Video store update...

Well, I've decided to adopt a wait and see attitude with the new manager. She is someone who hasn't been with the company that long, but she's not a snot-nosed kid who thinks she knows everything. I figure I'll give it at least until the end of July before I decide whether or not to bail. (The fact that I'll be away for a week this month helps, I think.)

Watched "Miracle" again tonight at the store. Man, I usually can't stand the inspirational sports stuff. Movies like "Rudy" or "The Rookie" really turn me off, because they're always a little too perfect, a little too weighted in favor of their subjects. Plus I usually have a hard time suspending my disbelief enough to believe that actors can play big leaguers(Don't get me started on Charlie Sheen in "Major League"). But there's something different about "Miracle" that I can't quite put my finger on. I was 8 in February of 1980 and the only sport I was into when I was that age was baseball, so I don't really remember all that much of the event. My chief memory is of Eric Heiden and his sister winning the speed skating medals, which I remember watching intently. The hockey was cool, but it didn't really register with me. We've watched "Miracle" at least 10-15 times in the store, and I have yet to get sick of it the way I usually get sick of a movie we watch too much. (I'm very burned out on "X2" and "Spiderman" at the moment.) Kurt Russell is very believable as Herb Brooks, even with the goofy Minnesota accent, and the mostly unknown young actors are very convincing as hockey players. The hockey scenes are shot very well, and the writers worked very hard at placing the big win over the Soviets in its proper perspective. Much is made of the Cold War and the invasion of Afghanistan affecting the Summer Games in 1980, and nearly the Winter Games as well, and ultimately you can't not be affected by this movie.

Package of goodness in the mail today...

From my unnamed web store. Ryuhei Kitamura's Sky High, a sci-fi actioner from the director of Versus and the upcoming 50th anniversary Godzilla movie. And the prize for the day, the Japanese DVD of Kill Bill Volume 1, featuring the unedited, full bloody color version of the Crazy 88's battle, and an extension of one other scene. It's in perfect condition, as it's just a burnover of the Japanese DVD.

Demp, let's talk deal.

More later.

Vince to Fans: Drop dead.

So, Smackdown PPV was tonight. And Vince McMahon showed that he values personal loyalty more than his fan base by hanging the WWE title on John "Justin Hawk Acolyte APA Goosestepping Texan Asshole Bradshaw" Layfield. Never mind that the people who actually care about what happens on his show hate Layfield. We're all a bunch of 14-year old fat pimply virgins who've never kissed a girl or been in a wrestling ring, according to the guy who is alleged to be our champion. (Yes, I'm getting up in arms about fixed matches involving sweaty men holding each other homoerotically, what's your point?) Lest we forget, this is the guy who gave a Munich crowd the Nazi salute and then got indignant when people had the nerve to report it.

So they've pretty much guaranteed that they've lost the hardcore fanbase, at least until the night when the spoilers say that Bradshaw loses the belt back to Eddie. As I type this, the ITVR chat is rife with anti-WWE sentiment, but at the same time, we realize that Vince has done this because he wants us talking about Bradshaw. Plus, frankly, there aren't any real heel contenders for the belt, unless you want to count the apparently turned Undertaker, who defeated the Dudleys and then drowned his former manager in a crypt of concrete.

The rest of the PPV was pretty solidly mediocre. Match of the night was the Cruiserweight match between Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. ReyRey and Chavo did a great job of telling a story with lots of good selling and high spots. Other then that, it was pretty dire.

Sable and Torrie Wilson had a slopfest, Kenzo Suzuki made his PPV debut, and I don't think he was nearly as bad as Swift would have you believe. Mordecai, the Human Q-Tip, beat Bob Holly in a sloppy match, Luther Raines beat Charlie Haas in a terrible, terrible match, and John Cena retained his US Title in a too-short 4 man elimination match.

Terrible, terrible show.

Why VH1 Classic rocks...

They just segued from some Culture Club song I never heard, but which I assume was called "War is Stupid"(Ah, the 80's, when Britain had lots of nuclear protests with kids dressed in skeleton costumes(but I digress), into ABC's "The Look of Love". Before that they played Bob Dylan's theme from "Band Of The Hand", a Video-Toaster fest which may be one of the worst videos I've ever seen, quality-wise, but which makes me want to go out and find the movie.

More later.

A few things I've figured out, part the second...

