Dear Friends of the Pub Quiz,
One of my favorite Native American friends (outside the family) was born on Columbus Day, she once pointed out sardonically. When she was my student, she affirmed to me that she would never leave her California roots, and now she is a happily married academic and accomplished musician living not far from Little Italy on the Near West Side of Chicago, home of The World Columbian Exposition of 1893. She has escaped familial restrictions (and, she tells me, limitations), but will she ever be able to shake Columbus and his admirers? Really, will any of us be able to shake the legacy of Columbus, and would we want to? It’s hard to imagine a modern Columbus. As Justice Arthur Goldberg once said, “If Columbus had an advisory committee, he would probably still be at the dock.”
Two great cultural resources came to my attention this last week, and I bet one of them would interest you. The first is the movie Howl, showing until Thursday at the Varsity Theatre on 2nd Street in Davis. You know from past newsletters that I am a fan of Allen Ginsberg. I also respect James Franco (playing Ginsberg in this film) as an artist, mostly because of how much time he spends in MFA in writing classes with my heroes, poets such as Alan Williamson and Frank Bidart. And the reviews are pretty good for this film, too. A. O. Scott of The New York Times said “Not quite a biopic, not really a documentary and only loosely an adaptation, Howl does something that sounds simple until you consider how rarely it occurs in films of any kind. It takes a familiar, celebrated piece of writing and makes it come alive.” Now that the downtown Davis Jazz and Beat Festival has concluded, I am going to try to see this film before it leaves town.
The other resource is The Davis Dirt, a new monthly culture calendar that has appeared in bookstores and cafes all over town. It’s bright orange for October – have you seen a copy? I interviewed two of the editors on my radio show Wednesday, and they seem like they are deeply committed to the spirit of our city and to informing us all about the rich array of cultural opportunities available to all of us, from artsy movies to poetry readings to musical performances all over town. Find The Davis Dirt at http://www.thedavisdirt.com/, http://www.dirtyindavis.blogspot.com/, and, on the Davis Wiki at http://daviswiki.org/The_Davis_Dirt .
Tonight on the Pub Quiz you’ll hear questions about frog capitals, websites, ancient kings, African countries, single ladies, David Letterman and his guests, show tunes (you should prepare yours), post-season baseball, elements, short vocabulary words that begin with the letter T, pendula, Prokoviev, diaries, Japan, American universities, zany earmarks, roses, holy cows, Captain John Miller’s only defeat, ninjas, ball bearings, children’s picture books, Star Wars, phobias, the Alps, people named Penny, demons, apples, lawyers, basketball and Shakespeare the familiar.
We will have a full house tonight. I hope you are planning to join us for the Pub Quiz!
Your Quizmaster
Here are five questions from last week’s quiz:
2.Internet Culture. Pew Research recently unveiled a study concluding that two tech companies most written about by the press are what?
3.Newspaper Headlines.Connections to the office of US Solicitor General has forced one US Supreme Court Justice into a recusal for 25 upcoming cases. Name the Justice.
4.Four for Four.Which of the following musicians or bands have had top-40 hits on Billboard’s US charts? Bob Marley, Metallica, The Ramones, Tenacious D.
5.Capital Cities that are Fun to Say. Montevideo and its metropolitan area, home to 1.4 million of its country’s total of 3.5 million people, is the capital of what South American country?
6.Film Quotations. Name the 1997 Paul Verhoven film in which the central character of Johnny Rico says “These are the rules. Everybody fights, nobody quits. If you don’t do your job I’ll kill you myself. Welcome to the Roughnecks.”
Posted via email from yourquizmaster’s posterous
Friends of the Pub Quiz, and those curious about all the fun and fuss associated with the Pub Quiz, should come to de Vere’s Irish Pub in Davis (217 E Street), the highly esteemed pub and restaurant that fills up every night because of the superb quality of food, drink and company that can be found there. The de Vere’s Irish Pub Pub Quiz takes place every Monday at 7pm, though players are encouraged to arrive early to claim a table. As always, find out more about the Pub Quiz by visiting https://www.yourquizmaster.com. For more on de Vere’s Irish Pub, visit http://deverespub.com/.