Your Quizmaster — Home of the Quizmaster of Sudwerk Brewing Company in Davis

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. What brand of candy has asked us repeatedly, “Isn’t Life Juicy”?

Internet Culture. Warren Buffett was born in a year ending with a zero. What was that year? That had

Newspaper Headlines. US Senator Barbara Mikulski today announced her planned retirement from representing the state with the highest per capita income, and the oldest state capitol still in continuous legislative use. Name this densely-populated state.

Actors and Actresses. Born in 1981, what actor named Chris has appeared in movies that have grossed more than any other actor named Chris (in major roles, not counting cameos or bit parts).

Pop Culture – Music. What is the five-letter name of the most prominent genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s?

The Tito’s Laughter-Silvered Wings Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on March 2, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Where does courage come from? In part, from those who inspire us. March finds me thinking about mentors the way that supermarkets find Ginsberg thinking about Whitman.

Have your read Ginsberg’s “A Supermarket in California”? It’s the most famous of his Berkeley poems from when he lived on Milvia Street, not far from my own Berkeley neighborhood when I moved there 35 years after the poem’s composition.

The poem begins this way.

What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman, for I walked down the

streets under the trees with a headache self-conscious looking at the full moon.

In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit

supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!

What peaches and what penumbras! Whole families shopping at night! Aisles

full of husbands! Wives in the avocados, babies in the tomatoes! — and you,

Garcia Lorca, what were you doing down by the watermelons?

I saw you, Walt Whitman, childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the

meats in the refrigerator and eyeing the grocery boys.

I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price

bananas? Are you my Angel?

Later in the poem, Ginsberg’s speaker calls Walt Whitman his “lonely old courage-teacher.” On March 2^nd I think always of my own (young) courage teacher, and my closest childhood friend, a boy named Tito.

My constant companion, Tito taught me about not only courage, but also about curiosity, audacity, humor, and action. Tito had a bias towards action, moving always towards some goal or another: a girl he was courting, a running goal he was achieving, an artistic goal he was exploring, a philosophical goal that he was considering. I remember visiting him in his Hartford dorm-room, and answering his questions about T.S. Eliot (whom I was studying that semester). I remember wondering how, as a double major in philosophy and physics, Tito knew so much about poetry.

Incessantly curious, Tito never limited himself to any particular subject. He studied Native American culture, and was welcomed into tribal conversations that I, being part Cherokee, never experienced. He studied aeronautics, and then flew solo across the country to visit Kate and me in Sacramento. Was he my angel? Picking him up at Sacramento International Airport, I felt like I knew Lindberg! He studied art and illustration, and published his drawings of an archeological dig on the cover of the Science section of the New York Times.

When we were children, Tito reminded me every March that he would always be eight days older than me. Tito could do so much, but my courage-teacher could not predict the future. As another poem put it, Tito has “slipped the surly bonds of earth, / And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings,” leaving me to smile at our inside jokes, and to celebrate his birthdays without him.

Happy birthday, Tito.

Tonight’s pub quiz will feature questions about Apple computers, conquerors, well-being, people named Chris, Chicago music, the Olympics, wizards, ganglia, the value of debt, Ordinary People, the greatest of all triumphs, Jupiter, bantamweights, familiar soundtracks, Leonard Nimoy, that which is common, Chinese culinary plays titled The Wonton, sage, years ending in zero, midwestern masters, cockroaches, mislabeled catwomen, Variety, hunger, the European Union, austerity and other topics, Geography, American states, and Shakespeare.

As you might have surmised from my discussion of Tito, above, my birthday is coming up, and I expect that the Pub will help me throw a party after next week’s Pub Quiz (March 9). Will you join us? The complimentary finger food and singing will begin at about 9:30. Can you believe that some of my friends don’t even know that I host our Pub Quiz? I hope you will meet some of those folks on March 9. Rather than considering gifts, please consider making a donation to your community radio station, KDVS.

A Wide Open Open Mic takes place on March 5^th at the Natsoulas Gallery. This means that even you could perform something, if you arrive early enough to add your name to the list. I hope you do. We start at 8. Music and prose will be performed, as well as poetry.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. What product completes this commercial slogan? “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s BLANK.”

Internet Culture. In the US, as well as worldwide, the first two most-visited websites are Google and Facebook. What is the third?

Newspaper Headlines. Takanobu Ito will step down from his post as the CEO of what automaker in June?

Mountains. What white mountain is the highest in the Alps and the highest peak in Europe outside of the Caucasus range?

Sports. What Spanish tennis player, nicknamed “The King of Clay,” is regarded as the finest clay court player in history?

The Gymnasts Like Tomahawks Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 23, 2015

Picture by JLHopgood (Flickr)

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

The modern gym is a playground for adults where children are rarely tolerated. I was excited that a gym was being built a block from my home in south Davis, but I soon discovered that it was a gym for gymnasts, with not much there for an adult to do. On the first Saturday after they opened, my nine-year-old son Truman insisted that we check out the open house, and so we went.