I realized as I was sorting all the MP3s that my musical tastes have changed a lot since high school.(Yeah, I know, big shock.) I realize that most people's tastes change as time goes by, but mine seems particularly drastic.

Ten artists/bands I liked when I was in High School:

Rush
Metallica
Motley Crue
Iron Maiden
Van Halen
Bon Jovi
Bruce Springsteen
Led Zeppelin
Aerosmith
Steve Miller

Now, the ten artists/bands that I listen to most these days:

Frank Zappa
Miles Davis
Blind Guardian
Opeth
Neil Young
Sonic Youth
Phish
Hatebreed(full disclosure: My cousin is the lead shouter in Hatebreed, as well as being the host of the new Headbanger's Ball on MTV)
Killswitch Engage
Tomoyasu Hotei

So what happened? Maturity happened, I think, plus as I got older, I started looking for something different, much in the same way that my taste in movies changed.

Ten movies I loved when I was in high school:

Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Porky's
Ghostbusters
Major League
Rocky IV
First Blood
Back To The Future
Caddyshack
Animal House


Now, admittedly, fine films all, and most of which I still enjoy. But this would be a top ten list for me now of pre-1989 films(and is dependent on what kind of mood you catch me in.)

The Exorcist
Network
The Seven Samurai
Citizen Kane
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Dawn Of The Dead
The Grand Illusion
The Last Wave
Diva
L'Aldila (The Beyond)

Very different material from what I watched in high school. I blame the advent of DVD, as well as 7 years working in a video store and way too much time wasted sitting on my butt in movie theaters and on the couch.

More lists to come, as I'm in that kind of a mood lately.

A few things I've figured out during the great clutter project.

I have too much damn music. All told, I've got around 8900 Mp3's on my computer, which equals about 37 gigs.

In addition, I've got too much music I'll probably never listen to again. But in the interest of completeness, and of that "I might still listen to it someday" thing, I retain all the files.

And I have too many movies. This is being reduced, but I've still got way more movies then I'm going to watch under current conditions.

That said, things may change very quickly. My boss at the video store, the only manager I've worked for in the company, is leaving. And things are changing. We have always been sort of the rogue Tommy K's store, believing that customer service is more important then following office rules. But with Mark leaving, the office has apparently decided that they're going to take the opportunity to rein us back in again. As a result, pending the decision of one particular person, my days are probably numbered at Tommy K's.

This is good and bad.

It's good because I'll have more time to be home with Laura and Laurene, and good because maybe I'll finally get down to doing some of the things that I wanted to get done, such as the clutter project, and maybe get back to work on my novel.

It's bad, because it was a good $200 check every week, and $800 a month is going to be tough to replace. So I'm deciding what I ought to do now. There is an arthouse video store near me. I might go and see if they're hiring, but I have a feeling I'm not artsy enough for them, as their staff seems to be made up of local musicians, writers, filmmakers and artists. I was going to look into getting transferred, but our DM seems to have torched that idea right out of the gate.

Hmmmph. Oh well, back to the clutter.

Some placeholder material today.

A great column about WWE and the internet.

And to steal one of Ken's gimmicks today, here are the most recent searches that people used to get to my blog.

"Driller Killer Clips 1979"
"Addio Zio Tom Images" (this one was from the German Google Page)
"VH1 Run To The Hills video kitten"
"Suicide Club Bit Torrent"
"Crepax"
"Fist Of Legend Torrent"
"Ju-On Torrent"
and my personal favorite...
"Is Lita really pregnant by Kane."

More later if I think of something good.

And tonight illustrates the one thing I hate about professional wrestling...

No one appreciates continuity. (Note that this rant may be erased by what happens on next week's Raw, but I doubt it.) Now, I watch wrestling, and I occasionally watch my wife's soap opera. Even with things like The Kid Trick(aging a kid 20 years in 2 or 3 years) and long-lost sibling, they manage to keep a logical continuity going with most of their shows. Obviously, the soap opera's an everyday thing, and they go every week all year round with no reruns. But so does wrestling. WWE runs one show a week, plus house shows, and a PPV 12 times a year for each of its divisions. And no one has ever heard of continuity.

