Horizon 2013 MELA Finals

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M.E.L.A FINALS YOGARSHI VYAS FEAT. MAYANK MUJUMDAR

Transcript of Horizon 2013 MELA Finals

M.E.L.AFINALS

YOGARSHI VYASF EA T . MA Y A NK MU JU MDA R

RULES

1. Welcome to the finals - where everything’s made up, but the points do matter.

2. 5 rounds in the quiz – 2 written, 2 Infinite Pwnce and 1 LVC.

3. Blanks may/may not be indicative of the actual answer.

4. Guess!

WRITE HO!

• 6 xkcd comics with pop culture references to be identified.

• Differential marking in place : 5*(6-n) points for correct answer

– 25 if only 1 team gets it correct

– 20 if 2 teams get it correct

– 15 if 3 teams get it correct

– 10 if 4 teams get it correct

– 5 if 5 teams get it correct

– Slow clap if everyone gets it

1. This term was used for the younger generation because it was believed that the bad attention spans and lack of concentration in that section of the society was caused by _______.

2. The first part of the dialogue is a tribute to 2001 : A Space Odyssey. However, where would you come across GLaDOS, whom HAL proposes

a replacement for Dave?

3. The literary work referenced?

4. This strip was titled ‘With Apologies to ______ _____ ‘. FITB

5. What has been blanked out?

6. Which iconic album cover has been referenced here ?

EXCHANGE SHEETS

1. This term was used for the younger generation because it was believed that the bad attention spans and lack of concentration in that section of the society was caused by _______.

MTV

2. The first part of the dialog is obviously a tribute to 2001 : A Space Odyssey. However, where would you come across GLaDOS, whom HAL

proposes a replacement for Dave.

Portal

3. The literary work ?

Faust by Goethe

4. This strip was titled ‘With Apologies to ______ _____ . FITB

Robert Frost

5. What has been blanked out?

Grand Theft Auto

6. Which iconic album cover has been referenced here ?

Dark Side of the Moon

Infinite Pwnce

• 12 questions on pounce.

• +10 for correct. +10/-10 for pouncing.

•Guess, you shall.

1.• He was touted by his fans as the perfect actor for playing Cedric Diggory in the

Harry Potter movies, but Robert Pattinson got the nod for this role.

• He had been cast as the new Superman in Superman Returns, only to lose the job to Brandon Routh when the project changed directors.

• Stephanie Meyer considered him to be the “perfect” Edward Cullen but by the time the Twilight film franchise went on the floors, he was too old for the part.

• He also did a final screen-test for James Bond and was up against Daniel Craig and Sam Worthington for the 007 role. But this time the studio ultimately thought him to be too young for the part.

Identify this actor, whose repeated disappointments and close shaves with stardom touted Empire magazine to dub him as ‘The Unluckiest Man in Hollywood’, and who shall be seen in a landmark role in 2013.

Henry Cavill, Man of Steel

2.This is a scene from the opening credits of a 2009 movie and is said to be a reference another momentous event in fiction.Name the movie and explain what is happening here.

(larger image follows)

From WatchmenThe Nite Owl is saving Bruce Wayne’s parents

3.

When this octogenarian was asked about her reasons to do so, this is what she had to say :

“I’m not the first one to do this! Besides, we have seen how things get stolen or misplaced in India. Over the past years, famous paintings have been stolen that have never been retrieved. Even Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel medal wasn't spared. Not many people can claim to have held an _____in their hands and I want that feeling to stay alive.”

Who and what did this person do last month that led to a lot of public furore?

Bhanu Athaiya returning the Oscar to the Academy

4.

In 1990, Stiff Records, under the aegis of a fictional company called Magic Records, released an LP titled ‘The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan’ which surprisingly sold over 30,000 copies despite its content?What was the content of this LP?

It was completely silent !

