Paint that Town Red! Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Capitol

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen in the film series based on the "Hunger Games" 2008-2010 trilogy novels by Suzanne Collins. Director and co-star Donald Sutherland (President Snow) controls the lives of everyone in his Romanesque country of Panem. While outlying "district" populations are enslaved to provide resources and goods, in The Capitol residents hold lavish parties, decadent feasts and sport exotic fashion such as colored hair, strange plastic surgery and extravagant tattoos. Annually they "paint the town red" with the blood of District "tributes" during a mass entertainment game--a human hunt.

Answer: Arkham

H.P. Lovecraft set many of his stories in the fictional city of Arkham. "The Thing on the Doorstep" (1933) is about a man possessed, sent off to the Arkham asylum. Lovecraft called his city "an ancient, mouldering, and subtly fearsome town". Children disappear; terrifying legends thrive.

The only ones painting this town red are gruesome creatures and those who follow the occult. Arkham is thought to be modeled on Salem, Massachusetts, where the witch trials occurred, and located somewhere north of Boston. Arkham first appeared in "The Picture in the House", 1920. Lovecraft died in 1937.

This amazing photo is of a rainbow "arc".

Answer: Harper Valley

The righteous might in this country song made "Harper Valley P.T.A." an international hit for Jeannie C. Riley as she gives a tongue-lashing to residents of the imaginary town of Harper Valley. "You have the nerve to tell me you think that as a mother I'm not fit", she says, when they'd been painting that town red with all manner of vice for years.

She makes their individual sins public then and there. Tom T. Hall wrote this in 1968 and Riley was working as a secretary when she recorded it. P.T.A. stands for Parent-Teacher Association.

The photo is of a harp.

Answer: Dr. Doom

From the imagination of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Supreme Lord Doctor Doom, Victor von Doom, fully controls the comic book city of Doomstadt (formerly Hassestadt) in the country of Latveria, found between real-world Romania and Hungary. Dr. Doom is a technological and scientific genius, a madman, who dominates the people of Doomstadt from Castle Doom using robots, stunners, shockers, hidden observation and a force field. Since "Fantastic Four" Volume 1 #5 in 1962 the Marvel Comics supervillain has been a favorite for comic, trading card, television, film and finally video game fans.

He even has his own theme park ride.

Answer: Red Dead Redemption

Many say "Red Dead Redemption" is a top of the heap video game. The setting is 1911, a diminishing frontier, in imaginary counties of the western USA and in Mexico. There are towns, ranches, farms, open land and criminal hideouts, as well as a fictional redeemed outlaw named Marston, and the Undead available in expansion pack. Players travel by horse or train as one might expect, but there are some technologies mixed in. Players sure enough can paint the town red with drink, poker, or an assortment of weapons, yet their choices alter a character's reputation and reception.

The game released in 2010, published by Rockstar Games. RDR 2 releases in 2018. The name "Red Dead" comes from the prior "Red Dead Revolver" where its main character is called Red.

Answer: Dark Shadows

"Dark Shadows" was an ABC Gothic soap opera of 5 seasons (1966 -1971), created by Dan Curtis and shown in black-and-white until 1967. Primarily teen viewers followed the lives of the rich and mysterious Collins family. In Collinsport we find murder, blackmail, revenge, kidnapping, witches, werewolves and the much-loved vampire Barnabas Collins (Jonathan Frid), introduced in 1967.

He was the main character of "Dark Shadow" paperbacks written by Marilyn Ross. Barnabas gave the flagging television show much needed new blood. So to speak.

Answer: Sweetwater

Sweetwater is a bustling old-style western town located in the Wild-West-theme park of HBO TV's "Westworld". Wealthy guests arrive in Sweetwater via train, then their every desire is played out with Sweetwater residents--programmed androids on behavioral loops they repeat, and then erase, each day. Guests can go wild and paint this town red, with drink, rape, blood--anything they want--while androids are recipients. Yet there are some deadly bugs in the program. Yul Brynner starred in 1973 and in the 1976 sequel "Futureworld". Ed Harris, Evan Rachel Wood and the great Sir Anthony Hopkins star in the wildly popular 2016 TV version.

The photo depicts sweets.

Answer: Midgar

Hironobu Saiaguchi gave us the monster plate-shaped "Fantasy VII" city of Midgar in 1997. Midgar is a place where industrial greed and wanton use of resources has drained all life from the lands surrounding the city. Residents like Tifa, Aeris and Cloud rebel and seek to cut the stranglehold of those in power, to free the people and restore Earth's balance, but the enemy is high-tech and strong. Underneath the wealthy, debauched metropolis lies a vast slum of poverty, roving monsters and vice, where no one can see the sky, never mind paint the town red. Did you get the question hint, that the video game "centers" on MIDgar? If not the "gar" in the photo may have lead you to Midgar.

Answer: Twin Peaks

The astounding, unnerving city called "Twin Peaks" came to TV audiences in April of 1990. Created by David Lynch and Mark Frost "Twin Peaks" lasted just 3 seasons, but was revisited in 2017 and has a substantial cult following. Set in the state of Washington, an odd cast of characters occupy the Double R Diner or the Great Northern Hotel, the lumber mill or the local hospital, seemingly normal folk in a sleepy mountain town.

But creepily "Twin Peaks" reveals its deadly cabin, mysterious lodges, and a mind-blowing Red Room--the door to another dimension.

This city is foreboding, campy, murderous and filled with eerie secrets.

Answer: Gotham City

Batman's Gotham City appeared in 1940 as the residence of the prosperous Wayne family of DC Comics. It is a brooding town hiding hardened and often insane criminals like the Riddler (Ed Nigma), the Penguin and the Joker who paint the town red; yet equally mighty and on the side of justice are Commissioner Jim Gordon, butler Alfred Pennyworth, and Batman himself (Bruce Wayne). Bob Kane and Bill Finger created Batman, but an English folk tale far predates their city.

In the tale, residents of a small village called Gotham pretend to be crazy so the king won't visit.

In 1807 author Washington Irving began satirizing New York City as a kind of pseudo-crazy Gotham, and the nickname stuck. But DC Comics has never precisely clarified a location for Gotham City.

Some think it took its architecture from Trenton, Ontario. Today we can thrill to Batman adventures in comics, movies, videos and TV. There's even a "Batman Ninja" who fights for right in medieval Japan.