Author: Johnny Goodtimes

Quizzo Bowl XVI!

It’s official, folks! Quizzo Bowl XVI is going down on the rarest day of the year, February 29th, at the funkiest of venues, Underground Arts. Really wanted to mix things up this year, and I’m going into this one excited to basically peel back everything and start from scratch. I love the World Cafe Live, but it was time for something new. That does mean that there will be fewer tickets for sale this year, at a smaller venue. Tickets will go on sale later this week, so be sure to check back.

As for our musical guest this year, it’s going to be….YOU! We’re bringing the Pat Finnerty Live Band Karaoke Experience to Quizzo Bowl this year, so that YOU can perform between rounds. We’ll have a trophy for best performance, but we’ll also have a gong for those who are terrible. The gong, of course, will be operated by Fastball Bob.

I think things got a little too formulaic the past few years, so I’m taking a step back, looking at this very cool tradition we’ve got here, and working on ways to take it to another level. I hope you’ll join me. Let’s have some fun.

Everything You Need to Know About Bowlizzo

WHO: Me, you, and up to 6 teams of 8.

WHAT: Bowlizzo, a combination of quizzo and bowling.

WHEN: Sunday, January 26th at 6 pm.

WHERE: North Bowl.

WHY: Why not?

WILL TRIVIA BE ABOUT LIZZO? Uh, no. General knowledge trivia.

COST? 10 clams gets you a game of bowlizzo, a game of regular bowling, and shoes. It’s a hell of a deal.

WILL THERE BE PRIZES? Of course. Not only gift certs to the North Bowl, but also some bitchin’ ass trophies and medals.

WILL THERE BE FOOD AND DRINK SPECIALS? Of course. Yards Loyal Lager cans $4 and Yards PPA glasses will be $4 (pitcher only $15!) and $5 Stateside vodka highballs.

$10 FOR BOWLING AND $4 FOR GOOD BEER? THAT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE: Right?

SHOULD WE JUST SHOW UP AT THE DOOR? I would recommend reservations…we’ve got eight lanes available for this and four are already spoken for. You can make reservations by calling North Bowl at 215-238-2695 or emailing them at events@northbowlphilly.com to reserve a slot.

WHY WOULD I POSSIBLY NOT DO THIS? I honestly have no idea. It’s the most fun you can have on Sunday night at 6 pm in Philadelphia. Point blank. Doooooo iiiiiiitttttt!!!!

The Friday Five

Where I’m Drinking: Congrats to Fergie, who just opened the GOAT on 19th and Sansom. I went by last night for Opening Night and it’s what Fergie does so well: no “concept”, just a place where people like to drink and talk. There wasn’t a huge crowd by the time I got there at 11 after Bards quizzo, but here’s the thing I found fascinating: people weren’t on their phones. Everybody in there was talking to someone else. And Fergie’s is the same way. In a world where we all walk around like zombies with a screen n front of our eyes, it’s no small feat.

It’s located in the same location as a notoriously bizarre bar that was there forever. I told Fergie, “It’s nice but it’s no Oh! Shea’s.” Without missing a beat, he said, “And you’re nice but you’re no Irish John.”

If you’ve never heard our interview with Fergie on the Blunt, do yourself a favor and listen now.

What I’m Listening To: Speaking of the Blunt, most of you know that Reef the Lost Cauze is my partner on that podcast, but he’s also one the best rappers in Philly. He recently released a new song, and it’s fantastic. He’s also appearing on stage on Sunday with Blackalicious at Ardmore Music Hall in what’s going to be a hell of a show. If you’ve never heard their song Alphabet Aerobics, do so now. It’s one of the most amazing rap songs ever made. I saw them at the TLA 15 years ago, and they were incredible.

If you wanna hear more from Reef, he earlier this week sat down on another podcast and talked about why he’s stopped touring, how having a daughter has changed him, and the inspiration he took from our recent Blunt interview with Joan Myers Brown. Good stuff.

