
FEDude
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Everything posted by FEDude
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Found this place in 2013. Told myself I'd never join. Well I don't have a serious job right now and I'm taking a break from school so I have nothing else to take my time. I went to Taft (technically Commarts) and played front ensemble 2013-2016. I do love Taft's band, but I do my best not to be biased toward them.
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2018 Friendswood Marching Festival
FEDude replied to SIMON's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
I recognize Dobie. They were ok in 2013. Had some pretty mature soloists. I don't know how they've been since then though. -
I thought y'all had a new Superintendent. You'd think they'd understand that The Woodlands, of all bands, is more than just a football cheer leader. Is there maybe a way you guys could have a JV band perform? Especially if public opinion doesn't shift.
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Dark Horses and Surprises in 2018
FEDude replied to FanofBands's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
My bad, maybe they just went to Texas State. I remember my director saying she went to school with him. I guess I remembered wrong. -
Dark Horses and Surprises in 2018
FEDude replied to FanofBands's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Don't know if Flower Mound or CTJ count as dark horses lol. Westlake, Churchill, Harlingen, and LD Bell are bands I'm trying to keep an eye out for. Many are counting out Harlingen due to the director change, but many forget, they are the most consistent program in the valley. Those kids don't know any reality where they don't make state. I've heard it put this way: There may not be a whole lot of flashy stuff going on, but every kid plays and puts out a good controlled sound as well as everyone hitting their sets beautifully. Funny thing is my former band director went to Harlingen, and then when he retired, his successor also happened to be a Harlingen alumni. I believe Churchill's director is a Harlingen alumni as well. Plus their school sounds like my last name so I'm forced to love them. -
Since it's a State year, that might put Coppell over Timber Creek. If we're just looking at last year though, that puts both bands very close with Timber Creek slightly ahead.
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Does anyone have the number of times the SA winner has gone to GN? I think Westfield won SA in 2003 then won GN. Reagan should've won GN 2005, would've won in 2004 if they'd gone LD Bell should've won GN 2006 I think LD Bell won SA 2008, and 2009 (please check me on that). The Avon show those years were very good and I think the right band won GN Woodlands of course won SA and GN. After that I honestly stopped keeping track.
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I actually saw a somewhat nasty interaction on this board. Basically someone telling another person they weren't qualified enough to have a certain opinion. The other person deescalated the situation nicely, but that's how rivalries start, with a few contentious students and parents claiming they represent their groups on twitter, Facebook, or even a message board just like this. How serious a candidate Beto has become actually shocks me. I find him to be principled and willing to work bipartisanly so I plan to vote for him barring any October surprises. I still predict he will lose however and I understand the concerns people have about him. Makes me wonder if dems will send a serious opponent against Cornyn in 2020.
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That's what's weird, because the Supreme Court is supposed to be independent of politics, but as we know that's an alternative fact. From the sound of it, Brett Kavanaugh seems like he respects precedent at the level of David Souter. At the same time, the president did promise to appoint justices to overturn Roe, so idk. Politics plays a huge huge role in music education, from money being allocated to programs to many directors being LGBT. Lots of people hate talking about it, but shunning yourself from conversation prevents your views from growing. Disagreement is a very beautiful thing and everyone gets smarter because of it, so long as everyone keeps an open mind and one doesn't succumb to ad hominem. Double majoring is tough. Hopefully it works out though. It's impossible to double engineering with anything at most colleges as you're already gonna struggle to graduate on time, so my Econ major turned into a minor, which turned into me just not taking it anymore.
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Once again, Kavanaugh dissapoints.
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Area H 2018
FEDude replied to MadisonBandMan1's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Hopefully a few. I can remember a time I wanted to become a band director, just like any kid that's way too into band. More or less lost that fire since then. I believe Stevens writes their shows in house, and they're very well written at that. I believe Mr. Sandoval (O'Connor's former director) would also write O'Connor's drill himself. I don't know how involved he was the last couple seasons in the process or how involved he currently is. They've got a long record of 1s at UIL. I always want them to keep that. The more involved with a show's production band directors are, the better the band seems to do. -
I still think Hebron was robbed. That sax solo is one of the few times I actually enjoyed the sound of the saxophone. Oddly enough, I don't see too much argument from very high scoring bands. I think that's partially because the directors have an iron grip on their kids' virtual identities and expect them to be spotless during their 4 years. Mid-tiers don't have those rules as often I've noticed. A band confessions twitter page from 2014 comes to mind that devolved into Harlingen and O'Connor students spouting insults at each other. Both groups did well come Area time, but it's impossible to deny the animosity between the two. Most Northside directors have adopted social media standards because of those twitter pages. Anyway, does anyone have thoughts about Brett Kavanaugh? I feel like I occasionally have to bring him up so the title doesn't seem misleading. Lol.
