packwick

plenty of fun to be had in AMP. not as well performed as usual, wondering if fusion poached some of the talent. still don't like their approach to design at all, which means most ppl probably like their approach to design LOL. the soundtrack is like the music to a Hollywood movie trailer for a movie i have utterly no interest in seeing, like King Kong vs Godzilla or something lol. theres just a question of taste level for me. can u tell i don't really care for any IW guards this year??? not feeling the positivity course through my veins at the moment. LOL. this is why i always say the best thing a guard can do is shut me up!!

the guy in Dartmouth's guard over at Wgi East illustrates the need for some sort of all-state process to reward students WAY better than the guards they're in. also i would be SO drunk after watching this show if i played the wgi drinking game and drank every time the solo boy in the scholastic guard did the hard weapon solos LOL. Sac is very 90s, early 00s again this year. at least the cluttered staging is worked into the chaos concept, also the Bernstein music is very enjoyable. not a great run, drops like every other ensemble moment, tho i like to view things proportionally, like just bc one person drops doesn't negate the other 10 who did it well. their talent is obvious. still a big fanboy even if it's not my fave from them. fusion had a better performance than sac, don't think they'll be rewarded for it tho. really a very strong run. show is still too cerebral for me which is saying something. kinda a typical issue i have w/ Vanderkolff shows. provide more emotion to balance w/ the intellectual and the aesthetic.

overall the As don't seem to be having great runs, or at least not the best ones lol, hopefully they can clean things up for finals. happy to see G Oaks 1st in their round and 2nd overall. been hypinggg them all season. flags could still use some cleaning, actually some of it's just the way it's staged, a little unclear, unfocused, disconnected. they're also smaller and don't command the space of the floor quite as much as say Hebron, but training is clear. also clearly the best aesthetic w/ that floor. it's like some minimalist pop art concoction lol. glad to see these things from a proper high angle for once. b-land's staging weaker than i thought, well some of that was dirt. just kinda unclear throughout.

okk i just watched it, well sort of, skipped through it, not the most gripping thing in the world. i would have had no idea what this was about just watching it. "another blackbird show?!" hahahaha. performers are fine, im sure the designers worked hard on it. i find the ending w/ the Babs music unbearably maudlin, all thematic considerations aside. lays it on quite thick. Lifetime movie-ish. it doesn't make me esp angry however LOL.

one of the groups of guard directors i mentor is quarreling over Fantasia's show concept LOL. what do you think @Rubisco? exploitative or no? i don't think ive even watched it yet.

wgi steering committee interview w/ Cyndi Robbins from twhs. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fCTJ4Sb38oU her life seems.... stressful... LOL. i like that she takes near complete ownership of the creative process in addition to the teaching. super impressive, tho i fear it will lead to burn out. the guards are only getting bigger lol.

im def curious to see how grand oaks does in scholastic A this wknd. been flying under the radar recently. their placement at Houston, esp prelims, was quite surprising based on what id seen leading into the contest. bit of a comeback in finals, ended up 4th a couple points off the top. at tcgc the next week they were only a little over a point behind wgi houston champ twhs. i see them as being around the same neighborhood as the top 3 Texas As (pearland, twhs, hebron in some order), even more curious bc they're the only one going to Dayton, could make a case for Azle as well.

triggered!!!! lol. u should start a thread so i can also complain about tcgc, ntca, and wtca needing to come together (at least at the end of the season) for an actual Texas state color guard championship. also to implement an all-state color guard process to encourage individuals to practice and to reward exceptional students stuck in guards that are way less talented overall than they are.

flatout dislike the new membership size rule. firstly from a staging persp, but also from a talent poaching one. the rule primarily benefits the indie guards that are already at or near the top, allowing them to monopolize even more of the available talent. also don't like that most decisions are being made by an advisory committee of mostly world class finalists that benefit from these rules and have little incentive to change them. always chuckle when i hear ppl *cough*Karl*cough* praise the generosity of the committee, recently for letting the lower class guards explain their shows to judges this season on CompetitionSuite via spiel sheets. first of all that shouldn't even be a thing, a guard should be able to communicate their show without explaining it to you. secondly, who keeps wgi afloat financially again? it ain't the world class guards. not directly anyway. the talk of generosity is.... misplaced, at best.

most recent tarpon world vid!! from this past wknd at FFCC Riverview methinks. home of the sharks lol. doesn't seem like tarpon's best run but i like how vivid the colors are in this vid compared to other vids. also finally get to see the ending. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VwCkuyWXz1E&pp=ygUMVGFycG9uIGd1YXJk

