Sunday, April 22, 2012

Do you smeeeeelllllll!, What Beau is cooking?

Ok, I'll admit it. There was a time in my life when I said my prayers and took my vitamins...I was a Hulkamaniac. (I still take my vitamins and say my prayers)

I was crazy for wrestling, loved it, believed it.

It probably started with my grandma Caddell, she was always watching wrestling so when I was there I watched it too. One of the most exciting times was when they would have a Saturday Night Main Event. Every few months the WWF (now WWE, I guess) would have a special show on Saturday nights at 10:30.  This really was an event. I remember going being at the pool and concerned I wouldn't make it home in time to see it. The evening swim was from 6:30-8:30, I had a 2 hour cushion, but to my young mind any second away from the t.v. was risking missing a moment of action. Of course, there wasn't much action. Usually the main guys would talk, maybe stare each other down in the ring and shove each other. Someone  would wrestle the Brooklyn Brawler. I always felt bad for the Brooklyn Brawler, nobody cheered for him, he never was involved in a major match or story line, he was just there to be beat on. A match like Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant was for Wrestlemania. A match like Hogan vs. Brooklyn Brawler was for every Saturday. Poor guy, I remember he had black vest with a hand print on the back so he could pat himself on the back....wonder what happened to him.

Things didn't really get bad for me until 5th grade. My friends were into wrestling, I was into it...way into it.
First of all, they came out with toys, cool figures that moved and had special features. I remember earlier toys that were just solid rubber, they were lame I didn't have those. By some miracle I had 5 dollars and a day off from school. I went to G&L (local general store) and bought Brutus the Barber Beefcake. It was AWESOME!!!!!!!! Now I had a problem, I had 1 wrestle, with no one to fight. I begged my mom for money, she said no. I tried to hustle and cut a deal.....no. Finally she said if I raked the back yard, she'd buy another figure. I'm sure I did a terrible job, but Macho Man Randy Savage was soon in my possession. Now, I had a new problem...Jake The Snake Roberts was still at the store. What to do, I had already played the mom card.....GRANDMA! OK,I didn't just go in and asked for the money (I learned from my previous experience) I asked if she or grandpa had any jobs they needed done. Again it was raking and again it was probably a terrible job but through hard work (I was 11 it was hard work) Jake the Snake joined the crew. My crew needed a ring, they didn't have those for sale (more on that later) so I went to my personal and favorite toy maker, Grandpa Caddell. To this day I believe he could build or make anything.On this occasion he came through with a wooden wrestling ring complete with turn buckles and ropes that would stretch...it was perfect and awesome. My friends and I would use this ring for many months and had epic wrestling matches. We even created a true death match.....wrestling until someone would DIE.

2 other major wrestling events happened that year. WWF was coming to Omaha! and my mom got tickets! I was so pumped! Super Fly Jimmy Snuka, Ultimate Warrior, and Demolition were going to be there. All my  favorites. It was all set for a Friday night, I couldn't wait, it was set to be the one of the greatest night's of my life. The day finally arrived and it was.....cancelled. To quote Ralphie from A Christmas Story over his disappointment of the Orphan Annie decoder ring..Son of a Bitch. Not totally canceled but moved to a different date. I ended up going to a birthday party boy girl dance instead.  Rumors quickly spread that the reason for the cancellation was that the Ultimate Warrior had died. My memory gets a little foggy here, I know he didn't die,but I'm pretty sure there were a few episodes of WWF shows were there was a different guy as Warrior. Of course this only added to the rumors. I heard he died of a steroid over dose and I also heard he died from tying his arm bands too tight. (in real life the guy who played Ultimate Warrior changed his legal name to Warrior and is some type of conservative/ republican speaker....I'm dead serious)

Needless to say, the event was rescheduled and the Warrior present that night was the original Warrior. I made a sign for Jimmy Snuka. It was on yellow paper with black dots (he had a leopard print theme) and I wrote "Super Fly" on it....he didn't show up. It was still and awesome time.
The other event was Wrestling buddies. It was a basically a pillow that looked like a Hulk Hogan or Ultimate Warrior that you could wrestle. I had to have one, but they were 25 bucks! to me at age 11, 25 bucks was like a million dollars. It was already past Christmas and well before my birthday so I was screwed. Again, foggy memory but I do remember it was a day my mom had off from work and when I came home from school, there on the couch was a Hulk Hogan wrestling Buddy! I freaked out! My mom had to make me stop playing with it to eat dinner. We had scalloped potatoes and ham, I remember that because I threw up late that night (from sickness or wrestling too much, not the food).

