HDD on Wrestling

Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish

HDD on Wrestling
By Nathan G. O'Brien

To stave off boredom brought on by some unfortunate and unexpected downtime (explained here) I have decided to do a little writing about one my favorite things in the world: pro-wrestling. I’m a lifelong fan of the “spandex ballet.” Like many people my age who grew up in Minnesota, my earliest memories are of the AWA’s (American Wrestling Association) Saturday morning TV show called All-Star Wrestling. The High Flyers – “Jumpin’” Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne, Jerry Blackwell, Nick Bockwinkel, “Sheik” Adnan Al-Kaissie, Bobby Heenan, The Fabulous Ones – Steve Keirn & Stan Lane, The Road Warriors – Hawk & Animal, Rick Martel, Medusa Miceli, “The Incredible” Hulk Hogan, Bruiser Brody, Curt Hennig, The Midnight Rockers – Sean Michaels & Marty Jannetty, Mr. Saito, Badd Company – Paul Diamond & Pat Tanaka, and the list goes on. This of course led to NWA, UWF, World Class, CWA,WWF and countless other territorial federations and alliances, many of whom I was only able to follow through Bill Apter mags like Pro-Wrestling Illustrated. I eventually moved on to reading newsletters in the ‘90s, when some coworkers suggest we split the subscription cost. And then of course there was the Internet wrestling explosion of the early ‘00s. What started as typical childhood fandom eventually grew into full-fledged passion. Today I’m what you would call a smart mark (or a smark); meaning I have as strong an interest in the backstage and non-scripted aspects of wrestling as I do the storylines and the in-ring/on-mic product.

I’ve written some essays and some show reviews in the past but it’s not often that I write much more than 140 characters on the subject of pro-wrestling, so this is kind of an experiment. Whether this turns into a regular thing or not remains to be seen. I do have an idea for another piece, but for now I’ll hold off on giving this thing an official name. We'll just call it HDD on Wrestling for the time being.

For this particular exercise I picked three wrestlers that I wanted to watch an old match of—Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly, and Dean Ambrose—and plugged their names into YouTube.  

Bobby Fish vs. Ricky Reyes

NWA New York: Indytational 2010

Rochester, NY – 10/23/10 

This is one of my current favorites in “Big in Japan” Bobby Fish versus one of my older favorites in Ricky Reyes. In early to mid-‘00s I was a big fan of The Havana Pitbulls—or the Rottweilers as they were known in Ring of Honor when they were in a stable with Homicide and Low Ki—the tag team that Reyes was part of with Rocky Romero. I’ve seen Romero a few times recently on ROH teaming with Alex Koslov as Forever Hooligans but I haven’t seen Reyes in quite some time. Even as of 2010 when this match took place, I wasn’t really aware that he was still around. And this was probably about the time that Bobby Fish started entering my peripheral. I don’t watch a lot of Japan though, so it’s likely I’d be more of both of these guys back then if I did. 

In my opinion a Bobby Fish match that isn’t preceded by a Bobby Fish in-ring promo has significantly less heat than one that is. Half of Fish’s appeal is his on-mic work. But alas we don’t get that here. But we do get the old guys in the audience trying to act tough and front like they’d fight the wrestlers. Usually it’s Fish that would engage with these guys and turn into a comical thing but here Reyes and his big masked buddy, whose name I don’t recall (Star Rider maybe,) that have to deal with the idiots.

I’m all for fan participation—it’s one of the best parts of going to live wrestling shows—but I hate the individual guys that try to be a part of the show. This whole crowd going into business for themselves thing is a debate I don’t care to get into now. But I do think there’s a level of respect towards the performers that needs to be maintained as an audience member. I don’t give a flying fuck if the live crowd shits all over a WWE show. That’s an expensive as hell ticket and it’s a company that treats both their talent and their customers with unmatched vindictiveness and disdain. So if a John Cena promo is boring, by all means, go fucking nuts. But at an indie level event, show some fucking respect. Keep it fun and value the line between performer and fan.

