
Rubisco
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Everything posted by Rubisco
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BOA Conroe Regional Schedule- Oct. 3rd
Rubisco replied to VictoryRun's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Didn't Reagan win Houston in 2006? I'm pretty sure they did. -
BOA Conroe Regional Schedule- Oct. 3rd
Rubisco replied to VictoryRun's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Congratulations to Reagan. Definitely did not see that coming. The results so far this season seem to pointing to a huge mess come Super Regional time. I'm expecting a ton of flip-flopping. -
BOA Conroe Regional Schedule- Oct. 3rd
Rubisco replied to VictoryRun's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
By not missing any? Heh. Anyway, this really sucks, and I'm disappointed for the kids at The Woodlands, but when you think about it, winning this regional isn't really their end-goal. Everything they do this season is for another Eagle. One thing I will say is that this will make predictions for SA even more difficult than it already is. I suspect that CTJ will win in prelims, but you're not getting much of a direct comparison when 20 bands perform in between (see last year). -
Finally saw the Wakeland video, and I'm so, so impressed by it. I think they ought to be close to that top group, though I don't think they're performing their show quite at the level of Marcus or Hebron. I'm especially in love with their visual package. It's very beautifully done. And I think the Pointillism influence is perfect for something like marching band.
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If I had to choose my overall favorite from the shows that I've seen, it would be Marcus. I don't think it's a great Marcus show, at least not right now, but compared to the others, Marcus is just performing at a higher level. There are some issues with heroics and intonation that I'm not used to hearing from them, but then, all the other groups suffer from those issues as well. Maybe Marcus' show isn't the most exciting, but it's the most elegant. I think Hebron's music is technically very impressive. They play a veritable flurry of notes, although it isn't all clicking right now. I ADORE the ballad, and I'm happy that they've taken the unsentimental (and somewhat sultry) route this year, because that's going to make them stand out. One thing I'm not thrilled about is the visual. I think it could be cleaner, and more engaging. Unlike Knox, I don't think this show is as strong as World of Wonder, but I think it could be with some more bells and whistles. I think Flower Mound's show is fascinating, eggs and all. They're very strong, compelling performers, but I think they're lacking a bit of finesse and control. I had a bit of trouble parsing the music in spots, because there wasn't enough transparency in the ensemble sound. I think some members of the band might be overblowing a bit. I think it'll be great once the issues are ironed out, but I'm wondering if they can pull it off in a couple weeks. I haven't seen or heard Round Rock or LD Bell.
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BOA Austin Schedule 9/26/2015
Rubisco replied to principalagent's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
A few interesting things I'm noticing from the finals recap: 1.) Leander did well across the board, but none of the judges had them in first place, which is fairly odd, though Round Rock's penalty definitely threw things for a loop. 2.) James Bowie's ensemble music score seems surprisingly low, based on how both Daniel and Brandon described the performance (and prelims results). They weren't even in the top 5. 3.) Based on what I've seen, I'm surprised that 2 of the 3 GE judges didn't seem to think that Vandegrift was at the same level as the others in the top 5, at least in finals. Different strokes for different folks. All in all, I don't think these results have done much to separate the top 5 groups or make future predictions any easier. Everything was so close. -
This isn't a video, but I've been tracking The Woodlands' music performances on their football radio network. Here's a link to tonight's performance. It was homecoming, so the band performed their show after the football game. The plus to that is that it's a lot quieter than usual, and you can hear the music really, really well. The show announcement starts at 3:02, but if you'd like, you can hear the percussion and band warming-up/practicing bits of their show music beforehand. This is around the time of year that I usually see my first good Woodlands video. I'm still hopeful one will come out. That said, I gotta say, although this isn't the best recording in the world and maybe I'm overrating it a bit, it's pretty clear that The Woodlands sounds freaking SPECTACULAR this year. They're playing so many more notes than usual, and they're doing it so well that it just boggles my mind. And all the choirs sound so freaking powerful. My jaw hit the floor listening to it. And just when I thought they were going to sound old-fashioned this year with all that Mahler stuff, they throw in those weird, distorted bits and that ballad, which, by the way, sounds like the thing Avon opened with in 2013. Again, not the best recording, and maybe the quality of sound they're producing live isn't actually that good, but man... I don't know. If the visual matches the music, we're looking at our second Eagle contending show of the season, along with Avon's. https://archive.org/details/TWHSvsConroeSegment
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BOA Conroe Regional Schedule- Oct. 3rd
Rubisco replied to VictoryRun's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
On the Music for All website, go to the Resources section and find the Director's Lounge. There, you will find links to Fall Final Packets, which are given to directors and contain information about schedules and judging panels. The links aren't activated until the info is finalized. -
BOA Conroe Regional Schedule- Oct. 3rd
Rubisco replied to VictoryRun's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Great adjudication panel, by the way. -
BOA Conroe Regional Schedule- Oct. 3rd
Rubisco replied to VictoryRun's topic in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Going through the schedule Cedar Ridge Winston Churchill Keller The Woodlands Ronald Reagan Spring The Woodlands College Park Stephen F. Austin Brazoswood Claudia Taylor Johnson are the ones that stick out the most to me, but Pearland, Cypress Falls, James E. Taylor, and Westfield (!) have all had success at this regional in the past, so they could definitely factor into the equation. Barring total meltdowns or miracles, which I haven't seen any signs of, Claudia Taylor Johnson or The Woodlands will win and will win all of the captions. Given the prelims time difference between the top 2, I wouldn't be surprised if there's another flip-flop. Honestly, I'm more interested in seeing how the other bands do, because there's more excitement in it. -
Vandegrift has the most interesting show of the bunch. I love how it subverts the tropes of the typical "Planets" show. For instance, who would have thought of opening a show with Mercury, of all the movements? And then the predictable movements like Mars and Jupiter are played in ways that I haven't really heard them played before. It's all very fascinating. I think they're putting on a strong early season performance in that video as well, though I don't know if it's the best-performed show of the Austin BOA groups I've seen. For instance, I think Cedar Park sounds better, but it's definitely close.
