Passing this along: The International Game Show Congress, June 2-3

I've become involved in this to a certain degree, and I can vouch for that the people behind this are not only very cool, but are the cream of the cream of the game show community. Not only will there be Jeopardy! and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire people at this thing, they'll also be trying out new game show ideas and showing people how best to get on these shows in the first place. If you want to get on teevee and answer questions far easier than the variety we offer on Wednesdays for much greater money, I'd say check this out.

THE USA TAKES ON THE WORLD IN TRIVIA

NEW YORK - On Saturday, June 2nd, game show contestants, trivia players, and other know-it-alls will gather at the New York Athletic Club to test their wits against others across the globe during the World Quizzing Championships. The event will be part of the Game Show Boot Camp, a training session for people interested in honing their skills towards participation on television and radio shows, internet contests, and local events such as pub quizzes.

The two-hour written test taken by individuals will cover popular and academic trivia in the areas of culture, entertainment, history, lifestyle, media, sport, science, and world topics. Questions included in the quiz have been submitted by Belgium, Estonia, India, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and USA and voted upon by representatives from those countries plus Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway, Sri Lanka. Additional countries that will be participating in the quiz include Australia, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Liberia, Lithuania, and New Zealand, with more being added over the coming weeks.

The USA is new to the World Quiz competition, but recently participated in a warm up event. In the inaugural Transatlantic Quiz Challenge on April 14th, trivia buffs on both sides of the Atlantic tested their grey matter to the limit. The top score was by Donna Jackson of Florida. Seven Brits and three Americans featured in the top 10, including Jeopardy legend Ken Jennings and World Quizzing Champion Kevin Ashman.

The USA event requires pre-registration at www.gameshowcongress.com for a fee of $30 and there is a limit of 100 participants at the Olympic Rooms of the New York Athletic Club, 180 Central Park South, New York, NY 10019.

For more information please see http://iqausa.googlepages.com.

4/25 Recap: Never Too Many Boobs

I'm not usually the kind to prepare overly much for anything. I procrastinate and put things off until ten seconds before go time, and then I run like a crazed banshee through the halls, leaping suitcases and screaming DON'T CLOSE THE PLANE DOORS with the tails of my jacket flailing behind me. It's why I learned to be a very fast eater, a fast walker, and a generally impatient person. It's not that other people are slow. It's that wherever I am, I usually am expected somewhere else.

Case in point: last week's recap. I know. They all used to be that late. But I'm trying to set a better example these days. Y'know, for the kids.

Case in point number two: last night's questions. I left the folder containing my two non-audio rounds on my desk at home, and did not realize it until Janet was well into her first round. Fortunately, I had saved the notes I had made on my phone, and so instead of having only three rounds and everyone has a drink on me, I was able to reconstruct my research for you people.

I do not wish to make a habit of this, though. I'm going to start emailing myself the finished questions as well, so they'll be reachable from anywhere, even if I putz out again. Clearly, I need a full-time Secretary. I'll accept applications in the comments. Base salary will begin at coffee and cake, with bonuses of, oh, I have an extra copy of this Beastie Boys album. Really, let's negotiate.

This week's rounds:

1. On This Day - During Janet reading the answers about which country exercised ownership of the Faroe Islands, someone yelled "Fuckin' Denmark!", which brought a good laugh, because really, the Danes have way too much influence on modern American culture. I mean, it's Kierkegaard this, and Hamlet that, and those huge dogs, I mean, it never ends. We get it. A thousand years of culture, the oldest flag still in use, and Hans Christian Andersen. It's enough to make a nation feel inferior, fergodsake.

2. Audio Round: Sign of the Times - Songs about Time, including selections from Bjork, the Zombies, Marshall Crenshaw, the Police, Leonard Cohen and XTC.

3. Billionaires - We could do another round on famous billionaires, there were so many excellent and colorful examples since the first modern one, J. Paul Getty, topped the first Forbes list a half-century ago. (There were billionaires before that, just not that I cared about.) (Unless Santa Claus counts.) (Which he does, Virginia. He so does.)