In April that year, my friends and I came to a cross roads of life. Hulk Hogan the current WWF heavy weight champion and Ultimate Warrior the current InterContinental Champion were going to wrestle each other at Wrestlemania 6. There was no middle ground, forget team Jacob and team Edward....you were either a Hulkamaniac or you weren't. All my friends were for Hogan, I secretly wanted the Warrior to win...and he did! HAHAHAH. After this summer set in and wrestling went away for awhile.

Now, jump to 6th grade. It was the fall and the beginning of basketball season. If you were cool this is what you did: You had to carry your basketball shoes to practice and sit in a circle and put them on and then after practice (which was always Saturday morning) and then you went home and watch NBA Inside Stuff and WWF. As Christmas approached me and all my friends wanted the new official WWF Ring playset with Championship belt. All my friends had it on their lists, I asked my dad for it. We would sit at practice and tie our shoes and discuss how finally all of our championship bouts would now be legit because we would have belts, and since all of us would have the ring, we could play at each others houses. Clearly an age of enlightenment was about to begin. Some of friends went so far as to peek at their presents to make sure they were getting the ring.

December 24 arrived, I was with my dad, he handed me a box. Quickly fear set it...it wasn't the right size...ok,ok,ok maybe it was the ring, but in a different box. I unwrapped the box......Wrestling All-Stars Ring!? What the hell is this? No WWF markings, no belt. I never let it show, but my heart sank. I understand now that it's just a toy, but to the 12 year old me, my life was over. When my friends and I got together at practice and compared notes.....saying "no" when asked if I got it...still stings a little. The itself didn't work very well, the mat didn't stay flat, all the post for the turn buckles broke and my mom and grandpa had to wire them down. I kept on using the wooden ring my grandpa made, it was better and stronger then any store bought one. A few months later I got a Sting wrestling figure and he came with a belt, plus I was the only kid with a Sting figure so I was cool again. I should mention my mom gave me the Ultimate Warrior wrestling buddy for Christmas that year, so I wasn't just the kid without the official WWF ring, I was also the kid with 2 wrestling buddies, my street cred didn't really take a hit so I don't have anything to complain about.

This post is getting long, so I'll break it up and continue later with part 2: True Devastation!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Fandalorians

“Just because World War II was real, doesn’t make Saving Private Ryan a true story”
Pablo Hidalgo: Lucasfilm.


What is a Fandalorian, lets start with Mandalorian. Boba Fett from StarWars is a Mandalorian. A race or culture of people that are warriors, mercenaries, and sometimes bounty hunters.......and if you read the EU (extended universe) farmers, prolific adopters of stray and runaway children, and loving fathers and mothers. They even have the StarWars Universe’s first same sex couple.


Fandalorian: Someone who believes that Boba Fett is thee coolest, baddest, most feared person ever and anything ever written about him (unless it’s by George Lucas himself) is thee carved in stone, never to be doubted or changed, bedrock gospel.


Why all the snarkiness?


Let’s just say this, I like Boba Fett he does look cool. That being said he died in Return of the Jedi. Now, countless stories have been written about him surviving and his character has lived a rich full life post StarWars films. This is the problem.


Various books and authors created a back story for Boab Fett. Episode II came out and it turns out Boba is a clone of Jango Fett, Prime donor for the clone army. None of which was mentioned in any Boba Fett back story.


“Fans” got mad....didn’t George know about Boba’s “true” origin story? Guess what..he probably didn’t. A book publisher probably asked for permission to commission a Boba Fett story and Lucas ok’d it. Since this is all material that George Lucas created he wanted to add a Boba Fett piece to the StarWars mythology and wanted to tell a story with his own characters and creations,I was ok with it. Why wouldn’t I be....it’s his right.


