packwick

yeah, ppl in my orbit are gushing about it. prob a good thing. we'll see, obviously SOMETHING needs to really awaken me this season LOL.

oh do Bluecoats have some sort of premiere right now? ive been most excited to see them. gut feeling coming into the season was they might pull off the win. Crown sounded great, but not feeling the show at all. id have BAC over them, bigger and more memorable moments for sure. more creative as well. ngl, i turned off both SCV and Mandarins halfway through, just didn't move me or keep my interest. buuuut still need to watch a proper high cam of lots of em.

wasn't digging most of them tbh, w/ the caveat that i watched it on multi for free on YT. saw Phantom and BAC on high. we'll see how they all look and sound later in the season. didnt care for a lot of the music. "too much" sums it up for me. too many notes for the sake of notes. too many pieces crammed into the production, for the sake of getting that checkmark next to "variety" on the sheets. which leads to little coherence and few through lines in the music. but then this is all stuff that has been going on for yeeears now. imo it feels very catered to teenagers (now why would that be? lol) who often think that the height of musical excellence is playing a lot of quick, repetitive, scalar, sixteenth-note figures. don't get me wrong, there are lotsa old farts wetting themselves over those moments too, the ones who cry "content!!!!" like some Greek ululation as they storm into battle. buuut what about musical expression? the Bostonian (but actually probably mostly Texan) babies over at BAC were on a different level. great playing, some great music to cling onto, nice visuals, drill kinda BOAish in its more direct simplicity, maybe a little hard to read at times w/ the costuming, kinda like when a guard fades into the field, but this time it's the winds. maaaybe that's an intentional glitch lol. guard is stunningly good, like watching pride of cincinnati but on the field, they're even dressed similarly to the adios show. better blending of the equipment w/ mvmnt than usual. lovely ballad, actually didn't care for it when i first heard it, compared it negatively to FloMo's, seemed excessivelyyy.... melismatic? lol, like Mariah-ish. but i like it now. not sure overall the show is strong enough to win but we'll see what the two Blues and Crown bring. Phantom opened and ended faaabulously w/ the Beethoven. stuff in the middle, a little less fabulous. stuff just kinda dragged. trapped in your own mind, something like that, for the theme. actually one of my biggest fears is that the gulf in quality b/w the tippity top and the rest is widening. esp after watching cavies. (nice effort, but they seemed reeeally out of their depth. also prob the most confused Saucedo arrangement ive ever heard. like, what happened?!! lol) w/ all the financial troubles + how expensive it is to participate, the products really should be higher quality. which would lead to better recruiting methinks. kinda worrisome but this is also based on entirely subjective judgements lots will disagree with.

hope the prelims/semis judges like Glory of the Yankee Navy 'cause they're gonna hear it 6 times. well actually maybe not, bc the prelims are split up now. cool to see tw make it to state for the first time in over 20 years. last time was my era, think we got 10th lol, and the only reason we made it to state was bc Westfield had won the previous time and freed up one of the 2 spots. marching/concert quality split, kinda like LD Bell in the early naughts. gotta develop that concert band musicianship!!

cedar park, coppell, flomo, hebron, keller, leander, marcus, pearland, reagan, round rock, rouse, twhs, vandy, and vista. that's actually 14 right there, mostly the legacy ones besides rouse who had an amazing 2023. cedar ridge, ctj, cy-fair, bowie, bell, southlake carroll, waxahachie, and westlake. ld bell rocked it last yr, will see if they're consistent. westlake and ctj also made finals. not sure which ones have had director changes. may create some opportunities.

avon, bridgeland, broken arrow, brownsburg, carmel, cedar park, dobyns bennett, fishers, leander, tarpon springs, william mason... aaaaand american fork/mustang/o'fallon/prosper/union. not really up to date on the strongest bubbles tbh. would love to see friendswood in the mix. brownsburg and fishers maybe more at risk than i think, musically were pretty rough last yr (watching nats live), but then they still made finals, so... think design and vis will keep them there.

if i do any regionals this'll prob be the only one i attend. no woodlands (maybe a conflict or not wanting to drive an hour and a half across the city), but it's closer to me and more stacked overall than north Houston.

this is the event i'd wanna judge. lower in quantity, higher in quality. like a DCI event, short and sweet. i wouldn't develop my normal migraine maybe lol.

