Mustang Sally

The brainchild of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, the Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Bowl kicked off its inaugural run last fall with challenge exams at 30 colleges and universities nationwide. Six months later, after increasingly competitive regional and semifinal rounds, two three-person teams duked it out for the big prize (a new Ford Mustang apiece!) amid the glamour and clamor of spring break in Daytona Beach. When the dust cleared, three graduate students from Chicago's Northwestern University A Will Getter, Steve Weinstein, and I, Ben Greenman A were named as winners of the event.

While the Bowl drew impressive crowds in the semifinal and final rounds, attendance at the regionals was inconsistent. But the sometimes rocky start won't keep the event from rolling on; plans are already under way for next year's competition, for which organizers are expecting greater visibility and grander prizes. "This was the initial year of the event, and we did expect to tweak it a bit," says Monica Sciales of US Concepts, the Manhattan-based publicity firm handling the promotion. "In coming years, we hope to get more students involved."

If you are a full-time college student in search of a trivial pursuit, Sciales adds, watch your campus newspaper this fall for news of the Bowl. In the meantime, match wits with this year's national champions by trying your hand at these questions, drawn from the semifinal and final rounds of the competition.

1. Where is Technotronic's Felly from?
2. Prince wrote this song on Sinead O'Connor's album I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.

3. The soundtrack to this 1988 L.A. gang movie includes songs by Big Daddy Kane and Salt-N-Pepa, but it's Ice-T's title tune that sets the gangsta rap tone.

4. This group covered Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll" on their 1980 Greatest Hits Live album.

5. On the cover of his box set entitled Stages, is Jimi Hendrix seen playing the guitar right- or left-handed?

6. What long-lasting British band was named after the eighteenth-century inventor of the seed drill?

7. What video did David Bowie make with Queen?
8. Who sang the song "Maniac" from the Flashdance soundtrack?
9. This group remade Suzanne Vega's "Luka" for their 1989 album Lick.

10. To accompany the "explicit lyrics" stamp on the cover of their 1990 album, this band printed Article I of the United States Constitution.

1. Nigeria

2. "Nothing Compares 2 U"

3. Colors

4. Heart

5. Left-handed

6. Jethro Tull

7. "Under Pressure"

8. Michael Sembello

9. Lemonheads

10. Jane's Addiction
Grading yourself:

6 or less: We're very sorry, Mr. Kasem

7: It's only rock and roll, but you like it

8: You're with the band

9: Contest winner in a former life

10: Liar! Cheater! No one could get all ten!