Rubisco

Okay, I'm going to try to attach numbers to my finalist bands. I'm still waiting to see L.D. Bell and Spring, but for right now this is probably the best I can come up with: 1st-2nd The Woodlands 1st-3rd L.D. Bell 2nd-3rd Marcus 4th Claudia Taylor Johnson 5th Round Rock 6th Hebron 7th Ronald Reagan 8th Cedar Ridge 9th Cedar Park 10th Vandegrift 11th Flower Mound 12th Winston Churchill 13th Hendrickson 14th Anderson Hebron is really going to have to get the timing down on their really difficult music if they want to place 6th or higher. There are several fine groups biting at their heels, and loads of phasing isn't going to help them fend these groups off. Their sound could also be a bit meatier in parts. Round Rock just blew me away in the most recent video of them that I saw. I wouldn't be surprised if they sneak into the top 5, especially after their success last year. I think this is a national finalist group waiting to happen. At the very top, I'm thinking The Woodlands ahead of Marcus, although I'll need to see them side by side to be really sure. If this competition weren't in early November, I'd lean toward Marcus, but The Woodlands is always leaps and bounds better by late season, and this year they were stellar early season. L.D. Bell is, of course, the wild card in the top 3. I'm excited to see L.D. Bell's show from high up, especially since Wes Cartwright has left. The general feel of their show didn't seem much different than usual based on the crappy, field-level video that was circulating.

Okay, I've just watched the most recent videos available of all the bubble bands except Spring. I couldn't find any videos of Spring, so I'll have to leave them out for now. Here are my current predictions for finalists (subject to change at any moment, of course! ) : Anderson Cedar Park Cedar Ridge Claudia Taylor Johnson Flower Mound Hebron Hendrickson L.D. Bell Marcus Ronald Reagan Round Rock The Woodlands Vandegrift Winston Churchill The first thing many will notice is no SFA or Richland. I think this is a possibility. In fact, the bubble bands closest to making finals in my mind are Pflugerville, The Woodlands College Park, and Berkner, although all the groups have qualities that could help them make the cut. I'm wondering how Spring will fit in. Among the nine that I had as locks/near-locks, I can see pockets forming. I think Hebron could challenge CTJ right outside of the top three, which I think will almost inevitably be L.D. Bell, Marcus, and The Woodlands in some order that I'm not ready to predict. Cedar Ridge should challenge Cedar Park for a placement that will probably be somewhere beneath CTJ and Hebron. Reagan and Round Rock are groups that could be potential foils to any group outside of the top 3. I'm not really sure where either will end up. There are so many different ways the judges could go at a competition this stacked.

