During this year's Blogging From A to Z April Challenge, I'm highlighting things more people should know about. For the most part, I'll be ignoring the most popular and widely known items (and sometimes my personal favorites) in order to promote the unfamiliar and underappreciated.Queer thing—I picked two of the most familiar Q's today...
FILM
Quick Change
For Grimm (Bill Murray), robbing a bank dressed as a clown was the easy part.1 It's when he and his fellow thieves (Geena Davis, Randy Quaid) try to get out of NYC with the money that everything seems to transpire against them. Not Murray's best, but a clever, witty, and underrated film.
TELEVISIONFor Grimm (Bill Murray), robbing a bank dressed as a clown was the easy part.1 It's when he and his fellow thieves (Geena Davis, Randy Quaid) try to get out of NYC with the money that everything seems to transpire against them. Not Murray's best, but a clever, witty, and underrated film.
Quantum Leap
Just your average, everyday show about a guy who accidentally goes back in time into other people's bodies, doing what he can to right wrongs with the help of his holographic pal until he can find a way home. You know the type.
Just your average, everyday show about a guy who accidentally goes back in time into other people's bodies, doing what he can to right wrongs with the help of his holographic pal until he can find a way home. You know the type.
GAME
Quelf
During this game, you may end up wearing your belt as a headband or inserting the word bleep in every bleeping sentence. You may find yourself writing a short story about sausage and nail clippings, or hiding in a fort you built yourself with whatever was nearby. You may need to pantomime being stuck in a tree with five lobsters and an angry dwarf. I'm pretty sure the makers of the game just tried to come up with the wackiest things they thought people might actually do... but we do them. And laugh till it hurts. One of the most entertaining (and random) party games out there. (For 3-8 bleeping players.)
MUSICDuring this game, you may end up wearing your belt as a headband or inserting the word bleep in every bleeping sentence. You may find yourself writing a short story about sausage and nail clippings, or hiding in a fort you built yourself with whatever was nearby. You may need to pantomime being stuck in a tree with five lobsters and an angry dwarf. I'm pretty sure the makers of the game just tried to come up with the wackiest things they thought people might actually do... but we do them. And laugh till it hurts. One of the most entertaining (and random) party games out there. (For 3-8 bleeping players.)
Queen
I know, I know, everyone has heard of Queen.2 But I expect most of today's youth only know them for their rhapsodizing, rocking, championing, and possibly dust-biting. You poor, sheltered souls. There's so much more to Mercury & Co: bicycle riding, not stopping, looking for love, flashing, and so much more. It's (slightly) maddening, I tell you. Bow to their majesty.
LITERATUREI know, I know, everyone has heard of Queen.2 But I expect most of today's youth only know them for their rhapsodizing, rocking, championing, and possibly dust-biting. You poor, sheltered souls. There's so much more to Mercury & Co: bicycle riding, not stopping, looking for love, flashing, and so much more. It's (slightly) maddening, I tell you. Bow to their majesty.
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson
I'm cheating; I never finished Quicksilver. Instead I'll use this space to hype Stephenson's fantastic earlier works. My favorite is Snow Crash (skip the dull chapters about 1s and 0s and focus on the samurai computer hacker and the 7-ft Aleutian with a nuclear warhead in his motorcycle sidecar), but I also highly recommend The Diamond Age (a young working-class girl gets lessons meant for the rich and powerful from a stolen book built with nanotechnology) and Cryptonomicon (a tale of code-making, code-breaking, and sunken treasure, split between WWII and a half-century later). Everything he's done since has been a bit dense (and long) for my taste, but the man sure knows how to write.
I'm cheating; I never finished Quicksilver. Instead I'll use this space to hype Stephenson's fantastic earlier works. My favorite is Snow Crash (skip the dull chapters about 1s and 0s and focus on the samurai computer hacker and the 7-ft Aleutian with a nuclear warhead in his motorcycle sidecar), but I also highly recommend The Diamond Age (a young working-class girl gets lessons meant for the rich and powerful from a stolen book built with nanotechnology) and Cryptonomicon (a tale of code-making, code-breaking, and sunken treasure, split between WWII and a half-century later). Everything he's done since has been a bit dense (and long) for my taste, but the man sure knows how to write.
