ROUND 1: CURRENT EVENTS
1. Korean rapper PSY took the world by storm at the end of summer with his gigantic viral dance hit. Name this song.
Gangnam Style
2. After a stellar four-year career playing basketball for Harvard University, this Taiwanese American had a breakout 2012 season with the New York Knicks. Name him.
Jeremy Lin
3. On September 21, this Space Shuttle orbiter flew atop a 747 for a grand tour of California before landing at LAX. Name this shuttle.
Endeavour
4. From 1941 until July 12th of this year, the BBC World Service broadcast from this London building. Name it.
Bush House
5. Last month, Kraft Foods was replaced by this health insurance giant on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Name this company.
UnitedHealth
6. Last month’s tragic killing of a special needs teen, who was shot while sitting on a bench, occurred at the Jackie Tatum/Harvard Recreation Center in South Los Angeles. Name this teen.
Patrick Caruthers (Patrick Sears also acceptable)
7. In January, a cruise ship ran aground on Italy’s Isola del Giglio. Initial reports blamed the ship’s captain, who is now facing criminal charges. Name this ship.
Costa Concordia. Concordia acceptable.
8. After the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika and a short constitutional crisis, Joyce Banda became the president of this African nation. Name it.
Malawi
9. Spell the last name of the President of Iran.
Ahmadinejad
10. In late September, a riot broke out at a Foxconn manufacturing plant in a northern Chinese city. Name this city.
Taiyuan
11. It’s not just Carmageddon — the years-long I-405 improvement project has caused endless traffic headaches for many in West Los Angeles, including Matthew, the trivia bowl’s game supervisor. Name the contractor in charge of this massive project.
Kiewit Infrastructure. Kiewit okay. slight spelling variations okay.
12. The I-405 freeway improvement project required the demolition and rebuilding of three overpass bridges. Name these bridges, from north to south, by their street names.
Mulholland Drive, Skirball Center Drive, and Sunset Boulevard.
13. Aside from Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, two other candidates are on the official presidential ballot for Nov. 6. Name the Libertarian Party candidate and the Green Party candidate.
Gary Johnson and Jill Stein
14. Mike Wallace, the pioneering journalist who became known as a tenacious interviewer on the long-running CBS news program 60 Minutes, died April 7. How old was Wallace when he died?
93 years old
15. In late December, California Department of Fish and Game announced a lone male gray wolf entered the state’s borders through Oregon, the first known wolf in the state since 1924. What is this wolf’s “letter-letter-number” designation?
OR7
ROUND 2: MORE CURRENT EVENTS AND HISTORY
1. Francois Hollande of the Socialist Party won the French presidential election in April, defeating Nicholas Sarkozy. What was the name of the last Socialist president of France?
Francois Mitterand
2. How fast did Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan actually run the 1990 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota? We need the exact time in hours, and minutes.
Four hours, one minute
3. Marilyn Hagerty, the Eatbeat columnist for North Dakota’s Grand Forks Herald, became a viral sensation earlier this year with her non-ironic review of what restaurant?
Olive Garden
4. Including tonight, how many times have I (David Ono) served as host of Trivia Bowl?
11 times. 12 Times also accepted.
5 In August, a painting of Jesus in a Spanish church first thought to have been vandalized was actually the object of a bad restoration. Name the city in Spain this church was in.
Borja ( Zaragosa and Sarragosa also acceptable.)
6. Name the main North-South boulevard that Space Shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to travel on, on its way from LAX to the California Science Center.
Crenshaw Boulevard
7. Members of this all-female Russian punk rock band found international headlines this year, starting with their protest in Moscow church. Name this band.
Pussy Riot
8. Telephone giant AT&T was split into 7 regional holding companies in 1984 as part of an anti-trust settlement. What was the nickname given to the 7 resulting independent companies?
Baby Bells
9. Fourteen lifeguards from this Los Angeles County city were fired after their spoof Gangnam Style video went viral. Name the city.
