dcro

Is it possible that you missed your memo?

OlympicIRL: "I Simply Let My Ears Do the Judging" Despite winning the event five times, Ireland has never placed second. Therefore, if you find yourself in a close race with them - you will lose. Most likely because Ireland is also the only nation which has scored points from the majority of all-time juries (275/494; 55.7%). Irish track record is indeed genuinely astonishing. Record 5+1 victories, two more podiums, record three team championships, and Music'thlon silver for good measure. In spite of it all, however, OlympicIRL's voting patterns usually lean towards the anti-establishment. What's the deal here? Q: How do you go about evaluating TISC entries? Do you use a specific system when picking out your Top 12? A: I don't have a method of evaluating entries other than listening to the songs to see what I like the most. By that I mean I don't break it down to criteria like vocals, style, etc. I simply let my ears do the judging, and if I like a song, then it doesn't matter about criteria. I listen to the songs once before making any sort of list. Then on the second listen I start listing the songs I want to hear again (generally this can range from 18-25 songs depending on how strong the edition is). The third listen is crucial as I try to carve the songs down to 16 (which would be enough for 12 + 4 reserves). Sometimes it's not possible to get down to 16 at that point which is fine, but the goal then on each listen is to keep eliminating more songs until I have around 16 left. Meanwhile, a general ranking is taking shape, and I then keep listening to make sure I am happy with my order, by listening in both directions (from lowest ranked to highest and from highest to lowest). Some parts of the voting order will have been set in stone by this point (maybe I have already decided a couple of the reserves have no chance of making the top 12 so they drop out) so it becomes easier, but there is always some movement. The final listen is always from lowest to highest ranked, just to ensure I am happy with my final order (each song should sound better than the previous one or else there is something wrong in my ranking). It sounds complicated, but it's not really. Just keep listening until enough songs are eliminated and then keep listening until I get a final order. Q: And what about the maximum 12 points? Can you recognize it immediately? Or do you take a certain amount of time before deciding on it? A: Yes, sometimes, I can recognize it immediately. That has happened maybe 4 times so far out of all the contests. And true enough, each time I got that feeling, the song did not drop from first place in my ranking. However, it is much more common for me to have around 3 songs (usually not more) fighting for that top spot and after each listen I become more and more certain which song will take my top mark. The order of my top-ranked song doesn't really change going into my final listen as my mind is usually made up that "yes, that is the one for me". Q: Do you have a favorite music genre? Is there any genre you would like to hear more of on the TISC stage? A: I think my votes reflect the fact I have a wide variety when it comes to music taste. I remember my votes closely resembled the combined French jury vote of Bohemia and benolympique in a recent contest and considering those 2 users have very different tastes, it must mean I am all over the place in terms of what I like. But I've always known that and I'm thrilled it's that way. My favourite genre is probably indie-rock, but anything from pop, rock, electronic, folk, reggae, punk rock can capture my attention. In terms of era, I love the sound of the 80s, it can't be denied. Q: How important are lyrics to you? A: Not at all. If a song is catchy and I end up singing or humming it, then I don't care about the lyrics at all. Same for foreign language songs. I never read a translation of the lyrics because I honestly don't want to understand the lyrics. The song means something unique to me, and that's how I like it. Q: And finally... How can we get 12 points from OlympicIRL? A: There is no magic formula, I guess some of the answers above could help, but I just don't know how to describe in words how to tell someone this is how you get my 12. If you want something evidence-based, look back at my previous 12 pointers and see if there's anything in there you can gather from that. If OlympicIRL's musical preferences still feel like a jigsaw puzzle - maybe this will help. Our resident Irish juror has outlined the following entries as favorites during the most recent editions... Stay tuned for more user interviews to come, as we count down to TOISC 2020...

Festival of Music appears rather unpopular this time. Usually it's 10 songs on day 1.

Trump started grasping for retweets at this point...

Stalin and Mao started no wars as well. Great company.

intoronto: "I Like All Genres, Except Heavy Metal" Earlier this year Canada became the first non-European nation (and non-EU member in general) to win the Grand Final. In doing so, Canada also became the first winning nation to enter a song which mentions the name of its own head juror - "I'm in Toronto and I got this view." As we are now exactly one week away from the Opening Ceremony in Holland, it is an ideal time to catch up with our latest champion... Q: How do you go about evaluating TISC entries? Do you use a specific system when picking out your Top 12? A: I try to listen to all the songs "blindly" (as in not knowing which country). I will discard any song that I do not like right away. From there I will try to narrow it down to my top 12 and then find out the country associated with each song. Q: And what about the maximum 12 points? Can you recognize it immediately? Or do you take a certain amount of time before deciding on it? A: It takes time, I don't think it's set after listening to the song for the first time. Q: Do you have a favorite music genre? Is there any genre you would like to hear more of on the TISC stage? A: I like all genres, except heavy metal (seriously, wtf, who can listen to that crap lol?) Q: How important are lyrics to you? A: Not that important, but they need to make sense. Q: And finally... How can we get 12 points from intoronto? A: Make the song sound amazing! If intoronto's musical preferences still feel like a jigsaw puzzle - maybe this will help. The resident Canadian juror has outlined the following entries as favorites during his most recent TISC participations... Stay tuned for more user interviews to come, as we count down to TOISC 2020...