5.A recent petition directed at the White House to “Secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a _____ ____ by 2016” was signed by almost 35,000 people. Since the White House had pledged that it would respond to any petition that had over 25,000 signatures, it came out with an official response to this titled “This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For” which started as follows :

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a _____ ____ isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:

• The construction of the _____ ____ has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.

• The Administration does not support blowing up planets.

• Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a _____ ____ with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?

Death Star

6.

___ ___ _____, is a popular phrase used in North Bihar, now brought into public conscience due to its use in the soundtrack of a recent movie. When the 16 year-old singer was asked the meaning of her song she said, “___ ___ _____ matlab poorasatyanash”.

Generally, this phrase indicates anything going wrong or not being up to the mark. What phrase ?

Chi Cha Ledar

7.

The word ‘_______’ as in ‘What the _______’ or ‘hurts like the _______’ is actually a euphemism, or something like a minced-oath, for the word devil having possibly originated via the word ‘devilkins’. William Shakespeare used this in ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ as :

‘I cannot tell what the _______ his name is my husband had him of.’

Hence this word has nothing to do with the author of the same name. What’s the good word?

Dickens

8.

A sequence from the Alfred Hitchcock movie ‘Spellbound’. Who designed the sets and the background for this particular sequence?

<video removed - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzxlbgPkxHE >

Salvador Dali

9.Kerala-born theatre director Roysten Abel was touring with a performance titled Jiyo , which featured several performances by out-of-work street artists. While in Segovia (Spain) , he interacted with two artists from a Muslim community in Rajasthan and was mesmerized by their music.

Their music became his obsession, and he amalgamated their music with art inspired by the red-light areas of Amsterdam which turned their act into a 45-membered production that debuted at the Osian Film Festival, New Delhi in 2006.

What is this production called?

Manganiyar Seduction

10.• This is a recently discovered species of bee called the 'Euglossa

_______’. According to the biologist who discovered it, he named it so to honor a popular television character and also because the bee had tricked scientists for some time with its similarity to other species.

• An executive producer associated with the show the character appears in said that ‘X would be honored to know that Euglossa _______ was inspired by him. In fact, after ‘Mothra’ and griffins, bees are his third-favourite flying creatures.’

• FITB!

Bazinga!

11.

Who do we see in a cameo in this scene from Django Unchained?

<video removed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vphc_iXtUOA >

Franco Nero, the original Django

12.

Whose self-portrait ?

Osamu Tezuka

FIR SE WRITE HO!

• 6 stamps related to the world of literature.

• Differential marking in place : 5*(6-n) points for correct answer

–25 if only 1 team gets it correct

–20 if 2 teams get it correct

–15 if 3 teams get it correct

–10 if 4 teams get it correct

–5 if 5 teams get it correct

–Slow clap if everyone gets it

1. England - The poet?

2. Denmark – The Author ?

3. USA - The Book?

4. San Marino – The book?

5. Monaco – The book?

6. Israel – The Author?

EXCHANGE SHEETS

ANSWERS FOLLOW

1. England - The poet?

Edward Lear

2. Denmark – The Author ?

Hans Christian Anderson

3. USA - The Book?

Tom Sawyer

4. San Marino – The book?

Fahrenheit 451

5. Monaco – The book?

Don Quixote

6. Israel – The Author?

H. G. Wells

Infinite Pwnce

• 12 questions on pounce.

• +10 for correct. +10/-10 for pouncing.

•Guess, you shall.

1.Connect these movies with respect to the 2013 Academy Awards.Be as specific as possible.

All previous winners for Best Supporting Actor award being nominated this year, a first of its kind

2.What catchy phrase, having no legal definition per se, is used by law enforcement in the USA when announcing the name of someone involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime?

Person of Interest

3.

• This is the poster of a fantasy movie that was to be produced by VidhuVinod Chopra and was supposed to star Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role. However it is now gathering dust due to financial issues.

• Which 1888 novel by Devaki NandanKhatri was the inspiration for this movie?

