Trivia Night 8/28/08

Finally, a top 3 finish at trivia. With the help of my sister and her boyfriend, who were in town for the long weekend, and Katie and her friend Gary, we managed to squeeze out third place.

I'd like to say that it was our intelligence and teamwork that gave us the bronze but it had more to do with the fact that the place was barren. There were only about 15 squads while there are usually 25 to 30 teams. We only did real well in one of the categories. It was called "fruity songs," and we were given the names of 10 songs with a fruit in the title and made to match them up with the artists. We actually went 10 for 10 and got a bonus question about Fionna Apple right too.

Katie helped a lot in the music round and Gary provided an answer or two near the end. I don't remember providing many answers myself and Greg claims to have only answered 1 1/2 questions correctly.

More importantly, Katie and Gary both, inexplicably, won free beers during the bonus drawing. I've gone to trivia several times and had never won a beer. I landed a free one later though when I asked the guy that runs it, Rick, what one of the filler songs was. He told me it was the theme from Stripes and he handed me a ticket for a free drink.

I drank quite a bit so I don't remember many of the questions. Here are my top four trivial failures anyway.

1. Couldn't remember the name of the guy who sings "Electric Avenue." I could picture the video and I knew his first name was Eddie, but that's as far as I go. It was Eddie Grant.

2. Incense, Peppermints. The band? Strawberry Alarm clock. Again, I remembered only the first half. No points.

3. I used to read shit about the Titanic all the time. I couldn't remember what color star line the ship was. We went with blue, the answer was white.

4. Ethan would have been pissed. I neglected to name Greg LeMond when they asked, something like, which biker won the Tour 3 times and retired in 1994.

A Furious Sound

Breanne had a stomach ache last night so I read to her. The Sound and the Fury has got to be the worst book to read aloud. It's all yessum and nigger and he said and she said. Choppy and racist.

Your Revolution is Over

11-3 and the final Sox/Yankees series in The Stadium's history could end in a sweep. Wouldn't that be A-ppropriate. Last night's game I witnessed between The Bus Stop and my apartment. I called Pedroia's slam right before he swung. I think I could have hit that pitch out (of the infield). I'm not going to say that we can stick the fork in New York after this game, because they're never out of it, i.e. in 1978 they came back from 14 games in a little under two months. But yesterday I was talking about the Yankees with Andrew, and we both came to the conclusion that the reason they've suffered so this year is they tried to break an unwritten rule. They tried to rebuild while still winning the division. You can't win in a rebuilding season. The only team that can do that is the Athletics, and they don't win, they just make the playoffs and are swept in the first round. But they, Billy Beane and his young men, are an exception to the rule. And they play in the AL West. I don't think Hank or Hal or Hooever Steinbrenner intended it, but the Yankees may have actually learned something this year. The game has changed. And you need to restock that farm system because eventually you're going to run out of prospects to dole out and some one's going to beat you to the big bat (Teixeira) or the big arm (Sabathia) at the end of July. In the words of Jeffrey Lebowski, "Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski (Steinbrenner). Condolences. The Bums lost."

That Old Ace in the Hole

Just finished That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx. I don't think there is a living writer who can paint a small town as vividly as she can. The book also includes several memorable characters. It's a funny and gratifying book. Breanne said that it's the kind of book she could recommend to anyone, and that's just about the best compliment a book can get, I think.

I think some of her best writing is in Heartsongs, her first book of short stories. While reading up on her, I discovered she graduated from Deering High in Portland, which I think makes her the greatest writer to graduate from a Maine institution. Sorry Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Stephen King and Samantha Smith.

Bag Man

The crazy guy was at the Marina library again. Today he stood in front of the copier machine and yelled, "This machine isn't working!" When a woman asked him what he needed he snapped at her. "Shut up! I wasn't talking to you."
He always wears green and tapes trash bags all over his body. He also made a pair of sunglasses out of a trash bag but they only have one lens. He looks like a character in a Terry Gilliam movie. I don't think he's homeless either cause he doesn't smell and his bags always look new.

