Now playing Big Time by Peter Gabriel

So, I've been re-reading "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" which is a collection of album reviews and stories about rock and roll. It's just so great and so smartly written. The guy makes no bones about the fact that he wrote on drugs, and it reads like that, but in a very intelligent way.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman played him briefly in 'Almost Famous'. He told a young William Miller, "You know I used to take speed,...a little cough syrup, and just stay up all night writing, just to fucking write."

Thats how it reads too.

I highly recommend it. (Barnes and Noble usually has a copy laying around.) GO GET IT! I suggest starting with the story of The Clash, then move on to the re-telling of the song Maggie May. Both are side splitting.

Tomorrows a BIG day for the game. I can't say too much because I don't want to jinx it, but all will be explained next entry. I swear. Just send me some extra good vibes and luck!

THE WINNERS TONIGHT WERE:

1ST PLACE- WE LOVE PIZZA-500 PTS (Way to go guys, your first win!)

2ND PLACE- TWO MAN ARMY OF DARKNESS

3RD PLACE- THE STUFF (Alex Tween of The Forms, my favorite band, and Jen Carlson of Gothamist.com, my favorite local news blog)

Here's a clip of a very underrated band from the 80's that is dear to my heart performing a kick ass hit of theirs live.

Wow, let's get behind this green thing!

Tonight was stellar! We had a shit-ton of new first timers who really enjoyed the game and that was cool. We like that energy. High scorers too! Almost everybody wins!

Some SMARTASS news, and there is some..

1. We will be in AM NY on MAY 29th. That's what I was told. Maybe the most read newspaper of strap-hangers in NYC.

2. Fingers crossed, I was contacted by a producer of NY Non-Stop, an N.B.C. owned local TV news station, and we were asked if we wanted to do a piece for the channel. That means a 2 minute (or so) spot that will run for a day, all day. This is very cool. TV exposure is a great thing, even for cable....(Did I say that out loud?) No, really, I'm way happy about it and can't wait!

Here are the winners tonight:

1. TWO MAN ARMY OF TWILIGHT-410 PTS

2. THE SOLO SCHMOO-380 PTS

3. HAIRBO-360 PTS

I asked a few questions about Van Halen this week (did you know it was Davd Lee Roth who thought they should name the band 'Van Halen'?) so here is a brief history of the band in it's early stages. Pay attention.

Uhhh, huh!

Hi, so yeah, tomorrow morning I will be (I'm told) interviewed in AM NY about SMARTASS. This is big deal because roughly 3 million subway riders read this NYC rag daily.

That's the population of Atlanta circa. 1996.

That's quite a few people. This is exciting, to me anyway.

Tonight's game was again, fun, but not crowded by any means. No big. The club continues to support and more importantly, continues to provide FREE Rockets pizza. No one is complaining. Honestly, I think the draw is the free grub, but everyone seems to be having a great time so I'm not going to bitch, as opposed to usual.

The winners tonight were:

(TECHNICAL WIN: JASPER-310PTS)

1ST PLACE: TEAM ATLANTIS-290 PTS

2ND PLACE: WE HATE ANCHOVIES, ASPARAGUS & PEAS-250 PTS

3RD PLACE: WE LOVE PIZZA-200 PTS

Congrats all!

Here's some old school awesome for ya!

Hey, look,...The Mat's played to 5 people sometimes too!

...and they still handed in stellar shows.

Look, I know it's NYC, I know you have things to do, I know sometimes Lyndsay Lohan shows up and you just HAVE to see what she does. Or not.

Not to make fun. NO ONE would ever cop to that.

Shit, what am I trying to say? Oh yeah,...come out to SMARTASS. I know I get like this after less than crowded shows, and I really don't wanna come off like the cheerleaders in Fast Times (look it up), but a lot of work goes into making this thing work and it'd be great to see some of you. /end of rant.

WINNERS TONIGHT:

1st place- Omega Woman-160 points
2nd- I've Forgotten Everything-120points


There was no third place......(sigh).

In the meantime, heres some classic memories for anyone who remembers when we had something to be excited about.

You have to believe it's getting better!

Yeah,....that's me being positive. I THINK it's also a Beatles song as well?...Hmm,..

Tonight was a better turn out for Smartass at Fontana's, which made me look a little better than last week. It's always telling when the bartender asks you how many people you have coming to the game, after telling you all his regulars aren't coming. Luckily, he's mad cool. Jasper would have placed 3rd tonight if he didn't work there and big ups to Team Win who joined in the last round and kicked ass. See ya next week ladies!

TONIGHT'S WINNERS WERE:

1st place- Duo Schmoo's: 490 points

2nd- Fuck Face: 230 points

3rd- We Luv Pizza: 220 points

And now, the greatest band who ever lived doing "Mabelline" by Chuck Berry. Check out YouTube for some awesome clips of this same show!

You take the good with the GREAT!

Tonight was a bit slow, and I did an AWESOME quiz for tonight too. So it goes. I know everyone can't always make it out every time, but the energy is so much better and so much more fun with a lot of people.

BUT, thats cool, because when I got home, there was an email interview from Lauren at amNY who is doing an article about trivia nights in NYC in my gmail. So, probably lots more people next week!

Does anyone read this blog? If you do, do me a favor and leave a comment so I can judge sorta what the readership is, if any. That'd be good to know too. That way I could start blogging about how awesome David Lee Roth's solo career was, and not get NEAR as much shit for it.

Did I say that out loud?


The winner tonight was: Team NAME with 230 points.

Here's a video of Nina Hagen covering The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz' in 1985 before it was cool to like that song.

Great night last night!

So things are going great at Fontana's. ALTHOUGH, I want to send some good vibes out to Jasper (the talent booker who got me the gig there) as his father this week had a spot of trouble and had to go to the hospital. He's doing well now though, apparently, so thats good. We hope he makes a full recovery.

I also want to send a shout-out to our new Thursday night bartender, Brendan. He knows his rock trivia and has a great time with us. He's a super nice guy too. WE LOVE BRENDAN!

Last nights winners were:

1st place- The Cherry Flavored Shmoo's (surprise there!)-410 points
2nd place:Carsten cut his asshole on a shit diamond (Hmm,...)-360 points
3rd place:The Mothers of the Housing Authority (Justin and Lena!)-330 points

Good times, would love to see more of you next week. (Lookin' at YOU, Cantor)

Remember, happy hour for the first hour, and FREE pizza! Dinner AND a show for nothin'!

Here's an interview with Stevie Nicks when she was on blow in the 80's. Not sure if it will auto launch, but if not just paste this into a window.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuPCUMoDc6M