Is that all I've got for you today? Quite.
1 Note: The bank wasn't dressed as a clown; Grimm was. But that should have been obvious. Everyone knows banks don't dress up as clowns anymore. (They've been blood-sucking vampires since 2008.)
2 But who else could I have picked? I know at most one song from other Q groups, and I wasn't about to recommend a band based solely on "Stick 'Em Up," "Silent Lucidity," or whatever it is queens sung about in the stone age.
Anyone who likes Quantum Leap is a friend of mine. My mom and I never missed this show when it was on... :) I remember always looking forward to how he was going to say "oh boy" in each episode.
ReplyDeleteJo
In Which We Start Anew
Wow, it had been so long since I last caught an episode I'd completely forgotten about the "oh boy" bit. Thanks for reminding me! Now I'm even more interested in going back and watching them from the beginning (but not the way Sam used to go back... I'll stick with the present, thank you very much).
DeleteQueen? Nope. Never heard of them...
ReplyDeleteAs always, your footnotes slay me.
Yes, I've been told my wit can be a bit sharp. Sorry about that. Well, I'm glad you manage to unslay yourself each day to come back for more.
DeleteAh...Quicksilver. Loved that one.
ReplyDeleteHope you’re enjoying the challenge so far!
--Damyanti, Co-host A to Z Challenge April 2012
Twitter: @AprilA2Z
#atozchallenge
I also might have enjoyed Quicksilver if I'd managed to get through it, but it proved too much for me. As did Anathem, of which I only read 1/3 (i.e. 375 pages). Though I've heard his latest (Reamde), though long, reads more like a thriller. That's much more my speed these days.
DeleteQuick Change! What a great movie, one I've long forgotten. Must see if I can rent it anywhere. I waded through Cryptonomicon, but haven't had the nerve to tackle any of his other books yet. Maybe when I retire :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, Cryptonomicon was where he really first started weighing everything down with dense prose. But I loved the story. I say you try Snow Crash, and before you retire: it's a much easier read, and more fun.
Deletequantum leap--one of my son's favorites---i saw quicksilver many years ago---love them--great post
ReplyDeleteCompletely different Quicksilver, though. The book came out 17 years later, took place hundreds of years earlier, and (sadly) didn't have Kevin Bacon in it. Otherwise I might have gotten further than 30 pages.
DeleteQuantum Leap is one of my favorite ones. This is a really nice post.
ReplyDeletewww.modernworld4.blogspot.com
Thanks, Gina!
DeleteQuick Change is a movie I really found funny and suspenseful and that was good for me. I like Murry in anything and I have post about one of his movies coming up for W. Never really got into Quantum Leap and I'm not sure why, it is something I would think I would watch. Queen was a fav group of mine back in their early years and oftened played at high school parties. And you could have selected Suzy Quatro for your musical Q. I loved her back in the day.
ReplyDeleteI could have selected Suzi Quatro, except I only know her name, not her music. (Also, as you'll see from R & S, I'm letting iTunes be my guide and going by first names.)
DeleteBy the way, I can't believe I had to look up Murray's W movie. I'm so very, very ashamed. But don't worry, I'll be fine. Baby steps.
That Scott Bakula....such a talent! No wonder he was the obvious choice to play Captain Archer (NOTE: sad that I know the character's name) on 'Enterprise.' Until it got canceled.
ReplyDeleteThen he was great as that...uh...actor guy who was friends with that guy from 'Everybody Loves Raymond'...uh...oh, yeah...Ray Romano and that fat black guy in "Men of a Certain Age." Which got...canceled...? I think...? What ever happened to that show?
Scott Bakula-Great star of canceled shows whose name rhymes with "Dracula."
And come to think of it, I've never seen Bakula and Dracula in the same room...
Delete