A place where the coaches and young gymnasts take their sport seriously, Davis Diamonds offers plenty of room for tumbling, swinging on rings, pivoting round and round a pommel horse and attempting to remain parallel on parallel bars. Perennial non-participants, we parents were invited to watch all the activity from movable benches and stools on the west wall, tapping our toes to the quick and familiar beats of Abba and Parliament Funkadelic.

Just as we parents were growing accustomed to the irregular sounds of unstructured play, the perky coaches interrupted our complacent reverie (and our children’s freedom) by clapping rhythmically in patterns that all the gym’s regulars recognized and soon mimicked. This unexpected percussion signaled the end of free play and the time for us to focus attention on exhibitions of talent put on by the “girls’ team” and the “boys’ team.”

Ladies first. The girls sped towards the floor exercises with the sort of power and grace that neophyte gymnastics spectators such as myself see only on television, and even then typically only once every four years. The most practiced of these powerful sprites spent much of their time in the air, bouncing about as if their legs and spines were made of springy coils. Flipping backwards and forwards, often not letting their feet touch the ground, these young women in spandex seemed to spinon an invisible shoulder-high pivot, rotating impossibly like thrown tomahawks.

The young men resembled extras in kung fu films. With the grips of veteran mountaineers, they clasped the smooth high bars or rings, their chalked gloves protecting them from friction, and then hurled themselves forward in ever quickening circles, exploring centrifugal forces like muscled propellers. Their arms and torsos showed an independent understanding of angles, pitch, and propulsion; they twitched with anticipation and aspiration, and with each rotation, these young men inched closer and closer to unassisted flight. Already accomplished athletes, the oldest among these young men was merely a high school senior.

The tumblers’ peers cheered them on by name, while the rest of us—parents and supporters—applauded after each improbable feat was completed. Some children just watched in stunned silence, hoping for a future of such strength and grace. Their awe and the genuine applause softened my skepticism about the need for such a gym in the neighborhood.

One little girl also heard the applause. Perhaps three years old, she was relishing open play at Davis Diamonds. Her brown curls pulled back into a ponytail, this tot suddenly found no line for the long and narrow trampoline while everyone else was watching the show. Unsteady at first, but with increasing speed, she heaved herself with uneven bounces towards a pit filled with blue cubes of foam, landing with great joy while at the same time a muscle-bound boy dismounted from the rings. As the auditorium filled with applause, she scrambled out, thinking that the ovation was for her alone. With her eyes squeezed shut, she bowed towards the crowd with her arms stretched out like wings, trying unsuccessfully to suppress a confident smile.

And just like that, a gymnast was born in Davis!

With regard to hints, for many of you the salient part of these newsletters, tonight’s Pub Quiz will surely feature questions on the 87^th Academy Awards. What did you think of the telecast, or of the big winners, such as Birdman? I watched the ceremony on television, noting what topics would make for good pub quiz questions. Any Oscar ceremony makes me think of hundreds of other favorite films, and the importance of film as a shared receptacle of storytelling, entertainment and culture. Expect also questions on the Grammy Awards, online video, the importance of money, Mexican culture, Irish culture, British culture, car companies, Dickens, poetry, the City of Davis, chemistry, cities I have never visited, organs, several questions I haven’t written yet, for my life is packed with responsibility and joyous time spent with family and friends, and so is yours, and Shakespeare.

Perhaps tonight I should ask you to remind me on what nights one can enjoy performances at the poetry Night Reading Series. Just so you know, those events take place on first and third Thursdays of the month, as you can discover at PoetryInDavis.com.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. To Irish sports fans, GUI stand for the Golfing Union of Ireland. To what internet topic does the GUI acronym refer?

Newspaper Headlines. A crucial meeting of Eurozone finance ministers over the future of what country’s bailout broke down in acrimony today?

American Cities. Starting with R, what US city of 233K people is 735 m. from Phoenix, 578 m. from Portland, and 2996 m. from the other Portland?

Pop Culture – Music. Ranked by VH1 as number 14 in their special 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock, what Seattle grunge rock band was formed in 1984 by singer and rhythm guitarist Chris Cornell, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, and bassist Hiro Yamamoto, and had a number one album in 1994 with Superunknown?

Science. What plural R word refers to mammals that are able to acquire nutrients from plant-based food by fermenting it in a specialized stomach prior to digestion, principally through bacterial actions?

P.S. Have you made it to the end of the newsletter? I thank you. Here is a poem I read today.

The Quieted Cablecars Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 16, 2015

The View of San Francisco from our Hotel

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz!

San Francisco! I’ve been there since Thursday, giving or moderating around ten talks at the San Francisco Writers Conference, as I have done now for the past 11 years. I enjoyed three moments among my conferees the most.

