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The pursuit of ‘trivial’ glory |
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Written by Kurt Brighton
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Wednesday, 26 September 2007 |
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There’s tension in the air as you walk into CooperSmith’s Poolside on a Sunday evening and scout out a table. In the back area where it’s all about to Go Down, there is a shortage of chairs in the otherwise lightly populated bar. Groups of very serious people huddle around tables, checking their watches, nervously peeking toward the door for late arrivals.
Yes, it’s Quiz Night, and the only person missing is Vince McMahon—although most people here don’t appear to be very familiar with steroids. The muscles they flex most often are the ones that reside between the ears.
They’re all here to have fun, but this isn’t casual—they are warriors preparing to do battle. Er, kind of. The team at the table next to ours, the Alpha Denim Recruits has brought Odin, their good-luck monkey, who watches over the proceedings with a cigarette hanging from his sock-puppet lips. And there’s one team, The Frosted Equinox Sacrificial Virgins (each week they have a new name with the word “frosted” in it) that is decked out in long black robes in honor of the Autumn solstice, and who even have a candle burning in the center of their table. But it’s all done in a spirit of silliness, they claim.
“We decided to start dressing up because everyone else was taking the whole thing so seriously,” said Veronica Nitchie of the Frosteds. “We have a theme every week. We’ve been the Frosted Tree Huggers, The Frosted Catholic Schoolgirls—we have a lot of fun.”
The team I’ve assembled—we decide to call ourselves Hot Carl after a character on the cartoon Aqua Teen Hunger Force—is a rag-tag bunch of upstarts, some of whom have played before, but we’re decidedly not regulars. As the beer soaks into my stomach, I’m starting to entertain delusions of us as low-rent underdog Rocky Balboas getting ready to go up against a bunch of well-trained Apollo Creeds. Maybe with cheap gray sweats and a lot of heart we can pull out a miracle. Sydney’s on Benadryl, but she’s gamely gulping down coffee and attempting to stay awake. Carla’s late, but she’s brought reinforcements. And Lynsey, perhaps our most experienced player, subtly maneuvers the pencil and answer sheet away from me as we get ready to begin.
“I’ve played a lot of bar trivia,” she tells me. “I like the competition, the beer, getting together with friends. And laughing at how seriously some people take it.”
There are eight rounds of questions, including an audio round in which teams identify song clips, and a visual round in which teams get to look at pictures of eight semi-famous people and write down their names. The Quiz Masters are Josh Johnson and Jim Thompson, and in their snarky banter with the crowd and each other, they quickly establish the spirit of the evening.
“Rule No. 1,” says Johnson over the fading strains of “Final Countdown” by ’80s power-pop band Europe, “and it seems like it should be obvious but sometimes isn’t, is don’t shout out the answers. Let me repeat that: don’t shout out the answers. Rule No. 2: don’t (mess) with the Quiz Masters.”
But they are going to mess with the players. The duo mercilessly calls out the scores every couple of rounds, going from “first place for least amount of points” on up to the top teams. As the night wears on—the entire game takes about two hours—Hot Carl is gamely hanging around, clinging to fourth place and even tying for third at one point. For the final round we actually have a shot at glory.
Alas, it isn’t to be. We end up in fifth place, losing out to The Frosteds, who frolic about in some sort of frosty heathen dance to celebrate their victory. Still, fifth place out of 10 or so teams isn’t bad—we’re here to have fun after all.
As Nitchie of the victorious Frosteds puts it: “For us, it’s just a good way to not to have to think about work coming up on Monday morning.”
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GEEKS WHO DRINK
7 p.m. Sundays
CooperSmith’s Poolside, 5 Old Town Square, Fort Collins.
For more info go to
geekswhodrink.com.
6 p.m. Thursdays
City Limits Lounge, 320 S. Link Lane, Fort Collins. Or go to myspace.com/geekswhodrink. | Only registered users can write comments.
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|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
We call it insight, you call it what you will. | |
|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
|  | Hola Amigos! I'm Sandra. I like to believe that people are 70 percent good and 30 percent dumb. I'm stickin to that story. Reading this blog might make you want to be good, but probably just dumb. | |
|  | Donovan Henderson is editor of NEXTnc. | |
|  | Here at Nextnc we have some characters. Get a sneak peak behind the curtain and find out what amusing antics our staffers get themselves into on a weekly basis. | |
|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
|  | Life's little morsels of inspiration, observation and encouragement seen through the eyes of the Nextnc reporter.
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|  | Ms. Giles currently lives in Colorado where she stars in her own private reality show. She writes aphoristic accounts of her life, taken completely out of context, and embellished with characters and situations disguised to resemble something close to interesting. | |
|  | over and out | |
| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
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