Chandrakanta

4.

The largest of its kind is held twice a year in Tokyo and the second largest in Angoulême, France.

However the third is the most well known among the lot, tickets for which were sold out within 90 minutes of going on sale last Saturday, despite the event still being 5 months away.

What event that sees almost 130,000 people gather every year?

San Diego Comic Con

5.

The name for this material comes from the French term for ‘chewed-paper’. It is a composite material consisting of paper pieces or pulp, reinforced with textiles and bound with an adhesive.

A very important component of decorative structures before the rise of modern composites and plastics, this material still finds usage in low-cost arts and crafts, as well as building large floats, theatrical sets and puppets among other things.

Which material?

Papier-mâché

6.Connect these three Led Zeppelin songs.

<audio removed – Ramble On and Battle of Evermore by Led Zepplin >

Hard-core believers would also like to add this song to the connect.

<audio removed – Misty Mountain Hop by Led Zeppelin >

Inspire by Lord of the RingsRamble On, Battle of Evermore & Misty Mountain Hop

7.

Two devices that cause temporal displacement have been mashed up to create this image. Name both of them.

Dr. Who’s TARDISDeLorean from Back to the Future

8.

A certain Roderick Jaynes has been nominated for the Best Editing Academy Award, twice, for ‘Fargo’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’, but never won any.

If he had won, why would he have been not able to come and collect it ?

Because he doesn’t exist!

Roderick Jaynes is a nom-de-plume of the Coen Brothers under which they edit all their films.

9.

Which ‘interesting’ British ‘quiz show’ hosted by Stephen Fry, currently in its 10th season, has each season themed around a different letter of the alphabet, with every episode of that season revolving around topics beginning with that letter? Thus the first season is called Season A instead of Season 1 and the current season is Season J and not Season 10?

Q.I

10.

This 2013 comedy(or a montage of one tasteless sketch after another, depending on how you see it) assembled one of the largest ensemble casts in movie history, viz. Halle Berry, Gerard Butler, Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Naomi Watts, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Elizabeth Banks, Josh Duhamel and dozens of other well known names.Despite them, this movie has now become a strong contender for the title of Worst Movie Ever with a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Roger Ebert has said,“ there's camp-fun bad and interestingly horrible bad, and then there's just awful. This is the "Citizen Kane" of awful.” Also the director “was going for a 21st century version of The Groove Tube and “Kentucky Fried Movie," two very funny, very raunchy and very influential sketch-comedy flicks of the mid-1970s. The only thing it has in common with those movies is it's in colour.”

What disaster that released last month to widespread critical panning?

11.This term took its name from a 1968 album with Al Kooper, Mike Bloomfield, and Stephen Stills. The coalition of Crosby, Stills & Nash (later Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) is another early example, given the success of their prior bands (The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and The Hollies respectively).

Music writers have also applied the term to groups that sold huge numbers of albums and headlined massive concerts regardless of the previous fame of their individual members, such as the band Led Zeppelin, wherein only Jimmy Page was well known at the time the group formed.

The term is also used to describe existing bands whose members achieved individual fame after the band's founding, such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, Genesis and Yes.

What term?

Supergroup

12.This style of journalism is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. It involves an approach to accuracy through the reporting of personal experiences and emotions, as compared to traditional journalism, which favours a detached style and relies on facts or quotations that can be verified by third parties. Use of sarcasm, humour, exaggeration, and profanity is common.

The term was first used in connection with the famous journalist-author Hunter S. Thompson by The Boston Globe magazine editor Bill Cardoso in 1970.

What style of journalism, the first usage of which by Thompson himself was found in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?

Gonzo Journalism

LVC

• 8 questions in this round, the answers of which are all connected by a central theme.

•Non-exhaustive, but almost ordered list.

• +10 for individual correct answer.

• Points for theme indicated on the respective slides.

•Constant -10 for incorrect theme guesses.

