Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

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Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

Post by Adventure Temple Trail »

I was asked about a month ago to contribute a few questions to Penn Bowl by Eric and Sarita when it became clear that the set needed 15 packets rather than the initially-planned 14, and said yes to chipping in a few (along with Cody, Aaron, Ike, and Tanay). Between that and other needs that needed filling across the set, one thing led to another and I ended up writing about 43 raw questions in total, doing some more thorough rewrites of about 15-20 more questions, did some light edits/"dusting" of some questions here and there to help editors upon request, and left lots of comments with the aim of making the set play better (in particular, giving Will extensive comments/oversight on the Philosophy questions). Thanks to Eric and Sarita for bringing me on board, and for their general willingness to let me weigh in on editorial decisions even when I wasn't on the editing team. I do wish, having read the set, that I had done a bit more to rein in difficulty outliers, and that more grammatical/proofreading roughness could have been caught. I hope on the whole that everyone had a good experience.

Here's a list of what I wrote, by packet. If you're planning to wait until the set is released and practice on packets you haven't heard, proceed with caution.





Round 1: Miles Davis/Mingus/Chameleon
Round 2: lions in religion, bonobos/Goodall/mirror neurons
Round 3: Bandura/social learning/locus of control
Round 4: Canova, schizophrenia, evidence/attorney-client privilege/relevance
Round 5: Mississippi/de Soto/corn&beans&squash
Round 6: dream ballets, five/Palestrina/oblique motion, Wealth of Nations/towns/wheat, Yemen/al-Shabab/Houthis
Round 7: Typhon, Biko/apartheid/Vorster, Neapolitan chord/Scarletti/Beethoven, Set/Field of Reeds/Nun
Round 8: Goffman, gamelan/gongs/Music for 18 Musicians, eminent domain/civil forfeiture/no-knock raids,
Round 9: Marche Slave/Tchaikovsky/4th symphony
Round 10: Full Metal Jacket, octatonic/Messiaen/Stravinsky,
Round 11: Penderecki/Poland/Lutoslawski
Round 12: Gullah
Round 13: dolphins/Zeus's thigh/Rhodes
Round 14: The New Jim Crow
Round 15: Mansfield Park, Washington DC, House of York, Ostrogoths, Jamaica, Argonautica, metaphysics, Kahneman, Luis Bunuel, To His Excellency George Washington/Wheatley/William Wells Brown, 7th Cavalry/Colt/Connecticut, irredentism/Alsace-Lorraine/Tuchman, (May '68)Paris/wildcat strike/Situationist International, Augustine/Pelagius/irresistible grace, directions/Horus/white tiger, A Puzzle About Belief/Frege/Venus
Extras.TBs: fMRI/trolley/voxels

Questions I did a robust amount of editing on, and bear responsibility for the final look on, despite not initially being the writer, include:

Hamlet film tossup, queen of England (Gilbert and Sullivan), Rosh Hashanah, Ecclesiastes, reading the Torah, Maimonides/standing on one foot/Sanhedrin, C.S. Lewis/Tao/The Four Loves, Joseph Smith/move to America/Doctrine and Covenants, Maslow/inflation/Bloom's taxonomy, The Sun (media outlets), Elgin Marbles, melting pot/multiculturalism/Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, bread/paratha/hardtack, pork/China/Scots, Death of a Salesman, Frankenstein family, Dostoevsky, Beowulf, Virgil, Tom Wolfe, Cloud Atlas