Anyway, the match! Nothing too spectacular, but not the drizzling shits (shoutout to Lance Storm, who I have blocked from following me on Twitter) by any means. Fairly typical indie under 15 minutes match. Nice mix of Japanese-influenced US indie strong style and power moves like suplex and back breaker variations.

Cool spot late in the match where they trade hard kicks to the chest. Then both men hit the ropes, meeting in the middle with double shoulder tackles that leaves them both on their backs.

Reyes gets the win with a neck breaker variation after capitalizing on a missed top rope moonsault out of the corner by Fish. Fun match for what it is.

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Sami Callihan

IPW: Showdown in Naptown

Indianapolis, IN – 1/1/11

Here we have Bobby Fish’s Red Dragon (stylistically written as reDRagon) tag team partner Kyle O’Reilly putting on a great match with Sami Callihan for Insanity Pro Wrestling. This is from a dope card that also featured AR Fox vs. Ricochet, Jon Moxley (currently known as Dean Ambrose in WWE) vs. Jimmy Jacobs, Irish Airborne vs. American Wolves (current TNA tag team champions, assuming the company is still in business at the time you’re reading this,) and other little big names like Colt Cabana and Chuck Taylor.

Even though he’s got a lot of smark hype behind him and has been around for a long time now, I’ve somehow managed to only see a few Sami Callihan matches over the years. I suspect this is because I stopped buying indie DVDs and tapes on a regular basis in 2008. (This happen to coincide with me doing a lot of, ah, dating at the time, which left little room for watching taped pro-wrestling matches that took place in armories, community centers, and junior high gymnasiums.) I believe this is right around the time he started building steam. I’ve always appreciated his crazed eyeliner punk look. He’s currently working in WWE NXT as Solomon Crowe, so hopefully I’ll see more of his current stuff, as I am a WWE Network subscriber (which coincides with me also being married now.)  

Kyle O’Reilly on the other hand, I am very familiar with, due mostly to having ROH TV in our market. In my opinion, he’s one of the top ten American wrestlers with upward momentum working today. (More about this in a future piece hopefully.) I’m a huge fan of his offensive MMA/BJJ/grappling/judo skill set and he has a very unique way of selling (similar to Dean Ambrose) that I think works really well alongside his more recent cocky and comical skinny jeans coffee shop hipster gimmick.

Match starts off fast and heavy as Callihan charges into O’Reilly and lays in some hard alternating chops and forearms to the neck. O’Reilly takes advantage of a brief run to ropes from Callihan and meets him in the other corner with some forearms of his own and a series of his signature kicks. They then exchange upper hands once again, which sets the pace for the rest of the match. Typical but really fun strong style exchanges throughout the match. Lots of European upper cuts, chops, knee strikes, and cool spots where they match face slaps Japan style. The guys keep the pace of the match high by hitting the ropes frequently and keeping matwork to a minimum. When they do go to the mat it’s for quick paced and unique submission attempts, rather than long stalling holds like headlocks or chinlocks.

Cool spot outside the ring mid-match when they both take turns missing strikes and slam their hands into the ring posts. Love how Callihan does the little things; like when O’Reilly goes to kick him in the face he puts up his hands to block it and then sells his forearms. You don’t see a lot of guys doing that. Most would still sell that face which makes it less believable than it already is. Also like how Callihan does unique things like headbutts to the chest or making basic collegiate wrestling takedowns look really cool and punishing.

O’Reilly eventually responds with two rolling butterfly suplexs into a butterfly release DDT. Just beautiful wrestling. There’s a sweet MMA spot near the end that might have the anti-MMA pro-wrestling hardcores rolling their eyes, where O’Reilly has Callihan in a triangle and is delivering elbows to the head from his back. I’m not sure but I think I heard someone in the audience yell, “Watch the trajectory of those elbows ref.” At one point O’Reilly ends up with the full mount which I have to admit, doesn’t really work in pro-wrestling. It just looks too goofy throwing fake punches in the position.

Callihan gets the submission win via a Koji Clutch. They shake hands afterwards, ROH style. Great stuff.

