takigan

(in order) 1. LD Bell: New ending was such a subtle but effective touch....I liked the '05 version of Lux better and didn't much care for the solo, but it still is an incredible show that deserved the championship. 2. Cypress Falls: This show I thought was creepier than Bell's show.....it was scary as heck. They had electronics out the wazoo and I always love electronics .....entertaining show. 3. Ronald Reagan: Really dark impressive brass. I was greatly entertained by just the musical aspect of this show. 4. Marcus: Good clean music, this was just a really well put together show......awesome soloists and gotta love the ladybug (that must have been a blast to run around in--knocking over judges and stuff ) 5. Mansfield Legacy: Nobuo Uematsu's music.....can never get enough of it . 6. Broken Arrow (OK): This show's ending is enough to warrant putting this up here....bizarre. For some reason I'm thinking it might have been Marion Catholic (IL) but I'm pretty sure it was BA.....I just remember being impressed by the finale. 7. Tarpon Springs (FL): Classy 'fencing' theme....awesome music.....very well put together show.....it would have done very well at Nats had they gone. 8. The Woodlands: The Sudoku theme could have been better utilized I thought, but I really enjoyed the music, I loved the preshow with their 1234 1234 chant.....good stuff

Really? I don't remember when it was Westfield left UIL but I know they were still in it in 2002 (I was competing at the same stadium they competed at Area in and I remember hearing their crazy rap stuff from outside the stadium waiting for our results in finals and thinking "wtf?").....I figured they were still in it when they won Nationals in 2003...but maybe not. And Spring 1993? I guess they didn't have the 8-hour rule back then so that would make sense..... ....interesting.

It's not the cleanest show of all time, even the score breakdown can attest to that.....the win was heavily dependent on Bell's crazy GE score....which is understandable. I also am beginning to wonder if the score really has any relevance with a similar score given in a previous year. I think the scores are relative to the year in which they're given.....unlike DCI where the scores are based off of supposed "perfection". Plus, there's a lot more bands competing now than in years past so they have to widen the spread in order to have a broader spectrum of scores. That's what I think.....

Eh....I prefer something that'll knock me out like a sack of doorknobs

Mine too.....I didn't know I'd be this excited....but right as the 3rd place band was announced, oh wow....lol, I don't even understand why I'm so excited.....I don't go and never went to Bell, never marched in BOA, I'm in college, but I'm just so excited!!!! Party in the house!!!

HEL.L YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH GOD, PLEASE, PLEASE!!!!!!

Man! Those gong hits at the end of Harrison's show.....some of the deepest crashes I've ever heard (sorry, big fan of really loud things, lol ) An unexpected face in finals....but a treat to watch!

Music for All webcast.....20 bucks (or free with a $30 yearly membership to MFA--which gives you access to the BOA video database). You know if you subscribed a day or 2 before nats, you might get to watch it again next year without paying a new fee since nationals will probably be scheduled earlier (I think)

You could just give your cell number to txbLive and they'll text you the results the moment they come in (you're probably already gone, but just a reminder to anybody else who might want to use the service)

Just saw the interview with the 2 of them.... ....makes more sense now. Pretty awesome.

That girl in white looked REALLY similar to the girl in yellow....I'd swear they were twins, but maybe not....are they? I didn't get a good enough look at her face. If they were twins, leave it to LD Bell to not only surprise us with a non-high school participant acting out a role in a High School organization, but also surprise us in the end with the fact that she's a twin, and they're both part of the show.

4 Texas bands, 4 Indiana bands, 1 Oklahoma band, 1 Michigan Band, 1 Georgia band, 1 Illinois band. Texas yet again puts the highest percentage of their attending bands in finals! EDIT: Well.....minus the state's that only sent one band. Texas sent 7 and Indiana sent 14 : / .

Hehe....I slept a lot later than I would of liked. I got up 10 minutes before Reagan got on the field. W00t! Go Bell! Yay for doorknob-sack induced concussions!!!

Georgetown's "Rome": Capital City [10/6/07] (Professional Video/Worst Performance) http://www.cloud9videoproductions.com/Vide...ty07_abbrev.wmv Westlake [10/13/07] (Crappy Video/Best Performance) http://youtube.com/watch?v=VPX3FzRWkB4 UIL [10/20/07] (Decent Video [though it's hard to see the forms]/Awesome Performance) http://youtube.com/watch?v=1O0mfsCMOmk ...not sure if there'll be a BOA video or not....I'll edit the post if I find one. Really if you want to just see the design element watch the 1st one, if you want to be nitpicky about forms watch the 2nd, and if you want to just hear the sound, listen to the either the 2nd or 3rd (I can't decide which is better).

