On the Road: Pro Wrestling GRIND

Andy "Thiccc Daddy" Brown

Ha!  Didn't see this coming, did you?  I will admit that until fairly recently, I wouldn't have had it on my bingo card either.

A couple of Novembers ago, we went to see Judge John Hodgman perform live in Turners Falls, Massachusetts (see my post here).  One of his "cases" was between two professional wrestlers based in a gym in, of all places, Easthampton, Mass., not too far from where our child goes to college.  Before that moment, I had never even considered the possibility that "minor league" pro wrestling was a thing - though I suppose you have to work your way up, just like in any business.  Since then, a couple of developments enhanced the family curiosity in pro wrestling.  Our child discovered WWE and I discovered the comic book series Love & Rockets, which features the sport prominently in some of the Locas stories (see here).  

So we made a plan to go.  We invited my wife to join us but, not shockingly, she passed.  So I headed down on my own this past weekend so the kid and I could go to GRIND's spring season opener, entitled "Brave New World."

It was... exactly what I expected.  My own previous exposure to pro wrestling is limited.  I grew up in the '80s when WrestleMania was born and the sport was achieving its first strong footholds in mainstream culture.  I was introduced to amateur wrestling at around the same time and thought it was awesome.  "Fake" wrestling held significantly less appeal.  So even though going to GRIND was technically my idea, I still went in with considerable reservations. 

It was camp.  It was theatrical.  It was violent.  It was 100% staged and scripted.  It was also 100% impressive and entertaining.

The space was small - a local VFW, not even a high school gym - and intimate.  We were in what started as the back row (they eventually added folding chairs behind us) but never far from the action.  I got nervous every time the wrestlers fell out of the ring (even though I know it was planned).

We got five matches in all: four duals, including a women's match, and a 3-on-3 tag team event.  In as much as I like wrestling at all, I'm a sucker for tag teams.  But the final, main event was the real treat: Perry Von Vicious, the reigning in-house champion, versus Andy Brown, aka Thiccc Daddy.  Even though he was the out-of-town challenger (technically the "bad guy"), Thiccc Daddy first won over the crowd, then won the match and the championship belt with it (see top photo).  He'll also be in GRIND's next event in March.  I'm guessing there's a season-long drama planned.

Mike Graca

Grind OGs vs. The Lost Boys

The victorious OGs

Ridiculous?  Check.  Fun?  Also check.  Most importantly, the kid had a grand old time.  Would I go again?  Maybe.  I don't know if we'll have time to go see GRIND again but there is Green Mountain Wrestling in Montpelier...

The following day, the kid had to work so I had the afternoon to myself.  I perused the guidebook for something I could do that would be less appealing for the rest of my family and thus an ideal choice to explore on my own.  And there it was: the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield.

I have passed the silver dome of the Hoops Hall many times on the highway though always on the way to somewhere else.  And that is already one of the biggest selling points of this Hall: it's right off the Interstate.  This stands in notable contrast with baseball's Hall in Cooperstown, New York - a lovely little hamlet but it's in the middle of nowhere.  And the baseball Hall doesn't even have a proper parking lot.  Plus basketball, unlike football, baseball, ice hockey or even rock 'n' roll, has a well-documented origin story.  That story, along with many others, is well-preserved in Springfield.

Interestingly, the kid and I had just had a chat on the walk back from brunch - before I'd even concocted my Springfield plan - about the accessibility of museums.  Accessibility for the disabled, of course, but also the literal separation between exhibit and observer.  For the most part, you can't touch stuff.  Regarding the first consideration, there are a lot of stairs at the Hoops Hall, but also a lot of elevators.  Much of what is behind glass is at a relatively low eye-level so a person in a wheelchair would be able to see them easily.