+50.This song was originally recorded by singer-artist Cher for her second album, The Sonny Side of Cher, which released in 1966 and since then it has been covered innumerable times. However the most famous version of this song was released in 1966 itself on X’s album How Does That Grab You? and featured a guitar with a tremolo(trembling) effect and melancholy vocals as compared to Cher’s original. This version was languishing in popularity however, until it was used in the opening credits of the 2003 release Y.

Identify the song, the singer X and the movie Y.

+45.

X had a bevy of nick-names.

The most famous of them all, _______ is short for Satchelmouth, and has many possible origins. The most common tale that biographers tell is the story of X as a young boy dancing for pennies in the streets of New Orleans, who would scoop up the coins off of the streets and stick them into his mouth to avoid having the bigger children steal them from him. Someone dubbed him "satchel mouth" for his mouth acting as a satchel. Another tale is that because of his large mouth, he was nicknamed "satchel mouth" which became shortened to _______.

Early on he was also known as Dipper, short for Dippermouth, a reference to the jazz piece Dippermouth Blues. The nickname Pops came from his own tendency to forget people's names and simply call them "pops" instead.

What famous nickname and who is the gentleman?

+40.

According to a famous urban legend, this fellow died in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a look-alike.

On 17 September 1969, an article titled "Is X Dead?" was published in a student newspaper in Iowa. The article described a rumour that had been circulating on campus that X was dead. At that point the rumour included numerous clues from recent albums, including the "turn me on, dead man" message heard when one of his songs was played backwards, as well as another album cover which reportedly showed a ‘funeral procession’.

Before the end of October 1969, several records were released on the subject—including "The Ballad of X" by the Mystery Tour, "Brother X" by Billy Shears and the All Americans, and "So Long X" by José Feliciano. A parody of the whole issue was also included in a Batman comic in 1970 (image on next slide)

Rumours of whose death which continued to spread until a contemporary interview with X was published in Life magazine during this period ?

+35.This band began playing in Birmingham in 1978, where they would become the resident band at the city's Rum Runner nightclub and started rehearsing and regularly playing at the venue. There were many nearby nightclubs, and the one "significant" one, where bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash played gigs, was called Barbarella's. They would go on to name the band after the villain from Barbarella , a French science-fiction film. The villain, played by Milo O'Shea, is named “Dr.______ ______“ (both blanks identical).

Which band ?

+30.

Movie poster for a biopic based on whose life?

Adapted from her autobiography, the title of the film

comes from a very popular single by this artist.

+25.

Identify the singer whose cover of the Guns n Roses song won her a Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 1999.

<audio removed – Sweet Child of Mine by Sheryl Crow >

+20.Evita was a 1996 musical drama film was based on an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name based on the life of former Argentinian first lady, Eva Peron. Who starred in the title role, one of those rare occasions where her movie outing has received critical acclaim?

She won a Golden Globe for this role and also earned a Guinness World Record for the most costume changes in a movie – 85 in number, which included 39 hats, 45 pairs of shoes, and 56 pairs of earrings.

+10

In an interview this artist said that the purpose behind the title A was to reflect her age when she wrote this . She said, “I just kinda remember becoming a bit of a woman during that time. And I think that is definitely documented in the songs”.

3 years later she said abut another titling : “B is different from A, it's about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I'm more patient ... more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws ... Something that comes with age I think. So fittingly this record is called B ... Like a photo album you see my progression and change ... throughout the years. I tried to think of other titles but couldn't come up with anything that represented this properly”.

What are A & B?

EXCHANGE SHEETS

+50.This song was originally recorded by singer-artist Cher for her second album, The Sonny Side of Cher, which released in 1966 and since then it has been covered innumerable times. However the most famous version of this song was released in 1966 itself on X’s album How Does That Grab You? and featured a guitar with a tremolo(trembling) effect and melancholy vocals as compared to Cher’s original. This version was languishing in popularity however, until it was used in the opening credits of the 2003 release Y.

