Random Thoughts, Random Things

Did you ever notice that when ever you draw a generic human face with no descernible features, it ends up looking scarily similar to Jason Taylor? I have half of Jason Taylor’s face in the margain of my my to-do list, drawn with a creepy realistic eye, and its starting to freak me out. I have staring contests with him when I’m bored.

I randomly stumbled upon Viva La Hova yesterday. Viva is a mash-up album that combines Coldplay’s music with Jay-Z’s flow. The outcome is wicked good. That’s right, I busted out “wicked”; that’s how good it is. Go check it out, it’s a free download and its worth the couple hundred MBs on your TB harddrive. Woah, geek speak. Almost turned into iGreggor there for a second.

This week in YouTube: Pat Boccuzzi’s Stand-Up. This guy is friend’s with my best friend and is apparently going to be on some show coming to the CW (which, knowing the CW, will get cancelled half-way through the pilot). He’s fucking hysterical though. Check it out. Also check out this relic. If you know who Jim Hensen and Michael Stipe are, this video is your wet dream. It is also the happiest I’ve ever seen Michael Stipe. Maybe he’s secretly a furry. And finally, rounding out the top three is this Pay-Per-View preview from Ring of Honor: video. The video features Roderick Strong and Erick Stevens, two guys I’ve got to see in person, and these guys are hard-fuckin’-core. The first minute of the video does a nice retrospective of their feud against one another before showing why they’re teaming up for this pay-per-view. If you like wrestling and you’ve never heard of Ring of Honor, you have to check them out. Leave a comment on this post and I’ll tell you how. If you used to like wrestling, but don’t anymore because ECW is gone, DEFINITELY check out Ring of Honor. Again, leave a comment, I’ll hook you up.

I get a lot of crap for being a wrestling fan, and frankly I don’t understand why anymore.

• “How can you like that, it’s fake?”

First of all, it is partially “choreographed” and the outcomes are “pre-determined”, but professional wrestling is anything from fake, just ask John Stossel (in defense of David Schultz, this was back before kayfabe was broken and he’d have gotten fired if he hadn’t slapped Stossel). If wrestling were fake then Chris Benoit wouldn’t have gone crazy from the severe truama to his head that caused him to kill his family and himself (not, as is the popular belief, “roid rage”). In addition to that, isn’t EVERYTHING on television fake? Comedies are fake. Drama are fake. Lawyer shows, doctor shows, cop shows: fake, fake, fake. Reality TV is fake. Hell, even the news is fake, just ask Dan Rather.

• “The acting is so bad. It’s so stupid.”

“Grey’s Anatomy.” “Desperate Housewives.” “Sex and the City.” Everything on the CW (except “Supernatural” and “Reaper”). I’m sorry, you’re going to say what I watch is stupid? Those shows haven’t had a decent storyline or plot-twist since their inception. Not to mention the fact that they are overloaded with brutally terrible actors. Yeah, wrestling is zany and over-the-top, but it doesn’t pretend NOT to be. How any could watch garbage like “Desperate Housewives” is way beyond my ability to comprehend (of course, women are beyond my comprehension in general, but that’s a whole other post).

• “It’s barbaric. It’s asinine. It’s juvenile.”

Professional football isn’t barbaric? MMA/UFC isn’t barbaric? NASCAR crashes aren’t barbaric (minus the obvious irony of relating barbarians to automobiles)? Isn’t “Survivor” barbaric? And what about “The Hills” “Rock of Love”, “Flava of Love”, “Jackass”, “Viva La Bam”? Aren’t these asinine and juvenile, too? “The Soup”, “TMZ”, “Inside Edition”, “Entertainment Tonight”: all asinine, perverted, and juvenile. At least pro wrestling doesn’t feed into the sick voyueristic fetish of the American populace like Perez Hilton does (NB: I refuse to link Perez Hilton, no matter how many hits it might get me).

• “All it is, is the same thing over and over again.”

“ER” has been on the air since 1994. In 1994, ECW was still Eastern Championship Wrestling, Razor Ramon was fighting Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania X, and Randy Savage was still doing Slim Jim commercials. Meanwhile, “ER” was a show about doctors. Fast-forward to 1997. WCW and WWF(E) enter the Monday Night Ratings War. Wrestling hits its all-time peak between 1997-2001. Enter: the nWo, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley (who becomes a multi-time New York Times best-selling author). Hardcore matches become the norm thanks to the influence of the aforementioned ECW (now EXTREME Championship Wrestling). Kayfabe is broken, and everything becomes edgier. Meanwhile, “ER” is still a show about doctors. Fast forward to present day, everyone knows that wrestling is fake but an upstart company called TNA is seeking to catch up with the former monolopy: WWE. And in the Indys, Ring of Honor is the heir to the ECW throne, looking to set the standard the same way its predecessor did. While, “ER”, you guessed it: is still a show about doctors… oh, and it’s going off the air.

I win. You lose. Go watch your garbage, I’ll watch mine.

Photoshop is awesome. I’m not whiz kid at Photoshop, but I enjoy fooling around with it (sounds like I’m describing my relationship with a girl from college). Anyways, I found this AWESOME artist’s drawing of Kurt Cobain with angels’ wings online, and my first thought was: “how cool would it be if I could make that drawing look like me?” So I saved the picture as a .PSD, opened up Photoshop and went to down on it. Below are the original and my picture:

Kurt Angel

Vinny Angel

Well that’s about all I’ve got for my random-ass thoughts and links for today.

Oh, I almost forgot: November has been an amazing month for The Dead Pool. Apparently, a lot of you have been telling your friends about this site, and I can’t thank you enough for that. This month has already set the record for most views in a month (at this writing: 409 views), busiest day (95 views in one day), and busiest week (198 views). Thanks to everyone who made that possible.

Peace,

{VM}