What I'm Doing With My Life

Third Listen

I have an interesting history with this one. Back when I used to be into comics, I found a thing on Zap comics and thought the covers to be the very coolest things I'd ever seen (and they really do look cool; [Link removed - login to see] [Link removed - login to see]
[Link removed - login to see], and then I saw a film existed on the mind behind them and, even with very little knowledge of their content, I had to watch it. And man, did this leave me uncomfortable. I was in the state in my adolescence where I was compulsively masturbating but still completely ignorant of the realities of sex (I don't think I'd actually seen a woman nude at that point), so while it wasn't "mind-warping", whatever that is, it left me feeling really odd and a bit repulsed. Despite learning about how well regarded a film is was I didn't ever think I'd watch it again because "documentary about counter culture comic book author's fetishes" is pretty unappealing, but boy oh boy did I ever get a kick out of this.

Crumb's intellectual honesty, in discussing the mass of perversions that constitutes his sexuality, his tragic family history, his own misogyny, and his growing alienation to the people around him, all with such a detached acceptance of their reality, is genuinely admirable and fascinating to listen to. The film has its humorous moments (I got a laugh out of Crumb shitting on all his famous works and how the hippie movement he's so associated with was in such disagreement with him) and moments of deep poignancy (Charles' whole existence was just genuinely depressing, but the detail that was probably hardest to swallow was how his own childhood brush with homosexuality after watching Treasure Island robbed him of adolescence and left him stunted and damaged beyond repair), but more generally it's just really engaging for the whole of its length. What surprised me most about Crumb was the fact that I came away having actually developed an appreciation for its subject as an artist. The visuals were just stunning, and Crumb's total unsparing in sublimating his confusions and perversions into comics, not trying to justify them like so much other nonsense does as something else, is pretty admirable.

Couldn't find my DVD of this. Maybe I left it on the TV display case in the kitchen?

Anyways, like every white male thrust into eccentricity, I loved this film in high school, and I still like it a lot. Just a super pleasurable viewing experience with some hilarious moments. John Goodman's character is incredible, and literally every scene involving him is at the very least kind of funny, and more often outright hysterical. Walter becoming the embodiment of nihilism before the nihilists was just brilliant, and the monologue before scattering Donny's ashes is probably one of the great cinematic moments.

I did not expect this to be every bit as sublime as it was in high school; among the great feats of musical creation

Spent the time from when I got home at 11 downloading films illegally with my massive playlist of great music in the background

Sgt. Sunshine is amazing!

Took me a few listens, but this finally clicked with me. Great album

I'm still stunned by how gorgeous this all is

Gave up on this a little after 300 pages; Barth just is not my speed of post modernist. I like post modernism that retains the hysteria of Faulkner and Woolf, the dry, polite absurdism of Barth leaves me cold. I liked The Sot Weed Factor (even if I was disappointed since goodreads told me it was like Gaddis which it emphatically wasn't) as it was filled with clever lines and amusing passages, and what I guess could be called its gimmick worked for me; the gimmick in Giles Goat Boy, while I'll admit being very impressed by for about 5 pages, grew old and left bored with the little that remained beyond it. I really don't enjoy Barth's tasteful perversity (I guess) either; I don't know if Gravity's Rainbow will hold up for me like it did in high school, but, without even rereading, I can say I'd take Pynchon's shit eating over the vague terms Barth describes homosexual sex with). Barth's writing just feels like an intelligent Vonnegut at times/

"The Sandman was a fat, out of shape, alcoholic Paul Heyman turned into a cult hero. That's amazing booking"

And like that my interest in the Sandman's work was piqued. From this match, he doesn't seem able to do much besides kill himself, though. Still, this was worth it if just for Terry Funk, who's as loveable a wreck as can be. He has everything a broken down old man needs; super charismatic, amazing character work, moving selling like everything he takes is just contributing to the heart attack he's about to have, and the ability to throw great punches. He's really limited (still able to hit TWO incredibly awkward moonsaults, though), but his swinging a ladder around and stumbling around on everything he does says more than mobility ever could.