I’d never seen any IPW stuff before this, which saddens me, as they have now seemingly gone on extended hiatus. (Building issues I am told.) I was hoping to make a road trip down to one of their shows after watching some of these matches. Here’s hoping they can pull it together. Well, at least we still have YouTube and DVDs in the interim. I’d also like to point out how much I like the green, white, and black color scheme of the ring.

Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose

FCW TV

Tampa, FL – 9/18/11

Florida Championship Wrestling was the developmental territory started by WWE after they ended their longstanding partnership with Deep South Wrestling and Ohio Valley Wrestling. (Coincidently OVW is now the developmental territory for TNA…for the time being anyway.) In the summer of 2012 FCW was rebranded NXT, which was a previously a WWE television show that featured FCW talent.

Of all the original content on the WWE Network right now, NXT is hands down the best. Although in my opinion it’s not enough to make the $11 monthly subscription worth it on its own but with PPVS tossed in and all the old stuff it’s OK. If they take PPVs out of the equation, it’s likely I’ll cancel my sub, which will suck because I really enjoy NXT when I get a chance to watch it. But anyway, that’s all beside the point.

This is actually the first ever FCW match I’ve seen. FCW was never on TV here and if it was available on the Internet at the time, I had no idea, or more likely, had no time to watch it. Like the IPW ring set, I really dig the color scheme; especially the green ropes.

This is an early match between the two indie darlings (palm strike to whoever came up with that term, knee strike to me for using it) that are currently embroiled in a major—actually, the most exciting—storyline in WWE. Both Rollins (known as Tyler Black) and Ambrose (known as Jon Moxley) made the rounds amongst the indie circuits—cutting their teeth in places like ROH, PWG, IWA Mid-South, AAW, FIP, CZW, Evolve, JAPW, and Dragon Gate USA—before getting picked up by WWE. I’m actually kind of surprised that Rollins has made it as far as he has with WWE. I’m happy he has but I am surprised, given WWE’s track record of wasting potential based on guys’ size, that he’s in the position he’s in; which is poised to become WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Ambrose maybe even more so. I mean I knew the very first time I ever saw him—Dragon Gate USA: Enter the Dragon 2010—that he could be a ginormous star if given the chance but I still thought he had a subversive, loose cannon-like quality to him that would never appeal to WWE. So it’s really cool to see these guys in an old match that predates their awesome work on the main WWE roster as The Shield (with Roman Reigns) and their current feud.

This match is billed as “most pinfalls in 30 minutes wins” and is also for something called the FCW 15 Championship.  Around 10 minutes into it Rollins scores the first pinfall when Ambrose gets disqualified for a blatant kick to ye olden old nut sack. Within two minutes Ambrose scores two pinfalls on Rollins by capitalizing his inability to recover from shattered scrotum syndrome. It is things like this the make Ambrose so great. And the best part is he didn’t even have to do that old thing where the guy points his finger at his head to show he’s ahead in the mental game; you just know it already. If Trips ever wants to handoff his “Cerebral Assassin” gimmick to someone, Ambrose is the guy.

With just under 14 minutes left Rollins evens up the pinfall count at two a piece with a sunset flip. At this point the match really picks up, and the homoeroticism of pro-wrestling (let’s just be real here guys, it’s not a bad thing) starts to set in as they are perspiring and breathing heavy all over each other. There’s a sweet near fall when Rollins hits Ambrose with a springboard clothesline. Cool spot when both men tumble out of the ring with a vertical suplex by Ambrose. And another when they are on their knees slugging it out in the middle of the ring. Ambrose appears to be yelling, “Harder! Hit me harder!” With around three minutes left, Rollins misses a 540 (or some other unintelligent number) moonsault/swanton type thing that would be the pivotal point in any normal match. But this is not a normal match! The way Ambrose struggles to get to his feet, by flailing around and crawling up the rope is just awesome; very much in the Shawn Michaels vein.

With two minutes remaining Ambrose slaps on a Texas Cloverleaf that will take us up to the final minute of the match, in which the two men exchange each other’s finishing moves. Time runs out tied at two pinfalls a piece. A sudden death overtime is ordered by some women that is apparently “the general manager.” This is honestly a match that could headline Wrestlemania. If we’re lucky maybe someday we’ll see it. But don’t hold your breath on that.