Regarding the second consideration, the first thing you see when you get off the elevator at the beginning of the tour is a wall with brass (maybe copper?) basketballs on a wall with actual players' handprints on them.  The idea is to see how your own hand measures up.  Surprise, surprise, the average star basketball player's hand is enormous.  Next, you walk around a ring to see how you measure up in height with NBA and WNBA players, beginning with Muggsy Bogues (one of my all-time favorite athletes) at 5'3" and ending with Yao Ming at 7'6".  So even before you get to the other exhibits, you've established yourself in the physical world of the players.

Then the Wall of Honor, when you finally get to it near the end of the tour, is just a wall of names, no plaques.  Instead of plaques, there are huge touch screens so you can easily find the stars you care the most about - again, a tactile experience.  I found all of the Georgetown Hoyas and Washington Wizards (then the Bullets) greats.  

The entire museum surrounds a basketball court, viewable from each level and completely open for people to shoot around with their friends, their kids, whomever.  The Hall truly is built around the love of the game itself.

Best of all, the women's game is celebrated on equal footing.  Every space of the Hall that honors men also honors women.  They are not shoved away into a corner.  For the moment, more of the "stuff" is for the men than for the women but it's obvious that's changing in a hurry.  We're living in the Age of Caitlin Clark and the face of basketball is increasingly female.  The Hall is doing its part to encourage that.

I do have one criticism: not enough books in the gift shop.  I know there are books about basketball because I've read them and reviewed quite a lot of them here on The Squid.  There were a few books.  There should have been a lot more.

Star Trek: Warlord

Episode: "Warlord"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 10

Original Air Date: November 20, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Our heroes rescue three injured beings from a ship moments before it explodes.  They seem grateful - at first.  One of them is possessed by a malevolent entity who takes mental possession of Kes just before his current host dies.  Possessed Kes and her two new friends steal a shuttle and return to their own world, intent on overthrowing its current ruler.

"Warlord" is a good Kes episode.  Jennifer Lien gets to show off some range as Tieran, the entity possessing her, is quite ruthless in pursuing his ambitions.  We nearly get an on-screen same-sex kiss between Kes and Nori, Tieran's wife, before they're rudely interrupted.  More importantly to the long term, Kes breaks up with Neelix.  At first, it seems like she's only doing it because she's possessed.  That would definitely have been disappointing as Neelix is undeniably a controlling, possessive boyfriend and Kes's desire for breathing room is completely understandable.  But, in fact, this is it.  They never will get back together after this episode.

Unfortunately, we're running out of time with Kes.  Jennifer Lien left the show near the beginning of Season 4.  I'll discuss the particulars when we get to that point.  But having the benefit of knowing what's coming, I'm inclined to appreciate the character all the more while we still have her.  With "Warlord," we see Kes finally coming into her own.  She can be more than Neelix's adoring girlfriend or The Doctor's eager assistant or everyone's empathetic pal.  Just as she's finally being given room to grow, we must prepare to say goodbye.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Leigh J. McCloskey (Tieran) was born in Los Angeles, June 21, 1955.  "Warlord" is his first of two Trek appearances.

McCloskey is unusual for the people I have featured in this space in that he is likely more accomplished as a visual artist than as an actor.  His ongoing work The Heiroglyph of the Human Soul is a hand-painted library installation in his own home.

That said, the screen resume is nothing to sneeze at.  He found particular success in soap operas: 248 appearances on Santa Barbara, 46 on Dallas and 32 on The Young and the Restless.  Films include Inferno and Just One of the Guys.

Squid Flicks: A Master Builder

Title: A Master Builder

Director: Jonathan Demme

Original Release Date: November 11, 2013

My Overall Rating: 3 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Halvard Solness, an accomplished architect, is dying.  His doctor pays a visit, as do his former rival, that rival's son/Halvard's assistant and the assistant's fiancée/Halvard's bookkeeper and mistress.  Follow all that?  It's not even the most twisted part of the story.  Halvard is also visited by a young woman, Hilde, who remembers Halvard from her childhood.  Though she's not seen Halvard in 10 years, she's clearly in love with him.  The screenplay is Wallace Shawn's adaptation of Ibsen's play The Master Builder.