The Raven angle at the end is pretty amazing booking. Tommy Dreamer is awesome in it, looking like an animal about to snap. It's melodramatic, and not at all my speed of pro wrestling story telling, but it is a glimpse into why ECW continues to inspire such romantic cult-like adoration

My first M-Pro match! Ahh, the nostalgia for two years ago, the sense that I really was watching something that would be the gateway into sheer joy.

It's a good match, to be certain. It's the standard M-Pro stuff I dig; Kaientai DX have fun moments of control where they dickishly run through cool team offense and play awesome heels, all the faces have moments of shine amidst they're bastardry which are super fun (Yakushiji has the best ranas and Gran Hamda's combination of veteran technician work and old guy who can still hang is superb), and then the wild sequences and pin break ups at the end. Great finishing run here, with loads of cool spots, probably my favorite of which is the inverted atomic drop to counter the top rope frankensteiner. Sasuke some times feels out of place in these matches as he just doesn't have the smoothness of the others, but he really can hold his own in a wild hucking of bombs and brings a big time finish. This is really just the standard super fun M-Pro multi man before a crowd that chants "ECW" and "Power Ranger" in between silence, sub par camera work, and a ring that makes an annoying sound.

I am again just amazed by Dick Togo. I know him more as the guy it's impossible to have a bad match with I've seen get amazing matches with people like Antonio Honda, but he was something else in his bygone days as well, this weird hybrid junior who was one of the smoothest despite being one of the chubbiest who could take offense with an unmatched grace but also bust out great power offense like that gorgeous powerslam.

This is one of those matches like Punk vs. Joe II that's so great until it breaks under its own run time, and actually has a point at which if falls off and, no matter how good the work that follows in isolation, just can't recover as a whole. Daniels cuts off a Joe assault with this neck twist thing I think Tanahashi uses in a dramatic moment, then from there they lose the pace. There's things like a back body drop counter to set up a kickout off a signature, a protracted superplex build up, and Joe locking in one of his less important submissions while someone was still in the ring to break it up that just feel so out of place after a bunch of wild false finishes and break neck sequences. The last AJ/Joe exchange was really cool, but really almost everything there didn't work for me.

Still, before that, this is a world class spotfest. Joe, much like Aries in the below match, is the standout, as he not only fits in with the wild sequences, he adds his own flavor to the match through his offense. From what I understand, Joe didn't care much about wrestling while in TNA (including not giving much for a match up I'd kill a small child to see today against Akiyama (Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 2017 Joe vs. 2017 Akiyama)), but he gives maximum effort here, cutting off Daniels' run in with the built with a Kawada jumping high kick, countering AJ's roll up sequence with this awesome looking double wakigatame, and hitting an awesome dive expertly set up by a great Daniels/Styles sequence to precede it. AJ was great in this as well, as he not only brought the crispness but the fire, believably taking it to Joe in strike exchanges.

I was considering watching this without audio, as the thought of Mike Tenay yelling about how this is the greatest match ever with that Billy Mays' guy was not pleasant, but, while they did ruin a great moment yelling "DANIELS HAS THE BELT" when the camera very purposefully didn't catch that, I'm really glad I didn't as the crowd in this is really great. They chant some harmless stuff, but they still absolutely fucking lose it all match. Joe does his senton sequence, and they go absolutely fucking mad.

Figured while I was watching TNA four ways that wasted no time I'd give this its fair shake.

Getting the negative out of the way first, this goes too long. There's shockingly a total absence of downtime, and they're pretty sparing with kickouts, but there's only so long a match based around four different parties running through fancy exchanges at break neck speed should go, and I think this passes it a little.

Other than maybe a minute or two of stuff I could have done without, this was a killer, killer spotfest, though. I LOVED Aries in this, maybe the most I've ever enjoyed a performance of his (on one hand not saying much since I'm not especially versed in his work, though on the other saying quite a bit since I'm a fan of what I have seen); his heel schtik is really entertaining in this context, as he does things like back rake everyone in a way that doesn't feel like he's winking and saying "see, I'M A HEEL", and, more impressively, he not only fits in in a match based around guys doing fancy offense, he comes off the crispest and sharpest through only comparatively (very comparatively) undynamic offense. He ends one sequence with Jack Evans with a back elbow, and it works perfectly. Everything was super crisp and beautifully done, and they kept up the excitement to the end; just straight up fun stuff.