The first happened right at the start: Thursday afternoon I was getting ready to enjoy a presentation by Sam Horn on turning a non-fiction book into speaking opportunities, when I received a text from one of the conference organizers. Evidently the road closures associated with President Obama’s stay at the Fairmont Hotel across the street from us had shut down the famous cable cars, thus delaying one of the speakers. The texted question: Could Dr. Andy give this missing presenter’s talk, starting right now? Of course I would. As I walked into the room, I just asked one question before beginning my remarks: What was the title of my talk?

My second favorite moment was welcoming Kate to the conference. This was the first time in 11 years that she could join me, so I really relished the opportunity to introduce her to my dozens of friends there, many of whom I have enjoyed yearly reunions with for five years or longer. I also loved watching Kate experience the majesty of the city through her eyes. I know the area around the International Mark Hopkins Hotel pretty well by now, but Kate the photographer helped me see it anew. She pointed out contrasts between the jagged landscape and the faraway water, the glorious illuminated sky at sunset, and the need to take all photographs in portrait mode, so as to capture the unreasonable hills and perched skyscrapers. Her photographs suggest why Wayne Thiebaud finds such inspiration in the painted urban mountains of this great city.

My third favorite moment was the dancing.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature an appearance by the team of one of the keynote speakers of the San Francisco Writers Conference, our own John Lescroart. I’ve even added the mention of a Lescroart title to one of the questions, though I don’t think this will advantage his team unduly. I should have asked five questions about books or the book industry, considering everything I learned over the weekend, but instead I went in a historical direction, in homage to my son Truman the history buff, who included a sinking Titanic on his valentine’s day card to me.

Also expect questions about multinational companies, empowerment, bats, the golfing Union of Ireland, the two big cities named Portland, plasma, VH1 hard rock favorites, right fielders, famous living Brits, St. Valentine’s Day, pitcher debuts, numbers that are multiplied by 365, hunters, first lines of poems, presidential endings, the rise and fall of big cities, Irish history, trinities, chambers, women who take charge, silver certificates, coed strippers, that which is lost, Cuba, ribbons and other decorations, people who proclaim their names, plant-based food, the many mickeys, Irish culture, and Shakespeare.

With Lescroart and his team claiming a table, and all the Lescroart fans coming for a glimpse or autograph of the New York Times bestselling author, we will surely sell out tonight. Plan accordingly, so that you needn’t sit outside. There will be time enough for that once it warms up significantly, such as later in February.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. Sports apparel company Adidas used a commercial slogan that tells us that “Impossible is WHAT”? Some of you rewrote this slogan to say that “impossible is possible.” Adidas used something much more definitive.

Internet Culture. What city of 837,000 people is home to the headquarters of the transportation company Uber?

Newspaper Headlines. Which of the following is closest to the percentage of late Hall of Famer Dean Smith’s athletes who earned their undergraduate degrees at University of North Carolina? 40, 60, 80, or 100%.

Four for Four. Which of the following US States, if any, is home to one or more of the 25 tallest waterfalls in the world? Alaska, California, Hawaii, Wyoming. Speaking of Wyoming, this past weekend I enjoyed a ten-minute conversation with former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson and his wife. One of their daughters owns an art gallery in Cody.

Wisconsin Republicans. What is the name of the Wisconsin governor who scored first in the recent Iowa poll of Republican presidential hopefuls?

P.S. Katie Peterson, a recent hire at UC Davis, will be the featured poet at Poetry Night. You should really join us Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery.

The Swag Fishing in Davis Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 9, 2015

Downtown Davis at on a warm February night. Photo by Kate Duren.

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

I really love living in Davis. Having grown up in Washington DC, I thought I would remain a big city person for my entire life. I found all sorts of reasons to be intellectually and aesthetically excited at home with my parents, and in the city as a whole. My mom was a librarian, sparking my lifelong interest in reading, and my father was a theatre director, and then a film and theatre critic, sparking my lifelong interest in the performing arts.

I get to call upon both of these enthusiasms in the classroom and on Monday evenings with you fine people. Generally, I have found that Davis offers many of the attractions of a big city – a quorum of curious and cultured people, literary and theatrical attractions, almost enough live music, and a big university. I spent many more hours biking (and running) in DC than I did driving, so Davis feels comfortable to me in that respect, as well.

Children can sometimes be nuisances to business owners – certainly I was as a child and teenager – but as an adult I have found myself welcomed by the businesses in town. Perhaps that’s because we tend to spend all our money here. I have found de Vere’s Irish Pub to be a place where everyone knows your name, or at least my name, but the staff here are as conscientious as they are friendly.

Do you have favorite Davis businesses upon whom you depend?

With regard to realtors, for example, Chad DeMasi helped us sell and buy our last and current home, and he is well known in Davis for his excellent customer service. In 2014, we referred two friends to Chad to help sell their homes, and they were both extraordinarily pleased with the help they received from Chad.

