Back from vacation, back to the Big Quiz Thing, and oh, what a show tonight. "An Entirely Presidented Quiz"—a barrel-of-fun American history quiz focusing on the Presidents—was a great success; you can't go wrong with James K. Polk.
Naturally, there was a lot of Michael Jackson tonight. Sad how his death already seems kind of like old news—the fitting appreciation for his musical achievements has already degraded into the same tabloid garbage that made that last decade of his life such a pathetic spectacle—but the BQT had to respond. Not out of some egomaniacal delusion that the world cares what I think, but because I've personally always viewed the quiz as an outlet for my own tremendous pop-cultural jones. If I let such a huge pop event go by without comment, I was failing in my own little personal trivia mission. I had to jam on the MJ tonight, for myself (though, yes, hopefully to entertain you as well).
As such, lots of Michael tonight. The audio round, "Maximum Michael Jackson," of course, but also…
Michael Jackson appeared in what 1986 film, which at the time was the most expensive film to produce on a per-minute basis?
When the Jackson 5 first won Amateur Night at the Apollo, Michael was only two weeks away from turning what age?
Michael Jackson had a total of BLANK brothers and BLANK sisters.
(Incidentally, in the past week and a half, I'd tweeted all of these.)
Also, lots of fun with the four-part questions tonight: "Gay or Jewish?" is always good for a laugh, and great job guessing/remembering the twist ending to Twilight Zone episodes, and making Smart-Ass Points out of them. I have no doubt that the episode "People Are Alike All Over" would've been a lot funnier if Roddy McDowall had discovered that the martians had given him a lovely apartment…in Bushwick.
The standings:
1. Strippers for Stephen Hawking: It was only a matter of time for them.
2. Fantastic Fournicators
3. Cash Cab 4 Cutie
4. Birds of Ill Omen 2.0
5. Ain't Nothin' but a Geek Thing
Next show July 20, but get ready: The 200th episode of the Big Quiz Thing, August 31. Details to come in this very space.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Polk, Michael Jackson, The Twilight Zone: Together at last
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Hail to the hirsute
While availing myself of some ridiculously delicious Wise Honey BBQ potato chips from the vending machine at the day job, I noticed something interesting…
Sorry for the crappy photos and inaccurate date, but I am a legendarily bad photographer. Still, my point is made: The fictional sample President pictured on the venue machine looks like no President that had ever occupied the White House. He has shoulder-length hair and a walrus mustache. Apparently, in Vending Machine Land, General Custer survived Little Bighorn and was elected chief executive immediately afterward.
The choice of this picture really puzzles me, since we haven't had a President with facial hair in almost 100 years. Apparently, modern Americans think if you haven't shaved, you have something to hide. There was a bit of a to-do several years ago, in fact, when Jon Corzine was first running for governor of New Jersey and advisers told him to lose his beard; he refused, but won anyway. (And of course, we here in New York now have our own bearded governor, for all the good he's doing us. New Mexico's joined the club too, though I suspect Richardson stopped giving a shit once he flamed out in the presidential election.)
Discounting the sweet sideburns on the face of President Martin Van Buren (1837–1841), our first facially haired President was Abraham Lincoln (1861–1865). Nine of the next eleven chief executives were hirsute (counting Grover Cleveland twice, as most historians do). Best of the lot was definitely Rutherford B. Hayes (1877–1881):
That last to be mustachioed was William Howard Taft (1909–1913). Personally, I think facial-hair hatred has always been baseline for American culture; the late 1800s were an anomaly, brought about by the Civil War. For whatever reason—maybe just that both Lincoln and Lee wore whiskers—facial hair became fashionable during the conflict, and it was nearly mandatory that postwar politicians appropriate the look (if not an actual record) of Civil War service. The aesthetic persisted long enough to carry over into the early 20th century, but was dead by the First World War. Still, check out this sweet look on 1916 Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes:
That last hirsute major-party nominee was New York's own Thomas Dewey, Republican candidate in both 1944 and '48:
A famous quip from the '44 campaign was from Alice Roosevelt Longworth (TR's eldest), who compared the Republican to "the little man on the wedding cake." Humiliation like that went a long way toward both of Dewey's losses. The tide was turning against facial hair, never to return, despite what the vending-machine industry says.