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Area H 2018
FEDude replied to MadisonBandMan1's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Northside actually has vastly different demographics within itself. O'Connor and Brandeis have larger white populations while Stevens, Jay, and especially Holmes have very heavy lower income Hispanic populations. The rest of the schools are a mix with a strong lean toward Hispanic. The rather affluent Alamo Ranch area has been feeding in to Taft but the debt problem that went unchecked by the previous director did cause a few problems the first few years. It's sad, but it's hard to deny the influence of money in band quality. Austin area schools simply don't have the same demographics as SA schools. I said I like Area H as it is and that's because it's pushing Northside to be better (and maybe produce a band like Marshall was with Dr. Mikulka). It's just hard to see bands like L.D. Bell and Haltom considered bubble bands in their respective areas. By the way, I think another band, Harlan, is joining the area. I don't expect them to make finals, but hopefully this means 5 bands can advance. I think SWISD build another school as well. -
You're right about the fact that you can't learn in examples and you have to grasp it more abstractly to truly understand it. I recently tutored my ex in trigonometry and very basic linear algebra. We weren't on great terms to begin with, so me making her deeply understand the concepts didn't sit well. Pretty often, I'd be the only person from band in my math/science classes. Everyone else had dropped band so they'd "have more time for school." Honestly it just annoyed me because we often lost our best players that way. By the way, woodlands '13 was the show I saw win nationals my freshman year. At the time I don't think I understood just how good that show was. Still one of the best designed and emotional shows ever with a band that performed the heck out of it. I remember this message board raving about it, and I wanted to join in too, but I knew it'd probably be best if I waited until I graduated to actually discuss anything. Looking back, that was the right choice as students and parents in the mid-tier of BOA (25th-50th at BOA SA) are quite passionate about their bands (good thing too, it's just a little dangerous as it can often degenerate into meaningless argument).
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Area H 2018
FEDude replied to MadisonBandMan1's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
It's very hard to judge O'Connor this early on. In 2014 I swore they wouldn't even come close, but in O'Connor fashion they peaked very nicely. But if it really doesn't seem like there's finalist potential in the show I can understand that. Hopefully they can get back on their feet soon. Very weird to think, this will be the first time since 2005 where a senior class from Northside never marched in UIL state competition. It's good for the state as a whole, and every "high-caliber" band from area H has a spot. My only concern is other areas leave out potential state finalists (area and others continue to dish out relatively uncompetitive bands. I get that drawing the boundaries based on what bands would get to state isn't right either. There's just got to be some happy medium somewhere. -
It might've just been the style of class. She would give very easy examples in lecture and assign the hardest problems for homework. Thankfully I mostly just study kinematics and Newton's laws. Can't imagine going into electricity and magnetism. I noticed at my school at least that there was an inverse relationship in STEM abilities and band involvement. When I became pit section leader, I did my best to help that, but one person can only do so much. By the way, I think my school went after yours at state prelims 2014. We didn't expect to do very well, but hearing y'all up close is inspiring and I was very happy when y'all comfortably made finals.
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Ew physics! I have 1 more physics class left and then I'm done. In my last one I took, the teacher kept showing us music videos. We saw the Ok Go This too shall pass Rube Goldberg machine video like 4 times in class. My favorite one time from that class was when I had to build a bridge and I finished super early, but then I dropped it and broke it pretty bad. My partner wasn't too happy. We still did decently on it. Also the final made me cry as I took it, and we were allotted 3 hours, so I took 2 hours 57 minutes. It was just so hard. Walking out I couldn't even eat I was so sad. Found out 4 weeks later (yes my proff took that long to put it in) I got a great grade and and an A in the class. So yeah, not a fan of physics.
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Just wondering if anyone here is a math person. Unfortunately, I was the only math guy in my band and sometimes did homework in exchange for food. Looking back, I know realize I had a monopoly and could've taken advantage of the market. Anyway, I'd love to talk about funny experiences in math class. This one time, I was applying the law of cosines (A^2=B^2+C^2+2BCCosa) on a test, but I forgot to multiply the last term by two every time I used it. Later that night, I realized my mistake and just cried from then until I fell asleep. Looking back, I seriously overreacted, and I even looked up online how to accept failure of eHow. I don't overreact anymore and I've never messed up on law of cosines again. Another time, I promised my teacher I'd join the UIL math team, but I forgot to go to a single meeting. On one of the tests, I did fairly well, but she wrote on it asking how UIL math was going. It was very embarrassing. My favorite time was my junior year, my math class was talking lightly and the substitute came in yelling at the top of her lungs to get everyone to be quiet. I couldn't stop laughing about it and I started thinking about it during a test and erupted in laughter. Or if you just want to talk about the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation and other political events, that's cool too.
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I loved the TAKS! Well not taking it, but it was relatively easy to score very highly. The STAAR on the other hand I could never quite get the scores I wanted, even coming within a few points of failing the biology one. It's cool though. Finished my Bio 100 course and I never need learn anything about the human body ever again.
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Songs you love to see in a program
FEDude replied to Mash's topic in Everything Music: Marching, Concert, Auditions and more
Stan by Eminem. Would have to be in a show about obsession though and mashed up with another piece.