Xavier Xhilaration had a meeting today after school informing us of the scoring error. We do not know the final scores but apparently there was confusion between judges when the scores were not correctly matched with the times that the groups performed, this did not affect first place and last place groups but 2nd-5th places were incorrect. I've been informed that the day time results were all accurate.
Unfortunately that sign has long since gone to prop heaven. It was purchased from Kennedy by a school that wanted to do it in '08 and disappeared soon after . My guess is it serves as a dartboard for a student somewhere who I got on for talking too much!
I have to say, my favorite part of Kennedy's show was when they had the student come out as Damon in the novelty. Everyone from City High started laughing! I just wish he was wearing a colts shirt!
Unfortunately that sign has long since gone to prop heaven. It was purchased from Kennedy by a school that wanted to do it in '08 and disappeared soon after . My guess is it serves as a dartboard for a student somewhere who I got on for talking too much!
Probably my favorite novelty ever. It was the first song that I ever saw in show choir that actually stuck in my mind even though I'd been watching for 4 years before that
Even so it was a very refreshing take on it and I'm sure very flattering for the Kennedy kids. (I'm assuming that "goinggray" is Damon) I thought it was actually really cool because Altoona did not bring a prep group along with them and the yellow banana "Happy Jackets" as I learned they were called filled the front five rows as they cheered on Locomotion. That right there is a reason that show choir is the best sport or group activity in high school there is- you'd never see rival football teams cheering each other on.
Altoona's Next To Normal was approved by Storm and shared with all the Altoona kids. They were even encouraged to go watch the video on youtube. A fair # of changes in the movement also, but still was approved by both sides with full knowledge of the kids before it was ever taught. I never hide or try to pull one over on any group I work with, so it's all good.
Just some quick thoughts for the groups that I watched since I couldn't make it up to Waukee and I stopped in to watch some Day Round and some Night Round groups.
Altoona: I really liked your show this year. Your opener was a lot of fun and was caught in my head all day. The Next to Normal piece looked oddly familiar though so I looked it up and I believe that it was almost the exact same staging and choreography as the 2010-2011 Happiness, Incorporated who was also choreographed by Damon. You did a fantastic job with it and in no way was it a bad rendition, but it just struck me as odd. The ballad I thought could have used some more dynamic contrast. The novelty was simply hilarious in my opinion.. I am a huge fan of the novelty and got to see two fantastic ones today in Happiness, Incorporated and you guys but this one was my favorite of the two because it was a little different in my opinion. The only thing that stuck out though was that at the beginning when the guys were getting their bats, there was a girl standing on stage right with a bat in her hand and one of the men kept looking expectantly at her while everyone else had theirs and he didn't.. so maybe look at that because it seemed like an error. The closer was a TON of fun and I could just tell by watching that you all seem to love performing it. Costuming in the closer was a bit questionable but I loved the attitude given off.
Xavier: Love love love your show. I actually enjoyed it much more than last year's selections and there is still plenty of room to grow. I thought the band played consitantly well and the choreography matched it in almost every song. I loved the male soloists for Jesse's Girl and the ballad- i honestly would have given best male soloist to the ballad soloist. I think that if you all concentrate on vocals (because the visual aspects already are spectacular) that you will be a MAJOR force to be reckoned with.
Celebration (Wash): ^Those were the only two groups I watched during the day rounds but when I was heading into finals, I just missed the cutoff and forgot about the exhibition prep group and started watching halfway through the first number. Someone had to tell me afterwards that it was indeed a prep group because of how well your show was executed. After losing a director, you definitely stepped up and had an amazing show with good poise and I can't help but say that Momentum has a bright future in store.
Momentum: I'd like to echo what "Stolba" said in that you made huge improvements from day to night round. I didn't get to see your day performance but from everyone else in the auditorium watching you were chirping about things that you fixed and that everything looked cleaner. I think that the sky is definitely the limit this year for Mo- I like the arrangements and I like the choreography (for the most part). All I am waiting for is for all of the singer/dancers to just take the show through the roof. Best of luck
City High: Best band was very deservingly given to you. Holy crap. During dance breaks, if you want an example of how a band should play, definitely listen to 4th Ave. (And Xavier to an extent) I liked the cool arrangement of Drops of Jupiter, it was definitely something pretty cool and I loved the feeling. I did think that there was a little too much improv'd "reaching out" as I'll call it though. The thing that you definitely need to work on though is vocals- not because they were terrible, but because the band is laying the groundwork and outshine you at times in my opinion. Some of the best moments of the show were the dancebreaks and I would much prefer to remember the vocal moments.
Davenport North: I didn't get to see your day round but your night round you KILLED it. I'm not going to talk a whole lot about the rest of your show because the thing that I keep remembering is the two Next to Normal pieces in I am the One and "Light". Holy crap. Those vocals were just amazing. The male soloist for Light was fantastic as well- he was so passionate and energized. I loved listening and watching you. The main thing with this group is that a majority of the choreo wasn't extremely difficult; however you did exactly what you had to do and you made up for it with powerful vocals. Congratulations- I can't WAIT to see what you do with your show later on in the year and your placings, in my opinion, can only rise from here.
Bemidji: I am still hating myself for missing this group.. I LOVED your show last year (I still talk about the Final Countdown soloist) but unfortunately I needed to.. ahem. Use los servicios. Anyways I don't know your competition season but if I have the chance to see you later this year I will no doubt take it.
Kennedy: Again, I didn't get to see your day round. However, from what I heard it was amazing as well. I saw you once last year though and your opener and closers were basically the same thing. Slow starting/traditional and then a mashup of hip hop songs that are popular at the time. Luckily, that's where my complaints end. Vocals were by far the best of the day- there were some very memorable moments throughout the show that will stick with me for a long time. In the airplane song (2nd number) though, was there only supposed to be one guy that came out on stage right? Just looked odd to me. Ballad was freaking amazing. I can't wait till there is a video out because I will be watching it all of the time. Fantastic show overall and by far the winner (from the groups that I saw, which ruled out Bemidji) and heads and tails above the other groups (who were all very good, which really shows how well Happiness did). Congratulations and I hope to see you again soon!
So the next time I go to L I N N M A R R, I'm sure I'll have an exciting time at LYMMAIR. L E M U R has a wonderful director and competition that the L I N E M A R E community should be proud of. I apologize if my spelling of LY-NN-MA-AH-RR isn't always accurate. You should see all my spellings for Ziglar!
Jay LIVES for the few moments in which he can publically prove me wrong. I'll have him on the side of the stage in Muscatine next week as I emcee the competition fact checking everything that comes out of my mouth. Love ya Jayson Edgar.
Love ya too. Actually I was literally talking with Mr. Stolba about how Damon demolished the spelling and was going to correct him when you posted. So the lesson would've been provided whether you commented or not. But you can just keep pretending it was about you
Jay LIVES for the few moments in which he can publically prove me wrong. I'll have him on the side of the stage in Muscatine next week as I emcee the competition fact checking everything that comes out of my mouth. Love ya Jayson Edgar.
The name is derived from the location of the school district: Linn County (Linn) and the town of Marion (Mar). So it was combined, with a hyphen to make Linn-Mar.
Jay LIVES for the few moments in which he can publically prove me wrong. I'll have him on the side of the stage in Muscatine next week as I emcee the competition fact checking everything that comes out of my mouth. Love ya Jayson Edgar.
The name is derived from the location of the school district: Linn County (Linn) and the town of Marion (Mar). So it was combined, with a hyphen to make Linn-Mar.
Linn-Mar Supernova 2012
