Rubisco

There are videos of guards we haven't seen compete at WGI yet popping up on YouTube. Falling down a bit of YouTube hole. Here's Invictus. A Creep show called I Don't Belong Here. https://youtu.be/GWDsv1WtgWQ?si=YR3Ax2LuhQD_Mt_e Here's Palm Desert High School (not middle school) performing Discov(RED). I recognize the music as Ezio Bosso. The cloud one that Onyx did in 2015. https://youtu.be/j7k7cgrFK0c?si=JwckdUm9IKxCYgx5

I'm just going to post a few, I'm at work and have limited time. I want to eventually do some of the Houston Opens. I've already talked about Pearland and TWHS A. Congrats to TWHS A on their Houston Regional win! I had my suspicions that might happen. Their show might not be the flashiest one in the world, but you can clearly see the attention given to fundamental training, which is extremely important in A class. Also, congrats to Grand Oaks for making a comeback in finals. Ever so slightly off the podium, but comfortably division one. Both them and Cypress Woods should do well at Dayton. Over in Dallas, Hebron made a big splash, winning in the A class. I recall they were on the list to attend Dayton last year, but pulled out, maybe in part because of lackluster competition results compared to the prior year. So, winning Dallas is a fantastic development for them, although it makes me wish they were attending Dayton this year. Their show is called If I Only, and is of course inspired by the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz. This version of the song is a crooner version with a lush orchestral accompaniment. The yellow brick road curves up and around the stage, fading into the distance. Right next to it is a patch of grass and some haystacks where the performers begin, lying around a scarecrow. I'm actually pretty dazzled by the use of perspective in this set design -- it almost looks like they're actually there at times, particularly when they're on the yellow brick road. (Maybe a little less so when they're in the sky tossing rifles or flags. 😄) This version of the song is a bit slowed down, but draws out the sadder essence of the song. The performers really capitalize on that with wonderful expressive qualities, giving us some smooth, legato movement, before the tempo picks up and gives us something a little more upbeat. I like the variety here, also the attention to character. They're also already quite clean, despite some challenging phrases. Just a lovely show all around. Coppell's varsity guard in Open class is performing a show called In Fantasia, featuring the song of the same name by Kishi Bashi. It has an ethereal, futuristic sound, with trippy electronics, shifting orchestral chords, and highly evocative lyrics. "In fantasia the mirrors lie to us they plant a seed/one by one we build an empire where devils roam and breed/fading sunsets, to forget them is the mark of death/as we break in through the window of mind and greed." I'm not 100% sure what it's about, perhaps about the toxic influence man has had on nature. In any case, the show is fascinating. The set looks subterranean, like we're in a cave, with a glowing crystal in the center of the stage. The performers move onto the stage with such energy and clear articulation, it really pops upstairs. I love when the song shifts up into the Japanese, and we get that beautiful mixed sabre and flag moment. The interrelationship here between the choreography for the two different pieces of equipment is clear. This is really important in moments of close proximity, for us to see that the two sets of members aren't just doing their own thing, which looks messy and illogical from upstairs. @packwick has described it on Discord as the two needing to have a dialogue, which I like. Generally speaking, I think the staging is a lot clearer than last year's show. The performers are also killing it. The flag feature at the end is expertly done -- gorgeous and dynamic. The orchestral music there is really beautiful as well. The transition to the more quiet ending feels a little abrubt right now and could maybe be a bit smoother. Just a minor complaint. Fantastic job overall. I noticed that Coppell's A guard also did well at Dallas. They could have a real pipeline of talent funnelling into the varsity guard for the next few years. Marcus' show The Aeroplane is every bit as elegant as you might expect. After prelims, Marcus was hanging with Centerville, the top Open guard in the country, until the judges at Avon decided to bump pretty much all their scores way up. It'll be interesting to see "the truth" when Dayton rolls around. Anyway, when's the last time you've seen a guard build an airplane on the floor? Well, that's what Marcus does this season, gradually as the show progresses. It's an old-timey aeroplane made out of wood. The floor itself appears to be the blueprint, on a sort of beige parchment. The song, fittingly, is