What we learned at the Spot

Questions from last Tuesday’s trivia night at the Spot:

1. What is the largest country that is entirely in one time zone?

2. What is the largest state with no national park?

3. Winston Churchill said “I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful” upon hearing about what event?

4. Who is the only person in US history to serve as president and vice president for two terms each?

5. What British prog rocker was a sound engineer on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon before starting his own band?

6. What is added to rubber to make it vulcanized?

7. The largest volcano in our solar system is on what planet?

8. The Pulitzer Prize is awarded by what institution?

9. What was Al Capone’s full first name?

10. What is the most popular opera in the US?

Answers after the jump…

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What we learned at Clybar

Questions from trivia night at Clybar:

1.  In 2004, Rolling Stone released their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.  Jimi Hendrix was #1.  Number 2 was not known for being a great solo guitarist and died 2 years after founding his band.  Name the band.

2.  Tom Stoppard, the playwright of Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, also wrote the screenplay for which movie, which won 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay?

Answer the following using Thanksgiving-related words:

3.  What is a word for a lucrative venture resulting in unearned benefits?

4.  What biological term is used to describe a several organisms of the same species living closely together for mutual benefit?

Identify these movies using Thanksgiving-related words:

#5

#6

#7

Photo sources: Splicedwire.com, Collider.com, Ugo.com

Answers after the jump.

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What we learned at Crew

Questions from trivia night at Crew (courtesy of PubStumpers Trivia):

1.  In what war was the Battle of the Bulge fought?

2.  Wo Fat was the arch-nemesis of Steve McGarett in which television show?

3.  How long is the term of the United Nations Secretary General?

4.  In 1990, Charlie Sheen shot his then-fiancee.  Who was she?

5.  What song is this?

6.  What song is this?

7.  On what continent are the Atlas Mountains?

8.  Phil Stanton, Chris Wink and Matt Goldman are otherwise known as what?

9.  What country’s flag is this?

Source: Wikipedia

10.  Who is this?

Source: http://www.smh.com.au

Answers after the jump.

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Rocco’s: Big Cats

Tonight we went to Rocco’s inaugural trivia night. I arrived in a pretty foul mood. I was still reeling from the tragic if not sudden death of Patrick Swayze (may he rest in peace), parking in Lincoln Park is a nightmare, and half of our team couldn’t make it leaving us at a bit of a disadvantage size-wise. In other words, I was primed to write a heinous review. However, I was pleasantly surprised by Rocco’s. The questions were good, the bartender was kinda dreamy, and the beer was cheap ($2 Old Style).

The night is hosted by Jeremy, who we’ve reviewed at Rebel and Grace O’Malley’s. Of the three times I’ve seen Jeremy in action, this was my favorite.  He always puts on a decent trivia night, but I think this venue is perfect for him.  It’s got a small but vocal crowd so you get to see him interact with the teams– which he’s good at.  And it’s quiet enough that you can here his random trivia tidbits and jokes– even if they are at the expense of beloved dancer and actor Patrick Swayze (God rest his soul).

We played as Team: Big Cats, because when the male members of our team don’t show up, we without fail reference cats in our team name.  Exhibit A and Exhibit B.  Girl power: we were in the lead most of the game.  We rocked the Tommy Lee Jones round.  We showed our patriotism in the US history round.  We held our own in the movie soundtracks audio round.  And we held back tears in the Patrick Swayze round.  I think we were the only team who knew that he’d been married for 34 years (condolences to his wife).

But our lack of testosterone came back to bite us.  In the football round we got 7 out of 15, and that’s only because Jeremy either miscalculated or threw us a bone.  While other teams quickly jotted down their answers, we were having conversations like, “Who is that football player who dated Kim Kardashian?”  It was not pretty.  Neither, incidentally, is Kim Kardashian.

Sadly, the football round knocked us from 1st to 2nd.  The 1st place team won a $25 gift certificate to Rocco’s.  We walked away with a Rocco’s t-shirt and a Cubs hat that we gave to the nice gentleman at the bar who gave us a couple of tips during the Patrick Swayze round.

I left feeling kinda sad that we didn’t win but glad that we at least walked away with prizes.  Kinda like I feel at the end of Ghost when I’m crying because Sam is dead, but I’m happy that he’s going to Heaven.

The love inside, you take it with you.

