TWHSParent

Yes, it is (we seem to love cross-country moving - NOT). We are closing on a house in Greendale, IN in mid-October.
I did just purchase tickets for Grand Nationals semi-finals and finals, so it looks like I will be there!

I am still hanging around. No major changes - things are moving in a positive way generally (little ups and downs of course). I will never fully recover, but I can still have a good quality of life. But it is so hard to keep pushing! Such a mental and physical struggle pretty much every day.
Thank you for asking about me. Little things like this help keep me moving forward. It is greatly appreciated!
I hope you are doing well with your studies.

Short update. Still kicking around, which is a good thing. Saw a study recently where if you are roughly the 20% that survive to more than 60 days post surgery (yes, about 80% die of what happened to me) then your lifespan tends to go back to the normal ageing curve.
I just had a 2nd throat surgery yesterday that is a complication of my original hospitalization. They used a large (9mm) breathing tube during my open heart surgery to repair my aorta that stayed in for the first ~10 days. It caused damage to my airway and created what are called granulomas (non-cancerous). In my case these have grown abnormally large and partially blocked my airway at my vocal cords (both behind and in front), which both seriously impacted my speech and, more importantly, my breathing. Hopefully yesterday's surgery, where they more aggressively lasered the growths, will be the last. We'll monitor of course. My throat is very sore after the lasers and talking hasn't come fully back yet, so more healing to go.

Hi all. I had my aorta dissect a few weeks ago. Fortunately it did not explode so I had enough time for an ambulance ride then a helicopter ride when they figured out the problem. Then got stuff fixed and am on the road to recovery.

As a member of the Pit Crew, I can confirm that the Gaudi Benches ARE custom made.  We utilized aluminum from the 2019-21-22 stage props to fabricate the infrastructure. All of the flooring and steps were created and added by parents.  The broken mosaics were printed and are attached for each performance.  The bench backs are all removed for transport.
The benches will have additional elements applied in the coming weeks, including new paint coloring and further shaping of the bench backs to more closely match the source benches from Barcelona's Park Guell.

Here’s the woodlands performance from tonight! Guessing the uniforms are temporary, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the music! Some much different styles and textures, and they also look incredible! Have absolutely no idea what they show is about but I’m in love! 

twhs' show is called Day Danse. features the music of Chick Corea. visual inspired by Parc Guell/Gaudi Park in Barcelona.

Well, it may not be San Antonio, but I am tentatively planning on attending at least Saturday at Grand Nationals this year (2023). With everything that happened in Arizona, my wife decided she couldn't stay there any longer, so we've packed up and moved back to the Cincinnati area. About 1.5 hours from Indianapolis.

Well, it may not be San Antonio, but I am tentatively planning on attending at least Saturday at Grand Nationals this year (2023). With everything that happened in Arizona, my wife decided she couldn't stay there any longer, so we've packed up and moved back to the Cincinnati area. About 1.5 hours from Indianapolis.

Well, it may not be San Antonio, but I am tentatively planning on attending at least Saturday at Grand Nationals this year (2023). With everything that happened in Arizona, my wife decided she couldn't stay there any longer, so we've packed up and moved back to the Cincinnati area. About 1.5 hours from Indianapolis.

It will be a busy Fall for The Woodlands HS Band …… all three!

The Woodlands will be attending.  
 
Confirmed by a booster involved in planning.  

The Woodlands is confirmed.  Announcement to parents went out today.  

Gang
as I have done in the past, I have created a Facebook page dedicated to the 2023 Grand Nationals and the #teamtexas programs that will compete in Indy in November.
It is a private page that request that you state the program you support or follow - it does not have to be a program attending. it is just to weed out the scammers that try to get into these group pages and steal your info. 
as we have done in past years, The Bands of Claudia Taylor Johnson Foundation will be selling hoodies and long/short sleeved t-shirts with our #teamtexas logo and the name of the participating schools on the back. these funds go to support the attending programs as well as the CTJ foundation and their support of the Mr. Holland's Opus Fund and the CTJ Band cluster schools.
if you would like to join the group search for "#teamtexas 2023 Grand Nats on Facebook and answer the question of the program you support and we will get you added. the site is intended to allow each program to share their season up to and including their trip to Grand Nats. in the past it has been a great time sharing our kids adventures.
we will start sharing the info on the shirts/hoodies in July. they will be done through TMF and products you order will be shipped to your home address anywhere in the U.S. via USPS.
Currently I have mostly confirmed that CTJ, TWHS and Keller will be attending Grand Nats - that may increase or decrease as the new UIL State changes are worked out.
the Bands of Claudia Taylor Johnson Foundation is proud to support this project as a means to provide financial support of our cluster - check us out on Facebook or our web page at 
https://www.thebandsofctjfoundation.org/
 

Here is our 2022 Christmas gift from Music For All. The 2023 BOA Calendar!
September 16th:
Kentucky Area
McAllen, TX - Site TBD
Whitewater, WI

September 23rd:
Austin, TX - Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex
Chattanooga, TN - Finley Stadium
New Mexico - Site TBD
Obetz, OH - Fortress Obetz

