packwick

lol. aaaaaand there we go, right on cue!!

i think a good part of it for me is just dance team costuming LOL. usually they provide a bigger pop of color, or are wearing dresses or whatever, so the big loud music moments look louder visually. that and some samey drill. i don't think on the whole it sticks out as much in the pantheon of great Vandy shows, despite being a great show itself lol. that's kiiinda just the bar Vandy has set for themselves, like super duper high. like they'll prob still win this contest lol.

not my fave from Vandy design wise, particularly vis writing, but they continue to make strides in performing this super difficult show. great perf!

lol gotta love how this forum comes alive when there's a major comp. Sat is my do nothing day. just woke up!! ill watch finals.

FloMo's backdrops are very very pretty this year, muuuuch more appealing than the brick walls from last year lol. very painterly, colors look fauvist, like tropical-ish, can't tell what the images are on my phone. i think i see ppl?? Hebron has like 4 large ring lights on the field on movable pink platforms, i don't think they're actually ring lights lol, just whitish circles. they also have several narrow black obelisk looking things backfield. eeeenteresting!

hmmm i think the crux of the issue is that people fear panel 1 will be scored as high or higher than panel 2, which would raise the risk of more of the next 4 coming from panel 1 than "should" happen. reeeasonable fear to have when you've got 2 toootally different groups of judges, but something the chief judges should be monitoring. can't help but be a liiiittle amused tho at some of the confidence ppl have that panel 2 is just sooo much stronger, esp considering how horrible forums ppl are at making predictions in general. imma contrarian so i want panel 1 to defy ppl's expectations + rub it in their faces LOL. 3 very likely finalists versus 5 very likely finalists right now, panel 1 v 2. meh, whatever. you won't see MY panties in a twist lol.

just keep your eyes peeled for the band that seems to be cosplaying as Pikachu, can't miss em.

yay! twhs has a great show this yr too, you'll enjoy it.

ahh ok it's the boy who swallowed the star from Howl's Moving Castle that Bowie's doing. dont remember that piece so well, not one of my fave Ghibli flicks, but it sure is a purdy tune. https://downloads.khinsider.com/game-soundtracks/album/howls-moving-castle-original-soundtrack/25%20the%20boy%20who%20accepted%20the%20star.mp3 show needs a lot of cleaning but im still really liking Bowie.

another one to watch i think. they should do well at BOA Conroe in a couple weeks. cool show, love the sax section, very seductive. def one of the cleaner guards ive seen too.

yayyy!! ive been looking for them, been wondering if anyone would challenge Vandy at all this weekend, hadn't seen Vista in a while. they sound fab. def could snag the music caption at Austin. guard is a liiiittle distracting for me, not so sure about the vis side of things. for the most part Vandy doesn't have to deal w/ flags going up and down at different times like Vista which might be good for Vandy early season, tho they miss out on that extra 3D flair a guard can give a vis program.

William Mason is looking and sounding pretty solid. they're all wearing black cloaks, looks like a lot of extra flags on the field. it's all veryyy... voluminous lol.

lol the retreats still get my heart racing even tho i have absolutely no horse in the race. Carmel sweep at Kentucky finals, winning by about a point, no surprise there, well-earned. congrats to them, lookin' forward to seeing the rest of it. aaaaanyway back to topic, any new football vids?

i thought Carmel was a bit cleaner than Avon both musically and visually tonight. not sure what Avon looked like in prelims tho. i watched on high. Avon's costumes look like track suits from that angle LOL. i looove the purple and the stripes, it made the yardlines look bumpy at the beginning, like little hills. very interesting arrangement of Pictures, which is GREAT because this is one of THE most overplayed pieces. the slower mid-tempo section loses me a little but overall it's fun fast paced Avon. im staaaartin to get a feeling of who the top 3 at Nats will be. not sure about champ yet. will have to wait until shows are actually done.

yah on my regular desktop monitor it looks auto 1080p. the auto setting for mobile devices must be sub 720p or something. should be at least 720p!!!

anybody else dealing w/ sub-HD quality from Box 5 w/o any option to increase the resolution in the vid menus? on phone the picture is not very clear despite the small screen. my internet is fine btw.

Carmel in 1st over Avon w/ music and GE in Kentucky. haven't really seen Avon yet. def Carmel's music is a strength right now, agree w/ that.

musical clarity def improving in that opener!! it's so challenging!!

