I've been a professional wrestling fan off and on for most of my life. Sometime in the mid-eighties, I got hooked on the Rock 'n Wrestling of the WWF Superstars like Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat and "Macho Man" Randy Savage and have appreciated and enjoyed the storytelling and often amazing physical feats of it's performers ever since. It is, however, a gruesome thing of which to be a fan. It is a cutthroat business that is, perhaps, the last bastion of traveling carnies and freak shows. For all of the intersection with main stream pop culture, the "business" is self-contained and steeped in mystery. You must be a wrestler or work with wrestlers to know and understand what is really going on. Wrestlers die young. Wrestlers have destroyed their bodies worse than any pro football star. It is a sport that chews you up and spits you out.
Which is why, as I prepare to go with my peoples to Lucha VaVoom tonight, I'm struck by how much the bizarre and disturbing death of Chris Benoit and his family, apparently by his hand, has stuck with me. The WWE ran a 3 hour tribute to the wrestler and his family last night and everyone broke character. Vince McMahon (who is supposed to be dead in current storylines), John Cena, Edge, Dean Malenko, Chavo Guerrero, et. al, sat in front of a camera and publicly mourned their friend. The confusion, the horrible sadness, the varied responses and memories, and the sincerity has me dumbfounded. Rasslin' is never this genuine. In a world where, increasingly, everything is a "work," the fans were privy to something real.
And I never want to experience that again if it has to be this awful.
So, we'll go to the Mayan tonight and we'll watch burlesque and midgets and the birth of a chicken and we'll laugh and scream and cheer those willing to lace up the boots and enter the squared circle and it will be a great time and maybe I'll forget that there's a whole different, much more serious, often depressing world behind the curtain.
That's the trick of it all, isn't it?
Recycling and where to do it.
One of my favorite comic book artists right now. His covers for The Outsiders earlier this year were choice.
This cute couple, their great fashion sense, and the odd sense of proportion in these photos.
A likely candidate for my next fiction read.
1408 - which I just might go sneak and watch by myself this afternoon.
Update: Completely unrelated but, you know, any excuse to post a random album by anyone Prince related...
From wiki:
B-side songs are released on the same record as a single to provide extra "value for money". There are several types of material commonly released in this way:
* a different version (e.g., instrumental, a cappella, live, acoustic, remixed version or in another language/text) of the A-side* another song from the same album, which the record company does not want to release on its own
* a song not considered good enough for the album
* a song that was stylistically unsuitable for the album
* a song that had not yet been completed at the time of the album's release
Audio: Share a song you can't help but sing along to.
Redick.
Damnit.
What are your top 10 most-played songs currently?
Last Week:
- UGK - International Player's Anthem (f/ Outkast)
- Jay Dee - Crushin' (Yeeeaah!)
- Joss Stone - Put Your Hands On Me
- Murs & 9th Wonder - Murs Day
- The Arcade Fire - The Well and The Lighthouse
- Adventure Time - This Dome is Our Home
- Dilated Peoples - Back Again
- Nelly Furtado - Promiscuous
- The Gaslamp Killer - Kobwebs (f/ Gonja Sufi)
- Christina Milian - Dip It Low (f/ Fabolous)
- Common - Testify
- Phoenix - I'm An Actor
- Gorillaz - Dirty Harry
- Quasimoto - Real Eyes
- Mariah Carey - It's Like That
- Common - Be (Intro)
- Common - The Food (Live)
- Common - The Corner (LP)
- T.I. - ASAP
- Björk - Venus As A Boy (Harpsichord)
Today and tomorrow, I'm at pixelodeon 2007 but you knew that already, right?
I'm currently at the starbucks on Hollywood & Western taking a break from the screenings and getting an iced coffee and a sammich. Here are some quick thoughts:
- Despite the intersection of creators and tech, this doesn't feel like a tech event at all. Way fewer laptops, way more Blackberries.
- That said, web folks are here. Nick Douglas, Sean Bonner, Jackson West, Halcyon, co-worker Dave from Family Fun, and a bunch of other faces I recognize from SXSW.
- I'm pretty sure Ask A Ninja just nonchalantly threw out there that they have a 7 figure deal with federated media.
- Having to take the steps to get up to the AFI Campus after walking up the hill that is Western and a workout that featured 3-tiered squats this morning was very not awesome.
- The
UGCindie online media creator conversation has matured in just the three months since SXSW. It's interesting looking at it from my traditional media perch. - I don't watch nearly enough online video. There's really interesting stuff out there.
- New places to check out: good magazine, freshtopia, treehuggertv, kenyattacheese.net.
- Also, I really kind of want to sell my car and convert a diesel vehicle into a biodiesel machine or get rid of my car altogether and maybe buy some land and build a scrap house.
Update: Also, the new youtube interface is excellent.