Dylan Tabs

dylanchords.brokenbricks.com was recently relaunched. Actually, a mirror site was launched, which looks exactly the same as the original but apparently doesn't anger the MPA. The MPA is the American Music Publishers' Association. They went on a cyber rampage a few years ago shutting down tab sites on the internet. Either way, Dylan tabs are available at the aforementioned website. Most of the songs have multiple versions, in different tunings and with different lyrics, due to Dylan's tendency to rewrite songs years after their original release and his seemingly endless touring.

I recommend any song from Blood on the Tracks. Dylan used a drop-D tuning which results in full sounding chords and easy to play tunes. A few of my other favorites are Make You Feel My Love, Po' Boy, and Nettie Moore. Of course, all his "Greatest Hits" are there too.

There's even a Lennonchords mirror for John Lennon fans. Lennon wasn't quite as prolific as Dylan (he only lived to be 40) but there are a lot of good ones here too.

lennonchords.info/

Walk Hard

Watched Walk Hard last night. It was alright. I imagine it was a fun movie to make, and there were a few scenes that made me laugh, but it reminded me of a home movie made by people I don't know. I'm sure the people who made it love it and laugh when they see themselves on the screen. The only scene that made me laugh out loud was when Dewey Cox regained his sense of smell. I give it bonus points for having Matt Besser from Upright Citizens Brigade, and Lyle Lovett.

Grapefruit Arm

The mysterious swelling of my elbow has abated a bit. For the last 2 or 3 days it's been the size of a grapefruit but this morning upon waking it was roughly the size of an orange. I long for the days of a plum elbow.

German Food

Ate at a German restaurant with Breb. It was called Suppenkuche, with those two little dots above the second U. Here's the website before I forget:
http://www.suppenkuche.com/welcome.html

It was the second German restaurant I've eaten at. The first one was in Phoenix a couple years ago. It should have been my third German meal. I'd planned to eat at a famous place in Denver but it didn't work out.

The food was good. I had the Falscher Hase, meatloaf with bacon and a hard boiled egg hidden under the loaf. It was covered by an oniony broth. My Weltenburger Dunkel beer tasted like molasses and was served in a huge mug. Breb had the hen, which was served on it's back. It was salty and tasted like a mix of turkey/chicken.

The ceiling was decorated with silver and white doves, made of bent metal, hanging from string. Some of the birds were numbered. The numbers were black and slanted on gold foil stickers like the ones you see on mailboxes. Along the trim of the windows there were stencils of fir trees and on the wall opposite the door was a picture of a Volkswagen beetle with an upside down bike on it's roof. The tables were made of unfinished pine and there was a three-sided bar that all the waiters leaned against when they weren't walking about.

We're going to go again soon. I think I'll have something a bit more stereotypical next time.

On a side note, I was the only man in the restaurant not wearing a tight black t-shirt.

Tonight is your night bro

My absolute favorite thing to say is, "Tonight is your night bro". I don't say it to other people, I just sing it like Danny Devito does in Twins. He's singing it to Arnold when they're in the hotel room and Arnold's nervous about his first date with Marnie. I think once a situation actually "called for it" and I sang it to my brother, Ethan, but he didn't know what I was talking about. Those guys should make some more movies together.

Twister on the Bus

On Tuesday I traveled for 14 hours, which includes a layover in Texas and a bus ride from Portland to Boston.

I woke up at 9 and watched some Olympics on the couch, playing guitar instead of eating breakfast. I did drink some orange juice.

It was raining, so I did the driving down to Portland. There's a pecking order when it comes to driving in my family, and if my dad isn't in the car, I drive. It probably has more to do with the fact that everyone hates driving. It took us a little over an hour because of the rain and highway construction.

I liked taking the bus from Portland. I'd been to the Concord station several times, picking people up and dropping them off, but I'd never ridden myself. I only had a Camelbak with me so I didn't have to store anything under the bus. The front of the bus was occupied by wicker baskets of bottled water and pretzels, or maybe chips. I didn't want either.