A perfect example is tonight's show. HHH faced Eugene with the stipulation by evil Eric Bischoff that if Trips did not "destroy" Eugene, he wouldn't get the number one contender status. Now the last few weeks, they've been selling the idea that no one who wrestles Eugene realizes how skilled he is. (That's because no one watches the monitors unless it matters to the plot, but that's a rant for another time.) The problem I have is that HHH didn't actually destroy Eugene. He was about to do so when Benoit came out to attempt to save Eugene. Benoit accidentally pasted Eugene with a chair, and then HHH pedigreed Benoit. Arguably, there was no "destruction". Eugene and Benoit were left laying, but HHH was lucky to leave with his non-win(the match was most likely a no-decision, as the ref never actually counted a pin or DQ'ed HHH for bringing the chair in.) Next week, I'm sure HHH will get his title shot, despite the fact that he barely survived Eugene. (Some sites have suggested that we may find out in a week or two that Nick Dinsmore was just playing "Eugene" to get a job, and then he'll go heel and maybe join Evolution(which is an interesting idea.))

Of course, I'm complaining about continuity in a company where Val Venis went from "porn star" to "censorship advocate" to "porn star" to "Bischoff's bitch" to "porn star" again.

The rest of the show was pretty good. The Rock put in an appearance, seemingly for no real reason at all, unless they're laying the seed for a Big Five PPV return at Summerslam. He and Orton jawed with each other, but it didn't really seem to mean much.
And they're working on a Katie Vick-level doozy of a plotline involving Lita, Matt Hardy, and Kane. Lita is preggers, Matt assumes it's his, but Lita apparently boinked Kane(as scary a thought as that is) so the baby may be Kane's "demon seed"(an idea suggested by a few websites recently.) Of course, this storyline also allows us to see some high-quality(yeah, right) acting by Matt and Lita, who had a torturous crying scene tonight.

Overall, not bad at all.

Can't think of much to write about today...

Boxing was mediocre this weekend. Two guys basically got whupped into retirement on HBO, and ESPN had a fairly dull card on Friday night. Jermaine Taylor kicked the crap out of Raul Marquez in a fight marred by more clinches than a soap opera, and Marco Antonio Barrera attempted to show he was over getting whipped by Manny Pacquaio by pummelling Paulie Ayala to a TKO. Barerra would like a rematch with Pacquaio, but he's gonna have to wait until after the Marquez rematch. Interesting thing said by Larry Merchant during the pregame show for Taylor's match. He called both Bernard Hopkins and De La Hoya "mediocre" and said that Taylor might be a legitimate contender post Hopkins/De La Hoya. I hadn't really thought of Hopkins' fight against Robert Allen as mediocre except for the fact that they'd already fought twice and Hopkins was maybe bored by the whole thing.

Taylor and Felix Sturm, now that'd be a good match.

-------------------------

Yanks dropped two out of three at Chavez Ravine in their first visit to L.A. since the '81 series. Not that big a deal except that Contreras looked like shit again. He has one bad inning, and it kills the Yankees. Matsui had a homer off of Hideo Nomo on Saturday. They're still up on the Sox by 4 1/2, so that's fine.

-------------------------

Raw tonight is promising HHH vs. Eugene, and as they're in South Florida, don't be surprised to see The Rock appear.

More later, if I think of something more interesting.

Happy Father's Day to me, happy Father's Day to me...

So, it's now Father's day (though only by 50 minutes or so.) I plan to go to bed and pass out until around 11:30 or so(my first Father's Day gift from Laurene and Laura; peace and quiet), then get up, go visit my grandfather, then go out and have a nice quiet day with the family.

Dead night at the store again tonight. Watched "Castle In The Sky", the "X-Files" movie, and a DVD of Green Day music videos. Brought home "Cold Mountain" a week and a half early, but I haven't watched it yet, maybe tonight if I'm not watching stuff on the DVR.

More later, probably.

As requested, the Muggleton Asian Cinema Collection.