Rollins hits an awesome looking suicide tope through the ropes to the outside. Literally the best tope I’ve seen in a long ass time. Perhaps I’m caught up in the excitement of the match. But that’s the point, right? Back in the ring, Rollins super kick to Ambrose, who rebounds off the ropes with a vicious lariat. One of the announcers says, “Oh my God, did that just happen?!” Those are exactly the right words to describe it. Rollins hits two more super kicks and follows them up with a dangerous-looking package driver for the win. Just. Fucking. Awesome.

Final thoughts on this match:

It’s cool to see WWE developmental doing stuff these days besides taking guys from the independent scene with unique skill sets and turning them into “WWE style” workers. As in actually developing stuff like this feud; this is now one of the main draws at the upcoming SummerSlam.

I’m not a huge fan of multiple super kicks in a match (shoutout to the Young Guns, whose hands I will attempt to shake if ever given the chance.) But I think it worked really well in this case because it was at the end of the match, which really drove home the point that it takes a lot to put a buy like Ambrose down for the count.

Given the near-blood feud status of the current Ambrose / Rollins angle it’s unlikely that they could do a straight wrestling match like this. They’ll probably have to do a Last Man Standing or Street Fight or some other gimmick match that will play to the idea that they absolutely hate each other. It’s safe to assume it will still be good—probably lots of high spots and bumps on announcer tables, stairs, the ramp, etc.—but I’d really like to see them start with a straight match like this one. But they’ve been booked beyond that now, so it doesn’t really make sense anymore. Either way, unless Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena is amazing (which is unlikely,) it is definitely looking to be the highlight of SummerSlam.

Scene Report: Mary Gibney / We're In A Cult

Hey dirtbags, go to One On One Bicycle Studio and check out the We're In A Cult show. There's some other cool shit up in there by some other presumably cool dudes, but the standouts by far are Mary Gibney's paintings of Andre the Giant, Dick the Bruiser, Doctor X, Hulk Hogan, Mad Dog Vachon, Superstar Billy Graham, Verne Gagne, Maurice Roberre & Miss Atlas, and Wahoo McDaniel. I'm pretty sure a bunch of them are sold but you can still go look at them in person until some day at some time. All I know is they were there last week. You're smart, look it up yourself. Then go see it. You're welcome, assholes.
-BNB

"Wrestlers" by Mary Gibney, Mpls, MN, March '14

Scene Report: Ring of Honor live in Hopkins

Ring Of Honor wrestling live; Eisenhower Community Center; Hopkins, MN; 9/28/13
By Nathan G. O'Brien exclusively* for HotDogDayz

The show opened up with Adam Cole standing in the ring, wearing a fairly cheap-looking suit. He cut a promo but you couldn’t hear much of what he was saying due to poor audio and some zealous fans chanting “Mens’ Warehouse” over the top of him. The gist of it was that he promised to never lose the ROH title and that he thinks Jay Briscoe is a female dog. This brought Jay to the ring, which caused the first huge pop of the night. Jay ran him off and more or less said he would win the title back as soon as his shoulder healed up.

First match was the World Tag Team Championship match, in which the champions Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish (red DRagon) took on the challenging newcomers Josh Alexander & Ethan Page (Monster Mafia.) There was lots of comedy early on, with red DRagon really playing up their role models gimmick. A few people laughed when someone from the bleacher section yelled, “Oh great, these guys. I didn’t come here to see some MMA shit.” Lots of trading back rakes back and forth in a comedic manner. At one point O’Reilly jumped off the top rope, then stopped and gave a simple back rake. Fans in the front row were getting on Fish hard, and it seemed to irritate him, as he eventually yelled at them to, “Shut the fuck up, and let these people enjoy the show.” I found it a bit ironic actually, as everyone seemed to be having fun. Eventually things got serious, as Monster Mafia got a few close pinfalls. Of course red DRagon ending up retaining the titles though; wining with their signature move, Chasing The Dragon. O’Reilly and Fish are growing more and more impressive with each outing; both with in-ring work, and their interactions with the fans. They really know how to get effective heat. Alexander and Page were pretty impressive as well. Alexander is an imposing fella. With a little fine tuning, he has potential to be a strong big man.