4. Lions & Tigers & Bears - I couldn't believe virtually no one got Bear Stearns as one of the answers. There aren't that many financial institutions named for predatory animals, even if they all claim to act like such beasts when it comes to managing your money.

5. Name 3's - What now-legendary record did Roger Connor once hold? Most of you knew that one, which was nice, but the fact that many of you couldn't name three of the US Attorneys currently involved in this Gonzalez scandal kind of saddened me. Oh well!


Team names this week:

• 1st Place: Every Day Is A Winding Rove (who, had they not won, should have won Best Team Name for their triple-argot of Karl Rove twisting away from Sheryl Crow's reedy leftist touch)


• 2nd Place: Keep Him On The Balls!


• 3rd place: Tony's Got 3 Boobs, But His Legs Ain't Cutting It! (I think this is unfair, as I work very hard on my legs; I did have three boobs to give away, though)
  
  
  
  
  
  Followed by (in no particular order):


• Lauren


• Alpha Male Shitheads, and the Women Who Love Them! (they won the copy of Leadership by Rudy Giuliani, which seemed entirely appropriate)


• Voyage Of The Mimi


• Dodge Darts


• Charter School's Is Edjukashun @ it's goodest!


• Parks Sucks!! (later they added: A Lot!!!)


• Girls Just Want To Have Rum! (welcome back!)


• The Rusty Gromets (who traveled all the way from Austin, TX to play, and dressed up for the occasion besides)


• The Baby Comes Out The Hinder


• The Jam


• Lubricators


• I Am The Walrus


• Please Kill Me!

We did, in fact, give away three eerily real-feeling breasts this week, and there are more where that came from. However many boobs you've got, you can never have too many. We also gave away a copy of National Lampoon's Sunday Newspaper Parody, which is still very funny, but oh so very 1978.

Thanks for coming out this week. It was rainy and cruddy and there was American Idol and hockey and basketball on, and it was really nice to see you guys.

There is news in the pipeline about a few special future events, so bookmark us or add our RSS feed to stay on top of such things.

4/18 Recap

Some weeks, I have to keep my day job people happier than other weeks. Apologies. Lots of events are coming up in the next few weeks, though, so I'd at least add this blog to your RSS feed so you can keep up. This is going to be a busy summer for trivia folk, and you guys could be making a few bucks if you're willing to stick with it. (Seriously.)

This recap will be comparatively bare-bones, but here you go:

1. On This Day - In which I dropped some small science about Heroes, the late great Kathy Acker, Clarence Darrow, Albert Einstein and Max Schmeling's greatest moment in the ring, even if it was a loss.

2. Audio Round: Devil Or Angel - Ten songs about Devils and/or Angels. INXS, Massive Attack, Juice friggin' Newton, the Charlie Daniels Band, Beck, Beth Orton and X made the cut.

3. Get Fuzzy - Not the sometimes-funny cartoon. Think Fuzzy Zoeller, Fuzzy Math, that sort of thing.

4. Spears - I tried for an hour to come up with a suitable question about Albert Speer, one of the architects of the Nazi regime, but I kept getting sidetracked into questions about Spearmint-flavored Altoids (which are definitely not vegan-friendly) and the "Big Four" beauty pageants.

5. Name 3's


Team names this week:

• 1st Place: The Don Imus Negro College Fund


• 2nd Place: Canadians Can't Skate (I must respectfully point out that as of this typing, Vancouver and Ottawa have advanced to the final eight in the NHL, you smartassed twerps.)


• 3rd place: Tiny Tim & the Dickensetters
  
  
  
  
  
  Followed by (in no particular order):


• Malaysian Ghost Fatwas


• Ginger Ale


• On This Day In...


• Dude, Where's My Team


• 5!


