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Thanks ! I know that your insightful report on Night Two of prelims won't come till later....but please report the names of the winners as soon as you can.
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Date Posted: 21:17:53 12/16/19 Mon
>HELLO from Connecticut!
>
>Well, night 1 is over, and congratulations to the very
>talented Victoria Hill. Also, congratulations to Jade
>Glab and Mallory Rivard for their impressive
>interviews. I’m not sure where to begin, so I will
>answer the question that most everyone is wanting to
>know: what is the vibe? The vibe is bad. Just plain
>bad. Last year in AC, there was tension and
>uncertainty of whether the pageant would remain there.
> Things had just started to deteriorate, and there was
>a lot of tension as to whether or not certain state
>boards would get the axe, there were many people
>against the changes, etc. This year, the vibe is
>just, I hate to say this, dead, amateur, and
>disorganized. Now, to be fair, this is my first time
>out of Atlantic City. I was not to Las Vegas. But,
>at least you had the preliminaries there in a nice
>theater. And also to be fair, the Mohegan Sun is very
>nice. It is the first time I was there, and it is
>very nice. But the room itself-it’s almost like a
>generic room where you would meet for a business
>convention. I was waiting for someone to come out and
>sell Amway (ha!) or come up with their PowerPoint
>presentation. That’s the kind of room that it is.
>It is very nice, but it isn’t even a theater. In
>AC, you could put banners over the balconies, large
>signs, etc. You can hold up a sign if you care to
>carry it, and there are some people with your standard
>fare cheering, etc. But the whole preliminary vibe is
>gone. It is very sparsely attended, including former
>Miss Americas. The usual state delegations, you can
>kind of tell who is there for who, who is family, etc.
> But there are not large crowds at all, for anyone.
>And it’s not enjoyable. It’s tense, there’s a
>sense of quietness about everyone. I don’t think
>anyone is truly “excited”. I am not excited, I am
>more deflated after seeing what has become of our
>beloved PAGEANT. It’s random. The good news is
>that if you don’t want or have loads of money for an
>evening gown, congratulations! You don’t have to
>have one. Some of the contestants opted not to even
>wear an evening gown. Even the MAOT pageant has this.
> And what I feared would come true is exactly what
>happened-everyone pretty much sounded the same. If
>you heard the online videos, it wasn’t that much
>different from what you heard this evening. I want to
>be Miss America because I want to make a difference/I
>overcame difficulty/I now have a voice. Etc. I
>don’t know what else to say. For once, I am at a
>loss for words, and any of you who read this board
>know that is usually not a problem for me 😉 There
>seems to be much more of a focus on a “job”.
>It’s not even fun. There’s NO glamour whatsoever.
> And even so, when I say disorganized, it was.
>Despite the same line being told over again and again
>and again and again, it just seems like there is no
>clear idea of what the “job” is about. The
>contestants really don’t have the chance to sell
>themselves but in very short, canned answers. You are
>making 51 unique individuals try and prove that they
>are “the best for the job” when it’s really not
>clear what the job really is. These 51 individuals
>have different educational backgrounds, social
>interests, and personal backgrounds. If you
>“interview” for a “job”, you are usually
>someone in this day and age with an education and
>background in a specific area. It doesn’t even make
>any sense what they are trying to do.
>
>Okay, I will turn to the better part of the night.
>The talent was GOOD. If we had 3 nights of
>competition and you had some of tonight’s
>contestants going in different groups, there would be
>some amazing winners. I could have seen this going 6
>different ways. The best of the night was AL, MO, CA,
>GA, HI and UT. I wouldn’t have been surprised at
>any of them. Also good were Kansas, Tennessee,
>Vermont, and North Carolina. I hate to say this, but
>what people were saying about South Carolina is true.
>She just doesn’t have good talent. Although, based
>on what we see tomorrow night, I just want to remind
>everyone that last year MA did not have a good talent
>and was in the top 5.
>
>Good segue to what happened next. Truthfully, I did
>not have NJ as my winner tonight. But then again,
>this was by far THE WORST of the competition. Between
>the canned speeches, it was hard to figure out who
>really stood out. I didn’t have her standing out.
>And I am just being honest-I don’t know which part
>of tonight’s canned answers were judged, if they
>both were, just one, etc. I didn’t get the program
>book yet (not even sure I am going to, really). I
>thought some of the better ones of the night were
>Virginia, Mississippi was generic and pageanty but
>decent, Texas did speak confidently, and Minnesota
>sounded confident. Florida is VERY pageanty. Don’t
>get me wrong-I am very happy for Jade. She is a nice
>young woman and I thought the minute she was crowned
>is that she had national potential. She is confident
>without being over the top. And I would say the same
>thing with Michigan. The thing is-the judges
>interviewed 26 contestants and Michigan came out the
>winner. And who the hell can say whether or not
>anyone who wins is going to be in the top 15? Last
>year, VA did not make it but the others did. I would
>say that we have to take Michigan as a serious
>contender. But with only 3 judges, how are they
>REALLY going to determine who is scoring consistently
>and not? You have three opinions. I have seen
>judging disasters with a full panel. This I just
>don’t know what to say about any of it because
>there’s just repeating lines over and over again for
>15 or 20 seconds and talent. And with only three
>judges, who knows what we will get? I was surprised
>at the results of the speaking portions, although
>moreso with onstage than with private interviews. I
>did think that Mallory did a good enough job in her
>personal video. I thought that she personalized her
>story, spoke with a natural confidence. Did I think
>she would be first in this group? Likely not, but
>it’s a whole new competition when it’s a whole new
>competition.
>
>That’s sort of my short synopsis for now. I am
>tired, confused, and as I said, a bit deflated. I am
>going to post a full talent review sometime by
>mid-afternoon and then try and decipher what happened
>with the onstage questions parts of things. But I will
>give you the information as best as I can. Also, if
>you have any contestants in particular who you are
>cheering for and would like me to pay attention to
>them, please list them and I will pay close attention
>to them tomorrow and let you know how their
>competition was.
>
>Now I am off to get a good night’s rest. Long day,
>folks!
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