Botticelli - June 2012

I’m sorry, I don’t know if William Wyler ever composed or wrote poetry.

#1 is William Walton. Orchestras have been doing concert for the last few years where someone like Christopher Plummer reads the Chorus and the Henry speeches while the orchestra plays a suite of pieces from the soundtrack.

#2 is Ralph Vaughn Williams, composer of many symphonic and vocal works that involve the poetry of

#3, Walt Whitman, American poet and luminary.
DQ1: Are you American?

DQ2: Are you celebrated for your achievements in The Arts, broadly defined?

DQ3: Is ‘W’ the initial of your last name?

D’oh! Correct, NOT Gene Wilder et al.

Not William Henry Harrison.
Dunno the dad or the brand developer. Two DQs.

Not Woodrow Wilson.

W.

  1. Real person
  2. Male
  3. Dead
  4. American
  5. Not celebrated for contributions to the arts
  6. First name starts with W

Were you the subject of a notorious political ad?

IQ1: Were you the sole companion of a very lonely man?
IQ2: Did you join the Allman Brothers Band on guitar in the late 1980s?
IQ3: Did you start a band when you were 16 and then play in that band for the next 30+ years?

DQ1: Were you known in the political arena?
DQ2: Were you born before 1900?

Correct on Harrison (and thanks to the Simpsons for inspiring the question).

IQ2 was looking for Wilbur Turnblad, the father of Tracy Turnblad, in the show “Hairspray.”

IQ3 was looking for Hiram Walker, who developed Canadian Club whisky. Check their old ads; you’ll see that it was marketed as “the best in the house, in 87 lands.”

DQ: Did you die prior to 1950?

I’ll reserve my other DQ for a bit.

Still not Willie Horton (see post #10).

I’m not Wilson the volleyball. Dunno the other two. Two DQs for you!

W.

  1. Real person
  2. Male
  3. Dead
  4. American
  5. Not celebrated for contributions to the arts
  6. First name starts with W
  7. Not particularly known in the political arena
  8. Born before 1900
  9. Died before 1950

:smack: Sorry about that.

my IQ: Did you found the 5 and dime store?

IQ1. Were your crowning years marred by a tempest in a Teapot?

IQ2. Did your incredible hearing bring you a technical nickname?

IQ3. Did everyone but your friends call you Bull?

IQ1: Did the debut of your opera in Paris cause a riot?

IQ2: Are you a character from that opera, who was also a well known German Minnesinger? (And the author of the main source for another opera by that same composer.)

IQ3: Are you the composer of the opera ‘Die Freischütz’?

I’m not Mr. Woolworth.

I’m not Warren G. Harding or Wilbur “Bull” Meacham of The Great Santini. Dunno the second.

Dunno the first one, and no, I’m not William Tell or Wagner.

#1 is a reference to the Paris performance of Richard Wagner’s ‘Tannhäuser’. Against the best advice of the directors of the Paris Opera, Wagner insisted on having the ballet in the first act. The corps de ballet were all mistresses of the Paris jockey club, who were accustomed to having a long, drunken dinner, showing up at the opera in time for the third act, and then going off with their girlfriends. When they discovered that the ballet was long past, they caused a significant scene.

#2 is Wolfram von Eschenbach, a German Minnesinger of the 12th century who is a character in ‘Tannhäuser’. He was also the author of ‘Tristan’, which Wagner used as the basis for his opera ‘Tristan und Isolde’. It is Wolfram who sings the beautiful apostrophe to the evening star ‘O du, mein holder Abendstern’ in the last act of ‘Tannhäuser’.

#3 is Carl Maria von Weber, a German composer of the early 19th century. ‘Der Frieschütz’ is easily his most famous work.

I’ll claim two DQs for all that, if you’ll allow - you did say Wagner, after all.

DQ1: Were you born before 1800?

DQ2: Are you known as a military figure?

IQ: Do we have you to thank for football as we know it?

Le Ministre, I guessed Wagner for the wrong question, so take another DQ.

No, I’m not… Walter Peyton?

W.

  1. Real person
  2. Male
  3. Dead
  4. American
  5. Not celebrated for contributions to the arts
  6. First name starts with W
  7. Not particularly known in the political arena
  8. Born before 1900
  9. Died before 1950
  10. Born after 1800
  11. Not known as a military figure

i was going for Walter Camp. He wrote the rules that moved football away from rugby, toward what we recognize as football.

These were Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band) and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead.

DQ1: Were you a scientist or inventor?
DQ2: (reserved for later, unless you object)

W.

  1. Real person
  2. Male
  3. Dead
  4. American
  5. Not celebrated for contributions to the arts
  6. First name starts with W
  7. Not particularly known in the political arena
  8. Born before 1900
  9. Died before 1950
  10. Born after 1800
  11. Not known as a military figure
  12. Not a scientist or inventor

Yes, Enginerd, you can reserve DQs, but not after 20 have already been asked.

IQ2. Did your incredible hearing bring you a technical nickname?

Walter ‘Radar’ O’Reilly from MASH.

DQ: Did you die before 1875?

W.

  1. Real person
  2. Male
  3. Dead
  4. American
  5. Not celebrated for contributions to the arts
  6. First name starts with W
  7. Not particularly known in the political arena
  8. Born before 1900
  9. Died before 1950
  10. Born after 1800
  11. Not known as a military figure
  12. Not a scientist or inventor
  13. Died after 1875

IQ1: Did John Lennon call you ‘a stupid git’ when he was tired?

IQ2: Did Archie Leech show you the erotic possibilities of Russian?

IQ3: Are you famous for re-inventing songs from many different genres in your own jazz-folk-roots style?