October 28, 2008

Politics is never trivial

Welcome to the Big Quiz Thing blog: The Place for Politics.

Well, perhaps not. But last night's BQT was a place for politics, at least, as we presented a heaping spoonful of election-anticipating political trivia, to go with the usual anything-and-everything quiz fare.

For those of you who missed it, the video round, "Presidential Logo-A-Go-Go," tested players to name the presidential candidate by the logo, with the name cleverly Photoshopped out. Good job, many of you. To others…this is not Adlai Stevenson:
It's this guy (also the last major-party nominee before McCain who wasn't born in the United States, but that's another trivia question).

Otherwise, we whooped it up with "The Mystery Audio Round." Most of you figured out the mystery pretty fast, but here you go: Every song was by an artist with a President's last name in his/her/their name (e.g., people like James Taylor; bands like Bush). Yes, we left off Wilson Phillips, Bryan Adams, Lita Ford, Aaron Carter; all good options. Linkin Park—maybe. The Dead Kennedys or Mojo Nixon—that's what they intended in the first place.

Anyway, don't forget to vote. Then don't forget to come to the next BQT, November 10, when we'll be applying a bit of a Alfred Hitchcock theme, to celebrate our giveaway of tix to the Broadway production of The 39 Steps (it's a Broadway show based on a Hitchcock movie, don't you see). And yes—that's in addition to the regular $250 grand prize. Value!

This week's standings…

1. Strippers for the Retiring Stephen Hawking: They're not retiring; Stephen Hawking is. Anyway, they pulled out a narrow tiebraker victory, so they definitely ain't going nowhere.
2. Fantastic Fournicators: Returning champions. Sorry, but I'm pretty confident you'll be back.
3. Sugah Titz
4. Gerard Depardouche
5. Suck It, Trebeck!

We really need some new teams in the upper echelons. November 10, smart guys!

And vote. Preferably not for this guy.

October 14, 2008

Movie vs. movie: to the death!

It felt good: returning to the BQT after the four-week hiatus. Apologies: venue complications. But the quiz is reliably on every other Monday night through the end of 2008. We are here for you, rest easy.

Last night's show witnessed the return of what I generally consider the Big Quiz Thing's marquee video round, "The Bipolar Movie Challenge." (I must post it to YouTube posthaste.) Some were easy (I heard one big shot scoff at how he got the Gangs of New York/West Side Story combo within two seconds), some were hard, all were clever. If I may so say, of course…

Hardest question last night: Only two teams knew this unnecessarily long query during the Lightning Round: "We tend to call any animal-like stone building appendage of a gargoyle, but technically, gargoyles serve as waterspouts. If it doesn’t channel water, it’s technically known as a what?" Some logical guesses (statue, buttress, caryatid), but few got it on the menacing, hauntingly misshapen nose.

Easiest question: "At the very beginning of this year’s vice presidential debate, while the candidates were shaking hands, Sarah Palin asked Joe Biden if she could what?" Yeah, I knew it wasn't exactly the riddle of the Sphinx, but I'd underestimated the cultural ubiquity of this little factoid. As I commented, Sarah Palin has become a political-trivia gift that keeps on giving; now I know how Tina Fey feels.

Speaking of which: Yes! Next show, October 27, there will be a bit of a political theme running through things. Not too much—you do not need to be a Nate Silver acolyte to do well (or enjoy) the show. What we will have is "Presidential Logo A-Go-Go": Name the candidate whose presidential-race logo I have cleverly manipulated. Like so:Fun! Plus, the return of "The Mystery Audio Round"! Nothing but joy, even if the polls have tightened up by then.

And now, the standings from last night. Lots of regulars here; come on, new people!

1. Fantastic Fournicators (I have officially declared them the winningest team in BQT history, though I have no hard evidence to verify that)
2. Gerard Depardouche (probably the second-placiest team in BQT history)
3. Sugah Titz (respectable for returning champs)
4. Birds of Ill Omen
5. Strippers for Stephen Hawking

October 7, 2008

I watched the Watchmen

Below is a simple cut-and-paste job from a post I wrote for Time Out New York's blog. The Man's got me, what can I say?


Hurm…

Last night, I was among the TONY contingent at the Time Warner Center, attending an exclusive event debuting footage from this March’s comic-book-movie Rapture (say it with me), Watchmen. The greatest graphic novel of all time. The unfilmable superhero masterpiece. The Catcher in the Rye of comics, as it were. You’ve seen the preview, you’ve heard your boyfriend blab about it, you’ve leafed through the Entertainment Weekly cover story. Watchmen the movie exists, and it is a Hollywood picture. And if that statement starts to chill you after a couple of moments of consideration, then don’t be alarmed. A feeling of intense and crushing religious terror at the concept indicates only that you are still sane. (Sorry, geek joke.)

