Outing #30: Aaron Jonestown Massacre

So, the rule was that we would only give official numbers to outings in which both members of the Trivia Jihad participated. However, considering that the other attendees of tonight's outing have been long time trivia devotees, I feel like given the circumstances this should count as an official outing. Indeed, until Shawn is back in town in February (I thought he was gonna be back for a few days in January, but not sure if that's still on,) all trivia outings will be numbered as official outings and all participants shall be deemed honorary Trivia Jihad team members.

Pub/Bar: Razzy's

Day/Date: Wednesday

Outcome: First place, $25 gift certificate

Trivia Jockey: Mike. See 'Notable Events' below for commentary on Mike's musical selections.
Crowd: Small, but moving in the right direction. As per usual, there were a limited number of teams participating. However, as we have gone to trivia and other events at Razzy's over the past several weeks and months I have seen a definite positive trend in terms of the type of crowd - both trivia participants and bar patrons. It is no secret that when the place was in its former incarnation (Jon's Place) the only type of folks that would go there were slightly skeezy, sketchy old men. The sausage fest was such that the only woman in the place was the naked lady on the screen of the naked lady trivia terminal (if you don't know what I'm talking about, best not to ask.) When Jon's Place changed names, the same old customers kept coming, which is the reason that the naked lady trivia terminal is still ensconced in its special space at the bar. Now, I'm the last person to take issue with old sketchy men drinking alone, but I'm sure you can imagine how this might not create a climate capable of convincing a younger (and more populous) crowd to frequent the place. However, everyone that I've brought along to Razzy's in the past few weeks has commented that the skeezy men are fewer and fewer and that the friendly, local, neighborhood folks (the kind of twenty- and thirty- and forty-somethings with whom one might actually want to strike up a conversation) have been appearing in greater and greater numbers. Also, whereas initially the trivia teams were only 2 or even simply 1 person that Mike seemed to have somewhat coerced to attend, now the teams have 2 or 3 or 4 friends who come to Razzy's regularly and know the proprietresses. So, I have to say that while the place was not exactly packed, things are looking better for Razzy's.

Food/Drink: I never get over the beauty of Razzy's $2 draughts. That means a trivia win can buy your team up to 12 beers. It was sort of a weird evening, though, since we all appeared to be drinking low carb beers. Not sure what that was about - I'm the only one on Atkins. As a result, no vodka was sampled. But I can tell you based on another Razzy's outing last week, there is a new batch of strawberry vodka and it is TASTY. My previous vodka rankings are now shot all to hell. Currently, the vodka rankings stand thus:

1. Applie pie vodka (while originally I was a huge proponent of chocolate cherry, apple pie has won me over. it has a low alcohol content, making it the sort of vodka you can sip and sip without waking up with a headache the next day. also, no matter how much you consume, it doesn't get old. its sort of like liquid applesauce.)

2. Chocolate cherry vodka (love the taste, but its starting to seem a bit too sweet and overpowering.)

3. Strawberry vodka (this new batch is absolutely delicious - more flavor and less sickening sweetness than the first batch I tasted. only drawback is that it seems to have a higher alcohol content than the other vodkas, meaning you really have to be careful with your consumption.)

4. Pineapple cherry (tasty, but I'm telling you, the new strawberry formulation is *tight*)

5. Plum raspberry (still not too thrilled with this)

6. Mango papaya rum (looks like this one is discontinued)

Ambience: As I was looking around Razzy's today, with its peach-colored painted-brick walls, its wood paneling, the crazy metallic accents that someone sponge-painted onto the bartop and the acoustic tile ceiling, and the circa-1960 tap station and promotional lighting, I realized if I owned the place I wouldn't change a thing. I was sad that I didn't get a chance to talk to Nancy and Kelly more (neither of them was there at last week's visit) but I'm sure I'll be back there soon enough. After all, I've got 25 more gift dollars to spend!

Notable Events: Today we got a little bit more insight into the breadth of Mike's musical preferences. One of the songs, I kid you not, was done in a country style and had a chorus that went something like this: "You ride my ass like a horse and a saddle / Now you're up shit creek with a turd for a paddle." There was also an instruction to "get on your knees and start sucking" somehow worked into the lyrics. Classy. The best part of it, however, was the fact that one member of our party (a country music fan) was blithely bopping along to the music for about 75% of the song before, at my suggestion, she started actually listening to the lyrics. At which point the bopping stopped.

In other news, I have long been troubled by the fact that certain of Shawn's stories have never been told on this blog, mostly because there has been no reason to do so. Lo and behold, today while wasting time and googling everyone I know, I discovered that the following story comes up as the number one result for the search term "meat slinging Shawn." Let me tell you: it is really uncanny to hear a story you've heard 50 times being told almost perfectly on some random person's blog. I don't know who this girl is, but she met Shawn at a bar some time last year and one thing led to another and the famous 'meat slinging story' was told. And it really, *really* stuck in her mind. Either the girl has a savant-like ability to remember tales, or (and this is entirely possible) Shawn was a little tipsy and told the same story four times. Although it may at first seem to be unrelated to the Trivia Jihad, I think taking a job selling meat out of the back of a truck and actually sticking with it for more than a week can give you some insight, however slight, into the type of man who would dedicate almost every night of his fall semester to pub trivia. (Unfortunately, I'm not really sure I have any similar explanatory narratives. Except maybe the thing about the lumberjacks and the strip poker.)