K'Ehylehr

Jupiter (Holst) and Symphonie Fantastique (Berlioz)

(acoustic) alchemy

Gums

Pixar. (ok, not exactly a word, but the first thing that came to mind....)

Nightmare

Battlestar Galactica

We used to sing the songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show....and on longer trips we would say dialogue and act out the parts. Because of my hair, I was ALWAYS Magenta..... but I wanted a -real- singing role SOOOOOOOOOO badly! (of course, this was a long time ago......)

Forfend

The Last Unicorn.

You bet; prolly on-line and TV and radio.... How cold will it be in DC on Tues?

Starshine

Tigers

Make more reeds. [You've gone all marching season without going to bed, why start now?] What's my favorite color?

fusion

Jello

knowledge :-)

I have to respectfully disagree, or maybe just to clarify. I don't think anyone is saying that any one of the State competitors from Area D did not deserve their hard-won spots. It was such a close cohort between 3rd-7th place. I'm amazed, pleased and proud of Akins, Bowie, Cedar Park, Church, Vista and Westlake and will cheer them on (heck, I'll cheer EVERY band!) at State. It also happens to be true that I think Connally was right up there on that same level. I think most people just wish there was some perfect system where "every deserving band can move on." [i'm not trying to bash the UIL folks, either; they must have many competing and contradictory priorities they have to coordinate and I'm certain they do the best possible job in creating the most equitable system for the most schools]

Dripping Springs, Vista Ridge, Hendrickson, and Connally, right? As I remember, no other areas had more than two bands make finals, and two areas had no bands make finals. (As I remember,) Dripping placed 8th, Vista 7th (really tied for 6th), Hendrickson 5th and Connally 2nd. What a great showing for Area D! Two years ago at State, Area D also made a fantastic showing, also. Wasn't it Church, Reagan, Bowie, and Akins into finals? and great performances from CP and Austin, also. Yea for Area D!!!

I'm just a band fan (marched in the 1980's, amateur musician etc), so my opinion may not be worth much: Georgetown's show "Fighter Flight" was great. Great tone, excellent solos, esp oboe and flute. Loved the trombone slides - cool effect both visually and aurally for this show. Some transient intonation issues (like one might expect early in the morning) but definitely better tone/tuning than the next three bands. Looks like a difficult drill; it was so much more clean than at Westlake. Good guard work. The sun was so low in the sky when they performed, it made them difficult to see, but they performed an excellent show anyway. In my notes, I had written "Excellent - Probable finalist" but by later in the morning I had begun to realize just how astronomically high the standards were going to be for this competition; I revised my placement to "possible" finalist - along with about six other bands. [The seven "possible"'s were in addition to seven "probable"'s and two "I'm certain"'s on my list.] I've been to plenty of competitions where I think their show would have made finals. It's just that Area D is so oversaturated with good bands that, as good as Georgetown was, others were better.

Lost? ? Try Mapquest, or Google Maps!

leaving home

OK, I'm just a band fan. I haven't marched since the 1980's, and I'm a strictly amateur musician (although I do have a pretty good ear), so my opinion means very little, but..... Leander's performance was very good. The music was excellent. The English horn solo gave me chills. The trumpet feature was nicely done. All of the band had great tone and none of the intonation problems so many of the bands struggled with. I thought the guard did a great job. The prelims and finals performances were consistently good. I didn't have much to criticize for Leander (and I did for many other bands). I liked Leander's version of Dance of the Jesters better than another band's; the other band was larger and louder but Leander's tone was better, richer. Leander was on my personal list of finalists. Imho, Leander was great, it was just that the other bands were even better.

Xenon, I agree with your evaluation of Connally's musical performance. It's hard to know what to make of the several wide spreads among the musical judges: Westlake's 1-5-6, Akins' 3-5-9, Church's 4-5-9, and Connally's 3-4-9. (Other than the fact that all these bands are GOOD!) With such a close platoon of the 4-7th place bands, it's frustrating that the line had to be drawn after 6th. Would be interested in any insights that anyone has to offer....