Identify the song, the singer X and the movie Y.

Nancy Sinatra’s Bang Bang in Kill Bill Vol. 1

+45.

X had a bevy of nick-names.

The most famous of them all, _______ is short for Satchelmouth, and has many possible origins. The most common tale that biographers tell is the story of X as a young boy dancing for pennies in the streets of New Orleans, who would scoop up the coins off of the streets and stick them into his mouth to avoid having the bigger children steal them from him. Someone dubbed him "satchel mouth" for his mouth acting as a satchel. Another tale is that because of his large mouth, he was nicknamed "satchel mouth" which became shortened to _______.

Early on he was also known as Dipper, short for Dippermouth, a reference to the jazz piece Dippermouth Blues. The nickname Pops came from his own tendency to forget people's names and simply call them "pops" instead.

What famous nickname and who is the gentleman?

SatchmoLouis Armstrong

+40.

According to a famous urban legend, this fellow died in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a look-alike.

On 17 September 1969, an article titled "Is X Dead?" was published in a student newspaper in Iowa. The article described a rumour that had been circulating on campus that X was dead. At that point the rumour included numerous clues from recent albums, including the "turn me on, dead man" message heard when one of his songs was played backwards, as well as another album cover which reportedly showed a ‘funeral procession’.

Before the end of October 1969, several records were released on the subject—including "The Ballad of X" by the Mystery Tour, "Brother X" by Billy Shears and the All Americans, and "So Long X" by José Feliciano. A parody of the whole issue was also included in a Batman comic in 1970 (image on next slide)

Rumours of whose death which continued to spread until a contemporary interview with X was published in Life magazine during this period ?

Paul McCartney

+35.This band began playing in Birmingham in 1978, where they would become the resident band at the city's Rum Runner nightclub and started rehearsing and regularly playing at the venue. There were many nearby nightclubs, and the one "significant" one, where bands such as The Sex Pistols and The Clash played gigs, was called Barbarella's. They would go on to name the band after the villain from Barbarella , a French science-fiction film. The villain, played by Milo O'Shea, is named “Dr.______ ______“ (both blanks identical).

Which band ?

Duran Duran

+30.

Movie poster for a biopic based on whose life?

Adapted from her autobiography, the title of the film

comes from a very popular single by this artist.

Tina Turner

+25.

Identify the singer whose cover of the Guns n Roses song won her a Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 1999.

Sheryl Crow

+20.

Evita was a 1996 musical drama film was based on an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name based on the life of former Argentinian first lady, Eva Peron. Who starred in the title role, one of those rare occasions where her movie outing has received critical acclaim?

She won a Golden Globe for this role and also earned a Guinness World Record for the most costume changes in a movie – 85 in number, which included 39 hats, 45 pairs of shoes, and 56 pairs of earrings.

Madonna

+10

In an interview this artist said that the purpose behind the title A was to reflect her age when she wrote this . She said, “I just kinda remember becoming a bit of a woman during that time. And I think that is definitely documented in the songs”.

3 years later she said abut another titling : “B is different from A, it's about the same things but in a different light. I deal with things differently now. I'm more patient ... more forgiving and more aware of my own flaws ... Something that comes with age I think. So fittingly this record is called B ... Like a photo album you see my progression and change ... throughout the years. I tried to think of other titles but couldn't come up with anything that represented this properly”.

What are A & B?

Adele19 and 21

James Bond Themes

• Nancy Sinatra – You Only Live twice

• Louis Armstrong – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

• Paul McCartney and the Wings – Live and Let Die

• Duran Duran – A View to Kill

• Tina Turner – Goldeneye

• Sheryl Crow – Tomorrow Never Dies

• Die Another Day – Madonna

• Skyfall - Adele

The Endfeedback & suggestions here

/yogarshi @yogarshi