2012 BOA San Antonio Super Regional Schedule Friday, November 2nd, 2012 12:00 p.m. - Floresville H.S., TX 12:15 p.m. - La Grange H.S., TX 12:30 p.m. - Sandra Day O' Connor H.S., TX 12:45 p.m. - Pflugerville H.S., TX 1:00 p.m. - Vista Ridge H.S., TX 1:15 p.m. - Cedar Park H.S., TX 1:30 p.m. - Whitesboro H.S., TX 1:45 p.m. - Douglas MacArthur H.S., TX 2:00 p.m. - Hendrickson H.S., TX 2:15 p.m. - Lehman H.S., TX 2:45 p.m. - Westlake H.S., TX 3:00 p.m. - Rouse H.S., TX 3:15 p.m. - Anderson H.S., TX 3:30 p.m. - Aledo H.S., TX 3:45 p.m. - Wagner H.S., TX 4:00 p.m. - Winston Churchill H.S., TX 4:15 p.m. - David Crockett H.S., TX 4:30 p.m. - John Marshall H.S., TX 4:45 p.m. - Clinton H.S., MS 5:00 p.m. - Ronald Reagan H.S., TX 5:45 p.m. - Stephen F. Austin H.S., TX 6:00 p.m. - Hidalgo H.S., TX 6:15 p.m. - Roma H.S., TX 6:30 p.m. - Oak Ridge H.S., TX 6:45 p.m. - Leander H.S., TX 7:00 p.m. - United H.S., TX 7:15 p.m. - Alvin H.S., TX 7:30 p.m. - Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX 7:45 p.m. - Keller Central H.S., TX 8:00 p.m. - Round Rock H.S., TX 8:15 p.m. - Haltom H.S., TX Saturday, November 3, 2012 7:30 a.m. - Tom C. Clark H.S., TX 7:45 a.m. - Cedar Ridge H.S., TX 8:00 a.m. - Rio Grande City H.S., TX 8:15 a.m. - Vandegrift H.S., TX 8:30 a.m. - The Colony H.S., TX 8:45 a.m. - Boswell H.S., TX 9:00 a.m. - Friendswood H.S., TX 9:15 a.m. - Hebron H.S., TX 9:30 a.m. - Del Valle H.S., TX 9:45 a.m. - James Martin H.S., TX 10:15 a.m. - Jackson Academy, MS 10:30 a.m. - Keller Fossil Ridge H.S., TX 10:45 a.m. - Flower Mound H.S., TX 11:00 a.m. - Keller H.S., TX 11:15 a.m. - Kempner H.S., TX 11:30 a.m. - Berkner H.S., TX 11:45 a.m. - Legacy H.S., TX 12:00 p.m. - Lopez H.S., TX 12:15 p.m. - Marcus H.S., TX 12:30 p.m. - Monterey H.S., TX 1:15 p.m. - North Shore Senior H.S., TX 1:30 p.m. - The Woodlands H.S., TX 1:45 p.m. - Plano East Senior H.S., TX 2:00 p.m. - Richland H.S., TX 2:15 p.m. - Saint James School, AL 2:30 p.m. - Spring H.S., TX 2:45 p.m. - The Woodlands College Park H.S., TX 3:00 p.m. - Waller H.S., TX 3:15 p.m. - Calallen H.S., TX 3:30 p.m. - L.D. Bell H.S., TX 3:45 p.m. - Exhibition: Texas State University Okay, so the way I see it at this point is there are 9 groups that I'd be very surprised to see out of finals. Those groups are: Cedar Park, Cedar Ridge, Claudia Taylor Johnson, Hebron, LD Bell, Marcus, Ronald Reagan, Round Rock, and The Woodlands. (Note, this is not necessarily the top 9.) This leaves 5 finals spots for a whole slew of outstanding groups that includes: Anderson, Flower Mound, Friendswood, Haltom, Hendrickson, Berkner, Leander, Pflugerville, Richland, Spring, Stephen F. Austin, The Woodlands College Park, Vandegrift, and Winston Churchill. That's five measly spots for all of those awesome groups! As of right now 61 groups are attending, so the regional is nearly at full capacity. It should be a nail-biter. Any thoughts?

I'd be very surprised if Cedar Ridge misses finals at San Antonio.

There are similarities. Still, I have a hard time believing that Jon Vanderkolff, who designs for TW and is the staging director/choreographer of Blast!, was paying very close attention to that Churchill show when it came out. It's more likely that he stumbled upon Copland's Letter from Home and thought, "Ooh! TW can do a show about letters this year!" TW's show themes often are inspired by the music they play (i.e. Uninvited and Hide and Seek).

Yep. That's probably the biggest shocker of the competition. And it happened in both rounds! To be honest, I could see Cedar Ridge possibly overtaking Cedar Park as well (at BOA SA). Notice how CR beat out CP in GE in finals. That's pretty major, especially for such a young group! Also, I think Daniel mentioned earlier about how The Woodlands was supposedly two full points ahead of second place in the ensemble music sub-caption in prelims. That's not correct, although The Woodlands did have a comfortable .8 point lead over Reagan in it. (Kevin Nix popped them a 17.8, which is nearly a late season box 5 score! Reagan also scored extremely well with a 17.0.)