Second match was Mark Briscoe in all his Redneck Kung-Fu glory facing “The Last Real Man” Silas Young. It was a pretty decent match, leaning on the hard-style end of things. Cody Rhodes had nothing on Silas Young, as far as mustaches go. Young’s mustache does as much for his real man gimmick as Briscoe’s missing teeth and beard do for his redneck real-life character. Young is another guy that seems to grown leaps and bounds since he first appeared on ROH television. Briscoe got the win but was the recipient of a lengthy beatdown afterwards by Young, which would play into Briscoe’s storyline throughout the evening.

Next match up was Tadarius Thomas & ACH (Adrenaline RUSH) vs. Jay Lethal & Michael Elgin. Lethal and Elgin were over huge with the crowd. Adrenaline RUSH though; not so much. Lethal acknowledged the “Black Machismo”chants, a nod to his famed TNA gimmick, with a little Macho Man posturizing—bent knee shuffle, thumb in the tights, waiving his finger in the air. Other than that though, he looked hurt, or perhaps a bit under the weather. He stayed away from most high spots, and spent lots of time on the apron, as Elgin worked more of the match. ACH is a lot like a young Elix Skipper—lots of high spots, very agile, and a non-stop motor. Tadarius Thomas did all of his innovative Matrix-like moves. But the problem is he takes too long to set them up, so they came across pretty lame live, and the crowd let him know. After teasing it a few times, Elgin came off the top rope with the elbow drop. Eventually he got the pinfall after an Elgin Bomb. You can see it on TV, but it’s even more apparent in person that Elgin is a beast. Reminds me a lot of "Dr. Death" Steve Williams, at least body-wise. He moves really well for a big man but could no-doubt benefit from dropping a few pounds.

The last match before intermission was the Honor Rumble; a 15-man battle royal with Royal Rumble-style rules, where a new man enters every one minute. Nearly everyone on the night's card competed, with the exception of Kevin Steen, Michael Elgin, Jimmy Jacobs, and Eddie Edwards. Jay Lethal and Television Champion Matt Taven started things off. As other dudes started entering it didn’t take long to turn into a clusterfuck of nonsense. The biggest pops came as a result of Delirious, who hasn’t been seen on TV in a long time, and Cheesburger, who got in some quick off-the- top-rope offense. Both were eliminated quickly. Despite receiving another beatdown from Silas Young, Mark Briscoe won it by tossing Bobby Fish, thus winning a title shot versus Adam Cole in the main event.

First match back from intermission was Michael Bennet vs. "Die Hard" Eddie Edwards. Despite getting a fair amount of offense in the battle royal, Bennet barely had any during this match. Most of the match it was Eddie Edwards on the attack. Edwards was really over with live audience. He’s really good at keeping the crowd engaged—when he asks for response, they give it. Eventually Bennet got the win though with a nasty-looking piledriver.

In the next match "The Zombie Princess" Jimmy Jacobs faced off against "Mr. Wrestling" Kevin Steen. Surprisingly, Jacobs was looking to the crowd for some “hus” chants, a nod to his old mini-Bruiser Brody gimmick, but only a few people in the bleacher section engaged him. It was a farily short match but jam-packed with action. A couple of swantons from Steen, one of which missed. Jacobs hit Steen with a huge spear from the apron that was awesome. Steen with the cringe-worthy Package Piledriver for the win. Steen was over huge, as expected. Judging by some of the things yelled by fans, the crowd seemed to acknowledge television story lines that these two had once been partners in SCUM. That means ROH TV is getting over here, at least to some extent. Michael Bennet’s valet Maria Kanellis came out on the mic to distract Steen, who was then laid out with a piledriver by Bennet.

