Question - 674

Where is the light coming from? The base is surrounded by plaques like the one shown on the right.

Answer: Imagine Peace tower that Ono erected in Lennon's memory in Iceland. The aurora borealis was hopefully a clue. As is the plaque in Tamil :) Raghu, Barry Belmont, Krithi, Ramki, Siddarth Pai, Krishna and Iam got it. Well done.

Question - 654

Someone was accused of using this product. What resulted?

Answer: This is a deodorant called "Teen spirit". Kurt Cobain 's friend spray painted "Kurt Cobain smells like teen spirit" on his wall as a joke. He liked the sound of the phrase and the song resulted. Matti, Rajeev and Mekie got it. Well done.

Question - 646

Identify the instrument and the player.

Answer: Lydia Kavina playing the theremin, an instrument known for its eerie sound. Divya Shankar, Matti, giantamoeba, Siddarth Pai and Krithi got it. Well done.

Question - 565

Connect (the three black-and-white pictures to the one in colour).

Answer: Bob Dylan's "video" for his song, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" which inspired the name of the 60's radical left group, Weather Underground (logo in red). Ameya, Dinesh, and Iam got it. Nicely done.

Question - 561

Why is this store now part of rock music folklore? (Hint: it has something to do with the blanked-out part of its name)

Answer: Bono (aka Paul David Hewson) of rock legends U2 got his stage name from this hearing-aid store in Dublin named Bonavox. matti tapaninen, Krithi, Divya Shankar, Dinesh, AJ, Hirak, Iam, and Renuka got it.

Question - 550

Identify and connect. (Hint: the question number)

Answer: The connection is the Duckworth-Lewis (D/L) method used in Cricket to calculate a target score in a weather (or otherwise) interrupted game. The plot shows how this calculation is performed (top left) along with the two statisticians, its namesakes, who came up with it (bottom left). The right picture is of the Irish pop group who call themselves, rather geekily, the Duckworth-Lewis Method. Dinesh, Shravan, KAMANASISH,AEC, Vetti, Ramki, Rajesh K, and AJ got it. Extra points to Dinesh for spotting the cheap DL=550 trick.

Question - 547

Connect.

Answer: The connection is "Sirius." From top-left clockwise, the Chicago Bulls entrance music is the song Sirius, which was by the group Alan Parsons Project (the two guys). Sirius, the "dog star" is allegedly the inspiration for the Harry Potter character, Sirius Black (his animagus form is a black dog), whose family coat-of-arms is shown (motto: "Tojours Pur" or "always pure"). The dog logo with the star is of the Sirius satellite radio.

Question - 493

Identify the island.

Answer: This is the fictional island of Audioslave nation - a marketing gimmick by the band using Google earth. v. chandrashekar, Karthik, Pranav, Raghu, Krithi and Manix got it. Well done.

Question - 478

Connect.

Answer: The connect is the MP3 audio compression format. Karlheinz Brandenburg (bottom left) used the song Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega (bottom right) to test this compression scheme. The diner in the song is Tom's Restaurant (top) later made famous as Monk's Cafe in Seinfeld. Arvind, Rajesh, and Rajesh K. got it. Nice crack.

Question - 475

Identify him.

Answer: This is Spencer Elden, the kid in the cover of Nirvana's Nervermind. goutamjay, Nemani, Matti Tapaninen, tsp, pranav, anon, Raghu, Arvind, Ramji, Iam, hotmanoj, rajesh, Karthik, anon and Jaggi got it. Well done.

Question - 464

This is a child's doodle. What did this inspire?

Answer: John Lennon's son Julian drew this and called it Lucy in the sky with diamonds. At least, that is the excuse the fab four came up with for writing a song about acid. Anirudh Patil, Nihar, Avi, Adi, Rajeev, Nemani and Krishnan got it. Well done.

Question - 458

Today's question is courtesy Matti Tapaninen who asks you to identify all and connect.

Answer: Greta Garbo, Rudolph Valentino, Bela Lugosi, Bette Davis, George Sanders, Mickey Rooney and Marilyn Monroe all find mention in the 1972 Kinks song Celluloid Heroes. Pavan identified many of the people but didn't get the connect. Well done.

Question - 419

Connect the images in that order.

Answer: William Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell contains the line "if the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite". Aldous Huxley (2nd visual) described his experiences while taking the psychedelic drug Mescaline in a book titled "Doors of perception" taken from Blake's work. The band Doors (3rd visual) took its name from Huxley's book. This turned out to be a popular question. Raghu, v.chandrashekar, Iam, Vetti, AJ, Karthik, Manix, Ajinkya, Rajesh, Amresh, Kamal Rathi, Rithwik, Anand, Hasan, Rajeev, Arvind, Prachi, Hari, Jaggi, Mekie and Divya got it. Well done.

Question - 415

The lady is shown portraying a famous character from a famous opera. Her aria towards the end of the opera is particularly famous. Identify character, opera and a related phrase.

Answer: The character is Brunhilde from Richard Wagner's famous opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen". The opera concludes with a 10 minute long aria by her and she is typically portrayed as a fat woman with helmet, spear and shield. Her character is supposed to have given rise to the phrase "It ain't over till the fat lady sings" which is a very standard sports cliche especially in American sports. Raghu, AJ, Iam, Rajesh and Ajinkya got it. Some people went with Lady Godiva which will be a future question for sure. Well done all.

Question - 360

Whose statue?

Answer:Stevie Ray Vaughan(SRV).

Answered by: hotmanoj, Karthik, Jaggi, Corina, ashwin, Adi, Rajeev (nice!), Rajesh, Paddy, P, Rahul, Abhiskek, and Iam

Question - 336

What are the Fab Four doing?

Note: See feedback request on Q 335. Thx! See you folks on Monday with a slightly different progression of questions.

Answer: Playing the Aboriginal wind instrument - the didgeridoo.

Answered by: Mekie, Raghu, Iam, Karthik and Anirudh Patil

Question - 330

First few bars of which piece of music? and composed by?

Answer: Jana Gana Mana composed by Rabindranath Tagore.

Answered: Iam and Rajeev. Good guesses by the rest; Beethoven's 5th is in C minor.

Question - 320

Identify?

Answer: A Joshua Tree. Specifically, this one was used on the U2's eponymous album and has since died.

Cracked by:  Anonymous, Mekie, Raghu, Rajesh, Dinesh, Paddy,  Iam, Riskit, Hasan, Krithika, and Karthik.

Question - 278

Connect the two paintings.

Answer: The paintings are "Liberty leading the people" by Eugene Delacroix and "Viva la vida" by Frida Kahlo. The connect is Coldplay's latest album Viva la vida whose album cover featured Delacroix's painting. Mekie, Hari, Raghu, Hirak, Iam, Rajeev, tsp, Rajesh and Swapnaa got it. Well done.

Question - 259

The first visual shows a public art work near Seattle where a series of metal tubes make eerie moaning sounds when wind blows through them. Identify the place and connect with the second visual.

Answer: The art work is called a sound garden from which the Seattle based band takes its name. Srivats, Iam, Vetti, Raghu and Rajeev got it. Well done.