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The Cure => General The Cure Discussion => Topic started by: ChelseaB on March 01, 2019, 08:57:16

Title: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 01, 2019, 08:57:16
Hi CureFans,
I hope this is the correct board to post this--but if it isn't, let me know and I'll move it.

Starting at 8am MST / UTC -7, MarchVladness, the Tournament of Goth will begin. You still have a few hours to get in your bracket (and pick The Cure!) at marchvladness.com

About the tournament: "March Vladness, taking place in March 2019, is the latest in our series of yearly March-Madness-style tournaments of essays about songs. Writers & musicians each take on a song from the 64-song field, and we play the tournament off, essay vs essay and song vs song, each game decided by popular vote, until we crown a champion at month's end."

The committee picked "Hanging Garden" to represent the band, and I've written the essay in support of the song. It will be published in the morning. I'd love to know what you think of it.

In the first match-up, the band is up against The Bolshoi--which should be a slam dunk, but anything can happen. Voting is open for 24 hours. If The Cure wins this round, they will next be up against either Modern English or Birthday Party. You can follow the games on Twitter or on the website. Audience participation is encouraged!

Thank you for reading,
Chelsea   :heart-eyes:
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 07, 2019, 09:21:52
Update on the competition: The Cure beat the Bolshoi, and have advanced to Round Two.  :) :lol: 

The songs and essays this year are really fantastic--check out Berry Grass on The Chameleons UK "Swamp Thing" marchvladness.com/#/round1-asfvschameleons/ and Todd Kaneko on Shriekback "Nemesis" : marchvladness.com/#/round1-shriekbackvsq/

I'll leave a note when the round two games are about to go live.
c
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: chemicaloverload on March 07, 2019, 11:05:08
Hi Chelsea, would it be possible for you to post the winning essay? Would love to read it :)
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 08, 2019, 06:52:01
Sure! Here's my essay (on the left). It has only won the first round so far. Sometime next week it will be back up, playing against either Modern English or Birthday Party (that match up hasn't happened yet).

http://marchvladness.com/#/round1-curevsbolshoi/
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: Ulrich on March 09, 2019, 11:01:11
Thanks for sharing the link with us and good luck for the next round.

However I got to admit: I am one of those who never saw The Cure really as "goth" (as opposed to bands like Bauhaus, Fields, SOM etc.)!  :expressionless:

And another thing (about Mary):
QuoteShe's the only woman to be featured in a Cure video ("Just Like Heaven").

Seriously? Have you ever watched the "Charlotte Sometimes" video?  :?
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: chemicaloverload on March 09, 2019, 11:50:33
Thank you for sharing. So what's the premise of the competition? What are the judges looking for in an essay?
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 09, 2019, 18:36:45
Quote from: Ulrich on March 09, 2019, 11:01:11

Seriously? Have you ever watched the "Charlotte Sometimes" video?  :?

I had seen it, but then I read about the original video cut for Just Like Heaven, and (via PostPunk and later misattributed on wikipedia as being a quote from the director, rather than him quoting Bob): The first 18½ minutes of footage  is an interview with Robert Smith, in which he talks about working with his wife, Mary, who "can honestly lay claim to being the only featured female in any Cure video, ever"

I thought that must mean that Charlotte Sometimes was somehow ruled out on some sort of technicality--fan made or something (I hadn't seen it in ages). When my good friend asked the same thing as you, I dug up the video and rewatched and it is clearly not fan-made!... so I did some sleuthing. Apparently the band all hated that video and so I guess they are pretending it never happened? I have the opportunity to change my essay, but I'm not sure how to frame this weird factoid.
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 09, 2019, 18:41:21
Quote from: chemicaloverload on March 09, 2019, 11:50:33
Thank you for sharing. So what's the premise of the competition? What are the judges looking for in an essay?

You are the judge, so I'd ask you what you think! The competition works like the basketball March Madness, in that song/essay pairs are matched up on particular days but unlike basketball, readers/listeners vote for their favorite and the voting constitutes "the game." The scores are a tally of the website votes + votes on the Twitter poll for that match-up, and the most votes win. Some folks vote for the song and never read the essays, and some folks vote for the writing. Recently, Crüxshadows beat Nick Cave because the band has a really active social media following, and they flooded the voting. We were all pretty surprised, because most of us had Cave going pretty deep in the bracket (I had him slated to win it all).

So, on March 14th, The Cure will be back up, for Round Two, only this time their song & my essay will be up against David Turkel's essay on The Birthday Party's "Release the Bats" The song with the most votes will advance to round three.

They do this competition every year, but with a different theme or genre. Last year it was "MarchShredness" and it featured hair metal songs from the 80s. The first year they did it, it was "MarchSadness" and it was all sad college rock songs. It's mostly a fun thing to do in March for a bunch of music/writing nerds who aren't really into sports. :)
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 09, 2019, 18:44:27
Quote from: Ulrich on March 09, 2019, 11:01:11

Seriously? Have you ever watched the "Charlotte Sometimes" video?  :?

I found one note on one board suggesting that the girl in the video was Janet Smith, his sister. Do you have any idea if that's true or where I could confirm it?
Thank you!
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: Ulrich on March 09, 2019, 20:03:40
Be that as it may, after JLH there were other videos featuring females (e.g. The 13th and Just Say Yes)!

Quote from: ChelseaB on March 09, 2019, 18:36:45
Apparently the band all hated that video and so I guess they are pretending it never happened?

Maybe! Or maybe "featured" means that she is pictured in the video along with the band (which is not the case in CS I think).
I don't know who the girl is, I heard a rumour she was Simon's girlfriend at the time...
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 09, 2019, 21:21:19
I asked the editors to carefully reword that line to: "Robert Smith met Mary Poole at school when they were both 14-years old. He has said she's the only woman to be featured in a Cure video ("Just Like Heaven"), though it's not true."

Thank you for keeping me honest. I shouldn't have assumed that Smith was a reliable source!  :D
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: Ulrich on March 10, 2019, 11:53:05
Well, keep in mind, even if Robert had forgotten about the CS video, they made lots more videos after JLH ('87)!
Title: Re: The Cure - MarchVladness 2019 Tournament of Goth
Post by: ChelseaB on March 14, 2019, 18:34:39
Today is the day The Cure makes it to the Sweet Sixteen or kisses further competition goodbye!

I'd love your vote against The Birthday Party: https://twitter.com/marchvladness/status/1106199140088705032