Category: orange cassidy

My Year in Hobbies 2019: October!

October 2019:

Professional wrestler Kris Statlander, a woman with white skin and brown hair, wearing powder blue wrestling gear with purple trim and "KS" written on her tank top, yells for the crowd at a Beyond Wrestling show in Worcester, MA.
Professional wrestler Kris Statlander, a woman with white skin and brown hair, wearing powder blue wrestling gear with purple trim and “KS” written on her tank top, yells for the crowd at a Beyond Wrestling show in Worcester, MA.

What’s up, Kris Statlander?

I started out the month at the Season 2 premiere of Beyond Wrestling‘s “Uncharted Territory” TV series, which airs on Internet Wrestling Television. Yes, I really was this close to the action, as everyone who wants to be is at Beyond events. (I could’ve actually been even closer, but I grabbed a second row seat instead of a first row seat so I didn’t end up with any flying human beings in my lap.)

Beyond is one of the best independent professional wrestling promotions in the world, and chances are, if you’ve watched WWE, AEW, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Ring of Honor, Impact, MLW or any of the other somewhat major wrestling promotions over the past decade, you’ve seen a whole bunch of Beyond alumni. Their shows are available on the aforementioned IWTV streaming service, which is some of the most fun you can have watching television and only $10 a month. I don’t work for Beyond or IWTV, but with the future of every small business in jeopardy right now (along with, well, everything and everyone else), I have to represent for them, because a great chunk of my last year has been spent enjoying their offerings. Please consider signing up for IWTV, buying some merch from Beyond on their site, or hitting an event (if and when events happen again) if you’ve ever got the means.

Here are a few more pictures from the Beyond show I went to…

Professional wrestler Lance Archer, a shirtless man with white skin and a red "murderhawk" hairstyle, stands at the back end of a wrestling ring and prepares to attack fellow pro wrestler Josh Briggs, a man with white skin and brown hair in black wrestling trunks and various knee and shoulder braces, laying prone at the front of the wrestling ring, at a Beyond Wrestling show in Worcester, MA.
Professional wrestler Lance Archer, a shirtless man with white skin and a red “murderhawk” hairstyle, stands at the back end of a wrestling ring and prepares to attack fellow pro wrestler Josh Briggs, a man with white skin and brown hair in black wrestling trunks and various knee and shoulder braces, laying prone at the front of the wrestling ring, at a Beyond Wrestling show in Worcester, MA.

Hey, remember Lance Archer from the New Japan show in September? He came to Beyond a few days later, too! This is him getting ready to maul Josh Briggs (and he did).

Professional wrestler Orange Cassidy, a man with white skin, red hair, and brown aviator sunglasses, wearing a light blue jean jacket and a white t-shirt, looks directly at the camera from a distance in front of a maroon curtain at a Beyond Wrestling show in Worcester, MA, as a photographer to his right tries to get a picture of him.
Professional wrestler Orange Cassidy, a man with white skin, red hair, and brown aviator sunglasses, wearing a light blue jean jacket and a white t-shirt, looks directly at the camera from a distance in front of a maroon curtain at a Beyond Wrestling show in Worcester, MA, as a photographer to his right tries to get a picture of him.

Orange Cassidy totally caught me taking a picture of him when he walked through the curtain. He’s doing better after his encounter with The Boogeyman, though he’s had a few run-ins with PAC and the Lucha Bros recently that haven’t been great for him.

Assuming life is anywhere near normal for the foreseeable future, you can see Kris Statlander, Lance Archer and Orange Cassidy on All Elite Wrestling‘s shows these days. (See what I mean about everyone passing through Beyond?) They run Wednesday nights on TNT in the States, and on YouTube.

I visited Keene, New Hampshire for the first time in October, and can heartily recommend both Bull Moose (a small regional chain of entertainment media stores packed with things I like to spend money on) and The Toadstool Bookshop, if you’re in the area. Both are great places to browse, and both will probably need your business when things open back up. (Notice a new, recurring theme here?) Keene, in general, is like a lot of mid-sized New England towns with a Main Street, fun to walk around. Enjoyed my time there. Almost ready to forgive the place for the Pumpkin Festival Riot of 2014 and the town’s handling of it.

a plastic and rubber bendable action figure of a white skeleton lays on a scanner bed.
a plastic and rubber bendable action figure of a white skeleton lays on a scanner bed.