The Stormriders
Volcano High
BR I and II
Once A Thief(U.S. Release)
Bullet In The Head (Tai Seng version)
Lady Snowblood - 70's old school action - an inspiration for Kill Bill
Fist of Legend
Ju-On (Original TV version, not the theatrical remake)
Fulltime Killer
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Seven Samurai (Criterion)
Throne Of Blood (Criterion)
Stray Dog (Criterion)
Tokyo Raiders
Shiri
Dead Or Alive (US Release)- Miike
SilverHawk - Campy action with Michelle Yeoh
Fudoh: The New Generation - Miike
Suicide Club (US Release)
Visitor Q - Miike
Ichi The Killer - Miike
Azumi (Purchased, like Silverhawk, through a certain gray market dealer who will go unmentioned here.)
The Eye
Once Upon A Time In China 1-3 (US release)
Legend Of The Drunken Master (US Release)
The Accidental Spy (HK Release)
Hero (HK release) - Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Zhang Ziyi - coming to US theaters in August (Maybe.)
Junk (US Release)
Ringu (US Release)
Evil Dead Trap - '80's Japanese Horror
Black Mask
Organ - freaky '90's Japanese Horror (very disgusting)
Riki Oh: The Story Of Ricky
Tell Me Something - Korean serial killer movie, very good stuff.
Eastern Condors
Duel To The Death
Knockabout - Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao - good early 80's acrobatic stuff.
Project A
Virus - US/Japanese coproduction from the director of BR.

Soon to be added - Versus, Sky High (also from Kitamura), Happiness of The Katakuris, and more Kurosawa.

I also have about a dozen or so kaiju films, mostly 90's stuff.

Nothing of great import tonight...

Dead night at the video store. Watched "Shrek", "Pirates of The Caribbean", "Mortal Kombat", and a few episodes of "Family Guy". Had a 45-minute conversation with the guy that owns the chain I work for, mostly about business things, but in a very nice and relaxed way. (It's not like working for Blockbuster, that's for sure.)

Fast-forwarded my way through the newly released Paris Hilton video the other night. Mostly unimpressive is what I'd call it, though the hardcore content is certainly better than the Pam and Tommy tape. The problem with it, to me, is that unlike pr0n, you feel kind of icky watching this, because it's something that wasn't made for slavering twentysomethings and the raincoat crowd to watch. (One of these days, I'm gonna have to do something on the people who frequent my porn room.) This was probably something that Paris, as a wild 19-year old, thought would be fun to do and which would never see the light of day. And this Rick Solomon character, who appears in connecting segments, comes off looking mighty sleazy. Worth a look for the curiosity factor, but don't waste the $40 if you can download it instead. (I'm sure it will be BT'ed within a couple of days.)

More tomorrow, as I haven't finished watching Raw or either of last week's NWA shows.(No opportunities.)

Make that money and get paid....

Just finished watching the latest travesty in the career of the "Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya, and it illustrates why I dislike the upper end of the boxing spectrum, the Lewises and Hopkinses and De La Hoyas of the world. For those of you not in the know, a week ago Saturday, Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins had tuneup fights on PPV for their September 18th money match, which will also air on PPV. Hopkins made easy work of Robert Allen, carrying him to a 12-round decision which could have easily been an earlier KO. De La Hoya then fought Felix Sturm, a German middleweight with the WBO title. Sturm was unknown to me, and the HBO commentators made much of the fact that Sturm was generally below Oscar's level somehow, even though Oscar was fighting his first match at 160. Well, it didn't quite work out that way, as Sturm dominated much of the fight, snapping hard jabs at De La Hoya at will, and winning every round after the fourth. Unfortunately for Sturm, he couldn't knock De La Hoya down, because if he had, I think the Nevada judges would have had to give him the fight. As it was, the judges incredulously(or maybe not so; More on that in a second) gave De La Hoya a 115-113 decision.

Larry Merchant had a very telling comment as we waited for the decision. He observed that it would be interesting to see whether the judges were going to throw away the cash cow that will be Hopkins/De La Hoya, and no sooner did he say that then the decision came back. De La Hoya was at least willing to admit that he had nothing, while not giving any kind of credit to the fact that Sturm whipped his ass. Then they brought out Hopkins, who spouted exactly the kind of platitudes that you'd expect from a man looking forward to a multi-million dollar payday in three months. Last was Sturm, who was rightfully pissed and pointed out in so many words that he got jobbed by the judges.(He subsequently filed a protest, which will go nowhere.) His last comment was that "Everyone out there knows who won this fight." He's right.

-----------------------------------

Bad Blood was Sunday night. I forgot about posting my predictions here, but it was just as well, because the ones I put on ITVR were spectacularly wrong. It was an okay show, but what does it say that the match that I was entertained most by was the comedy match?
Eugene put on another highly entertaining show, as he beat the Coach using the Junkyard Dog's moveset, then finished the Coach off with a Rock Bottom and a Stunner. The non-comedy match of the night was Randy Orton/Shelton Benjamin, which shone despite Evolution-ference. Benjamin unforunately lost again, but if it leads to another Orton/Benjamin match at Vengance, then I'm all about that. The Main Event Hell In A Cell match between HHH and HBK was just too damn long and not brutal enough. Thom and I were both just about dozing off during it, and 47 minutes including intros is just too damn long for a HIAC not involving, as Shaddax puts it, base jumps off the top of the cage.