Director Zack Snyder was our MC. I liked Dawn of the Dead, despised 300 (even though I never saw it). But from everything I read, I knew that Snyder was approaching this project with the demanded seriousness, and had managed to get the studios to do likewise. So my hope was measured. Snyder spent the evening proving why he’s stayed behind the camera with his rambling introductions, his logorrheic plot explanations—yes, yes, there were media there who haven’t mainlined Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s original work as I have, who needed the explication. but still. I mean, come on. It’s Watchmen.

Joined by Gibbons (the original series’s artist), Snyder gave a Q&A, fielding predictable queries from members of the Nit-Pick League of America (the ending "will not puss out," Gibbons does not want to speculate what disgruntled writer Alan Moore will think of it, the budget shall not be named but it was adequate). But first, we saw three excerpts:

– The first 12 minutes of the film. A shadowy figure breaks into the Comedian’s apartment, beats the crap out of him and tosses him out of the window to the street many, many floors below. A little worrisome: I mean, in the book, the violence is incidental. Here, every punch, every table smash is lovingly rendered and lingered upon. Big, muscled guys lustily beating up on each other. Action porn, as it were. But immediately following, we were treated to an awesome opening-credits sequence, visually relating the superhero history of Earth-Watchmen to the tune of "The Times They Are A-Changin‘." The Minutemen, all that good stuff. This is what I like.

– Dr. Manhattan appears on Mars, flashes back to his origin story, his relationship with Janey Slater and hooking up with Laurie. Beautifully done, excellent use of flashback technique. Sure, the scene had trouble building narrative momentum, but that’s sort of the point when dealing with a character who views all time as occurring simultaneously (trust me). Great voiceover by Billy Crudup.

– Dan and Laurie, as Nite Owl and the Silk Spectre, bust Rorschach from jail during the riot. They meet up with the vigilante just as he murders the Big Figure (played by the same little person who portrayed Kramer’s sidekick in a late season of Seinfeld). Way too much action porn here. I mean, Dan and Laurie are supposed to be semi-washed-up baby boomers questioning the very sanity of their actions, nervous about what to do with the bat-shit Rorschach when they find him. Dialogue and personality, not action, is what made this scene fly in the comic. Here, they’re not heroes, they’re superheroes, you know?

You might say I’m too prescriptivist, that I’m one of these unbearable comic nerds who’s ready to take a shot at Snyder if the film deviates from the comic book by one panel. I’m not. Moreover, I’m with Snyder, when he said in the Q&A that it’s puzzling how some fans will go crazy if a comic book film deviates from its source material, yet no one seemed to be upset that No Country for Old Men didn’t follow Cormac McCarthy line for line. No, the transgressions that bother me are more in philosophy than content; making the Watchmen heroes more typical slam-bang demigods than fuckups in costumes. And the thing is, Snyder apparently agrees. He repeatedly said that he doesn’t want this to be a regular superhero movie, he wants it to remain the story of what superheroes would be like if they really, actually, truly existed. He and Gibbons want it to be a real, "serious" superhero film, the kind the world is finally ready for now, possibly for the very first time.

I hope that’s what we get. There was some strong encouragement last night, but also some troubling signs. TheCitizen Kane of superhero films? Probably not. The movie we all dreamed of in the tenth grade while we read Watchmen for the first time while slacking off from our pre-calc homework? Perhaps…

October 3, 2008

You win some, Palin loses some

In some incredibly unsurprising news about your quizmaster, I made a point of getting together with friends last night to watch the vice-presidential debate. I admit to being slightly disappointed that Governor Palin didn't literally fall on her face, but I'm comforted by the fact (yes, fact! I am an optimist!) that the result will have a minimal effect, if any, on reviving Senator McCain's nearly dead (and brain dead) campaign.

Regardless, it was a fun gathering: We played Vice Presidential Debate Bingo, and I drew this card:Sorry if you can't see it so well, but I had bum luck. I didn't win, and the only single space that would've put me over the top was "Intellectuals" (but hey, I was surprised to be able to cross off "Candidate cries").

After the debate, I stumped guests with some of my standby political trivia questions. Some of these are hella tough:

Q: Before McCain, who was the last major-party presidential nominee who wasn't technically born in the United States?

Q: Name the only state that currently has a female governor and two female U.S. senators.

Q: What three states gave their electoral votes to George W. Bush both times (2000 and '04), yet currently have a Democratic governor and two Democratic U.S. Senators?

Q: What state has given its electoral votes to the winner of the presidential election the most times running—every election since 1960?

Q: What state has voted for the same party in presidential elections the most times running—every election since 1976?

Want more? We're going to political it up at the quiz on October 27…