Wow, The Sun Still Exists?

Still a bit cloudy, but definitely an improvement over the past month or so.

-- Post From My iPhone

For the sake of expediency

Geekery ahoy!

Testing out the BlogPress iPhone app to see if it will simultaneously post to my Blogger site and my LJ. Here goes nothing! But wait; what's this I see?:



Ooh, I can throw photos in here? Let's hope this works...

-- Post From My iPhone

Mitsuharu Misawa, 1962-2009

Misawa was one of the few wrestlers I could point to and say, "This man embodies what makes pro wrestling so compelling to me." In an industry that often relies on silly gimmicks and freak acts, here was a man who went out and used his incredible athleticism to tell compelling stories in the ring--stories that transcended language and culture and won him fans around the world. He was the stoic yet charismatic standard-bearer of a generation of wrestlers from the All-Japan promotion who worked a style that merged the tough, realistic work of the 70's with the flashy, high-risk action that dominated the 80's and 90's.

Sadly, it was also a style that proved to be his undoing. Years of crippling injuries left him unable to maintain a healthy physique and as he grew more and more immobile, he seemed to fall back on his ability to absorb tremendous amounts of punishment. After destroying his knees with top-rope splashes and dives to the floor, he moved on to doling out gruesome elbow strikes and taking dangerous high-impact drops directly on his head. When I heard that he had died in the ring after a backdrop suplex, my mind flashed back to the hundreds of times I had seen him land hard on his neck and shoulders from that maneuver. Although it pains me to say such a thing, it was strangely appropriate for his death to come while performing in the ring. It's certainly preferable to the now all-too-familiar cliche of wrestlers being found dead in hotel rooms from some lethal pharmaceutical cocktail.

Perhaps it is naive to think that Misawa's passing will lead to a re-examination of the punishing style that forces many wrestlers in Japan to retire early and nearly crippled. After all, it is likely that very thing--the allure of seeing real injuries during a display of "fake" fighting--that keeps the crowds coming back night after night. Here in America, the demand for incredibly over-muscled stars along with the grueling road schedule, leads far too many wrestlers to risk their health with steroids, human growth hormone, and copious amounts of painkillers. It was likely a combination of all of these factors--along with mental issues that went undiagnosed for far too long--that led Chris Benoit to commit the deplorable acts that he did.

Like the Benoit tragedy, Misawa's death is yet another reminder of why my enthusiasm for pro wrestling has diminished in recent years. Unlike comic book heroes, the trials and tribulations of these larger-than-life characters exact a horrible price on the men and women who portray them.

SO OLD

So I'm flipping through the channels and I land on TNA iMPACT! on Spike. My interest in wrestling has waned in the last couple of years, and I haven't been keeping up with TNA at all. Apparently, they've got a pay-per-view event coming up and one of the matches is Sting (not the one from The Police) taking on Mick Foley in a steel cage match. I remembered that Foley (wrestling as Cactus Jack) took on Sting in an "I Quit" match back in WCW, so I looked it up and that match took place in 1991. 1991! 18 years ago! My memory of that match could legally buy cigarettes! My memory of that match would have to register with Selective Service! In 3 years, my memory of that match will be able to purchase alcohol legally!

Here's that match from 1991, thanks to YouTube:

The Unsigned

I decided to put together a baseball team from the many many still-unsigned free agents left on the market. I think it turned out pretty well I present to you...THE UNSIGNED:

Starting Lineup:
Orlando Hudson - 2B
Orlando Cabrera - SS
Frank Thomas - DH
Manny Ramirez - LF
Garret Anderson - RF
Joe Crede - 3B
Nomar Garciaparra - 1B
Ivan Rodriguez - C
Jim Edmonds - CF

Bench:
Damion Easley - IF
Paul Lo Duca - C
Luis Gonzalez - OF
Doug Mientkiewicz - 1B
Jay Payton - OF

Starting Rotation:
Pedro Martinez - RHP
Mark Mulder - LHP
Sidney Ponson - RHP
Scott Elarton - RHP
Chuck James - LHP
(possible 6th starter Orlando Hernandez - RHP)

Bullpen:
Ambriox Burgos - RHP
Juan Cruz - RHP
Keith Foulke - RHP
Jason Isringhausen - RHP
Ricardo Rincon - LHP
Julian Tavarez - RHP

Possible mid-season signings:
Paul Byrd, Mike Mussina, Kenny Rogers, Curt Schilling

The closer job would be up for grabs between Foulke and Izzy. Frightening, yes; but look at that lineup! EDIT: I'd probably ditch Burgos for El Duque in the sixth starter spot, but moving the team to the NL and dropping Thomas would likely yield better results. What do you think?

Who's Not Watching The Watchmen?

I've made a real effort not to blog about the upcoming film adaptation of Watchmen which, besides being my favorite comic ever, is arguably the greatest comic ever written. The story of the Watchmen movie is almost a saga unto itself. Most recently, there was a well-publicized legal battle between Fox and Warner Bros., which almost delayed the scheduled release date of March before ending in a settlement. Lots of people I know are thrilled to death about the movie and they assume that I must be thrilled as well. Eventually, I admit to them that I am not at all looking forward to the movie, that I think it was a terrible idea to make it, and that it will very likely be awful.


"But you love that book, Sean! How can you not be excited about seeing that story up on the big screen?"

I'll leave aside the story of DC Comics/Time-Warner screwing Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons out of the rights to the Watchmen property and look at this from a purely artistic standpoint:

First off, what makes the book so important is that it demonstrates what comics can do that film or prose cannot; the plot and characters--as engaging and multi-faceted as they are--often take a backseat to a narrative structure that is breathtaking in scope and that few other comics have ever approached, over two decades later. Divorcing the story from the medium for which it was specifically designed completely misses the point. Another bone of contention is the film's director, Zack Snyder. This untalented douchebag was also responsible for the adaptation of Frank Miller's jingoistic piece of (gorgeously painted) shit 300, where he decided to augment the racism and homophobia of the original work with CGI ninjas and video game monsters. I wouldn't trust this guy to make a competent beer commercial, never mind the movie version of something as complex as Watchmen. My initial reaction to the selection of Snyder to helm the movie has only been augmented by the reported alterations he has made to the original ending of the comic.

Finally, the inevitable pre-release marketing blitz, which has produced tons of collectible detritus that nerds everywhere have been salivating over for years (Action Figures! Replica Grappling Guns! Silk Spectre's Garters!) now includes such stellar items as these adult-sized Halloween costumes, soon to be gracing the clearance bins at a Wal-Mart or Target near you:




I know Nite-Owl is supposed to be pudgy and ridiculous-looking, but this is going a bit too far. And the less said about The Comedian and Rorschach, the better. Hopefully, Taco Bell's "Minutemen Milanesas" Value Meal will contain something cool, like a bonus DVD: