TWHSParent

Nah, no problem. (Refresh..... doh!......Refresh.....) Here is some news. Just got back from the band booster meeting. They have set the schedule, so I know when we go on, and I would assume others do too. I think that means the details should be forthcoming.

And this all really doesn't matter - in a couple weeks 14 of their top 20 will be competing in San Antonio. That should be fun!

Keep checking here for an active link: http://www.musicforall.org/resources/directors-lounge/fall-final-packets This gets updated before the main website.

My curiosity is what did Carmel do to jump both Hebron and CTJ? Hebron and Flower Mound traded wins (Hebron in prelims, Flower Mound in Finals), so there is merit to having Hebron over CTJ (who beat Bellevue West). I don't think Carmel had a competition this past weekend. I'm guessing the panel had these 3 really close, and one or two small changes in ordering caused the flip.

To the best of my knowledge yes. We'll soon get to see how the sequel to last year's show goes. I've seen a video from the BA Invitational, but it is very hard to tell. I couldn't quite catch the full title, but it is called Age of Discovery, the Return to Z ( think it is Z - that's the part I didn't quite catch). I'm sure they'll be just fine on Saturday! The video is still up, but it is unlisted. I won't post a link out of respect for their request to not make it public, much as our band made to Dan the Band Man for our show from a week ago. It too is still up, but unlisted.

I don't know when they will be made public, only that they will be.

I have to be careful with my response because where I volunteered gave me access to information that isn't public, so sorry for the generalities. They had a nice bee-themed show that stuck together well with good visuals. They had a better prelims run than finals run (in other words they weren't 10th in prelims), but it was fun to watch, and they deserved a top 10 placement. They aren't back to past levels or they would have won this contest, but as a building block it could be a sign of better things to come.

Cityscapes nailed it. Cy-Fair is short for Cypress Fairbanks, which is also the name of the school district. What I don't know is the history as to why some schools have the city name always associated with them (the schools from Klein and Cypress being prime examples), and others not so much. Could be the names just sound better?

This was a great contest and was fun to watch. Congratulations to Cy-Fair for taking home the win and 4A title, Friendswood for winning the 3A title, and Klein Cain for winning the 2A title. Thank you to all the bands that participated for showing us the fruits of their hard work.

That is a question that I have - how valuable is that critical feedback, and assuming it is valuable, how quickly can it be acted upon? I last listened to a judges recording sometime in the last century, so has that feedback become more useful and actionable to improve shows?

I too was a lurker for a couple of years. I made an account for 2 reasons - I felt there was too much San Antonio/Austin/Dallas centric commenting, so there needed to be someone from another relatively under-served region commenting, and during my lurking days I found this board to have actual conversations and discussions, and wasn't full of trolls. People were and are happy to share their experiences and expertise, and the community isn't hostile. I find that refreshing - you can have real conversations and discussions! Such a novel idea anymore... I also think that only Grand Nationals should have a semi-finals. Having a full 2 days of prelims and the expanded finals for a Super Regional is a good compromise. Of course Texas has such a large number of strong programs it is extraordinarily difficult to make finals at San Antonio (and the regionals aren't exactly easy either). While maybe the winner will change, we do tend to talk about the same bands toward the top, so in that sense it isn't so different from St. Louis or Indianapolis Supers.

It does seem to lack the Broken Arrow presence on the field. When they are out there, you want to pay attention because they are that awesome. I missed that with this show. It is early, and the video isn't from the best location, so we'll have to see. Not going to over-react from one video at this point.

Did anyone else catch the link to Broken Arrow's exhibition performance from their contest? It will be an outstanding show, but I can't stop thinking that we saw this last year, and that makes it a little less special in my view. Not saying they can't win with it since I'm sure they will be adding more visual elements, and the music will improve. I'm just not sold on repeating the pedal cars. I guess we'll see at St. Louis how they pull it off and if they can keep it fresh. If anyone can, BA can.

Is there some sort of coordinated effort to bash HornRank here and the MFA forum? If so, why? I don't understand the angst when someone (or some website) doesn't agree with you. I find it to be a great resource, and have for the last couple of years. In my view - keep up the good work!

A shirt would be good. I'd wear one too.

No reason to get upset about these things. It will all sort itself out in November. I look at these early regionals as an opportunity to get some critical feedback and make adjustments to improve. Yeah, it is great to win, but I find 5th place with an unfinished show (marking time at the end and the tag ending cut some more too) against that competition to be a great result. Based upon what I knew going in, a mid 80's score would have them right on track for their goals in November. Also of note, a mid 80's score usually wins the Conroe contest, but not this year. TWHS scores this year are very comparable to their 2013 scores, and (much?) better than 2015 and 2016. 2014 had mixed results where finals apparently didn't go as well as prelims (before my time, so I wasn't around for that one). To be a complete homer, I think their ceiling by GN is in the 96 to 97 range, which puts them right in the thick of things. But must execute! Anecdote - I found it nice that the lady from Leander that was sitting beside me during finals was humming the music to our closer between bands. I find it to be a very catchy tune, and she did too.

Last year both Bowie and Whitesboro attended Grand Nationals without making finals in San Antonio. Of course neither of them actually competed at San Antonio, but still technically the answer to your question is yes.

Check out the comment at the top of the page at http://www.hornrank.com/2017/09/southlake-prelims-sept-30-2017.html They have some info about that penalty... (fixed link).

Schedule is out: 10:45 Conroe 11:00 Pasadena 11:15 Klein Cain 11:30 College Park 11:45 Oak Ridge 12:00 Brazoswood 12:15 Dawson 1:15 SFA 1:30 Cypress Creek 1:45 Klein 2:00 Brenham 2:15 Friendswood 2:30 Clear Brook 2:45 Klein Forest 3:15 Travis 3:30 North Shore 3:45 Dekaney 4:00 Klein Collins 4:15 Westfield 4:30 Cy-Fair 4:45 Willis

I find it interesting that the judges for Music and Visual performance went to the .05 scoring level, which gave us scores with 3 digits after the decimal. This has probably happened before, but is not common. I'm guessing they are trying this to avoid ties as much as possible.

Times are on the BOA Twitter feed. 7:45 Weiss (exhibition) 8:00 Clear Brook 8:15 Round Rock 8:30 Winston Churchill 8:45 Hendrickson 9:00 Cy-Fair 9:15 Ronald Reagan 9:30 Leander 9:45 The Woodlands 10:00 James Bowie 10:15 Vandegrift

All I know at this point is that 21 bands are expected to attend. I haven't seen the list yet.

That was an interesting study. Shows a definite bias toward north=good, south=bad, but with enough overlap in the SD to account for the situations where this isn't true. It also had some sampling concerns, but in all a pretty good read and good information that informs some of our innate biases.

Interesting regarding being on the north side. Hadn't noticed that before. Have no idea what, if anything, it means!

Don't forget - it also matters what you are listening with (computer audio with subwoofer vs mobile device with tinny speakers) while watching the stream. I had my computer audio cranked during Flower Mound and Hebron (and others of course), and I thought Hebron was better musically in both prelims and finals (but it was very, very close). Flower Mound had the better visual effects - I really like the color changes during the program, although they may stay in the grey a little too long. Lots of really good stuff from everyone yesterday at both regionals.