Tim Minchin's The Aeroplane -- the duet version with Asmara Feik. "If I had the blueprint or the brain/I would build an aeroplane/with fashion wings of balsa wood and glue/and I would fly to you." So, really, it's a sweetly sentimental little love song. Compared to Coppell, the movement is a tiny bit more fluid and graceful, to match the music. I love this traveling dance canon at the beginning, starting with the partnering and then those staggered temps du fleches. The sabre phrase in the top left corner of the stage near the beginning is so beautifully done, very lyrical with the blending of the movement with the equipment. I love how that follow-the-leader phrase in the pink/purple flags unwinds and pushes out to the edges of the stage during the little piano interlude. Wonderful transition. Actually, it reminds me a bit of some of Marcus' drill in their marching show last season, which was outstanding. Now Tim's voice enters, and it has got more bass than the woman's voice, so Marcus smartly brings out the rifles, which have a bit more visual volume. They also change to green flags. Amazing efforts from the performers. When the plane is complete in the center of the stage, we get that final blue flag feature, like we're up in the sky. Very lovely show. Flower Mound's World guard is doing something kind of similar. Their show is called Fly. The floor is a gorgeous blue sky with clouds. What appears to be two musical staves intersect at the top left corner of the stage. The performers are in black tights and shorts and sit on black stools on the lines and spaces of the staves, like they're musical notes, or alternately, like blackbirds on wires. The song, after all, is a female cover of The Beatles' song, Blackbird. It's just the woman's voice and the piano -- very smooth jazz, carefree, and upbeat. There's an overall sunny quality to both the song and choreography during this first part. Meanwhile, the staging designer has done a pretty expert job of maintaining our focus throughout. They've done a good job of leading our eyes to various performer moments, even right at the beginning, for example, with that diagonal that leads straight to the sabre block in the top left corner of the stage. The staging and choreography are detailed, but they don't look excessively busy, which is great. Lots of fun level changes with the stools, of course. You know you're in world class when the rifle line does that ripple of 5s with the turn and then catches them at port while seated on the ground. Wow! Now the music slows down, and the performers showcase their more lyrical talents, although only briefly before the music picks back up. Overall, it's a breezy, well-staged, and well-performed world class show. Will it make finals at Dayton this year? I think there's a chance. But I also think it could benefit from more strangeness, if that makes sense. It's that sort of It Factor that makes a show stand out in the grand scheme of things. Like, how can you make this show different enough from the "up in the sky" shows we've seen before, so that we can't stop thinking about it? The dramatic moments in the soundtrack are also a bit more subtle than other shows, so the designers have to work harder to emphasize those moments. Nevertheless, I think there's a chance they sneak in at Dayton. We'll have to see what some of the Florida and California guards look like. I've already talked about TWHS World. The Light You Cannot See. Just pure poetry, with the show's intellectual and emotional depths expressed entirely visually, no explanation needed. I love the addition of the two-sided white and murky brown unitards, both because it creates the cool visual effect of going into and out of the stage (which isn't an especially novel effect) but also because it seems to indicate that the "light" is intrinsic to the performers. Even the stillness and emptiness of parts of the opening staging bother me less, because they now seem thematic, moving from that depressed state to that magnificent ending where the white flags fill the floor with light. That's gonna be an all-time great emotional moment, buoyed by the incredible depth of the performers' skills and that unbelievably goosebumpy soundtrack. They are doing things that simply no other high school guard can do. It's a huge risk having that many kids do that many skills simultaneously. As we marching fanatics know, it just takes one kid to screw it all up. Anyway, I hope they can polish this beast of a show, can clarify some of the busier staging moments, and can connect some of the phrases a little more smoothly with movement between them. I also think they could add a few more seconds of the very end of that Gregson solo violin divisi piece to give us a fuller denouement. Regardless, I think the overall package is pretty sublime. I don't see them off the medal "podium" this year.

