Pro Wrestling's Not Real, But It's Still Cool!

I love action: in films, books, comics and on TV.  Cheesy action is fun.  Violent action is intense.  But I find that I like realistic action the best, at least usually.  When the people involved in an action scene are realistically limited in their abilities and it's well-choreographed, I think it increases the excitement and the tension.

In the early nineties I was a kid.  I got hooked on watching WCW wrestling.  Sting was my favorite wrestler, with his spiked white hair, colorful face paint and great costumes.  It was sort of a California surfer persona.  Actually, when he started out he tag teamed with the guy who eventually became the Ultimate Warrior.  Anyway, I thought wrestling was completely real.  Yes, you read that right.  Real.  And at the time I didn't want to hear anything different.  I assure you there are people today who still feel like that about it.  I've moved on however.

It's pretty silly how long I held out.  But once I became a fan and student of MMA, I knew it was fake.  I mean once you've seen a real fight, even one with rules and limitations, pro wrestling looks fake.  Sorry guys.  Just the way it is.  And because MMA is real it increases the excitement and tension I feel, especially if one of the fighters is a fave of my mine.

Now, don't misunderstand me.  I'm not dissing pro wrestling.  In fact I've recently started watching one of the franchises again.  It's not real, but that's not the point.  They really do put their bodies on the line to entertain their fans, and the ongoing struggle between good and evil is constantly played out.  I'm not being flippant.  I'm serious.  It's a form of theater.  And that's not all.  The UFC has borrowed from common pro wrestling tropes.

In the late eighties/early nineties pro wrestlers started walking out to music.  Guess who does that?  MMA stars.  It's such a big deal, they market their "walkout T's" to the fans.  And promoters love it when fighters genuinely don't like each other.  Even if they're friends, there's pressure to hype the fight.  There's not that much difference between two wrestlers promoting a match and two MMA stars hyping a fight.  That's part of the weigh-ins too.  They're asked to square off with each other, and it usually becomes a stare down.

So my conclusion is simple: pro wrestling's not real, but it's still cool! 

Thanksgiving Week

Well, I admit that a good subject for this post has escaped me.  I watched Night of the Living Dead tonight with my husband.  While later zombie films are undoubtedly scarier, Romero started it all--well the flesh eating variety at least.  I'm still trying to finish my short story which I plan to share for free.  Haven't quite decided on a title yet.  That's all I've got for this week.  Happy Thanksgiving! 

No More Sparkly Vampires!

I'm not hating on Twilight, though I do think the fan base has reached a scary level.  Let me start by saying I have not read the books.  I have watched the films.  I neither loved them as the rabid fans do, nor hated them as many of my friends claim to.  Actually, I rather doubt my friends have bothered to watch them.  The thought of sparkly vampires plum scared them off.  All I'm saying is we've had enough angst-ridden, self-loathing, sadly gorgeous vampires for the time being.  It's not sad that they're gorgeous.  That's ok by me.  It's sad that they're always so sad.

I have read Anne Rice.  And she's the grandmother of modern vampires.  There's plenty of depression and questioning why so-in-so has to be so monstrous.  But she kind of makes up for it with the book The Vampire Lestat.  He's a pretty different vision of the character from Interview with the Vampire.  Lestat takes things as they come and enjoys himself.  Well, why not?  He's a vampire!

What I really want are classic vampires.  They don't want to date you or rescue you.  They want to drink your blood.  They're evil, malevolent and having a great time.  Or alternatively they try to do good, but they can't escape their own nature.  Or they love you but their idea of love is twisted by their nature.  Something deeply gothic.  That's what I enjoy the most.

The Transformers

I guess I've been a fan of the Transformers cartoon show since I was 8 or 9 years old.  Back then the struggles between Autobots and Decepticons seemed so complex and important.  And of course I loved all the transforming planes, trains and automobiles (yes, there was a train).  I failed to grasp that no one ever really died and nothing would get resolved.  My favorites were always the Decepticons.  Their internal power struggles fascinated me.

Well, recently I've been watching this stuff again on Hub, which is a channel I get.  And I realized all the science fiction elements that I had missed.  Now, anybody who casually watched the show knows that after the feature film, the story moved into space.  It was almost a different animal at that point.  But I mean even before that.  Different gadgets that they'd invent involving the sun or using highly advanced technology are some examples.  But the better stuff was talking about the ancient past of their robot societies.  Cosmic Rust is a great episode for that.  The Decepticons travel to an abandoned Autobot city and learn of an ancient scourge that destroyed the population.  Really cool stuff.

I've watched the first of the new live-action Transformers movies.  It just didn't do it for me.  Cool action scenes I grant you.  But it was way too much about the humans.  For me it was always about the robots. : )

My First Post Ever!

I guess I'm not the blogging sort.  It's kind of intimidating.  My blog title is intentionally silly, but it gets at what I'm about.  I have a fascination for action, whether it be in films, books, or games.  In my experience it's the best way to keep an audience's attention.  Over the next few posts I'll write about some of my favorite genres.  Let's see what happens!