What Book Are You Currently Reading ?

[El Kabong]

I'm reading 'Pure Dynamite' which is an autobiography of Tom Billington 'The Dynamite Kid' who was a great wrestler in the 1980's. It's interesting reading more so in that you get the back story, the behind the scenes dirt...it's not a cerebral read, but come on it was never going to be. Tom Billington was supposed to be one of the biggest assholes in all of wrestling, but so far (and I'm early on in the book) everything he's done seems understandable to a certain extent. He's pulled some tough pranks but mostly in retaliation, and he's only had fights or arguments with people who owed him money, reneged on promises, or attempted to ride his coattails. Apparently his cousin Davey Boy Smith was the bigger asshole in that he was big time riding on the coattails and he was very unappreciative of that too.

Dynamite was one of my favorite wrestlers when I was growing up as well which is why I'm reading the book a tiny bit of nostalgia for myself.

I watched him as a kid on TV, did you watch British wrestling too?

I did not get that opportunity, but I enjoyed a lot of British wrestlers when they wrestled for WWF/WWE or WCW or MidSouth or NWA or WCCW. I can check out a lot of the older matches on YouTube though from the territories I hadn't seen before Stampede out of Calgary, Portland Wrestling, etc but the best of the best is the stuff from Japan in the 1980's.

William Regal, Fit Finlay, Lord Alfred Hayes, Dave Taylor, Chris Adams, and hell I just saw Rockstar Spud at an event the other week, funny little guy.

[Master]

British Bulldog was on the English wrestling circuit before he "bulked" up.

[El Kabong]

British Bulldog was on the English wrestling circuit before he "bulked" up.

Yeah he was Dynamite Kid's cousin and funnily enough Davey Boy asked DK for steroids and bugged him enough to where DK loaded up a syringe with milk and shot it into Davey's ass cheeks telling him it was diabonal or some such thing and I guess Davey got a little upset when the other wrestlers started "Moo-ing" at him

[El Kabong]

A slightly more cerebral book I have in my queue at this moment is a work that Andrew Breitbart did with Mark Ebner called 'Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in babylon---the case against celebrity' it is described as: a sometimes frightening, occasionally sad, and frequently hysterical odyssey into the darkest realms of showbiz pathology, the endless stream of meltdowns and flameouts, and the inexplicable behavior on the part of show business personalities.
Charting celebrities from rehab to retox, to jails, cults, institutions, near-death experiences and the Democratic Party, Hollywood, Interrupted takes readers on a surreal field trip into the amoral belly of the entertainment industry. Each chapter — covering topics including warped Hollywood child-rearing, bad medicine, hypocritical political maneuvering and the complicit media — delivers a meticulously researched, interview-infused, attitude heavy dispatch which analyzes and deconstructs the myths created by the celebrities themselves.

Celebrities somehow believe that it's their god-given right to inflict their pathology on the rest of us. Hollywood, Interrupted illustrates how these dysfunctional dilettantes are mad as hell... And we're not going to take it any more.



As much as I'm not a tabloids reader, I do find it irksome when Hollywood elites, the Learjet/Limousine Liberals attempt to be standard bearers for American society. I also really despise their disdain for anyone not in/from LA or NYC....lots of those shitbags who "play pretend" for heaping amounts of cash aren't all that smart, and the propaganda newsreaders from the mainstream media who just assume they are aren't far behind.




Not sure what I will read after this though....I might do another history book.

[Gandalf]

The script to the stage play Lazarus. I am boycotting the UK so might never see the show. Alone with a book is more in keeping with me and the spirit of the character.

[Batman]

I'm currently taking a bit of time out from my reading, I've absolutely hammered a fuck load of books this year and I'm feeling a little burnt out from it now.

I'm currently reading Uncle Silas, an old book from the 1860's, it's a really easy read and i'm really enjoying it but I'm purposely not bladdering my way through it, I'm trying to make time for other things at the minute

[El Kabong]

Started 'Hollywood Interrupted' and my God it is hilarious!

In the intro Breitbart and Ebron make light of Barbara Walters interview with Anne Heche when Heche says she was in "the 4th dimension" speaking some alien language with God and in the interview she speaks in that alien language and Barbara Walters doesn't call her on her bullshit.


