View Single Post
  #58   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 26-04-2011, 18:13
The Lucas's Avatar
The Lucas The Lucas is offline
CaMOElot, it is a silly place
AKA: My First Name is really "The" (or Brian)
FRC #0365 (The Miracle Workerz); FRC#1495 (AGR); FRC#4342 (Demon)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Mar 2002
Rookie Year: 2001
Location: Dela-Where?
Posts: 1,564
The Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond reputeThe Lucas has a reputation beyond repute
Send a message via AIM to The Lucas
Re: pic: Bills Blog - Bleachers in pit

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ricksta View Post
FIRSTŪ Championship Friday night entertainment FIRST is delighted to announce a free, private performance for Registered FIRST Championship Teams in St. Louis by Grammy award-winning superstar, will.i.am with special guests on Friday evening April 29, 2011 at 8:30 PM at the Edward Jones Dome.

The FIRST Championship community is invited to take part in this extraordinary evening that we hope will be the basis of a potential future television special. Please wear your team colors! Please also be aware that being part of a television audience entails possible interruptions during the course of the show to make sure the best footage is captured.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jspatz1 View Post
So the FRC Championship matches are relegated to some makeshift bleachers in the pits to make room for a pop music concert. The core message of FIRST is to teach young people to celebrate the right things, to change pop culture to focus on what is really important, to help society set the right priorities. I hate to say it out load, but the irony of this is so powerful that I cannot help but feel that FIRST has temporarily lost sight of its own message. I welcome and am grateful for the support of the Black Eyed Peas. It is fine to try to incorporate and leverage their support into the Championship event. But to literally displace the fields and matches and scramble the competition that is the very purpose of the event, that seems like a perfect example of being enamored by pop glitter and allowing it to come before what is really important...exactly what we are asking young people to resist doing.
(some emphasis mine)

Jeff,
I know you probably didn't see the details (the few that are shared right now) of the Friday night event before you posted but we shouldn't trivialize it as a pop music concert. FIRST seems to be trying to turn this (and probably other parts of the competition) into a television special. CD has pretty much universally applauded previous TV specials like Gearing Up (PBS), and MSC this year (local ABC).

With celebrity guests, like will.i.am and Morgan Freeman, this could have appeal to a much larger audience than previous efforts. Spreading the message of FIRST through celebrities & TV is in line with the core mission of FIRST from my perspective. FIRST's MO has always been "use the culture to change the culture", for example utilizing the sports model for a robot competition.

Lack of info about the Friday night event is probably the reason it has become such a big deal. I hope Bill will go into the process how these decisions are made in one of the FRC Live shows. I am on Curie, so I have similar concerns about scouting and room, particularly for Elim matches. It is not optimal, but it will work out alright in the end (I like a few others posted here have been to Epcot for 2 years and loved it bleachers and all). If this event turns into a national (or even international) TV Special, I feel the sacrifice of space is definitely worth it. Even if it doesn't make it to the national level, I believe it was worth the effort/experiment this year.
__________________
Electrical & Programming Mentor ---Team #365 "The Miracle Workerz"
Programming Mentor ---Team #4342 "Demon Robotics"
Founding Mentor --- Team #1495 Avon Grove High School
2007 CMP Chairman's Award - Thanks to all MOE members (and others) past and present who made it a reality.
Robot Inspector
"I don't think I'm ever more ''aware'' than I am right after I burn my thumb with a soldering iron"

Last edited by The Lucas : 26-04-2011 at 18:33.
Reply With Quote