Month: August 2020

The Friday Five

Skyline View I Love: It just doesn’t get any better than the view from Matthias Baldwin Park. Just a perfect, unobstructed view of our awesome skyline.

Organization I’m Excited About: There’s such a torrent of bad news coming at us these days, it’s easy to overlook the tons of good that is going on as well. One of the groups doing a lot of good is I Will Breathe. They’re organizing community clean ups, marches, and ceasefire hoops tourneys. I attended one last Sturday, and it was really well done. I’d encourage all of you to follow them and support their mission. On a personal level, I used to coach their founder, Nasir Bell, many moons ago, and to see him become such a conscientious young man fills me with a ton of pride.

What I’m Listening To: A couple of months ago, we had Kate Nyx on the Philly Blunt, and once I started listening to her music, I was hooked. Her 2015 album, Sage and Silver Bullets, is absolutely incredible. Her songwriting is sublime. I can’t recommend her enough. If you wanna support a local artist, grab some of her music off of bandcamp. (And as a general observation from talking to some music artists, Bandcamp takes WAY better care of artists than apple music, spotify, etc)

Where I Love Hanging Out: That tree in Rittenhouse, on the northwest side, with the branches that are perfect for a 6 year old to climb, and some great shade to enjoy a cup of coffee.

What YOU Should be Listening to: You should be listening to the interview we did a few weeks ago with lawyer and activist Michael Coard. Seriously. It’s one of the best we’ve ever done, and he’s a really great dude. We talked about some heavy topics at a crazy time, and yet we had a lot of fun talking about them.

“I love it when I see by racist exposed. And by that I mean by that is now I know who you are. I’m really not concerned with them being racist, I just want to be sure that they don’t have positions that can affect me. If you’re a poor white at a trailer park, you can say the n-word all day long. If you’re the governor, or the Mayor, or the CEO of some big bank, I want to know that. I’m concerned about racists who can impose that racism negatively upon black people. If y’all have your little racist crew and y’all doing y’all thing up in the mountains go ahead, more power to you.

That’s why many people say that black people can’t be racist, only white people can be racists. And they say that, and I say it, because white people have the power. I can call a white boy a racist name all day long, but as a systemic thing, I can’t hold him back. But if I’m a white guy with a suit and tie who runs a bank, runs a school, runs a city, I can hold people down. A black person can be prejudiced, a black person can be discriminatory, a black person can be an asshole, but a black person can’t be a racist.”

Sign Up for Fall Brawl!

Hello there, folks! Carl and I are pleased to announce our latest hare-brained virtual quizzo scheme: the FALL BRAWL. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

SEASON: 11 weeks (10-week regular season + 1 week of playoffs). 11 games guaranteed (see below), up to 13 games max.

GAME FORMAT: Why fix what ain’t broken? The 10-week regular season is 40 minute sessions, just your team and your virtual quizzo host. Once we get to the playoffs, we’ll activate breakout rooms. 

LEAGUE FORMAT: 50 teams (ideally). Two conferences of 5 divisions, 5 teams per division. You “play against” your 4 division rivals twice, plus 2 non-division games.

SCHEDULE: Regular season starts the week of September 7th. Playoffs (in breakout room format) take place the week of November 16th. The MOTHER OF ALL BRAWLS will take place on Sunday, November 22nd.

PLAYOFFS: 12 teams from each conference make the playoffs- the 5 division winners, plus 7 wild card teams. The first 6 wild card spots go to the non-division winners with the highest average scores, and then the 7th slot will be determined by the highest score in Week 10 among those who haven’t yet clinched. There will also be a special event for non-playoff teams (***see below).

“WHAT IF WE MISS A WEEK?”: No sweat, we’ll do our best to schedule a make-up quiz for you. Also we drop everyone’s lowest score, so at worst you’d lose a game with no hit to your average.

PRIZES: Assuming we fill both conferences, there will be $900 worth of cash prizes for top league finishers ($400 for 1st place, $200 for 2nd, $100 for 3rd, $100 for the highest scoring average teams in each conference’s regular season), plus some gift card packages as always. Most importantly, the overall winner will walk away with the BRAWLERS BELT to which monetary value cannot possibly be applied. Early estimates have it worth at least a chamillion. 

PRICE: $450 per team, with $20 going to the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign for the tremendous work they do housing and feeding our city’s most vulnerable people. $225 is due by Labor Day (9/7), and the balance is due by October 1st.

TOPICS: We are asking YOU to decide the season’s topics on the JGT Quizzo FB page. We’ll pick some of our favorites, then announce them during our live pre-season show right before the season starts. 

REGISTRATION: All Brawlers should sign up here.

Hope you’re ready to get in the ring with us!  


***If you don’t make the playoffs, don’t worry, you still get to play in our FALL CRAWL , a battle royale in which everyone who didn’t make the playoffs plays, with prizes on the line. This will be your 11th game.

Live Quizzo This Sunday

Alrighty, folks, we’re going to eaaaaaase into the “returning to real quizzo” thing this Sunday, with a quiz at Frankford Hall at 6 PM. We’ll have quite a few restrictions in place to keep things safe but still a chance for you and the friends in your social bubble to have some fun. Here’s how it will work:

First of all, the quiz is outdoors. (If you haven’t been to Frankford Hall before, it’s a large space and it’s almost entirely outdoors). Teams of up to 6 can play together. Those teams will be separated by 6 feet from all other teams. Anyone getting up to get a drink or going to the restroom will need to wear a mask. You’ll play the quiz on your phones through playbigquiz.com, so no exchanging of papers or pens, etc.