• 2 Man Luge


• Thrashers


• "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves/did gyre and gimble in the wabe/All mimsy were the Borogroves, and the Momraths outgrabe" (3 times fast)


• Larry Birkhead's Long Lost Cousins


• Check, Check, Sibilance...

See you guys tomorrow.

Joe Dimaggio, Juan Peron, Sally Ride & Santayana

Hard questions at Ken Jennings' blog today. My guesses inside. I know two, and have crap guesses on the others.

Baseball and Body Parts: We Know What Brings You Back

Today kicked my ass like I was wearing my special mankini with the big target on the back (which, that reminds me, I must get cleaned before the next time I head to the beach), but I'm looking forward to tomorrow more than normal. Not for any reason other than I'm happy to be doing something semi-meaningful with my week.

Prizes this week include some special squishy human body parts (it sounds gross, but it's actually kind of cool. Well, maybe a little bit gross), and for first place, actually an amazing book:

Baseball Between The Numbers: Why Everything You Know About The Game Is Wrong, by the nice people who do the Baseball Prospectus, is a really fun read that debunks much of the conventional wisdom about how the game is and should be played. It's big (450 pages) and stat-heavy and breezily written with lots of snark and goofy asides, and it belongs on the toilet tank of some Yankee hater somewhere.

(I used to be a baseball nerd until the 1994 strike, after which I swore I would never spend a dollar on a major league team again. I've kept my promise, but that doesn't mean I don't pay attention to what's going on.)

Anyway. They apparently showed the episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent that takes place in Dempsey's during trivia this week, so you might want to consider getting there a little earlier if you want the table of your choice. (That really feels like bragging. Sorry.)

Virtual Spelling Bee

You want to know how you'd have done in the 2005 Spelling Bee? If you've got five minutes, you can take the test yourself and find out. It's got pronunciations, definitions and sentence usage, and I still only got six out of fourteen right.

Someone, beat me at this so I can confirm my suddenly low self-opinion on the spelling tip.

In Which Ken Jennings And A Bunch Of New Yorkers, Including A Small But Fervent DSO Posse, Beat The Intellectual Crap Out Of Some Belgians

The Transatlantic Quiz went down on Saturday morning, and it was a real treat. 240 questions (generally harder than our Wednesday variety) in eight categories, in a boardroom at the New York Athletic Club.

I don't think I had nearly enough coffee beforehand.

We got to the 10th floor boardroom, and they ran the thing kind of like an exam, with cover sheets and sixty-minute halves. I'll post some of the questions at some point (I got an extra sheet); since the test was going on simultaneously in a dozen or so American cities, as well as in Canada, across Europe (well, the UK, Norway and Belgium) and in India, the questions were pan-continental to reflect that. My Canadian-American upbringing finally served as a plus, as they asked questions about such cultural esoterica as defunct hairstyles of the rich and ethnic and the Crazy Canucks!

It was kind of a preliminary event, as less than 20 people were there (and only three women, including Kari (represent!)), a few of whom had flown in from other parts of the country to participate. And true to form, the New York chapter of this worldwide thing did pretty good; I haven't seen the truly final numbers yet, but it looks like we put a half-dozen people in the top 20 (possibly including your humble correspondent, which I'm kind of happy about if only because I don't get to actually answer questions all that much these days).

After two hours of answering questions, everyone was thirsty and exhausted. We left the palatial Central Park south opulence and wandered over to Kennedy's on West 57th street, where a bunch of Scots in kilts were running off some tunes on bagpipes (Oh, it was the Tartan Parade on Saturday, which is plumb unfortunate for everyone concerned, weatherwise.)


It was a gas, and these people are very cool. I hope some of them come out on Wednesdays and mingle with the rest of you fine people, and make it harder for us to do our jobs as quizmasters.

Oh, and they'll be doing it all over again on Saturday, June 2nd, this time with recruiters for game shows and other showbizzy types in the house. (I hope to rub shoulders with some of the greats.)

