The TCCI
As I attempt to make a regular return to regular blogging, I figured I'd jump back in with a link and listing to the TCCI. A very higbrow variation on the sort of getting to know you quizzes that make the email rounds, this one is trying to get a fix on your preferences on various cultural either/or selections. The original post for the TCCI came from here, though I first stumbled across it via Crooked Timber here. A list of the questions/preferences appears below, along with my choices:
1. Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly? Gene Kelly. I've always thought that Astaire was a more technically sound dancer, but Kelly has a joy in his movement that you don't see as much from Fred
2. The Great Gatsby or The Sun Also Rises? I've only read Gatsby. So this is a pass.
3. Count Basie or Duke Ellington? Gotta go with the Count.
4. Cats or dogs? Dogs, as I have a more doglike personality, and allergy concerns are a factor. Have come to meet a few cats I can make peace with however.
5. Matisse or Picasso? I have to go Matisse, but my exposure to both is very very limited.
6. Yeats or Eliot? I know no Yeats, and Eliot I only know what was turned into Cats. That alone is almost enough to pick Yeats though. We'll call this one pass.
7. Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin? Chaplin, without question.
8. Flannery O’Connor or John Updike? Have to go pass.
9. To Have and Have Not or Casablanca? While choosing between Bacall and Bergman is impossible, I'll go Casablanca as I think it's a superior script, and has better supporting cast. With all due respect to Hoagy Carmichael (sp?), no one beats Sam.
10. Jackson Pollock or Willem de Kooning? Pollock. Maybe I'm biased by the movie, but I do find the drip work really fascinating.
11. The Who or the Stones? Won't be fooled again. Who all the way.
12. Philip Larkin or Sylvia Plath? Pass
13. Trollope or Dickens? Pass
14. Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald? Billie. I tend to side with the tragic figures a bit more
15. Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy? Pass
16. The Moviegoer or The End of the Affair? Pass
17. George Balanchine or Martha Graham? Pass (boy am I starting to look clueless)
18. Hot dogs or hamburgers? Gotta go with a good dog. Nathan's Famous all the way.
19. Letterman or Leno? Leno lost me with the Arnie Governor's announcement. Can't side with the tool. Letterman.
20. Wilco or Cat Power? Pass. Heard of Wilco, but never heard Wilco. Cat Power is a complete unknown.
21. Verdi or Wagner? Think I have to say Wagner
22. Grace Kelly or Marilyn Monroe? Marilyn. I side with my friend Patricia that Kelly was a better actress, but Marilyn was just such a joy.
23. Bill Monroe or Johnny Cash? Cash had much more versatility I think.
24. Kingsley or Martin Amis? Plead ignorance
25. Robert Mitchum or Marlon Brando? Brando. Someday the Don may ask me for a favor...
26. Mark Morris or Twyla Tharp? Pass.
27. Vermeer or Rembrandt? Pass
28. Tchaikovsky or Chopin? Tchaikovsky reminds me of Fantasia with the riffs from Nutcracker. Chopin's Nocturnes remind me of the end of The Professional. What does it say about me that I go to the more depressing film? Chopin.
29. Red wine or white? Red, absolutely. Doesn't matter what's actually being served, I just prefer reds overall.
30. Noël Coward or Oscar Wilde? Pass
31. Grosse Pointe Blank or High Fidelity? Grosse Pointe Blank. Minnie Driver is sexy as hell
32. Shostakovich or Prokofiev? Huh?
33. Mikhail Baryshnikov or Rudolf Nureyev? Pass
34. Constable or Turner? Not sure who or what we're talking about here
35. The Searchers or Rio Bravo? Neither. I must confess that despite my father's influence, just not a John Wayne fan.
36. Comedy or tragedy? Tragedy, I think. Makes comedy more meaningful
37. Fall or spring? Spring. Nothing better than opening day of the baseball season, and all that surrounds it.
38. Manet or Monet? Monet I think. Couldn't tell you why.
39. The Sopranos or The Simpsons? The Simpsons. Much as I love Tony.
40. Rodgers and Hart or Gershwin and Gershwin? I like a Gershwin tune...how about you?
41. Joseph Conrad or Henry James? pass
42. Sunset or sunrise? Sunrise, sunset...Sorry, slipped into musical mode. Think this one depends on who I'm with, so I'll say pass.
