Sports right? I’m definitely going to learn about sports. Let’s go!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) Well, we’ll get to sports. First, in a fun reference there is a business in the film called Emilio’s [BLANK] Service, named after an Emilio Estevez and Harry Dean Stanton movie. What word fills in the blank?
2) Alex Cox directed Repo Man, and also the film Walker about William Walker, the famous … filibuster? Turns out that is a name given to people during the Manifest Destiny era of the United States who went into neighboring countries and established colonies in preparation for annexation. Walker was notably the president of what country for a brief time?
3) Wild Thing was listed as number 257 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004. Who performed the most famous rendition of this song?
4) The Cleveland Indians are now the Cleveland Guardians. What are they named after?
5) And further, the Cleveland Guardians were originally the Grand Rapids Rustlers. Between 1900 and 1914 the team was the Cleveland [BLANK], name any one of the four other names (not Indians or Guardians) the team took on during that period.
Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: On March 4th, 1995, Major League II premiered primetime on HBO. At the same time, on channel 55, this film played:
What is that film?
Answers
1) The word is Repo, and the film is Repo Man. I’ve never seen Repo Man, but now that I see it is in the Criterion Collection I might just have to check it out. The director is weird … we’ll get to that though in the next question.
2) Alex Cox made a renowned film in Repo Man and then … like nothing? Walker seems like barely a film. The answer is Nicaragua and the story does seem fascinating. Franklin Pierce even recognized him. Apparently he only didn’t continue being president because he pissed off a bunch of people on Wall Street.
3) The Troggs. The genres are garage rock, pop rock, proto-punk, and freakbeat. Garage rock is apparently a genre created in response to the British Invasion which prompted a bunch of young people to form bands in their garage. Funny enough the version in the film was performed by a band called X.
4) This is the easiest of the bunch. The name comes from the Guardians of Traffic, 8 statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge. I just thought that was interesting to know.
5) This is probably impossible for anyone but the most insane MLB fans, but any of the Lakeshores, Bluebirds, Broncos, or Naps. The Naps, weirdly was the longest running name, being the name of the team for over 10 years. It is short for Napoleons, named after a person, Nap Lajoie.
Bonus NYTimes Listing Answer: Night Moves. I would highly recommend it. It is a very fun film … although Gene Hackman like kind of almost getting it on with a teenage Melanie Griffith is unfortunate.
So yeah, some sports stuff … a lot more random movie stuff though.
Bad Movie Twins 