Apparently HHH is going to have to beat Eugene next week on Raw in order to be Number One Contender. That should be interesting. HHH has been putting the new kids over lately, so it will be interesting to see if he puts Eugene over as well. And also, Lita is apparently "pregnant" with Kane's demon seed. Hopefully they'll do this storyline well and we won't be stuck with another Katie Vick-level storyline.(If you have to ask, you don't want to know.)

Attention~!

To all the nice people who don't know me who've been popping in from Google thinking they're going to find Bit Torrent files of wrestling or Salo: Hi, welcome to my blog. Here are a couple of links for you.

The site that I have been using for wrestling torrents is this one, but as of this post, it is down.(I downloaded stuff off them on the weekend, so it's probably just temporary.) You can also check out this site, which is a decent torrent directory site.

As for Salo, I have yet to see a Bit Torrent of it, but if it's gonna show up anywhere, it would be here, on Supernova, which seems to be the largest of the torrent sites. But again, I've never seen a torrent of Salo.

Thanks for reading~!

Survey day today...

In lieu of actual content, we present this survey, snagged from Ken's blog.

THREE THINGS THAT SCARE ME

- old drivers
- SIDS (Thankfully, we're through that phase.)
- Neocon whackjobs

THREE THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND

- people's taste in movies(see below)
- what criteria boxing judges use to score fights
- higher maths

THREE THINGS I'D LIKE TO LEARN

- to play a musical instrument (all thumbs)
- the true identity of the JFK assassin(s)
- what Bill Murray said to Scarlet Johanssen at the end of Lost In Translation

THREE THINGS I AM WEARING RIGHT NOW

- Frank Zappa T-shirt.
- swim trunks
- white gym socks

THREE THINGS ON MY DESK

- Stack of blank DVD+R's.
- Stack of borrowed DVD's
- Hideki Matsui Bobblehead doll.

THREE THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I DIE

- Visit Japan
- Go to WrestleMania
- Meet Lemmy

THREE WAYS TO DESCRIBE MY PERSONALITY

- geeky
- geeky
- geeky

THREE BAD THINGS ABOUT MY PERSONALITY

- Irish Temper
- bullheaded
- overtalkative

THREE PARTS OF YOUR HERITAGE

- English
- Irish
- Scottish

THREE THINGS I LIKE ABOUT MY BODY

- Next
- Category
- Please.

THREE THINGS I DON'T LIKE ABOUT MY BODY

- Belly
- belly
- nearsightedness

THREE THINGS MOST PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU

- Insanely jealous of anyone with musical talent (even you, Thom~!)
- Secretly in love with a girl who couldn't care less about me that way.(Even after 6 years of mostly happy marriage)
-

THREE THINGS I SAY THE MOST

- You're a tool
- Dude
- @!%$@!

THREE PLACES YOU WANT TO GO

- Las Vegas
- L.A.
- Tokyo

THREE NAMES THAT YOU GO BY

- Muggs
- Jon
- Muggz

R.I.P.

Ronald Reagan.

Ray Charles.

Douglas Trumbull.

Pop culture icons all. (Yes, even Doug Trumbull, who created much of the special effects magic in Star Wars and Close Encounters of The Third Kind, then watched as the kids who grew up on his movies went out and blew his work out of the water.)

More later.

Than.

Than
Than
Than.

Happy now, grammar Nazis?

Speaking of Nazis, how 'bout that Bradshaw? In an attempt to get some cheap heel heat in Germany at a recent Smackdown house show, Bradshaw stood in the middle of the ring and gave the crowd the old "Sieg Heil~!" Hello? What the hell were you thinking, buddy? Doing a move that just happens to be illegal and considered hate speech in the country you're performing in, not too smart. Subsequently, Bradshaw's gotten himself canned by CNBC, as well as drawing some negative mainstream press for the WWE. What a tool. Of course, since Vince loves him to death, nothing will come of this employment-wise, which means that we're still going to have to endure a bullrope match at Great American Bash in three weeks.

Not much else to say tonight other than it's hot, and I'm tired, so off to bed I go.