43. Johnny Mercer or Cole Porter? Mercer
44. Mac or PC? I work for Apple, what do you think?
45. New York or Los Angeles? New York. Not just for my Yankee bias
46. Partisan Review or Horizon? Never heard of either. Pass.
47. Stax or Motown? For my tastes, I'm gonna have to say Stax. Booker T & the MGs, John Lee Hooker, Sam & Dave, and Isaac Hayes. How can you go wrong?
48. Van Gogh or Gauguin? Van Gogh
49. Steely Dan or Elvis Costello? Elvis lives.
50. Reading a blog or reading a magazine? Blogs. Without question
51. John Gielgud or Laurence Olivier? Gielgud (The park, Bitterman...you know how I love the park)
52. Only the Lonely or Songs for Swingin’ Lovers? Pass
53. Chinatown or Bonnie and Clyde? Chinatown
54. Ghost World or Election? Only seen Election. But that's freaking deranged.
55. Minimalism or conceptual art? Pass
56. Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny? Daffy. Just because I enjoy being contrary.
57. Modernism or postmodernism? Pass
58. Batman or Spider-Man? Spider-Man. Batman broods too much.
59. Emmylou Harris or Lucinda Williams? Neither
60. Johnson or Boswell? Pass
61. Jane Austen or Virginia Woolf? Pass
62. The Honeymooners or The Dick Van Dyke Show? Honeymooners. Much more to my tastes.
63. An Eames chair or a Noguchi table? Have to say neither.
64. Out of the Past or Double Indemnity? Pass
65. The Marriage of Figaro or Don Giovanni? Figaro
66. Blue or green? In the name of my hair, both.
67. A Midsummer Night’s Dream or As You Like It? Midsummer. Absolutely.
68. Ballet or opera? I'd have to say if they're done with equal skill, I'm inclined more towards opera. But I've seen a few ballet performances that make a strong argument in their favor.
69. Film or live theater? Film, by the slightest of edges.
70. Acoustic or electric? Acoustic.
71. North by Northwest or Vertigo? North by Northwest. Much more thrilling I think.
72. Sargent or Whistler? Pass
73. V.S. Naipaul or Milan Kundera? Pass
74. The Music Man or Oklahoma? OU SUCKS!!! ;-) Seriously, only seen bits of both, but the music I know from both puts me in the Music Man category.
75. Sushi, yes or no? Whenever possible.
76. The New Yorker under Ross or Shawn? Does it have funnies? Pass
77. Tennessee Williams or Edward Albee? Pass
78. The Portrait of a Lady or The Wings of the Dove? Read neither. Pass
79. Paul Taylor or Merce Cunningham? Pass
80. Frank Lloyd Wright or Mies van der Rohe? Think I'm gonna have to say neither. When my friend Elizabeth started talking about van der Rohe on iChat, I knew something clicked in my head that said I've seen that before. Quick tour of the web confirmed what I thought.
81. Diana Krall or Norah Jones? What little I've heard of both, I side with Krall
82. Watercolor or pastel? Both a little soft for me. Think I'll say neither.
83. Bus or subway? Never been on a subway, so pass.
84. Stravinsky or Schoenberg? Pass
85. Crunchy or smooth peanut butter? Smooth
86. Willa Cather or Theodore Dreiser? Pass
87. Schubert or Mozart? Mozart
88. The Fifties or the Twenties? Twenties. Flappers were sexy as all hell.
89. Huckleberry Finn or Moby-Dick? Moby Dick. I hated reading Mark Twain.
90. Thomas Mann or James Joyce? Pass
91. Lester Young or Coleman Hawkins? Pass
92. Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman? Three in a row.
93. Abraham Lincoln or Winston Churchill? Lincoln. The undertaking he had was so much greater in my mind because he had to repair a rift from within.
94. Liz Phair or Aimee Mann? Aimee Mann. Shush, keep it down now.
95. Italian or French cooking? Italian, without a doubt.
96. Bach on piano or harpsichord? Piano.
97. Anchovies, yes or no? Negatory, good buddy.
98. Short novels or long ones? Long ones. Even when I don't have the time, I prefer the investment made in a long story. Plus they're more enjoyable to read to someone else.
99. Swing or bebop? It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing. Swing absolutely.
100. "The Last Judgment" or "The Last Supper"? Have to say neither.
Offer up your own thoughts in the comments if you like.
posted by Hankblog @ 7/12/2004 01:11:00 PM
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