I'm going to spam this forum with my opinions just like I spammed the BOA forums! Bwahaha! Thoughts on finals in no particular order (copied and pasted): Hendrickson performed a show called Doctor Atomic, featuring, of course, music from the Doctor Atomic Symphony by John Adams, as well as some music by Prokofiev, Tchesnokov, and Sting. The staging was so elaborate in this show! Elements from the periodic table decorated the perimeter of the field, and off to the left were two clocks counting down the time until nuclear doomsday. The colorguard was all dressed in labcoats, which they removed early on. At the front, there was some old fashioned professor-type at a chalkboard furiously scribbling away. An Oppenheimer impersonator, perhaps? There is so much going on in this show that you need to watch it more than once to take it all in. At the end, the sirens go off, and the clocks start to plummet. I was thoroughly entertained. Some strong playing and marching as well. This is a band to keep an eye on. Pflugerville performed a show called Multiplicity, featuring the music of Danielpour and some others. This is a really strong playing group! The show itself was sort of reminscent of PCEP 2002, if only because they played Urban Dances. The guard was dressed in black, but had different colors hidden underneath that they revealed from time to time. Different sections of the band also revealed different colors at one point, and during the big hit of the ballad, all of these colors came together to really neat effect. At the end of the show, in a Reagan-esque gesture, the band returns to their opening set, with only one color remaining on a lone colorguard performer. I think this group may have underplaced a little. They were really good! The Woodlands College Park got the most standing ovations of the night! They performed a patriotic show called The 4th, featuring the music of Hazo, Ward, Hughie, Don, and Tchaikovsky. Lots of patriotic-sounding music, of course! The ballad and the swing section before the final movement are probably the two strongest sections. For the ballad, they played America the Beautiful. The woodwind ensemble at the front played with tons of musicality, as did the rest of the band. At the end of the ballad, the band shouts a segment of the pledge of allegiance, which got TWCP their first standing ovation. The second one came at the end of the very well-played swing section, when half of the audience thought the show was over. Heh. The third and final one was at the end, of course, after they played the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky. TWCP's finals performance was head and shoulders above their prelims performance, where they tore musically during the swing section. (The low brass on the far right of the field started rushing ahead of the woodwind melody, and the first hit of swing section wasn't played together as a result.) Visually, I think this group could use some work, as there were several parts that I thought looked very dirty (i.e. people outside of files during stand-still segments.) I loved the Rosie the Riveter colorguard outfits. It was a nice touch. Dripping Springs was a group that I was very excited to see. They were second last year to Cedar Park at the Texas UIL Class 4A Championships. The show this year is called Silence and features the music of Samuel Barber. They play with a ton of musicality, tons of sensitivity. I think there were some segments where they could have played with a little bit more volume and power, but because of their size they may have been at a little bit of a disadvantage. Still, the Adagio for Strings segment was so chilling. That low brass sound is warm, warm, warm. In that chilly Texas night, you just wanted to wrap yourself in that sound. Lots of neat moments incorporated the theme. They marched the first part of their drill in complete silence before hitting the opening statement (Overture to the School for Scandal). Right before they hit that last big chord of their show, they shush the audience, which was unexpected and a cool effect. It was a very solid performance. I hope we see them again soon! Churchill had probably the coolest color palette of the night. That's the first thing I recognized. Lots of green and red and... silver, was it? I actually don't remember all of the colors, but I do remember that I liked them! Heh. The show is called Invasive Beauty and features the music of Bobby McFerrin, David Holsinger, The Gotan Group, and Scott McAllister. The field was decorated with venus flytraps. I got a sort of femme fatale vibe from the colorguard that was really fun. I think at one point they all circled around a lone band member and converged, ensnaring him. That was cool! On the whole, I think this show is much better performed than the one they did last year. Like virtually all of the groups in finals, I thought they played strongly. There were a lot of exciting, fast-paced moments. I would note that it seemed a little bit on the shorter side as far as length. Still more to come, I bet. I think last year there was some talk about Churchill being in a decline. I don't think that showed much at all last night. Cedar Park just performs so strongly that they're always in contention. I think they were the first to perform among the group that I thought in my mind was probably the top 3. The show is called Celebracion and features La Fiesta Mexicana, Sensemaya, Adios Nonino, and Danzon No. 2. It was easy to see why the music ensemble judge had this group first in finals. They just play so powerfully, but without letting their good tones go out of the window. It looked pretty good visually, too! I think there are some issues with the music design. I like shows where if you were to pick up all the music a band is playing off of the music sheets it would all stick together. I think there