Why I love and hate working in the video store...

People have no fucking taste.

After 6 plus years of working in an independent chain video store, this is what I have decided. Case in point, this week we have two major new releases. Mystic River, an Oscar-winning drama with great performances and a great script, and Along Came Polly, the latest piece of cinematic tripe starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. Stiller is playing stock Stiller character A, the nervous nebbish who can't get out of his own way, as opposed to Stiller stock character B, the overamped athletic stupid guy.(That will be on display in theaters next Friday in Dodgeball, which I'm looking forward to seeing when it hits video because it has a Baseketball vibe to it. But I digress.)

And what are people looking for? Not Mystic River, that's for sure. I hate, hate, hate the customers in my store. Yes, I know I'm sounding film snob-ish, but the problem with working in a place like the store I work in is that people only want to see what's new and dumb, and don't want to hear that the movie they're renting sucks. (Another digression: Our management actually discourages us from having negative opinions of films. If we don't like a film, we're not allowed to tell people it sucks. I find myself ignoring this policy, because I can't tell people, "Oh yeah, Freddy Got Fingered and House of 1000 Corpses, great movies.") Another good example is Lost In Translation. Admittedly, LIT suffered from a bad ad campaign which made most people think it was a comedy, rather then the sweet little two person character study it is, but 80-85% of my customers hated it. They'd rather rent Just Married or The Duplex.

Of course there are good things about working in the video store. I get movies before the customers do. I get a discount on purchasing movies. And every now and then, we get free screenings of movies before they come out in the theater. Next Tuesday night, in fact, the wife and I are going to see The Terminal three days before it hits the theaters. And now that I have my DVD burner, I have access to an endless amount of movies. New addition to the collection - The Criterion 3-disc edition of Luchino Visconti's The Leopard, a 1963 period piece starring Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale. Criterion has restored the original Italian version to its 3-hour running length, and has included the American dub as well(though it's not nearly as good.) I also added Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and DePalma's Sisters to the collection, and now I need to get more DVD's when I get paid.

----------------------------------

Only sort of half paid attention to Raw, but it was a good run-up to the PPV. Preview of the PPV to come on Thursday or Friday, as well as some thoughts on NWA/TNA once I've had a chance to watch the four hours of torrents that I downloaded.

Less than satisfying entertainments...

After bitching about not being able to see TNA on Friday, I slapped myself in the head and remembered the joy that is Bit Torrent. Subsequently, I downloaded the show and watched it.

Well, I'm not that impressed. To steal a bit from my boy Swift, here's my Good, Bad and Ugly about Impact.

The Good: The show is designed to be a promotional tool for TNA's PPV, and as an entry level wrestling show for WWE fans, it's not bad. Fox's production has put a ticker at the top of the screen that tells you who is wrestling and has a theoretical time limit for each match.
Also, the matches that were featured had an emphasis on actual technical wrestling of the kind that used to show up on ECW or in the first hour of Nitro. The X-Division is the kind of thing that could break the promotion out huge. (Though promoting the fact that you allow your performers to pull the kind of spots that Vince stopped letting his guys do after a few too many career-enders is not so good.)
The 6-sided ring is kind of interesting, though I don't see it being the huge innovation that the commentators want you to believe it is.

The Bad: Jeff Jarrett is the world champion. Vince Russo has an on-camera role, as does Shane Douglas, and unfortunately, so does BG Jammes, formerly known as the Road Dogg in WWE. Part of the reason that TNA is seen as a second-rate promotion is a reliance on ex-WWE stars(most of whom are no longer employed by Vince because they burned their bridges) who never were top level guys. I mean, Ron "The Truth is that I used to be K-Kwik" Killings was their world champion until this past Wednesday night.

Also bad is the utterly incessant shilling for the weekly PPV shows. I mean, I understand that you want to promote the show, but you need to give those of us who don't want to pay ten bucks a week a reason to keep watching.

The crowd is obviously ringers to an extent, as the first row was filled with people with Impact shirts and a couple of guys in Luchador masks.

And The Ugly, well, I mentioned that Jarret's the champ. And on Impact, they thawed out Dusty Freakin' Rhodes to get involved in a stupid promo with Jarrett which I guess is designed to get Jarrett over as really heelish. I mean, come on, Dusty Rhodes? Even Vince wouldn't bring Dusty back.

