I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. It was on this date 25 years ago that Lawnchair Larry flew 16,000 feet up in the air with nothing more than a lawnchair and some helium balloons. He got a little nervous and called in a Mayday on his CB before shooting out some of the ballons with a BB gun he had brought along. He then began drifting slowly back to earth.

First, I played with some of the Satan’s Minions at Nodding Head on Sunday. Irish John was hosting. He seems to be a bit mellower than he used to be. First time I’ve ever played his quizzo where he didn’t tell a single person, “Shut the **** up, you stupid ****.” (To be honest, I was a little disappointed. The highlight of his quizzo is always when he gets really pissed.) The quiz was pretty good. More minutiae than mine, I think. I couldn’t really help all that much. He doesn’t really ever venture into my wheelhouse, which is US history and sports. We won though, pretty easily, at least partly because Mike of the Minions is the King of Minutiae. The next night I went with D-Mac and a few of the Chin Omelettes over to New Deck. (We were gonna play Dark Horse but DH John got sick.) Not a bad quiz, pretty good mix of questions. The New Deck isn’t my favorite bar in the world, and the food was so-so, but the food and drinks were pretty cheap. We lost to the Sofa Kingdom by 3 points, and finished out of the money. I still like Dark Horse quizzo better than either of these quizzos, but they were perfectly good.

Palestra Jon wasn’t so lucky. He played out in the burbs. Here were his thoughts: I went out to check out some suburban Quizzo at Iron Hill Brewery in Media. Nice place. Bad Quizzo. 5 rounds. …ALL POP CULTURE, straight out of trivia book. A numerical question 11 to each round, almost impossible (how many pounds of meat can a wolf eat at one sitting—20). To show how bad this crowd is, they asked only one general knowledge question out of 50—In what war was the Battle of the Bulge—only 1/3 of the teams got that right. On the good side, $3 homemade microbrews and cheap appetizers.

Finally, the Satan’s Minions took a field trip to Kildare’s last night for their award winning quizzo. They said that it was ok, but there were several major problems. First of all, length. Three and a half hours long. Then, all the questions were worth one point apiece, except for one question, which was worth ten. That question? “What Kildare’s bartender was named Best Of Philly by Philly Style Magazine?” Teams could also joker that round, so if they knew the bartender, they could get 20 points for knowing it. This question took place in the first round, so anyone who didn’t know it essentially lost after round one, because they had to work out of a 30+ point hole. There were six rounds, all with topics. They were: 2 audio rounds, Cartoons, Animal House, Headlines, and Advertising Slogans. There were no history, gegraphy, science, or politics questions. According to Mike, “I think they had to keep all the questions pop culture related, or they would have upset the crowd, which consisted entirely of idiot drunken frat boys.” The quizzo also featured a chugging contest (which, I have to admit, is kind of a fun idea.)

Anybody out there played any good or bad quizzos lately? Let us know what you recommend (and which ones we should stay away from) below.

Jonesing for some trivia and can’t wait ’til tonigh? In that case, take this Global IQ test from Newsweek.

http://www.youtube.com/v/yQbhlf5fjjI

Chiggity Check Yourself Before you wreck yourself (Clean version). Here’s an interiew with Das EFX where they talk about an album that is expected to be released early next year, and here they are on MySpace.

–Margate Lucy is getting a makeover. Wow, has it really been over three years since I hung out inside of Lucy?

-Internet radio is on hiatus today in protest of a recent ruling that caused royalty rates to skyrocket. I knew this online digital music thing was just a fad. I’m gonna make a fortune selling all the cassettes I’ve been hoarding the past few years!

-The shocking murder/suicide of Chris Benoit and his family may have had something to do with steroids, not surprisingly. The number of pro wrestlers who die before they turn 50 is staggering.

-Happy birthday to Willie’s favorite player Michael Vick. I heard that for his birthday he got a new puppy!

Das Efx is one of my favorite groups of all time, and their first album is in my top 5 hip hop albums ever. They are certainly one of the most underrated. They completely changed the rap game in the early 90s with their insane iggedy metaphors and 1970s and 80s pop culture references. The lyrics on their first album were incredible. The following is from the song “East Coast”:
Yo I’m back, black, heavens-to-Betsy, time to get loose
I took a bite outta crime, washed it down with some juice
I’m not the New Kids, but I’m knockin blocks off, sonny
Yep I rock like the Stones plus I’m rollin in the money
So diggity-ask about, I know you digs me like a shovel
I kick straps for sport cos I’m short like Barney Rubble
Check the slang, boogity-bang, umm, I goes berserk
when I flex like Popeye, I fight like Cap’ Kirk
So bozo, I’m knockin em out the box by the pair
I’m high strung, my tongue got moves like Fred Astaire

Unfortunately, everybody stole their style, so then they tried to go “gangsta”, which wasn’t their their strength, and they fell off pretty quickly.