El Monte
10. Rock great Elvis…. Costello… was born in what decade?
1950s
11. Talk show host David Letterman tried to stump Eton-educated British prime minister David Cameron by asking him for the literal translation of the Magna Carta. What is the literal translation, from Latin to English, of “Magna Carta?”
Great Charter
12. Author J.K. Rowling recently published her first book since the Harry Potter series. What is this new book’s title?
The Casual Vacancy
13. Earlier this week, the national monument dedicated to labor organizer and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez was officially dedicated by President Obama. Name the California town this monument is in.
Keene
14. Who was the eighth president of the United States?
Martin Van Buren
15. In 1962, the Roman Catholic Church began a three-year long ecumenical council, known as the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II. Name the Pope leading the church at the time. use Roman Numerals.
Pope John XXIII
ROUND 3: ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
1. Gossip Girl star Blake Lively and Green Lantern star Ryan Reynolds stunned Hollywood by pulling off a secret marriage. What city and state did the couple get married in?
Charleston, S.C. — Mt. Pleasant also accepted
2. At more than 900 pages and over four pounds, the September 2012 issue of Vogue’s U.S. edition was the fashion mag’s biggest ever. Who was featured on the cover?
Lady Gaga
3. The acclaimed NBC comedy 30 Rock is entering its final season this year. The series involves a comedy skit show called “TGS with Tracy Jordan.” What did “TGS” originally stand for?
The Girlie Show
4. List the first names of all five members of the boy band One Direction.
Harry, Liam, Louis, Niall, and Zayn.
5. Carly Rae Jepsen had the biggest hit of the summer with “Call Me Maybe.” In a twist at the end video for the song, her love interest gives his number to one of Carly’s male bandmates. What is this seven digit number?
555-6041
6. Claire Danes has received two Emmy nominations for Best Actress in a TV drama series, the first, for the short-lived My So Called Life, and second for Homeland, for which she won. Name her My So-Called Life character, then name her Homeland character, first name and last names for both.
Angela Chase, Carrie Mathison
7. In the intro to the 1980s TV show Fame, Debbie Allen’s character Lydia Grant has a short sound bite saying, “You got big dreams. You want Fame? Well, fame costs, and right here is where you start ________. In __________. Fill in the two blanks.
Paying. Sweat.
8. In September, an Indiana art museum discovered it had a lost artwork by Pablo Picasso hidden in storage called “Seated Woman with Red Hat.” What city is this museum located in?
Evansville
9. What is the name of the film in which Angelina Jolie starred with her first husband, Jonny Lee Miller?
Hackers
10. Rapper Adam Yauch (pronounced YOWK) died earlier this year. He was a founding member of the trio known as the Beastie Boys. What were the rap handles of Yauch and his two fellow bandmates?
MCA, Ad-Rock and Mike D.
11. A replica of Edvard Munch’s The Scream sold for nearly $120 million this year, the highest price ever paid at auction for a work of art. It beat out the former record-holder, a painting called the “Portrait of Dr. Gachet.” Who was the artist who rendered that work?
Vincent Van Gogh
12. Comedian Billy Crystal returned this year to host the Academy Awards telecast. How many times has Crystal been the Oscar host?
9 times
13. Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are the titular hosts of the popular History Channel reality series American Pickers. They travel around the country searching for collectables to sell in their store. What is the name of their store?
Antique Archaeology
14. In the ABC Family series Pretty Little Liars, the quartet of girls are plagued by extortionist known only as “A.” What character turned out to be “A” in the first season of this series? First name is okay.
Mona Vanderwaal. Mona okay.
15. In bragging about the speed of the Millennium Falcon in the original 1977 Star Wars film, Captain Han Solo boasts, “It’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve … what?”
Parsecs
ROUND 4: SCIENCE/GEOGRAPHY/LITERATURE
1. This member of the Mars Curiosity Science team found fleeting Internet fame for his colorful star-filled mohawk hairstyle, earning him the nickname “Mohawk Guy.” What is Mohawk Guy’s real name?