Overall, I'll watch the show if I can find it(or else just DL it), but it doesn't make me want to buy the PPV.

-------------------------------------------

Showtime's boxing card Saturday night pretty much sucked. It wasn't Showtime's fault, mind you, but it still was very dissatisfying, as the Lacy-Tsypko fight was halted in the second due to a nasty, nasty, nasty cut on Tsypko's forehead. Lacy and Tsypko both went for the same punch at the same time and clashed heads. Tsypko was cut nearly to the bone. Pretty bad stuff, made worse by Showtime's encouragement of Lacy's statement that Tsypko could have continued. The Verno Phillips fight only went 6, with Phillips pretty much having his way with Bojorquez. The card definitely suffered from not having Ouma, and Bojorquez did all he could with a fight that he took on 4 days notice.

-------------------------------------------

Raw tomorrow night, which should be pretty hot going into Bad Blood, and possibly a review of one of the Mondo films, if I have the opportunity to watch it.

New Stuff~!

Got some "Fell off The Back Of a Truck" DVDs tonight at the video store. Regular readers will remember my Blue Underground score of April. Well, tonight I scored again. Here's the lineup for the evening:

Abel Ferrara's Driller Killer(1979) - Ferrara's first non-adult feature is a pungent piece of 1970's cult trash, rescued from obscurity by Cult Epics. Ferarra plays an artist who goes bonkers and starts killing derelicts with a power drill. The box says that the movie was intended to be similar to Texas Chainsaw, but bears a greater resemblance to Taxi Driver. We'll have to see about that.

In A Glass Cage(1986) - This is an obscure Spanish item, also from Cult Epics, which has to do with S&M and Nazis and child killings(Fun for the whole family~!). The liner notes suggest that this film is similar to the object of last week's torture, Salo, as well as Stephen King's Apt Pupil. I'd never heard of this until Cult Epics issued it, but I'm willing to give it a try.

And the gem of the evening - The Mondo Cane Collection. Blue Underground has issued the complete oeuvre of Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, the two men who pioneered the "Mondo" documentary style. They can also be blamed for planting the seeds of Reality TV, as well as inspiring such films as The Blair Witch Project and Cannibal Holocaust. Let's look at each title in the collection.

Mondo Cane(1962) is the original "Shockumentary" that started it all. It's shocking yet scattershot, bouncing from scenes as disparate as "manhunters" in New Guinea to a pet cemetary in Pasadena to scenes of people eating bizarre food. Pretty heady stuff for 1962. Nominated for an Oscar for the song "More". Fully restored from the original negatives and featuring a documentary about the Mondo phenomenon.

Mondo Cane 2(Mondo Pazzo)(1964) is more of the same as the first, this time including people eating bugs, Fakirs, and Buddists immolating themselves in Saigon. Also restored from the original negatives.

Women of The World(1963) is pretty much explained by the title, as the boys used outtakes from the first movie to build this documentary about women's roles in the bizarroworld of their films. Narrated by Peter Ustinov. Again, restored and uncensored.

Two versions of Africa Addio(1966), the 128-minute "English Version" and the 139-minute Director's Version, shown everywhere else in the world. This is where the boys started getting themselves into trouble. Africa Addio is an account of Africa in the early 60's, as Colonialism collapses amid a sea of revolution, blood, and chaos. The American version lasted only a few weeks in theatres despite critical acclaim, and reappeared in the 70's, shorn of 45 minutes worth of political commentary and released to grindhouses as Africa Blood And Guts. Prosperi and Jacopetti disowned the shortened version, and who can blame them? They narrowly escaped Africa with their cameras and their lives, but found themselves accused of racism, exploitation and murder. Both are restored and the American cut comes with the U.S. Press Book as a DVD-Rom supplement.

Next up are two versions of Goodbye Uncle Tom(1971), a spectacularly incendiary film about the slave trade. The 123-minute English language version is not so much documentary as docudrama, but the 136-minute Director's cut, never shown anywhere, is something else entirely. Jacopetti and Prosperi originally made Addio Zio Tom as an exploration of race relations in the U.S. which included scenes of race war politics and extreme narration, including the jaw-dropping declaration that blacks should rise up against their white opressors.(Am I the only one who thinks it odd that two Italian guys are suggesting this?). Needless to say, the boys had to recut the film and rewrite the narration, basically making the official release version a completely different film. The American version includes 8mm footage shot on the set of the film, and the Director's cut has been restored from Jacopetti's own personal print of the film.

