Some times cops can be good guys. Like in 1992. And also last week.
Last week a cop was a good guy. A really good guy. A great guy. Last week a cop saved a life. That’s not normal, right? Usually we hear tales of police brutality, cops being assholes, abusing power, getting away with murder.
I don’t like that stuff. It sucks. It represents how ugly and corrupt humanity can be and can cause us to lose faith in the system that is supposed to be in place to protect us. It’s not comforting at all and it can very justifiably lead to cynicism about all police officers. Just look at how many songs are made in protest of miscarriages of justice and wrong-doings by cops. That is almost what we have come to expect.
Last week something different happened. A man was playing basketball in a men’s league in my hometown and his left arm started hurting. Breathing became a difficult task for him. He was laboring. A call was put in to 911 but he told them not to send an ambulance because his insurance wasn’t good. His friend agreed that he would drive him to the hospital. Thankfully a police officer had already shown up at the gym as he was alerted to the situation by the 911 dispatcher because right then is when the man went down. Continue reading →
The Undertaker gets paid in real money to pretend to be a zombie.
The other day Lindsey wrote a post in which she expressed a bit of disgust at the subject of professional wrestling, but praised those crazy kids dressing up like zombies and occupying Wall Street. This implies that those kids are better than professional wrestlers, in her opinion. In my opinion there CAN be wrong opinions.
Lindsey’s opinion on pro wrestling is an prime example of this type of occurrence. Of course, this should be expected. She is a girl and was born south of the Mason-Dixon line, and everybody knows that women and southerners are the biggest morons in the world!!!#badguywrestlerswag
Going into Lollapalooza there were certain acts that I considered “must see”. Being a fan of Mayer Hawthorne’s for a couple of years now and never having seen him live, he was pretty much at the top of the list. Part of the appeal of Mr. Hawthorne is his retro sound that channels Motown soul and reminds me of all the music I used to listen to with my parents as a kid. Just as his sound is a refreshing throwback, so is his live performance. The sound was crisp and the set was amazing. Certain songs were altered from their recorded version so as to let the musicians in his band, The County, to have extended solos and show off their chops. “Green Eyed Love” had some sick guitar soloing, “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” had an awesome extended intro, and the keyboardist was able to get funky with LFO manipulations on multiple songs.
Not only was the musicianship excellent, the showmanship was amazing as well. Mayer was able to get the crowd involved and keep them engaged throughout the entire set. One highlight was right after he performed “I Wish that it Would Rain”. During the song he had the crowd do a simple raining motion dance during the hook and right after he was done singing he got everyone to do it one more time as he snapped a picture of it for his Twitter account. He also taught the crowd how to do the Errol Flynn dance, which I will definitely be bringing to Sea Isle City this weekend. It’s a bit like the John Wall, but you can use both hands!!!!
This was before Mayer had us put our cameras away
Mayer also did an interesting thing regarding photography. At one point in the show he posed for everyone who had cameras, which was reminiscent of Edge and Christian’s “Five Second Pose for the benefit of those with flash photography”. After he made me think about wrestling, he had everyone put their cameras away for the rest of the show so they would just focus on the music. I haven’t seen that done before, but I loved it.
Another thing to love about the performance were the cover songs, as there were a decent amount of those. Included were Snoop Dogg and Pharell’s “Beautiful”, the Isley Brothers’ “Work to Do”, and, my personal favorite, a perfect rendition of the Hall & Oates classic “You Make my Dreams Come True.” He also played a new song off of his upcoming album that has me even more excited about that release (set for October as of this posting) than I initially was, and that’s saying something.
Overall the sound was great, the energy was up, and the times were good. I think I smiled throughout the entire set as I was extremely happy throughout. That’s the mark of an amazing performance. If you have a chance to see Mayer Hawthorne perform live you cannot pass it up. Enjoy the music.