Some Texas thoughts will follow. 😄

First of all, thank you so much @Tubalord11 for providing commentary on nearly all of the guards at Dallas. All those kids and staff members really appreciate your kind thoughts. TXBands should recruit you for their live blogs for sure! Alas, I cannot sit through an entire event anymore. It's almost disrespectful to the hard work all the kids put in. 😭 Also, I think I failed at being concise. The fight for A at Avon was between Carmel and Carroll. I've already touched a bit on both. Carmel A is one of Carmel's JV guards; I believe they have another one actually called Carmel JV, which is like middle school. Anyway, Carmel A's show was called Chopinesque. The purple lounge aesthetic, black benches, and baby grand piano were taken straight from their world guard's show from last year. It's Chopin music, but filled with lots of jazzy, blue scale riffs. I'm guessing Gaines does the staging for Carmel's A, it has a pretty consistent formal clarity. The benches and piano are moved around in similar ways to the world show, as when the benches encircle the piano or are lined up diagonally across the stage. At one point, they're in a sinusoidal curve, which is a very Gainesian thing. This is another one of those guards where it's hard to believe it's a JV group, with unusually dense phrasing and the girls doing tosses off the benches and while atop the piano. Carroll ended up coming out on top in finals, squeaking out the only 80 in Scholastic A this weekend. I've already talked about this one. It's the one about the Dash between the dates on the tombstone, which represents the life a person lived. (We are reminded over and over that it's the most important part!) The floor is like white clouds in a light purple sky, and the performers are in sleek purple unitards that really pop against the white. It's a sentimental show for sure, but the performers elevate the material with their skills and expressive qualities. The stage is slyly reconfigured throughout using large white blocks. They're usually pretty smart about using equipment work to draw our eyes away from the moving of the blocks. Centerville was by far my favorite in Open. The show is called Irresistible and is a fun twist on the moth drawn to the light concept. They're really forging a willfully and imaginatively weird style for themselves. The performers start out almost camouflaged in the corners of the stage with lampshades on their heads, mixed among actual lamps. It has a rather antique store look, like if you were shopping for lamps. The top right corner of the stage has a large upright window with a patch of light shining through it onto the floor. There's an upward piano flourish, and a girl clicks on the lamp in the lower left corner of the stage. Suddenly a double bass enters in the music, very dry and expressionist sounding, like you're watching an art house movie. A few members with lampshades on their heads tiptoe out of the corners curiously, humorously. Amazing opening solo sabre toss with an attitude turn underneath it. Really all the sabres here are fantastic, wonderfully expressive -- keeping good time during what seems like an extended, free-flowing cadenza in the double bass. Suddenly a giant moth flies through the window and the music is an exciting, thumping, highly syncopated tango between the double bass and piano. This music is definitely Piazzolla. (Let me look it up. I believe it's Kicho for double bass and piano.) Everything about this show rocks: the performers, the staging, the choreography, the aesthetic. I'm wondering if it remains in Open. With a couple demotions recently, there's some space in World Class prelims. I could definitely see Centerville sneaking into World Class finals. Speaking of World class, the word on the street about Fishers is accurate. They are much improved over last year. It's a baseball show called The Great American Game. You'd probably imagine something a little more upbeat knowing that it's a show about baseball, but really it's more of an expressive love letter to the baseball of the first half of the 20th century, when it was at peak popularity. If you've seen the movie, A League of Their Own, you'll pick up on the aesthetic pretty quickly, with the skirts and whatnot -- also with the shades of sepia, which make the floor look like an old time photo or letter. The members all start out on bleachers, the first one runs out and slides. There's a lot of baseball in the choreo here. The music is a very delicate, sweetly sentimental piano, good for the overall nostalgic feel. I think I've heard this before, but I can't put my finger on it, maybe an arrangement of a piece from a movie? The bleachers are eventually split up and moved around (while the members are on it) to reshape the stage. I'm actually squinting right now to try to see if the rifles have a baseball bat appearance, because at times it looks like they're holding them like bats. Absolutely wonderful performance from those kids. Lots of difficult trick tosses and spinning phrases. Seeing Fishers place so close to Carmel is exciting, and probably indicates they'll be a lock for top 6 at Dayton. After missing finals last year, that's QUITE an improvement. Carmel World's show, Memento Mori, was my pick for most intriguing theme heading into the season. Memento Mori is a phrase essentially reminding you that you're going to die, so really a death motif. This is weighty stuff! It's a little reminiscent in tone to Carmel's 2022 production, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. The floor is a sort of solid desert color, but a little orangish, like a terracotta orange. Blue fabric is stretched across it, like a river flowing through the desert. Actually, this aesthetic is extremely reminiscent of Spring's 2014 Open Class gold medal show, the Malala one. They use the blue fabric in similar ways, making shapes on the stage. I recognize this music right away as Max Richter, reminded me of Wayne McGregor's ballet Woolf Works. Very desolate and sad sounding, but also with great expressive qualities that of course Carmel takes full advantage of. Perfect front walkover toss to open the show. Look at those hand placements on all these exposed solo tosses. They're just perfect! A narrator tells us not to fight the flow of time but to move with it. It all has a little bit of a dry lecture feel to it. I think I would have preferred a little less exposition, especially because they're already communicating much of the theme pretty clearly visually. But then the performers are just undeniable, not really that far off Avon from an equipment perspective. And then there's Avon, performing Voila, which is an absolute earworm of a song. I've been humming it in my head ALL day, it has such an infectious lilt. When I heard that Avon was doing Voila, I could tell from the graphic that there were gonna be fabric reveals, but I was expecting something cutesier and more like a magic show. Of course they do lots of cutesy tricks with the fabric, lots of ambidextrous things, but overall this show is way more serious than expected. It has more of an elegiac, heartbreaking kind of feel. Voila is a pretty repetitive song, but thankfully there's just enough of a build up that we get the variations we need to make a show that feels complete. Of course, the highlight is the climax of that build up at the end, one of two goosebump moments so far this year. It's almost orgiastic, with the fabric flung around and all the daredevil tricks, which they're already executing quite cleanly. There are a few points in the staging that look a little cluttered because of the fabric, but it's a minor complaint. Actually, it's one of the main reasons I like to avoid fabric.