This has been a curiosity viewing for awhile now. I remember I treated a "Best TNA matches" pack on XWT as my more pretentious equivalent of the "minus stars" match pack, and went into this expecting the dumbest match possible. Then it turned out to be an awesome spotfest with crazy spots and Jeff Hardy taking the coolest dive ever.

It holds up, to be sure. Probably the best thing about the match is that it doesn't go long, so everything really seems to build off of everything and the sense of wildness is never lost. It's all really cool, the Sabu chair tossing, the Abyss strength spots, Jeff Hardy jumping off things (seriously, what the hell is his vertical leap?). The finish is the one thing that doesn't work here, since Hardy, after killing himself, becomes totally afraid to take anything resembling a neck bump (I'm not gonna fault him for killing himself on a pile driver, but, much like Abyss being willing to assault people with weapons but not punch them, the inconsistency is a bit confusing), but otherwise this is everything a wild hardcore multi man brawl is supposed to be.

Well, this won a landslide victory for "best opening arc in a shonen series"

This was the Steamboat I wanted; amazing chops, lots of wild offense, great selling, the work just agrees the legacy here. He and Funk have a heck of a brawl, just berating each other with all sorts of great shots and selling it in their facials beautifully. I criticized Steamboat for over expressiveness, and yeah, he is theatrical, but the more important thing is that he is expressive, you do see the pain, the exhaustion, the intensity and intent in comeback. It's been awhile since I've watched a Terry Funk match, and I honestly forgot how fantastic he was; the punches, the charisma, the face that shows so much, aw man he rules. When this goes from Stemaboat and Funk stiffing each other to standard face/heel wrestling, it does fall off a bit, but it's still good stuff given how adept they are in the roles. Funk's selling for Steamboat's comeback was really something (his sell of the flying overhand chop was a real thing of beauty, the way the body just went completely limp and life seemed to leave him). Crappy finish, but hey, the 80's and all

Bought this awhile ago and just found it today under my bed. I wonder where I left Misawa and Ogawa vs. Kobashi & Kikuchi?

This is really my speed of wrestling; Hashimoto punking scrubs while still giving them moments of shine through selling, Honda in the role of credible underdog (the same role Hase so excelled in; what's with these olympic guys and their fitness for that role), Inoue giving so much effort he nearly transcends his own status as nobody against pro wrestling's most violent force, all this before a rabid crowd. One of the things I love about the interpromotional dynamic is the narrative of undercarders being tasked with becoming representatives of their promotion, and through it have actually legitimately risen and given strong performances in great matches. Inoue was very much an example of this, as, in pre-chubby loser afraid of streamers of form (and likely even less of a threat to Hashimoto for it), he takes it so desperately to team Zero-1 that you can't but love it. The rush of elbows to bring Hash down to a knee, the Argentine backbreaker spot (something I'm sure elicited a cheer from even the most loyal of Z1 patrons), his grabbing Yasuda's boot in a moment of high impudence, his attempt to best Hashimoto in a strike exchange; god, I love Masao Inoue! This was much more his match, but Honda had a great showing here as well, being the man everyone disregards despite having a diamond skull and an Olympic pedigree. Really the only fault is the premature finish; it would be nice to see it as, like the botch from Sasuke vs. Liger, something that actually fit in with the narrative and a positive, but sadly no, that was a botch and this was an unfortunate end to what was invariably awesome pro wrestling, and I'm not enough of a George Costanza to will something through thought alone. Still, this everything an interpromotional match between guys low on the totem pole and the ace ought to have been while it lasted, and is really puro resu in a nutshell.