Rocco’s
1925 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago
8-10pm
Free Admission
3 paws (out of 4)

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What we learned at the Purple Otter

Questions from last Thursday at the Purple Otter:

1.  In 2007, which four states reported the most shark attacks?

2.  What is the last name of the only father and son to both reach the rank of 4-star Admiral in the U.S. Navy?

3.  Before the Phillies won the World Series in 2008, what was the last team from Philadelphia to win a major league championship?

4.  Dora the Explorer plays what sport, coached by her father?

5.  In Peggy Sue Got Married, what future Oscar winner plays Kathleen Turner’s daughter?

6.  What college football team has played in the most NCAA bowl games?

7.  Who were the first primetime cartoon husband and wife to sleep in the same bed?

8.  Of the first 64 videos ever played on MTV, 5 were from which solo artist: Pat Benetar, David Bowie, Todd Rundgren, or Rod Stewart?

Answers after the jump.

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Flounders: Prince Chunk

Update: Read our second review of Flounders here.

Tonight we went to Flounders, the new venue for Local Option‘s regular trivia host, Rex.  Local Option canceled their trivia night a few months back, but fear not Local Option fans!  Trivia is basically the same at Flounders as it was at Local Option, just in a cheaper, less classy joint.  Good news for those of you who are feeling this economic crisis; bad news for those of you who love Delirium Tremens.

It costs $5 a person to play.  The second place team gets their entry fee back, and the winning team gets the rest of the pot.   The best team name also gets a free round of shots.  This week the winning team name was Team Flick My Bean.  I was not a fan of them or their name.  We were Team Prince Chunk, naming ourselves after a 40 pound cat originally named Princess Chunk by the Humane Society  because they couldn’t find his junk under all that chunk.

The website advertises some pretty good specials.  Unfortunately, our waitress denied that these specials existed, so order with caution.  The food was your standard bar food: burgers, sandwiches, salads.  I had chili (yes, in the summer!) and it was delish.

Before

After

We kinda have a love/hate relationship with the host, Rex.  Our main beef with him is that he doesn’t know when to quit.  During music rounds he plays way too much of the songs.  Also, when he asks a trivia question, he often ends up giving away way too many clues.  For example, tonight he asked which singer do the Huxtable kids lipsync to in an episode of the Cosby Show.  He then proceeded to sing the song.  And he then mentioned that the singer’s first name was Ray.  Lame.

Still, he’s a super friendly guy who clearly loves his job.  To that I say congrats, Rex, you’re livin’ the dream.

Trivia was played in 7 rounds: 2 general knowledge rounds, a matching round, a picture round, a music round, an awesome round all about the Cosby Show, and one final general knowledge round that was worth double points.  This week the matching round required us to match presidents with their number (give it up for #44!).  The music round featured music from 2001 and included songs by Evan and Jaron, KC and Jojo, and Shaggy.  Sigh.  It was pretty great.  I heart Evan and Jaron.

We were in the lead going into the final round but ended up tying for second place.  We lost the tiebreaker: how many championship rings does Phil Jackson have?  Even though we got it wrong, we thought it was a pretty blasé question to ask as a tiebreak.  I thought a more interesting question might have been: on what appendages does Phil Jackson display his 12 rings?  But no one asked me.

Despite our disappointing finish, I had a great time.  There were a lot of shoulda woulda coulda questions for us…last minute we ended up erasing our correct answer and writing in an incorrect answer.  And I think that’s a sign of a great trivia night.  It’s a challenge but still within reach.  That also means we’re definitely within striking distance.  So prepare to hand us your cash next time we come to Flounders.

Flounders Bar and Grill
2201 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago
$5 admission
8-10:30pm
2.5 paws (out of 4)

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The Bungalow Lounge: Tres Leches League

This week, our full team reunited for the first time in over a month, and visited The Bungalow Lounge for their weekly music trivia.  It was certainly one of the most unique trivia nights we have been to.  Maybe it’s because I have been trivia-deprived for so long, but I had a really good time, and our enthusiastic MCs did a great job with the questions.

The place is aptly named…it had a lounge-like feel to it (dim lights, candles, leather seats), and it was a bungalow.  Really there’s no other name by which this institution should go by.  Maybe “Kitchenless Menuless Lounge” would also have been appropriate, as they were redoing their menus, and we ended up ordering pizza and having it delivered to our table.  We much would have preferred the tamale-man from Bucktown Pub, but it’s a tough economy.