I wouldn't focus on scores all that much, especially at the beginning of the season when judges have pretty limited knowledge of what the overall competition looks like for each class nation-wide. It wouldn't surprise me at all if judges were trying to catch some of the other streamed events during their breaks this weekend! 👁️👁️ I'm typing up my guard thoughts, but I'm trying to be a little more concise, which is hard for me. 😄

One of the interesting things about the first WGI contests is how differently these events are scored from the local circuits. It's always exciting to see the drastic shifts in placements and scores, which also underscore the subjectivity of judging this activity. I suspect we'll see more shifts as the season progresses. There are (or were) videos of both Pearland and TWHS World floating out on the interwebs, along with a couple of others. I don't think it's hard to see why Pearland came out on top in prelims in Scholastic A. Beautiful show, and I love how they playfully reshape the stage with those moons! Also, I agree about TWHS World. This is the most impressive SW guard I've seen this year, and it may even end up being my favorite show of the entire year with some polishing. Such an incredibly moving and awe-inspiring production. The depth of talent on display here is mind-boggling. TWHS World is what the kids at Palm Desert Charter Middle School should look like at the high school level with the right guidance! 🤯 I caught most of both the Avon and Dallas prelims and have many thoughts, which I will eventually share. Overall, it's an outstanding start to what's shaping up to be a very competitive season. Looking forward to catching at least some of finals tomorrow!

I'll give Brownsburg credit for doing something very different from their show last year. It has its cool moments for sure, and the aesthetics are compelling. I like how the black cloaks make the performers look like they're floating ghosts at the beginning. That said, last year's chicken coop show 🐔 was way cuter and had much clearer, more logical staging. This also seems like one of those shows you can't fully understand unless you read the show description in CompetitionSuite, which is something a guard shouldn't even need to communicate their show concept effectively. The performers were very strong, I'm just not a huge fan of the show. Carmel on top in A at Avon. I would have had them 3rd or 4th. They definitely gave the most polished performance, but it's all very recycled from their World class show from last year. This is not surprising, given it's a JV guard. Very impressive performers, for sure!

The SA guards at Avon were fairly strong, although no complete knockouts. Skills-wise, I thought Carroll was the best, although the concept is a little corny. It's about the "dash" between the dates on a tombstone, which represents the life a person actually lived (as opposed to the birth and death dates). A lot of "the dash is the most important part" repeated over and over in the narration. I think we get it! 😄 Reeths-Puffer was very strong as well. I loved the staging. Concept was something to do with heroes. Opened (I think?) with Greta Thunberg narration and ended with Malala narration. (Political conservatives will NOT be fans! 😂) I think it's about young people making a change, although moving from global warming to education for women may seem a little broad and confusing at first. Dallas SA guards are a little behind so far compared to the ones at Avon. I did enjoy L.D. Bell's, although it was pretty dirty. Choosing interesting music with engaging highs and lows helps a lot, it must be said.

Yes, definitely! Still a bit bummed we won't be getting a Houston stream, but Dallas and Avon should hold me over until Austin.

Well, Carmel definitely seems to have an uphill battle to overtake Avon, unless that 3 point gap was mostly a penalty. That said, I'd still predict them for a medal, seeing as they haven't placed off the podium since 2009. Also, if it's an uphill battle for Carmel, it's probably an uphill battle for everyone else. Tarpon is great and the crowd will be putty in their hands again 😆, but I'm not getting gold medal vibes from the show yet. TWHS' very incomplete show in that January clip gave me mixed vibes. Parts of it were wonderful, other parts it just didn't seem like anything all that interesting was happening, plus the dirt. Unfortunately, we probably won't see their final product until Austin, since Houston isn't being streamed. I'm also curious about Arcadia. I'm not sure they've competed in California yet.