It's a funny book and really nails Hollywood on how up it's own ass it is

[walrus]

Reading a book about the culpepper spy ring that George Washington helped put together during the America revolution. Very interesting, the people involved remained anonymous for centuries despite playing such an integral part in winning independence. One English general stated Washington didn't out war us he out spied us

[El Kabong]

@Batman have you ever read 'Gulag Archipelago' by Alexander Solzhenitsyn? I'm learning about that and it sounds quite interesting.

[Gandalf]

The script to the stage play Lazarus. I am boycotting the UK so might never see the show. Alone with a book is more in keeping with me and the spirit of the character.

Very short little play, but it makes more sense than what the reviewers were saying. Half of the characters are in Newtons head, so he has likely spent so much time alone with alcohol that he has gone a bit mad. The songs all seem to fit pretty well as Bowie songs are often about alienation, loneliness and disconnection. I would love to see the play, but it's never going to happen.

[Batman]

@Batman have you ever read 'Gulag Archipelago' by Alexander Solzhenitsyn? I'm learning about that and it sounds quite interesting.

I can't say that I have, it doesn't look like my type of thing to be honest, I always look at those types of books but always think that they are going to be a massive slog, especially when I see that it is 3 volumes as well.

I've only started reading again over the last few days, I'm planning on getting Uncle Silas finished over the weekend and then going back to revisit one or two of my old favourites, I'm thinking about reading True Grit again.

[El Kabong]

@Batman have you ever read 'Gulag Archipelago' by Alexander Solzhenitsyn? I'm learning about that and it sounds quite interesting.

I can't say that I have, it doesn't look like my type of thing to be honest, I always look at those types of books but always think that they are going to be a massive slog, especially when I see that it is 3 volumes as well.

I've only started reading again over the last few days, I'm planning on getting Uncle Silas finished over the weekend and then going back to revisit one or two of my old favourites, I'm thinking about reading True Grit again.

I'm taking the coward's way out and doing the audiobook of 'Gulag Archipelago' ....not sure if you're open such things but I find it helps to pass the time to listen to something and every so often I get tired of music.


I will say it is emotionally and psychologically a bit draining to encounter this book....I wonder whatever became of the people and the answer is always dead or broken and then I attempt to wrap my mind around how humans could do those horrible things to each other.....and not just "oh this is my fellow human" but children turning in their parents! There was no room for loyalty in a Soviet's heart to anyone but the State and the numbers of people who suffered...the sheer numbers of them! Also it wasn't JUST Stalin who did these purges, Stalin was the best at it without question he's probably the most bloodthirsty tyrant this side of Genghis Khan! But V.I. Lenin was also a horrible despot and he's rarely if ever called out for such.


How ANYONE could or would choose to be a Communist or Socialist after reading Solzhenitsyn is beyond me....to have a society with 0 free will....terrifying

[El Kabong]

HOLY SHIT!

In 1922 The Soviet GPU (Joint State Political Directorate) arrested some engineers including Peter Palchinsky, Nikolai von Meck and A. F. Velichko. A. F. Velichko had been in charge of military transportation...he was shot. Nikolai von Meck, he attempted to increase the size of freight trains and not worry about heavier loads, he was shot.....he was accused of wrecking roadbeds and rails so that there would be no transportation should the State need it.


SHORTLY THEREAFTER


The State wanted average freight train loads doubled and tripled and any engineer who protested became known as "limiters" and they were then shot for what Solzhenitsyn described as "their lack of faith in possibilities of Socialist transport"



That's not even the worst of it, getting shot was getting off easy!!!

[Master]

You can pick out extreme elements of any "ism" including socialism if you try. It should be about community and all the positive dimensions it brings.

[El Kabong]

You can pick out extreme elements of any "ism" including socialism if you try. It should be about community and all the positive dimensions it brings.

Yeah SHOULD BE and IS are completely different things too. Children ratted out their parents to the GPU dude....children sent their folks away to be worked to death in gulags. Stalin had people digging ship canals with their bare hands in weather you could barely keep vodka from freezing in and when the canal for the Volga was completed it was too shallow for any boats to use....but it was never about boats or shipping it was a means to an end...a means to the end of 3,000 people for that one canal.

Lenin was no better and Marx?!?! Marx is only celebrated because he never held political power. HAD he held political power like Stalin or Lenin or Hitler, he most certainly would have seen the end of millions upon millions of lives because that is what ALWAYS happens. Look at China and Mao! Pol Pot! Ceausescu! Tito! Fidel! Hugo Chavez! All filthy fucking murderers who never had the games played with them that they played with the civilians....you like Socialism? You can have it, I don't want it.