rocks

people named after rocks

100

What common first name is derived from the Greek for "rock"?

Peter (Pedro, Pierre, Petra, Piers etc.)

200

Sylvester Stewart and three of his siblings all took on pseudonyms to form what soul/funk group, one of the first mainstream American music acts to feature black, white, male, and female musicians?

Sly and the Family Stone

300

Who wrote the poem Sacred Emily, containing the line, "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"?

Gertrude Stein

rocks in pop culture and history

100

In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Jim Carrey's character Joel memorably pooh-poohs the beach, saying: 

_____ is _____, it's just _____ _____ _____

sand is overrated, it's just tiny little rocks

200

The original Pet Rock fad occurred in what decade?

1970s

300

The Rosetta Stone was inscribed with three versions of a 196 BCE decree by Ptolemy V using what three writing systems -- two of which were forms of Egyptian, and were deciphered using the third as a guide?

Hieroglyphs, Demotic, Greek

2000s indie rock

100

Name the Death Cab for Cutie song:

If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied
Illuminate the "No"s on their Vacancy signs
If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks
Then ______________________________

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

200

Name either member of Broken Bells, whose debut single The High Road came out in 2009. One member produced Gorillaz' 2005 album Demon Days and is also half of Gnarls Barkley. The other member has another band that went mainstream when they were featured on the soundtrack of the movie Garden State. (100p for the name of that band)

Brian Burton / Danger Mouse; James Mercer

(Half credit for The Shins)

300

What band became the epitome of 2000s indie rock hype when their 2005 debut album and its hit song "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth" spread through word of mouth, MP3 blogs, and a glowing review from Pitchfork that stated that the "five-piece from Brooklyn who're known to break out both harp and harmonica" had "a singular vocal presence that sounds like Paul Banks [of Interpol] attempting to yodel through Jeff Mangum's [of Neutral Milk Hotel] throat?"

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

actual rocks

100

The 348-meter-tall sandstone formation in Australia's Northern Territory officially bears two names, although the order was changed in 2002 to put what indigenous (Pitjantjatjara) name first?

Uluru

200

We all learned in science class that rocks can be either igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. Granite and Basalt, the most common rocks respectively in continental and oceanic crust, are both what type?

Igneous

300

What mineral defines level 8 on the Mohs hardness scale, harder than quartz but softer than corundum?

Topaz