Chad and his lovely wife Grace attend the Pub Quiz infrequently, for they have many duties and two energetic sons, but one local realtor who attends the Pub Quiz almost every week is Caitlin McCalla. Caitlin sits at my wife Kate’s table, proving herself to be knowledgeable about a wide variety of substantive and trivial topics, as well as Davis real estate. I would be glad to introduce you to her some Monday evening.

Kate and I see just about every movie that comes to the Varsity Theatre, for we remember well once having to drive to Sacramento to see artsy or independent films. Both The Varsity and Mishka’s Café, where I have met with hundreds of students over the decades, have provided swag for me to give away at the Pub Quiz.

Nina Gatewood of the Haute Again consignment shop has also provided gift certificates to players of our Pub Quiz. Nina has been active in promoting a thriving downtown for all of us to enjoy, and clothes options that take our city-wide “recycling” sentiment to heart. I appreciate anyone who gives us an alternative to some big box store in a suburban shopping plaza.

Professor John Iacovelli and others from the Department of Theatre and Dance attend the Pub Quiz most weeks, often with free tickets in hand for those teams who are lucky enough to win 4^th place. For instance, a new production of the play Woyzeck by Georg Buchner, and adapted by Neil Labute, will be directed by Granada Artist in Residence Bob McGrath starting on February 26^th. Perhaps John will join us tonight with more tickets to this show.

Tammy Hengel, owner of Davis Swim and Fitness in South Davis, provided free month gift certificates during most of 2014, and her generosity continues into 2015. That’s the gym where I catch up with my podcasts and with my running quotas. Perhaps I will see you there later this month.

The local fiction authors John Lescroart, Catriona McPherson, and Eileen Rendahl have all kindly donated their own books to the Pub Quiz effort, and then offered to sign them afterwards. Local compounding pharmacist Chuck Snipes has also donated books, games, and any number of doodads for me to share. He and his team have won more prize money from this Quiz than anyone else, so I suppose it is only fitting that they give back.

With regard to swag, I am just about out of rubber dinosaurs and frogs (thanks, Evan), though I seem to have an endless supply of academic books to share. If you know of a downtown Davis business that deserves to be highlighted for its good deeds, or for its donations to our weekly competition, please put them in touch with me. I also welcome your comments on YourQuizmaster.com.

Otherwise, I will start visiting the kids’ rooms in order to collect more of those offbeat white elephants that swag winners so appreciate.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions about shoes, corporate headquarters, the attractions of western states, drumsticks, Iowa, astronomers and what they see, nails, pelicans, Nigerian athletes, people named Richard, doctors named Priscilla, Biblical quotations that become book titles, nails, summer projects, forgotten countries, sky, people who look like double rainbows to you, principal authors, art and art history, overlapping age-spans, Auguries of Peter and other anagram bait hints, touching articles about braces, cat men, the irascibility of Whoopi Goldberg, Carthaginians, unusual mathematics words, male horses, creatures that weigh less than camels, basketball, and Shakespeare. And happy 71^st birthday to Alice Walker!

I hope you enjoyed last week’s newsletter about my daughter Geneva finally stepping out of her back brace for good. A version of that essay was published Saturday in the Sacramento Bee. If you subscribe to the paper version of the Bee – as I do the online version – I would love it if you could cut out the article from Saturday’s opinion page and bring it by the pub. I haven’t yet seen it in paper form.

Thanks, and see you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. In its slogan, what airline invites us to fly the friendly skies?

Internet Culture. What icon of the golden era of electronics retailers was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange today, suggesting that even its store in Davis is not long for this world?

Leadership Quotations. What L word finishes this quotation by Faye Wattleton. “The only safe ship in a storm is BLANK.” This question is easier than you might think.

Four for Four. Which of the following Presidents of the United States, while in office, wore sideburns but no beards? John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant. You can imagine all the delightful muttonchops discussions that resulted from this question.

Las Vegas. What naturally occurring optical phenomenon involving refracted light rays is also the name of a Las Vegas casino? The words “refraction” and “Las Vegas” don’t often appear together.

P.S. New UC Davis poetry professor Katie Peterson will be the featured performer on the February 19^th Poetry Night at the Natsoulas Gallery. You should join us.

The Uplift of Exuberance Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on February 2, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Happy Groundhog Day! Surely today the people of Chicago agree with Punxsutawney Phil.

Every year the Super Bowl is reviewed by cultural critics who are more interested in scoring the perceived sexism of Carl’s Jr. hamburger commercials than in the actual score of the game. Understandably, the National Football League has been trying to counter the sport’s association with sexism and domestic violence, or, as NBC’s Al Michaels recently said of the NFL, “I think they’re trying like hell to make things better.”