Last, but far from least, is The Godfathers of Mondo, a new documentary that examines the careers of the boys. They discuss their lives as journalists, the "tragic misunderstanding" that made them internationally infamous, and the reasons behind their bitter post-Uncle Tom breakup. Also included are interviews with their cameraman, production manager, and film historians.

I can't wait to dive into this box. It should be entertaining.

Better than Salo anyway.

Metal~!

I've been watching the VH1 100 Most Metal Moments this week, and it's been like a bad 80's flashback. The good thing is that a lot of what they're showing is not the same clips that they run on I Love The (Insert Decade Here)'s, and that they've picked a different group of people to comment then the usual suspects. Sebastian Bach of Skid Row has been particularly amusing. Of course, they show lots of Ozzy and Kiss and the bad 80's hair bands, but it's nice to see that they also feature Motorhead and have twice shown the late Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics.

There's also a great new piece of Joel Veitch animation accompanying the show, as the usual cute kitten is threatened by a number of ugly characters while singing "Run To The Hills". The Viking Kitten then rescues him with the solo. Funny stuff. More of Veitch's stuff can be seen at his website, and also in the freaky Quizno's ads run recently.

Speaking of VH1's insta-nostalgia, they're apparently prepping "I Love The 90's" to be run next month. COME ON! Do we really need nostalgia for four years ago? I can understand doing an 80's show, and a 70's show, but really. Do we need a nostalgia show about the Spice Girls and grunge and Titanic. Of course, we've encouraged VH1 by watching the other I Love shows in droves, so I figure it's only a matter of time until we get the "I Love The First Half Of The 00's". (Of course, they're already shooting that in a way, seeing as that's pretty much what "The Best Week Ever" is.)

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Boxing this weekend, though I won't get to see the fights I want to. Oscar De La Hoya and Bernard Hopkins continue their steady trudge towards their September match by taking on probably tuneup opponents tomorrow night on PPV. De La Hoya faces Felix Sturm, a mostly unknown fighter who most assume is probably easy pickings for him, but who may turn out to be somewhat dangerous due to his ability to switch hitting styles. De La Hoya's chief problem will be that this is his first fight at 160, so it will be interesting to see if the 31-year-old will hold up. (Probably not an issue.)

Hopkins on the other hand, should have an easy time of it versus Robert Allen, whom he's already whupped twice, though there has been some controversy. Hopkins initially said he wouldn't fight if ref Joe Cortez was assigned to the fight. Hopkins claimed that Cortez had a bias against him, despite the fact that Cortez has NEVER worked a Hopkins fight. Cortez and Nevada refused to back down, and Hopkins apparently decided not to lose a $15 million payday and the De La Hoya match.

Showtime has the non-PPV show this week, though it won't be as good a show as it looked. Kassim Ouma was supposed to fight Verno Phillips but has pulled out due to a back injury. The other half of the show is Jeff Lacy/Vitali Tsypko in a IBF super middleweight title eliminator match. Lacy is a top prospect and this should be a good fight, but all in all, I'd rather be watching the PPV I can't see.

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Kind of annoyed that I was unable to catch the debut of NWA/TNA Impact! today. Apparently I don't have a Fox Sports Net affiliate in my area unless MSG counts as one. So I have to wait and see Tuesday if they show Impact on MSG. I'm more curious about it then anything else, as I have never bought any of their weekly PPV shows.(Why pay for a show once a week, when there are two shows with more people I'm interested in on for free?) Eh. No big loss, I suppose.

Slacking again...

Not much to report the last two days. Memorial Day weekend was mostly a wash, due to working all four days. Raw Monday night wasn't too bad. The tag title switch to the Canadians wasn't a real surprise, as they need to get the belt off of Benoit before Bad Blood anyway. Plus the ending, which saw Edge accidentally spear Benoit instead of Conway, will lead to a good post-Bad Blood feud, probably(though it'll probably be a face vs. face respect thing. I can't imagine they're gonna turn Benoit.) Eugene's megapush continues, as he faced Kane in the Main Event, and went over without making Kane look weak. The tease of Regal going face because of Eugene continues, and they even managed to make Bischoff not look completely evil. Beyond that, it was standard Raw.

Added The Eye and Throne Of Blood to the burnapalooza collection. Have I mentioned how much I love my DVD burner?