December 5, 2004

• We haven’t posted anything on this blog for a while (wow, a whole week!), so we’re going to make up for this now. The theme of this week seems to be discovering new places, and meeting new people…

  Revolution Pro “The End” - Eddie

  Well we had to go to this.  Having supported these guys over the last few years (link: our very first RevPro review), it would have sucked not to be there for RevPro ‘s finale.
  
  It’s cold, it’s raining, but what the hell…

  So, to the Qtopia events centre on Hollywood, we go…and thankfully it’s a decent sized crowd.  We spot our fellow Lucha disciples, Keith, Christa and Nathan reclining in lounge chairs in the second row, and take our seats…
  
  First match is those crazy chickens, Los Gallineros (I & II) Vs Diablo and Samson…or something; he billed himself as the “King of nakedness” which was stupid funny.  Fast, fun match with some awesome Los Gallineros highspots. The chickens won.
  
  Next up is Ronin and Johnny Paradise Vs Disco Machine and Scott Lost. Disco’s team wins.
  
  Third match was for the ‘RevPro Mexican Lucha Libre’  title, which has never, ever made any sense.  TopGun Talwar beats Chris Bosh, and takes the belt. To the strains of ‘Tale My Breath Away’…
  
  Ooh, a 19 man Battle Royal.  The match features a lot of the RevPro fringe players from over the years.  Crowd goes ballistic when the last competitor, TARO is announced. Cool!  We love Taro – “straight from the rock ‘n roll streets of Tokyo”.  Taro pushes the button and wins!
  
  Matt Sinister and Black Metal defeated Cyanide and Buddy George.  This match totally wasn’t our cup o’ tea.  Moving on…
  
  Alright…It’s Super Dragon Vs Mr. Excitement! Fact – Dragon was the FIRST masked wrestler we ever saw wrestle live.  Ah yes, back in the day at ‘Rockslam 99′ in Sydney Australia!  This was the match of the night.  Mr. Excitement – in his last match –  suplexes Dragon for the pin.
  
  It’s Lucha time!  Psicosis is back!  One of my favorite ever luchadores is back in his original gimmick!  Looks like his intended tag partner – SuperBoy – is a no show.  Disco Machine steps in, in his place.  They’re up against ‘La Familia de Tijuana’ – Damian 666 and Halloween.  This match was great!  Damien and Halloween win when Disco screws up and nails Psicosis by mistake with a chair shot.
  
  After the match, Psicosis helps Damien and Halloween beat up Disco. This brings the RevPro locker room to the ring to confront the Mexican luchadores.  Insults are traded, chairs are thrown, wrestlers’ mamas are insulted, more chairs are thrown, just missing spectators. Wild stuff!  Just what we like.
  
  Man, this is a marathon…we still have two matches left.
  
  RevPro Junior Champ, Scorpio Sky  faces his former partner, Quicksilver, for the title. These guys are awesome.  The match is great…full of near falls and over-the-top-rope acrobatics. Quicksilver wins!  Scorpio gives a heartfelt speech about getting his chance through RevPro, and leaves in tears.  It’s an emotional night for these guys…
  
  Okay, last match.  And they’re going out with a ‘barbed wire/steel cage match’  AWC/Angel/Human Tornado Vs Lone Star (No, not Rikochet’s dad), Bigg E. Biggs and R2 K.  There’s blood, foreign objects, more blood, light tubes broken over wrestler’s bodies, and even more blood. All of the wrestlers blade, and bleed buckets.  Personally, I really hate ‘garbage/hardcore’ wrestling, so I pretty much tuned out .
  
  AWC (American Wild Child) is the last man standing, which is the obvious conclusion, seeing as though he’s run RevPro for the last five years.  All the wrestlers come to the ring for a last goodbye. Tears, group hugs, sing-a-long.
  
  So it’s bye bye RevPro.  Thanks for inspiring us, and giving us an alternative to the soap opera that passes for wrestling on TV.
  
  Man, can you believe it went for SIX freaking hours?!?  Time to hit Torung Thai…
  

  Lili: Revolution Pro may be over, but you can still see these luchadores wrestle at other Independent SoCal events. The next show: ProWrestling Guerrilla – December 18th. at the Jewish Cultural Center, Los Feliz. See you there!