Parents must make tough decisions about what to let their sons and daughters watch on TV, sometimes asking pointed questions about the images that flash before us as we partake in one national pastime or another, whether it be watching professional sports or political debates. Examples of stereotypical gender roles and the sexual objectification of women provide us opportunities to reflect on the lessons that we are learning from a culture that is filtered through television.

I’ve often thought of my 17 year-old daughter Geneva as being somewhat inoculated from the ill effects of the crasser attitudes one encounters on TV because of the armor that she wears. Now usually when people speak of armor in 2015, they mean figurative armor, such as what William Jennings Bryan called “the armor of a righteous cause.” But in this case, I mean actual armor that she has worn since 7th grade.

Because of a diagnosis of scoliosis, a medical condition that can shape someone’s spine into a letter S or a question mark, Geneva has worn a hard plastic back brace from her hips to her collarbone 23 hours a day, every day, for the last four years. Such a back brace limits movement, weighs about five pounds, and adds inches to the waist.

A resilient artist, Geneva festooned her ever-present brace with stickers, decals, and other forms of artwork that displayed her evolving aesthetic tastes. The Pokémon stickers given out by her pediatrician adorned her brace at 13, but those eventually gave way to political concerns, such as the GAY PRIDE banner across the visible top of the brace that she wore in high school.

And although this billboard that she willingly displayed made her seem thicker, gawkier, and less graceful than we know her to be, she almost never complained. At first the main concern was the heat caused by all that extra plastic during PE in junior high, and the long afternoon bike rides home that are a familiar part of most Davis childhoods. Later she navigated her daily brace-less hour when taking swimming lessons, attending school dances, or acting in a school play.

But more importantly, she was learning crucial lessons about prioritizing her health, forestalling gratification in order to work towards a long-term goal, or being the young woman who is loved by her friends because of her kindness and humor rather than because of her successful attempts to dress like Katy Perry. With each passing year, her resolve and character grew stronger along with her growing spine.

And then last week, finally, we learned from her spine doctor that she has stopped growing, that the work of all of her back braces is complete. She unbuckled her armor for the last time, and did a dance for all to see. Released from the body cast of her adolescence, she now stands tall, her scoliosis fully remedied. Although she now gets cold easily, and she can’t get over waking in the morning and “feeling squishy,” she presents herself as slender and graceful.

“Wearing nice clothes makes you feel beautiful, and I can wear nice clothes again,” Geneva says. Perhaps that sentiment hiding in all of those Katy Perry songs that we enjoyed during the Super Bowl halftime show (and that I might unfairly dismiss): the uplift of exuberance. The poet Robert Browning once said, “A man in armor is his armor’s slave,” and now this poised young woman will be a slave to no one and to nothing. Unarmored, unbridled, and strong, Geneva will impress us all with the places she will go. Her mother and I will brace ourselves as we introduce this confident new Geneva to the world.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will be a place of camaraderie and discovery. Expect questions on ancient Greeks, sideburns, debating roads, refraction, patents, the joys of flight, racks, leadership quotations, Zachary Taylor, Las Vegas, The Super Bowl, state names in the titles of songs, the Swiss, gestations, overcoming shoals, musical instruments, old cities, situation comedies that you had almost forgotten, big boats, someone I mentioned in this week’s newsletter, an anagram on a topic I haven’t yet chosen, rich men, Irish cities, named genres, great poets, controversial films, African origins, resilience and redemption, toys, names in the news, knobs, World War II, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. The best advertising campaign of the twentieth century, according to Ad Age Magazine, had but two words: “Think Small.” Name the company that was responsible for this 1959 campaign.

James Bond. In the movies, who played James Bond the most times, at seven?

Broadway Shows. Opening in 1988, and now playing at the Majestic Theatre, what is Broadway’s longest running play and musical?

Pop Culture – Music. A current hit song by Mark Ronson holds the title of the all-time most streamed track in a single week in the United Kingdom, having been streamed a record 2.56 million times in a single week. The song is full of funk. What is its full title?

Sports. How many luxury boxes does Sleep Train Arena have? 30, 60, or 90?

P.S. The great Sacramento poet Indigo Moor performs at the Natsoulas Gallery this coming Thursday night at 8. You should join us.

The Shock of Purple Hair Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 26, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Typically on Sunday nights I hold office hours at Crepeville in downtown Davis. I am grateful that a musical opportunity interrupted my regular schedule this past weekend because of how I spent the night last night, discovering my new favorite House Brass band: Too Many Zooz.

It turns out that New York City-based Too Many Zooz actually created the genre of House Brass, so I don’t know how much competition they have. House music is that minimalist electronic dance music (or EDM) that is more rewarding to dance to than to listen to, many say. I’ve read pointed laments on the KDVS DJs listserv about the deleterious effect of EDM on the musical tastes of an entire generation of club-goers. I suppose the same has been said of every new genre of music: often it’s the young people in the know who embrace it, while an older generation notices only its faults (and perhaps its excessive volume).