Oh, and I like Ken Jennings' idea of holding this stuff in Barbados next year. Sign my pasty self up for that action.


**** Update: The North American Results are up; I finished 11th, which I'm fine with. (Kari finished 3rd overall in the "Lifestyle" category. Yess!)

Knowing Esoteric Crap Is Its Own Reward

Ellen Barry of the New York Times did a nice piece on last weekend's Panorama quiz, as attended by our friend (and substitute host) Vidiot.

As a bonus, it seems he & Kevin Walsh of Forgotten NY are the central point of the story, and as the victors, they get a double-plus tribute from one of the other contestants:

The night in Queens — being near the true masters — had been thrilling, he said. Here was another lesson: “Living in New York, you have to get used to being around people smarter than you are.”

So this fine, glorious Springtimey Monday morning, I raise a glass of Kenya's finest with my sopping monsoon-wet arm to you, Vidiot, a true master of New York arcana.

4/11 Recap: Hello, Imus Be Going

I was expecting maybe a little more than a few allusions to Don Imus' troubles, as well as more allusions to Grindhouse, which was phenomenal and not only a bargain, but an edge-of-your-seat thing that cooked with gas, even in the draggy middle bit where Quentin Tarantino tried to foolishly write dialogue for women. Don't knock yourself out, Q. Stick to the wacky camera angles and the killer soundtracks underneath slam-bang holy-shit boyzoney funny stuff, and kids of all genders and ages will flock to your movies like conservative politicians to cranky old racists.

This week's rounds:

1. On This Day - Happy birthday to Ethel Kennedy, Joss Stone and everyone's favorite manwhore, Vincent Gallo!

2. Audio Round: Let's Talk About Our Feelings - In which I dropped pieces of Feely songs by Blue Swede, the Gorillas, Carole King, Samantha Fox, Foreigner and Chaka Khan. It was one of those rare rounds where I actually liked all the songs I used. (If you hear Rush or Zeppelin, you know that's not always the case.)

3. Famous Cultural Catchphrases - Where I asked about stinking badges, "Mission Accomplished, "By any means necessary," "Amandla," and "It's the economy, stupid."

4. Charlies - Janet asked about Charlie the tuna's hat choice, Charlie Chaplin, Charles Manson, Charlie Bucket, and Checkpoint Charlie (but not the perfume).

5. Name 3's - So many people thought that "Postmortem," "Body Of Evidence" and "From Potter’s Field" were all written by Sue Grafton. Or maybe they were all copying off each other. Tsk, tsk, tsk.


The team names this week veered between the topical and the slightly surreal, which is a trend I wholeheartedly endorse:

• 1st Place: DON'T


• 2nd Place: The Original Nappy-Headed Hoes


• 3rd place: Lisa Kudrow's Cask of Amontillado (I love this name)
  
  
  
  
  
  Followed by (in no particular order):


• Please Tell Me Where I Can Get Generic V1@gra Online.


• Santorini Deckhands (formerly, A-Rod's Steroid Source)


• Whole Foods Market, Bowery


• Fabulous Four


• B.A.R.K.


• Your Highness, Don Imus


• Larry Birkhead Of The Class (I was expecting more TWANS jokes, but I guess that's just so damned played out by now)


• !Fuck Foucault!


• Teenage Mutant Tina Turner


• Kym, Please Buy Those Two Gentlemen By The Fireplace A Pitcher On Me


• The Running Deer


• WACK'R (Wes, Annie, Chrissy, Katie, Rachel)


• Thinking With Our Mouths


• Sam I Am

Prizes this week, aside from the shiny future book and the bar tab goodies, included some Emergency Chocolate (it only looked Swiss) and some teeny mousepads courtesy of Yahoo!. There was more, but I can't remember. What else happened?

Tonight!

Tonight's prizes include:

• Where's My Jetpack? A Guide To The Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived, a book detailing the whereabouts of such eternally anticipated items as robot maids, underwater cities, mind-reading devices, space colonies, universal translators, and teleportation. And not only is it informative, it's very shiny!