Dobyns has one of my fave floors ever. poor Frosty. LOL. very clever. guard is solid, show isn't as thrilling or dramatic as last yr, or as campy lol. respect for not doing the same thing over again. will benefit from some cleaning. tw has met their tossing superior in Paramount LOL. super talented members, super big guard, sky-high difficulty and risk which unlike in SW is actually a POC on the sheets in IW. didn't like the show design that much tho. kiiinda vaguely organized chaos lol. not sure what were they trying to communicate, besides showcasing their members' incredible tossing talents.

liked Lexington's concept even if it wasn't the cleanest show lol. worked their way through a maze w/ a timer going. kinda limiting from a staging persp which is prob why they broke their own rules and had the kids sometimes step over the lines. Holly Springs was the best. was more like an 82 tho. okay perf, strong vocab, a bit boring. Arvo Pärt's Spiegel im Spiegel didn't help. i'd rather listen to Schoenberg which is saying something. impressed by that guy doing all the a la seconde turns even if his form could use work, esp coming out of them.

ur welcome!!! final total count was 581 tosses. includes loftier parallels that leave both hands but maybe don't go up as high. woulda been over 600 if they had kept that final ensemble flag toss in. 83 exchanges, 55 rolls, 12 backbends, 7 double turns, 4 illusions, 4 grand battements (not sure what we call those, kick tosses?? legs were kinda too bent), and a front walkover. skimpin on the front walkovers and illusions!! add some more, chopchop!! LOL. obvi wgi is way more than just tosses, you'll hear that in the tapes, but def super impressive. one thing i wished watching it all more closely was that tw did more of their own skills. lead more than follow, like give me a weird new woodlands flag toss at the end. creative equip choreo is something Pride, Carmel, + Avon do pretty regularly. it's a tiny club imo. not so coincidentally the 3 most successful groups lol.

ill post twhs on yt later. im tryna count the # of tosses first, it's SO friggin' hard LOL. theres too much going on, im having to slow everything down. just got thru the opener fast section. 275 tosses so far, prob an undercount. includes 35 rifle exchanges, 13 rolls (dive rolls and sit rolls), 12 backbends caught at port, 7 double turns under low tosses, which is harder, a front walkover, and an illusion w/ the inverted hand catch. don't know if i can keep this up. it's like kinda fun but also not really lol.

el dorado is the real deal for sure. shouldn't have much of a problem making finals at Dayton again.

think they'll be fine even w/ a lowball seeding score. also think their show will look better when viewed from a higher angle.

Avon got a 93 tonight in state prelims, so yes lol. 89.3 Carmel, 88.7 Fishers. those may be your 3 medalists at Dayton.

maybe he was thinking about taking them but decided not to. they're still on the current entries list!!!

the top 4 As from WGI Houston were fab again tonight at Pearland, as was twhs world. twhs world had a new, longer ending. very interested to see if they get their typical big Austin score bump next week. pretty much everyone in SW needs one to catch up to Avon, who's projected to get around a 90 next week.

blah. and fusion's soundtrack is much too desultory. sounds like a failed experiment. IW looking pretty meh to me this season. we need reliable ol' POC. at least SW is strong i guess.

AMP is pretty meh this yr. normally not as into them as the general audience but even the crowd rxn seemed pretty tepid compared to usual. also think Avon did the witch show WAY better back in 2008.

cywoods not on scholastic A standings list. withdrawn from Dayton? they're still listed in the current entries. if so, booo!

it's on the nature of daylight, one of his most famous.

ok @Rubisco now do TX lol. do u know what website you're on?? LOL u are much too kind.

well i was thrilled w/ twhs' 83 score (which exactly matched my thoughts for them after prelims) until the ones from the Avon contest popped up LOL. apparently tw's only a fraction of a pt ahead of fishers, who's admittedly much much better this yr than last. yeaaaah yeah i know diff panels + vastly diff competitive environment w/ the bazillion world class guards at Avon. but still!!! since u seem to care: 84.5 matches my thoughts seeing Avon today. so like how Mike scored them for Effect. an 86 is prooob the highest score ever this point in the season in SW. i think Avon's show is fab, super expressive, great climax at the end, fun little visuals w/ the fabric. verrry smart about featuring their strongest members, like those insanely talented dancers they open with. that's what i want tw to look like!!! buuuut overall not quite an 86. the gap b/w Carmel and Avon seems pretttty accurate to me in GE mainly bc Avon has that emotional impact/contour w/o sacrificing the intellectual/aesthetic side of things, whereas Carmel's show is drier... and uhhh... chattier... and waaay more depressing LOL. it's like the B side to tw's show this year. "It's hopeless! You're all gonna die!!!" paraphrasing ofc. i liked when the river of time drags the girl, that was pretty awesome. every show needs a truly clever moment like that.