Our server was very pleasant, and offered us a variety of menus that would deliver.  The dim lights were offset by a small, battery operated, portable lamp.  We weren’t big fans of the lamp due to it’s shoddy construction, and used the light from our candle instead.

The drink specials included $4 Heinekens, $4 cherry bombs, and $7 Stoli martinis.  They had a variety of beers on tap, but nothing special.  Trivia started a little late (closer to 8:40).  The question format was really fun.  There was a photo round (album covers and artists), name that tune, name those lyrics, and lastly (and most interestingly) a music video round.  The music video was played on the bar TVs, and the MCs asked 10 questions about the video.

The questions were a good mix, and our MCs were very enthusiastic.  I think one of them was a cougar (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  The “Name that tune” questions were interspersed with little clues that could help you out, but you had to be constantly paying attention.  Obviously, both MCs knew their music really well, as they always had random facts to contribute.  The music was well spread across the decades.  It was mostly rock/pop/alternative/indie, and there was very little country or hip hop (which is OK with us).  The “Name that lyrics” round was surprisingly hard, but where the night really stood out was the “Video Round.”

They played an awesome video by Cobra Starship called “Good Girls Go Bad.”  The video and the song were really as awesome as you are imagining them to be right now.  The round was akin to a memory game that I played in a Will Shortz book when I was as kid.  Back in my nerdy 8-year old days, I would look at a picture of a scene of lots of stuff happening.  After studying the page for a few minutes, I would turn the page over and answer the questions.  It would be obscure things like “What was the license plate of the car on the right?”  This video round was similar.  We watched and listened to the video, and then we were asked 10 obscure questions about them (Questions like “What did the sign in the store say?”)

Scoring was quick, and done by trade-and-grade.  We thought we did pretty good until we started grading another team, and then realized that we actually didn’t do well at all.  We ended up in 6th place out of 9 teams (ouch!).  There are prizes for the top 2 teams – a bottle of cherry vodka (WTF?) and a $50 gift card for the lounge.  The night ended LATE (close to 11 pm), which wasn’t ideal for exhausted members of the team.

All in all, The Bungalow Lounge is one of the better Thursday night trivia spots in Chicago, especially for music.  As long as you’re OK eating food beforehand and getting out after 11 pm, watching the video by Cobra Starship was enough to make this a great night for me.

+ Fun and knowledgable MCs

+ Great variety of music

+ I was introduced to the greatness that is Cobra Starship

- Blah specials

- No food

- 11 pm is late

Bungalow Lounge Bar
1622 W. Belmont Ave., Chicago
8:30pm to 11pm
Free admission
3 paws (out of 4)

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What we learned at Fearon’s

Questions from trivia night at Fearon’s:

1.  Which soccer club’s homeground is named after a battle in 1066?

2.  In what sport would you do an Eskimo Roll?

3.  How many umpires are on the field at a regular season MLB game?

4.  In London, the Cambridge, Lyric, and Adelphi are all what?

5.  What is the only pop act to have written #1 hits in 5 different decades?

6.  What often used Japanese word means “empty orchestra”?

7.  Who was the first musician to have five Top 10 hits from the same album?

8.  Name the Bee Gees.

Answers after the jump.

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What we learned at Elephant & Castle

Questions from our trip to Elephant & Castle:

1.  What was the unflattering nickname of Panamanian dictator Manual Noriega?

a) Pizza Face b) Pineapple Face c) Crater Face

2.  Which actor who played a superhero claimed never to have read the comic book?

a) Tobey Maguire b) Ben Affleck c) Robert Downey Jr.

3.  Name these albums:

4.  Name these characters (not actors) from The Birdcage:

Answers after the jump.

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What We Learned At Fado

1 ) What creature did St. George slay?

2 ) In what sport would you adopt the “egg position?”

3 ) What common word in the English language comes from Italian for “scratched drawing?”

4 ) What poet/author wrote the line “The female of the species is more deadly than the male?”

5 ) What European country was the first to issue banknotes?

6 ) What common age did Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison share when they died?

7  ) What were the last names of Bonnie and Clyde?

8 )  There are 3 countries that have an Atlantic and Mediterranean coastline. France and Spain are two of them. What is the third?

9 ) What USSR spacecraft was the first one to to carry a living creature, a dog by the name of Laika?

10) What is the main ingredient in a Molotov cocktail?

Answers after the jump:

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