Certainly the music was turned up too loud at Harlow’s last night, or so concluded my lovely date Kate and myself after we strolled in, some of the first patrons to arrive after 7. While first inadvertently sitting in the bands’ VIP section (before being redirected), we saw the scheduled performance times on the playlist, and discovered that a DJ and three other musical acts would take the stage before Too Many Zooz were to come out at 10:15. Could we last that long?

The best of the three opening acts was Big Sticky Mess, a Davis-based funk band (two guitars and a drummer) that I want to see again. Reminding me of some of the favorite musical acts that I was exposed to in Washington DC in the 1970s and 80s, Big Sticky Mess borrowed licks and tones from James Brown and Parliament Funkadelic. I was encouraged, and pleased that my home town had nourished such funky aspirants.

While BSM was terrific, Too Many Zooz trumped everyone we had heard so far, astounding everyone with their rich sound and energetic brass. David Parks, the drummer, came out first. I haven’t discovered why in the New York City subway, especially the Grand Central Station stop, he is called “King of Sludge,” and at first he didn’t look entirely regal while casually strapping on his huge drum, but before long he would show us that he has the endless energy and focus of all the best drummers. Next out was Leo Pellegrino, the baritone saxophonist who can make his sax sound like three instruments at once, and who sways like a caged leopard as he plays. Finally Matt Doe joined the other two on trumpet. He plays the horn the way that Davis poet Joe Wenderoth plays softball, with a beer bottle in his non-dominant hand.

Bill Mahr recently said that if you aren’t playing the drums or the trumpet in your marching band, you can go home because nobody can hear you. I’m sure that 90% of the 300 musicians who make up the UC Davis California Aggie Marching Band-uh! would disagree, but a casual listener of Too Many Zooz might see the perspicacity in Mahr’s assertion. Matt Doe’s trumpet screamed in a way that reminded me of Louis Armstrong, who was asked to play his horn outside the room of the first Hot Fives and Hot Sevens recording sessions that he made in the 1920s because of the overwhelming power of his unamplified song. Doe also flirts with the intense and almost shrill musical dominance of Stan Kenton’s original “wall of sound.” The real heart of Too Many Zooz, however, is the saxophone of Leo P., for he brings to the instrument the intensity of my childhood friend Ian MacKaye (of Fugazi fame) and the proficiency of a sax master such as Cannonball Adderley. Leo wisely keeps his impressive shock of purple hair under a baseball cap so that we could better see his intense eyes and showman’s bravado.

What a great show! I encourage you to see Too Mazy Zooz perform in person, to watch their videos of subway performances in their hometown of New York City, or to download one of their EPs, as I did last night. It has provided an energetic soundtrack to my morning!

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on early internet properties, the telephone, Greek yogurt, musicals, what people are streaming in the UK, luxury boxes, family planning, basketball, the meaning of illness, bodies of water, filmmakers and their origins, mammals, stingers, eating habits, people who have commonalities with Kevin Kline, countries that are not Uganda, world leaders, newspapers, the word “cirrhotic” used for the first time in a Pub Quiz, spices, the police, notches, big cities, failures, friends of Obama, watery annoyances, downtown and uptown, seven times a charm, Watson, mottos and slogans, geography, and Shakespeare.

As you may have noticed, the Pub Quiz fills the Irish Pub every Monday night, some come early if you want a table. One of my favorite Theatre professors recently had to take his team elsewhere because he couldn’t get a table, and it was too cold to sit outside. If you love theatre, come by tonight for the show. There will be no questions about Stan Kenton.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. What brand was responsible for the slogan “Good to the Last Drop”?

Internet Culture. What were the first and last names of the man portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game?

Newspaper Headlines. At 5 million people, the previous record for attendance at a Papal Mass was set by John Paul II in Rizal Park, but yesterday Pope Francis broke that record, with more than 6 million in the same location. Name the country.

Four for Four. Which of the following pop singers are over 21? Ariana Grande, Kesha, Lorde, Taylor Swift.

Greek and Roman Mythology. Half human and half goat, what sort of monosyllabic creatures are featured in the films The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Pan’s Labyrinth?

P.S. Poetry Night returns February 5^th with Indigo Moor. As with all the (mostly musical) names mentioned in this newsletter, you should look up Indigo Moor and then join us that Thursday at the Natsoulas Gallery for poetry. See you tonight!

The Slow Wheels of Justice Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 20, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

More cinematic controversy in my house! This time, discussions of racism, nationalism, and film award segregation!

You probably know what I’m talking about. As has been well documented, The Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences revealed the nominees for the 87^th Annual Academy Awards, and somehow neglected to nominate anyone of color for the major individual awards. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, some would say, when you consider that the Academy is about 94% Caucasian and 77% male. When African-American performer Viola Davis was nominated for Best Lead Actress for The Help (in 2012), she said, “I have to tell you, I don’t even know who is a member of the academy.”