Halvard (Shawn) is a terrible person.  His wife Aline is fully aware of his philandering as he makes minimal effort to conceal it.  He destroyed his rival professionally and is deliberately holding his own protégé back.  The fact that he once made advances on 12-year-old Hilde would be disgusting in any context.  All that aside...

It's an absorbing story even with a thoroughly detestable protagonist and the fact there's very little action.  The entire film is shot in the one house - maybe three rooms? - which helps support the stage-play-on-screen feel.  The acting is strong.  Shawn is always good.  Julie Hagerty hits all the right buttons as Aline and Andre Gregory plays the former rival, Knut, in a My Dinner with Andre reunion.  Honestly, it feels a bit like the earlier film - more characters but nonetheless a complete narrative told in conversation.

Lisa Joyce steals the show as Hilde - a bright ray of sunshine, yet clearly on the edge of madness.  She more than holds her own in her scenes with both Shawn and Hagerty.  

Overall, it's okay.  The basic elements are strong and I certainly admire the simplicity.  But I don't see myself ever watching it again.

Star Trek: Things Past

Episode: "Things Past"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 5, Episode 8

Original Air Date: November 18, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Garak episode!

It's also a Terok Nor episode.  Sisko, Odo, Dax and Garak pass out on a runabout, then wake up on the station seven years before when it was still under Cardassian control.  They are not themselves.  They are Bajorans whom Odo remembers had been accused of and executed for an assassination attempt on Gul Dukat.  Our heroes quickly set about figuring out how to escape their fate.  Meanwhile, Odo is falling apart.

The technobabble explanation for how they all ended up in the situation is completely ludicrous, detracting from what is otherwise a meaningful story.  The writers didn't want to do time travel or a flashback.  Instead they concocted a convoluted "everyone is living Odo's dream" scenario.  I fail to see how that's better.

Honestly, I wouldn't normally be up for a flashback either - typically the sort of choice that indicates a show's writers are running out of ideas.  I'll forgive it in DS9's case because the Terok Nor history is particularly interesting - and pertinent to the series's present.  In this instance, Odo is working through guilt over his own role in the assassination investigation.  "Things Past" is not as strong as Season 2's "Necessary Evil," my choice as DS9's first truly great episode.  But I'll still take Terok Nor over the Mirror Universe anytime.

At story's end, there's a confrontation between Odo and Kira over the newly revealed truth, an exact swapping of roles from their confrontation at the end of "Necessary Evil."  They're even now.  For each, there is something the other did in the deep dark past that will be difficult to forgive.  The Odo-Kira relationship is only going to get more complicated moving forward.  Will they be able to trust one another?

Acting Notes

via Regular Show Wiki

Kurtwood Smith played Thrax, Odo's Cardassian predecessor as head of security on Terok Nor.  Smith was born in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, July 3, 1943.  He has a BS from San Jose State and an MFA from Stanford.

Smith's stage and screen resume is extensive, one of the most recognizable character actors of the 1980s and '90s.  I remember him most for two very different father roles: Tom Perry, Neil's father in Dead Poets Society, and Red Foreman, Eric's dad in That '70s Show.  He's a hardass in both, though it plays out differently in drama and comedy.  Other films include RoboCop, Rambo III and A Time to Kill.  On television, he had principal roles on The Ranch and That '90s Show, reprising his role as Red Foreman for the latter.  He made guest appearances on Lou Grant, The X-Files and 24.  "Things Past" was his first of two Trek appearances.

Off My Duff: Winter 2026

In my last fitness report in September, I noted that winter was a challenging time for maintaining goals and so it has been this year.  It's colder.  It's darker.  Hibernation instincts are hard to fight.  Even recess duty doesn't help as much as in fall or spring because we're more likely to be inside due to cold and ice.