Here's Tarpon Springs from yesterday. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p3tmj9GaYmM&pp=ygUMVGFycG9uIGd1YXJk They've brought back the musicians and are broadcasting "news" on TV in real time. I'm getting Coppell 2023 vibes from these cameramen. Also Carmel 2004, for those old enough to remember that marching show. Super high energy and fun. Lots of 6s and rolls. It's another crowd pleaser. I think I would agree that the performers are a bit stronger than the show itself, at least from a staging perspective. It's a little scattershot looking. I get "random acts of color guard" vibes pretty frequently, sort of like the 2022 show. But then the performers are killing it, so... Definitely a medal contender!

I saw that. Hopefully they can turn things around. Flower Mound has started out their season strong, with around a 70 at their NTCA contest tonight. I hope they keep pushing and make it into finals at Dayton. Looking at local circuit scores from around the country, I'm thinking that the Scholastic World class is going to be quite competitive this year. Many units in the class are performing considerably better than last season. Of course, we won't know for sure until WGI starts up next week. That said, while the class is looking more competitive top to bottom, at the very top, in the fight for gold, SW isn't looking very competitive at all, with Avon beating Carmel by 3 points today at the Brownsburg IHSCGA contest. 81 to 78. Tarpon also scored a 78-something at their FFCC contest. So, the fight for 2nd through 4th could be interesting... For Avon, it's a return to pre-pandemic form. At Zionsville on Feb 9th 2019, they scored an 80 and Carmel got a 77. A bit of deja vu here. We'll see if Avon goes on to get an 85 next week and posts the highest SW score ever at Dayton again like they did in 2019. Looking forward to WGI!

Avon over Carmel by just over a point at their IHSCGA contest tonight. Avon with a 78. 😮 That's a massive score. I wonder if they'll go undefeated this season, although it's hard to tell with all the shows in various stages of completeness. I think Avon's show concept, Voila, has lots of potential for fun visual ideas, like big reveals and whatnot. Easy to digest thematically as well. Carmel also got a huge score. Their show is Memento Mori, which is probably the most intriguing theme in the class. For those who don't know, a memento mori is a reminder of death. Thematically, this seems in line with Carmel's prophetic marching show from the fall.

😍🤩😘 I wonder if Grand Oaks will remain in A after WGI Houston. The entire guard seems to be doing above class skills. Cypress Woods and Katy both do a fair number of above class skills as well, but I think Grand Oaks stands out by how seamlessly they connect their phrases with movement. It's very fluid for your typical A guard. Anyway, it's a wonderful show, regardless of where it ends up. Katy is giving me Tony Hawk's Pro Skater vibes, and I love it. 😂 There is no question about the performers' identity. Cypress Woods indeed has not suffered at all from the director transition. Is this a chimney sweep show? I love the aesthetic. Clear Brook's floor probably isn't done. This doesn't seem like the final look for their show. Too much black all over the place. The kids, however, spin and toss and move among the best in this class. I agree that the overall vibe feels similar to last year's show. It has a sultry kind of feel. I haven't watched the others. I still need to finish up the January ones. 😭

You can definitely tell I copied and pasted that block of text by the weird formatting shift. Sorry! 😅