The film Selma explored a similar but much more serious diversity problem in the voting rolls of Alabama counties. In some counties, there were no African Americans registered to vote, and in order to register, one had to get a fellow voter to “vouch” for him or her. Without those “vouchers,” African Americans were excluded from the democratic process. And as only voters could serve on juries (juries of 12, rather than the Motion Picture Academy juries of 6,000), neither Blacks nor Whites in Alabama and other southern states could get a fair trial in a racially-charged (or even racially-relevant) case. Famously, the all-white jury that heard recanted rape allegations testimony in the Scottsboro Boys case of 1931 still convicted the boys on that train, ages 12-19, to a variety of jail terms. At one point, eight of the nine convicted faced a death sentence.

Just over 13 months ago, Alabama granted the Scottsboro Boys a full pardon. Of course, it was posthumous. As Euripides said, “Slow but sure moves the might of the gods.” Today the familiar saying reads “the wheels of justice turn slowly.”

As Kate and I watched the movie Selma Saturday night, she became more and more angry that the actor David Oyelowo and the director Ava DuVernay were not even nominated for what she thought were some of the strongest performances from a 2014 film. And I was reminded about ongoing attempts to limit minority voting, especially in the south. “Deep Data” studies of voting patterns have created pretzel-shaped gerrymandered districts that are almost as effective as Bull Connor to ensure as little minority representation as possible in southern state legislatures, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate. As we celebrate today the man who Gallup calls the most admired American of the 20^th century, I wonder what Dr. Martin Luther King would say about the power of the poor and minority voter today.

Tonight’s Quiz will touch on a few of these topics, as well as offer questions about computer science, coffee, record-setting Popes, Narnia, California colleges, hippies, baseball, Queen Mary University, Greek mythology, The Oscars, drops, US Presidents, Shaka Zulu, “reality” on TV, jealousy, full taboos, postage stamps, billionaires, people named Erika, hot days, Africa, the Milky Way, football, droughts, current events, bodies of water, and justice in Shakespeare.

Thanks to all 90 of you who came to the poetry reading this past Thursday. I am expecting about twice that tonight, so come early to claim a table for the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz! See you tonight, and enjoy the holiday.

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Mottos and Slogans. Spoken by Visigoths and pirates, what are the four words in Capital One’s most famous slogan?

Internet Culture. The iPhone was released in the same year as Ratatouille, making WHAT a good year for Steve Jobs? Hint: Juno and No Country for Old Men came out the same year. With a one-year margin of error, name the year.

Newspaper Headlines. Today The White House admitted a mistake in not sending a representative to a large gathering in what foreign city?

Four for Four. Which of the following, if any, are names of barber shops currently doing business in Davis, California. Aggie Barber Shop, Olive Drive Barber Shop, Razor’s Edge Barber Shop, University Barber Shop.

Swiss Misters. Who was the Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology?

The Sharing Jukie with Everyone Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 12, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

Starting a week ago Saturday, strangers and acquaintances have been stopping me in the streets and restaurants of Davis to talk about an essay about my son Jukie that I published in the Sacramento Bee. Friends have been sending me supportive emails. Jukie and I have received invitations to attend a movie in a theatre in Roseville. And yesterday I was stopped at the Midtown Sacramento Farmers Market by the Education Editor at the Bee. She and her husband and kids had biked to the market just as my family of five biked to the movies on Christmas Day. Kate and I also received many encouraging and supportive comments from friends via social media and email, including a nice piece in today’s Davis Vanguard.

Some of my favorite comments about the article came from notable strangers in letters to the editor and viewpoints. The first came from Beverly Baker, a teacher of a special-needs classroom in Rescue, California (near Shingle Springs) – she hosts disability awareness presentations at her school, and briefs everyone there on opportunities to share compassion. The second came from Dr. Lou Vismara, co-founder of the MIND Institute (and thus a hero to me), who pointed out that the sort of behavior we saw at the movie theatre on Christmas Day might indicate anger-management concerns. The third, coming yesterday, came from a giant in Sacramento journalism, Gregory Favre, the former executive editor of The Sacramento Bee and retired vice president of news for the McClatchy Company. I hope you will check out Favre’s viewpoint, not only because of the picture of my son Jukie in the Sunday paper, but also because of the masterful way that Favre uses metaphor and insight to weave together multiple narratives. I’m encouraged to see such strong writing in the Sacramento Bee and am humbled by all the attention (1282 shares on Facebook alone) paid to the Christmas story I shared.

In addition to writing a weekly blog for you, I will resolve to see where and how I can share my written stories and reflections more widely. Would a monthly column be too much Dr. Andy for all those readers? I suspect so. In any event, topic suggestions welcome!

