I had a VERY bad night at trivia. I got the lowest score of any team for most of the rounds, and as for the sex round, aside from a couple of questions I found troubling and which I am going to talk to the host about next week, the less said the better. (I don’t know much about raunch. But then I knew that I would do badly on that going in.) I blew the bonus question, but then again only one team of the twelve got it. (Quick: On a standard Monopoly board, name in order the five purchasable properties (excluding the railroad) between “Pass Go” and “Go to Jail”. You have about twenty seconds.)

The opening round (called “Mindf***,” as it is every week), consisted of two handouts. The first handout was ten Internet brand logos. I got two: Pinterest (because I think half my friends have Pinterest accounts) and WordPress. The only reason I got WordPress is because of this blog.

The second handout… Ten paintings. Name both the picture and the artist.

I knew absolutely that  I have seen seven of the ten. I am pretty sure I have seen the Magritte (Magritte’s style is pretty distinctive) as well but couldn’t remember the name (which as it turns out was “The Son of Man”), and as for the Pollack… It was a 1.5″ square black and white photo of a large Jackson Pollack painting. Do you think you could have identified it as being “Convergence”?

The only one I was positive I have not seen is Munch’s “Scream,” and that’s because  I haven’t been to Oslo. Yet.

I even put the full name for the Whistler painting: “Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother.”  I also gave first names for almost all of the artists, and I put Whistler’s first and middle names. (Yes, I was showing off. Sue me.) For at least six of them, I could have identified the museum the painting is in, but that would have been past showing off into being obnoxious.

I nearly didn’t get credit because it took me so long to write everything. I dashed up with ten seconds left, and then realized I hadn’t put my name on the paper and hastily scribbled it, turning it in with three seconds to spare.

Eighteen out of twenty. I would have gotten a perfect score except for missing the titles of the Magritte and the Pollack. The second-place team in that round got sixteen — and they had six people. No other team got more than fourteen.

As I sat waiting for the host to give the answers, I grumbled: “I’ve been waiting for you to do an art round.”  I sort of had been daydreaming about an art round, and getting a perfect score… It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty damn good.

It’s always fun when you can show off some hard-earned knowledge.

It does, however, make me want to go to New York and visit the Met, and MoMA, and Paris so I can go to the Orsay…. and Amsterdam for the Rijksmuseum…. and the Hermitage, of course, although I’m not sure I would want to be an American in Putin’s Russia right now… and Chicago to see the AIC, which I didn’t have near enough time in… and I mentioned I haven’t been to Oslo, yet, right? And the Prado! Can’t forget the Prado….

I love art.