Retro Guest blog from June- Sound of Music Drinking Game

So.... I may have taken a month or more off from blogerizing the internets.  I'm sure you're all clamoring for bear news, all you've had since August was the left-over shingles from that Olympic-Fever Royer gave you and whatever else you can find on the interwebs machines.  But don't you waste your sweet little angel tears that smell like pears and dumplings (cuz you eat weird shit like that...), bear news you will get... this week... promise.....maybe....

But first, for all you're Yom Kippur festivities, I have a gem I've been sitting on since June (aka kept forgetting to post amid Olympic Fever)... I present a new drinking game as discussed by two guest bloggers and myself.  Back in June, everyone was like, "Nick, why don't you write a drinking game for some bad-ass movies"-everyone, so I was like "Okay, pick a bad-ass movie"-me, and then someone shouted "Sound of Music"-someone, so this is happening and I've never seen it, right?
So, I did the only reasonable thing possible, stuck to my word and recruited some legit Sound of Music fanatics.  According to the book face, they've been friends since 2006, like the same fishing charter and mobile software company not named gotomeeting, have attended to up to 3 dinner parties together, and wish each other "Happy happy Birthday Girl!!!" promptly on their respective walls....oh, and they date twin brothers....Straight from the streets of Shantytown, please welcome Laura and Sam.

What? Where did these mojitos come from?

Now I present the email chain that sparked drinking game no one will ever fully grasp, I apologize for the abundance of puns I don't fully grasp, and please skip this if talking about musicals makes you violent or violently ill.

Someone needs to cut the damn lawn!

Nick- Despite nearly melting on the train this morning, I've made it the sanctuary of air conditioning with minimal pre-work perspiration, a real win (please note this was written in the midst of an extreme heat wave back in June).  I feel like one of the most important things I learned going to college in the south, was how to show up at a class in late-August heat without sweat stains, aka cutting through buildings with a/c, wearing certain colored shirts, or melting ice on wrist to cool you down (this may make me special?).  Anyways, last night, upon the Green Mawnstaahhhh (Sam's spelling), despite 96 degree game time temperature, you guys came up with an idea that may get me to watch a movie I'd never thought I'd see... the Sound of Music.  I've seen a few wedding shows and I'm aware of what Lifetime/TLC offer, but that TSOM just never crossed my mind of something I should or would ever want to watch, how's your idea gonna get me on the musical movie train so to speak?

Sam- Guten tag, and thanks for the invite to your blog!  In some ways, I feel like I've been training my whole life for this very moment.  With musicals being my #1 guilty pleasure, TSOM falls into an elite bucket of "Movies I Cannot Turn Off When On TV" (all things Disney and Mrs. Doubtfire have also earned the same right) -- a few of my "Favorite Things," if you will.  Usually, if I want to convince 'M' to watch something musically oriented, I have to start by saying there are monster trucks and fighting and lots of blood and zombies -- but TSOM doesn't need a fabricated introduction.  It tells the story of a bad ass captain, his crazy love affair with the family babysitter, Nazi chases, and terrifying natural disasters (e.g. thunderstorms).  Sounds like a pretty awesome story line, huh?  Oh, and there are songs. Lots of them.  But the way Laura and I see it, songs = drinking for you guys.  So bring on the MUSIC! 

No one does better Nazi fights/chases like this guy!

I'll let 'L' weigh in on the 'do-re-mis' (basics) of our drinking game thesis, but here's a trailer:  Julie Andrews making household items into clothing?  Drink.  Is your chosen Von Trapp child complaining?  Drink. 

Auf Wiedersehen,

Fraulein Sam

Sent from my iPhone (this was before the fancy iPhone 5 came out, so bourgeois with her iPhone 4...)

Nick- The lack of monster trucks, karate, or bears is unfortunate, but if your gonna get anywhere with a musical with a non-musical crowd, you're right, it relies completely on story line, whether its funny or just plain awesome.  I'm assuming the Nazi chases means the Nazis are bad guys, because they are definitively top 3 movie bad guy material.  If the Nazi's are the good guys, then I'll have to assume that its some type of Inception based plot twist and they're actually bad guys.  Also, if you have to prep a viewer to watch something, is it worth under-selling the intro it so they don't bail right away? Also, drinking is a form of preparation for watching movies (I was once asked to leave the room during my first viewing of "There Will Be Blood" because I kept asking why there was no dialogue).  Which ties into the game, the chosen character idea sounds promising, where your drinking is linked to complaining/douchebaggery of specific characters.

(Sent from a Computer!!!)

Laura- Thank you, Fraulein, and Nick. What a lovely introduction to a film also near and dear to my heart. I've been bred to love TSOM, from my first day on Earth, where I was inches away from being named Liesl (no joke). Like Sam, I am completely helpless when I comes on TV and it's a yearly family tradition to sing along to the film on Thanksgiving (it is also a tradition to call the Baroness bad names). The first (and only) time I was able to convince Juan to watch TSOM, I didn't convince him at all. He was in a medicated, flu-like trance which rendered him immune to the charm of Maria, the Captain, and the Von Trapp family (so kinda like waterboarding Juan, but with music instead of water...). And so, I am delighted to have the opportunity to translate all of the magical and memorable moments of TSOM into a drinking game, so that everyone can enjoy it! Because any movie that involves nuns sabotaging Nazis deserves an equally badass drinking game. And 'S' and I are just the ones to do it.