So, to make nice what was said to be Boba’s back story in previous material was then said to be Jango’s backstory. It’s kind of all still true, from a certain point of view (ahhh, that old StarWars tagline that makes everything ok)


Peace reigned...for awhile,enter Karen Travis. Karen Travis wrote a series of books, awesome books that dealt with the clone troopers and the Mandalorian culture. People loved it. The mando were out, adopting, farming, loving, caring, just wanting to be free and live in peace.


The CloneWars animated series came out and introduced a story line dealing with the Mandalorian culture in which, they were a planet of pacifist with a sub group called Death Watch that wanted to return Mandalore to it’s warrior past. All this was not only approved by George Lucas, but he had a hand in it.


Of course all the Fandalorians went bonkers “George is messing with cannon” ,”he ruined my childhood” (I refuse to say “raped”, if you think being unhappy with fictional characters in a fictional world is even remotely close to comparable to someone being raped your priorities are way out of whack).


The main point of contention was the mention of Death Watch. In the EU, Boba then Jango fought with Death Watch....because Death Watch wanted to wipe of Mandalorians.


I’m writing all this to tell my Mando/Fando brothers out there to RELAX. The CloneWars is not your enemy, they’re restoring Boba Fett and Mandalorians that follow him to his true toughness.


Young Boba in the Clone Wars is awesome! He’s already challenged the Jedi, brought down a battle cruiser, been to prison, gotten out, and teamed up with some other bounty hunters to do some pretty cool stuff.


I’m not saying anything bad about the Karen Travis books, they’re great I own all of them.,but they are very interchangeable. They’re solider stories, they could be World War II books, or Vietnam book and would be just as good. She did kind of turn the Mandalorians into the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of the StarWars universe.Like the quote I opened with, just because it says StarWars, doesn’t make it true. We can be shown or told something else and we can change, we can still like and enjoy the previous us too....just settle down, it’s only a movie.


What the Clone Wars is doing with Boba and Death Watch is going to give fans a HUGE payoff. Death Watch is a bunch of thugs and I have a feeling before the show is over, a Boba Fett vs. Death Watch show down is going to happen.


I also need to mention a great Dark Horse story line called Boba Fett: Bloodties. It has raised the question was Jango a loving caring father that just wanted a son and that’s why he had himself cloned...or was he a cold, calculating business man that knew one way to beat the system and cheat death would be to have himself copied?


Let’s just read the books, watch the show, drop the “danlorian” and be fans...and have fun.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

I'm ok with my body...but not yours.

Ok, I try not to whine, complain, or be negative on the internet but sometimes you just got to let somethings out.

I'm a big supporter of the YMCA, I'm a member, I've worked there, I've taken some awesome classes there and met some great people...but I've also seen the dark underbelly, and I mean underbelly.


The men's locker room can be a mysterious and frightening place, but there are rules. Eyes straight, no staring, and there should be another one...limit your nakedness and weird behavior.

What brings this about you may ask?, let's review some highlights.

 Naked  too long guy. So, you take a shower in the locker room, ok. If you choose to not take your towel to the shower with you, at least wrap up as soon as you reach your locker. Of course, the guy thats wants to take his sweet time air drying always seems to have the locker next to me.

Naked tooth brushing: You read that right. I'm just trying to wash my hands before working out and some dude that looks like an older version of Super Mario rolls up and starts brushing his teeth NAKED! Naked?, c'mon it's common courtesy, public tooth brushing...throw on some boxers.

The naked weatherman: What it is about being naked that makes some people want to talk about the weather. "So...pretty hot out huh?".....Dude, there's a strange naked man talking to me, I could careless about the weather I just want to get away from this uncomfortable situation.

Ipod No-Touch. Sadly, those other events have happened more than once, this next one only happened once, but it was too much.  I'm changing clothes, washing my hands and I hear video game noises. I start to look around and I still hear the noises and I see a pair of feet hanging in a stall. The guy or kid or whoever was playing with his phone while going to the bathroom. If you want to do that at home, fine but you can't play angry birds while riding the dinosaur in public. That's just great, this guy is now setting his I-Potty all over the gym equipment....gross.

I guess the only way to move past trauma is to talk about it...Thanks for listening.