The bus driver thought he was a comedian. He was trying to sound like Steven Wright I think. Talking slow and monotone, sounding miserable. He was bald but he looked more like Bob Newhart with a beard. I sat in a seat in front of one of the televisions, nearer the front in hopes that I could sit alone. It's often the case that the backseats fill up before the front ones, on account of people hoping to sit alone and not eyeing the back of the bus till they're back there.

It looked like everyone had loaded and I'd be sitting alone but then an old man sat down next to me. He had a tweed jacket on and a stupid fisherman's cap. He held a book of Short Stories from the New Yorker which he never opened. He fell asleep almost immediately and slept most of the trip. His face was blotched red and his mouth was wide open. I tried not to look at him.

The in-bus movie was Twister. I'd never seen it before. I used to think Helen Hunt was hot until I had a teacher in junior high who looked like her. The movie was formulaic and predictable but I liked some of the music. The final tornado scene was exciting but I bet it pissed off meteorologists. Just like the archaeologists whom were offended by the Indiana Jones trilogy, saying it wasn't realistic archaeology. Of course, Indiana Jones made archaeology exciting, I'm pretty certain Twister didn't inspire kids to start studying storm patterns.

It's 26 dollars for a ride from Portland to Logan, one way. You get free snacks and they show you a Helen Hunt movie. Not a bad deal, though I would have gone with Project X. The rest of the day was dull. Sitting on a plane, eating a breakfast sandwich, reading a book.

Dana and Devon at the Great Wall

Went out for Chinese food with my uncle Dana and his twin sons on Monday. I drove up to Augusta with Manda and Greg, her boyfriend, and we met Dana at the Big Apple on 201.

I'd never met Dana's youngest kids before. I grew up with his first group of children- Adam, Sherry and Pete. He later married a woman with 3 children, adopted them, and then a few years later had the twins. Oddly, he named one of the twins Dana Jr. This is strange for two reasons: Not only is the child a twin, but it's his 5th child, 8th if you count the 'dopties.

Anyway, we crammed into Dana's truck and drove up to the Great Wall Buffet up near the Civic center. I try to stay clear of buffets, especially Chinese, but Dana said he ate there several times a week so I just had small portions and kept it simple: chicken teriyaki, crab rangoon, pork fried rice, sesame chicken- your staple American Chinese foods. I felt only moderately sick a few hours later.

The kids were very cute and friendly. Devon was more talkative and outgoing, but Dana was quick to please. They both spoke extensively about quarter tattoos and their tree house. When I asked Devon who was older, he said he was. I asked him by how much and he thought long and hard about it and said 3 months. He meant minutes.

After the meal Manda was reading the horoscopes to the boys and Devon said that Robert, probably a friend of his father's, was a Rat, according to the astrology chart. Devon later found out that Horses should marry Rats, but he made sure we didn't connect the dots by loudly declaring, "I'm not going to marry Robert!"

I talked to Dana Jr. on the ride back to the Big Apple and told him all about the rocks he'd gotten out of the quarter machines. I made up origins and stories behind the different rocks and told him he should find the best rock in his driveway and encase it in one of the extra plastic bubbles and stash it away somewhere. He asked if I could help him but Manda had to drive back to Mass so we saw them off.

These Shoes

found a blue sticky note on my car yesterday.
It read: Take a look at these shoes and tell me what you think.
Would it not have been easier for the note writer to have this conversation in person? Why didn't the note writer just wait till they saw whomever again and ask, "What did you think of those shoes?" because with or without the note, that's how it's gonna go down.