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There are a few things I can tell from the Woodlands clip about that very small part of their show: 1.) It's musically demanding, but doesn't look visually demanding 2.) The kids carry themselves with great poise and project their style very, very well for this early 3.) The guard is performing much more cohesively as an ensemble than their nearest competitors, but again, the work isn't as challenging. Obviously, I have no idea what the rest of the show is like, but my gut feeling says that TW is going to end up with a really clean show again. Also, I don't think I posted this on TX Bands, but I figured out that the first two acts of The Woodlands' show are from the first two movements of Mahler's First Symphony. I also *think* they're doing music by Pink Floyd (probably the song "Time"), but I'm not sure about that.
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I like Avon's show. I usually do. This year's production, called "Black Gold" (about oil?), seems like a fun, quirky one. I don't think they sound very good right now, but they move so much, and it's so difficult, that I think there will be a bit of a learning curve. They usually shape up by the end of the season. I'll probably be complaining about their music performance right up until Nationals, when I'll start talking about how much better they sound.
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I think Leander is in fine form, and they do a ton of things really well, but their show this year just isn't as compelling as their show last year. For the record, Leander was my pick to win the SA Super Regional last year, so it's not entirely surprising that the show this year might not match last year's. The biggest issue for me (as it stands) is that the show doesn't really have the same elegant sense of flow, visually or musically. For instance, I don't really think the opening music transitions well into the Philip Glass Symphony, although I do really love the Glass piece. The ballad also doesn't match the sheer beauty and emotion of last year's. There are performance issues as well, but it's early enough in the season that I think there's a chance they'll all be fixed by November. Anyway, Leander's success last year definitely wasn't a fluke, and I think they'll place well again this season, but I'm skeptical that Choral Works is 2015's show-to-beat.
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Honestly, I'm amazed by how much drill and movement Johnson seems to have on the field already. Like others, my first thought was, "Did they drop out of UIL this year?" They really do look ahead of the game in terms of total amount of stuff learned. That said, there's so much going on and it's so difficult that I'm concerned that it's going to be VERY tough to clean everything. We'll see! Regardless, I'm glad there's at least one Texas group willing to tackle a show like that.
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2014 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional Predictions
Rubisco replied to Jbl3770's topic in Events on TxBands.com
I'm so happy for Leander. Great, great program this year. Prelims champ! Interesting that one Music GE judge gave Marcus a 16.8, while the other gave them an 18.7. A similar situation happened with Hebron in music GE, where they received a 19 and a 17.5. Speaking of Hebron, they were clobbered in visual performance, which seems a bit extreme, though I agree that the visual was a bit of an Achilles' heel. The surprising gaps in finals are pretty easily explained by the fact that you've got judges handing out scores like 16.8 to one group in that top cluster, while handing out 19+ scores to others. Huh? Also, Flower Mound was 7th in prelims. So much for GE being king at BOA! (Take that, critics of GE!) Even though they dropped considerably in finals, I think they'll be fine at nationals. A truly wonderful show. -
2014 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional Predictions
Rubisco replied to Jbl3770's topic in Events on TxBands.com
Anyway, I thought the finals performances were absolutely spectacular tonight. Congrats to all of the groups. I feel like I say it every year, but this seemed like the best BOA regional finals I've seen. -
2014 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional Predictions
Rubisco replied to Jbl3770's topic in Events on TxBands.com
Of course the judges never get it right! It's totally subjective, and everyone has his own opinion. People will rarely agree 100% with rankings and whatnot. Heck, I don't even disagree with these rankings! Just the gaps. Also, I neither said nor implied that strong opinions "clouded" any judgments. And yes, you do need to calm down. -
2014 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional Predictions
Rubisco replied to Jbl3770's topic in Events on TxBands.com
Oh, lord. Calm down. We'll see in a few minutes whether or not I misspoke. -
2014 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional Predictions
Rubisco replied to Jbl3770's topic in Events on TxBands.com
And, like I said, some judges have very strong opinions, which would explain the gaps that, in my opinion, should be much, much smaller.