principalagent

My school life blew up and there’s a concert for one of my favorite singers in that Friday night so I’m probably just coming in for semis and finals. A bit of a bummer, but it seems every band I want to see will be there on Saturday!

Marcus 2010! I’ll have to think on the Rimsky-Korsakov

Mansfield Legacy 2011 and Dobyns-Bennett 2016 off the top of my head. There’s at least one or two others of note but they escape me right now.

If VM makes finals, they really need to finish what they started in Indy in 2020. California has had only one Grand National finalist since the beginning of the century and that needs to change!

The last time Richland beat Marcus was 2005 San Antonio Prelims. Marcus has been undefeated since.

Richland has never won a BOA regional.

I’ll be in Indy probably first thing Thursday! Maybe Wednesday night depending on how my classes fall. Thursday prelims should be starting on the later side this year with only 85 bands. Maybe around 11!

Leander is trying to go Tibetan. Highest plateau in the world

Leander

I... can’t help but to think a number of programs would take that and run with it. It didn’t quite work with nobody following Westfield and Spring 20 years ago, but I think the lay of the land is different now. It would be a bold move by UIL, but with so many head directors who didn’t grow up in Texas and didn’t go to school in the state and otherwise have grievances with UIL, it would be an interesting back and forth. I’m unconvinced that Area every year will even pass, but if it does, I’ll be sitting back with popcorn to see how it plays out.

Bellevue West also had a pretty big and pretty dramatic staff change.

I think the reason Area every year is taking hold is because the BOA bands are driving the UIL standard as well. Every single band in 6A State Finals except Waxahachie was also in BOA SA finals, and Waxahachie is a regular DFW finalist. Wakeland, Cedar Park, and Dripping Springs aren’t helping the situation in 5A either. As these bands continue to create shows adapted more and more to BOA standards, the UIL system is necessarily more and more accommodating of these shows—regardless of the sheets themselves. As a result, this forces every other band that wants to compete, regardless of circuit, to create more and more BOA friendly shows, because that’s what the bands that are the measuring stick are doing. As a result, UIL principles are becoming less important. Eventually this trickles all the way down. It also presents itself in judging. The good ol’ boys club is aging out of judging too, and younger directors who are ingrained in the BOA mindset are judging more. UIL is also inviting more judges from outside of the state, and many of these are BOA band directors, or from states that judge on sheets that are modeled from BOA. It truly doesn’t matter if only a quarter or third of 6A bands and a fifth or quarter of 5A bands do BOA. As long as the bands that keep winning in UIL do BOA, the influence of UIL on show design will continue to decrease. It’s almost too obvious which circuit the top directors care more about. In a way you can’t blame them - San Antonio is every year and State isn’t. Every year Area is clearly the last chance to move things back toward UIL. But as I said, it’s probably too late. The LISDs and NEISDs of the world perform on national platforms regularly. Their school districts would be perfectly fine with them skipping Area on the off year to continue to bring national attention to the school district and its music programs. Unless you can pull Flower Mound or Leander or TWHS or Hebron or CTJ and their ilk to every year Area, which is a doubtful proposition, then the battle is and was already lost.

Age of Discovery by Immediate Music!

Music for All is definitely a nonprofit 501©(3) organization... one that rarely operates at a profit, and those profits aren’t huge. Additionally, the band events subsidize (1) other band events and (2) the choir and orchestra offerings which are assured financial losses. MFA has problems, but let’s not suggest they’re a Walmart or Amazon. You can Google and find their 990 forms.

Bon Iver - Woods and I think Holocene?

Also correct!

Actually this was a complete and exclusive Maslanka 4 show!

Pat Metheny’s Above the Treetops in CTJ 2017 was probably the best pre-show music I’ve heard since LD Bell ten years prior... until Ronald Reagan’s Guidry pre-show music in 2018 may have passed it for me. Good pre-shows do so much to set a band up for success.

The reason they’re doing it is to curb the influence of BOA. I think it honestly might be too late at this point.

The Houston regional used to be the most competitive regional. Then DFW took a big leap up between 2004-2008, and the Austin regional opened in 2013. Then it took a nose dive for a bit, but had some particularly strong years in 2007, 2010, and 2013.

I personally dislike the idea that State and Area sheets would be different. Regardless of any changes, they should be the same to promote consistency and make Area good preparation for state. Just hopping between UIL and BOA shows how hard it can be to design and teach to different sheets--that shouldn't have to happen within the same circuit.

I NEED Alexander to win this regional. It’s high time for a South Texas (not San Antonio) program to take it home.

I think there’s a strong chance Mason is in the top 6, but I believe they’re out of the hunt for a medal.

You’ll get five in the top 8.