So, my initial idea to increase my step goal didn't help.  If the goal is harder to reach, I'm more inclined not to try.  That's the trouble for me (and I imagine for others) with exercise.  It's too easy to come up with an excuse not to do it.  Attainable goals matter.  Without them, I just won't bother.

In early January, I think, I set my step goal back to AmazFit's factory setting: 8,000.  Since then, I've hit the goal far more often than not, including every day this past week.  The hardest days are travel days with long stretches in car or plane with virtually no steps at all.  

The step goal is enough for now.  Admittedly, it's not as good for exertion but at this point, I think those targets will need to wait for summer.  Establish the vigor habits then with an eye towards how to keep them up in the fall.

Meanwhile, my present aim: hit the step goal for 365 consecutive days.  I'm currently at 7.  It can and shall be done!  The key is doing it on the days when I really don't feel like it.

Star Trek: Future's End, Part II

Episode: "Future's End, Part II"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 3, Episode 9

Original Air Date: November 13, 1996

via Memory Alpha

The story begun in the last episode concludes.  Janeway and company must stop evil tech baron Henry Starling (Ed Begley, Jr.) from going to the 29th century in his timeship to steal more future tech to adapt and sell in his own time.  They must do so without corrupting the timeline and also preventing whatever future disaster Voyager was involved in to set all of this in motion in the first place.  

Confused?  Yeah well, the details are more complicated than the basic idea: cat and mouse game between the Voyager crew and Starling with Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman) caught in between.  Who?  Rain Robinson is the scientist who first detected Voyager.  Tom Paris and Tuvok have befriended her.  Unfortunately, Starling fears she knows too much and wants to kill her.  

Long story short: all works out, good guys win.  Tom gets to kiss the girl.  Voyager gets sent back to its own timeline - and back to the Delta Quadrant.

One important long-term development: Starling created a mobile emitter for the Doctor which allows the EMH an existence outside of sickbay.  

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Thirty years later, Sarah Silverman is a big star, a genuine A-list stand-up comic with a broad and lasting screen career to boot.  In fact, I think it's fair to say that she's had a more successful career since "Future's End" than any of the other actors involved - possibly excepting Begley.  Though I bet Silverman would win a name recognition poll.  In 1996, she was just getting started.

Silverman was born in Concord, New Hampshire, December 1, 1970.  She attended NYU for one year before dropping out to pursue a stand-up career in Greenwich Village.  She got the big break in 1993 when she was hired by Saturday Night Live as a writer and performer.  Unfortunately, it didn't work out.  She was fired after one season.  It set her back emotionally for about a year.  She's been on a pretty good roll ever since.

Her own series, The Sarah Silverman Program, ran for three seasons on Comedy Central.  She's had numerous appearances on high profile shows, including Seinfeld, Monk and Frasier.  She was guest host of The Daily Show for a week in 2023.  She's had two televised stand-up specials.  Films include There's Something About Mary, School of Rock and The Muppets.  Then there's the voice acting career: The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, Wreck-It Ralph and Ralph Breaks the Internet among others.  She adapted her autobiography, The Bedwetter, into an off-Broadway musical.  She's had eight Emmy nominations, winning twice, and four Grammy nominations.

Seriously, she's everywhere - for over 30 years.

On the Road: Black Belt Eagle Scout

Our latest trip to North Adams, Massachusetts was inspired by a concert at Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art).  Black Belt Eagle Scout's real name is Katherine Paul.  She's a Swinomish/Inupiaq singer-songwriter whose indie rock sound is heavily influenced by Native American folk music.  For her current tour, she has teamed up with Mato Wayuhi, an Oglala Lakota hip-hop soul performer from South Dakota, and Ailani, a singer-songwriter in her own right from New Mexico who also serves as KP's lead guitarist.  I enjoyed all three performers, especially the hip-hop elements Mayuhi brought to the ensemble.  The full band was the highlight.  The drummer was particularly strong.  

Black Belt Eagle Scout's "Indians Never Die":

Mato Wayuhi's "KETCHUP POTATO CHIPS":