Stories and Alibis...

so, i was really hoping to do this whole thing without some of that "this is who i am and this is what i like and blah blah blah" crap.

damnit. the best laid plans of mice and men.

as i was playing around with the html coding - and let's call a spade a spade, i don't know squat about html except what i've learned in the past week while tooling around with the template on this thing - it occurred to me that this blog probably has some people wondering why there is all this pro wrestling iconography intermingled with some semi-left wing political ramblings.

ok. in a nutshell. i am a pro wrestling fan. i grew up in Texas, and i think a rite of passage for most males in the south is to "go to the rasslin' matches." the majority of men eventually grow out of it. the rest of us? well, i won't judge.

i'm also a politics fan, and the older i've gotten, the more left leaning i've gotten. as much as i hate to admit it, the first presidential election i ever voted in was George Bush Sr vs. Michael Dukakis. And i did what any 18-year-old college freshman in Texas would have done. i voted for the fine gentleman from the state of Texas, the future president of the United States, Mr. George Herbert Walker Bush.

i was 18. i was raised and living in Texas. What the hell did i know? i sure didn't know the issues. i just voted for the guy from Texas. seriously. that's what they teach you in Texas. Did you know that in High School geography in Texas they teach you that Texas is bigger than every other state and Alaska doesn't count because it ain't co-neck-ted to the rest of the con-tin-ent-al ewe-ni-ted states? I mean, it's all Texas, all the time. Texas, Texas, Texas!!!!!!!!!!!

i'm sorry. i apologize. i can never apologize enough. i feel personally responsible for helping make the Bushes into an even more powerful political family, and probably helping get the family retard, GW Bush Jr, elected as the 43rd President of the United States.

ok. shut up. i said i'm sorry. shut up. jeez. it was half my life ago. ok? i screwed up!

ugh.

anyway. where were we? Oh yea. Professional wrestling.

There's a small bit of wrestling iconography on the page. They are relevant, and for the moment, not just chosen at random. i'll probably add more. and i'll probably have some journal entries about my wrestling adventures.

heck, just last week i road tripped with some friends all the way from Queens, New York (where i live now) to Dayton, Ohio for some wrestling matches. Saw an all-time classic too. The beloved Samoa Joe defended his Ring of Honor World Title against the brash upstart, CM Punk in a 60-minute time limit draw. Seriously. These guys destroyed each other for 60 minutes. it was incredible.

oh. what? ok. yea. sorry again. i got distracted. back to the icons on the page.

Leading off the title of each entry is a small illustration i swiped from a site called kayfabe memories, which is a pretty cool site that takes a look at the classic days of Pro Wrestling.

The icon is of Bruiser Brody. Brody was without question one of my all-time favorite wrestlers. Brody looked like a crazy man, with wild hair and a long beard and actually, kind had a Charles Manson thing going.


Brody (back) with Stan Hansen. Brody and Hansen were a legendary Tag Team in Japan.


Brody biting the head of Carlos Colon. They had a long-standing bloody feud in Puerto Rico.

But behind the scenes, he was known as Frank Goodish, a loving husband and father who not only had a journalism degree from West Texas State University, but also was a good enough football player to get a try out with the Washington Redskins of the National Football League.

More importantly, Brody was his own man. He refused to deal with the backstage politics and games that go on behind the scenes in pro wrestling. He did what was right for Bruiser Brody and his family, and everyone else be damned. This however, made him a fairly disliked guy, and unfortunately, played a role in his death when another wrestler stabbed Brody in the locker room in 1988.

In an odd way, Bruiser Brody died for his beliefs.



The other two wrestlers - at the top of the page - are Dusty Rhodes, and either Ron or Don Harris (they're twins, and i can't tell the difference). Dusty is the one with the blondish buzz cut, about to smash the tattooed guy in the head.

Why Dusty, and why one of the Harris boys?

Well, Dusty Rhodes is another one of my all-time favorite wrestlers. His gimmick was that he was the workingman. The everyman. The guy busting his ass every day at a crappy job so he could get blitzed with the boys at the local bar on friday night, and take his wife out for a nice dinner on saturday night.

And the move he's delivering? Why, the Bionic Elbow of course.

Now, to the Harris Boys. Truth be told, both brothers are Nazis. Not Nazis in simply the oppressive, fascist way, but Nazis in the hate-filled way that they both have SS Tattoos on their arms, and have worn SS T-shirts on nationally televised wrestling programs. And no doubt, ardent supporters of our afore-mentioned 43rd President, George Junior The Dim.

The symbolism of it all works for me. The Everyman delivering a crushing elbow to the head of the fascist. i like it. In a pro wrestling microcosm, that sums it all up for me