are parts where CP doesn't accomplish this. The pre-show lead-in to the first big hit, for instance, doesn't really mesh with the big hit that follows. There are moments like this riddled throughout the show. This could be why they were docked a bit in music GE. I also think they could do a better job (in parts) communicating the music to the audience, since some of it seemed a bit dry. Of course, there were other parts where they communicated fantastically. Towards the end of their opener there's a screamer of a chord that just gave me goosebumps. That's trademark CP! They need more moments like that! (Although not all screamer chords! ) Cedar Ridge performed a show called Flock, featuring the music of James Horner, Karl Jenkins, Ryan George, Rick Rodriguez, West Fox, Modest Mussorgsky, and Coldplay. Whew! That's a lot of music to get into one coherent show, but they managed it very well. Obviously, there's some sort of bird theme at play here. In one particularly neat moment in the opener, the band was in a wing-like drill set that shimmered with clever visuals. In another audience favorite moment, the band knelt to the ground and bobbed their heads against the field to the Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks by Mussorgsky. The first thing I think we all noticed about this group, though, was the power with which they played. It just melted your face off. Maybe some clarity was lost as a result, but it was exciting nevertheless. The ballad in which the girl sang Coldplay's Fix You to band accompaniment was really beautiful. Emotionally affecting moments like that were part of the reason I ranked them ahead of Cedar Park in music GE. Reagan perfomed a show called Let It Shine, featuring, *I think*, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof by Philip Glass. The music is just so cool. That's the best way to describe it. It pulls you in at the beginning and doesn't let go. Towards the end of the first movement, the whole band turns on a little green light on their uniforms. At night, this was very eye-popping. The guard also dons futuristic visors with green lights. Before the lights start to get distracting, they shut them off, which is good. The cool, fast-paced moments of the first part of the show are balanced by more tender, beautifully played moments later on. Of course, as many of you know by now, the plume changes have returned, this time in the form of a plume change battle between two groups on the field. This was another audience favorite moment. I'm wondering how it must have felt to Kevin Nix sitting up in the judging booth watching something he probably helped invent. Flattered? Annoyed? Probably not annoyed, since he (and the other music GE judge) had Reagan in 2nd place. Of course, I agreed with them. This was a top-notch show. It glimmered with bits of the old Reagan we all know and love. Stephen F. Austin has had a rough time these last couple of months, losing both their head band director and their dance team director, and then having to scramble to replace them. Their show is called Coming into the Light and features the Verdi Requiem and Appalachian Spring, among other pieces. The good news is that, design-wise, this looks and sounds like a typical Stephen F. Ausin show. The bad news was that they weren't as far along last night as usual. This was made abundantly clear by the fact that towards the end of the show the Angels stopped dancing and just marched around. I can't recall the last time that's happened, although I might not have been paying close attention. The show opened with the explosive Verdi Requiem, but they seemed to be struggling a bit with it. The drill just wasn't nearly as clean as usual, nor was the music up to their standard. Like I said earlier, there were several points where they overblew past good tone quality. The ending in particular was sort of heartbreaking, because it sounded like they were really trying to turn on the fire, but they overdid it and the sound suffered. But, you know what, this is a group that works their tails off, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see some drastic improvements by late season. Like I said earlier, I thought The Woodlands was on a different level, and the judges seemed to agree. What were the scores like again? Like a 3 and a half point gap in finals, and a 4 point one in prelims? The show is called The Promise of Living and features the music of Aaron Copland and David Diamond. I'm still not completely sold on the narration, since I think it could be even more effective without being soo... I don't know... cliched? But they made up for it with music that was just so beautifully played that it was overwhelming. There are lots of exciting moments, too, like at the end of the opener when they added some ferocious brass licks, with soaring, trilling mellophones. It was jaw-dropping to experience that live. I would comment that there were parts (like toward the end of the opening statement) where some high brass stuck out a bit, but it didn't seem as severe live as in the videos I saw. As for the visual, I think it has a much better sense of space than last year's show did, with longer, more elegant lines (like that opening set!). Also, the drill in the ballad is actually interesting this year! The field itself is decorated with some old-fashioned-looking letters that are incorporated into the drill. The letters are opened as the show progresses. One letter wasn't opened, leading me to believe the show isn't done yet. The show closes with Mvmnt. 4 (I think) from Symphony No. 2 by David Diamond and a stirring reiteration of The Promise of Living by Aaron Copland, complete with glorious, intoning trombones reminiscent of Lassiter 2002. They really "brought it home", as they say. After it was over, it was clear nobody was going to beat them this time around.