Bonus: Check out the great T-shirt BQT doorgirl Sherry got me for my birthday last year (the back gives an honorable mention to Martin VB):
Thursday, June 25, 2009
MUST GET NEWS ON MICHAEL JACKSON!
Yes, big story. Ed McMahon's moving down the couch.
First, his absolute best song:
And below, I just wrote this up for Time Out New York's music blog, a sort of "memories of Michael Jackson" piece, but I might as well share here. MJ trivia to come at the next quiz or two, for sure…
For anyone born when I was—1975—Star Wars has the ingrained importance of a folk legend, and Michael Jackson strode like a titan within popular culture. He was easily the most important man on earth when I was at that formative age, and I wasn't even a fan (I preferred Hall and Oates).
Bowing to some kind of pressure, the administration of my elementary school herded us all into the auditorium one afternoon to screen the extended
"Thriller" video. (One girl's parents got upset; they were crazy Christians and the occult content offended their sensibilities.) Around the same time, my fourth-grade teacher gifted honor students with Michael Jackson posters (I gave mine to a dumb girl I had a crush on). I opted for Thriller as my monthly cassette tape purchase in early 1983, not because I really wanted it, but simply because I felt I needed it as a human being. I'm sure adults at the time had a different perspective, but I remember Michael Jackson uniting the culture in the way that the Beatles had earlier (I'm told), and in a way no one ever will again in our media-fractured society.
For the record: I later developed an appreciation for most of Thriller, became a fan of his Jackson 5 work and never believed for a second that he molested those kids.
UPDATE: We're jamming on the MJ for the next quiz: Monday, July 6, the audio round will now be "Maximum Michael Jackson." Plus more Bubbles-friendly trivia during the night. Sham-ON!
You will have the time of your life
Quizmaster news: 92YTribeca, an excellent event that I've been looking to get involved with for some time now, is hosting "Swayze Days of of Summer" in July, a festival of films starring the ugliest sex symbol in Hollywood history, Patrick Swayze. And on Friday, July 17, for a little extra kick before the requisite screening of Dirty Dancing, I will make a guest appearance, presenting a brief Swayzoid trivia quiz for several lucky audience members (with fantabulous prizes). Come and try to play, or better yet, come and laugh at those who do play (and at me, of course).
I cannot tell a lie, Dirty Dancing is not among my most beloved films of all time, but it's a definite touchstone for my generation; 99.9 percent of the girls in my middle-school class discovered their gonads while watching this movie, so I should've grown to love it if I wanted to lose my virginity before age 31. But I give it serious credit for its genuine period feel and the dancing talent on display, and for a typical ace acting job by my homeslice, Jerry Orbach. We shall not speak of "Hungry Eyes."
Regardless, details: Friday, July 17, at 10:30pm, at 92YTribeca (Hudson between Canal and Desbrosses). A mere $10. Official info here.
If I got you feeling nostalgic, look for video clips here. Better yet, watch this much funnier Swayze moment:
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
NT's greatest hits, No. 15 (of 34)
More rock & roll!
"Teenage Kicks" by the Undertones
The Undertones were a young Irish pop-punk band that did pretty well in the U.K. in the late '70s—"My Perfect Cousin" and "Here Comes the Summer" are nearly as excellent—peaking with this 1978 single, a basic but insistent declaration of pep and hormones. "A teenage dream's so hard to beat/Every time she walks down the street" has a kind of savant genius to it. Famously, the single was picked up by John Peel, a tremendously influential DJ of the era, who awarded it 28 stars on his five-star scale, played it nonstop, declared it his favorite tune of all time, and now has a line from it inscribed on his tombstone. Dedication.