Glen: "No Wonder Almost Every Song Obtains Top 3 From at Least One Voter" When TISC comes around, you can almost bet to find Malta somewhere in the upper-middle part of the order. Indeed, in 11 out of the 14 editions (78.6%), they have placed somewhere between 14th and 23rd position. This includes the four most recent editions (15th, 19th, 17th, 16th). Malta also has two Top 10 placings (2014 Open, 2017 Annual), and the disappointing 34th position from the Jubilee. One has to wonder if Glen's judging has been just as consistent all along... Q: How do you go about evaluating TISC entries? Do you use a specific system when picking out your Top 12? A: I listen to the playlist for about 3 times. I give a vote to each song with 10 being the maximum vote possible using 0.5 intervals (e.g. 6.5, 7, 7.5 etc.). Normally a song would require a vote of 7 to make to my top 12 votes. I then relisten those songs that are at a borderline of whether to make it to the final list or end up on the reserves list. Q: And what about the maximum 12 points? Can you recognize it immediately? Or do you take a certain amount of time before deciding on it? A: Normally, the 12 point song is recognized immediately, or sometimes it's just a decision between 2 songs. The problem in voting is normally to decide to which countries to allocate the 1 to 6 points and which countries to miss out on votes by just a position or two. Q: Do you have a favorite music genre? Is there any genre you would like to hear more of on the TISC stage? A: No particular music genre. The nice thing about these contests is that everyone is free to select his own particular song. Having participants from various cultures and different music tastes make it a contest with different genres. No wonder that almost every song obtains a top 3 position from at least one voter in each contest. Q: How important are lyrics to you? A: I give more importance to music. Having songs sung in their native language would be unfair to them if I don't understand them. As I already said, I follow the playlist when voting. Therefore I wouldn't follow the written lyrics included when submitting the song, even if they are translated into English. Q: And finally... How can we get 12 points from Glen? A: By submitting a catchy song that stands out from the rest of the songs after the first listening of the songs. If Glen's musical preferences still feel like a jigsaw puzzle - maybe this will help. Our resident Maltese juror has outlined the following entries as favorites during the most recent editions... Stay tuned for more user interviews to come, as we count down to TOISC 2020...

True, but my point was mainly about Trump's popular vote. Which is higher than Hilary's by milions at this point.

Trump now has more votes than any other previous president.

It would be unusual to enter a new season without a new program. Everyone does it.

And nitpicking about this is just like nitpicking people who say "I was reading some Twain." with "How can you read a person??".

Trump losing solely thanks to the Deep South would be hilarious, though.

To be fair here... Imagine if Biden "won" the election and then Trump started getting votes in the days to follow. Riots for days. Hell, there were massive riots even when Trump won it fair in the election night.

Pablita: "Lyrics Can Be Problematic" As joint head of The Committee, Pablita has accumulated extensive experience in evaluating TISC entries. Additionally, as national selector, she has lead Italy to numerous notable placings, including the victory at the Jubilee edition aboard L'esercito del Selfie. Q: How do you go about evaluating TISC entries? Do you use a specific system when picking out your Top 12? A: I listen to the songs in alphabetical order and I arrange them after each listening: is the second song better or worse than the first one? Is the third song better than the second one, but worse than the first one? And so on till the last. Then I listen again to the songs I like the most. Q: And what about the maximum 12 points? Can you recognize it immediately? Or do you take a certain amount of time before deciding on it? A: I discover the "winning song" only at the end because until the last song everything can change. Q: Do you have a favorite music genre? Is there any genre you would like to hear more of on the TISC stage? A: I prefer pop music, but the thing I like the most about our contests is the possibility of discovering new songs from different genres. Q: How important are lyrics to you? A: I'd like to know what the message/theme of the song is, so for the songs in languages different from Italian, English and Spanish, I prefer to have the translation or at least a brief explanation of the song. A song could be musically very captivating, but the lyrics could be problematic if you don't know what they mean. For example, singing in Italy this song aloud among other people could be hazardous, because the chorus says "Rape me, rape me, baby, rape me, rape me, rape me on the underground". Q: And finally... How can we get 12 points from Pablita? A: Choose a song in your language with a catchy chorus and tell me about the song/singer. If Pablita's musical preferences still feel like a jigsaw puzzle - maybe this will help. Our resident Italian juror has outlined the following entries as favorites during the most recent editions... Stay tuned for more user interviews to come, as we count down to TOISC 2020...