Carmel was fab today in prelims. another slow start show from them (even cooler w/ airplane sound lol), lots of modern sounds in that Bernstein, not sure audiences are gonna like this one, but i love the music, feels like a feast. another case of them doing music ive heard a bunch before but in their own Saucedo-y way. beefier book too and they're executing well. vis a little busy for my tastes, but blows most of what ive seen this yr out of the water. very layered and detailed.

yep yep!! and they're def improving!! onward and upward. couldn't tell what the set pieces were, stacked blocks or something, they fill in some of that empty space nicely. looks like Vista had homecoming.

lol we've been talking about that on the video thread. they have a district rule that prevents them from rehearsing outside when it's too hot so they've had to do a lot of schedule rearranging + playing catch-up.

lol so i watched this one and then the TexanLive one which was like a perfect high cam w/o sound. myyy extended essay take (it or leave it), won't talk about twhs again until Katy: content wise, really liking it. set design maaaybe could be a little more balanced, side 2 a liiittle heavy w/ the bench, hoping there's more to it. Raiford says the design team sets up the ball but the band has to spike it. feeeel like that's a liiiittle too generous for the design team sometimes LOL, but this yr it may end up being accurate, we'll see. both the vis and mus hold my attention start to finish so far. love the 2nd part, the visual layering, variety, dynamics, it's alive, also reminds me of Gaudi's mosaic style + occult symbols, like it's built w/ distinct fragments. love all the tempo and stylistic shifts in the music. the downward arpeggiated chord in the 3rd section as the music slows down is already kinda sorta goosebumps. really like the percussion writing, sounds cleaner than it did last yr too. perf wise, solid overall for Sept, lots of great things happening, good characteristic sounds, good control of tempo (w/ a metronome), mostly good rhythmic clarity, but def some big room for improvement too. mellos were reaaaally really out of tune tonight on a couple of those sustains, kinda "yikes!" bad in spots, haven't heard it like that yet, i was recoiling listening to it lol, like Dracula in sunlight. trumpets need to be more present in the epic opening bc once they start moving the melody drops out. pretty much all the soloists and small ensembles need to find some, ahem, la pasión!! tutti moment at end of opener quite unbalanced rn, articulations unclear. that ugly little pod of low brass files that moves across the 50 at the start of part 2 is still quite ugly + driving me nuts lol. pretty much all the opener starting at the jazz running needs major work. caaareful not to bite off more than u can chew in 8 hrs. aaaaaand last but not least i heard the woodwinds for only like 3 secs of a 3 minute and 30 sec performance. ummm why r they even there, just to dance??? LOL guard is stunning from upstairs, just bonkers good, so much depth. both flags and rifles already reaaaally uniform for Sept and they have so many difficult traveling phrases and tosses, they make it look too easy. my fave rn is when the full rifle line tosses like a quad and catches it with one hand and immediately spins it back up into the air for like a double or triple w/ a turn under it and then catches it at port. it's sooo clean already and there are so many doing it like wtf. love all the exchange tosses too, def pulling an Avon there at the end w/ the flinging of the rifles. still haven't seen any of the trick tosses i saw in May..... like group illusions, front walkovers, forward rolls, cartwheels, knee spins, etc. ahem IM WAITING. lots of big cool flag moments tonight, kinda Broken Arrowish, but the work is a lot more advanced. some form issues, pulsed jazz running files of dancers near beginning not in alignment as they run for example. make sure you commit to all of your movement also, sell it to us. also get it clean. thiiink i saw some temps du fleches that diiiidnt quite have the full tension and release they should have for example. also some more basic things, like "was that supposed to be a coupe or a passe". watch Vandegrifts dance team or the Highsteppers LOL. lol but yeah i mean it's Sept, so... overall very good.

any cool south Texas or west Texas vids out there?

top 3 at that contest = tall order but maybe. def think they're pretty much a lock for Nat finals unless the judges suddenly get tired of the recycled Cartwrightisms. which they def weren't last yr when they had like 5 Cartwright shows or whatever in finals. eeeven then i feel like saminess would only impact the imagination part of the sheets, performance would still be at a finalist level.

haven't found a vid of them yet, was searching a couple days ago. TL forgot to mute the CyWoods v CyFair game so i got to watch and hear both. both very good. not sure what CyFair's set pieces are supposed to be, like a lot of white hooks, theatrical trudging while carrying them around on their backs. at one point they line them up on the 50 and a white moth flies through them, then i think i remembered they were the ones w/ the Silence of the Lambs looking graphic lol. opening hit sounds like Linkin Park's Crawling but maaaybe just something else that sounds exactly like it lol. CRAAAWLING IIIIIN MY SKIIIIIN!! good stuff lol. it's a banger. CyWoods is looking and sounding very good. not really sure what it's about but was pretty consistently engaged and not too bothered by dirt. maybe benefits from being not as quirky as last yr, esp for the pacing of the effects. of the two i prefer CyWoods right now, mainly bc it's a bit cleaner. it's also nice to see how far that guard has come the past couple years, they did not look this good at Conroe in 2021.