This a pretty fair lineup. Well, fair to the bands that are pretty much guaranteed to be in finals ar least (90% of the "paragon" bands are all grouped pretty closely around the middle to later part of the day....of course that pretty much screws over the "aspiring" bands who all have to either perform in the morning, or after the killfest that goes on during the later mid-part of the day). The Texas crew has the best times on the whole list I think. Richland and Reagan go on after the 2 respective breaks when the judges have a fresh mind to watch with....these bands are riding the fence for finals right now so these good times we'll benefit them greatly. Woodlands and Bell are in a good spot as well because they don't have anybody to steal their thunder except each other; they start off at the front of the block and don't have anybody terribly menacing going on after them either (Avon and Centerville are heavy hitters but nothing that'll steal away the thunder from Bell and Woodlands....I almost feel sorry Avon and Cen. for having to go on AFTER Woodlands and Bell. Roughly half of the bands on this list have made the top 5 at Grand Nationals at some point in their existence so this contest is VERY stacked. (This is also nice for those of us that are either at the dome now or watching this on webcast--we get more time to sleep before watching it all go down )

That place was always cold...when I was there, they kept it at like 60 degrees during the summer, and they'd leave the heat off during the winter when Wind Sym practiced so it was still like 50-60 degrees in there . Which sucks when you have to sit in one place....it affects your playing.....or maybe that was their plan; we'd build up a tolerance to it so that when we played in "normal" temperatures we'd be even better! lol, or not?....u never know .

Man, this webcast thing is awesome....definitely worth the 30 bucks. Hook it up to my sound system and blow up the video and it's like I'm ACTUALLY THERE! Well...not quite >_>, but close. The SHSU Symphony left for China this week and come back after Thanksgiving, so a lot of classes have been canceled until break so I've had a lot of free time to watch some shows . Got to see Woodlands and Reagan yesterday and Richland today. Good stuff! Gotten to see other famous midwestern bands as well; Lawrence Central, PCEP, Avon among others. Live update: Ok, so I literally was just watching the live feed just now and I saw smoke/fog burst from behind Avon's (OH) pit props. Isn't that illegal and grounds for disqualification?

Standstill Div I: http://www.marcusdrumline.org/documents/lo...on%201-2007.xls 26 lines! And Round Rock smoked 'em! Congratulations to Georgetown and Leander as well, Area D Lines represent! (actually I'm not and never was in drumline, so now I feel kinda dumb...hehe)....congratulations to all!

FINALLY an arrangement of Nobuo Uematsu's "One Winged Angel"! I like the sound of this band......they're loud and very clean sounding with no one sticking out that much. However, it's easier to concentrate on playing when the drill is that easy and the tempos are that slow.....not a bad thing at all, it's better to sound good and look crappy rather than look good and sound crappy.....and really they don't look crappy at all. My big complaint is just the tempos and the cheesy body movements. The transition into the breakdown section (aka. "Irrational Impulses" which was TOTALLY ripped from Westfield 2004....though I'm assuming the show arranger is either the same or the school bought the show from him) was too abrupt......and the body movements there were really cheesy and didn't fit the 'cool' techno theme at all. Glad to see another Nobuo Uematsu show....I've been looking forward to this show since its announcement, and it didn't disappoint. Good video.

Shouldn't this go with all the other videos in the video thread?

Mabank Clear Brook L.D. Bell Ronald Reagan SFA The Woodlands Richland Hmm.....first of all I believe all Texas bands will be in semi-finals except possibly Mabank (something about this band rings a bell somewhere...did they compete in an out-of-state regional recently or something?)..... I really think it's high time LD Bell won this thing. They've got the cleanliness.....they just need to pull off a theatric element with the same shock value as the white sheet from last year.....nothing in their current show has that kind of stopping power but their current show already has the element of a top 5 GN show. The Woodlands will make top 5....Considering the top 7 bands at SA got higher scores than the other Super Regional champions it wouldn't be unreasonable to predict Woodlands to get runner-up. I don't think that's going to happen, but it definitely would not be surprising.... SFA also has top 5 potential. They've been pretty quiet for the past 3 weeks....but their Houston Championship status definitely gives you the expectation they would have been top 4 or 5 at SA and thus will probably be top 10 at GN as well, possibly top 5. Reagan and Richland will almost certainly make finals....beyond that I don't know. Clear Brook will place in the top 20.....finals? possibly. I wouldn't be surprised if Texas gets the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place spots and the championship ends up going to some midwestern regular. There are politics even in Indy.

Oh man....standstill I is going to be rough, Georgetown's going to be hard pressed to keep its title. With Martin and Duncanville in the mix along with good old Round Rock, it's gonna be tough for them. Good luck to everybody!