  Related Links:

  • Visit this site for RevPro video clips!
  • Wrestler Profiles
  • Disco Machine has a livejournal! (note: it hasn’t been updated since June)

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  Sonambulo in East L.A. - Eddie

  

  On a gloomy, rainy Sunday in LA (hey, no-one warned us about this!) a bright spot was the appearance of Sonambulo creator Rafael Navarro, at Self-Help Graphics & Art, in East LA.

  What a great artists space! As a workspace catering to Latino artists, this place was amazing. And there was a great craft marketplace in the upstairs level.

   

  Amazing too, is Raf’s new Sonambulo lithograph. (<– this pic minus the text). I got mine!

   

  Get yours from the man himself…

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  Many thanks to the folks at Six Point Harness for the invite to their new studio opening in Hollywood. These guys have a great new space, and by the looks of the turn out, they’re not short of industry friends. Speaking of which, it was great to see so many industry people show up – always nice to see execs and artists rubbing shoulders in a social situation.

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  Art Toys in S.F. – Lili

  … Just back from two and a half days in San Francisco, where I spent most of my time visiting art gallery openings and toy stores. S.F. is cool. With it’s urban street culture, DIY artists’ collectives, and ocean views, this city is so very much like NYC-meets-Sydney.

  Highlights

  Double Punch is Ningyoushi’s store  – For all you L.A. folks who have been desperately trying to get your hands on the free Tylenol OUCH figures at Meltdown and GR, you will be very jealous to know that these figures were available in every toy store I visited in S.F.! I picked up two  – both of which turned out to be the rare Wizardry Agitator! (see pic via Crown Dozen)
  

  The ‘Contemporary Literary Comics’ exhibition at the Cartoon Art Museum (SOMA) was amazing: five or so rooms with wall-to-wall artwork by all the Fantagraphics legends. The Animation room included original drawings by Winsor McCay. Dan Clowes was rumored to be there, but we didn’t see him/weren’t sure what he looks like …
  
  On Thursday I had the pleasure of hanging out with Antoi Celes (Designer, Curator and Food Geek/Connoisseur) who introduced me to where the good Chinese food is at in S.F. No, not Chinatown but the Sunset district – where the locals go for their Asian cuisine fix!

  Stopping by The Canvas Gallery for a browse of their toy show & coffees, I am reminded again of how similar S.F. is to Sydney – there is a funky and laidback ’Cafe Culture’ here, which seems to be missing from Starbucks-dominated L.A.

   
   

  The ‘Curious Creatures’ Opening @ Punch Gallery on Thursday night was the main purpose of my visit (thanks to Brian for the invitation!) – showcasing Art Toy creations, paintings and photos by artists who have flown in from all over the US. The space was reminiscent of the sort of artists’ warehouse lofts we used to live in back in Sydney (circa mid 90’s): Large open-plan room, high ceilings, with areas sectioned-off for artists’ studio-offices and the public gallery.

  One of my favorite pieces from the show was a sculpture (3rd. pic above) by the show’s curator Brin Berliner, who also sculpted some of the Neo-Kaiju figures.

  Also present were our Rikochet and Double Ninja Ninja figures as part of Brian McCarty’s photo collection. I met Attaboy, Steve Ruddy (creator of Toxic Teddies), Heather (from Wootini toy store, and rollerderby gal!) and Patrick (creator of the Rocketworld IWG figures).

  As the night progressed and the space filled out with hipsters, the DJ corner became the scene of a ‘breakdance battle’, which was pretty damn cool.

  Also visited: The Super7 store in Japantown; and on Haight street –The STRANGEco headquarters, Kidrobot (which is very similar to the LA and NY branches), GRSF, and just way too many groovy shoe stores. I WILL BE BACK!

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  Links…

  Alain Gree illustrations

  Sqwigly Online Animation Magazine

  Professor Barnhardt’s Journal – Bloggers nominate their favorite websites.

  BeinArt Underground Australian Toy Art Collective

  Verycoolthings.com

  La Comicteca – Our friend Oscar Carreño has a new comics blog (in Spanish). We are looking forward to his Lucha Libre blog

  El Gata Negra! – League of Masked Lady Wrestlers.

  Mucha Lucha toys - A compilation of all the Jakks Pacific ML figures on one web page. Later, I will be adding other merchandise (games, dvds, books etc.) to this page.

  Soon: Stills from our ¡Mucha Lucha! ’Blue Demon’ episode!

  • 3:21 am
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