show itself seemed to be lacking. Here are some things that I noticed: 1) Their woodwinds didn't have that much opportunity to show their chops. Besides their ballad, which really showcased the soloists more than the woodwinds as a section, I can't really remember any major woodwind moments from their show. 2) From a visual design I think they had some excellent still sets, but their transition sets were sometimes WAY too free-form. I think they also suffered this issue in 2014. With freer-form sets you run the risk of creating blob sets during your transitions that look sloppy. 3) Musically, it is very difficult to have one source piece for a show. I think this may have also been an issue for Avon in the early season, but they were able to fix it with the use of narration and overall just styling. No offense to their designer, but this was a far cry from their last BOA oriented show, This is My Letter to the World. I think it showed up in their scoring where they fared a lot worse in visual and all three GE judges than with the musical performance judges.

I don’t think FloMo played it safe this year by any means. They were trying to sell a lot with both the music and the visual design. What they actually lacked was execution. At almost every major competition they had a tear in their fanfare and it was its worst last night (I say this having seen them live twice at San Antonio and twice). After that their finals performance felt flat, which is unfortunate because they really sold their semis performance.

My preliminary thoughts: 1) I'll admit I wasn't a fan of Avon's show the first time I saw it (like two months ago), but I thoroughly enjoyed it live. Their color guard is staged so well and every movement makes sense with the show. I absolutely love their grandiose closer and the message that the show has overall. I'm rooting for them to medal this weekend. 2) FloMo: It was really interesting to see them flip-flop with Avon in prelims and finals. I guess these two groups are pretty on par. I love their use of colors; this show is a feast for the eyes. I also really enjoyed their musical selection. I'm very curious as to how they do at nationals. They had some rough spots, but nothing that they can't fix in the next week. 3) Marcus: I have to say that I haven't been a fan of their past two shows, but I actually really like what they've done with this one. It actually is very odd, but in a fun quirky way. The musical arrangement is just as fun as their visual package, which is a nice mix of colors and intricate body movements. I can't wait to see it again. 4) TWHS: This was one of my favorite shows for this season. They have such a demanding show, but it is such an interesting show and their ballad makes me feel alive. I'm excited to see it this weekend.

Interestingly, Avon and FloMo stayed within a point of each other in prelims and finals with FloMo on top in prelims and Avon in finals. Both bands have room to grow before gnats. We'll see how much they can accomplish in the next week.

Who's going in support of our bands this year? I am!

Take a look at Hebron 2015's show and scores at Nats against Avon. Now take a look at Hebron's show two weeks ago and take a look at Avon's show from this weekend. Hebron is on fire this year, from the gate.

Decided to get flights on somewhat of a whim. I couldn't not go, especially since I've loved every show I've seen from the potential finalists.

I really wish FloMo and Hebron went to Nats this year. That would have made things even more interesting. They've had a very similar season to Carmel and Avon, it seems.

Care to share any examples?

Hmmm I think CTJ 2014 would like to have a word with you as well as FloMo, Reagan, and CTJ 2015. It seems like, SA is a really hard contest to read. There is a real balancing of GE, difficulty, and execution that happens at this contest. Last year for example, CTJ stayed within a point of Hebron and Marcus in prelims and then ended up beating them in finals. The latter were definitely geared for UIL with very high execution. CTJ, on the other hand, had one of the most ambitious shows that wasn't executed at a level that we're accustomed to seeing from them.

So do the judges play musical chairs with their meta-categories (i.e. MPI would go to MGE1, VGE goes to VPI, etc).

Reputable advisors submit their rankings every week. These are converted into a weighted number system and accounts for a portion of the overall rankings. I say everything that I do even though I totally disagree with their aggregated decision.

I think the move down was more a testament to Carmel doing really well and some videos of Hebron getting out. Hebron music is lit. I think the Hornrank contributors expect them to deal some heavy damage in Music Performance and GE. On the other hand, CTJ's music and visual books are insanely difficult and people are wary to put them above a super clean Hebron. At the end this is all judgment based and no one has the "right" answer. The polls will be noisy and should be considered more as directional than absolute (i.e. these results reflect a general idea of where the band belongs and not some universal truth).

Is anyone else excited to see Henny so close to Vandy and Reagan? Hopefully this is foreshadowing something for SA

San Antonio was also not as talent saturated.