There was definitely a greater percentage of "high quality" bands at this regional than at the last "non-state" regional (non-state implying that more 5A bands compete in BOA on off years for UIL) in 2005. 55 bands competed this year, 36 of them received a Division I (almost 70%). In 2005, 57 bands competed and only 29 bands received a division I....barely half. But as a whole it looks like the usual suspects in their typical order....the only real upset in the top 20 was Colleyville making finals, Hebron placing 7 spots higher than expected and Reagan dropping.....is it 8 spots?.....Leander did quite a bit better than expected as well. I'm sure there are other aspects I'm missing. The prediction spreadsheet that was compiled by one of our members actually closely resembles the actual results with only minor deviations for the most part. I'm not sure what to think of the scoring especially in relation to the school I was rooting for (Georgetown)....Georgetown beat CP and lost to Bowie by a tenth of a point at Westlake 3 weeks ago. Georgetown lost to CP and Bowie in almost every category (losing to CP by 6.8 pts and Bowie by 8.3 pts) with a 1.0 to 1.5 point average point gap on each one at this competition. I understand a lot can happen in 3 weeks, but to be that far down the list from the "regulars" in this competition....I expected G-town to lose to both Park and Bowie simply by disadvantage in the GE captions......but to lose in almost every category (save 1, Gtown beat CP in Visual Ens Perf) by that big of a point gap to both schools, especially since the school had one of their better performances of the season? Politics...that's my outlook.

Ok....I'll let the self-righteous proverbial coffee-spit thing slide....but you should know there are more proper ways of proclaiming your disagreement with me, sheesh .....I mean, wow, I guess my argument is so retarded there's no way in he.ll it could be correct, right? That aside, this statement, however intended to "inform" me, really doesn't help your argument that much. For starters, it's a well known fact that you don't have to max out the 8 hour rule to be a good band. I'm from Georgetown and in 2000 we went to the 5A State Marching Contest using a 2 hour Monday afternoon rehearsal and a 1 1/2 hour Wednesday afternoon rehearsal....that was it (well, each section had a 45 minute indoor sectional once a week). Bands that rehearse less make better use of that time, and more discipline is necessary. But on the whole I don't see the amount of rehearsal time relating to effort, and if anything less time equals more effort because you have to produce the same quality of show as someone rehearsing more time. Second of all, I wouldn't say afternoon rehearsal trends are a recent thing.....each school had their own way of doing it and still does. The main issue is I don't view the shows of today as being necessarily more difficult than the shows of yesterday. I mean yeah, kids these days have to crawl around on the ground, flap their arms around, jump up and down and march some chaotic drill......the shows are dirtier (some say) because there's less time being spent on marching and more on all sorts of different elements, I don't consider marching those kinds of shows to be harder than the old style drill. I mean talk to someone who's marched both military and corps style....all the ones I've talked to say that military style is much harder, even though it looks way easier....Parents who grew up military style and never marched in a show like Cy Falls or LD Bell's recent shows watch them and say "Wow, that's SO much harder than what we used to do!".....really it's not, it's much harder to try to look flawless and in-step and carry your horn right than it is to writhe around on the ground like you're in pain. In my college marching show it's very traditional and there's only like 2 places where we actually have a horns down....towards the end of the third movement the playing suffers tremendously because everyone is worn out, it's HARD WORK!.....in a lot of modern shows you have places where the kids put the horns down and do body movements. Having performed in shows with these elements as well, it's a welcome break from the actual "marching" and "playing". I don't care who says it's harder.....having performed in programs with both philosophies, I don't think it is. Take a band with a show with 4 minutes of traditional marching/playing and 4 minutes of drum features, visuals, scatter drill, dancing etc. and compare it to a show by a band of similar skill with 8 minutes of straight marching/playing.....people on this thread keep saying the former actually looks and sounds cleaner....well, it's because only 4 minutes of their show is actually hard, the rest is just component stuff, they can focus 60-70% of their attention on just those 4 minutes and the other 30-40% on the other 4 minutes. In the end, each of their 4 minutes is going to be cleaner than 4 minutes of the other band bc they had less "hard stuff" to pay attention to. And as for the Music Education arguments, I'm already aware of the argument and you might be surprised to find that I do agree with it, I have since I was a little kid (I come from a family of music educators). But the band kids today are dumber than the band kids of old.....they've always been smarter than the non-band kids but with the growth of the entertainment industry, no one escapes decreased interest in education. Band kids are some of the most upstanding, intelligent individuals I know.....but it's gotten harder to find people who prefer reading a book to watching TV, even among band kids.....this was more the opposite back in the old days (ok yeah I wasn't there, but you hear the old people complaining, hehe)....even when I was younger. You know, this is a hard argument to define someone as being right or wrong. There are a ton of variables that haven't even been brought up. Like wealth (could the majority of schools back then afford $10,000 sound systems and props budgets like they can today), increased interest in the activity which creates better design teams for hire and better directors, not to mention the fact that there are at least twice as many band programs now then there were 30 years ago, creating a larger and entirely different playing field. Too many variables.....enough to make multiple threads, and for that matter, if you still want to argue these points, go ahead and PM me and we'll continue it there....