DREAM DATES GONE WRONG - part 3

A version of this series originally appeared in MY DREAM DATE WITH A VILLAIN.

Fascinator, from THEY LIVE

 Sleestak, from LAND OF THE LOST

Phantom of the Opera

Wrestling A - Z

This Saturday night, Kevin Maher will be reading from Leaping Lanny Poffo's poetry collection. Get tickets HERE. 

And here's Kevin's poem about Wrestling A - Z 

A is for ANDRE, he has a posse

B is for BOBBY brainy and bossy

C is for CM, straight-edge represent!

D’s DIBIASE, wrestling’s 1%

E’s for ELIZABETH, sexy and sassy

F is for FREDDIE, he’s so fuckin’ classy

G is for GEORGE, green tongue eats turnbuckle

H is the HULKSTER with Fred Flintstone stubble

I’s IRON SHEIK, with crippling Camel Clutch

J is for JIMMY, who talks too damn much

K is for KING KONG who caused much commotion

L’s LEAPING LANNY, poetry in motion 

M is for MACHO, ooohh yeah, all the way

N is for NIKOLAI, hates U.S.A.!

O is for BARRY O, destined to lose

P’s for PAUL BEARER, a ghoul among ghouls

Q is for QUEEN KONG, self-proclaimed Glamazon

R’s ROWDY RODDY, put the damn glasses on! 

S is for SLAUGHTER, who became a cartoon

T is for TUGBOAT (also known as “Typhoon”)

U’s the UNDERTAKER, a death-obsessed hottie

V is for VENTURA, a Governing Body

W’s WARRIOR perfected the suplex

X is for X-PAC, (because his name starts with X) 

Y’s YOKOZUNA, a sumo belly driver

Z is for ZEUS, with the wall-eye of the tiger

Related posts: 

A is for ALIEN (horror movies A-Z) 

A is for ANAKIN (sci-fi movies A-Z) 

A is for AUTOMAN (sci-fi television A-Z)

A is for ANTHRAX (heavy metal A-Z) 

A is for Aeon  (animation A-Z)

GET TICKETS HERE  for

KEVIN GEEKS OUT ABOUT WRESTLING

Saturday 3/23 at 8pm

at the 92Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street, NYC 

A is for ANAKIN: #2 in a series of pop culture primers

A is for ANAKIN, born on Tattooine

B's for BARBARELLA, the Galaxy's Queen

C is for CAESER, who brought humans down

D is for DIM, not as dumb as he sounds

Who owns "They Live"? : a half-assed essay

Author Jonathan Lethem has a boner for the movie They Live (1988).  So much so that he's just written a book about it.  And this week he's hosting a screening of the film, followed by a conversation with John Hodgman. 

It's curious that over 20 years after its release, this B-movie movie has gotten the attention of academic-types.  They Live is an excellent combination of form and content: if you want to make a message-movie for blue-collar audiences (about how they're being systematically screwed) make a sci-fi action movie starring a professional wrestler.  But if you attend Lethem's screening at the  Greenwich Village IFC theater, do you expect the audience to be made up of "haves" or "have-nots"?

John Carpenter's They Live has something in common with George Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978): both feature bit characters that reflect the bearded Lefty intellectuals (they're not wearing leather-elbow patches, but they might as well be.)  In both cases, these talky apparitions appear mostly in TV screens (as if they exist inside the television and not in the same world as the characters, the same way some would criticize academics who live inside the Ivory Tower.) Their ideological ramblings are fragmented throughout each film.  In They Live, a character listed as "bearded man" hacks into network television signals and gives a direct-address about how "They" have created a repressive society that's turning "us" into livestock  (watch a clip here, from 2:01 - 3:55)  Dawn of the Dead's nameless, bearded "TV Commentator" insists on the need for logical behavior, and then calls the studio audience "dummies!" (watch a clip here)