packwick

no i like that they're very much safety 1st. but maybe ask around how others in the district are coping. i guess it wouldn't be a real *~*Day Danse*~* w/o 100+ degree weather!! LOL anywho, back to topic.

that ballad is lovely. im looking at that set in the thumbnail right now asking myself, is that a Wes show??? lol. classic drill form.

oh yeah the weather def sux but they're also far from the only ones dealing w/ that. did u see how much North Shore performed at the same game?!! maybe NS has an indoor facility from trickle down football funds that have been generously gifted to the band. we all know that's the only way it would work LOL. bands are an afterthought. btw north shore looked and sounded great!! nobody has mentioned them yet!!! i was pretty impressed. back to the topic, just find the pace of learning kinda strange. ultimately worked out for them last year. and my overall impression is more positive this yr despite them only performing like a parent exhibition amount of show.

i watched the VYPE and the ihsfan vid for CedarP and CedarR. i think in the vype one the sports guys disrespectfully talk over Ridge but then shut up for Park, who is LOUD and in charge. reminded me a lot of last yr which is probably a good thing for them. the other vid seemed to show Ridge performing through their ballad which is nuts. they sounded good in the ballad also, variations on a theme by Paganini unless im confusing the two bands. preeeetty beautiful and expressive already. the LISD schools all look great and have lots on the field already, wish i coulda heard em. FloMo remains the masters of the symmetric drill, this time w/ lots of big ensemble flag moments, lots of visual volume. guard is really looking good for a first show, maybe even kinda sorta chasing twhs a little. Marcus is looking real clean again and their guard is solid. Hebron starts out in these like three big ovals that unwind. im wondering if there'll be some set piece thing in the center of them. really liking what im seeing, lots of nice layering, im sure they sound great too. guard not as strong as the other two yet but may be slower to start. the good news about twhs is that i like the opening fanfare quite a bit and will probably like it more w/ set pieces and maybe some leg capes or whatever on the guard, kinda looks like they're picking fabric up. bad news is that they performed the least amount of drill of any of the 20+ bands i watched and the least ive ever seen from them at a first game. 2nd mvmt also pretty boring and robotic even at the standstill. guard looked good tho, like they time traveled from October lol. go figure. anyone have any insights on why they're a bit behind learning the show this yr and last? just a new approach of holding back? i for one think u need to give the kids every public performance opportunity possible to build confidence even if it's dirty. def was concerned when it took them until Oct 18th last yr to perform their full show for the first time publicly.

oh yah Texan Live has def expanded its range. takin another look. they'll also have Duncanville, Leander, Rouse, Round Rock, Pearland, CyWoods, Bridgeland, College Park, Klein Oak tonight. soooo annoying about the audio. could have been a good one-stop shop.

texan live streams bunches of games but i learned after paying 12 bucks for a month that they mute halftime for copyright reasons. oh wellz. was trying to see 7 lakes. well i guess technically i saw them lol. looks like they'll have both Hebron and FloMo tonight, thought it was only H-town so kinda surprised. was curious if the sound is still on when it's live but ill be at a fancy steakhouse tonight w/ my sister so prob won't be watching anything live. seems like they sometimes forget to mute. KSAT12 will stream CTJ tonight. u might have to watch it live. not seeing post event recordings. woodlands online will have twhs, tho they often do a crappy multicam that's like 80% close ups. did high-ish cam for Grand Oaks last night tho. other CISD schools too.

also the crown to start Vista's show. lol, wonder where ive seen that before??? sly little nod there, love it. Iconic. ICONIC. both vista and bowie were hot messes visually, same as everyone else in August in TX, couldn't really tell what was going on a lot of the time. too early to project any future success obviously. i'll keep u posted lol. ill know when theyre cleaner!!

luv luv luuuuv Bowie's music, esp the opening part, so expressive. gettin lots of pcep 02 vibes w/ the Danielpour too.

yeah there's gonna be a lot of last minute schedule adjustments i think. they need an indoor training facility like Carmel has lol. actually Brett was looking into that back in the day but def it was a pipe dream. the indoor activity is the future, no question.

lol wtf. had to look this up. would be cool, i dunno, maybe, seems like it would be expensive to make him, he's very detailed. preeetty sure they're doing the benches, saw a lot of curved movable platforms. sounded a'ight at their recent exhibition. some struggling trumpet stickouts but vid was filmed at floor level way off to the right side. only did the first minute. no outside drill. prob too hot. Trollgirls 2 for sure. also Coppell's, Pearland's, and Dripping Springs'.

the devs will deserve the win if they pull it off but i hope there's an upset, at least in semis lol. it would be exciting.