Here are 3 songs that were performed during the set:
The Greatest Intercontinental Champion Ever loved music, too
I love music. I also love wrestling. With the superbowl of wrestling, Wrestlemania, coming up I figured I should combine the two and do a wrestling themed post here. If you are reading this and are a musician, sample some of these songs and make something awesome.
Ain’t No Grave by Johnny Cash is up first. I always thought that the funeral march was the best entrance that the Undertaker could have. Then he started coming out to this song. Johnny Cash was a badass and this song fits Undertaker’s character perfectly. They took the best entrance in wrestling and made it even better.
Speaking of the Undertaker, his Wrestlemania opponent has a pretty sweet entrance theme himself. Performed by Motorhead, Play The Game signals the arrival of Triple H. It’s also played before Celtics home games. This combines music, wrestling, and basketball. That’s AWWEEESOOMMMMMEEEEEE, to borrow a phrase from the Miz.
Let’s use basketball as a segue. My tag team logging partner for the 2008 NBA Finals, Kenny Murals, said that whenever he heard Hulk Hogan’s Theme his heart would start racing. My friend Tim feels the same way as he just lost an arm wrestling match to a 400 pound man but he is certain he would have won if Real American was playing. The song is that powerful. It got Kenny and I through some really late nights at the NBA and it would have gotten Tim through that arm wrestling match.
Hulk Hogan does have his haters, as evidenced by Be a Man, Macho Man Randy Savage’s diss track. Hogan has yet to release a mixtape in response, though his daughter Brooke has an album that I haven’t heard, so maybe it’s on there.
Ric Flair is not a theme song, it’s a track by rapper Trazz that encourages us to do a dance that is modeled after the patented Nature Boy Strut. Go ahead and strut around, pat your hair with it, lemme see you Ric Flair with it. I feel like this should be way bigger than the Dougie. WOOOOO!!!
With Youtube around, we have been able to witness a number of wedding receptions with wrestling elements. If I ever tie the knot I’m coming out to Shawn Michaels’ entrance music and the lucky lady will be holding a mirror for me like Sherri did in the early HBK days. I’m not budging on that. Also, my sons will be named Daryl the Fourth, Larry Joe Bird Hatfield, and Bret The Hitman Hart Hatfield. Those are the rules, ladies.
Razor Ramon brings us the only instrumental track in this post. This theme is just cool. It’s so cool that I asked them to play it at my job every time I walked in the building. They didn’t. I quit. You wanna be like Razor, you gotta do like Razor, chico.
Chris Jericho was the first Undisputed Champion ever, he’s written two books, he has a band that tours the world, and he is currently on Dancing With the Stars. And people think that wrestlers are just roided out dumb jocks. Martyr No More is a track from Jericho’s band Fozzy’s latest album “Chasing the Grail”.
Jericho isn’t the only singing wrestler. Junkyard Dog released Grab Them Cakes in the 80s and my college radio station had it on vinyl. This was a favorite to play and one show was even named after it.
If you watched wrestling growing up, you learned from geniuses.
As we round out this post I think it’s a good time to explain why I love wrestling. It’s simple, wrestling is life. The story telling, while fantastic and unbelievable for the most part,usually gets a moral across. Growing up I always trained, took my vitamins and said my prayers. As I grew older I understood the importance of intelligence, integrity, and intensity. I don’t trust anybody and I know that it doesn’t matter what your name is our what you think. My friend Scott once said that he can list countless life lessons he learned from sports entertainment. I think Hot Chip sums it up best with the line “All I know , I know from watching wrestling” in their song Wrestlers . They use wrestling as an analogy for a difficult relationship and beg their lover not to fight dirty and hit them with a chair. They also sing that everyone knows that Monday night means wrestling, which is very important to tell your significant other in order to make the relationship work.
BONUS
I can’t do a post about wrestling and music without mentioning the most electrifying musical performance in sports entertainment history. The Rock, who hosts Wrestlemania this year, performed a Rock Concert for the lucky people of Sacramento right in the middle of the ring.