I remember watching Marcus last year at Conroe and thinking pretty much exactly the same thing you did this year. Everything seemed too quiet, too restrained. Then, I watched the video online, and their dominant win made a lot more sense. As for Hebron, right off the bat there were some noticeable issues, musical tears and whatnot. I still rate them highly, though, if only because these major issues will likely be gone by late season, and that's when I think a superior show design may give them the edge over CTJ. Show design probably gave them the slight edge in GE at this competition (since it probably wasn't performance qualities that did it). Of course, at this point, who knows for sure what will happen later on.

I have to say, after watching some more shows, I think this competition was outstanding top to bottom. Considering how stiff the competition was for a regional this early, bands shouldn't be that upset if they "underperformed". There's still plenty of time to improve. Congrats to all!

I just watched the top 5 shows on the new Music for All video webpage. I think after years and years of being baffled by BOA scoring (particularly GE scoring), I've started to grasp it a little bit better. Although I wasn't there live (and I knew the results as I was watching the shows), I have to say I think the judges hit the nail on the head as far as ranking the top 5. Marcus was clearly the superior group. They play with so much more clarity than any of the other groups, and the music is so demanding. It's not perfect-- there is some first trumpet player sticking out in parts-- but still, the music is well on its way. The visual is also quite elegant and fits seamlessly with the music. The show flows like water. If Marcus has any overt "fault", it's that at times they focus so much on technical musical perfection that they play almost a bit too prudishly. That's the best way I can describe it. They lack the volume, grittiness, and raw excitement of some of their nearest competitors. I thought Bowie was simply excellent. I think they'll stick around the top for a few years to come. A top 6 finish at nationals seems likely if they continue the momentum. The drill for this group is so much better than it used to be, and the music is very strong. I would remind them, though, to watch out that musical power doesn't get in the way of clarity. Also, the "wandering stars" on the field (at least that's what I think they are) are being used to neat effect, but they maybe could use some more color. That'd be reeeealll purrrdy. On a side note, I loved the raindrop accompaniment to their performance. Heh. And their director shouting "Hallelujah!" at the end. CTJ was a group that I'm thinking must have been better live. That's not to say anything bad about the show. It's a great show, very well performed and deserving of the high placement. It's just that I feel like some of the issues I heard last season are still present this season, and maybe because of the *ahem* hype I expected a bit more. Like Bowie, I believe some musical clarity went out of the window for power and excitement. The music design is also a tad schizophrenic in parts. In addition, it looks like they're telling a story again, but, like last year, the storytelling right now is a little bit muddy. I don't really know what's going on. This is something I'm sure the design staff will work on throughout the season. I fully expect this show to land in the top five again at San Antonio, but I think it's going to be an uphill battle to crack Marcus, Bell (probably, haven't seen them yet), and The Woodlands for the top 3. Hebron was outstanding. I was really really impressed with these guys. The ballad gave something close to chills. Lots of classic Reagan-esque moments as well. Honestly, as I was watching, I thought to myself, "I think this show is actually slightly more effective than CTJ's show is." This is a huge compliment! Of course, this is confounded by the fact that I knew, in the back of my mind, that Hebron beat CTJ in General Effect. Heh. Anyway, I wouldn't at all be surprised if Hebron ends up fighting CTJ for a 4th place finish at San Antonio, but it's too early to tell for sure. We'll have to wait another month for that! Cedar Park I think did suffer a bit without the electronics. The preshow was almost completely inaudible! These guys are strong performers, though, and really pulled it off well. I'm not surprised they were first in the individual visual caption based on the up close shots. They looked very crisp, totally in the zone. Like I've said before, I wish the music flowed a bit better in spots, and that the drill was a little more interesting, but they perform the heck out of what they have. They'll be strong competition this weekend at Conroe for The Woodlands.

Since the contest has almost arrived and predictions should be wrapping up, I've decided to tally the first place votes (after removing CTJ and Spring, who are no longer attending). Of the 117 votes for first place, 82 of them (70%) are for The Woodlands, 19 of them (16%) are for Cedar Park, 4 of them (3%) are for SFA, and 12 (10%) are for other groups. The last one percent is divided up among them. Has anybody actually seen SFA's show yet? I'd be interested to hear whether they've actually taken a hit with the director changes.

