PLC137

Agree... Looks like they cover up a lot of the imprecision with movement/dancing. Credit for getting so much work done so soon.

Surprised the PC police allowed a Christmas show in a public school!

Yeah, fair to say there will be 3-4 bands missing finals that really "deserve" it. No one is saying much about Bowie but don't forget them. Personally, rooting for Del Rio to get in, mainly because they traveled so far to be here! Also, I interesting no Westlake this year.

Vista Ridge's mega-prop makes me nervous. Seems like 199 things can go wrong. But I guess you can't have a show called Turning Tables without an enormous turning table.

Also just watched Vista and Vandegrift. Both looked good. I think I'd favor Vista on GE and Visual and VHS on quality of music performance. I'm partial to VR since my kids go there, but objectively I can say CTJ is far from a lock on the gold tomorrow. In fairness I haven't seen their show. VR this year is bigger and more confident... Will see if that translates to results. Also, been coming to these things for five years now and I will never understand the GE category. I haven't seen Leander yet but I'm guessing they haven't been idle either. Like other posters, I kind of think Cedar Park is going to be out for blood. Last year was a down year, I bet they're our for redemption.

I have two ways to eliminate "outlier" scores! 1) Have just one judge and his/her score is final - no outliers possible. 2) Have an infinite number of judges - outliers will be randomly distributed and average out among the bands. Obviously, neither of those is practical. So we settle on a finite number of judges, greater than one. How many? Well, I would look at other subjectively judged competitions, like figure skating, diving, or gymnastics, which typically have about five judges. Sometimes they throw out the high and low, sometimes they don't. Even in head-to-head sports, like football, the referees' judgment can influence the result. Often we blame the ref for the bad call and losing the game for us, but how about the quarterback that threw three interceptions or the point guard that missed five free throws? I think "outliers" frequently do happen in those events, so how do they cope? If we expect all the scores to be consistent, then are we telling a judge that his/her opinion has to be be the same as the others or it doesn't count? Might that judge have caught something the others didn't? I think the issue with throwing out data is drawing the line and agreeing on a philosophy. Consider a three-judge system with throwing out high and low (taking the median) versus taking a average. Do bands that have consistently good scores (say 7, 7, 7) deserve a lower ranking than bands that are all over the map (say 1, 6, 15)? What makes the "middle" judge right and the other two "wrong?" Though the ordinal scores may amplify small differences in points, what is to say a pure points system (like BOA) are immune from bias? I can give someone few enough points to guarantee they miss finals or a medal the same as I can flame them on ordinal rankings. As I wind down this lecture, I think it comes down to training and quality control on judges. If one judge frequently displays a bias or uses bizarre reasoning (inconsistent with training and goals of competition) to justify a score, then we have to manage him or her out of the system - just as they do in other subjective competitions like ice dancing. Mistakes and differences are a part of the game, but bias or negligence should be rooted out. Unfortunately, there are victims along the way and there are always new judges coming into the system. Hopefully we improve over time, but I don't know that a new scoring system fixes the problem. It reminds me of work - put whatever system in place you want, but bad management can always screw it up. In our lives, we've all suffered and benefited from clear official errors and biases. The only consistent way I've found to overcome the occasional bad or unfair call is to be so good it doesn't matter. Certainly, it never helps to get a reputation as a complainer. Thanks for reading, hope no one hates me now!

On a more positive note, wasn't great to spend the whole day - Election Day, no less - enjoying the performances with no politics and no one in your face telling you how to vote?

Some of the biggest changes in fate... - Bowie does not make finals, after placing higher than CTJ at Area. - Westlake is out after edging out Leander in Area. - Hendrickson well out of finals after great showing at BOA SA. - Round Rock is last band in at Area, and first band out at State.

Thanks for the explanation. I suppose we can read the rules on the MFA website, but it would also be educational if an expert published a video with a breakdown of how a given score for a representative show accumulates. It might promote a little more understanding of the art.