Awesome match, and despite more being another chapter in the saga that culminated in the December classic a really inspired and, at least by anyone else's standards, a "big match". Very King's Road in layout, from the awesome opening sequence, to Kobashi destroying Akiyama with bombs, and Akiyama coming back with brutal and very intense limb work. Of their matches, this is perhaps the one that feels the most in keeping with the 90's All Japan style (certainly moreso than their '97 epic). Of course, that means there's also an awesome closing run. It's not so much about the massive kickouts that would mark their later two bouts, but it's super dramatic all the same, with unique false finishes like the jacknife counter and Kobashi's double wristlock, and the few nearfalls were all expertly built to. Such a great finish as well, one I've seen conceptually taken by a handful of New Japan guys and I can really understand why.

While it's not the sublime experience I'd hoped for given that it's the match up that produced one of the greatest TV matches ever without two commercial breaks necessitated by Muhammad Hussan segments, it's still Regal and Benoit destroying one another, and is accordingly awesome. I really do love this style of wrestling; totally committed to violence as much (hell, considering this match has a such lopsided ass-kicking to spot ratio, I'd say more) as a Shibata matcg, yet in such small ways. Not small in the sense of nuanced or under-stated, but in that individual strikes and holds by these men just feel so much more deeply brutal than most wrestlers' entire sequences of strikes or bombs. The way they just grab a limb or show the pain of a hold feels so deeply violent, to say nothing of things like Benoit Kobashi face chopping Regals's cut or how intent on stopping Benoit's breathing Regal seems with his awesome stretch plum variant. I have to say, even for Benoit vs. Regal, the brutality of Benoit's headbutts really caught me off guard; it felt like this suddenly became a Yuki Ishikawa match for a moment. As with Velocity classic, this ends immediately with crossface which is annoying since how can any wrestling fan not want more of this, but even this made to feel like a proper close to the battle by how desperately Regal tries to hold off the cross face.

I really am saddened by the fact that matches like this are such a rarity in wrestling. It's the result of crowds expecting more traditionally great matches, which is certainly a good thing that's in part responsible for producing a year filled with top to bottom great shows, but I really would like to see two workers just embrace this style, with its clear ceiling and all, and produce a work that begins and ends with violence.

I loved Steamboat in the Chi-Town Rumble, just busting out all sorts of killer offense and wrestling with this wild unpredictability, and felt the absence of this really made the following two matches in the "trilogy" such steps down from the classic. I'd really hoped this would be able to give me another glimpse at that, but sadly it wasn't to be. His striking is great, but his selling took away from the match; the over expressiveness and silly gestures are one thing (though things like that weird proto fighting spirit shoulder tackle sell were just plain bad, era, style, and audience expectations and all considered), but all of his comebacks just seem like sequences of weak looking offense hit on cue. Some of the blame falls on the match lay out, though, which is real bad; for a match so heavily based in face/heel character dynamics, there's no extended heat passage or anything of the kind, just brief suggestions of control in between bad workrate stuff. It's not just the bizarrely back and forth nature of it all, it's things like Steamboat sort of half milking an arm hold at points; all these disparate elements just serve to detract from one another, and the match flounders in the midst of its own confusedness. Austin does some fun character stuff like miming Steamboat's whole silly karate pose, but the layout more or less negates his ability to play an effective heel when so much of his work is based around rope running. The final minute did have some really nifty stuff on Austin's part like the repeated attempts at throwing Steamboat over the top rope and throwing the referee in the way of Steamboat's flying Baba chop, but Steamboat just throwing (again, admittedly very good) chops and using weak looking pins doesn't make for a compelling foil.

This is a masterpiece.

