Grab Bag, Chapter 3: Parabellum
I'm starting to run out of movie sequel references for these. I don't want to use Police Academy ones, because ACAB! (Send me ideas?)
Welcome, new friends and welcome back, old friends. This week is a selection of small things, mostly because by the time you read this I’ll be on a post-vaxxx1 road-trip to Yosemite National Park. I haven’t left LA since December 2019, so prepping and packing seems really hard, and my trip-stress is surprisingly high for such a basic trip.
In a follow up to last weeks Marked Men related post2, I'm republishing an updated version of a weird visual I made a few years ago. In addition to that, we have wrestling and books.
Grab Bag is turning into when I tend write about in non-music stuff, I guess? Will try and do that more in the future, but music stuff will likely still be the majority subject. There should be a singular piece next week, but I’ve also been thinking about switching to a fortnightly3 schedule. Thanks so much for reading, you really have no idea how much I appreciate it.
Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair Steal The Show at WrestleMania
First, a disclaimer: I don’t support, endorse, or recommend spending your time or money on WWE. They are the dirt worst example of US Capitalism4. Support almost any other wrestling company instead. That said, because they are now on Peacock, to which I have a subscription, I checked out WrestleMania. As penance, I have donated to a concussion research program and a community development charity in Tampa (where the event took place.)
In Volume 1, Issue 1 of the Negative Progression ‘zine, in relation to Tetsuya Naito’s big victory in the main event of a New Japan Pro Wrestling stadium show last summer, I wrote this:
“It was the sweet spot that all great pro-wrestling payoffs should aim for: the perfect combination of good-overcomes-evil storytelling and over-the-top pageantry.
I’ll remember it for a long time.”
But here’s the thing: that kind of a payoff/moment/memory is hard to make.
You can see a state-of-the-art wrestling match, with multiple exchanges of flashy moves everywhere. You can see a 45 minute “epic match” in waaaaaay too many places. But what you can’t see very often is the really over-the-top pageantry and big event feel. Most shows aren’t in stadiums, with elaborate stage designs that allow for grand entrances; most shows don’t have the fireworks budget of a small city’s July 4th celebration; and most matches don’t have a big emotional hook. There’s really only a couple of events a year that you can hope to see it, and for better or worse (definitely worse!), WrestleMania is one of those events.
And most of all, what you don’t see anywhere, is all of this pomp-and-circumstance for women’s wrestling. This was a historic match on many levels:
the first women’s singles match to main-event WrestleMania,
the first WrestleMania main-event featuring two black people and
the first WrestleMania main-event featuring two black women.
But don’t worry, any credit WWE might get for making such history is mitigated by them patting themselves on the back about it, even though they could have been taking women’s wrestling seriously forever. Like every other sport and/or entertainment.
The main reason I wanted to check out the match is because Sasha Banks is one of the brightest-shining stars in all of wrestling5 and someone whose big matches I always enjoy watching. Paired here with rookie phenom, and potential generational star, Bianca Belair6 this felt like a can’t miss match. And it was!
They combined a classic veteran vs rookie story with some incredible athletic moments, trying out some things that had a decently-high degree of difficulty (the type of thing that can leave you looking foolish) and pulled them all off. Most of all, they had one thing you can’t manufacture: real emotional resonance. You knew you were seeing something important and real when they were both were fighting off tears before they even locked up at the start of the match. Pro-wrestling magic often lives in this blurring of the lines between performer and character, fiction and non-fiction, “real” and “fake.” If it means this much to them, then how can it not mean something meaningful to me, the viewer? I’ll remember it for a long time.
Book Nook: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Just a quickie, but ~7 years after someone first recommended this novella to me, I finally read it and it did not disappoint. Denis really knew how to write a fuckin’ sentence and make you feel the thing, ya know? Whether that sentence describes a fever-dream or a forest. Just wonderful, top-tier stuff. I’m going to be thinking about the life of protagonist Robert Grainier for a long time indeed.
Read this if you can, it only runs 115 pages and you can knock it out in a couple hours.
Also: it turns out last weeks Epics In Miniature title was sub-conscious theft, because the description of this book uses the singular version of that phrase. It musta crept in there. That’s my bad, you guys.
A Visual History of The Marked Men {2021 Update} or: Hey look, its an example of the weird shit my brain makes me think about
In 2016, I published an slightly different version of this with a bunch of missing info. Somehow, it got the attention of Mark Ryan from The Marked Men, and he very kindly helped me fill in some blanks but I never republished it.
As noted in last weeks Marked Men piece, getting into that band was like opening Pandora’s box, because all of them have been in so many bands. And one night in 2016, I couldn’t keep it all straight so I started mapping it out, then got really into it, and after a while then turned it into this.
What’s your favorite Marked Men side band? Mine is probably High Tension Wires or Radioactivity (but if you ask me again next week, I’ll probably have changed my mind.)
Originally published in a slightly different version on December 15th, 2016, on my rarely-used WordPress blog.
Note: Click to expand and zoom in, especially if you are reading this in your email client!
Bonus item: This fascinating mini-documentary on Zambia’s 1970s rock scene, in which I learned a lot about Zambia and got turned onto some killer music. I knew nothing about Zambia or Zamrock and learned a bunch. Thanks to Charles for hipping me to this.
Fortnight is an infinitely superior word to bi-weekly, mostly as it removes any ambiguity, but also it just sounds better. I’ve spread it into my workplace with only the occasional raised eyebrow and I encourage you to do the same.
See also: the owners of the teams involved in the (failed?) European Super League mess this week.
Catch her while you can, she’ll be a full-time Hollywood star at some point, having already crossed over in the Mandalorian.
She won the big match within five years of becoming a wrestler. I cannot overstate how insanely quick that is. Most people aren’t even close to good after five years.
I've always been confused by bi-weekly and it seems society is split on it 50/50 so you never know which way to go. I like fortnight except now maybe it's ambiguous since people think you're talking about the video game?