HSNCT Classical Name-That-Tune?

[yoda4554]

Figured I'd post this here, for those of you who are staffing HSNCT but don't read the HS boards:

I'd like to gauge interest in holding a Classical Music Name-That-Tune competition during the Saturday of the HSNCT. It would be modeled on the contests Eric Kwartler's been holding at the Chicago Open these past few years (Eric, I believe, won't be staffing HSNCT; hopefully I'm not stepping on his toes here); that is, it would be written and not buzzer-based and involve naming the titles/composers of several dozen ~30 second classical clips. It should last a bit less than 45 minutes, so as long as it doesn't cause any problems with NAQT's schedule, I'd think the best time to hold it would be in the second half of Saturday's lunch break; 45 min should be enough for anyone interested to grab lunch and come back. Difficulty will be a hair easier than Eric's have been--I'll try to keep the majority of the source works things that would be reasonable tossup answers at HSNCT, though the hardest clips will likely be stuff one would only find in harder bonus parts.

This would be open to all players, staff, and coaches, but only high school players would be eligible for whatever meager grand prize I provide (likely a CD of some kind). There will be no entry fee.

There's one potential hitch; I would want a speaker system somewhat better than my laptop's built-in one to play the music. If someone (presumably someone driving in) could bring some small speakers that could be plugged into said laptop, that'd be quite nice of you; let me know if you could do that.

If you're interested, comment here or email me at dletzler [at] temple [dot] edu, so I can see if enough people want to do this to make it worthwhile.

[kactigger]

I'm interested.
Kevin Comer.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

If this can get off the ground I'm all in, but I'll echo the concerns I have about it being a really full weekend and all. Maybe it can wait for some other time?

[Mike Bentley]

Yeah, presumably you're going to the VCU Open, right? That would probably have time for such an event. Although I am thinking about writing something for that, but we'll see if I end up actually doing that.

[yoda4554]

Yeah, presumably you're going to the VCU Open, right? That would probably have time for such an event. Although I am thinking about writing something for that, but we'll see if I end up actually doing that.

I'm assuming this is directed at me--no, sadly, I won't be there. I'm done with my Master's at Temple and am heading to CUNY next fall, at which point I shall again lapse into semi-retirement (barring concerted efforts to start a team on the part of Mr. Yetman). In addition to being basically carless at that point, that weekend is toward the beginning of various orientation-type things that I'm going to want to be in town for.

If this can get off the ground I'm all in, but I'll echo the concerns I have about it being a really full weekend and all.

I've never yet staffed HSNCT, so I don't know about some specifics, but I'm not sure why this is necessarily a problem. If by "full" you mean, "I'm not sure it can be squeezed in effectively": most tournaments allow an hour for lunch, and usually I find one has a fair amount of time to kill after the eating is done. HSNCT is allowing an hour and half for lunch; he name-that-tune shouldn't take too much longer than that excess half hour anyway. Silberman in the other thread suggested that the 90 minutes was really quite necessary, and if the location of eateries by the tournament site is particularly awkward, or if some other NAQT plan causes that full 90 minutes to be required for lunch, I can see how it might be a hair awkward trying to squeeze it in after practice matches Friday, or before gameplay on any other day, or right before the Jonathan/Gautam tournament if that's feasible. But even then--it's not going to take that long.

And if by "full," you mean "playing Nationals plus an open, high-difficulty tournament plus this is going to burn everyone out": I understand that concern, but because this will be non-buzzer and using a slightly different set of skills than actual quiz bowl, it should be pretty low stress and not terribly taxing in that way.

Of course, I'll yield to whatever people want. However, I would prefer to run this at HSNCT if it runs, rather than at the UCI/VCU August stuff, because I know I'll physically be there, and there'll be a much wider pool of players to join in.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Well, with lunch i remember a big problem last year being that a lot of the places near the hotels are simply overflowing with the jillions of people playing HSNCT. It's a mess with a really long wait, and I think Evan is right that you almost do need all 90 minutes for lunch whether you stay close and wait or spend more time driving and not waiting.

[Mike Bentley]

Last year, lunch at the HSNCT involved about a 5-10 minute walk to a Mexican restaurant where people at. This 10-20 minutes of travel time would really eat into how much time you had. Another factor is rooms ending at different time periods, which was the case last year (some people were arriving at lunch after I had finished eating, for instance).

Edit: To clarify, the lunch at the Mexican restaurant was for staffers only.

[Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN)]

Yeah that's true about rooms ending at different times. Lunch can also vary wildly for some teams depending on whether they get a bye before or after lunch or not.

[yoda4554]

The multiplied scheduling problems of the field size hadn't occurred to me. Let me ask another question, as someone who hasn't staffed HSNCT before: would it be feasible to do this Friday night, either right after (or toward the end of) the scrimmage rounds? I don't want to cut into anyone's sleep, but again, this isn't going to take that long--if we start at 10:00, we'd be done by 10:45. Would that work for the people interested in this? If not, would directly after the awards ceremony on Sunday be better?

[yoda4554]

Ok, the official announcement's now in the HS section here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5483 . Post if you want to play.