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will feature questions on big cities, Visigoths, Jobs, barbers, Swiss misters, pressure sensors, funky music, returning champions, places that start with the letter G, competitions, great presidents, giant whales, Chelonian orders, that which is considered proper, Taylors, football, little blue girls, idols, columns, museums, numbers of universities, Google Mapping a serious bicycle commute, Italian teenagers, kidnappings, the white cliffs of Dover, counties, John Williams, SI, favorite poets, Swedes, crucifers, favorite places, and Shakespeare.

Poetry Night this week will feature the poets Emily Hughes and Lauren Swift. I hope you can join us Thursday night at 8 at the Natsoulas Gallery, and tonight for dinner at 6 and then the 7 PM bell that chimes the beginning of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz!

Your Quizmaster

Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:

Internet Culture. What company invented the x86 series of microprocessors?

Newspaper Headlines. The CES opens tomorrow in Las Vegas, and Pub Quiz regular Mike May is there. What do the letters CES stand for?

Violent States. If you ever wanted to know the names of two of the three most violent states in the US, you should ASK A LAVA DEAN. Name the two states.

Sports. Nick Kyrgios has withdrawn from the Australian team at the Hopman Cup because of a back injury. Name the sport.

Science. “Honey Pot”, “Jack Jumper” and “Leaf Cutter” are all varieties of what kind of insect?

The Categories of Bragging Edition of the de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz Newsletter

by yourquizmaster on January 5, 2015

Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,

My stepmother recently told me that she doesn’t care for all the bragging she sees in social media, and thus she rarely visits Facebook, Twitter, and other such social media sites. In 2013, Broadway performer John Carroll helpfully categorized the five types of Facebook braggarts: the work braggart, the relationship braggart, the body braggart, the death braggart, and the religious braggart. I’m sure we all can think of examples of these, and imagine some additional categories that we could add.

As Your Quizmaster, I am obligated to make my Pub Quizzes helpfully topical, and sometimes I will do the same with my newsletters. Because of my family’s direct and indirect connections to the entertainment industry, I myself have sometimes been guilty of telling stories about my own interactions with celebrities who have just died, such as Amiri Baraka and Jean Stapleton. Because of my father’s work at the Washington Theatre Club, in the late 1960s, an alarming number of future millionaires lived in my basement. Sadly, the late great orator Mario Cuomo was not one of them. I would have liked to have met him.

That said, in these Monday missives I generally don’t brag about work, relationships, religious assurances, or my body. As I was preparing my goals for 2015, however, I noticed that I had actually met my 2014 goal of dropping ten pounds and biking every day to my teaching and administrative jobs at UC Davis.

And whom do I have to thank for reaching this goal? I will tell you:

My NaNoWriMo friends who inspired me to attempt 100 pushups a day in November of 2013, thus starting me on this health quest;
De Vere’s Irish Pub, home of the Dr. Andy salad (a large pub salad with two fried eggs and two orders of avocado – you should try it);
Davis Swim and Fitness, the south Davis gym with new weight machines and a large stack of swag prizes that were offered for me to give out at the Pub Quiz;
My wife Kate, for obvious reasons;
Nutrition professor Liz Applegate, whose advice has been really helpful;
My Vitamix 5200 super blender / smoothie maker, responsible for my daily fruit and kale protein smoothie;
Nutrishop Davis, which provides me the protein powders that power my protein smoothies;
My thoroughly fit friend Tylor, the de Vere’s Irish Pub server whose arms each weigh about as much as I do after losing that ten pounds;
Jillian Michaels, who taught me that “Sometimes you’ve got to make your work and workouts co-exist”;
John G. Martin and Jack Morgan, inventors of the Moscow Mule (sorry, Guinness family!)
And my children, Geneva, Jukie, and Truman, with whom I have now almost caught up.

I’ve heard it said that if New Year’s resolutions worked, we wouldn’t need them. Nevertheless, I hope that your 2015 is full of empowerment and accomplishment, and that you spend part of every Monday night at de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis.

Happy birthday to my son Jukie, the subject of an op-ed that appeared in Saturday’s Sacramento Bee (and which was adapted from last week’s newsletter). Check out the article to see a picture of my smiling boy and his daddy.

Tonight’s Pub Quiz will include questions about aluminum, my friend Mike May, microprocessors, what Adele has been up to, violence (a topic I typically avoid), questions that you might ask a lava dean, surreal landscapes and the crazy things that happen there, numbers that are divisible by 8 and 12, mountains, honeypots, unfortunate back injuries, unusual sports, that which is specialized, A-list actors, villains, one of my favorite musicians from the 1980s, warnings against odd work, the ways we count on irrational fears, places that start with the letter S, movies that may never have come to Davis, military generals, tied with Norway, the CIA, what women wear, strong winds in Ireland, understanding time from 30,000 feet, Henry Ford, what we learn from watching How the Universe Works, the question whether comic books count as books, current events, the garishness of the sun, blackbirds, long words, and Shakespeare.

See you tonight, and Happy New Year!

Your Quizmaster