It took me a couple of years, but I finally got ahold of one of the Mego-scale skeletons that they sell at Target around Halloween. I’d get a picture of it with the usual group shot, but we’re running late here, so this is the skeleton on a scanner bed, which looks kinda weird and cool.

I got, and played a fair amount of Stardew Valley for Playstation 4, but I wanna start over, as I totally had no idea what I was doing before I kinda backed my character into a corner. If you like games like Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing, but also like them to be a little less…Nintendo…this is a great game for that.

On the last flea market trip of the year, I saw this beauty of a Soundesign stereo…

A beige 1980s-era Soundesign stereo system sits on a flea market table.
A beige 1980s-era Soundesign stereo system sits on a flea market table.

No, I didn’t buy it. From my past experience owning a Soundesign (my first stereo was one), albeit one that wasn’t quite as beige, I was afraid to even touch it (those cassette deck buttons will snap on you as soon as look at you).

I did buy this on that trip, though…

A copy of Lou Reed's "Transformer" album plays on a turntable, with the album cover (featuring a black and white picture of Lou Reed, wearing makeup, and holding a guitar while standing at a microphone) standing on top of the turntable cover.
A copy of Lou Reed’s “Transformer” album plays on a turntable, with the album cover (featuring a black and white picture of Lou Reed, wearing makeup, and holding a guitar while standing at a microphone) standing on top of the turntable cover.

Lou was a mess, but he was one of the greatest messes.

Television seasons binge-watched in October 2019 (2): The End Of The Fucking World Season 2 (enjoyable television based on Charles Forsman‘s comics; Chuck and TEOTFW show-runner Jonathan Entwistle have Chuck’s I Am Not OK With This on Netflix now, too…), Scott Kelly: A Year In Space (this was an amazing thing to watch, even if it was done like a pretty hardcore NASA propaganda film).

First-run movies watched in August 2019 (1): El Camino (fun little TV movie, but they need to give Huell Babineaux his own spin-off now).

My Year in Hobbies 2019: August!

August 2019:

A picture of a boxed Dungeons of Daggorath cartridge for Radio Shack's TRS-80 Color Computer. a blue-gray gargoyle points a sword at the camera in a maze with a yellow floor and bluew walls, with yellow and black Dungeons of Daggorath logo floating above him. Picture is framed by red trim. Box of cartridge is grey, with black trim and lettering around the outside, and white inner window trim near the window the cartridge is displayed in.
A picture of a boxed Dungeons of Daggorath cartridge for Radio Shack’s TRS-80 Color Computer. a blue-gray gargoyle points a sword at the camera in a maze with a yellow floor and bluew walls, with yellow and black Dungeons of Daggorath logo floating above him. Picture is framed by red trim. Box of cartridge is grey, with black trim and lettering around the outside, and white inner window trim near the window the cartridge is displayed in.

Not gonna lie, even though I’ve never owned a TRS-80 in my life (one of the few commercially-available American home computers of the early ’80s that I haven’t owned), I was REALLY tempted to get this, just because I have such fond memories of Bogarting TRS-80 time at my local Radio Shack as a kid to play it.

A Topps Now card of Cincinnati Reds outfield Aristides Aquino (pictured; a man with brown skin in a white uniform with red trim, wearing a red batting helmet, and swinging a black baseball bat in front of a crowd at a stadium). The card reads "Topps Now" in the top left corner, "10 Aug" in the top right corner, "Call-Up 2019" with the Cincinnati Reds "C" logo in the bottom right corner, and across the bottom, in 2 lines, it reads "Aristides Aquino" and "3-HR GAME, 7 HRs THROUGH FIRST 10 GAMES".
A Topps Now card of Cincinnati Reds outfield Aristides Aquino (pictured; a man with brown skin in a white uniform with red trim, wearing a red batting helmet, and swinging a black baseball bat in front of a crowd at a stadium). The card reads “Topps Now” in the top left corner, “10 Aug” in the top right corner, “Call-Up 2019” with the Cincinnati Reds “C” logo in the bottom right corner, and across the bottom, in 2 lines, it reads “Aristides Aquino” and “3-HR GAME, 7 HRs THROUGH FIRST 10 GAMES”.