Klein Oak's show is lovely! It's called Fool For You. The song is Pink by LEON. It's hard to make out the overall design of the floor from this angle, but I love the contrast between that red block in the front and the wispy gray and blue line, which curves sinuously, like smoke. (Appropriately the song opens "smoking blues/sipping red/and I picture us inside my head.") The girls start out in two separate pods diagonally across the stage, and slowly trickle out along the smoky line via a series of chaines turns and calypsos. I feel like the tenderness of the music and soft quality of the singer's voice is well matched by these sabre phrases -- light, airy, expressive. The back of the stage is a really deep gray, maybe black, so when those red flags pop out they really pop. (Of course, these might not be the final silks, but the color works well.) Amazing job on the sabre catches while on your knees! Wow! The performance gets a little dicier when the rifles come out, but that girl up front nails that one handed catch on the rifle 5. Alas, the other rifles seemed to go up at various heights, with the assorted partial catches and drops that come with under- and over-rotations. As is typical with this class, I think there's ample room to connect the phrases with more movement, or at least something that looks more purposeful. But it's early, and I'm really liking what they have so far. It's around a 63 for me, very solid for a January performance. Okay, let's see what they actually got... Just around a 61, pulled down a little by one of the effect judges, too many drops for him maybe. But the scores look mostly accurate to me. I immediately recognize Talking Heads singer David Byrne's voice in this Woodlands A song, but I'm not familiar with the song itself. It's called Glass, Concrete & Stone. I'm not going to pretend to know what the theme of the song is, but it seems breezily, quirkily existential in parts. "Skin, that covers me from head to toe/Except a couple tiny holes and openings/Where the city's blowin in and out/This is what it's all about, delightfully." The floor is pretty austere, simply a black rectangle with a light bluish gray perimeter. This might be a JV floor masquerading in a class filled with varsity floors. 😅 But the girls definitely don't perform like your typical JV guard. They all start out sitting on a tiered stack of (concrete?) blocks in the top right corner, all of their bodies slumped over. The cool cat percussion creeps in, and the girls rise alertly at the first bongo hit. I love it! The first girl steps out from the blocks and demonstrates near perfect technique on the opening rifle toss caught at flat. Another steps out for a clean traveling toss duet, then a third for a trio of one-handed catches. It builds into moments of just amazing multiples on flag, rifle, and sabre, all already quite clean, although there are some lapses, obviously. The guard is big and is wonderfully talented top to bottom. Everywhere I look, the technical foundation is evident. They end their show midway through with a really well done group rifle catch at port, which is something a guard in this class has no business doing as well as they do, but there it is. Very cool, different kind of show overall. I'm going to give it a... 67.5. It's not done, there's room for growth. And let's see what they actually got. A 66. Close enough. Speaking of David Byrne, fun fact, he produced a color guard performance film back in 2016 called Contemporary Color. It's worth a watch. Apparently Byrne stumbled on guard and was fascinated by it, so he decided to have high school performers perform to live pop music. Pearland is making extra good use of their moon set pieces from their marching show. How cute is this! The show is called Blue Moon. As mentioned by others, the moons are still black and yellow. I don't believe Pearland has a floor yet either -- it's totally black. But the staging and choreography appear to be mostly done. The song is the crooner classic, Blue Moon. "Once upon a time/before I took up smiling/I hated the moonlight." It all has a very luxurious and dreamy quality. It's the kind of song you'd hear in a classy restaurant or lounge -- or maybe just an Olive Garden, I don't know. 😅 The performers begin their show resting in the curve of one of the crescent moons right in the middle of the floor. As the classy piano music commences, the moon slowly rocks back and forth with the performers on it, with a couple of soloists pulsing off. You have to love how they use these moons for clever staging effects -- also for fun trick tosses while on the moons, while hopping off of them, so on and so forth. Again, the technique here is very clear, even if not everything is a perfect catch. How cool is that when they line up the moons diagonally in the center and have them rock back and forth in a ripple? I can't wait to see this with the complete aesthetic of the floor and costumes and flags. I love the cute vignette at the end of the two girls who are sleeping but are pushed together by the tipping of the moon. It's a clutch character moment. Really, the entire show is like a nice, warm hug before you go to bed. As for my personal scores, it's close, but I like the staging and movement (and just general completeness) of Pearland's show a little bit more than TWHS, so I'll say a 68. (No sabres in Pearland's show, which is interesting. Not a requirement, but it could enrich the vocab.) And let's look at the actual score. They got a 66.6, a little bit low, but not too far off. The Woodlands World is already giving me goosebumps. Their show is called The Light You Cannot See. Perhaps it's about being in the throes of depression and not seeing the hope that's there, or perhaps it's about something more spiritual, like God. As of right now, it's open to interpretation, which I like. Pairs of cylinders are set upright across the floor, which itself reminds me of space, with little white dots for stars and the lambent glow of some invisible light(s) creating golden brown patches on the floor. The girls begin in a pod in the lower left corner, with a few others posed farther away atop the cylinders. A female narrator simply says, "Look," and the one girl just outside of the pod charges up and over the other girls, flinging herself stomach first, before returning to her feet on the other side and catching a rifle that is flung over the pod. Wow! What an opening! The haunting long tones commence and we get that classic Woodlands slow processional jazz walk. The pod lifts up a girl as it travels, and the outer members rotate about her quickly, looking up at her questioningly as they move across the floor. A few duets of performers break off as the pod moves, accompanied by some slightly spacey, irritated synthesizer bleeps. The pod converges around a girl on top of one of the cylinders in the center of the floor, her body pulls upward with tension, then there's the release (maybe a good moment for a solo toss catch), and the pod swirls quickly outward and apart, very cosmic-like, with a nearly full ensemble rifle ripple around perimeter of the floor as they push outward. It's like 20 rifles. Stunning! Suddenly we have a clearer, faster tempo in the music, with a relentless up and down organ/synthesizer figure. Achingly beautiful long tones in the strings creep in and crescendo over time. I do think there are parts in the middle of this opening that could use more movement, more appealing and musical staging. It's oddly still and contrary to the music during some of the rifle partnering moments. (I also don't think it helped that they had a missing rifle partner right in the middle of the floor. It seemed empty and a little unbalanced.) But then right after we get that magnificent sequence with the tutti flags and ensemble rifle 6s, followed by all those dense, fast, winding follow-the-leader phrases in both rifles and flags. These girls are just running and spinning and tossing -- at one point even passing the rifles from one hand to the other under their legs as they leap, immediately connecting it into other skills. It's so challenging and exhausting, but they're killing it. Again, everywhere you look you see quality. Overall, I don't think they're quite as far along this year performance- or uniformity-wise as they were last year at this contest, but the vocabulary in this show is much richer. I cannot wait to see this on Flo at Austin when it's done and the full aesthetic is there. I think it'll be quite affecting, but with a serious intellectual quality that prevents it from being maudlin. Score? I'll say a 73. The staging during the middle section of the opener could be more compelling. Also, they had a few exposed drops and uniformity issues. And they got... a 72.4. Close! Their equipment score should probably be higher. Still need to watch the others!