• another prize pack from the now-defunct WB network, including a cap signed by Garcelle Beauvais, who is apparently quite attractive and was on NYPD Blue for a while, so yay her;


• and lots of other geegaws and doodads, including neat stuff from Yahoo!, as well as a mix CD containing tonight's audio round and the usual array of incredible edibles, courtesy of my secret Japanese connection.

See you tonight!

Queens Museum Panorama Challenge: Update

If you didn't go to the Panorama Challenge on Saturday (I had a last-minute hockey-related issue that could not be avoided), it sounds like it was a pretty cool time. Vidiot was there to recap the festivities, and what a shock, he did extremely well.

I seriously am looking forward to the next time they do this.

More On Banksy

In the Faces round last week, I asked about who defaced Paris Hilton's album by putting 500 copies of a remixed version into record stores, with new art and songs like "Why Am I Famous?" and "What Have I Done?".

It was, of course, this guy. Here's an excellent piece from Channel 4 about his graffiti campaign along the West Bank of Palestine (showing rare footage of him actually doing his thing):



[via Joey Skaggs]

4/4 Recap: Happy Ether For Everyone!

You know how some weeks it doesn't pay to get out of bed? Well.

After leaving all the results and scoresheets from last week at work over the long weekend, my laptop, on which all trivia everything is stored, shit the bed this weekend, and while I have almost everything backed up in places, for some reason I left my folder of emergency rounds on the hard drive. Which I can't get to at the moment. My sweet baby is in the hopefully capable hands of a bunch of Russian grad students who could be selling all my music porn impeccably researched writings and trivia notes to swarthy underground middlemen, thus unwittingly abetting the Global War On Terror.

I'm kidding, of course. I'm sure they're great guys. They came very highly recommended, and whatever it was I said about them on the Don Imus show, I totally didn't mean it. It was 6:30 in the morning, and I was still pretty ripped from the night before. You know how it is.

Right. Last week's rounds:

1. On This Day - Big ups to McKinley Morganfield, Kitty Kelley, Dave Mirra and Jamie Lynn Spears. (Imagine those four in a hot tub. Mwrowr.)

2. Audio Round: Money - Featuring the monetary monotony (and polyphony) of Rush, Biggie Smalls, Spinal Tap, The Pet Shop Boys, and Warren Zevon. And Eddie Money, because how could I have left him out? I ask you.

3. Ians - Janet schooled you-all about Sir Ian McKellen, Ian Ziering, and Janis Ian, without having to resort to Ewans, Euans, Jans, or any other esoteric spelling with which new parents are surely ruining their precious newborns' schoolyard futures these days.

4. In Your Face - Some facey questions, in which I managed to ask about whiteface (just like blackface, except the other way around), the Steal Your Face logo (shown two posts down), and I got to mention my favorite unit of measurement (totally stolen from some old factbook; if I find it I'll post the link here later):

A millihelen is the amount of beauty it takes to launch one ship.

5. Name 3's


Team names this week:

• 1st Place: Urbina Machete & Gas Company (regarding this story)


• 2nd Place: Brian Wilson Pickett's Charge


• 3rd place: Muddy Waters Lives
  
  
  
  
  
  Followed by (in no particular order):


• Iran 15, Briatin 0!


• Everybody Loves Ramo (later, Ramo Needs To Step Up)


• NAMBLA (The National Aviation & Motor Boats League Association)


• S&M


• Steamboat Willie Randolph (whose shirt won best dressed, and quite spectacularly so)


• It's A Bellobration! (we're always looking for new sponsors, guys)


• Team Derrières Extraordinaires!


• The Drunken Inquisition


• Farfa Nouveaux


• Snakebirdz (who did quite well considering they missed the first two rounds)


• and last but certainly not least, ...Off In The Shower

Prizes this week, aside from the usual bar tab madness, included a nice hardcover volume of all of Opus the Penguin's Sunday appearances from Bloom County, Outland and Opus, as well as a DVD featuring an actress named Hussey playing Mother Theresa. Sacred, profane, lenten and perfect for the tone of the evening.