 This cat had a pretty good couple of months. Yeah, I got in on his first Topps Now, albeit not out of the gate. He’s on my keeper league fantasy team now, too. We’ll see how that goes.

I hit a new-to-me bookstore in August, The Montague Bookmill in Montague, MA. Billed as “Books You Don’t Need In A Place You Can’t Find”, it’s a great store filled with solid inventory, built from a converted old mill building alongside the Sawmill River. Gorgeous location, comfortable shopping and browsing experience, highly recommended if you’re in the area or traveling through it. I picked up two books by downtown New York guys with similar hair…

Covers of Eric Bogosian's "Sex Drugs Rock & Roll" and Lou Reed's "Between Thought and Expression: Selected Lyrics of Lou Reed" books.
Covers of Eric Bogosian’s “Sex Drugs Rock & Roll” and Lou Reed’s “Between Thought and Expression: Selected Lyrics of Lou Reed” books. Bogosian book has a white cover with a picture of Eric Bogosian, inset in black and red, inside the words “BOGOSIAN SEX DRUGS ROCK & ROLL”, with an embarrassing-in-hindsight Frank Rich caption written underneath. Reed book has a bronze tone to the cover, with the book’s title written in black and bronze blocks above a black and white profile picture of Lou Reed, a man with dark hair and a black shirt on.

I had a cassette copy of the cast recording of the Bogosian play back in the ’80s, and I want to see how the material holds up. In Lou’s case, Lou’s Lou. He was an imperfect dude, to put it mildly, but for a generation and change, he was one of our imperfect dudes. I had kind of a Lou year in 2019, which we’ll revisit later…

In August, I also made it to my first live wrestling card in 17 years (the last time I went was the first MLW show in June of ’02), a collaborative show between Blitzkrieg Pro and Big Time Wrestling celebrating BP’s anniversary.

Here’s Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Ax (Bill Eadie) and Smash (Barry Darsow) of Demolition waving to the crowd after addressing them (all 3 were at the card signing stuff).

Demolition Ax (Bill Eadie, left, a man with black hair and white skin wearing a grey t-shirt, shorts and blue sneakers), Bret "The Hitman" Hart (center, a man with grey hair and white skin, wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans) and and Demolition Smash (Barry Darsow, right, a bald man with white skin, wearing a black t-shirt, black jeans and white sneakers) stand in a wrestling ring and wave to the crowd at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event at CREC Civic Leadership High School in Enfield, CT on August 24th, 2019.
Demolition Ax (Bill Eadie, left, a man with black hair and white skin wearing a grey t-shirt, shorts and blue sneakers), Bret “The Hitman” Hart (center, a man with grey hair and white skin, wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans) and and Demolition Smash (Barry Darsow, right, a bald man with white skin, wearing a black t-shirt, black jeans and white sneakers) stand in a wrestling ring and wave to the crowd at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event at CREC Civic Leadership High School in Enfield, CT on August 24th, 2019.

While I was there, I met “Freshly Squeezed” Orange Cassidy, hero of millions…or whatever.

The author (left, a man with brown hair and white skin, wearing a black Black Sabbath Volume IV t-shirt) and pro wrestler Orange Cassidy (right, a man with reddish blonde hair and white skin, wearing aviator sunglasses, a blue jean jacket, and a white t-shirt) give very mild thumbs ups to the camera at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event, August 24th, 2019. Photo Credit: Bryce Remsburg
The author (left, a man with brown hair and white skin, wearing a black Black Sabbath Volume IV t-shirt) and pro wrestler Orange Cassidy (right, a man with reddish blonde hair and white skin, wearing aviator sunglasses, a blue jean jacket, and a white t-shirt) give very mild thumbs ups to the camera at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event, August 24th, 2019. Photo Credit: Bryce Remsburg

The Freshly Squeezed one ran into some serious trouble that night, as he was facing The Boogeyman, and while OC is usually pretty chill about things, he was, understandably, very afraid.

