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My crafty clan of cohorts has a certain place in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. For the second year in a row — and the third time in the past four years — my team, the Cakers, finished in fourteenth place in the fifty-four-hour exercise in mental mayhem. Considering this placement is among three-hundred sixty competing teams, it’s an accomplishment the stirs up a little bit of silly pride. With that piece of personal reporting complete, I’ll get back to non-Trivia content tomorrow. Continue reading 14
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 52 – 50
52. Primitives, “Crash” Before the Primitives got around to recording their first album, they’d already decided that “Crash” was one of their less significant songs. “We wrote that very early on and then we dropped it from the set,” explained Paul Court, the band’s guitarist and chief songwriter. “We had a lot of songs like it, three chord style Ramones numbers, and then our producer Paul Sampson said it was a good song and that we should resurrect it.” That was only the beginning of Lazarus-like capacity for revival that the song had. It was definitely a college radio hit … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 52 – 50
From the Archive: Flashback Friday – 1973
I’m a little too weary to elaborate, except to note that this was originally published in my former online home. In 1973, I lived in a household that had a lot of records. There were so many, in fact, that they basically defined the decor. Entire walls were obliterated from view by the shelves of albums. There was even one wall that was basically nothing but albums, effectively extending the hallway by several feet just as capably as 2x4s and drywall. Obtaining every chunk of the unfolding evolution of rock ‘n’ roll was the obsession of my first stepfather (don’t … Continue reading From the Archive: Flashback Friday – 1973
One for Friday: School of Fish, “3 Strange Days”
I’ve probably tapped out enough words about The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM this week. In recent years, I’ve used this Friday feature to share a lovely cover of my team’s theme song that was recorded by my friend Mollie Donihe. I still strongly recommend that particular track. For today, though, I’m going to opt for a song that another friend of mine insists should have an official place somewhere on the official Trivia playlist. I absolutely agree. For three strange days I had no obligations My mind was a blur I did not know what to do As the saying goes … Continue reading One for Friday: School of Fish, “3 Strange Days”
Trivia Answer of the Day: North Oconomowoc Ocelots
This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. There are times when participating in the The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM may call upon an individual to consume media they might otherwise avoid — or perhaps to which they’d be entirely oblivious. Those ventures might include the woolier reaches of television scheduled pitched at those craving entertainment after a hard week of middle school. Usually, … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: North Oconomowoc Ocelots
Trivia Answer of the Day: Dave Grusin, “Night-Lines”
This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM officially gets underway on Friday night at 6:00p.m., when “Born to Be Wild” is played, the rules are read, and the first question (inevitably with the answer “Robert Redford”) kicks off fifty-four straight hours. Realistically, though, things begin in earnest when teams register earlier in the week and get their hands … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Dave Grusin, “Night-Lines”
Trivia Answer of the Day: Zeke and Luther
This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. While The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM is dominated by the kind of topics that would be immediately recognizable and comfortable to anyone who has spent time conjuring up answers at the quiz night at their favorite purveyor of adult beverages, there are a few peculiarities. For instance, I’m not sure how many other major trivia battles … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Zeke and Luther
Trivia Answer of the Day: Debra Winger
This coming weekend, I’ll participate in The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM. As per tradition, this week is filled with idle reminiscing about memorable answers in past years. Or rather, in past year. Every one of these answers figured in the 2016 edition of the contest. Those with long memories know just how dramatically The World’s Largest Trivia ContestTM changed about twenty years ago. Once the internet made its seismic shift from a tool exclusively for the tech-savvy to the depository for seemingly every last bit of information ever, it became far trickier for the writers of our beloved annual trivia … Continue reading Trivia Answer of the Day: Debra Winger
College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 55 – 53
55. Tracy Chapman, “Fast Car” “I had so many people come up to me and say that they felt it was their song,” Tracy Chapman said about “Fast Car,” the lead single from her 1988 self-titled debut. “And someone told me at one point that they thought I’ve been reading their mail. They were saying, ‘You seem to know my story,’ and people would come up and tell me about a car relationship and some detail that they felt was in the song that represented something that happened in their lives.” The singer-songwriter whose high school classmates joked would someday … Continue reading College Countdown: CMJ Top 250 Songs, 1979 – 1989, 55 – 53
Programming Note
As must happen from time to time, I am going to take a brief break from daily updates in this space — only for this week, though. New material will return this Sunday, April 16, as the College Countdown continues. And then I’ve got a longtime tradition to fulfill the following week, so I’ll definitely be back with that. Continue reading Programming Note
Coffee for Two 