New Scaratings

The Topix for the coming month:

February 3 - The Super Bowl
February 4 - Sitcom Stars
February 10 - Vintage Technology
February 11 - Famous Duets
February 17 - Iceland
February 18 - Hunting in Movies
February 24 - Vitamins & Supplements
February 25 - Shocking Fine Art

Of this list, the only one that really interests me is 2/17.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

2/3,2/4, and 2/18 I may do well in they look interesting. As for Iceland I have been there for all of 2 hours and I was 9 yrs old, all's I remember is volcanic rock when we landed at the airport and lots of it

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

Might do alright in the "Hunting in Movies".

I'd do better if it was only hunting.

Iceland on the 17th looks interesting to me. I wonder if Eyjafjallajokull fits in BT's character limits

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

I only hope that they don't ask us to choose the correct spelling.

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Middle age is when a broad mind and a slim waist exchange places.

Iceland was a good game. Nice mix of questions, with some shades of Passport (Reykjavik is in what part of the country?), and after talking about it throughout the game, we were ecstatic to see Hàkarl make an appearance as the final question. Anything that can make Gordon Ramsay throw up is okay in my books, although the untended cat litter box quality of its aroma is an admitted turn-off

I was genuinely surprised that there was no question about Althing ("930 and All That"), moderately surprised (but not disappointed :p ) that Björk didn't get a mention, and kinda disappointed (but not surprised ) that Gimli, Manitoba was ignored. Very nearly blew the Birch forests question, and my thanks go to GODOT for knowing the writer (somebody named something like "Halls Throat Drops") and the form of wrestling called Glima

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/°v°\ • Every time Linux boots, a penguin gets its wings
I'm a solipsistic conspiracy theorist. I'm sure I must be up to something, and I won't stop until I find out what
Why not downgrade Plutonium to a dwarf element?

The questions were somewhat easier than I thought they would be, except for the last one. Surprised that Surtsey was not mentioned, along with Eyjafjallajökull. Geysir also had no mention.

I think they should start serving Hàkarl at Denny's.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Agree that it was a good game.
I'm pretty disappointed in myself. I blew the square mileage question (thinking in kilometers) and both Reykjavik questions. (I have an east-west issue when I play BT. I really don't understand why.)
Congrats on the perfecto, by the way, assuming you were that PENGWN.

Glad you guys had a good game. Was planning on coming but got home from work and crashed on my couch again...

Well, I think of Björk as The Swan That Didn't Bite in that game. As in, there were a few questions along the lines of "<A certain person> is Iceland's ______", and even if you didn't know, you could rule out "most famous singer".

Loved the hàkarl reference too.

--Ken

Shocking fine art was the worst Topix i have ever watched. I knew I wouldnt do well and skipped it. Of course oue 1 teammate who may have helped decided to skip tonight...great friend.

I played it as a guest. Interesting stuff, but it was obvious that I didn't know the material. Did almost as well as I ordinarily would on a solo effort of Sci-Files.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

None of us were even close to 10k so this was far worse than our average sci files

Shit. I wanted to play that. Do you remember any of the questions or answers?

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liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

Sorry. The only one I can remember is "Who did Vanity Fair run a provacative photo shoot of in 2008". Miley Cirus, brittany, Angelina Jolie or someone else. It was Cirus. Pretty sad that I remember that one. I was half-assing the game while surfing the Internet and drinking. It was mostly artist questions but with a few photo questions like the above.

I did break 3K

One question started with the year that an artist was born (c. 1870), and mentioned two of his gruesome-sounding works. The answer was Edvard Munch. (Neither of the two works mentioned was The Scream.)

The last question cited a quote: "Everybody is an artist...", and we were asked who said it. I believe the answer was Picasso.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Well for a start I was shocked to learn that the universe of fine art that could potentially shock is apparently 75% 20th Century or after, according to BTs question writers.

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Please forgive any strange typos or grammar errors. I am typically using voice recognition software to enter text, and sometimes editing works differently from how I expect.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not an expert on art. I am more knowledgeable on classical music, which parallels art to some degree. If a future Topix is entitled Shocking Classical Music, I will expect questions about the 20th or 21st century, almost without exception. Therefore I expected Shocking Fine Art to be about modern works.

-- RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Why? Was Paganini not shocking with his pizzicati and double stops? Wagner with his elimination of predictable recitative/aria progressions? The abandonment of keyboard continuo did not shock? Berlioz' Benvenuto Cellini caused a riot far more violent than the famous Rite of Spring version but almost 100 years earlier in the 1830s. We should not fall into historical confirmation bias by assuming works in any art that still seem 'a bit weird' to current ears and eyes are the only ones that shocked audiences. Stravinsky and Sorabji and Reich only built on what innovators from the 15th century on did with "classical" music.

The "fine arts" version even included modernist claptrap that is no longer shocking. Warhol prints shock nobody any more. Neither do Pollock's silly bespatterings. Any more than The Rite of Spring still causes riots (it's a bit apocryphal that it ever did anyway). If we seek and acknowledge shocking moments only in the currently titillating, then only one question from last Friday would even qualify (Chris Burden, who would have done far more for art had he pointed the rifle a couple of feet up and to the right). If we look back at works that were shocking in their time - like Pollock or Stravinsky - then there is absolutely no excuse for such a bias towards those works that caused a stir only in the last century.

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Please forgive any strange typos or grammar errors. I am typically using voice recognition software to enter text, and sometimes editing works differently from how I expect.

Rhino,

Great comments! Only thing I have to comment on at this time is that theRite of Spring is a work from within the past century, as its premier was in 1913.

I can make another response later.

--RWM

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"...It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED...."

Please note that I used the Rite of Spring as a contrast to an earlier work of the 1830s that caused MORE of an uproar. Just as works of art earlier than Pollock and Warhol, let alone Vanity Fair photoshoots of jailbait, did in the visual arts. People like the early impressionists for a start, who were completely ignored in last week's game to the benefit of hacks like Burden.

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Please forgive any strange typos or grammar errors. I am typically using voice recognition software to enter text, and sometimes editing works differently from how I expect.

I remember being shocked the first time I saw Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase for two reasons.
1. There's no descending nude.
2. There's no staircase.

I can't stand Jackson Pollack's work, but at least when he promised you yellow number fives, by crikey, he came through for you...