More demographics - It looks like finals had six bands from the greater Austin area (Vista, Hendrickson, Cedar Ridge, Vandegrift, Leander, and Westlake), five from greater DFW area (FM, Hebron, Keller, Marcus, LD), two from San Antonio (CTJ, RR), and one from greater Houston (Woodlands). Other extremely useful observations: - The FloMarching stream must've shown the Rocket Mortgage ad about 700 times - and that was just a few hours of prelims. I think a letter-writing campaign is in order. - The Alamodome snack shops closed before the ~1 hr exhibition and awards phase. I would've paid at least $6 for a $5 bottle of Diet Pepsi. - Across Cherry street there is really convenient $10 parking and a not-too-bad Japanese restaurant. - It would be interesting to those amateur musicians among us to have a voice over of a typical show pointing out all the little flaws that result in deductions. This is kind of like when a layperson watches Olympic gymnastics and the broadcaster explains why this gymnast gets a 9.875 and the other only got 9.750, causing the former to get the medal.

Speaking of Vista's lost and found, after my own jet lag, then putting kids on the bus at 2:45 AM and getting up at 7:00 AM to watch the stream, I am totally lost on what time it is supposed to be. Worth it!

Don't jinx it! They're having a great year and as a Vista dad I could be happy if the season ended today. After watching practically flawless shows from Westlake, Leander, and Vandegrift at Area, I was wondering if we even belonged on the same field. But then they just nailed it. At State, I'll be thrilled if they make finals for the honor of being in that company. After four years of this, I give the kids my version of the "Hoosiers" speech... look, this is highly subjective, how others perform is not in your control, you made it this far, so if you leave it all on the field then in my book you're a winner. As for predictions, I haven't seen any other of the top contenders from outside of Austin area yet, except I saw CTJ live at BOA/Austin. There hasn't been enough head-to-head competition for me to make any meaningful predictions. Notable, though, that CTJ "only" placed third behind Bowie and Reagan at Area last week.

Good thing for that "bad judge" rule. Can you imagine if Leander did NOT make it to state? That just wouldn't make sense. Round Rock just barely made it in too. Just no margin for error in some Areas!

Yes, me too, because it gets demoralizing for the kids trying so hard but always placing behind the same three Leander ISD bands and the only other city of Cedar Park band. There is a lot of overlap in the neighborhoods and many of these kids from different schools know each other. More selfishly, I have two kids in the VR band and it was particularly great for my senior to get to enjoy a caption award and at least one time placing among the marquee schools before he graduates!

Yeah, VRHS is probably one of five bands wondering what they could possibly have done better to move up. I was there in person and I can say the crowd really enjoyed the VRHS show, even in context of the heavy hitters that were in the same block. I will compliment the judges as remarkably consistent across competitions, given how subjective the categories are. I'm guessing it comes down to details that only a trained eye or ear can perceive.

I personally thought Leander's show was very cool. I'll have to concede that I don't totally understand GE - how does one improve general effect? Become more effective, in general There are some crowdpleasers that don't score well in GE, and vice versa. GE seems to be turning marching band away from military roots and more toward Broadway musicals. Judges might have more refined (some would say "artsy fartsy") taste than your average fan. Reminds me of how Annie Hall won best picture over Star Wars. I am a bit outdated in my taste, though. I don't like too much electronics, recorded music, ballet on a football field (no more than I would enjoy a drumline on a ballet stage), etc. On the other hand, the more theatrical trend is attracting a broader audience and educating more kids, which no one can complain about.

It is true that a dome is probably table stakes. I don't have a better suggestion, but I think BOA will have to do something, unless they're OK with people viewing Nationals as a broader but less competitive version of SA Super.

Yes, thank you. It is tough (usually) ranking fourth out of the LISD bands, but there's a lot on the bright side. I bet they'll figure out how to crack into that next level soon.

It would be interesting if BOA moved the Indy Super to somewhere else - maybe Oklahoma City. Then, you could see the north Texas (DFW area), Oklahoma, and probably some Missouri (KC area) bands compete. That would even out the competition quite a bit and give us some interesting matchups. San Antonio Super would be mostly Austin, SA, and Houston - which is plenty. Save Indy for Nationals?

As a parent from Vista Ridge (the other high school in Cedar Park), I can tell you I am not surprised at all that CPHS placed so well in prelims - the sustained success they have is no accident. Same for nearby Vandegrift; they're not going to consider second place to be good enough. I haven't seen the prelim scores yet to see how close it was, but VRHS really thought they made it this time. This was really a tough one for them. Being told you're "on the bubble" is a lot of pressure and anxiety.