Just sifted through the ordinals. Some interesting things to note: 4 out of 7 judges placed Marcus first. This isn't as dominant as Marcus was last year at Conroe, where they were first in all but individual visual performance, in which they placed 2nd. They even got a third place music GE vote! Gasp! 5 of 7 judges had Bowie 3rd or lower. Only 2 judges had Cedar Park in the upper half of finals. Those two judges were the individual performance judges, both of whom placed CP first. If GE had dictated CP's score, they would have placed 6th. CTJ was 4th in GE due to middling GE music scores. Hebron was 3rd in GE. All but one judge had them in the top five. Only 2 of the 7 judges had Reagan making finals. Vandegrift was weak in music performance (11th place), but strong in visual performance (6th). They beat CP in GE, where they got 5th.

I'm still going with The Woodlands for the win, probably with a score around 82-ish, with higher rankings in GE than in performance, although anything is possible. Frankly, TW placing 3rd isn't out of the question, although even if they do I'll still probably end up predicting them in the top 3 or 4 for San Antonio. CP's recent 5th place finish at Denton didn't help their odds of winning Conroe, even with the rain and without a finals performance. Also, the chances of Reagan making a splash seem slim at this point, although Conroe will probably be less competitive than Denton, making a top 5 finish easier to achieve.

Somebody on the BOA forums posted a different set of results: 1 - Marcus 2 - Bowie 3 - CTJ 4 - Hebron 5 - Cedar Park 6 - Vandegrift 7 - Flower Mound 8 - Coppell 9 - Richland 10 - Reagan Marcus - All captions

I'm not sure I'd say nowhere near, although certainly I think CP's show is cleaner. Also, the video where you can actually judge TW's ensemble visual is a week older. Musically, I pretty strongly prefer CP to TW. TW has a few somewhat strident balance issues, with people sticking out of the ensemble sound. In that first video, the first trumpet part sounds like it's being played by one person! It's very distracting, especially when that one person totally messes up in parts. That said, TW's show does have its nice bits musically. The big hit of the ballad is top notch. Also, if TW's show is inferior to CP's show performance-wise, I still think TW wins in the design department. And by a lot (even with the beyond-cheesy narration). The drill is much more elegant, and the music has a better sense of flow. But yeah, I'm not leaning quite so strongly in TW's favor at this point. Maybe just another early-season-flop-late-season-dominance cycle. That'd be good news for CP! (Or maybe SFA, don't forget about them!)

(A recent one, great quality) (So short almost not worth posting) (Only worth posting for the music) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZwv3L4bghI&feature=plcp (Good quality football game vid of a potential finalist) (Recent, good quality football game vid of a perennial finalist) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WvrwCW3vOI&feature=plcp (Good quality football game vid) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgV49Xv9QO8 (More recent vid of the same group, more bells and whistles, horrible filming) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3OSIpra0E4 (First football game vid, not even going to Conroe, but my oh my, if they aren't pushing for a national finals spot in a few years I'd be surprised-- especially after last year at SA!)

I think visually the biggest thing I notice is that the guard is working better as an ensemble. In the past, they've been sort of distracting. This year it looks much better. Yeah, the drill could be cleaner (and maybe more interesting in parts), but it's early. I haven't seen any group yet that I didn't think looked really dirty. That includes Cedar Park and The Woodlands.

I have to say... I think this group sounds and looks significantly better than usual. A very real shot at finals. Sure, the concept may be a little cheesy to some, but you can't deny that saying the pledge of allegiance halfway through your show is gonna make the judges remember you. Also, I adore the swing section. Some really great playing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL13XKVMAgA

I think they were 4A last year. If they falter a bit this year, there's a very real chance that each class will be swept in prelims. The Woodlands in 4A, Cedar Park in 3A, and Dripping Springs in 2A. I'm not sure about 1A. What this means is that we really won't know who is on top going into finals. I suppose that's always the case, but last year, did anyone really doubt Marcus was on top?