Aku no Hana is a unique in that it is so viscerally unpleasant not from its commitment to being so but rather to its unsparingness in realizing the plight of its characters. Kasuga's a fascinating character; by his own admission empty, his alternating desires to escape the confines of the mountain encased city and to live a traditionally normal life leaves him sitting weakly somewhere in between, pressing books by Frenchmen against himself while going along with the banality of the collapsing city, and its in simultaneous movement away from his complacency down both paths that destroys his entire being piece by piece. His suffering, both from Nakamura's torment and his own crippling guilt, is documented not just with keeness, but in increments; perhaps the most hard to stomach part of the series is the way Kasuga just seems to break more and more, in the moments preceding the cathartic release that is his destruction of the classroom, one of the single most memorable scenes in fiction, stumbling exhaustedly and breaking into tears, just existing as such a wreck that his outburst seems inevitable. The high point of the series is Kasuga's admission of inauthenticity in every aspect of his life, the voluntary destruction of his own being to precede a moment of clear high symbolism in the literal destruction of the Flower of Evil. Its final episode is perhaps the most profoundly affecting; Nakamura the whole series through seemed a perverse feminine ogre just thriving in cruelty and amorality, and yet in humanizing her character becomes all the harder to watch. I'm reminded of Lolita; in defining an unabashedly evil existence by the deep wounds its suffered, I'm left just sort of stilled and, if not moved, at least in some way affected. It's the mark of a successful work of art that you feel how you were intended to feel, but it's things like this, like The Recognitions, like 6/9/95, where I feel something literally outside of the realm of articulation that I live for. Isolation is a difficult thing to document artfully; here, with understated mastery, it's shown more thoroughly and harrowingly than I can ever recall.

Lovely series; the characters were all charming, the story was engaging, the dynamic of romance was artfully played to, all the things dealing with acting were fun, just all around a great work.

Another take on Hokuto vs. Kandori and a glimpse at probably the most tantalizing dream match that never was in joshi for the price of one! This match makes the nonexistence of Kong vs. Kandori really frustrating, as the interactions here aren't just awesome, they really feel like the prelude to something else. They don't have any sequence of unloading big bombs like Hokuto/Kandori, just a lot of meanness and ill will and violence like Kandori trying to break Aja's grip on a boston crab by grinding her boot across her face repeatedly or the nasty headbutt sequence (to say nothing of all the taunting). Hokuto vs. Kandori is still amazing, lots of ultra violence and deep hatred as you'd expect not far removed of their Dreamslam war. Hokuto's spin kick will never stop look amazing; I can not think of one other repeated spot that just gets a "oh shit" everytime. I liked Sawai in this as well; rather than just being their as odd woman out, she adds a dynamic of being about as big as Aja yet the lowest in terms of promotional hierarchy. Some big nearfalls for a random tag, and the finish off the dragon suplex counter was something really cool I never saw before, and again Kandori's submissions have a quality of just looking so much more violent than anyone else's I can think

I needed more Aja vs. Kandori in my life, and thought it was time to rewatch this. Of the things I watched in high school, this is one of the few matches to stand out in memory as something that really blew my mind back when pro wrestling was more of an interesting novelty and unique world than one of the main reasons I continue to live. Obviously, it was more for the ridiculous amount of violence and a pace without any downtime than its actual merits, but it's a match that holds a special place for me.

And, unsurprisingly, it's AMAZING. Aja/Bull is such an amazing team, just busting all sorts of brutal ways to torture Kandori and Hokuto, most memorably being Aja's wicked STF. She just presses against the nose of Kandori with such violence, it makes the most difficult to breathe in looking facelock of Misawa's look loose. Naturally, as the ultimate monster pairing, they control most of the match, but there's loads of ass kicking all around. I don't know what's more awesome about Hokuto; that she has the charisma to believably stand up to Aja in exchanges, or the offense to believably win (and more broadly the most sickening face slaps). Probably the thing I most love about Hokuto is her world class selling (legitimately one of the best sellers ever), but I can't but embrace all the Hokuto goodness. The body comprises loads of great control (including a smaller Hokuto peril passage to precede the big one at the end) and loads of amazing sequences, and despite the run time, all the great ultra violence, charisma, selling, and generally inspired work make it a pleasure. This gets really spectacular when they start trying to finally put away Hokuto, and her extended selling is some of the best you'll ever see. The Kandori narrative comes full circle as she begins to work as hard to win the match, and it all culminates in a deeply satisfying finish.

The Kandori/Hokuto dynamic is played to so masterfully here. The dynamic of enemies tagging is generally at best an interesting distraction, while here it's a long term narrative that begins even before the bell and develops fascinatingly, adding a narrative layer to all the incredible action and producing a really satisfying post-match.

