2muchcoffeeman

Flo audio is like 20 seconds out of sync with video

Same time zone as San Antonio, and for anyone in FL, GA, SC, it would require driving across 2 1/2 states

Troopers percussion beats Mandarins by 0.3 just before Southwest; Mandarins drums beat Troop by 0.15 on Saturday; Troopercussion tops Mandarins drums by 0.5 tonight

Guess I'll just delete my account

It's one-tenth of the slimmest of margins: 0.012

Okay, I'm not enough coffees into the day to try to grapple with KVG's deep analysis, but I promise to get to it when I'm sufficiently caffeinated. But having seen only one show live and the rest via livestream only, I'm telling myself that I can't recall any season, ever, where percussion has been stronger across the board. I mean, Troopercussion is within 0.9 of BD percussion, and within 1.0 of Boston percussion at the moment. The spread between 1st and 12th at San Antonio was 2.0. Now, that spread isn't unheard of; it was 1.6 across the percussion sections at 2022 finals. But at San Antonio 2022, the 1-12 percussion spread was 2.6. The range has been narrowed by 23%. Maybe those numbers don't suggest anything beyond a possible slight rise in the water level. But consider: Looking at the 12 top percussion scores in San Antonio last year, the average score was 17.1 This year, the average was 17.725. Then, too, in 2023 there has been a loosening of the relationship between overall score and percussion ranking. At San Antonio 2022, among the top 12 finishers, the percussion ranking matched the overall corps ranking 7 times. This year, it happened only once. I'm not sure what that indicates, entirely (maybe this is the time for me to read KVG's analysis more deeply), but at a minimum it doesn't argue against what my ears are telling me: there are some #### good lines out there this year.

You'll hear that signature sound, but with more fffffff

Yeah this is my sentiment, too. It reinforced the unrelenting Sun. That said, I could appreciate Troop giving it a few minutes before setting it in motion. I took it as an assertion of the quality of the performance -- less of a crutch. But I wouldn't mind seeing it spin from the first note until it is finally lassoed.

This thing on? BK was right there with PC last night -- 0.337 -- and from a recap perspective I think their situation vis-as-vis 12th place is similar to Troopers' relation to 10th, i.e. BK has a legit shot to push into finals in 3 weeks. BK appears to have the greater horsepower in its brass and percussion performance captions, but BK's musical design is doing it no favors wrt to PC. Not sure there's any realistic hope of overcoming that MA gap, except praying for a favorable panel at the right moment. Continuing to clean the sound will help, but IDK how much. Only a little, I suspect. This panel put only a slim 0.15 gap between PC and BK in music content/ach headroom, with the edge going to PC. Assuming both continue to develop their musical performance at equal pace, there doesn't look to be much opportunity for BK to gain ground in these subcaptions. BK's hopes are in visual. Here, the judges said they see greater growth potential for BK than for PC -- about 3/4 of a point more potential -- which, if realized, would be more than enough to move into 12th. Gonna be close. Panels vary; performance on any given night varies. BK has the potential to play, and look, like the bigger, more polished performance, despite its apparent compositional deficiencies. PC has the potential to stay just close enough to BK's performance levels to let their sweet book carry them into to Saturday.

On Saturday they built themselves a solid platform to push for 10th. Music scores were solidly 9th vs. Colts' 11th. This panel of judges, anyway, tended to think Colts have just about maxed their GE potential, while they said Troop still has room to grow. It was basically the same story in the visual captions: Colts have very nearly topped out, while Troopers have some more headroom. The exception is guard, where the judges had the inverse take: Troopers need more content in order to increase the score, while Colts' guard is still growing into its book. Drums, too, could provide a random score pop, depending on the judge. Less than a week ago Troopercussion beat Mandarins drums by 0.3; last night the just gave Mandarins the edge by 0.15. Perc scores seem very judge-dependent. If this panel is a reliable guide to the future, then Troop just needs to keep sharpening the vis and keep working on the final 60 seconds of the show to give it a clean and climactic thematic ending. All else being constant, Troop would seem to have more than enough growth potential to overtake Saturday's razor-thin 0.012 gap.

BD is Exhibit A that you don't need to be high concept to be stellar. "The Cutouts" doesn't mean much of anything. It's a device more than it is a structure. Cohesion and legibility can exist on their own terms. Give 150 talented performers a vehicle that allows them to stretch themselves beyond what they think they can do, and the result can be pretty spectacular.

WHALE TAIL

Thematically, "White Whale" is "To Lasso the Sun"

Bring that show to Colorado. Mushrooms are legal.

I took them for beekeepers. Garden and all

I am digging the little big man at center snare.

Trumpet/tenors fetch was out of this world

Mike Jackson all over this book

did not know that, though I confess I had never spared a brain cell to wonder about it, either. Except for the use case of playing one at the 50 yard line of an NFL stadium, why would anyone ever want one?

"Black Hole" wouldn't be a bad theme for Troop's 2024 show. Think of the continuity

Not a knock on Mandarins, who were fabulous, but there wasn't anyone else around to put a roof on their number tonight, so a bit of altitude is to be expected. Troopers score tonight is identical to Fort Collins, which is a bit of a downer though the steady improvement is evident and that's what matters as we all converge on the first regional. A 5 point gap between 5th place and 9-11th place corps is typical, and Mandarins are a serious threat for 5th

Troop visual is getting sharper, and I guess that's one reasons why GE and VA scores are getting a boost, and according to tonight's judges anyway, there's still headroom in the book to improve. That's gonna help, as will the solid music captions. How far Troop can go is going to come down to how much on-the-fly work can be done with the guard. They've got 4+ days of rest and rehearsal before they take it into the dome on Saturday, right after . . . Blue Stars. Woof. Big stage and big moment for their 2023 season. Until then, Troop: Hydrate or dydrate

Troopers 1st in drums. By a significant margin.

scores are up

I know a way you can do the wavy worm dance and save $4,000