Trivia NYC (by DSO Media)

We’ve been way overdue to get this back up & running, especially given how hard we’ve been working oin the rest of the pieces of this trivia empire. Since Episode 22 was released, we’ve gone from one night a week to three (soon to be four, at least, by the end of next month — watch this space for more details!), I have managed to quit my day job to focus on trivia (and, admittedly, uninterrupted ramen consumption for the time being) full time, and, well, that’s a lot to handle, at least from this end.

Anyway, I may be out of practice, but the best way to get back into practice is to start doing stuff. And with that in mind, here’s Podcast #23.

 

 TriviaNYC Podcast #23: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (158)

Okay. A few things:

• The full archived list of podcasts are here. Subscribe via RSS Feed or iTunes.
• The opening theme is by “22:50″ by Sternklang (I still like it, guys), and the question music is “Latin Canteen” by The Rurals.
• Sponsorship for this podcast is still available, so if your restaurant or store would like a weekly plug for what right now is about 500 subscribers (between on-site downloads and RSS/iTunes subscribers; that number should grow relatively quickly this summer), contact us.
• Feedback is also welcome — I kind of need any input you have, actually — for the podcast. With your help, the next one will be better. Let me know what I did, and what you’d like to hear. I want this to be something you want to listen to every Friday morning.

Thank you for your support, and I’ll hopefully see you next week.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Honestly, this is the only book on Harry Houdini most people will ever need. This tome covers his ancestry and birth in Hungary as Ehrich Weiss, his family’s emigration to the United States, his growing fascination and obsession with magic, his long and phenomenally successful career as the greatest theatrical performer of the first half of the 20th century, as well dropping loud hints about a potential side career doing espionage work and how it evolved into an obsession with debunking spirit mediums and fortune tellers that he pursued with single-minded zeal right through to the last moments of his all-too-short life.

The research is strong, there are plenty of good illustrations and photographs scattered throughout the text, and the writing keeps things moving. It does, however, suffer from glossing over some aspects of Houdini’s story. The implication that Houdini did some spy work for the United States is dropped repeatedly, with no actual follow up facts to corroborate it, except that gosh, he sure seemed to be able to get in to meet with a lot of police captains to check out their local jails. His obsession with aviation, and with being the first to fly an airplane in Australia, is just far enough outside of logic that it requires an explanation about why he sacrificed so much time, money and effort to try something so briefly, only to drop it and come home after a couple of successful flights. A hundred years ago, halfway around the world was a far longer trek than it is today. A bit more on why he did it would have been welcome.

These may sound like quibbles, but they do sometimes distract from the greater arc of the story, which is unfortunate. Harry Houdini was unquestionably a brilliant man, an intellectual genius, with founts of drive and resourcefulness beyond anything I’ve borne witness to in my own life, ever. And this book covers a ton of ground, detailing the tricks he used, the projects on which he focused, and the turbulent relationships he had with his wife, family, friends, and occasional indiscretions. But I didn’t stay with this book to read about his potential affairs or his marital spats; I did so to find out more about about his magic and illusions, his spy work, and his research debunking the claims of the paranormal, because it is in those things — the actual stuff of being the real superhero advertised in the title — that this otherwise impressive biography falls short.

Popularity: 39% [?]

This past Monday night was the liveliest night at Shades of Green yet. Mark’s round on movie quotes went so well that I fully intend to steal it moving forward. (I told him. He can steal it back when he co-hosts again.)

Dear table of theater kids (the Pas De Bourés) - you guys were awesome. The thirty-plus-somethings in the room were iffy about youse, but let ‘em be iffy. You guys kicked ass.

The hardest part of going to any trivia night for the first time is learning the cadence and style of the questions (and, unless you’re going to one of those McTrivia teevee shitholes, the host). Everyone has a style, whether they admit it or not, and the first few times you see someone, there’s going to be a learning curve. Once you get used to the particular foibles and quirks that every host has, you can settle in and just dig the scene without stepping on unnecessary toes or missing out on whatever cool shit the night has to offer.

I’m just saying, I’m really grateful for everyone who has put that time in with me. My only hope is that I do enough to keep it being worth the trouble for you guys to come out. If I’m slipping on that front, like, ever, let me know.

