accomplished...I and the team I was on tonight (Picard's Thighs, Produced by Wendy Neuss***) won grand prize at Geek Trivia tonight!
Our haul included several Star Trek action figures (I got the Miles O'Brien from Deep Space Nine), a book roundup of many of the Star Trek stories told in comic books, a signed reproduction of a score sheet from Danny Elfman's Alice in Wonderland music (me: "I touched something Danny touched!"), comics and comics and more comics, a full DVD season set of Full House (don't ask, not even I know), and two tickets to the burlesque event Geeklesque. Yes, next Saturday I'll get to see hot Portland geeks get nearly naked. If you think this is a complaint, you do not know me.
I attended wearing my Star Trek/Star Wars blood drive pin, from this drive. I wasn't wearing my Trek in the Park T-shirt, as I'd gotten that slightly sweaty earlier today on a long walk (pictures to come, really), so I wanted to express my geekery some other way. Turnout at Vendetta for Geek Trivia was insane, very tight, plus the bar has rebuilt some of the seating area since the last trivia two weeks ago and we were adapting to that. I treated myself to a pulled pork sandwich and a stout in a bottle and proceeded to play. I forgot one of the four films Jimmy Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock made together (I remembered Vertigo, Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much, then blanked on Rope), but you can't win them all. AND WE DIDN'T HAVE TO TO WIN.
Also got to meet Norm From Texas, a Texas-based listener of Cort and Fatboy and a bunch of the other Cascadia.fm podcasts broadcast from Portland, and his new wife Katie. They came to Portland for their honeymoon, and have already experienced Big-Ass Sandwiches, so their priorities are straight.
The night also included humming the end credits music from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, because there was a Buckaroo Banzai question, too. I'd like to walk around to that tune.
And remember: I'm not the most knowledgeable geek by far. You should try trivia nights, too.
* Though he was also Elvis again in Forrest Gump in 1994. Really. He was uncredited and shot obliquely, but it was him. (I refuse to count his Elvis impersonator in 3,000 Miles to Graceland as playing Elvis.)
** The question was "Which was the Star Wars movie from which the Internet meme "DO NOT WANT" comes, and for a bonus point: what was it re-titled on that bootleg?"
*** Wendy Neuss was one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's executive producers. She also was involved with Patrick Stewart for a while. THE NAME HAS ADDED MEANING. (Also, the team I was on this week always names itself after some variation of "Picard's Thighs." That man is built for an older guy. He's in shape. I suggested also making references to Daryl Hannah's thighs, but that didn't stick.)
Finally, because Tuesday was the 80th birthday of Canada's greatest (though not tastiest) ham William Shatner, here's his cover of Pulp's "Common People":