ohtani's jacket

It's a real song from an LP Dump released in 1985. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoOFsG3MpXs

Poor Dikeme.

Even though the episodes were longer than a usual drama, I thought the series was too short. The final two episodes felt rushed. I don't know if that was a COVID-related thing, but there was enough story to have 8 episodes. They could have even had a second season, imo. I also would have liked to have seen a more realistic version of what Dump was like backstage, but they set the narrative up like her act was real.

The series shows Takashi Matsunaga cooking yakisoba at various venues, as he did in real-life. Fans were just balking over the grill plate being set up Korakuen Hall with propane gas. One person also went off about the price of the yakisoba being wrong. Someone else joked that the AJW yakisoba wasn't that good but that it brought back memories of Frankie the midget trying to fleece money out of folks. Netflix gave visitors yakisoba at a viewing they held at Korakuen Hall, and the dish has become a bit of a talking point surrounding the show.

They don't specifically feature rookie matches. The major matches they present as shoot finishes are the Jackie Sato vs. Maki Ueda retirement match, the Jackie Sato vs. Jaguar match where Jackie drops the title, the 1985 JGP, the first Chigusa vs. Dump hair match, and the extended portion of the Dump retirement match where Dump tags with Chigusa. This is a bit of an odd question, but you've been to Korakuen Hall dozens of times, did they ever cook yakisoba there when you visited? For some reason, this bothered a lot of Japanese fans on Twitter. I may have been misunderstanding what people were talking about, though.

The final episode bordered on ridiculous at times. The idea of Dump going "off script" in the hair vs. hair match after being offered 10 million yen to lose was ridiculous and I can understand why Japanese fans on Twitter weren't really happy about it (if even those fans are labelled as pro-wrestling otaku by others.) The way they staged the fight made it bloodier and more violent than the actual bout, but they went a bit far with it as it made it seem like Dump was about to kill her. The match did cause a riot and there were a flood of complaints that led to the show being temporary banned in some regions. The show is pretty light with the consequences. Instead, we get a muddled timeline that eventually leads to the Dump retirement match (which was also Yukari Omori's retirement match, but they don't mention that on the show.) They use the retirement match to resolve things, but man is the part where they knock out the Matsunaga brothers stupid. As for doing Jaguar dirty, the worst thing they do is make the 8/85 Budokan show seem like a failure because they didn't get the results from the Japan Grand Prix that they wanted. In reality, it was a hugely successful show for the promotion. Asuka got the big match with Jaguar that she supposedly wanted in the show. They just chose to ignore it. Just like they ignored the hair vs hair rematch, the title matches that followed Jaguar's retirement, and the fact that Chigusa, Lioness and Omori all held the Big Red Belt despite the show portraying them as being held down. Jaguar did get pushed out the door in part because of the mandatory retirement age, but for some reason they chose not to include the retirement rule in the show. According to Dump she was estranged from her father for 50 years before they reconciled on his deathbed in 2019, so so no emotional scenes with dad in real life. Personally, I thought the final episode was disappointing. I don't think they got the beats right in the story. There wasn't enough motivation for Dump to turn "face" again in terms of how they wrote the show. It's not a bad show, but I would personally rank it behind Naked Director and Sanctuary for Japanese Netflix shows dealing with similar eras and topics.

Episode four is pure fantasy. Entertaining fantasy, but every single scene is fabricated. In most cases, it's more interesting than the event that actually took place, but it paints a somewhat distorted view of what Dump was really like. For some reason, they chose to make her unsympathetic, which was perplexing. The whole shoot thing is out of control as well. All Japan Women were not have matches decided on shoot pins in the 1980s. The series is entertaining, and I'm gad it's successful, but I wonder if this was how sumo fans felt watching Sanctuary.

Their live records are fantastic. I came away thinking they were a better live band than a studio group.

The good news is that today it became the number one watched show on Japan Netflix. I finished episode 3, and I have to say the best thing about the show is the amount of training the main cast did to learn how to wrestle. That part of the show is fantastic. There's a strange insistence on the frontrunner's part to have every match turn into a shoot, but the fighting looks good. Personally, I think they did Jaguar Yokota dirty. There was an amusing article about Jaguar's husband watching the show and stopping it every few minutes to ask her whether it really happened like that in real life. I've been trying to rack my brains over who Lovely Yoneyama is supposed to be. Some Japanese fans are speculating that it's meant to be Nancy Kumi. Nancy Kumi had a reputation for being one of the worst bullies among the wrestlers. The weakest part of the show so far is the scene where "Dump" is born. That was totally over the top, the lightening effects were cheesy, as best I can tell, it was completely fictional, as was Dump coming to the ring, choking Chigusa out and acting like Nailz released from the psych ward. The disco story was a story Dump shared in some articles that the show is based on. Whether Chigusa's interview in the magazine ever happened, I'm not sure. It's definitely not how Dump because Dump. That wouldn't matter if it didn't come across as a cheesy horror flick, and once again everything being a shoot. I was far more taken with the jogging scene where Dump can't keep up with Chigusa and you see Chigusa running off into the distance. The actress who played Devil was having fun. She's a little undersized but the voice and mannerisms are great.