As for specials, they’re going to have $4 half liters and $8 liters of Weihenstephaner 1516. They’ll also have $6 currywurst with fries. (It’s a popular street food in Germany…it’s a curry spiced sausage.

Hope to see you Sunday!

Last Week’s Scores

  1. Expired Walmart Meat 47
  2. Boyz II Menehune 46
  3. Underground Bard 45
  4. Lambda 44
  5. Quick Question 43
  6. Mad Princes 42
  7. Quarantiners 42
  8. Au Bon Pandemic 41
  9. Jawns 40
  10. Meat Sweats 39
  11. Sofa Kingdom 39
  12. Dobby’s Sock 36
  13. L Ron Hubbard 36
  14. Synch Tramp 36
  15. Careless Fister 35
  16. There’s No I 33
  17. TNQQ 32
  18. FFSF 32
  19. Narcotyzing 32
  20. Babysitters Fight Club 32
  21. Pop Fit Studio 32
  22. Below Basic 31
  23. Carole’s Husband 30
  24. Red Dong 23
  25. Drunk Parents 21

Final Scores of Summer Slam

We had a great time with SUMMER SLAM! and we thank everyone who played. 35 teams, all of them trashing JGT in the chat room while praising Carl. Jerks. Our finals were an instant classic, as Smells Like Quarantine Spirit emerged with a thrilling overtime win over Boyz II Menehune. Lambda Lambda Lambda finished in 3rd, a single point behind the top two. Here are the final scores:

1Smells Like Quarentine Spirit127.00
2Boys II Menehune127.00
3Lambda Lambda Lambda126.00
4Underground Bard123.00
5Expired Walmart Meat123.00
6The Zodiac Killer$122.00
7The Jawns122.00
8Ukraine in the Membrane117.00
9Texas City Players Club117.00
10Cool Cats & Kittens117.00
11Au Bon Pandemic114.00
12L. Ron Hubbard’s Diabetics112.00
13Hallmark Hot110.00
14Hangin’ Tough109.00
15DelCovid-19107.00
16Careless Fister107.00
17Duane’s World106.00
18Synchronized Trampoline104.00
19Super Spreaders104.00
20Cark in a Whig103.00
21Quiz Yo102.00
22Internet Explorers102.00
23Pop Fit Studio98.00
24Branch Covidians98.00
25Queefer Sutherland95.00
26Mad Princes94.00
27Yacht Rock93.00
28Sofa Kingdom91.00
29Little Kwings89.00
30Below Basic88.00
31The Missing Heads85.00
32Meat Sweats83.00
33Kings of Leon82.00
34Babysitters Fight Club74.00
35Drunk Parents63.00

The Friday Five

Instagram Account I’m Digging This Week: Suffer_Decay_Damnation. The pictures on here are some of my favorite in Philly. The skyline in the midst of lightning storms, ruins porn, Philly icons. It’s all there, such a great follow.

Favorite Person I Met This Week: Without question, it was Bamm Rose. A brilliant stripper/activist, she spoke with us on the Blunt on Wednesday night, and talked about the current conditions of strip clubs, and the changes she’d like to see when we emerge from the pandemic. She also discussed her events in which she turns the tables on colonialism by walking white men down the street on all fours like dogs (!) Trust me, this is a fascinating interview.

Who I’m Inspired By: I went to the PPEHRC Rally on Monday (you can read about it here on WHYY). Several mothers got up in front of the crowd and told their stories of losing their sons. It was heartbreaking, a reminder of the reality of our gun violence. These aren’t just names in the papers. They’re sons, they’re mothers getting the worst phone call of their lives, they’re communities being torn apart, they’re brothers and sisters facing a lifetime of PTSD. It’s a reminder of the strength of the human spirit that these mothers are willing to tell a story that must break their heart every time they tell it. And it’s a reminder that while we’re disgusted and outraged by what garbage Trump is, we live in a city that’s 90% Democrat and incapable of solving the very real problems that face our city. Follow PPEHRC here.

What I’m Listening To: The Speck in the Sea. This is the reading of a Times article from 2014, about a fisherman who fell into the sea, and miraculously kept himself alive while awaiting rescue. It’s a great listen.

What Mystery I’m Following: This one on reddit, about a guy who found an old blank cassette tape in a neighbors trash. He listened, and the band sounded really good. So he’s trying to find out if anyone knows anything about them. It would be really cool if he found out what band made the tape 35 years ago. Give them a listen and see if the lead singers voice rings any bells.

Sign Ups for This Week

Well the SUMMER SLAM is over but the Summer is not, and so we’ve got some more quizzing to do. Hope you’ll join us over the next three weeks. You can sign up here. We’ll keep track of our highest scores each week and we’ll have some new official rankings along the way. Sign ups are still $35, with $5 of each one going to the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. Hope to see ya again soon!

Our topic this week: True Crime. Famous crimes, crime podcasts, true crime on TV, you name it, we’ll have it. Hope to see you this week!

2nd Place Week

This week, to wrap up the JGT SUMMER SLAM, we honor those who ALMOST made it to the top. We honor those who won the pennant, but lost the World Series. People who won their primary, but lost the general election. Couldn’t quite pull off the win in some crappy reality show? We’ll see ya on this week’s quiz! Should be a fun quiz.

And then, on Sunday, we wrap it up with the SUMMER SLAM Main Event! We’ll have more details tomorrow.