Where I’m Grabbing Coffee: The Italian Market is my favorite neighborhood in the city. It really is the best of who we are: the energy, the diversity, rough around the edges but a lot of heart. My favorite Italian restaurant in the city (Villa Di Roma) and my favorite Mexican restaurant (Blue Corn) are side by side. You can delicious cheese from DiBruno’s and delicious gravy from Superior Ravioli. And it also has two of the best coffee shops in the city. Gleaners is the funkier of the two, and has one of the best people watching windows in the city. Anthony’s is a bit cleaner cut, but that’s not a dig at all. And I love the history: it’s a 4th generation family business.

What Weird Statue I Like: That bike robot one in front of Johnny Brendas.

Where My Favorite Mannequin Is: Meglio Furs. South Broad. God I freaking love that window. I don’t know what it is, I just love a window display that looks the same as it did when the place closed like 20 years ago. Some Twilight Zone shit.

Food and Drink Week at Quizzo

This week’s topic is food and drink. All questions will be about the things we eat and drink. Gonna be a fun one. Here’s this week’s schedule:

TUESDAY

  • 6 PM Rothman Cabin at City Hall
  • 8 PM O’Neals with WID
  • 8 PM Dock Street

WEDNESDAY

  • 6:15 PM Locust Rendezvous
  • 8:30 PM Founding Fathers

THURSDAY

  • 8 PM Birra
  • 9:15 PM Bards

SUNDAY

  • 6 PM Bowlizzo at North Bowl (all new quiz, not food and drink)

Bowlizzo This Sunday!

What if we combined bowling, quizzo, and Lizzo to put on a bizarrely awesome event? Let’s give it a shot. We did this like 12 years ago (well, sans Lizzo) and it was AWESOME. Been wanting to do it again ever since. Here’s how it works:

We’ll have 5 rounds of quizzo, broken down as we normally do. But between rounds, instead of listening to music, your team will be bowling. You’ll bowl three frames, we’ll take the average of your teams bowling score and combine it to your teams quizzo score. Now don’t worry if you’re good at quizzo but not good at bowling…we’ll give away a prize for best overall quizzo score (we’ll also give one away for best bowling score). But this just adds a fun wrinkle to your favorite bar sport. By the end of the game, you’ll have bowled 10 frames of bowling, played 5 rounds of quizzo, and probably have had a beer or two. Your ticket also includes another game of bowling once quizzo is done. There is room for 8 teams of 6, with reservations highly encouraged. Get your squad of 6 together, call North Bowl at 215-238-2695 or email them at events@northbowlphilly.com to reserve a slot, and I’m psyched to see you on Sunday!

The Friday Five

What I’m Reading: I read this piece by a guy currently in Philly who was a member of Robert E Lee’s fraternity. Interesting piece. There is certainly a cult of personality around Lee in Virginia. I was taught all that nonsense: what a gentleman he was, all these absurd fables about how kind he was to blacks and sweet to the ladies.

What I’m Listening To: Been playing around with playlists on Spotify. Created this one for quizzo this week: All Philly performers.

What I’m Eating: A couple of weeks ago, some folks from Small Oven came by the quiz at Dock Street. TBH, I didn’t even know the place existed before that. But it’s a shared space with Porco’s and I was there at lunch so I tried the Spicy Porker. Nice space, very good sandwich. Great addition to the Washington Ave corridor.

Where I’m Drinking: Went with the fam to The Post last weekend. It seems to be more of a college hangout, but I got to say, it was an awesome place to take my kid. They’ve got Pop a Shot, they’ve got Skeeball, they’ve got air hockey. And really good Happy Hour specials. (It’s also the place we interviewed John Bolaris a few months ago. If you haven’t heard that one, you have to. Him talking about what happened in Miami is incredible.)

Where I’m Taking in the View: Don’t have to go far for this one. Finally made it up to Cira Green. Beautiful. Already talking to them about possibly doing some events there this spring.

Thanks for tuning in! Be sure to join me on twitter and be sure to listen to Philly’s best podcast, the Philly Blunt. For more great places to eat, drink, and visit in the area, check out previous Friday Fives here.