Okay, I messed. I think the MEPA Franklin is a different Franklin from the A finalist last year. Like an Ohio versus Tennessee guard or something. The one from last year should be Open class now. If anybody has access to the drive, can you resend the link to me? Thanks! Still haven't seen much of anything! ❤️

I'm going through some of the recaps from around the country. What's up with all the penalties at TCGC Turner? 20(!) guards got penalties, some of them costing a guard first place. That seems unusually high to me, at least looking at Dripping Springs (only 4 penalties) and last year's results. Just something that caught my eye, especially moving into regional A and beyond. Probably the most interesting direct comparison with a mostly WGI panel from this weekend: West Broward edges out Stoneman Douglas, who edges out Flanagan. All within a point of each other, centered around a 68. Very strong scores. I'm especially happy to see Flanagan so close to the others after not doing so great post-pandemic. Meanwhile, last year's Open class champion (and 2022's A class champion), Somerset Academy, was in 4th, 3 points back with a 64.4. That's a very respectable score for a first outing in world class. Tarpon "in the lead" with a 73.5 at FFCC with a 100% WGI panel. TWHS behind them with a 72.4. (Both of these are pre-penalty scores, by the way. 😅) Surprised to see TWHS doing slightly worse than they did last year, but obviously it's hard to compare with different panels. The one WGI judge did give them a 76 in movement, which is a giant number. Really, we won't know anything until WGI starts up. Looking forward to finally seeing both of these guards. MEPA had an interesting SW result, with Miamisburg at a 66.6 and Bellbrook right behind them with a 65.8. They're strong scores, but it does seem a little lower than usual for Miamisburg, who got 6th last year at Worlds and 4th the year before. Again, it's hard to know, especially at this very early stage with incomplete shows. Also at MEPA, Franklin gets a 73 in A class. Giant number. Loved their show last year, so this is exciting!

I think it's absolutely stunning! Probably will be my favorite show from them yet. I can't believe how advanced they are! It would make me feel so very insecure if I were teaching a high school guard. 🤯

Can you resend the link to me? Thanks! 💕

Lots of premieres all over the country! I think the Indiana world guards and some of the top North Texas ones are waiting until next week, but pretty much everyone else around the country has some sort of contest today. Surely there must be some lurkers here attending these events! Keep us informed! Bueller? ..... Bueller? ...

Yes, if your guard is in the National A class in their local circuit, they will only compete against other National A guards. (National A = Scholastic A class guards that are presumably ready for the challenge of national WGI competition.) For some larger competitions, like WGI regional prelims, the A class will be split up into rounds to make the larger number of guards easier to judge. Each round will have its own 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. But the highest scoring A class guards regardless of their round make finals. For example, it's possible for a National A guard to place 5th in their round at WGI and still make finals over a guard that placed 3rd in their round, if the 5th place guard has the higher score. Typically in the Texas local circuits, because there aren't a huge number of them, National A guards won't be split into separate rounds, except at the larger year-end contests. Other, "less advanced" classes, like Regional A or regular old non-National Scholastic A, might be split up depending on how many units are competing at the event. Sometimes there are quite a lot!