I wouldn't go quite that far—the song doesn't exactly have a lot of texture, and I don't have that much adolescent nostalgia—but you can't beat "Teenage Kicks" for a straight-between-the-eyes rock song. That riff will absolutely never get old, and you can feel the band's genuine youthful anxiety—lead singer Feargal Sharkey was only 20 at the time, guitarist and songwriter John O'Neil was 21—oozing through every note.
As a bonus, my lady friend turned me on to this: a cover version by Nouvelle Vague, a French band that covers new wave, punk and postpunk as bossa nova tunes (making their name an exceedingly clever pun). I love the way she enunciates "right through the night"…
"Strawberry Fields Forever"
"Tunnel of Love"
"I Get Around"
"Local Girls"
"Don't Let's Start"
"Suffragette City"
"See-Saw"
"My Name Is Jonas"
"Mr. Tambourine Man"
"Reelin' in the Years"
"Objects of My Affection" and "Crimson and Clover"
"OK Apartment" and "Just What I Needed"
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Threeways are NOT overated
First of all, seriously, I swear, another Super Mega Ultra Hard Question soon. Plus, more of my favorite songs. Plus, more, more, etc., etc.
So while EDP was sorely missed at tonight's BQT—we're all curious how the family did on the Food Network—we had what could be accurately described, I believe, as a barrel of monkeys. Nine teams—nine!—out of 23 got that supposedly impossible rock logo correct (see above), and you absolutely cleaned up with the Sporty Sounds audio round. (Yes, not songs about sports, but actual audio of people playing and others commentated pro sports. Man, I never knew darts was so exciting.) Massive thanks to Claudia for guest-sidekicking; she now returns to the ranks of team Tattoos for the Elderly. See, she's just like you!!!
Great Smart-Ass Point tonight: "Courtesy Thomas Edison, the first word recorded and played back on a phonograph was what proper name?" The Smart-Ass answer: Satan, but it was backwards. Nothing like 1980s-style backwards-masking paranoia for a good belly laugh.
And man, what a finish! Three-way tie! Returning champs Cash Cab 4 Cutie, perennial victors Gerard Depardouche, and brand-new debuting team the Farsi Side. Onstage tiebreaker with the bells! (And yes, I bring three bells with me each time, just in case this happens.) A nail-biter as none of the players know…
What incredibly weird 2001 film included conversations about time travel and the sexuality of Smurfs?
But the Douche knew…
What do you call a young domesticated pigeon that has never flown and is raised for meat?
Then Cash Cab riposted with…
In which river did John the Baptist baptize Jesus?
Again, no one got…
In the early 1990s, a new comic-book publisher called Image Comics briefly dominated the industry, largely on the strength of what new character?
But then the Farsi Side caught up, stealing a correct answer on…
Of the three candidates who received electoral college votes in the 1912 presidential election, how many of them served as President at some point, past present or future?
And finally, in an ever-so-close finish, TFS took it on…
What was the apropos nickname of the 16th and 17th century Greek religious painter who worked primarily in Spain?
And thus, our standings:
1. The Farsi Side: A victorious debut!
2. Cash Cab 4 Cutie/Gerard Depardouche (a tiebreaker for second would've been anticlimatic, and besides, I was running out of questions)
4. Strippers for Stephen Hawking
5. Fantastic Fournicators/Fat Kids Ruin Your Gas Mileage (tie)
July 6! Two days after the Fourth of July, we're busting out an American theme: "An Entirely Presidented Quiz" in the video, "Welcome to America!" in the audio. Party time.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
This Monday: RAWK!
A video-round preview for Monday. We're doing "Rock Logo-a-Go-Go" (not unlike "Sports Logo-a-Go-Go" we did many moons ago). I've futzed with a few well-known rock band logos, you must ID the band (yeah, band—thought about using a few solo artists, but I ended up not). So…what's this?
Too easy? Eh, maybe. Let's see how smart you are Monday, smarty!
Plus, EDP will be out, but we'll see the return of Comical Claudia Cogan as our guest sidekick. Watch this…
