Westward Quiz-ho


So here’s a short video I did about our trip to Denver for Geek Bowl a couple of years ago. It’s a great video, but since I’m a jackass I never finished it. Regardless, here is Part 2. This is the one where Phil goes off on one of the greatest runs of worthless music knowledge you will ever see.. I will finish Part 3, damnit. It’s just too good not to. Here are a few of the guys we have playing on Saturday as well. (video from last year). Carl and I are with ladies team this year. The other guys in the video are on the A-team with Jam Master Phil and Kenney. Alright, I gotta get packed. If you want to follow our progress, follow me on twitter.

Quizzo Bowl VIII: Caribbean Quiz!

Goodtimes Vs. Greattimes from Johnny Goodtimes on Vimeo.

WHO: You, me, a calypso band, and 300 of our closest friends. Oh, and some punks from Denver and Philly’s new quizmaster darling, Johnny Greattimes.

WHAT: Quizzo Bowl, the most prestigious quizzo event in the country.

WHEN: February 18th, at 7:30 p.m. Doors will open at 6:30, show will start at 7:30 sharp. (Unless the scoring computer crashes right before the show like it did last year.)

WHERE: World Cafe Live. 30th and Walnut.

WHY: Because you like hanging out with your friends, drinking beer, listening to music, and trying to make yourself a quizzo immortal.

HOW MUCH ARE TICKETS? HOW DO I BUY THEM? Tickets are $25  a pop if you buy them from me or $28 a pop if you buy them online. You can buy them from me at each of my regular quizzos or buy them online here.

WHAT KIND OF ENTERTAINMENT WE GOT? We’ve got the Cavatina Calypso Band performing between rounds, we’ve got Fastball Bob Gutierrez acting as my co-host, and there are rumors of my arch-rival, Johnny Greattimes, making an appearance and trying to sabotage the show. As for halftime, we’ve got breakdancers from Rennie Harris Puremovement.

IS THERE A DRESS CODE? Yes, please wear something tropical. Aloha shirts and flowery dresses, and of course grass skirts.

WHAT WILL THE FORMAT BE? There will be 5 rounds of 10 questions each. There will be an easy round, a surprise round, a celebrity round, a music round, and an impossible round. Point values will go up by 1 in each subsequent round.

WHAT WILL THE QUESTIONS BE ABOUT? It will be like a regular quizzo, with various general knowledge questions. Someone asked me the other day if it was all questions about the Caribbean. No, though I’m sure there will be a few. But like I said, this will be a general knowledge quiz, though since most teams will be playing with a full squad, the questions will be a little bit harder than usual.

IS THIS REALLY THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS QUIZZO EVENT IN THE WORLD? You damn right.

HOW LONG WILL IT LAST? It lasts a little longer than the normal quiz. I’d say that normally we come in at around 3-3 1/2  hours. There is an extra round, and grading 40 teams papers ain’t all that easy, so it’s a little longer than usual. But the live music and entertainment will make it go by quickly.

CAN WE JUST WATCH AND NOT PLAY? No, there’s no reason to just watch. Why not join the fun? My goal is for the team in last place to have as much fun as the team in first place, so don’t worry if your team isn’t comprised of rocket scientists. You’ll still have a good time. Promise.

WHAT CAN I WIN? I have $1500 worth of prizes for our top 4 finishers, as well as numerous gift certificates to give away over the course of the night. Of course, if you take first place, more important than the prize will be the fact that you will become a quizzo immortal, and your team name shall ring from the mountaintops, forever exulted by nerds across this great nation. Furthermore, we’re going to be having our annual raffles, though this year with a twist: this year we’ll pick two people, who will them compete in a little nerd faceoff for the gift certificates.

HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN BE ON A TEAM? The max is 8 people. If you have a team of 5 or fewer, there is a decent chance I will team you up with another small team. (We’ve got to maximize space, plus it gives you a better chance to win.)

CAN I BUY MY TICKETS AT THE EVENT THAT NIGHT? Probably not. The last 7 of these have sold out. I doubt there will be any tickets left by that night.

IS THERE AN AFTERPARTY? Yes, it will be at JG Domestic. They’re going to hook us up with happy hour specials.

If you have any more questions, please contact me on facebook or leave them below in the comments. Oh, and do me a favor and click “Like” below so we can spread the word. Grass roots as always. We’re going to have a hell of a time. Don’t miss it!

 

Ravens, Franklin, and Goats

A question on Thursday/Mondays quiz in the Edgar Allan Poe round had to do with the bird Grip. “The bird that inspired The Raven was named Grip and actually belonged to this writer, more famous than Poe at the time. Who was that famous writer?” The correct answer was Charles Dickens. If you haven’t already read it, please check out this piece I did recently on that very bird. The stuffed bird is actually at the Philly Free Library. I think it’s pretty damn interesting that a single bird inspired two of the most famous authors of the 19th century (though I’ll personally take Poe over Dickens any day of the week).

Last week I did a piece on 5 things you didn’t know about Ben Franklin. They ended up discussing it on 1210 AM. Did you know that he hung out with Satanists, was in the Chess Hall of Fame, and left the city of Philly $200 million…in 1991?

On Sunday, two men became immortals for all the wrong reasons. Kyle Williams and Billy Cundiff both came up small at the end of very important games. I decided to look back at Philadelphia athletes and coaches who choked…and what Williams and Cundiff can learn from how #1 reacted to it.

This Dude Sounds Kind of Awesome

I don’t do a lot of food and drink stuff on here, but I do like to share when I find interesting people. And this guy sounds pretty interesting. He is known simply as Lêe, and he’s opening a bar on 10th and Race soon called the Hop Sing Laundromat (named after a characer on Bonanza). The whole thing seems to be shrouded in mystery. It was supposed to open like a year ago, and it still doesn’t have an opening date. There are thousands of pennies on the floor, and thousands of nickels on the bar, there will be complimentary shoe shines at the door, and there will be over 1,000 types if liquor available. Here are a few choice lines from an interview Lêe recently did with Philly Eater.

…we’ve moved the bar from one side of the room to the other in the middle of the night because we thought the employees should have a better view of the room…If Hop Sing Laundromat lives up to the expectation of our guests and the media, then it is just pure luck. And, if this whole thing goes south, then I and I alone will be the biggest idiot in town for trying, and rightly so…My biggest fear, actually, is dying before I get to open Hop Sing Laundromat. Honestly…Your time spent here should remain private and not end up on a website. There are no recording devices of any kind allowed in the main room, and that includes cellphone cameras…To point your phone camera at someone not in their best light is demeaning at best. Privacy is a privilege and not a right in 2012, which is really strange. I believe in those values. I understand there are people who need to be updated instantly on what’s going on in their world at all times, but they won’t be doing it at Hop Sing Laundromat..What I’ve learned on my research trip, driving 33,000 miles in 70 days through 48 states, is that every cocktail bar thinks their version of a classic cocktail is the best version ever made. They all stock their establishments with a limited selection of spirits to make their own versions of these cocktails. That’s a mistake. Our guest’s version of any cocktail is and always will be the best version of them all. The perfect drink.