Still haven't really seen much! I was searching for some performances from the Flower Mound/Mirage showcase last weekend. There's Red Oak and a couple others on YouTube. No Flower Mound or Mirage, though! WGI has posted drafts of schedules for the first regionals. https://wgi.org/color-guard/cg-calendar/ My Texas Scholastic A "must-watch" lists, or maybe just "probably-should-watch" lists, for those with limited time. 😂 Note that it's simply guards that placed near the top in a round of competition in Texas last year. Nothing more. No guarantees for this season. The rounds listed here are from the current season's preliminary schedules. Dallas Round One: Keller Central and Aledo Round Two: Rock Hill Round Three: Hebron and Emerson Round Four: Burleson Centennial, Mount Pleasant, Wylie, and Cedar Park. Houston Round One: Katy Round Two: Pearland and Grand Oaks Round Three: The Woodlands JV Round Four: Rouse, Cypress Woods, Louis D. Brandeis, and William B. Travis. It looks like Cypress Woods may have dropped down to the regular A class in TCGC (from National A). They got 2nd at TCGC State in National A last year, but I think they may have a new director this season. It'll be interesting to see how they're handling the change. I recall they seemed to be pretty solid on the marching field this year. Not always a reliable indicator, though. I was going to make lists for Open and World, but it dawned on me that I was adding most of the Open guards to my list, so there wasn't really any point. I will, however, single out a few. Friendswood has been super solid the last two years. Last year, they started out their season with lots of mistakes -- they were very wobbly performance-wise. But the (difficult) choreo and overall design were really top notch. They got clean and peaked at the very end of their season, were promoted at the last minute to Open class, and made Open class finals at Worlds over a lot of guards that had spent their entire seasons in the Open class. Impressive after a slow start! I suspect they'll continue to climb the ranks under Stephanie Chavez's care. I may be wrong, but I think the design team still includes that duo of Jack Pursifull and Chad Berkstresser, who designed/taught gold medal Open class shows for Spring in 2014 and The Woodlands in 2004. Maybe for Oak Ridge in 2011 as well, I'm not sure who was on that team. Regardless, this group knows what it takes. I think Marcus' guard looked absolutely fabulous on the marching field this past year, really top-notch. They had success in WGI last year; it wouldn't surprise me if they have even more this year. This is a guard that was World class pre-pandemic. I could easily see them returning there. The graphic for their show announcement, Aeroplane, looks really classy. Will the show match? Coppell still has everyone's hearts, I think. But they need a clearer, more consistently compelling upstairs picture to match the energy of the performers downstairs, something a little more formed, less helter skelter. Hopefully they have that this year and don't flatline. An Insta clip of their show this season (called In Fantasia) looked really good. Bridgeland's guard made a huge, positive impact on their marching band's visual program last year. I see this guard as a significant threat in the Open class. Yes, the flagline was large and clean, and that was a big part of the overall effect, but the weapons were killing it, too. It makes me think that their varsity guard could make a splash this season. Both Flower Mound and TWHS will likely slay in the World class. Flower Mound looked outstanding on the marching field. And their new-ish staff last season demonstrated that they can design an elegant indoor product. As the guard's skills continue to improve, I see finals at Worlds as a strong possibility for them. Meanwhile, TWHS will be in medal contention again. The depth of talent is unreal. I noticed on TCGC that they've started a 3rd guard in regional A. I'm curious if that means their other guards will be smaller and focused on top performers, sort of like Avon these days. 🙃 😂 (Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Avon is amazing.) It also wouldn't surprise me at all if TWHS' A guard wins Houston and gets promoted to Open by the end of the season, depending on how much effort went into the design of the show. Now that we have middle schools like Palm Desert Charter MS straight up making Open class finals, there may be pressure on some of these world class guards, especially if Palm Desert High School ever figures out how to design a world class finals show. Maybe this year!

Both NTCA and TCGC hold their first competitions this Saturday, at Martin HS and Goose Creek Memorial HS. TECA held their first contest this past Saturday. WTCA and WGI hold their first events on February 17th. WGI seems a little later than usual, but to make up for it they're doing 5 regionals in a single weekend, including the Dallas, Houston, and Avon regionals. Dallas and Avon will be streamed on FloMarching. Alas, to my knowledge, none of the local Texas circuit competitions are being streamed. I won't be attending anything, so I'll be waiting for the YouTube videos to drop. Some of the locals here will have to keep me in-the-know!

Absolutely amazing!