Next time: Fandalorians!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

The 5 best new characters from StarWars The Clone Wars

This is just my opinion, but it's my blog so that's the point.













Ahsoka Tano: I've heard all the complaints "She's just in the show to bring girls in", "She was never mentioned in any of the movies". To the first complaint...so?, it's working and to the second one just simple math explains it. Revenge of The Sith came out in 2005 and The Clone Wars came out in 2008, so they just hadn't thought of the character yet. She plays a huge role in the character development of Anakin. The Jedi code forbids attachment, and Anakin is attached to Ahsoka. Attachment is what leads to Anakin's downfall. The character of Ahsoka adds to Anakin's character and makes his fall some much harder to experience. In the show we see Anakin as a hero, a mentor not a dark brooding person but a good person and we see that because of Ahsoka. It makes Anakin's fall to the darkside that much more tragic. The original triology had it's big 3 of Han, Luke, and Leia and now the Clone Wars has it big 3 of Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka.

Cad Bane: One of the best parts of StarWars is the "fringe" element, bounty hunters, smugglers, pirates, gamblers. Some of them say their about the credits and only look out for themselves but really turn out to be one of the good guys, like Han Solo and some really are about the money and themselves....That's Cad Bane. Cold, ruthless, and lots of fun.

Ziro the Hutt: C'mon...he's a big purple Hutt that talks like Truman Capote. He's a likable flamboyant bad guy what more can you say? He's too funny and odd not to like.

Honda Ohnaka: He's a pirate, another member of the fringe. He's not evil...but not a total good guy either. He managed to capture both Count Dooku and Obi-Wan and Anakin and then try to hold them all hostage. He's always plotting and has his hustle going, plus he's likable. The main heroes don't really seem to be worried or annoyed when he pops up, it's like they know it will be a fun time too!


Savage Opress: Dude....look at him, it's awesome. He's Darth Maul's brother. Take everything awesome about Darth Maul and throw in some Darth Vader and you have Savage. He offered himself to be taken by the Nigh Sisters to protect his brother and after they work their magic on him.....he kills his brother. He was created as a weapon of terror and revenge. He's all brute force and destruction. The Savage Opress story arc was great StarWars and Savage is a great villain. No one rushes to face him, everyone runs from him and now he's out looking for his other brother....Darth Maul!

Honorable mention....Pre Visla.

Ok, there it is my favs. Come back next week for.....I don't know yet


Thursday, January 19, 2012

The BeauBowl

Ok, here it goes my NFL post season awards (I know the season is still going on)

Let me say a few things first
1.) My favorite number is 5 so I'm giving out 5 awards

2.) Most of these are meant to be funny (I hope)

3.)......I think somewhere deep inside, I might be a Saints fan..?

The "Don't Stop Believing Award" goes to the Eagles and Mike Vick. Remember the Mike Vick experience all the potential...all the let down. I began to face facts about a season before the dog fighting bust. Mike Vick is an average quarterback with moments of above averageness (I don't dare say greatness) Vick never became that player everyone thought and wanted him to be. He never threw like you thought he could, never ran like you wanted him too. He never ascended to the level we thought, never took over a game. At some point Clark Kent has to remove the glasses and step out of the phone booth. Vick is Clark Kent.... he just never became SuperMan. The Eagles hitched their wagon to Vick, and have probably set themselves back at the QB positions

The "Say It Ain't So Award" goes to Donovan McNabb. Awww, McNabb. I had a serious man crush on McNabb. He went to the Eagles (A team I used to support) and wore number 5, he made it to a Super Bowl. I was a firm believer that if the Eagles could just get him support they would win a SuperBowl, I was a firm believer that if the Vikings could of gotten McNabb instead of Favre they would of won a Super Bowl (maybe 2), I was a firm believer the Vikings would contend this year with McNabb. I was all set to buy a Purple and Gold #5 jersey (I look great in purple and gold) and join some of my friends and family on that big Vikings band wagon.  McNabb fizzled, I'm a firm believer the sun has set on McNabb's career.

"Coach of The Year" Ok, no joking aside. Sean Peyton. The Saints had a great year and the dude took a player to the knee and kept on coaching. Has a knee operation and is back on the sidelines. Dude is a champ!

