In (Perpetual) Defense of Professional Wrestling

Much like Chris Rock has said about Hip Hop, I love pro wrestling but I'm tired of defending it.

It has been around (in one way or another) since the dawn of civilization and considered to be the oldest sport in existence.  Ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians all had storied histories of contests between two men battling in a ring in front of large crowds.  There are also strong traditions of wrestling contests in India and Japan that go back as far as the beginnings of their cultures.

Lets skip ahead a few thousand years and go to the roots leading into the modern concept of what we know today as Sports Entertainment.

Aside from the American Indians having a strong background in wrestling to solve differences, and Abraham Lincoln wrestling over 300 matches in his lifetime, there were a bunch of Irish immigrants who settled in the Vermont area in the 1800s and with them came a long standing custom of fighting in front of crowds in the New World.  The soldiers of both sides of the American Civil War used their downtime to wrestle each other.  Once the war ended, many of these ex-soldiers did it for money at county fairs.

Bedtime Stories

Some nights to get to sleep, I pop in a DVD of a George Carlin interview from near the end of his life.  He talks about his whole life and work, unravelling a tale of odd twists and turns, unconventional education, military radio, love of language, coke-fuelled performances...and all calmly with the decorum of a 70 year old, still-working-shows-on-the reg-at-the-time kinda dude.

Funny thing

When I was in grade 2, we wrote in these journals and over a course of days I wrote (from what I could remember) the movie The Karate Kid Part II out in long hand.

Daniel-san, with his face sympathy and never-changing voice and Mr. Miyagi with his one word proclamations of wisdom always bailing him out whenever he gets in a jam.  (And say what you want, but the man kicks some serious ass!)

I also had an Olivia d'Abo reference come out today from this movie.

It's like my brain said, "I wanna take a little vacation.  I know!  How's about 1986."

Always On Ground

Every time that I cross the threshold of my place of employment, a switch goes on in my head and I'm altered until I walk out again at the end.


This is not a universal circumstance for everyone...it's more about working in an environment where tension is not only present, but helpful to your performance.  But the catch is that you have to project an image of altogether cool and control to everyone around you, otherwise the urgency that you are harnessing turns into panic.


Without getting too specific, I move things from one place to another all in the service of high end customers.  I keep them moving high up in the air at high speeds and keep them from breaking down.  In this service, there are an awful lot of requests that follow from multiple sources, and things go political at the drop of a hat.

My New Radio Show

We had our last Siamese Libertines show tonight on CJLO.  Lots of fun, nostalgia, hilarity, sugar, caffeine and sugar abounded.  It was the end of an era lasting 7 years and about 3 years for yours truly.

I now assume the time slot of 8pm to 10pm EST on Thursday nights going forward.  I have chosen the name of the show and I'm starting next week.

The show is called "Dirty Work" and it'll be full of musical goodness and all sorts of tomfoolery.

Radio Cures All

In about a week or so I'm starting my own radio show.  I'm trying to come up with a good name for the show, so here I will brainstorm some names:

Ludvig Von Awesome's Soundwave Trap

The Ghost of Indie's Past

The Pretentious Douchebag Top 10

Song For the Dumped

Up until yesterday I was in a band.

I woke up, had coffee and went to practice thinking it would be a time to play, forget about life's troubles and generally enjoy myself.  Well that was totally the wrong mindset to have before walking into a "band meeting".  And this meeting felt like the many of the final conversations that I and some of you occasionally have when you are breaking up with someone.