In the semi-main event, Television Champion Matt Taven defended his title in a three-way dance versus Davey Richards and Roderick Strong. Both Richards and Strong got big pops during their introductions despite already competing in the battle royal earlier. Matt Taven, as expected, is largely un-liked. Davey Richards went a little out of character early by doing comedy; toying with Taven’s Hoopla Hotties in a way that would earn you a sexual assault charge in real life. Despite some of the stereotypical valet interferences from the Hoopla Hotties, the match was quite entertaining. Very athletic and pretty hard-hitting, as you’d expect from Richards and Strong. Despite suffering from a bit from a lack of character development, Roderick Strong a total gamer inside the ring. He goes hard, rarely letting up. In the interest of full disclosure, he pointed out my Team Viggity tee shirt, so I’m a bit biased. Davey was of course awesome too, even if the whole wolf-howling thing has grown a tad ridiculous. Taven eventually retained, although I can’t recall how. There was a lot of action near the end and at one point one of the Hoopla Hotties was in an ankle lock courtesy of Richards. Pretty good match overall.

Mark Briscoe, appearing for the third time in the evening, challenged World Champion Adam Cole in the main event. Before the match stared Cole took to the mic to say he was going to do four things in this match. “First one is…” he said, just as he super-kicked Briscoe. He started the beatdown as the opening bell rang. I was starting to lose steam so I don’t recall a lot of specifics from the match, other than at this point in the evening Briscoe’s Redneck Kung-Fu gimmick began to wear thin. Adam Cole’s facials were excellent. He was really owning his heel character, as he gave the crowd several sly-evil-guy smiles. Despite the valiant effort of a guy who had been battered throughout the night, Cole retained. Afterwards Michael Elgin ran-in which caused Cole to flee over the railing. He was met in the crowd by a waiting Jay Briscoe. I couldn’t see much from my vantage point, but I think they brawled briefly before being separated by the ROH wrestling school students. Then Briscoe battled with the students, and was not shy about laying in hard shots. Several of the trainees received real punches to face. About the only staff member that didn’t get it was the merch guy, who happen to be wearing glasses. Clearly Jay is a professional. Elgin, who was still in the ring, held up the belt and promised this was an image you would see in the future.

Overall I thought it was a really excellent show and lots of fun. I was a little disappointed that some of the ringside-area seating was not filled and that the event was held out in the suburbs, rather than in Minneapolis or St. Paul, where it may have drawn more people or, at the very least, had been accessible by public transportation.  That and there was no concessions aside from stale potato chips, melting candy bars and warm water.  They could have at least brought in some pizza for slice sales and a cooler to keep the water cold. A lot of money to made there - they were literally throwing money away by not having better concessions.  But other than that, it was great to have ROH back in the area for the first time since Brian Danielson and Nigel McGuiness went an hour in 2006. I had a buddy with me that is an avid WWE and IMPACT viewer but has never seen a lick of ROH before tonight.  He said it was the best wrestling he’s seen, whether on TV or live, in a long time. I am inclined to agree.

*rejected by Wrestling Observer / Figure Four Weekly

This Is A Love Letter~The Best Of 2008!

Two and half weeks into the new year and I'm finally getting around to this. Personally, 2008 was a pretty good year. I'm not going to rehash it here; it's all in previous posts. One thing I've learned from reading other blogs (and taking advice from my own readers) is to keep it brief. Catering to short attention spans is crucial to maintaining an Internet audience. So with that, I'll just get started. By no means is this meant to be a comprehensive list. I didn't see a lot of movies this year and most of the music I bought wasn't from '08. Hell I didn't even read a book that I hadn't started the year before. Still, don't you dare, for even a second, think this is a weak list...

Best of 2008
Films
Pineapple Express...007: Quantum of Solace...In Bruges...Rambo (Panic-attack inducing gore. I suggest seeing it with a group of your buddies. And who doesn't love mercenaries?)...Slumdog Millionaire...Tell No One (US release)...The Dark Knight...Forgetting Sarah Marshall...Gran Torino (A little heavy on the racial slurs at times but all in the name of character developement.)...Indiana Jones & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull...Iron Man...Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist...The Wrestler (Best movie of the year, hands down. Rourke is back, and breaking your heart in nearly every scene.)

