I just got home from being the entertainment at a private party, a woman's 60th-birthday party, in fact. With the assistance of B-Cutie Nicki, I did 45 minutes of customized trivia, about this woman's life, interests, etc.
This quiz was considerably more personalized than most of what I've done in the past—100 percent of the material had some direct link to the birthday girl, whether it dealt with personal details (where she and her husband went for the honeymoon) or her interests (she's a Facebook addict, so I played with that). Usually, people want the individualized material mixed in with random, audience-appropriate trivia, which I mostly draw from the BQT storehouse. So it was an interesting project
The Internet makes this easier than it might otherwise be; google nearly anyone and you get something useful (I, for instance, wrote a book about scurvy). But primarily, I've worked out a survey I send to the client, the guest of honor's spouse/children/etc., asking questions about his/her life and interests. Today's subject has two daughters who gave me some pretty juicy details. It would be bad form to reveal too much (I ain't naming names), but here are some examples of what I learned about this woman.
-- She "drives her daughters insane with all her nonsense"
-- She "says she has a crush on Bob Dylan"
-- She malaprops the phrase raise the roof as lift the ceiling
-- She has a cousin who slept with his own mother
Each of these facts was the basis for a different question, which just goes to prove that trivia can be found in nearly anything.
My point? You should hire me to do the same for you.
March 22, 2009
Trivial, just for you
February 27, 2009
NT's greatest hits, vol. 4
Yet another entry from my list of favorite songs of all time. I'm like a Facebook meme, but with superfluous detail.
"Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds
Someone (else) is going to get on me for this, but I far prefer this version of the song to Bob Dylan's original. It's a folk-rock masterpiece, a soaring, sharp-edged song with a palpable folk grounding; I love Dylan, sure, but at least in his early incarnation, it's hard to find genuine examples of him rocking out. (Hence, "Judas!")
Roger McGuinn's guitar in this cover version, a jangling 12-string electric Rickenbacker, packs an incredible amount of texture into its recurring riff, giving a lot of fire to what's really a fairly simple song. And then, of course, the lyrics are Dylan at his best: concise and beautiful psychedelia, wide-eyed but not naive. The Byrds excise an entire verse from the Zimmy's lyrics, but I think the tune really benefits from the economy (it runs only 2:20); by making this trip upon a magic swirling ship a brief one, it avoids a slide into pretension.
"Mr. Tambourine Man" was a monster hit in 1965, became a staple of forward-thinking oldies radio (where I discovered it in the '90s), and is a strong testament to what a lot of people were calling the Byrds the American Beatles for several years of the '60s. Far out, in all the best ways.
Earlier editions of NT's greatest hits:
"OK Apartment" and "Just What I Needed"
"Objects of My Affection" and "Crimson and Clover"
"Reelin' in the Years"