Just how good Hokuto is is truly blinding

First listen

This ruled! My first music purchase in a long time, and the best I've ever made besides Sticky Fingers back in, god, 2010?. It starts out with two darn good singer/songwriter songs, but then it decides to become an abberation from his work prior to this point and become a wild rockabilly work. The last two songs are two of Lookman's better to this point and are wild and energetic, but not without Salami's spectacular wit ("I took the word of my generation and they can't even spell!")

First Listen

Trying to knock out "why haven't I listened to this yet" things. Considering what I know of this band already, this is more "what the fuck is wrong with me?", though.

Sadly didn't get to give this a close listen since I was so damn tired (I woke up at 5), but it seemed real good

I watched this about two years ago when I had this horrible approach to watching pro wrestling of gauging things against a rubric of excellence rather than looking at something for its individual merits. I was the asshole who watches the G1 Climax and shits on a bunch of matches for not being 5 star epics.

This time over, I really dug this. It reminded me a lot of Brock vs. Rey from October 2002, in that Cannon throws it all in on every flurry and Kong just cuts him off with such effortlessness as to be just stunning. Kong seems like a really cool monster; he's got lots of awesome fat guy offense like a terrifying cannonball senton and a stunning fallaway slam. While they never build to anything really competitive (understandable, the size difference is absurd), Kong does a really good job of incrementally showing vulnerability, and when he falls to a knee, it feels immense. Lots of really fun and smart big vs. little stuff, with a really cool finish.

Before anything, the fact that Ohtani's dad looks identical to him is incredible; it's like microevolution wasn't even enacted.

This is an awesome match. Ohtani's heavyweight work has had some really cool stuff, but I've been really underwhelmed with his juniors work. He has a lot of the same strengths, but the style of NJPW 90's junior wrestling is so lite on things like transition or proper escalation all the talent of the participants just seems wasted. This, on the other hand, is easily the best he's looked and he's AMAZING. So much great selling, such a deep level of expressiveness even by his standards. I've always thought the whole "running back up to the top rope after getting knocked down" spot was really cool, yet here, due to his selling, it's just amazing.

The pacing in this was also real great. The opening had such a tension about it; rather than standard juniors high level exchanges, the way these too keep going for big scores almost reminded of an All Japan opening. All the athletic stuff, in addition to looking great, acts as the means to really cool transitions, and there's even some quality technical work! Just great stuff all around

Man, what the hell is ADR doing and why isn't it just peeling off dream match sprint after dream match sprint with great wrestlers before hot crowds?

This is exactly what a dream match sprint should be, as they reel off all sorts of nifty counters into and out of signatures with a sense of struggle and escalation. It's worked back and forth, with both really struggling for control, both throwing a counter or piece of desperation offense when the other seems to have scored an advantage. It's (I assume) a difficult style to work, as each transition needs to be quick yet feel thorough, and major credit, this never lost the sense of struggle and just kept building. Super fun stuff, I really hope we get to see ADR wrestle more quality opponents

Many listens

Such a great album, and it manages to just keep impressing more every time. His voice is truly incredible, maybe even better than Gram Parsons, and it brings the most out of all the fantastic arrangements. From a Silver Phial and Life's Greatest Fool are my favorites at this point, songs I can't believe aren't heralded as cornerstones of Americana, but I really love all of this

Part one in my attempt to catch up on all the TV backlog I have from the last few years.

This had a really cool dynamic; Orton wants to make this his match with stops and basic arm holds, and Ambrose has none of it, constantly throwing out offense and getting separation. There's an urgency to all of it, as both have a lot of intent in there efforts to shut out the other. We are denied any sort of finishing stretch which is a shame (though I assume this match has already happened on Smackdown a few times now and has probably been real real good (I can only hope)), but there's still some inspired ring work here like the extended build to Ambrose's tope. Fun TV stuff

The best guitar playing ever, right here. J. Masics shreds as no one else can, and applies his virtuoso to these amazing Neil Young-esque melodies. It's an album that expresses what I guess can be described as an utter stated agony; Masics sounds like a pained adolescent white male who's too bored to be maudlin yet too miserable to sing of anything else, and I at least find it really affecting. His voice in songs like In a Jar and Tarpit really move in a way I thought I'd grown out of being moved. Every song here is amazing, one of the greatest albums ever.