A few preliminary comments:
  • You may notice from the list above that, for the first time, I've written collegiate auditory arts questions (0/6 music, 1/2 other arts) In reference to the music bonuses being theory-laden, in the other thread: Most of this came from me. Because I've sung and played instruments but largely only from a popular music and theater background, I'm simply much more confident with music theory than I am at figuring out what from the Western concert music repertoire makes a good hard part, so this was the best way for me to write quickly and ensure that acceptable questions got done on time. I think that's sufficient explanation; different tournaments have latitude to take different approaches to categories, and other writers should feel welcome to continue this approach or do things more traditionally based on their whims and capabilities. And I'd rather not clutter a third thread with comments on music, so feel free to email or PM.
  • Aside from the Goffman tossup, I tried to use most of my social science writing to break stuff into quizbowl which I hadn't seen asked about in questions before.
  • Between experiences trying to make them work for this and ACF Regionals, I feel comfortable saying that tossups on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur don't really work in regular-on-up college quizbowl anymore, given the small number of unique clues that don't apply to both of those days.
  • Between in-person and here, I've only heard negative reception of the "dream ballets" (in Golden Age Broadway shows) tossup, namely that it was too confusing. Given that, I'm going to write a replacement Other Arts tossup, one which actually plays well, rather than defend the necessity of this one. Since it may not exist in future editions of the set, here it is to commemorate my "attempting to assassinate a Roosevelt" moment for posterity's sake:
    Penn Bowl, round 6, tossup 20, originals wrote:An instance of this dramatic trope precedes Ta’s reprise of “Love, Look Away” at the top of Act II in Flower Drum Song; another occurs after Vera buys her lover the Chez Joey nightclub in Pal Joey. During a scene of this type, a slow vocal solo begins with a rising minor seventh leap, then a falling half-step, a falling major-third, and a falling minor-third. The lack of time to create one of these for Gypsy forced Stephen Sondheim to write (*) “Rose’s Turn” in just three hours. An offstage voice promising “Peace and quiet and open air” accompanies another of these scenes. Agnes DeMille devised one of these for the Act One finale of Oklahoma!, in which Curly gets stabbed after Laurie takes smelling salts and collapses. For 10 points, name these sequences common in early musical theater, such as West Side Story’s “Somewhere,” in which a character’s unconscious wishes or fears are depicted through dance.
    ANSWER: dream ballets [or dreamsequences; or imaginary scenes; or fantasy sequences; accept any answer indicating that there is on-stage dancing depicting a character’s dreams, wishes, imaginations, or unconscious fears or emotional states or anything unreal rather than part of the factual plotline of a show; prompt on “ballet” or “dance”]
Last edited by Adventure Temple Trail on Sun Oct 19, 2014 10:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff

Post by Cheynem »

I actually think that's a pretty good and interesting (if hard, at the beginning) tossup. I wonder if it could be fixed with some slightly different wording, but I must admit I'm stymied without either making it transparent or even more confusing.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff

Post by Corry »

Could I see the Elgin Marbles tossup? I remember it sounding somewhat transparent.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff

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Corry wrote:Could I see the Elgin Marbles tossup? I remember it sounding somewhat transparent.
Penn Bowl 2014, round 4, tossup 7 wrote:Plaster casts represent these objects in a 2009 building designed by Bernard Tschumi, on a top floor askew from the other floors. The only record of the firman authorizing the transportation of these objects is in Italian. Some of these objects sank in the ship Mentor before being recovered off the coast of Kythera two years later by Thomas Bruce, an ambassador to the (*) Ottoman Empire. In June 2013, UNESCO’s ICPRCP was asked to mediate a dispute over these objects that had been reignited by Melina Mercouri. Amal Almuddin Clooney is a lawyer involved in a dispute regarding these objects, which often invokes the concept of the “universal museum.” For 10 points, name these sculptures in the British Museum that were removed from the Parthenon frieze by their namesake English nobleman.
ANSWER: Elgin Marbles [prompt on “Parthenon sculptures” or “Parthenon frieze”] <PL>
'Thomas Bruce' is the real name of Lord Elgin. Beyond a certain point, I don't know what more can be done with this question to make it work better than it does now, though suggestions are welcome.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff

Post by Tejas »

Kythera and Ottoman Empire were probably dropped a little too early, makes the location and time period too clear. Maybe put those clues after those about the legal dispute? Also, based on his name I'm guessing Lord Elgin is Scottish and not English, if that makes a difference.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff

Post by Gonzagapuma1 »

I posted this in another thread: The film tossups I remember were pretty awful. The FMJ tossup went from a lead-in probably taken from Wikipedia to one of the most famous scenes in the movie. The Bunuel lead-in was basically, "this guy did Surrealist stuff!".
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Re: Matt J's Stuff