So I went over to a certain friends house yesterday (to protect his identity and image, I will not reveal his name, though it may or may not rhyme with Bolivia Bart) and he was watching “In Her Shoes”. He quickly made the announcement that he was watching it “for the Philly scenes and to see Cameron Diaz dance around in her underwear”, which he was forced to say according to several specific statutes in the Man Law. Anyways, I started watching it too, and I actually kind of liked it. It’s always cool to see Philly stuff, and Cameron Diaz does indeed walk around in incredibly tight clothing throughout the film. And I thought the story was kind of original. As far as chick-flicks go, it really wasn’t bad. For those of you keeping score at home, I have now come out and admitted that I liked Ride the Ducks and “In Her Shoes” this week. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to make myself an appletini.

Hey, I’m going to hosting a fundraiser tonight for my friends Brie and Bruce’s acting troupe. Here’s the details:
8:00 p.m. — DJ Paddywagon
8:30 — Dan Scholnick (on tabla) and Mike Moss, AKA King of Jeans (on tenor sax)
9:00 — The Guided Tour DUI
10:30 — The War on Drugs

GUIDED TOUR DUI
Mum Puppettheatre
115 Arch Street, Philadelphia
8p.m. doors open
$10 suggested donation
Beer provided by Yards Brewery for a small donation
Free food provided by Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s
________________________

Here’s the description again:

The Guided Tour” — that curious site-specific play on a tourist trolley — was presented in the 2004 and 2006 Live Arts Festivals. “Guided Tour DUI” is a rare experiment between the creators of the show and Project P, a collective of local film enthusiasts. With the help of the P’s, the cast of “Guided” will be performing a reading of the show with a film adaptation of the tour route projected behind them — and sometimes on them. Oh, and we’ll all be drinking the whole time, and so should you.

And! The War on Drugs — one of the coolest indie bands ever and a side project of the famed Capitol Years — will be joining us for our show! (We’re paying them with beer and the magic of theater, but mostly just beer.)

And! DJ Paddywagon will be spinning (vinyl, that is) throughout the night.

And! Dorothy Robinson — Philadelphia Metro Entertainment Editor – will our special guest bartender.

That’s a whole lot for $10.

The Kildare’s in question in Best Of Philly Style was the one in Headhouse Square, not the one in the burbs. It’s on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. So if anyone wants to check it out and let me know how it is, that would be great. And I was right: Starbucks did win best coffee for the 2nd straight year. I’ll find one of these mags soon and we’ll see what won what.
UPDATE: Just saw their website. I was not in the top 4 quizzos, being passed by Kildare’s, Fado’s, Fergie’s, and New Deck. Kildare’s came away the big winners, with Best Quizzo, Best Bar in the Burbs, and Best Bartender. Philly Style’s write-up of the bar included this classic line: “The authenticity of Kildare’s decor and cuisine might make you feel like you’re somewhere on the Emerald Isle.” Which is especially ironic, considering what Philadelphia Mag wrote a couple of months ago: Kildare’s, however, is “authentic” the same way Epcot Center’s World Showcase is — the spirit, the accoutrements and the cultural touchstones may all be there, but that’s where the authenticity ends. The first three Kildare’s were facsimiles that Magrogan put together through the Irish Pub Company, which is essentially a bar-in-a-box-type factory that helps you, young budding publican, become owner of an authentic Irish pub — outfitting your location with custom-made Irish bric-a-brac, sharing Irish recipes, recommending outsource agencies from which to hire “authentic” Irish staff, even offering naming suggestions. (Add “& Sons” or “& Daughters” for authenticity.) The company was featured in a 2006 Slate.com article called “Ireland’s ‘Crack’ Habit,” which outlined how faux Irish pubs have become huge business in all parts of the world — even Ireland. Magrogan’s last three pubs were built through another Irish pub warehouse company, called Bar None, that’s based in the not-so-­authentic Irish realm of Canada.

Anyways, I’m done whining about this. No seriously. Done. Me. With this…Kildare’s? Are you serio…No, sorry, that was a slip. Kildare’s is fine. It’s kool. And hell, even I’ll admit that PSM got some stuff right. The Roots are a great band, Monk’s has a good beer menu, and McGillan’s has a really good karaoke.

-Fantastic article in today’s Daily News about Little League baseball in Strawberry Mansion. The pic is of me and my team and the trophies you guys helped pay for.

-Is quizzo harder than Jeopardy? This from Dan Gross: Who is Jared Cohen? This Narberth man raked in $27,000 over three nights on “Jeopardy” last week,” but didn’t fare as well playing Quizzo at Manayunk’s Bayou Bar & Grill (4245 Main). Cohen, a 25-year-old private-equity analyst, celebrated his first night of victory there Wednesday, watching the show with 15 friends. The Penn State grad and pals stuck around for the pub quiz afterward, and Cohen’s crew didn’t come close to victory. Bayou owner Joe Abruzzo figures the bar’s game must be harder than “Jeopardy.” But we imagine Cohen’s happier with his TV cash than a free bar tab.

-Good news! This from wikipedia: All-4-One are currently recording their 7th Studio album aptly titled “7” due to be released late spring/early summer.

-OK, so this is kind of weird. Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter played the mom and dad on Family Ties. But did you know they were born on the exact same day? They both turn 60 today. And Happy Birthday to Kip WInger, who turns 46.