question of the day

62 posts

QOTD: What Was Your First Concert?

Everyone remembers their first ‘real’ concert.  The one that took place in an arena, stadium, or at least a decent sized theater.  Not the one that took place in the concourse at the mall.  That doesn’t count, and you know it.

No, the first real concert is an unmistakable experience.  For me, it involved piling into my grandfather’s ’77 Pontiac Grand Prix, making the two hour trip to Star Lake Ampitheater in Pittsburgh, and taking in Van Halen on their ‘Balance’ tour.  Okay, so it was Sammy Hagar era Van Halen, and I was 15, so my father was the one who accompanied me, because, secretly, he wanted to see Van Halen as well.  However, I got to test out my driving on the freeway chops, and despite my feelings about Sammy Hagar, I remember it being a high energy, loud, professional show.  Even if I had to endure such songs as “Can’t Stop Loving You” (seriously, watch a video of Hagar signing “…Loving You” from around that era, he looks like Michael fucking Bolton), they offset it with enough “Panama” and “Jump” to satisfy the 12-year old inside of me that remembered roller skating to those songs. Yes, I had nostalgia at 15, so what?

What do you guys remember about your first concert?

QOTD: What Dream City Would You Live In?

If you’re like me and you live in a sprawling plastic sunbelt butthole, you probably spend a minute or two every single day thinking about how fucking lucky some people are to live in cool places that aren’t basically just endless strip mall parking lots.

What’s Your Dream City To Live In?

If you asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have said Paris. Franchement, les meufs de Paris sont superbe. Nowadays, though, I’ve decided that, despite its many many shortcomings, the U.S. really is the best country. I think I’d go for either Santa Cruz or San Francisco. California is just bonkers and despite my East Coast loyalty, I wouldn’t mind walking around town wearing knee-high socks and flannel shirts with only the top button buttoned.

QOTD: What Was Your Favorite Dorm Room Poster?

It’s Monday morning and you’re probably sitting in your cubicle, fluorescent office lighting burning your eyeballs, drinking burnt coffee and wondering how the hell you got here. Remember back in the good old days, when you spent most of your time decorating your dorm room with Boone’s Farm bottles and batik tapestries? You had such sophisticated taste back then.

What was your favorite dorm room poster?

So even if you didn’t go to college, you probably at one time were a dumb kid with an even dumber poster on the wall. Let’s here about it!

I once had a housemate who was considerably older than me and when he moved out, he gave me the GREATEST POSTER EVAR. I still have it in my attic, in fact. My ex-wife tried to burn it numerous times but I managed to rescue it. True art is worth saving.

You can’t see it in the picture, but he actually parked his Rolls in front of the Virginia Department of Welfare.

Question of the Day: Favorite Nonfiction Book

Earlier this week we took a tour of world literature and discussed our favorite classic characters. However, to be honest, The Grand Inquisitor doesn’t read much fiction. She has always been drawn to real life stories and real people, so about 90% of her books are nonfiction. In fact, I have a pile of about 25 books I have been trying to plow through since she finished grad school, with limited success (damn you, Crasstalk). There is just so much interesting stuff in the world and I never enough time to find it all out, and though I love my internet, 10 paragraphs is not enough to explain much. So today, tell me what true stories have fascinated and entertained you.

What is your favorite nonfiction book?

My favorite is easily The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman. She is also pretty much my favorite writer. She has a bit of the stuffy Brit lady thing going on, but she still writes in an easy to engage manner. The book is a chronicle of the folly in the first days of World War I. It is a heartbreaking account of how hubris and incompetence led to the death and suffering of millions of people.  This is the edition I have, bought on a whim at a thrift store, but my copy no longer has a front cover because I have read it so many times.

Anyway, I showed you what a nerd I am, so now it is your turn.

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Question of the Day: What’s your Favorite Cartoon?

Hello Crasstalk. I think it is pretty obvious by now that The Grand Inquisitor loves her damn cartoons. I am sure it has nothing to do with the years of various recreational chemical use. However, in an age where so much television is “unscripted,” animation is one of the few genres where good writing and story telling still actually matter. Also, explosions, lots of explosions. Hopefully in the near future, when I have a little more time, I will be writing a regular cartoon column. I am writing a cartoon column starting this Saturday. However, for now I will just ask your opinion so we can all compare notes.

So my eternally youthful friends, what is your favorite cartoon? It can be a series, a movie, or a stand alone special. It can be short or long, classic or new.

I don’t even know where to begin. I actually really don’t watch TV except for animation, so it is hard for me to choose (seriously, it has taken me an hour to finish this paragraph). However, just in sheer hours of enjoyment I am going with this one. (Warning: NSFW).