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Gonzagapuma1 wrote:The FMJ tossup went from a lead-in probably taken from Wikipedia to one of the most famous scenes in the movie.
I wrote both of these:
Penn Bowl, packet 10 wrote:This film’s director methodically wrecked parts of the abandoned Beckton Gas Works in England to create ruins for its last scenes. Several characters in this film use bars of soap wrapped in towels to beat up a shamed colleague. A main character in this film makes the quiet quip “Is that you, John Wayne? Is this me?” to his supervisor, and later argues that he is trying to express “the duality of man” and “the Jungian thing” by wearing both the words “Born to (*) kill” and a peace sign on his uniform. In this film, the Lusthog Group, led by Animal Mother, laughs after a female sniper is mercy-killed by Private Joker, a few weeks after a desperate prostitute makes the overture “Me love you long time” to graduates of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman’s training. For 10 points, name this Stanley Kubrick film set among Marines during the Vietnam War.
ANSWER: Full Metal Jacket <MJ>
In point of actual fact I obtained the first clue by reading through three articles on the history and cinematography of the film to pick out a distinctive piece of information. If that clue wasn't useful/knowable to film buffs and the rest of the question is just too easy (though I tried to use new clues for a film which hasn't been asked about much), I'm willing to revise and take suggestions. It wasn't easy writing this, since using any of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman's dialogue ends the question right there and it's not good to specify Vietnam either.
Penn Bowl, packet 15 wrote:In one of this man’s works, guests excuse themselves into a small room to eat at a dinner party where every seat at the table is a toilet. This man showed several people smashing a wall to reach a water pipe in a film inspired partly by Sartre’s No Exit, set in a bourgeois music room. Another film directed by this non-Pasolini man showed a man slapping a woman’s face for spilling wine on his hand, ends with “120 Days of Depraved Acts,” and depicts a couple played by Gaston Modot and Lya Lys getting repeatedly (*) sexually thwarted. This director of The Phantom of Liberty and The Exterminating Angel was the alphabetically-prior collaborator on a short film in which ants crawl out of a person’s hand and a razor slits a woman’s eyeball. For 10 points, name this director of L’Age d’Or, who worked with fellow Spaniard Salvador Dalí on Un chien andalou.
ANSWER: Luis Buñuel
This question was buzzed on after the words "No Exit" in the game you played. I used that leadin because it seemed like a very memorable moment from a minor film, then described three of his major films in relative order of importance. It seems to me like you have to be pretty with-it quizbowl thinker to get to "surrealist filmmaker" just from the leadin alone (especially since it says "work" and not "film,") and I'm not sure a whole lot of people are piecing that together once the word 'film' is dropped, but I make no claim that this question is perfect.

EDIT: After some more discussion with Dan, I'll be revising the early clues in both of these questions for this Saturday's mirrors.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

Post by Nicklausse/Muse »

I'm late to the party, but can I see the "queen of England (Gilbert and Sullivan)" question?

For whatever it's worth, I like the dream ballet question and would probably have powered it off the minor seventh; "There's a Place for Us" is well-known enough as starting with that interval to be a common mnemonic for it.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

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Nicklausse/Muse wrote:I'm late to the party, but can I see the "queen of England (Gilbert and Sullivan)" question?
Penn Bowl, Packet 11 wrote:16. In one work, the chorus claims that a man ascended to serving this ruler because he “thought so little,” after he “copied all the letters in a hand so free,” and “polished up the handle so carefully.” At the end of another work, the title characters reveal that, “with all their faults,” they love a holder of this position shortly before (*) Ruth comes on stage and exposes them as “noblemen who have gone wrong.” Earlier, a Sergeant of Police invokes this ruler’s name to get the Pirates of Penzance to yield. For 10 points, name this ruler who, in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, is served by Sir Joseph in a “Navee” containing the HMS Pinafore and reigns over the British Empire.
ANSWER: the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [or Queen of England and equivalents; or Queen Victoria; prompt on “monarch” or “ruler”] <PL>
For whatever it's worth, I like the dream ballet question and would probably have powered it off the minor seventh; "There's a Place for Us" is well-known enough as starting with that interval to be a common mnemonic for it.
That's in fact why I used it; a version of that clue also appeared in the replacement tossup in later versions of the set (on West Side Story). It still seems like the original question wasn't playing well enough for the field as a whole to be kept.
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Re: Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

Post by Good Goblin Housekeeping »

Matthew Jackson wrote:
Penn Bowl, Packet 11 wrote:16. In one work, the chorus claims that a man ascended to serving this ruler because he “thought so little,” after he “copied all the letters in a hand so free,” and “polished up the handle so carefully.” At the end of another work, the title characters reveal that, “with all their faults,” they love a holder of this position shortly before (*) Ruth comes on stage and exposes them as “noblemen who have gone wrong.” Earlier, a Sergeant of Police invokes this ruler’s name to get the Pirates of Penzance to yield. For 10 points, name this ruler who, in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, is served by Sir Joseph in a “Navee” containing the HMS Pinafore and reigns over the British Empire.
ANSWER: the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [or Queen of England and equivalents; or Queen Victoria; prompt on “monarch” or “ruler”] <PL>
oh darn, if I paid more attention to that leadin my suite life of zach and cody knowledge would have gotten me some points
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Re: Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

Post by Nicklausse/Muse »

Ehhh, while it's obviously moot now, I'm iffy about the wording of that lead-in; asking for a ruler while requiring a player to finish, in their head, the line the ruler of the Queen's Navee, the first ruler being Victoria and the latter being Sir J...idk, reference error. How did it play?
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Re: Matt J's Stuff (2014 Penn Bowl)

Post by #1 Mercury Adept »

I did exactly that and buzzed on "polished up the handle".

(On the other hand, I'm completely unfamiliar with the stage version of West Side Story and had no idea that "Somewhere" was even a ballet.)
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