Pro Wrestling and MMA
The Figure Four Weekly/Wrestling Observer merger...attending the UFC live @ the Target Center...Edge & Vickie Guerrero...Faber vs. Pulver...Ric Flair retirement: match vs. Shawn Michaels @ Wrestlemania and subsequent ceremony on Raw...Knockout of the year: Rashad Evans over Chuck Liddell (Scary!)...Chris Jericho...George St. Pierre...BJ Penn...Frank Mir...Gina Carrano...Miguel Torres vs. Yoshiro Maeda.

Music
Baby Guts-The Kissing Disease CD...El-P & Dizzee Rascal @ Triple Rock...Doomtree-self titled CD...Cecil Otter-Yellow Rebel CD...Jay Reatard-Singles '06-'07 ('08 release) CD...Suicidal Tendencies @ Station 4 (There was a time in my life I thought I'd never see ST. Went with my uncle. Jason, Josh, Matty and Jack were all there, as was everyone in the TC you'd expect to be there. It was like a TC punk metal scenester reunion, spanning 3 decades.)...Big Business w/Melvins encore @ Triple Rock...Jake One-White Van Music CD...Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death-Old Jail EP and Bird Songs LP (Everything they put out is just amazingly great.)...Jaguar Love-Take Me to the Sea...The Streets-Everything is Borrowed...Atmosphere-Sad Clown Bad Spring EP and When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold CD (In all actuality, probably my least favorite Atmosphere albums. One of the best albums of the year, regardless.)...Chicago Apacolypticrust Fest II...Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians of the British Empire-Thatcher's Children CD...Dillinger Four-C I V I L W A R CD (The D4 is the kind of punk I don't really like anymore BUT I'll never not like the D4. This album makes it easy to skip all the Midwestern copycats and stick with the real thing.)...Against Me! & Ted Leo & the Pharmacists @ First Ave...Dillinger Four's D4th of July show @ Triple Rock...The Cool Kids-That's Stupid Mixtape...Desobediencia Civil-No Hay Libertad Sin Desobediencia CD (Actually an '07 release but I didn't get it until this year. It's so good, it would be a shame not to make the list.)...Beastie Boys @ Roy Wilkin's Auditorium (Greatest band in the world. Period.)

Miscellaneous
Art: Sword & Gnome show @ the Back Alley Gallery, No Easy Explanation: Dave Witt @ First Amendment, Mud On Your Face: Peter Jadoonath & Jason Trebs @ the Back Alley Gallery, ...Day Old: May Day Cafe, Moose & Sadie's...Breakfast: Seward Cafe...Latte'-St. Paul: Brewberry, Cafe Benne'...Latte'-Minneapolis: One on One Bicycle Studio, Anodyne...Appearance by a famous person at my work: T.I. (Charismatic, soft spoken, honest, knowledgeable and gracious. A real gentleman.)...Girlfreind: Courtney...Website: Street Boners & TV Carnage.com (Addicting.)..Shit story: Fleet Farm, as told by Matty...Coverage of The Fest 7: Loren from scenepointblank...Late Night Alley Party: behind One on One bikes on closing night of the Bicycle Film Fest...Graffiti: Danger, UC, TKG, CSE, Isaj, Yayo...Post game promo: Kevin Garnett following the Celtics championship win over the Lakers...Place to find great road-kill: Wisconsin highways...Bar: The Hexagon (Good bands, no cover, cheap drinks and great people-watching.)...President Elect: Obama...Fashion comeback: Flannel.

So that's about it...for now. I'll play catch-up on some of the stuff I missed and throw out an updated list later. As always, I'm gracious for anyone that has visited this silly little site. I always appreciate the feedback, even if you hate it. With the arrival of 2009 I've officially moved into a different marketing demographic. Apparently I'm not supposed to like wrestling or cool shoes anymore??? Whatever. I imagine you'll still be able to count on me when you need a fix of self-indulgent arrogant ramblings, punctuation misuse, pictures of me with food, or the world's shittiest advice column. And now the official unveiling of my newest moniker...

XOXO,

~King of Punk (Hey, I've earned it.)


Here's lookin' at you "kid."