Fuck, is the Murder Mystery good. All those weird lines said against one another while the guitars pulsate, giving way to the hypnotic keyboard with those airy vocals, and that gorgeous piano at the end. Legitimately one of my favorite songs ever, easily my favorite VU song.

And yeah, the rest is really excellent as well. The slower songs are gorgeous (especially Jesus), the more traditionally rock songs are excellent (especially I'm Beginning to See the Light), After Hours is a perfect album closer and a follow up to Lou Reed's masterpiece as a song that does so much with so little, I love this all deeply

First Listen

Real good, unsurprisingly. The title track is still one of the best things ever, combining the most incredible horn arrangements with a stunning Prince vocal performance, and the final minute is just transcendent. Pheromone ruled as well, and those awesome horns showed up a lot. I honestly don't want to listen to Papa again, though; it's not bad musically at all (the final 30 seconds were really good), but it's so uncomfortable, and unlike most attempts at uncomfortable music, it seems oblivious as to just how unpleasant it is. Sure, Frankie Teardrop is unnerving, but it reaches so far in its attempt to scare there's a silliness, one very absent from Prince's bizarre narrative of child abuse.

I really am looking forward to listening this a few more times over the next few days. The thing about Prince is, like the Beach Boys, there's just so much to an individual song the first go around is just getting a general sense, while you really come to appreciate how much there is on repeat when you've digested the contours.

Second Listen

Yeah this rules, Pheromone, Race, and Loose are all fantastic. I'm kind of getting used to how uncomfortable Papa is, and musically it is very good, kind of hypnotic, with a really cool guitar denouement.

For what, on its surface, seems such a straight forward match up, all of them so far have been really different from one another. The August '93 match is an All Japan style epic with lots of multi part transitions and nearfalls, the '98 match was a strike and bomb heavy sprint, the predecessor to the modern puro resu staple, and this one is a match based entirely around extended selling. There are two wrestlers, other than maybe Kawada and one of these guys, I would rather watch in a match based entirely around selling strikes. Hashimoto is one of the best sellers ever, but Tenryu is just something else here; the sheer agony in his expressions as he takes Hashimoto's overhand chops is stunning, some of the best facial work ever. Individual exchanges all feel incredibly meaningful through the selling, and the struggle over victor and loser really grabbed me in. Every blow has the sense that it might be the last, this is exactly what I want from a strike exchange. There are some amazingly dramatic moments as well, like Hashimoto coming back from Tenryu destroying him with punches to the mouth through a sequence of horrifying violence from the top rope, Tenryu powerbombing Hashimoto and leaving him in a pile to then go and tell him he should have stayed at the hospital only for Hash to come back with righteous vengeance, and this amazing sequence towards the end based around face punching. I love these two so much

Another supremely enjoyable M-Pro tag; it's a bit different from the others in that its body is longer and slower, and its finishing stretch feels more bomb heavy than the more break neck speed athleticism centered multi man closing passages, but it uses both of these to its benefits. The match body is filled with cool little athletic sequences, TAKA and TMIV in particular match up really well, and while it doesn't go anywhere for such a long period of time, who really cares when it's such a feel good delight. The rudos have a cool control section with lots of neat stuff as a great prelude to all the faces hitting beautiful dives one after. The crowd fucking loses it for all the big bombs in the fiery final minutes, and it's so damn fun. The finish here was really the high point, as it had a quality of total finality with a series of wild dives to complete separation and prevent another dropkick pin break up before the tiger suplex.

One of the best parts about basing your life around finding more art is exposure to things you'd never imagine you'd experience. Who would have thought I'd be listening to 90's reggae!

I dig this a lot, had deep grooves and the aggressive vocals were a great compliment. I want to make a New Day tribute video set to Champion. Untold Stories was a gorgeous acoustic song as well