Beer, blood & cornmeal: seven years of incredibly strange wrestling PDF
Preview Beer, blood & cornmeal: seven years of incredibly strange wrestling
I am so glad this book got written. Take a beloved symptom of American trash culture, add punk DIY and attitude, invite the zoo and it’s the best party around. Like music and sex, wrestling is so much more fun when it’s local, no-budget, and sleazy. How? Here’s how. Read it, dig it, learn the ropes and go out and infect your town. –JeLLo BIAfRA (Singer, spoken word flamethrower, and former wrestling manager) In this unforgettable insider’s account of the bygone era when punk rock and wrestling ruled San francisco, Bob Calhoun (aka Count Dante) proves that he’s still the fastest mouth in the business. You may run, but you won’t be able to hide from this gleefully warped tale. I couldn’t put it down. –MATTHeW PoLLY, author of “American Shaolin” Incredibly Strange Wrestling was the bastard offspring of post-punk garage rock and masked Mexican lucha libre. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho, and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived up to its billing. Christians fought lions, Ku Klux Klowns squared off against Hasidic Jews, and Bigfoot mauled hapless hippies in some of the most surreal grappling ever staged. And if that wasn’t enough, cult bands such as NOFX, The Dickies, and The Donnas provided the rock and roll between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy clubs of San Francisco’s South of Market scene to headline the historic Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Vans Warped Tour. At the height of its popularity, Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong and Metallica’s James Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) with the rest of the hell heads, booze- hounds, and tattooed party girls who made up ISW’s rabid following. Bob Calhoun broke into ISW as an untrained grappler and rose through the ranks to become one of the creative forces behind the subversive carnival. In BEEr, BLOOD & COrNMEAL, he delves into ISW’s organized insanity with all of the dark humor it deserves — even as the threat of real violence lurks at the fringes of the fake fights and wrestlers disturbingly become their squared circle alter egos. A story of urban misfits risking their necks for local celebrity — all told against the backdrop of the dot com boom and bust and increasingly corporate entertainment — BEEr, BLOOD & COrNMEAL sets the big business of the music industry on a collision course with the lowest rung of the professional wrestling ladder. When he’s not being hit by steel chairs or HfCScliihaoesgrn-g ho aewtnfunoiirtdrncah kglno“ ecrJhS,i uaa”sodss cfo qSo ”aua m palBaGptoareecnytnah.-ierecaa esorlLd,me e ,aaBiB renoaftl Bnrsl“ de ’TC eashA“ln eLfada Hin uSolcHtaUmeoonNf lb ajlifixoyors.uwga ”rorna noac Hadpiel hs isycist,ostu .nt th e “The Godfather of Grappling.” ISBN-13: 978-1-55022-827-4 ISBN-10: 1-55022-827-7 ECW Press $19.95 Distributed in the USA by Independent Publishers Group and in Canada by Jaguar Book Group ecwpress.com ECW BeerBloodCornmealCover_FINAL.indd 1 2/20/08 8:28:18 AM 6x9 trim size spine measure is 0.8528” I am so glad this book got written. Take a beloved symptom of American trash culture, add punk DIY and attitude, invite the zoo and it’s the best party around. Like music and sex, wrestling is so much more fun when it’s local, no-budget, and sleazy. How? Here’s how. Read it, dig it, learn the ropes and go out and infect your town. –JeLLo BIAfRA (Singer, spoken word flamethrower, and former wrestling manager) In this unforgettable insider’s account of the bygone era when punk rock and wrestling ruled San francisco, Bob Calhoun (aka Count Dante) proves that he’s still the fastest mouth in the business. You may run, but you won’t be able to hide from this gleefully warped tale. I couldn’t put it down. –MATTHeW PoLLY, author of “American Shaolin” Incredibly Strange Wrestling was the bastard offspring of post-punk garage rock and masked Mexican lucha libre. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho, and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived up to its billing. Christians fought lions, Ku Klux Klowns squared off against Hasidic Jews, and Bigfoot mauled hapless hippies in some of the most surreal grappling ever staged. And if that wasn’t enough, cult bands such as NOFX, The Dickies, and The Donnas provided the rock and roll between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy clubs of San Francisco’s South of Market scene to headline the historic Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Vans Warped Tour. At the height of its popularity, Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong and Metallica’s James Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) with the rest of the hell heads, booze- hounds, and tattooed party girls who made up ISW’s rabid following. Bob Calhoun broke into ISW as an untrained grappler and rose through the ranks to become one of the creative forces behind the subversive carnival. In BEEr, BLOOD & COrNMEAL, he delves into ISW’s organized insanity with all of the dark humor it deserves — even as the threat of real violence lurks at the fringes of the fake fights and wrestlers disturbingly become their squared circle alter egos. A story of urban misfits risking their necks for local celebrity — all told against the backdrop of the dot com boom and bust and increasingly corporate entertainment — BEEr, BLOOD & COrNMEAL sets the big business of the music industry on a collision course with the lowest rung of the professional wrestling ladder. When he’s not being hit by steel chairs or HfCScliihaoesgrn-g ho aewtnfunoiirtdrncah kglno“ ecrJhS,i uaa”sodss cfo qSo ”aua m palBaGptoareecnytnah.-ierecaa esorlLd,me e ,aaBiB renoaftl Bnrsl“ de ’TC eashA“ln eLfada Hin uSolcHtaUmeoonNf lb ajlifixoyors.uwga ”rorna noac Hadpiel hs isycist,ostu .nt th e “The Godfather of Grappling.” ISBN-13: 978-1-55022-827-4 ISBN-10: 1-55022-827-7 ECW Press $19.95 Distributed in the USA by Independent Publishers Group and in Canada by Jaguar Book Group ecwpress.com ECW BeerBloodCornmealCover_FINAL.indd 1 2/20/08 8:28:18 AM 6x9 trim size spine measure is 0.8528” Seven Years of Incredibly Strange Wrestling BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 1 2/14/08 9:59:23 AM BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 2 2/14/08 9:59:24 AM BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 3 2/14/08 9:59:26 AM Copyright © Bob Calhoun, 2008 Published by ecw press 2120 Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada m4e 1e2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and ecw press. library and archives of canada cataloguing in publication Calhoun, Bob Beer, blood & cornmeal / Bob Calhoun. isbn 978-1-55022-827-4 1. Incredibly Strange Wrestling. 2. Calhoun, Bob. 3. Punk rock music. 4. Garage rock music. 5. Wrestlers—California—San Francisco—Biography. 6. Journalists—California—Biography. i. Title. gv1195.c34 2008 796.812092 c2007-907095-7 Editor: Michael Holmes Cover Design: David Gee Text Design and Typesetting: Melissa Kaita Photos are by Roger Franklin unless otherwise noted. Production and Photo Section: Rachel Brooks Printing: Webcom distribution Canada: Jaguar Book Group, 100 Armstrong Avenue, Georgetown, Ontario, l7g 5s4 United States: IPG, 814 North Franklin Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610 printed and bound in canada BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 4 2/14/08 9:59:27 AM To Jackie, my mother, for picking me out of a lineup. BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 5 2/14/08 9:59:27 AM BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 6 2/14/08 9:59:27 AM BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 7 2/14/08 9:59:29 AM BeerBloodCornmeal_FINAL.indb 8 2/14/08 9:59:30 AM
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