We'll see you Wednesday night, hopefully in warmer moments.

Good. Friday.

I am a pud.

I don't know what I was thinking yesterday. I took the scoresheets, questions and notes out of my bag and then left them at the office, so there shall be no recap until Monday. A thousand apologies to the various stock markets around the world who peg their indexes to the number of teams and quality of the puns in the team names (best team name this week was "...Off In The Shower," as they finished last, so on Wednesday last, everyone beat ...Off In The Shower.)

As a feeble replacement, here's a Seattle Times article with some background on the interview process to get on shows like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Deal Or No Deal and the Big J. The entry process is straightforward, but there are a lot of people looking to get on the teevee and get their asses kicked by midwestern College Professors. You might have guessed that.

[via the quite-relevant-to-this-blog Bob Harris]

Recap is on the way

It's open and in pieces, but I was out very late last night, thanks to you guys, and because it's a four-day week here at the day gig, everyone's having kittens about one thing or another.

Until I get it all put together, though, check out these non-performing clips from two of my musical heroes, Dick Dale and Frank Zappa.

Give me a couple more hours, chief. I won't let you down.

This Saturday Night: Beer and Purty Pitchers!

This Saturday at the Queens Museum of Art, the good people at Unique New York are hosting The Panorama Challenge, an evening of New York-themed visual trivia to benefit the City Reliquary, a museum in Williamsburg dedicated to memorabilia and artifacts of everyday city life through history. It's really a cool place, and now that they have an actual space to display things, it's time for them to start ramping up their notices.

Our museum collection displays thoughtfully arranged artifacts of New York City’s rich history, which entice viewers to learn more about the five boroughs. Some of the highlights of the collection include architectural remnants of city buildings, Statue of Liberty memorabilia, a geological display of New York’s underground composition, and a 1939 World’s Fair exhibit...

A central part of our mission is to plan and host public events, which provide neighbors and visitors with a place to meet, exchange ideas, and celebrate the diversity of our community. Some of our annual events include Bicycle Fetish Day, Collector’s Night, and The September Tribute to Our City. We maintain a commitment to neighborhood beautification and restoration at and around the City Reliquary Museum as a way to provide a pleasant and safe place for people to gather, relax, disseminate information, and enjoy the camaraderie provided by a city of over eight million people.

Basically, the amazing panorama of the city (which you should see anyways if you haven't yet; I know it's in Flushing, but the extra 20 minutes on the 7 train is good for you) will be the backdrop for a series of trivia questions about the city. Sounds pretty straightforward, actually.

It's $25 for tickets but that includes two free drinks (Brooklyn Brewery is also a sponsor), and hey, it's a Saturday Night. You were going to shell out that much for a good time anyway.

Details and ticket information at the Reliquary's website, or you can call them at 718-R U CIVIC.

Edit: [via vidiot]

Tonight's Festivities: A Preview

This is the first time I'm putting together the audio round at work (I'm working on getting that occasionally annoying skipping-disc issue out of the way, and just making sure it's not the burner at home), so if there's a round on Great Epistemologists or something where the audio round should be, you'll know the experiment was a failure.

Prizes this week, aside from the usual bar tab silliness ($25 for 1st place, $15 for second, $10 for 3rd, same as downtown; oh right, we kind of are downtown), include this gorgeous hardcover volume of every Sunday Comic featuring Opus, the original marching penguin. (There was a stretch in the 80's where Berkeley Breathed was the best newspaper cartoonist in the business.) It lists for 30 bucks, and it's now out of print, so this is kind of a big deal. Also we've got some swag from the now-defunct WB network, including a ball cap signed by Nick Von Esmarch. That's right. Nick. Von. Esmarch.

Don't say we don't take care of you.