Bobak Ferdowsi
2. In physical oceanography, what is the name for a zone where temperature rapidly changes with depth?
Thermocline
3. What is the name of the crater in which the Mars rover Curiosity landed?
Gale Crater
4. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced a female foil to the great detective Sherlock Holmes in the 1891 short story “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Name this well-known character.
Irene Adler
5. This California State University campus lies the farthest north. Name it.
Humboldt State, Cal State Humboldt, Humboldt
6. This Oregon city is known worldwide for its Shakespeare Festival. Name it.
Ashland
7. On July 4, CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, announced that two research projects discovered a new subatomic particle, consistent with what was expected for the Higgs Boson. Name the scientific machine used in these historic experiments.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
8. What is the three word motto of the U.S. Military Academy, a.k.a. West Point? Needed in the correct order.
Duty. Honor. Country.
9. In the version of the song “I’ve Been Everywhere” sung by Johnny Cash, which city in the American West starts off the long list of places he’s been to?
Reno
10. Of Los Angeles County’s 88 incorporated cities, three start with the word “Santa.” Name these three cities.
Santa Monica, Santa Clarita, Santa Fe Springs.
11. Alphabetically speaking, which is the world’s last capital city? Name the city, as well as the country it’s the capital of:
Zagreb, Croatia
12. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Gloria Vanderbilt, Paris and Nicky Hilton and Lady Gaga are all alumnae of this New York City Catholic girls’ school. What is this school’s name?
Convent of the Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart acceptable.
13. What is the currency of South Africa?
The Rand
14. The Fifty Shades of Gray series began as fan fiction surrounding what other popular book series?
Twilight
15. This artificial reservoir outside the city of Stockton is the starting point for the California Aqueduct. Name it.
Clifton Court Forebay
ROUND 5: SPORTS AND CALIFORNIA LIVING
1. This Jamaican sprinter repeated his triple gold medal performance from Beijing by winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at the London Olympics. Name this superstar track athlete.
Usain Bolt
2. A blockbuster trade earlier in summer sent all-star NBA center Dwight Howard to the Lakers. What city did Howard attend high school in?
Atlanta
3. This member of the Los Angeles Kings won the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most valuable player during the team’s Stanley Cup Finals run. Name him.
Jonathan Quick
4. This boxer currently holds the WBO welterweight championship after beating Manny Pacquaio in a controversial decision in June in Las Vegas. Name him.
Michael Bradley Tim Bradley *Michael was accepted, though Tim is correct*
5. U.S. Olympic Swimmer Missy Franklin came home as the most decorated Olympian at the London Games, with a bronze and four gold medals. In one of those races, she set an individual world record. Name this event, both the distance and type of swimming stroke.
400m 200m backstroke
6. Forty years after he performed a well-known live concert called “Hot August Night” at the Greek Theater, this long-time rocker returned in summer for a series of anniversary concerts. Name him.
Neil Diamond
7. Known as Gateway Circle, this ring of ever-changing LED-lit 100-foot high columns welcomes visitors to LAX. It’s at the corner of Century and Sepulveda Boulevards. How many columns are there?
15
8. What is the name of the annual statewide earthquake drill in California?
Shakeout. Great California Shakeout.
9. This Silicon Valley giant had its origins in a garage on Palo Alto’s Addison Avenue. Name this company.
HP or Hewlett Packard
10. What earthquake led to the Field Act, the first state law regulating construction to be more earthquake tolerant? Answer must contain the city and year.
Long Beach 1933
11. Women’s college basketball coach Kim Mulkey is the first person to win an NCAA hoops title as a player, head coach and assistant coach. Which college team did she coach to victory this year?
Baylor, or the Baylor Bears
12. T12. The L.A. band Mazzy Star returned to performing recently, including playing a set at Coachella this year. Name the lead singer for this band.
Hope Sandoval
13. What three-digit number, after the “#” sign, is on the side of the trucks for the Metro Freeway Service Patrol in Los Angeles County?
399
14. This 977-foot tall structure in San Francisco’s Clarendon Heights carries the television signal for many Bay Area TV stations. Name it.
Sutro Tower
15. Name the race car driver who won this year’s Indianapolis 500.
Dario Franchitti