Thanks Again, Wade

Another day, another Giants game. This one, according to Dirk and Wade, was the best game of the year. The Giants scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 10th after a Jeff Kent home run in the top of the inning, to pick up the win. It was a night of several squandered opportunities but eventually the Giants won it with a walk off hit by Rowand. He's the guy who stands in the batters box like he's doing a pli'e. Wade gave us a ride home after the game, which sure as hell beats standing at the bus stop for 20 minutes then huddling with the crazies for half an hour on the bus while it meanders through Chinatown. Wade drove a BMW and we talked about the 2002 World Series and art museums.

Cold Showers

As part of my training for the 2009 Maine Summer Olympics, I will only be taking cold showers for the next year. I've been reading up on the benefits of using cold water in the shower. Not only is it good for your pores, but it improves your immune system and helps the circulation of blood. And of course it's one of those stereotypical tough-guy-training requirements, like drinking raw eggs from a glass and chasing a chicken around the yard. Ideally, it will help me acquire Olympic immortality. Citius, Altius, Fortius!

Thanks Wade

I wasn't planning on going to the game last night but Breanne said she was in the mood so we took the bus downtown to try and scalp a pair of tickets. When buying from scalpers, Breanne always goes off to do something else. She isn't good with scalpers. They make her nervous, and regardless of what the scalper suggests up front, she'll look at me and say, "that sounds like a good deal." Not that she's terribly green, but I know that we look it- particularly when we're together. Suckers. So I go off on my own, try to look tough, and try my best to haggle.
The first scalper I spoke to wanted 50 bucks apiece for two 36.00 tickets, which he assured me was the best I was going to get on a Friday night with the rival Dodgers in town. I told him I wouldn't pay more than 60 for the pair and he laughed in my face, called me a goofball (seriously), and said to stop wasting his time. While I was walking away he reiterated, "Don't waste my time, goofball!"
I talked to a few more scalpers.
Then I ran into a guy selling two view box seats, he was asking 60 dollars for a pair. They would have been 52 at the box office, but impossible to get for a Friday night. I offered him 40 bucks and again, I was laughed at, so I started walking away. Before I made it three steps he called me back, and in a tone of surrender, said he'd give them to me for 40. When I pulled the cash out of my pocket he saw that I had two twenties and a few tens and he said, "how about we make it 50, you've got enough," but the deal was done. I had saved 12 dollars off the box price and landed two good seats in the view box.
When we got inside, the seats were even better than I'd anticipated. We were up above home plate and had a perfect view of the Dodgers dugout. There was a brick wall behind us that kept us from getting battered by the bay wind, and allowed us to stand up without being in any one's way. The seats were perfect. But this was just the beginning of our good luck.
When Manny came up to bat in the 1st inning, I stood up to get a photograph and Breanne gave a solo standing ovation. Like most anywhere Ramirez has gone in his brief National League tenure, he was met with a chorus of boos from the San Francisco crowd. Multiple fans in our small section jeered and hollered negative things.
After Manny lined out to end the inning, the man to my right asked me if I was a Boston fan or a Dodgers fan. He was older, probably around 60, Chinese, with a Giants cap and jacket and headphones in his ears. We started talking, mostly about Manny and Bonds and their infamy. I found out that he had been a season ticket holder for the last 6 seasons, and, since his retirement, he made it to about 60 games a year. I told him a little bit about the games I'd been to, and we chatted off and on as the game progressed. Sometime in the middle innings, he handed me a business card with his name at the top, Wade Hong, and it had his email at the bottom and . He told me that along with a few of the other season ticket holders in the section, he had started an online email group to find buyers for games they couldn't attend. They sell them cheaper than the box office, and they're posted for all the games remaining in the season. I thanked him and promised he'd hear from me soon.
Later in the game, Wade said he was getting up to go sit with some friends a few sections over. We said goodbye and thanks again. A couple innings later, a wiry man with big teeth and thick glasses came over and stuck a pair of tickets in my face.
"You won the lottery," he said. I didn't know what he was talking about. "They're from Wade," he said. I looked over to where Wade was sitting and he waved over to us.
After the last out, I walked over and thanked him and he said they were from Woody too. I don't know who Woody is, and I barely know Wade, but all and all it was a prosperous and fun night. We'll be sitting next to Wade at 6:05 tonight when Hiroki Kuroda takes the mound against the Giants.