Wanderer: "I Learned Kitoks Pasaulis Lyrics in Lithuanian by Heart" Would you take this class? On surface, the formula of Wanderer's voting patterns appears simple. Just enter the most obscure song you can find and you will get your reward. But then again, if you are aiming to win, New Zealand is probably not your target audience. Wanderer, however, argues things may not be quite that simple... Q: How do you go about evaluating TISC entries? Do you use a specific system when picking out your Top 12? A: Well, there is no specific system, it is just what I like and what I find as a quality song, totally subjective thing. Sometimes I am drawn by the music, sometimes the lyrics are the stand out point, and occasionally the voice. If all there catch my ear, heart, all the senses after the first listening, there you go, you pass the first round. I am often done after the second round when I pick my top 12 When there are a couple of songs that are on the verge to get points, I give additional hearing and then decide based on circumstances - the creativity, the historical background, the meaning of the song, and if it is about the songs I know from before or the new one - I would award the new one. Q: And what about the maximum 12 points? Can you recognize it immediately? Or do you take a certain amount of time before deciding on it? A: Oh, yes, it is usually immediately there. I think there was no game where I did not have a song that stood out, only in a couple of games when there were several such songs. From the recent memory - I wanna be adored, Ma Soeur (one of the recent French entries), The Communions, Kitoks Pasaulis (Werloc will always be remembered because of this song ), two Russian entries: Перемен and Песня Про То, Как Гусь Нашёл Омлет (И Что Из Этого Стало) from vovanA... Sometimes I need more time, but all in all, it is love at first sight. Q: Do you have a favorite music genre? Is there any genre you would like to hear more of on the TISC stage? A: Not really. I like rock the most, which is veeery wide. Turned 31 recently, so I had a lot of different phases. Still, over the last couple of years, I am mostly into post-punk, garage rock, Dunedin sound <3, jazz punk, jangle/Brit-pop, alternative rock, indie pop/rock, rock and jazz fusion and had been investigating a lot of music from other countries finding many interesting "species" and sub-genres where rock fused with folk, blues music. On the TISC stage, I get constantly disappointed by USA's choices, German, Canadian, frequently Italian and French as well. They have so much to offer, but somehow they nominate the song I don't like. Obviously, the songs nominated are often quality ones but not something I personally would value highly enough. I would like to some older songs coming from these nations, songs that made some impact on society, music in general. I appreciate Portugal's nominations very much. Always original and kungshamra really showed us the diversity of Portugal's music scene. I would only like to have less generic pop songs. That is all Oh - and I encourage songs in native languages! Q: How important are lyrics to you? A: To me, they are more important than the voice to be honest Sometimes even decisive. I learned Kitoks Pasaulis lyrics in Lithuanian by heart (I find Lithuanian a beautiful language, Werloc may disagree) and thanks to the Werloc's translation and my additional research, I instantly fell in love with the lyrics! Italy won my 11 (or 12?) points when they won the contest thanks to the lyrics as well. Q: And finally... How can we get 12 points from Wanderer? A: I think people often believe the more obscure, the better when it comes to my 12 points but I'd say no. Be quirky, daring, unconventional, lo-fi, perhaps lean more to the genres I usually listen to, and your chances are high. If you got meaningful, deep lyrics and awful voices, don't worry, you are on the good road As the definition of atomic orbitals states, we can talk only about probability, so aforementioned conditions increase it highly! And yet, there are no rules, just exceptions! So be and exception that turns into the accept-ion! If Wanderer's musical preferences still feel like a jigsaw puzzle - maybe this will help. Our New Zealand, juror with anti-establishment tendencies has outlined the following entries as favorites during the most recent editions... Stay tuned for more user interviews to come, as we count down to TOISC 2020...

They are still not calling Georgia for Trump. Even with 99% votes counted, just like with WI/MI.

Anyway, in my experience, the Team Challenge works best with a simple format. Maybe something based on team gymnastics like... 5 appaeatus, 4 gymnasts up, 3 scores count = 5 sessions, 4 nations up, 3 scores count (either best 3 session scores or best 3 individual sccores)

In honor of he-who-must-not-be-named, we could call it Bestmen College.

We could have our own electoral college. Only instead of population, we use the number of participations / result history to determine who gets how many electoral votes for the Team Challenge. Basically, Ireland would be our California, the Netherlands would be our Pennsylvania, while someone like Israel would be our Rhode Island.

Slovakia can test 2.5 mil people in one day, America needs days on end to organize some papers.

Democratic People's Republic of Washington

By population, not by size. Indiana has lots more people than Montana.

So I assume @heywoodu put some money on Biden.

Trump is still hanging on in Michigan.

It's fine because I can blame it all on them.