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php/?fbid=307028735037541

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

judges got the top 3 right. what/how splits seem to indicate Bloo could move up w/ a stronger performance tho i think the finals panel is probably favorable for Crown. still a pretty obvious visual ge/music ge judge split for Bloo vs Crown. so much for judging w/ the same sheet eh? Chumley had Devs in 2nd and Bloo in 1st so everyone can stfu about him now lol.

CHUMLEYYY!!! lol ive been stalking DCP this season and really don't understand why theyre on his a** all the time. nothing super weird in his previous DCI scoring, like at all. no wtf gaps. maaaaybe in 2002 he really threw the contest for Carmel at BOASA via VisGE, think that was him, dont know why the f*** i remember that 20 years later, but i also kinda agree w/ it in retrospect. Carmel was clearly more effective than Bell visually lol. my fav thing to do now is follow the live forums comments, watch the leaked YT vids, be like lol wtf were those ppl watching, look at the recaps, be like ok the judges generally got it right, then go back to the forums and read the meltdowns over the judging lolol. doesnt help that theyre all biased and clearly have corps they're rooting for lol

it'll be a blast. let us know what u think after!! interested in your thoughts on the live performances. imma be scavenging for YT vids.

Bloo capturing a few 1st places in GE last night at Allentown over the Devs after direct comparison miiight bode well for their chances of medaling at worlds. we shall see...

hmmmmm i might bristle a little bit at the suggestion that judges care much about reputation. maaaybe the younger or more inexperienced ones? def Marie Czapinski didn't give a s*** about it when she put Blue Springs 1st in visual GE in 2013 at SA lol, or when John Phillips had Harrison 1st in music GE at Nats that same year. also "clearly better" is soooo subjective imo. we might think oh my gosh that band has really reeeaally bad tuning or tone quality right there while the judge on his tape is focused on how dynamic the music is or how consistent the articulations are between the choirs or whatever. we have no idea what the judge is focused on at any given moment w/o hearing his tape. makes it hard imo to judge the judge. ofc this won't stop me from complaining when i think they're wrong LOL. in the wgi judge manual we're told to encourage the A guards, appreciate the Open ones, and "learn from" the World guards, im paraphrasing, don't remember the exact wording. but there's a point buried in it, it's that we learn what the "best" is by watching the best groups. i think in some cases that may make it difficult for a new group w/ a different style to break through if the judges have been trained on a small handful of groups that keep winning, it shapes their opinions on what the best content "should" look like. it's not really a reputation thing exactly, maaaybe more of a stylistic thing in some cases.

cool to see Cavies closing the gap a little on that "fight for 5th" grouping of phantom, mandies, and cadets. went from thinking they were overrated musically to underrated after Houston.

Devs open up spread back to 2 pts in ATL. it's ovah!! ovah, i tell u! i mean it kinda already was but now it's double underlined. scores look like id have them. my top 3 have been devs, bloo, and crown for a while now despite reaaaaally loving Boston's first standstill. vis clean for Boston but just doesnt quiiiite match the majesty of the music for me, maybe reflected in vis GE vs mus GE tonight. bloo still needs to figure out music but vis and vis effect could keep them top 3. crown pretty all around excellent esp musically despite perc, only thing is that the show isn't the most imaginative thing in the world and could prob have seen it performed 10 yrs ago if it weren't for all the costumes lol. kinda the same situation for Boston's Cartwright show w/o the oomph of all the flags. Devs and Bloo's designs are more RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! lol (read: outdoor winter guard shows)

also they're intensely analyzing Crown over Crusaders LOL. im just like, u do realize that this is a very subjective activity and a completely diff panel of judges can give different results right? lol. especially when the groups are already obviously close in quality.

im on a Discord server w/ some band directors and they're talking about miking select members of brass throughout the entire show. never heard of this before. does this happen in high school too? seems kiiinda sus to me lol. woodwinds, i know the miking has been going on w/ the top bands since just after 2000, but brass? i feel like brass is loud enough in ensemble moments w/o miking. don't mind it for soloists. i like that brass can play more warmly and delicately w/o needing to force the sound up to the pressbox.

also if u swing by a McDonald's on ur way home at midnight bc ur craving something cool and sweet like a hot fudge sundae don't bother bc of course the ice cream machine will be "down" and you'll end up getting a cinnamon roll instead that's clearly been sitting around all day bc it's room temp and as dried out as a mummy.