I'm most eager to see Dripping Springs and Stephen F. Austin. The top spots will probably be divided between The Woodlands, Cedar Park, and SFA, like usual, as long as SFA hasn't taken too much of a hit with the director changes. If the TX Bands predictions are any indication, The Woodlands is going in as the overwhelming favorite to win. It's hard for me to say at this point who will win, since the only band I've seen a decent amount of is Cedar Park. Supposedly CTJ is no longer attending/was never actually going to attend. That's really disappointing and will make the competition near the top a little bit duller, but it is what it is. I had CTJ predicted for second place. But not all is bad, since this frees up some finals space for another fine group. Who will it be? Here are my new predictions: 1st The Woodlands 2nd Cedar Park 3rd Stephen F. Austin 4th Ronald Reagan 5th Dripping Springs 6th Spring 7th Winston Churchill 8th Brazoswood 9th Pflugerville 10th The Woodlands College Park Music: The Woodlands Visual: The Woodlands GE: The Woodlands The last two spots are the ones I think bands on the bubble will be scrambling for. Also, if SFA is as good as they've been in the past, I might change my predictions to give them second place (maybe even first) and the visual caption.

Yes, usually in the form of a pre-show.

It wouldn't surprise me. First dome performances can be rough. Still, if videos can be trusted, the tone quality issues I heard at UIL were not fixed at nationals. There was a sort of freight train drone to much of the music. I can't imagine that not also being a big reason UIL docked them. Anyway, it's long past. It's not an issue I hear as prominently in SFA today. I just brought it up to point out differences I notice in BOA and UIL. On a side note, I'm sort of surprised by SFA's low visual performance scores from 2004, although at least the judges were consistent.

I just did a search on the BOA forums. Oh... What a trip down memory lane! Here are SFA's UIL prelims results: Austin HS mus1 21 mus2 31 mus3 3 vis1 21 vis2 22 total 98 placement 22nd And some reactions: SFA 22nd? TWENTY-SECOND? That is absolutely ridiculous. I hope they win nats. God UIL pisses me off so much. EDIT: OMG music 2 had SFA as 31st, DEAD LAST. YEAH RIGHT. SFA the worst playing band at the competition? AMAZING I don't see how SFA can get those scores. WOW! I guess there are some discrepencies (sp?). wow, the music judges did a very poor job ranking these 31 bands. Austin 22nd? wow... congrats to the marching judges for being sort off close to each other. Ld bell would have won if one of the judges didnt screw them over. boo.. SFA had really serious problems musically. Their music was tearing very badly in many parts of the show and there were a lot of intonation problems. I was really disappointed with SFA; I was expecting a lot out of that Applachian Spring show. That last one was the one and only Xenon. Heh. Another odd one out!

I tend to agree with UIL music judges more than BOA ones. I feel like BOA music judges reward groups highly for rhythmic accuracy and clarity, which are of course important performance considerations, but they tend to overlook fundamental deficiencies in other areas (i.e. tone quality). I think good examples of this are last year's nationals (Avon = 1st in music performance, The Woodlands = 5th in music performance) and the 2004 Stephen F. Austin BOA versus UIL debacle. I was probably in the forum minority back in 2004 when I agreed with SFA's low UIL music placements. (One music judge had them 20-something, another had them dead last, and Alfred Watkins, perennial BOA judge, had them 3rd). I don't know if I would have had them dead last in music performance at UIL prelims, but certainly not high enough for finals. Once again it was a fundamental issue of tone production. SFA 2004 sounded very crass to my ears (and probably to those two UIL judges as well). BOA didn't seem to care, though, and rewarded them the high music caption at nationals. I wasn't at nationals, but it seemed highly suspicious to me at the time. On the whole, though, I prefer BOA judging, if only because they take the whole package into account. They reward both design and performance. It is a common misconception that GE is all about show design. In actuality, a band cannot expect to receive a high general effect score even with a stellar show design if the performance qualities are inadequate. Anyway, this is definitely more than 50 words, and I feel like a broken record. I've said this stuff so many times before.

Considering that the older, more seasoned players are typically the ones playing confidently during marching season, I think playing some Bach this past concert season will afford Marcus a bit of an advantage. (Heck, any exposure to playing Bach's richly contrapuntal music is an advantage.) That said, it's not like Marcus wasn't already going to be the best sounding band this year. Seriously, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say they've been the best band musically every year since 2005. So.... yeah...