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:

1	Smells Like Quarentine Spirit	127.00
2	Boys II Menehune	127.00
3	Lambda Lambda Lambda	126.00
4	Underground Bard	123.00
5	Expired Walmart Meat	123.00
6	The Zodiac Killer$	122.00
7	The Jawns	122.00
8	Ukraine in the Membrane	117.00
9	Texas City Players Club	117.00
10	Cool Cats & Kittens	117.00
11	Au Bon Pandemic	114.00
12	L. Ron Hubbard’s Diabetics	112.00
13	Hallmark Hot	110.00
14	Hangin’ Tough	109.00
15	DelCovid-19	107.00
16	Careless Fister	107.00
17	Duane’s World	106.00
18	Synchronized Trampoline	104.00
19	Super Spreaders	104.00
20	Cark in a Whig	103.00
21	Quiz Yo	102.00
22	Internet Explorers	102.00
23	Pop Fit Studio	98.00
24	Branch Covidians	98.00
25	Queefer Sutherland	95.00
26	Mad Princes	94.00
27	Yacht Rock	93.00
28	Sofa Kingdom	91.00
29	Little Kwings	89.00
30	Below Basic	88.00
31	The Missing Heads	85.00
32	Meat Sweats	83.00
33	Kings of Leon	82.00
34	Babysitters Fight Club	74.00
35	Drunk Parents	63.00

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!

Our Scores Headed Into Week 8

Here they are folks. Best of luck this week, everybody! I’ll send an email on Wednesday with details about the Big Event.

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.

The Friday Five

I had a nice little roll going with the Friday Five until everything went to hell in March. I think it’s time to bring it back. Here’s what I’m doing, reading, and where I’m eating these days.

We got named Philly’s Best Podcast by Philly Mag in their latest edition! Pretty heady stuff. It’s been a labor of love for the past two years and I’m really, really proud of what we’ve created. If you haven’t listened, you should. Our interview with Terrill Haigler, aka _yafavtrashman last week was terrific. And legendary lawyer Chuck Peruto was really good too. Be sure to follow us on Instgram and Facebook.

Bought The Regulars a few weeks ago, and oh man is it awesome. It’s by Sarah Stolfa, who was a bartender at Philly’s legendary dive bar McGlinchey’s. She decided to take photos of the regulars as they sat at the bar. The pictures are beautiful, and the writing is terrific too.

In the old days, you had brunch at your favorite bar on the weekends. Nowadays, it’s all about grabbing a picnic lunch and heading to Fairmount. As for the lunch, we’ve been going to Woodrow’s for our hoagies lately, and they never disappoint. I’ve become a vegetarian for the most part, so I no longer get their Italian, which is awesome, but the shrimp Po Boy is fantastic. As for where to sit and eat? It’s REALLY tough to beat the view at Lemon Hill (below).

Been really into Missing in Alaska podcast. Crazy story I had never heard before. In 1972, two Congressmen boarded a Cessna in Alaksa and were never seen again. It was believed that the plane went down in bad weather. But there’s a twist: a mobster would marry one of the men’s widows a year later. And in the 1990s, that mobster would state that the plane had been bombed. So the podcast tries to figure out what the truth is. I haven’t quite reached the end yet, and it drags a bit at times because it’s sooooo comprehensive, but it’s really interesting. You can read more about the case here.

Reading a book about about William Dampier. One of the coolest people ever. Scientist, philosopher, oh yeah and pirate. He circumnavigated the globe three times, was court martialed, marooned, and introduced the words barbecue, avocado, and chopsticks to the english language. This is the book. Really good.

Alright, see ya next week. In the meantime, be sure to follow JGT Quizzo on Facebook.

Interview with Jefferson CEO

Not sure why in the world the CEO of Jefferson Health would agree to sit down with three goofballs like us, but that’s part of what’s so great about Stephen Klasko. The guy is passionate about radically changing healthcare, and he explained the changes he’d like to see in this candid, funny, and fascinating interview we did with him on Wednesday night. If you’re not already following the Philly Blunt on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, you should be.

Breakfast Week

This week, we celebrate the first meal of the day at quizzo. If you’d like to play and aren’t a part of the SUMMER SLAM, you can sign up here. See ya this week!

Top Scores for Breakfast Week

[gdoc key=”https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KHy_-g73a1p0wecclSsazpS65hYWuxKjZBkK4gkSTXY/edit#gid=1148258937″ query=”Select A, B, D WHERE C = ‘Summer Slam 2020’ AND D = ‘Week 7’ ORDER BY B DESC LIMIT 10″ class=”no-datatables” csv_headers=”1″]

Summer Slam Roundtable after 6 Weeks

On Sunday night, Carl, J Michael, and JGT counted down our 51 teams until we got to #1. It was a fun discussion. We’ll do it again soon. If you don’t want to hear us talking quizzo minutiae you can see the standings right here. But who are you kidding, you want to hear us talking quizzo minutiae.

RIP Malik B

A few years ago I stumbled across Mr. Green. If you’re a fan of old school hip-hop, you’ll freaking love this dude. He basically records street musicians, samples their music, then gets a hip-hop legend to drop a verse or two over it. His “Live from the Streets” album is an absolute masterpiece. Hooks from Peruvian pipe bands, ukulele players, random people he hears singing in parks, it’s a really remarkable work.

One of the songs on the album starts with him talking to a street musician named Kevin Brown. He sings an original, Green records it, then makes it into a sample. He then adds drums and bass, and takes the beat to Malik B, who as most people in Philly know used to be a member of the Roots. Malik B dropped a verse over it. I love his lispy voice, his verse a free association rhyme that somehow all loosely ties together:

I’m like a horse with it, Darth Vader force with it
I hope the double XL or fucking Source get it
Career a Porsche with it, on the stoop you bullshitted
Nineteen pages I google to hear some more critics
It’s more headaches, pure ridicule gimmicks
Fuck a poor image we ready to get some more spinach
And be fortunate, official and authentic
Meet Trina down in MIA and get lost in it

It makes no sense, which is part of what’s great about it. And if you dig poetry, how can you not to love the rhyming of critics, gimmicks, spinach, and authentic?

The entire thing is as beautiful as it is unlikely, and the video is a love letter to the city of Philadelphia.

Kevin Brown apparently died a few years ago. Malik B. died yesterday. Both lived hard and died young. But before they left they created art. And at a time we need our artists more than ever, we thank them for it.