juuust got back after an hr drive back down to houston from the woodlands. popped a rizatriptan, live band events always give me a migraine for some reason, hmmm, could it possibly be all the blasting? lol nice to see the corps live, it's always like stepping into a dream seeing band shows under Friday night lights. colors are more *~sparkly and vivid, visual details are clearer. overall my opinions of the corps are preeetty much the same as from watching the pirated stream vids, which i guess is a good sign that they're reliable, for me anyway. things i liked i still liked, things i didnt i still didn't. biggest change of my opinion = Cavies. they floored me tonight. they sound niiight and day better than they did at that 1st contest where they sounded like a hot mess lol. major major improvements and the Saucedo arrangement is consistently interesting and melodic and very nostalgic. i loved it. their music content scores should be higher. i would have had them 4th tonight, totally unexpected for me. Mandies... my first time seeing this one. i get why ppl like it, but for me musically it lacks nuance, dynamics, attention to detail compared to literally every corps that came after them. they approached everything musically w/ a sledgehammer, boom boom boom, it was like Texas loud blasty. i really didn't enjoy it much but everyone else around me did. some cool wow vis moments like the rotating set pieces w/ the drill weaving between them. costumes are nice, but having so many different ones on the field made it seem busy at times, i had trouble figuring out where the designer wanted me to focus. surprised none of those performers that got spun around barfed at the end LOL. audience loved it. thought the Colts had an all around solid show, not quite any wow moments like the other top dawgs but still generally appealing. after Mandies gave me a headache i found Colts' more dynamic approach to music refreshing frankly lol. Star's ballad was my first wow musical moment of the night, soooo so so sooo beautifully performed. still don't care 4 the park and bark near the end, the guard is just too dirty to keep my interest, kind of a persistent issue imo, all sloppy all over place. all their vis scores will go up w/ a cleaner guard performance. looks a little cluttery too. drill at the end is very cool and the green costumes really sparkle. Crown was awesome, def 2nd place overall tonight. i would have had them 1st in both brass and music ensemble. just wooonderful control and warmth and nuance and attention to detail w/ the dynamics, also super difficult stuff. lots of goosebump musical moments, visual program not the most colorful or varied, kinda dated too, but performed the heck out of it. ballad through ending still drags. still love the costumes, storytelling a little hokey but whatevs. they were like 4 pts better for me than all the corps before them. Blooooo, luv the visual program for the most part but musically both Crown and Devs had them beat pretty clearly imo, reflected in perf and music leaning GE scores. not quiiite there yet in music performance + pacing/arrangement issues. heard even more William Blake poem snippets than i expected if that's even possible lol, often seemed unnecessary and intrusive. they should cut back on em. still don't love the big hit of the ballad or the t-bone section. ballad still sounds like a too simple pop tune arranged for brass when heard live. thinner, less luxurious sounds in general compared to the Devs who went before them, expected that based on the vids. rhythmically not totally locked in tonight either. generally more imaginative and varied musically and visually than Crown. cleanest guard tonight. ceiling = higher but there need to be significant perf improvements and music design adjustments to medal. Devs obvi 1st, obvi the most effective and cleanest visually, if i had babies i would have thrown them after their ballad. best moment of the night by a mile, which i knew it would be after seeing the vids. again again again they're just so smart about how they design, they cut-out the fat (lol) so that there's almost never a dull moment musically or visually, plus they just know how to make giant moments that are better than anyone else's. easiest show of the top 3 imo but they're reaaaal smart about it. park and bark or essentially park and bark on the cut-outs on side 1 while something interesting visually happens on side 2. was pointing it out to my mom the whole time, also how the drill was usually slower paced w/ smaller step sizes. didn't look too demanding to me but it was clean clean clean and very effective. really it was only at the end when they were running around in circles and playing where i was like, ok that looks more like what the others are doing in difficulty lol. ending overall still kinda meh. colors really pop tho. Seattle Cascades, im happy theyre rebuilding, i remember going to a band convention in Seattle in high school, def recall that the programs in the Pacific Northwest were not as far along as others in the Midwest and esp Texas. hopefully having a corps there will help motivate a lot of youngsters to work work work. not the best performance tonight, just kind of pure mud musically lol. kiiinda harsh to say it that way but yeah. my honest opinion is that they probably wouldn't even make regular BOA regional finals at one of the TX events, def not at San Antonio. not really what id expect in DCI world class. might be better served by open class as they build build build up.

at los cucos w/ Ma, then headin over to Tomb All. i'll let ya know how it goes.