• Cinquo de Mayans - 44
• Poodle-Flu Devastates Upper East Side - 38
• Omegawoman - 30
• Poppin’ The Monday Cherry - 28
• The Pas De Bouré’s - 25

Popularity: 45% [?]

It was an extra themey theme night on Wednesday. Janet’s round on Bea Arthur (or rather, various Beas and Arthurs) and mine on assorted hundreds (the Hundred Years’ War, Willard Scott, End Of The Century, the $100 Laptop Project) weren’t able to distract you guys from the pandemic at hand. Apparently.

• Quebecois: It’s Like Speaking French Through A Duck’s Ass - 47 (won tiebreaker)
• Air Force Swine - 47
• Fleeting F@!* Expletives - 46
• Team Caitlin! - 45
• Eughoogh, The Biscuits! - 45
• When Pigs Fly, Swine Flu - 42
• Neil Diamond Killed The Hipster Grifter To Get An Erection - 40
• The Champagne Of Teams - 38
• Swine Flu Over The Cuckoo’s Nest - 37
• Blood Pudding & Apple Pie - 37
• The Glass Sphincters (Best Dressed) - 36
• Ding Dong… It’s Your Mom - 33
• Swine Floozies (Best Of The Swine Names, As Chosen By Our Blue-Ribbon Panel) - 29
• Puppies - 28
• Here For Beer (Best Handwriting. That’s Right, A Team Called “Here For Beer” Won Best Handwriting. Chase Your Dreams, Kids.) - 28
• Freddie Y Los Gatos - 28
• The Kids In America - 23
• Swine - 22
• Fire Pie - 22
• Thapa’s - 6

I somehow doubt the theme is past. See you guys next week.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Tonight’s Green Mondays Trivia will be co-hosted by the author Anna Jarzab, whose first novel, All Unquiet Things, is coming out on Delacorte/Random House next January.

And in honor of this weekend’s passing of the most Golden of all the Girls, tonight’s trivia will be brought to you by the year 1996 and the letter … Bea.

I finally understand what Ronald Reagan meant when he said all that stuff about “mourning in America.” I’m going to miss her putdowns, her withering stare, her perfect timing, the eyebrows, god, the eyebrows. Beatrice Arthur was a comic genius, as Maude she did for feminism what Archie Bunker did for racism (or anti-racism, I guess), and her place in entertainment heaven shall be righteously awarded posthaste.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to drown my sorrows in some pork tartare and chitlins before going to my weekly pre-trivia satanic ritual sacrifice. We may eventually run out of Golden Girls (Not yet, Betty! Stay with us!), but the Sacrificial Virgin Index is at an all-time low.

Shades of Green is at 125 E. 15th Street, about 100 yards from Union Square [here’s a map]. No cover, trivia starts at 8:30pm. Miller High Life special: 2 for $5 for players.

Popularity: 50% [?]

It was nice to see a healthy group of people come out to Dempsey’s on Wednesday. I figured the rounds on Earth Day (in which all the answers rhymed with “Earth” - Mary Worth, The Firth Of Forth, Alexandra Wentworth, The Birthday Party) were a little difficult for a Wednesday, but I was proven delightfully wrong.

The new waitstaff are going to work out fine, too. We’re not exactly a low-maintenance crowd, and the current waitresses handled the slightly off-kilter night with aplomb. I promise, things are usually smoother than that.

The final scores:

• Freddie’s CFO’s Dead, That’s What I Said - 52
• The Champagne Of Teams - 51
• Craigslist Killers - 48
• Whoopie Pies - 43
• I’d Nail Susan Boyle - 42 (Best Handwriting - seriously, it was perfect. Whoever wrote for this team, keep it up)
• Moon Pies - 42
• Captain Jack “Abduwali Abdukadir” Sparrow - 39
• Jareth Cutestory, Maritime Lawyer, Should Defend That Pirate - 38
• Helen Dodge/Mary A. Bingham - 37 (Best Dressed award winners)
• Who Wants To Sex Mutombo? - 35 (Best Team Name; I know it was old, but it’s still funny)
• Douche Nuggets - 34
• Bottoms Up - 34 (Best Team Spirit Award)
• If I Was A Woman, I’d Marry Miss California - 30
• O Solo Mio - 29 (playing by herself; this was really impressive)
• Puppies - 29
• Team Frankie & The Cruisers - 28
• Lindsay Lohan, Back On The “Opposite Marriage” Bandwagon - 27
• Ding Dong … It’s your Mom - 26
• Esoteric Egrets - 26
• Suicidal CFOs 0, SEC 1 - 25
• Day Release - 23
• Karla & Paul - 11 (ohhhhh, I just got this now)

Thanks as always to everyone for coming out. I have to say, I truly believe that ninjas are totally going to make a comeback, given the PR beating that pirates are taking these days. NINJAS ARE BUY! GO LONG ON NINJAS!