Episode 2 is fun. The timeline is all over the place and it leans heavily into fictionalized drama, but the wrestling is great. Love Jackie's outfits. They went pretty soft on the bullying, but I guess that was to be expected. The Jaguar Yokota/Jackie Sato stuff was silly. Toshikuni Matsunaga never looked as cool as Takumi Saitoh, and I don't think he was pulling the strings as much as the show makes out. I did love Takuma Oto as Shiro Abe. Shout out to the luchadoras as well.

Watched the first episode. It's good, but I've got to say it's a highly fictionalized account of Dump Matsumoto's life. I hope people don't view it as a history lesson. Some of the scenes are based on actual events, but almost nothing happens the way it occurred in real life. It's a dramatization so that's understandable. I just hope fans don't get confused by it. The wrestling choreography looks great. They use a lot of sound effects, but the actual wrestling is better than I expected. For the most part, they get the retro stuff correct, though it's difficult for them to create the exact atmosphere of the wrestling matches. There also exterior scenes that are clearly not 1970s exteriors, but that can't be helped. The haircuts and clothes are awesome and the interior scenes look great. The way they present the inner workings of the wrestling business will cause a few eyes to roll, especially the unnecessary explanation for the Jackie Sato vs. Maki Ueda retirement match. The Matsunagas did manipulate the wrestlers' feelings a lot and cause dissension among them, but the locker room scene between Jackie and Maki is silly. The acting is good. Yuriyan does a terrific job as the lead. Some cool cameos from Devil Masami and Monster Ripper in the first episode.

Woj is quitting the game?

I was never into Maze because I prefer harder funk, but since Frankie Beverly's death, I've been listening to old Maze records and appreciating them more. There's still a heavy R&B influence, but they were funkier than I remembered. Their 80s output is surprisingly solid too.

The Olympics really messed with Djokovic and Alcaraz's prep for this Grand Slam, but it's a huge opportunity for someone else .

I've been digging through the crates for 1983 EPs. Skins E Punks = T.N.T. -- this is a pretty cool compilation of Italian hardcore punk bands I don't know if any of them went on to bigger things, but there's four groups and they each get two tracks. Italian Oi! sounds much cooler than British Oi! Riot Squad's Don't Be Denied EP and I'm OK -- Fuck You... speaking of Oi! Riot Squad were a UK82 band that I quite enjoyed. Street punk with plenty of force. Rolands Gosskör's Pigs Part One... this was some catchy as Swedish punk. Huvudtvätt's Huvudtvätt and Headcleaners... this was a compilation of two earlier EPs and not really 1983 music per se, but hey, how else are you going to be exposed to more Swedish punk? These guys were nastier than the previous group. They only played together live once, so more of a recording experiment than a great band, but very cool and very influential on the Swedish punk sound. Lawsuit's Bad Boys of Rock... Lawsuit is such a stupid name for a hard rock band that I simply had to listen to this. Not bad but a bit soft. The Singles' Play It! Really nice power pop record from this Bay Area group that weren't able to keep the band together. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Better than most of the power pop releases from this year. The Limit [USA]'s The Limit... another solid power pop record from a band that didn't make it. The singer is trying too hard to sound like Ric Ocasek, but there are worse guys you can try to emulate.

Mad Men is one of the great TV shows. It's from an era when lead characters weren't meant to be likeable but were anyway (Tony Soprano, Walter White, Dexter, etc.)

I liked the final season but I wish they had been given a full 10 episodes. A lot of things fans are complaining about online are things that the fans have gotten wrong, though to be fair, a lot of things happened offscreen, which probably isn't the best way to wrap up a show.

Not a fan of this new system. You're basically letting the home country replace events with a bunch of sports they're good at. It's also disappointing since LA is a hub for the hip hop community. Instead, we're getting flag football.

Anyone got some thrash recommendations from the year 2000 and beyond?

Well, New Zealand had a record 10 gold medal haul, and Japan had its best overseas Olympics, so Paris 2024 was bountiful. Time to count our booty. Shame on you LA for not including Breaking.

I get the criticism that the season was pretty much a cock tease for next season, but that's the way it goes when everyone's trying to rush these things back onto the screen as fast as they can. Viewership was up over the past season and that only leads to more searches for "when will season 5 of The Boys be released?" I enjoyed the season for the most part. So many things happened and yet people were griping because they didn't get closer to topping off Homelander.

It was really only half a season, so I don't see any point on placing an ultimate judgement on it just yet, but I enjoyed it for the most part. Yeah, i's treading over the same ground, but that's because the tensions are still there.

Finally, somebody else has stepped up to the plate. Hopefully, we'll see a nice little battle between Sinner and Alcaraz for the year-end No.1.

I've been reading the first volume that Fantagraphics put out.

This week I've been reading Castle Waiting by Linda Medley. It truly is the most delightful book I've read in a long time. In fact, it's the most excited I've been about comics since I discovered Strangehaven and Age of Bronze. It reminds me of when I first discovered the early issues of Bone and bought the first trade paperback with the Great Cow Race. Beautiful black and white cartooning and a pure joy to read. I was so absorbed in the story that I put everything else aside this week and only read Castle Waiting. Loved every single panel. Check this out if you enjoy enchanting storytelling.