anybody know if twhs world is keeping their normal schedule and attending Dayton again next yr? looking forward to seeing what they look like at close to "max power" w/ that first group of McCullough girls becoming seniors. watching the retreat, looks like only 8 of the 32 world members were seniors this season. i know most of their weapon ppl were juniors and younger. girl doing the front walkover is i think a sophomore. they should start guard programs at the intermediate schools!!! lol. focus on dance!! also i want to see Code Black revived, funnel in the tw girls who are sticking around the Houston area after graduation + other top performers in the area. Code Green!!! lol. Houston needs an IW guard that can last.

also when's the last time IW scores were this low???

aaand they did! gap between tw and arcadia is a liiittle too big but it looks like a lot of it came from movement. i DO see THAT gap very clearly. tw should be bringing in an outside dance master to help further develop those skills. been a weakness for several years now. nevertheless a great season. just a smidge under 95. i prob would have scored them a 95.5 if upstairs. just gotta get cleaner and figure out how to move those 30+ bodies from point A to point B in a way that looks just a liittle bit clearer and less cluttered, while being interesting and musical. a little more variety in the soundtrack would be nice too. last yr did the variety thing better which is prob why their rep scores were higher last yr. take me different places!! congrats to fusion!! was an easy prediction to make that they'd be the next new gold medalist, knowing the team behind the show. SCV round 2 here we come!!

i think fusion just clinched it. we'll see.

mirage makes me wanna wear flannel and go to Michfest LOL.

very happy for tw. it was a great run overall, just some dirt here and there. still think they could be playing the WGI game a little better but i also respect how they just "go for it" as far as having everyone on the floor do hard stuff. really kinda fearless. also cool to see Cyndi's visions start to come to life w/ the next level talent of the performers. poetry indeed. the theme is there for you to dig into, patiently illustrated. it's not spectacle or cutesy sleight-of-hand. it's mature and has the strangeness of good art. but yeah def do something you can get closer to 100% clean next year unless they start to consider difficulty and risk more LOL

welp Fusion in 1st in IW after semis. wasn't even their best run. not at all surprising. stiiill not in love with the soundtrack but the designs in IW this yr are mostly..... yeah... my prediction from last yr for Fusion will prob be right. if not this year, then next unless POC has a banger.

ugh Origins off of 6th by 0.2. so close!! Bowie had a stellar run, Marcus was very strong also. too bad the audio on Flo for SO is 2 seconds ahead of the visual. all the solo tosses were spoiled by the snap sound or lack thereof and audience reaction LOL.

Origins had an absolutely amazing run in semis, such a friggin hard show, the phrases are so dense and quick, just imagining myself trying these combinations across the floor is making me anxious lol. if im judging DA they move up over Juxta. the only big risk for them scorewise is the relative lack of variety in the mood and overall effect but it does fit the theme.

ok good, Carmel up to 5th, 3 points ahead of WC in 9th. a little twilight zone-ish before. tw still in 3rd, 1.1 pts off 2nd, 1.2 pts ahead of tarpon. 3rd's prob where they'll end up in finals, which is fab. wasn't even expecting them to show up at Dayton this yr so it's a pleasant surprise. really a treat. cool to see them develop into a consistent medalist quality group. guard is finally as strong or stronger than the band!!! Lol. think they already very obviously have the talent for gold. designers (designer?) just need to figure out how to frame that talent in a gold medal worthy way. not to say the staging/choreo this year is weak by any stretch of the imagination, it's quite fantastic, esp considering it mostly comes from one person. but once u get to the tippy top of the world class u gotta deal w/ those legendary design teams. breadth of talent and lots of tosses won't get u gold. which really that prob SHOULD be more of a consideration on the sheets, difficulty/risk and whatnot, bc it rewards the actual performers a bit more, but alas it is not, not explicitly anyway lol. variety range and depth do provide a particular challenge of their own.

both Carmel and Tarpon were quite clean. i don't understand Carmel below Warren Central. like.... at all.

3 very exposed drops from tw, two of them the same as prelims (buckling under pressure a bit?), but overall a stronger run! trying to keep in mind they toss 600 times in this show LOL.

see id be a lot more impressed by Paramount's breadth of talent, full ensemble 7s, if they didn't have their pick of the litter during the audition process lol. one of those things that's more impressive to me on the scholastic side bc that talent is built from the ground up. obvi extremely talented performers, still don't dig the design.

yaaaaasss! slaaaaay! i love pleasant surprises!!

3rd place for tw, not bad at all, just need to lock in your performance. im not fully convinced the staging design is strong enough to compete for 2nd but we'll see.

a lot of it was more like timing and person-to-person uniformity issues, a little more subtle. some of the earlier season dirt was still present today. think they've got better runs in em.

strong effort from tw, but def a bit dirtier than i was expecting, esp some of the reworked stuff. unclear staging at times as well. fingers crossed!!