MVP Award, Drew Brees. I know Aaron Rodgers had a great year (Sorry Ethan Smith) but Matt Flyn comes of the bench for Rodger and starts breaking records, that right there knocks Rodgers down a peg. Plus, Brees just seems like such a good person. He does so much charity and that SI cover after the Super Bowl of him holding his son in the air as the confetti rained down.....timeless. He's an example of good karma and he deserves a MVP award.

The "Thanks For Nothing Award"...is a tie. Peyton Hillis and Arian Foster. I drafted both of these guys for my fantasy team, I couldn't believe Foster fell to me at the 7th spot. Foster stunk it up as far as fantasy numbers go and I'm guessing Hillis is another victim of the Madden Cover Curse. Ugh, thanks for nothing guys!

Tune in next time for the top 5 new characters from The CloneWars (in my opinion of course)
Same BeauTime, SameBeau Channel!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Quick....Cause a diversion

Hold on, this one is going to be geeky.

I'm on a bit of a Super Hero kick lately, I got Thor and Captain American for x-mas so I watched those and I've been reading the new Justice League and am planing on re watching movies like Super Man 1 and 2, The Iron Man movies....you get it.
Here is what I've always wondered......Why is the Flash a super hero? I understand he runs really fast, so what? If you ever watch the Justice League Secret Origins. The Flash's only job is to cause a diversion or distraction while another more capable hero does something heroic.

For me, the greatest moments of the Flash are when Sheldon dresses up like him on the Big Bang Theory.

This leads me to the comparison between The JLA (Justice League of America) and The Avengers.
Let's go to real life for a minute. Marvel Studios has beaten D.C./Warner Bros hands down. They way they've laid out films like Iron Man, Thor, Cap America and tied them altogether to prepare of the Avengers movie is awesome. The only down fall is if Avengers doesn't live up to the hype. (The movie also has Scarlett Johansson....that's pretty awesome). Yes, Warner Bros has had success with Christopher Nolan's BatMan films but there is no way Christian Bale is signing on for a JLA film. They're trying SuperMan again and Green Lantern wasn't anything to write home about. There's suppose to be a JLA film by 2015, but I think they've got a long way to go.

I heard this quote and believe it sums it all up; "Marvel has star power, but D.C. has legends." I think it's true BatMan, SuperMan...They're the tops, WonderWoman is cool but after that the drop off in name recognition is pretty steep (to the everyday person..not me and most of my friends). The Avengers have some major players, but it seems like EVERYONE gets to be an Avenger! I think I was an Avenger for a few years and didn't know it. The JLA is elite, ok the comic not the cartoon show (exhibit A: Wonder Twins). I know, I know, there are various sub groups of the JLA, but even though everyone in the Marvel Universe gets to be an Avenger , they still had to have West Coast Avengers and Great Lakes Avengers. What kind of evil super power is threatening the Great Lakes? is Michigan really that strategic to world dominance?

I know he won't be in the movie, but one of the original Avengers was AntMan.....AntMan? Look I know DC has Martian Man Hunter, but AntMan?

So, this was basically an argument with myself about who is better. I've got a picture of me at age 6 wearing SuperMan pajamas...I'm a D.C. guy. I'm very excited for an Avengers movie and looking forward to a JLA film. It's too bad D.C./Warner Bros couldn't get it together and beat AntMan to the punch.

Stay tuned for next time when I give out NFL post season awards!!!! Because I'm sure the sports world is dying for that one

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Me too!

I've been thinking about it for awhile...blogging. I do a blog for school, but that's mostly news about math homework and spelling. This blog will be my general thoughts on things like sports, entertainment ( that's a classier way of saying StarWar the Clone Wars, comic books, movies and video games) and just plain stuff.

I thought about calling this the me too blog. Most the people I know fall into 2 groups, those that blog and those with a photography business. (well, 3-4 for each) I decided on "All's Fair In Love & StarWars" it seems that most of my life revolves around women ( raising one, working with them, and well.....most of you know what's up with women in my life) and StarWars.

Well, I have a lot I want to talk about, but can't do it all right now. Hope I keep up with this,