Orange Cassidy (left, a shirtless man in blue jeans with reddish blonde hair and white skin) faces The Boogeyman (right, a shirtless man with brown skin, head painted red, wearing black pants) as the crowd looks on at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event, August 24th, 2019.
Orange Cassidy (left, a shirtless man in blue jeans with reddish blonde hair and white skin) faces The Boogeyman (right, a shirtless man with brown skin, head painted red, wearing black pants) as the crowd looks on at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event, August 24th, 2019.

So afraid, in fact, that after The Boogeyman spat worms at him (yes, really), he tried to run away. When he ran up into the stands, I actually tried to get him to hide behind me (yes, I, a 45 year old man with a history of head injuries, tried to intervene in a professional wrestling match; way to go there, Icarus…), so The Boogeyman wouldn’t see him, but he apparently didn’t feel like this was an effective enough strategy, so he kept running, but not before I got this “Blair Witch Project”-esque shot of him…

Orange Cassidy (front left, a shirtless man with reddish blonde hair and white skin) runs away from The Boogeyman at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event on August 24th, 2019.
Orange Cassidy (front left, a shirtless man with reddish blonde hair and white skin) runs away from The Boogeyman at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event on August 24th, 2019.

Eventually, not long after that, it ended poorly.

Professional wrestler Orange Cassidy (center, a shirtless man with white skin, wearing blue jeans and white sneakers with black soles) lies motionless in a wrestling ring as a crowd looks on at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event, August 24th, 2019.
Professional wrestler Orange Cassidy (center, a shirtless man with white skin, wearing blue jeans and white sneakers with black soles) lies motionless in a wrestling ring as a crowd looks on at a Blitzkrieg Pro/Big Time Wrestling event, August 24th, 2019.

Orange Cassidy has since recovered, and landed on his feet in All Elite Wrestling, so he’s OK, I guess. I’m not sure what The Boogeyman’s been up to lately.

This entire exchange, including the part where I try to help Orange Cassidy hide from The Boogeyman, was captured on video from not one, but two different camera angles, so one of the more ridiculous things I’ve ever done in my life has been preserved for future generations (or however long YouTube lasts) to enjoy.

I show up around 3:43 on this one….

…and 4:26 on this one.

First-run movies watched in August 2019 (1): Hobbs & Shaw (it was the Snakes on a Plane of movies featuring both Hobbs & Shaw!)

Television seasons binge-watched in August 2019 (5): GLOW Season 2 (dark, and there are choice I wouldn’t have made, but I was still entertained), Kobra Kai Season 2 (better than it has any right to be, even if you don’t have the nostalgic familiarity with the characters that I do), The Strain Seasons 2-4 (I loved the first 2-hour episode, one of my best ever TV viewing experiences…and then they did 3+ more seasons of it…I really wish it had lived up to the promise of that first pilot).

Comic books cancelled or ending in August 2019 (1): Rolled & Told (Lion Forge). It’s sort of cheating, calling this one a comic book, as it’s really an all-ages, modern version of a Dragon Magazine-esque magazine covering Dungeons & Dragons, with a complete short adventure in each issue and, oh yeah, a comic within the magazine that serves as a lead-in to each adventure. I still have to go back and read a bunch of the 12 issue run they did before they went on hiatus (the series is supposedly coming back in Fall of 2020), because each issue is packed with articles and information. There’s a hardcover compilation of the run available now, if you can’t find single issues. If you play D&D on the regular, and/or want to, but have friends who are having trouble committing to a lengthy campaign, I highly recommend Rolled & Told.

September was a big month (and July/August weren’t exactly small), so bear with me, it may take a bit.