Mad Dog Vachon & the Pine Box

Mean Gene Okerlund happens to catch Mad Dog Vachon in the middle of constructing a pine box on AWA television in 1982! Mad Dog has been hammering this box together in anticipation of an upcoming bout with Jerry Blackwell! Blackwell had attacked the Mad Dog and put him out of wrestling for some time! According to Vachon, he spent two and a half years working in the mines to get back into wrestling shape! This world is not big enough for these two! One of them will have to leave! Jerry Blackwell won’t be able to take the Sheik’s money with him where he’s going!

Movie Review: 80 Blocks from Tiffany's (1979)

Gary Weis’ look at two ‘70s South Bronx street gangs does not judge its participants; it simply allows them to be who they are. Viewers are able to see the Savage Skulls and the Savage Nomads as something more than simply “gangbangers”—they are human beings who are products of their environment. Remember that the South Bronx resembled a war zone during the 1970s. Poverty and violence was the reality on a level that most of us could barely understand. Gangs formed almost out of necessity and 80 Blocks from Tiffany's captures that reality without being exploitative. Originally filmed for broadcast during Saturday Night Live’s off-season in 1979, but shelved by NBC until a limited video release in 1985. 80 Blocks from Tiffany's is highly recommended, especially for fans of fictional gang movies like The Warriors.

20 Years Ago Today at 924 Gilman Street

This show is generally remembered for NO JUSTICE hopping on LIFE'S HALT's gear, in which the crowd went completely insane. RAW POWER was also very good that night, although people who saw them in their heyday were not to quick to agree. Whatever. I know I had a blast singing along to "State Oppression" like everyone else.

No Justice tearing it up at Gilman Street!

Movie Review: The Expendables 3 (2014)

DIRECTOR: Patrick Hughes. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Robert Davi.

Stallone & company know that all we want with each Expendables movie is more—more of everything that happened in the previous installment and then some. The Expendables 3 certainly does that, although there are times when I wonder if perhaps it delivers too much. Our heroes are in a fight for their lives against the team’s co-founder who has since become one of the world’s most ruthless arms dealers. We see the Expendables become expandable as they recruit an entire new team to help wage their most personal war yet. UFC/WWE star Ronda Rousey has the most presence of the new blood; the rest are generally, well, expendable. Despite the excess, it is still entertaining as hell and would serve as a fitting end to the series had a fourth Expendables movie not been announced. Let’s hope that Carl Weathers shows up in that one.

Rock 'n' Roll Express

Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express pose with the NWA tag team belts after winning them for the third time! They defeated the Midnight Express for the titles in Philadelphia 34 years ago today! I have nothing but fond memories of watching Ricky and Robert on World Wide Wrestling every Saturday morning; they were my second favorite tag team in the NWA!

Movie Review: The Expendables 2 (2012)

DIRECTOR: Simon West. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nan Yu, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Liam Hemsworth, Scott Adkins, Amanda Ooms, Charisma Carpenter.

The Expendables 2 is possibly the best of the series; it improves on the formula set by the original with more cameos, more violence, and more one-liners. Our boys vow revenge after a rival mercenary murders one of their own during an otherwise simple retrieval mission to Albania. Tons of fun ensues as the good guys fight, stab, shoot, and detonate their way through lots of bad guys to ensure that their fellow Expendable did not die in vain. There is more to the events than that, but it is probably best to keep it simple. Nan Yu does a nice job adding the necessary female role to the team while also temporarily replacing Jet Li as the resident martial arts expert. Anything that might have caused The Expendables to come up short successfully falls into place with this sequel.

Movie Review: The Expendables (2010)

DIRECTOR: Sylvester Stallone. CAST: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, David Zayas, Giselle Itie, Charisma Carpenter, Gary Daniels, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke.
I love The Expendables series as a fun throwback to ‘80s alpha male action movies appealing to modern audiences. The Expendables introduces us to a group of misfit combat veterans who are clearly unemployable in normal society. They instead find work as mercenaries completing the missions no one else would be crazy or stupid enough to take. One of our heroes goes rogue as the rest take a job flying to the Gulf of Mexico to assassinate a power-hungry military dictator. Things aren’t quite as they seem and the Expendables have to go the extra mile to ensure that all ends well. Cars drive at top speed through narrow streets, things explode, bullets riddle tons of nameless extras, and the good guys defy death in spectacular fashion. You can practically smell the testosterone emanating from the stars’ pores. The Expendables is nothing short of awesome escapist fun.

25 Years Ago at 924 Gilman Street

CANCER ALLEY didn't play and were replaced by LA grind freaks BAD ACID TRIP. I seem to recall that MAN IS THE BASTARD didn't play either and I definitely did not see ASSUCK this evening. They might have been a bit too death metal for my taste at the time anyway. However, this was my first time seeing CAPITALIST CASUALTIES live after listening to whatever records of theirs my bandmates and I could find all year long. Expectations were met, but this show belonged to Japanese hardcore thrashers ASSFORT. ASSFORT was amazing! They set the live standard for every other Japanese hardcore band to follow as I've seen them over the years. Check out Matt Average's cover photo for their 亞吸不汚吐 EP on

That's me in the Misfits shirt under Yoshio's leg.

Prank; that is me in the MISFITS shirt narrowly avoiding a collision with vocalist Yoshio as he breaks Gilman Street's no-stagediving rule. There was also a huge fight right after that photo was taken when a couple burly jock dudes materialized and started laying people out. Seemed like every punk rocker in the club suddenly pounced on them and sent them packing. I was told that they both had lost their shoes in the fracas and had to run in their socks through a mess of broken bottles to escape!

I had a difficult time leaving this show. This was one of those nights where I didn't want to go home ever again. Home was a small, boring house in the suburbs with my unemployed single mom. How could I think about living under her roof or starting my senior year of high school in a few weeks after the things I saw tonight? This was where I belonged. Getting back here and staying here was my only focus now. Nothing else mattered anymore.