Rubisco

Wow! That Round Rock show was bottom half?! 🤯 I liked everything about it! I love the contrast between the more restrained and stately passages and the ones where the emotion runs more freely. Beautiful visual program, too. I love the overall aesthetic.

Such a cool and interesting mashup of Barber and Beatles in Westlake's show! I couldn't take my eyes off of the dancer in the beginning, either. Absolutely wonderful! So expressive!

Well, Claudia Taylor Johnson sure as heck sounds like a National Finalist to me!

Music Ind - Travis Moddison Music Ens - David Carbone Visual Ind - Adam Sage Visual Ens - William Chumley Music Effect - Jay Kennedy Music Effect - Kyle Young Visual Effect - Meghan McCourt

If Vandy wins, they'll probably win GE as well. It's unusual for a band to win effect and lose a contest, although it does happen on rare occasions, like last year. In 2006 and 2011, the band that won GE ended up 3rd. It was extremely surprising both times! In 2011, you could kind of tell it was coming, because GE was announced before 3rd place instead of before 2nd place, which was bizarre at the time. My expectations for this event actually haven't changed much post-UIL, surprisingly enough! 😄 We shall see!

They were definitely stronger visually than they were musically. (I'm surprised they weren't outright first in ensemble visual. 1st in execution, but 10th in content, which is baffling to me coming from the BOA system.) Anyway, musically, they seemed a little fatigued compared to area videos, and they definitely didn't project the full, rich ensemble sound of groups like Marcus and Flower Mound, for example. Soloists had rough runs, too. But, their music ordinals are still quite a bit lower than I would have had them. Not sure what to make of it for BOA this week and next!

Some very interesting results in the individual judges' ordinals, to say the least!

One-two punch right there with Vista Ridge following TWHS. Vista was fantastic. Obviously, visual is much improved from their first regional. And the music is both really enjoyable and well-performed. But you know there's something wrong with the mic placement for the stream when those trombones at the end of the opener aren't nearly as brash as they usually are!

Welcome, Blue Devilcoats! I'm very BOA-minded, so I see a show like TWHS' and immediately think, "Well that's obviously winning visual and GE." But this is UIL, so it's really going to come down to more music performance-related things. It'll be interesting to see where this lands!

Oh gosh, I hope not. I thought their show was absolutely delightful! I love a good, old-timey Western show!

Goosebumps, Pearland. Goosebumps! 😲

Yeah, I heard the tuning in the soloists at the beginning, too, but overall LD Bell was great. It's so nice to see them pushing their way back into the upper echelon! College Park sounded great, too. The music really draws you in, with that trumpet duet. Sorry, I'm very in and out of the stream at the moment.

For the record, when I open the stream each time on my phone, it starts out sub-HD quality, but relatively quickly clears up to HD.

I wonder if Reagan will make finals this year... 🤔😄 They were outstanding, of course. There's a top-half finals spot with their name on it, probably.

Very good work by Timber Creek! Strong Texas sound. Looking forward to seeing that guard in WGI. Some pretty tricky stuff in there! Yeah, I could see this picture being choppier on a bigger screen. But it does seem at least 720p on my phone in terms of clarity.

Okay, Dickinson, I see you. That was a great performance! Did you see how uniform their guard was at the end spread out across the entire field? Wow! Great sounds and drill, too! Loved the Jaws reference.

Oh, gosh, no more annoying band interviews, please! We get enough of that from BOA! CTJ was solid, much improved over Katy. Interesting choice to perform almost the entire opener before the announcement, but this is also the first time I've seen them do a proper ending! (Was that the Freebird guitar solo on sax at the end? Love it! 😄) At times, like during the ballad, they sound like the CTJ you know. Full, rich, dynamic sound. For me, it's more the visual program that's kind of bare bones this year design-wise and not executed as cleanly as usual. Both drill and guard still need some work. Nevertheless, they still have a strong shot at finals here.

First band of the day already sounding great! Way to go, Wylie East! I would NOT want to be a music judge at this contest. 😬 The high cam isn't bad. Unlike Box 5, the picture is clear on my phone and likely HD quality. Sound is good, too. The only thing is that the frame rate looks ever so slightly below 24 frames per second, if 24 fps is what "real life" looks like. Not that bad, though, just ever so slightly slowed down. Hopefully they at least maintain this quality. I'm sure multi-cam is more frustrating with the choice of shots they make.

It's UIL State week, so I'm focused on ordinals right now. It got me thinking, "How different would BOA Nationals results be if they used a UIL-style combined ordinal system?" Also, I was wondering how many 1st place rankings a typical National Champion receives. So, I calculated going back to 1990. Of those 32 BOA National Championships, the champion would have been different on only 5 occasions. Avon would have won their 4th and 5th Eagles in 2011 (over Broken Arrow) and 2016 (over Carmel). LD Bell would have won their first in 2006 (over Broken Arrow), before earning their 2nd in a row in 2007. Kiski would have won instead of Marian Catholic in 1994. And Westfield would have won their first of two Eagles in 1990 (over PCEP). Ordinal sum ties occurred in 1995 (between Center Grove and Westfield) and in 1992 (between Centerville and Marian Catholic), but judges' preference would have kept the champions the same. The title of most 1st place "votes" (going back to 1990) belongs to Plymouth Canton Educational Park in 1999, with 6 of the 7 judges placing them 1st. On six other occasions, 5 of the 7 judges placed the National Champion in 1st place: Carmel 2022, Broken Arrow 2021, Avon 2010, Marian Catholic 2000, Lassiter 1998, and Centerville 1992. Carmel 2012 and Lawrence Central 2004 won with only one 1st place vote. Just some fun factoids.

I think it's entirely possible he was impressed by the originality of the Blue Springs show, especially since the next strongest visual programs were rather recycled-looking Cartwright products -- at least I think they were Cartwright shows. (His style is becoming more and more imitated.) Now, that said, personally I would not have scored Blue Springs a 19.1, but to each his own! I'm more peeved Westwood didn't win music at St. Louis!

Yeah, agreed. Actually, I found the narration a bit cheesy in parts, like something lifted from a Hollywood movie trailer. Conceptually, however, it *is* quite fresh and interesting. It's rare that I see a show with a concept I haven't seen before! It's just that, for me, an interesting concept won't sustain a show, if the fundamental drill and music don't keep me engaged from moment to moment.

Cyndi Robbins and her team are outstanding and helping to redefine what a top visual program in Texas looks like during the fall season. I also think the model that they follow, with the junior high guard classes during the day for PE credit in addition to after school rehearsals, is one that other bands in Texas should adopt, if they're able. (It also helps that Robbins seems to have active involvement at the junior high level.) Without a strong feeder program, I think it's hard to maintain a world class finalist program in Texas, when you're competing against a bunch of groups out of state that don't have rehearsal restrictions.

😂😂😂

I would love to hear Water Night again, but you know it would never be as excellent as Westfield's version! (Yes, I am majorly biased, I know. 😄) My frank opinion is that these Wes shows have a little bit of a diminishing appeal the more of them you've seen over the years. There are just so many similarities that I frequently find myself thinking, "Oh, that's just like that show from 2013! Oh, that's just like that show from last year!" I just want more imagination. I know Wes is capable of it. He's produced some truly creative, epochal programs in past. Reinvention can be a good thing!

I've been watching some of the available Region 33 videos. For me, North Shore seems like the strongest contender for state advancement from the region. I think they'll fare well in a direct comparison against some of the top Region 9 bands, especially given the UIL system.