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The Bakersfield Californian Thursday, July 21, 2011
Eye Street
Index Cody Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 Sasha Mallory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Third Thursday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Class for kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Arts Alive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 The Lowdown with Matt Munoz . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 BC culinary students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32-33
Editor Jennifer Self | Phone 395-7434 | e-mail jself@bakersfield.com
Nothing trivial about this pursuit Trivia nights popping up everywhere, but which is the best for you? Lots of random bits of flotsam floating around in your head, crowding out the information you might need? No better way to show it off than at trivia night. But trivia games are all a little different. To find the one that’s right for your particular brand of useless information, contributing writer Ashley Fischer is trying her luck at several of the established tournaments in town and filling us in on what to expect. I’ve never been good at sports. Team sports, especially. Dodgeball, football and volleyball are all synonymous with pain, embarrassment and mild humiliation. Fortunately, as I’ve grown and gone through my life, I’ve discovered that Women's Active 20- I’ve been gifted with other talents. And in keeping with this 30 Club Trivia Night theme of grand, karmic retriWhen: July 28, sports bution, I happily have discovtheme; Aug. 18, ered one team activity that I musical lyrics theme. not only enjoy, but I’m actual“Minute to Win It” ly sort of good at: trivia night. games start at 7, trivia I know. It’s not exactly a starts at 8 p.m. sport. But as we’ve all heard, your mind is a muscle, and Where: Fishlips Bar exercising mine on a team of and Grill, 1517 18th St. other walking repositories of Admission: $5 per now-not-so-useless-trivia as team member, up to we compete against a room four members per full of people for cash, team allowed. drinks, a box of Girl Scout Information: 324-2557 cookies or simply personal or 2030girls.com bragging rights is about as close to competing in the Super Bowl as I’m ever going to get. Fortunately, it seems I’m not alone in my love of a competitive meeting of the minds, as Bakersfield has become a bastion of regular weeknight trivia competitions. While they all share a few similarities — live MCs, popular bar/restaurant settings and of course, prizes — our local trivia nights are as unique and varied as the questions and answers they’ll have you racking your brain for. So, as a practiced trivia participant, I’m here to give you the lowdown on all of the trivia nights around town. My first stop in this grand trivia tour was on a recent Thursday at Fishlips Bar and Grill for a game based on filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Unlike most of the weekly trivia nights in town, the Fishlips contest happens on a monthly basis, generally on the last Thursday of each month. Another unique aspect of this trivia is, while you and your teammates attempt to prove who’s the brainiest of them all, you’re also supporting a great cause. The Bakersfield members
CASEY CHRISTIE / THE CALIFORNIAN
Active 20-30 Club president Susanne Rego, center, dressed as “Pulp Fiction” character Jody during a recent trivia night at Fishlips, sponsored by the social club. Teammates Janelle Williams, left, and Larissa Ogden scour their memory banks for facts on filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, the theme of that night’s contest.
of the Women’s Active 20-30 Club, whose primary objective is to provide activities and funding to help children in need, are the creative minds behind this trivia event, which they’ve been hosting at Fishlips for nearly a year. Having attended other trivia nights around town, the group thought trivia would be a fun, simple way to help them generate much-needed funding for their organization, while also providing Bakersfield with an alternative to the standard “dinner-and-a-movie” Thursday evening.
I sense a theme here After beginning with general “Trivial Pursuit”-style questions, the idea emerged to have each month focus on a specific theme (“Star Wars,” “Harry Potter” and TV sitcoms, to name a few). And as a girl who has insisted upon holding a themed birthday party nearly every year of her life, I can easily say that the theme aspect of this group’s trivia night is by far one of my favorite features. Trivia attendees are not only encouraged but rewarded for showing up in a theme-appropriate costume — you receive one free answer ticket for each member of your team who dresses up. The ladies of the club also get into the spirit of things, so you may just find yourself raising your hand and asking a brown-robed Jedi to repeat the previous question, or purchasing correct answers for $5 apiece from Alabama Whitman (a character from the Tarantino-penned
Ashley Fischer CONTRIBUTING COLUMNIST
film “True Romance”). This makes for a fun, light-hearted atmosphere, not to mention the opportunity it provides die-hard lovers of the theme to pull out their storm trooper helmets or wizarding robes and come out in full support of their favorite fandom. Themed trivia also provides an obvious tactical advantage over general trivia, in that you and your teammates can study up in preparation. And there’s also considerable satisfaction (and bragging rights) in going out and proving to the world (or everyone in the bar, anyway), that you truly are the champion of your chosen area of expertise.
‘Minute to Win It’ Another unique and enjoyable twist the group added to the standard trivia format are the “Minute to Win It” games. Starting at 7 p.m. (the main event starts at 8), anyone who’s interested in competing is invited to come up and select which ambiguously named task they would like to perform. Most of them are fairly simple — flipping pencils off the back of your hand and catching them, or restacking plastic cups on top of one another — except you only have one minute to do it. If you’re successful, you’re rewarded with one correct answer ticket. Since this is a fundraiser, there are no cash prizes, but there certainly are plenty of goodies for you to go home with. All of the prizes are provided by the members of the 20-30 Club, so they can run the gamut from anywhere to a box of Girl Scout cookies (worth their weight in gold), restaurant gift certificates and the appropriately titled “Booze Basket.”