So, first, I think it's best to establish the ground rules. Obviously every person has to have a drink, preferably a beer and preferably out of a traditional stein, but we can let it slide if it comes from the can, bottle, or other. Throughout the game, when you discard an empty, it should be placed on a table in a tower formation to form the Alps, a symbol of the real Alps, which the Von Trapp family must climb to escape into Switzerland. Next, each competitor should be assigned a character. Whether this is out of a hat, or based upon their resemblance, it doesn't matter, but try your best to embody your character, extra points if you don some lederhosen. Based upon how many people are participating, choose from the following characters, which are listed in order of importance:

Maria
Captain Von Trapp
Liesl
Louisa
Friedrich
Kurt
Brigitta
Marta
Gretl
The Baroness
Max Detweiler

Reverend Mother

Rolfe

Herr Zeller

Whenever your assigned character appears on screen, take 1 drink. If you are the Baroness, Rolfe, or Herr Zeller,take 2 drinks, because you are the worst. Von Trapp Children: in the scene where you sing an adorable farewell song to the guests at the party, chug while your solo is being sung. Also take 1 drink when you all tip the boat, because that was silly.

That's all from me for now. 'S,' want to help with some socials to be aware of throughout the film?

Peace, love, and Adelweiss,

Leisl, I mean Laura

Nick (Sometime the next day...)- This might be going somewhere, two of my hobbies are yelling things in German and building towers/structures out of recyclable materials!  As for characters, I'm guessing there aren't any gingers for me to relate to, this is a concern but not a deal breaker.  What is a deal breaker is people singing along to the movie, so can we have some type of rule for if you sing along and mess up the tune or lyrics you get penalized, or is this too harsh?  What's to stop me from making up my own songs, ruining the real song for others?  I don't need Liesl throwing cans and left hooks (I know you love watching fighting...) cuz I my singing is too awesome while we try to build a model alps.

(Sent from internet machine without the help of librarian or enhance substance, suck it Lance Armstrong!)

Sam- If you're caught singing along to the movie, and mess up the words/tune, your shall be sentenced to public yodeling.  Yes, yodeling.  This is going to be a particularly dangerous rule for Liesl and I, who can have been singing along to TSOM since we were toddlers -- the muscle memory might be tough to break!  I'll brush up on my lyrics (& yodeling, just in case) to avoid embarrassment...

'L', what an awesome set of rules.  I am guilty of LOL'ing at my desk over the idea to chug during "So Long, Farewell." 

More Socials:

    1.  Von Trapp children give the Captain amateur excuses (they don't even know which berry season is which!)

    2.  Sexual tension (or broken sexual tension... spoiler alert) between Maria and the Captain

    3.  Everyone drinks for the same number of seconds as the number of nuns on screen

    4.  Captain/Maria blow whistle

    5.  Rolf does the "Heil Hitler" salute (2 drinks and lots of yelling)

    6.  Maria says "Oh!"

    7.  The phrase "flibberty-gibbit" is uttered (give 5 drinks for the most creative definition)

    8.  Goat appears during puppet show (waterfall + make goat noises)

Question.  Is it too much to ask all participants to wear shorts, high socks, and overalls made of painters tape.  Regardless of your answer, I will bring painters tape. 

Yours in strawberries-so-cold-they-turn-blue,

Fraulein Sam

Sent from my iPhone (be honest Sam, did Siri help you with this?)

Nick- I think that if you dress up in the Austrian outfit, you become the drink master and can tell other people to drink at will, a commitment to the game deserves some reward!

To spruce my knowledge of a movie I've never seen, I referred to the imdb machine, which gave me a plot summary that started with " In 1930's Austria, a young woman named Maria is failing miserably in her attempts to become a nun."  I have a couple ideas of how you fail at becoming a nun but I'm going to go ahead and say my guesses would be inappropriate and slightly off base.  In other discoveries, no one told me the bad guy from "Up" was Captain Von Trapp, what the hell guys!?!?  Between dressing up and yelling in made-up German, I think this is very do-able.

(Sent via carrier pigeon via drawing a pigeon on my computer)

Laura- Now there is one important part of the movie we haven't touched: everyone's favorite tune, "Do Re Mi." Maria teaches the Von Trapp children about music on a scenic mountainside while they're all wearing matching clothes. It segues into a song to help them remember the different notes and the children are seen gallivanting around Vienna. It's catchy, and fun, and there simply must be drinking rules that can apply here. Help me out team. The only think I can think of is another social drink when Maria hits the high note at the end of the song, with one hand on her head and the other pointing straight up. There must be something more we can do here! (nope, that was the end of the email chain...)