On a side note, Manny went 0-5, reaching base only once via an error, thus ending his NL/Dodgers hit streak.

Taking it off here boss

I like Paul Newman. He's created some of the most memorable screen characters- Butch Cassidy, Cool Hand Luke, Fast Eddie Felson. I recently saw The Sting and thought it was excellent. His Lemonade is tasty and so are his dressings. But the wrapper on the Fig Newman's is so loud I can't put them away without waking up Breanne.

Anesthetist

Breanne's going back to school to be an anesthetist. This is a difficult word to say if you haven't practiced it. Some people go as far as to say anesthesiologist but I don't even try to roll that one out. I was listening to Ricky Gervais' Podcast and they were talking about anesthetists and it made me think of the times I've been put under. I had two surgeries as a teenager to have tumors removed. The only reason I had two was they didn't finish the job the first time. Before the first surgery, I recall lying on my back, intubated, and the nurse telling me they were going to knock me out and I should start counting down from 100. I don't remember getting very far. The next time I had the surgery, a few years later, I went through the whole process again. I decided to see how long I could count down before passing out. I made it to the mid-60's, which is maybe my proudest living moment.

The Book Thief

Just finished reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's an interesting little story, takes place in Nazi Germany, and the narrator is Death. I liked it though I picked a poor time to read it. I'd just read If Not Now, When? by Primo Levi, and it puts any wartime book to shame. I could see The Book Thief becoming a required reading for high school students. It's not terribly long and it gives the reader a good idea of what it was like for non-Jewish civilians during the second World War.

Word Challenge

I have officially retired from Word Challenge. I got to the point where I could play forever without time running out. Today I had to stop a game on account of neck pain. I will not be coming out of retirement. This is the second Facebook game I've retired from in the last week. I'll now have more time for raising children and inventing vaccines.

Word Challenge High Score: 293013

Trivia Night 7/31/08

With the help of my parents, we fell within a point of a top three finish. That's two weeks in a row we've dropped in at fourth, respectable, but not as good as I expected with my dad playing. He's a smart guy with an incredible ability to retain information. And unlike Breanne and me, he reads the paper and actually follows world news- though there were few newspapery questions this last week.

My parents did help out, though they also constantly second guessed themselves. Anyone who has ever played bar trivia or trivial pursuit or hollered along to Jeopardy! knows that you should just stick with your first instinct. More often than not it's the better one, if not the right one. That was the story of the game for us this last Thursday, as we probably changed 5 or 6 answers from right to wrong.

One round that my dad really helped out in was the picture match up round. Given a list of movies, you had to match up the actor/actress from a long list. My dad rattled these off effortlessly, linking up Jane Russel and other old starlets and stars to films of the 40's and 50's. We missed only 2 of 10, which was actually my fault for claiming to know the male lead in Shakespeare in Love. I did see it in the theatre but I only really remembered Gwenyth Paltrow.

I pulled out some obscure ones in the music round but I also confused Bon Jovi for Guns 'n' Roses, something I can only blame on my poor hearing and high blood alcohol level. I did name Louis Primo and though I recognized Blood, Sweat & Tears, went along with my mom's insistence that it was Three Dog Night. I recognized Midnight Oil immediately as I only had 6 cassettes in the van when I lived in Portland and three of them were the Oil.

We hovered around 4th place the whole night and didn't make up any ground in the last round, which is worth double points. Next week we're going to invite two people we met playing disc golf. Hopefully they're brainy.

Major Trivial Failures of the night

1. Confused Guns'r'Roses with Bon Jovi. Sorry Axl.

2. Failed to identify Oingo Boingo (more of a success than a failure)

3. Drank too much and forgot I had to walk a mile and a half.

4. Drank too much and can't remember any of the questions and so can't even come up with 5 trivial failures.