September 30th:
Des Moines, IA - Waukee Northwest
Midland, TX - Astound Broadband Stadium (nee' Grande Communications Stadium)
Shenandoah, TX - Woodforest Bank Stadium (Site Tentative)

October 7th:
Arizona - Site TBD
Bedford, TX - Pennington Field
Katy, TX - Legacy Stadium (Site Tentative)
Northwest Ohio - Site TBD

October 14th:
Prosper, TX - Prosper ISD Children's Health Stadium

October 20th-21st:
SUPER REGIONAL - Indianapolis, IN
Mid-Atlantic Regional - Site TBD
Johnson City, TN - ETSU Ballad Health Athletic Center
Orlando, FL - Camping World Stadium

October 27th-28th:
SUPER REGIONAL - St. Louis, MO - The Dome at America's Center
Piscataway, NJ - Site TBD
Southern California - Tentative
Waco, TX - Site TBD

November 3rd-4th:
SUPER REGIONAL - San Antonio, TX - Alamodome
Utah - St. George, UT

November 9th-11th:
Grand Nationals

M&G, Hendrickson, Carroll, and Prosper not forgotten. tomorrow's the start. it'll be a blast, lotsa fun.

mmmmaybe, couldn't have helped. kinda the risk of electronics. Mr. Joel Denton is typically a music judge tho. Mr. Lee Carlson who did prelims is a visual guy. same sheet, but maybe diff perspectives, like DCI GE. Reagan's been suuuper dominant in visual this season.
changing gears, sooo thrilled for twhs. they finally beat the 5th place record we set in 2002. took em long enough.
after seeing twhs at area my early season fears melted away and i knew we all had been sleeping on them. eeeeasily in finals and strong possibility for top half at BOA i thought, then they went even further than that. unreal. sooo happy for them and the new guys. a miracle season.

Just because I had to look it up...
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/mad-mod/4005-46670/

Just because I had to look it up...
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/mad-mod/4005-46670/

Auto qualifiers do not take any of the spots in semifinals. The top 30 scores advance to semifinals. The qualifiers add to that number. So it is theoretically possible that the top 30 are all from say class A. Then there would be 4 qualifiers from each of the other 3 classes filling semifinals up to 42 bands. They'd be starting at ~0500 in the morning to get through all of them.

Maybe a little, but it depends on the band. Also think that they are trying to project to the press box, and you are sitting above it while very few high school outdoor stadiums have seats higher than the press box. I've sat in the lower level, press box, and top level at the Alamodome. Press box is best, but the lower level seats right up against it are awesome too!

Friends we need to BAND TOGETHER and ask UIL to allow the SMBC to be streamed by a service that is more Band friendly and not so much Football friendly!  Oh my goodness has the state of Texas not PROVEN to UIL that our marching bands are absolutely incredible?  This is shameful to me that a FOOTBALL streaming service is allowed first right of refusal over services like Box5 or FloMarching who SPECIALIZE in streaming marching bands!  I’m so aggravated by this. It’s an insult to our great marching bands, honestly. They deserve better. 

Having said all that, PLEASE direct your streaming complaints directly to music@uiltexas.org. Please, please, please!!!!

Or maybe everyone knew Avon was attending in 2017 and decided to go all out to beat them, then just kept that competitive level as the standard going forward.

big 'ol stupid smile on my face. twhs making me look like an idiot for ever doubting them.
and Pearland also. total director change right?
sad for all the incredibly deserving groups who didn't make the finals cut. you can hold your heads high. u were awesome!

Oh, I wish this were actually true! You're very generous! 
To my mind, Hebron's sheer musical virtuosity will be hard to top. And since 2018, they've really upped their visual game as well. The show is also very consistently entertaining, even more than 2021. Last year, they swept the captions here, but if you look at the actual recaps, it was a somewhat messy sweep. Only 3 of the 7 judges had them in 1st. (That's actually one of the reasons I don't think they would have won Nationals last year, and probably would have landed 2nd or even 3rd, given how much the GE judges united behind Carmel in 2nd.) My bet is that Hebron increases that number of 1st places this year in finals. I'm thinking last year was their Flower Mound 2015; this year could be more like their Flower Mound 2016.
Beyond that, it's impossible to predict. The early season results were too close, and even more than that, just watching the shows I have trouble deciding what I think will score higher overall, if one person can even judge that. At the end of the day, the scores are the result of 7 different people's opinions thrown together, each seeking a sort of perfect, guided subjectivity.
Now, when I focus on individual parts of shows, I can see clear strengths and weaknesses. Reagan, just as an example, has spectacular visual moments, but the pacing of the show is a little off (maybe intentionally breaking the marching music mold) and causes parts of the show to drag a little bit, which may be why they've placed higher in visual effect than music effect. Vista's show is very thrilling and well-designed, but sometimes it looks like they may have bitten off more than they could completely chew, and the performance suffers a little. Things like that. I could do this for every band.
My hope is that all of the performers can put aside any of their anxieties regarding the mysterious scoring process and just go out there and do what they always do. Like I said to the performers last year, everyone is on your side, even the people judging! Nobody wants to see you fail!