Always tasteless and often offensive (even to me), South Park is also smart and frequently challenges the assumptions of its own audience. Here they are joking about something that is really hard to make a funny joke about.

Finally, there is the great music.

OK, I’ll stop carrying on. What are yours?

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Wednesday Question of the Day: Who is your Favorite Literary Character?

Good morning Crasstalk. Today we are going to be a little bit more cultured with our Question of the Day. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you and I am sure we will be back to talking reality TV and boy bands tomorrow. So let’s turn our focus to some great books.

Chaucer approves of this post.

While most of us like to read, literature is often something we leave in Freshman Lit 101. This is a shame, and in the interest of creating the well-cultured Crasstalk, I submit the following question:

Who is your favorite literary character? Please, let’s not use books that have been turned into Life Time Movies, or have been adapted to star Skeet Ulrich. Keep it classy.

Mine is not who you would think (although he is up there), but rather I am going way back to Arthurian legend for this saucy and duplicitous lady. Morgan Le Fay, half-sister of Arthur and enemy of Camelot. Powerful, smart, and conniving, she helped destroy Artur and that sap Lancelot. She would have made Alexis Carrington cry like a bitch.

Even comic book readers know not to fuck with this girl.

 

So there’s mine. Whose was the character that made your lit assignments a little less tedious?

Tuesday Question of the Day: Who was your Favorite Band in High School

Aw, memories. Mine get hazier by the day due to age and certain “lifestyle” choices I have made over the years. I used to be cool (I think) and I used to listen to good music before my responsibilities got in the way. However, my sweet neighbor kid is in high school and he always enthusiastically shares what he is listening to with me. He is crazy for Jay Z. Crazy on the way that only a teenager can be for music. Before pretension, before bitterness, and before life attaches too many memories to your music.

I love it when I hear him singing this in the hallway:

So Crasstalk, what was your favorite band or artist in high school. Who spoke to your little rocker?

Here’s mine, hands down.

All right, you know what to do.

 

 

 

Question of the Day: Who’s Your Favorite Movie Director?

OK, movie buffs film geeks, we know you read Cahiers Du Cinema every week and masturbate to Akira Kurosawa retrospectives. So let’s talk auteurs…

Who’s your favorite movie director?

So don’t give us a laundry list. Let’s hear the one director whose movies you’d want to have on a dessert desert deserted island.

Since I’m a child of the 90s and still fondly remember going to see Pulp Fiction at the movie theater there on Rt. 30 in Wayne, I’m going with Tarantino. I still consider “ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER, DO YOU SPEAK IT? to be right up there with the greatest all-time movie lines.

So who’s your favorite director?

Question of the Day: What’s Your Favorite Liquor?

It’s Friday, so let’s talk about highly relevant subjects.

We all have a favorite liquor. There’s always that one liquor that we consider an old, reliable friend. That one friend who’s always there for you in times of trouble such as when your hound dog died, your woman left you or when you first found out that Charles In Charge didn’t get renewed for another season.

What’s your favorite type of liquor?

I’ve always wanted to be a suave, debonair Latin playboy who smokes cigars and wears those Cuban shirts with the four pockets on the front. Seriously, Cubans. FOUR FUCKING POCKETS. You are geniuses.

Anyway, I personally love rum. Rum comes from distilled sugar cane and it makes you feel like a pirate who ARGH can do what you want, plunder whatever booty is nearby and possibly end the night with a Spanish doubloon stuck between your ass cheeks. Fun times.

Quick tip: If you can find it, I highly recommend the El Dorado line of rums from Guyana. They’re made with demarara sugar and have a great, carmely flavor that is perfect with a bit of Coke and some fresh lime.

So what’s your lubricant?

 

Question of the Day: What Classic Car Would You Own?

Wouldn’t it be cool to have an eccentric, rich, childless uncle die and leave you something awesome in his will? Why don’t uncles ever turn out like that? I would love to be that one uncle who dies and leaves my nieces and nephews with all my awesome toys classic automobiles. Which brings us to today’s QOTD….

What classic car have you always wanted to own?

There are so, so many tough choices here. Would I love a Mustang GT Fastback like McQueen in “Bullitt”? FUCK AND YES. Would I thoroughly enjoy driving around in a Mercedes 300SL with the gullwing doors? GOOD LORDY I WOULD.

But there’s one car that I would murder an autistic child to get, and that’s a 1973 Porsche Carerra RS with the the classic Fuchs wheels. Here, I even found a picture. SHE SHALL BE MINE, SOMEDAY.

So what would you put in your fantasy garage?