Popularity: 52% [?]

Today I absolutely paid the Stupid Tax.

I got to the Kimmel Center at NYU three hours before the box office opened, just to get the same-day-only tickets to see Jandek, our favorite outsider artist still in the game. Wild Man Fischer’s on his meds, and Wesley Willis is dead. Jandek is all we have left. Jandek lives. Viva Jandek.

So I managed to finagle four tickets even though the limit was two per person, because I am a master of disguise and — look, don’t question me. Which would not matter, except that I managed to forget said tickets as I was on my way to the venue, and it was only through the good fortune of Jandek’s relative obscurity (and the fact that he’s been through town three times in the last two years, which even for the Jandek fans in town is largely enough to more or less scratch the itch) that there were enough free tickets left at the theater that I didn’t have to cab all the way back to Astoria for us to see only the second half of the show. If this was, oh, a Taylor Swift show we were getting into, we’d have been at the Stoned Crow or Vol De Nuit instead, watching the hockey game, with me buying round after round after round for the four of us in penance for my own absent-mindedness.

So.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 56% [?]

Everyone who braved the monsoon to come out to Shades of Green last night enjoyed a series of questions about Philadelphia, as well as our nightly sponsors, the year 2002 and the letter L.

Co-Host Billy Henehan’s round on “Lost” went over well with the small group, and I do believe we set a new record for people taking advantage of the 2-for-$5 Miller drink specials. Many thanks to him, and to all you guys for showing up. I wasn’t so concerned about the size of the teams, though I suspect that’s going to change soon.

Final scores:

• 4-20 is Hitler’s Birthday: Toke That, Stoners! - 43
• Teabagging Susan Boyle - 34
• Too Soon for Columbine 10 Year Reunion - 32
• Billy, You Rock - 31
• Kill Your TV Like Elvis Did - 24

Popularity: 55% [?]

I’ve always hated Philly sports fans. I’ve just heard too many stories about their particular brand of moronic holliganism over the years to think of them as anything less than proof that the Europeans have nothing even resembling a monopoly on hooliganism and assholiness. Plus, Bobby Clarke is a dick.

That said, though: I luhh-huhhh-huuve the city itself, yes I do, and after spending the weekend there (for the TRASHionals, the Quiz Bowl national championships; a multi-part story on that is to come in this space hopefully starting later today), the odds of the city of brotherly love finding its way into my questions tonight is pretty high.

Tonight’s game will be brought to you by the year 2002 and the letter L, and this week’s guest host is one William Henehan, who I suspect is pretty good at this stuff.

Bring your A-Game, or at least your O-Face. We’re going to try and kick this thing off a little early, so try and get there by 8:30 at the latest. (Shades of Green is at 125 East 15th Street, right at Union Square.)

Popularity: 55% [?]

Much as I love risuqué and outré double-entendres and cunningly lingual transgressions in modern culture, I must admit that I have now officially reached the point where I can no longer watch TV news for all the snide references to:

• Tea, bags, bags of tea, and teabagging;
• “These people are nuts!”;
• going off half-cocked;
• getting all up in our face about this event;
• coming to the party too early;
• or any other second-grade peepee-caca joke that’s been shoehorned onto the television in order to further diminish what was already kind of a stupid and poorly-thought out idea in the first place.

Seriously, this little incident would have gone off all by itself. Pointing at it and laughing isn’t going to help. I should know.

So tonight, on this, our only true day of national allegiance, we will celebrate our annual civic tithing in a proper and non-dick-jokey way, the best and only way we know how: with some straight-up trivia celebrating the tone of the season. There will be drink specials for those of us who have been rendered into poverty, and I will come early. In my pants. Because it’s too chilly for shorts.

See you tonight, wage slaves!

Popularity: 58% [?]