Book Review - The Da Vinci Code

(Preamble # 1 - Guess I wasn't going to away from the ol' BullBLOG for that long anyways. Sitting here in an airport, bored out of my skull, waiting for a red eye back to Toronto)

(Preamble # 2 - You may be wondering why I'm not putting this on the "Buk Revue" blog; someone else is planning something on this, I understand, so here it shall stay. That said, I should have something else for that blog soon. Maybe by the end of the night if my plane doesn't hurry the fuck up getting here.)

So I'm probably the last person on earth who has read this book. I'd read Dan Brown's previous three books (and they're probably reviewed somewhere here in the archives if memory serves), but I held off this one waiting for the paperback version. Finally, my mother lends me her hardcover copy about nine days ago, so I start lugging it around everywhere. It's a damn heavy book! Thing weighs down my entire gymback considerably. And of course, it came out in paperback THIS WEEK. Damn! (I guess this turned into preamble #3. Sorry.)

I loved Dan Brown's "Deception Point" and "Digital Fortress", but didn't so much care for "Angels and Demons" because it was just a little too religious for my liking. Was told that "Da Vinci" was similarly religious, so I steered clear of it for a while.

I was pleasantly surprised, though. Yes, there was a lot of religion references, but they weren't overly burdensome to someone who doesn't know a whole lot about the church, etc. Plus, the story has so many turns and twists that the religious overtones really do come in second to the plot.

Granted, there were a few times where I saw coming what was going to happen next. But for the most part, the swerves were genuine and quite ingenious. Although I find the Robert Langdon character a bit smug (and I doubt Tom Hanks will play him that way), you have to admire the character's penchant for getting out dangerous situations. Plus the supporting characters are strong in their own right. I can't wait to see if the film does justice to Silas, the albino monk (and just as yet another preamble - "Silas The Albino Monk" sounds like a GREAT name for an indy wrestler, no?)

Anyways, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. Very hard to put down (book weight notwithstanding) and probably Brown's best work yet. I don't like him as much as, say, Grisham or King, but his brief body of work is impressive.

Conclusion: Don't be the only person (besides me two weeks ago) who hasn't read this. Definitely worth investing a bit of time and effort into. And now that its in paperback, you really have no excuse....

DOUBLE DOSE OF BULLDOG!!!

PseudoMania!

It's getting closer and closer: WrestleMania 22. And while the sub-par build-up to this year's show might make it a bit harder to get excited, OO's gonna do it's level best to roll out a few days worth of Featurey Goodness, starting today. And what better way to start than by nibbling around the edges of sanity and reality, instead of dwelling on the sad state of affairs on the REAL WM22 card? First, the Canadian Bulldog offers up his twisted slant on the show in his detailed ItR WrestleMania Preview. And then, the Staff of OO have accepted The Rick's One-Match-Only Fantasy Challenge and each invented one WM match they'd like to see. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat: partners or foes in a legends match? Find out which way things go in the OO WM22 Dream Match Special.

Latest TWS/Out Of Bloggfice Alert

Forgot to post this one yesterday:

Canadian Bulldog's True Wrestling Stories: The Monday Night Wars

I will be offline (likely) until some point late-Friday, if not later. But do make sure to check out Online Onslaught Thursday night (though.... who knows anymore?) for my EXCLUSIVE look at WMXX2, as well as Team Coverage of the event, which I assume will hit Friday or so.

Wrestling Show Plug

Wrestling Media Network and its Affiliates Announce Strategic Partnership for World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. WrestleMania 22 Pay-Per-View
Monday, March 27th 2006
Agreement Establishes Wrestling Media Network and Affiliates as Broadcasting Destination

CALGARY, Alberta - The Wrestling Media Network (WMN) and its affiliates in TPSRadio.net, RadioWrestling.net, AudioWrestling.com and broadcasting from Saint Xavier University WXAV 88.3 FM The X of Chicago, Illinois, are joining forces to provide thir-teen hours of entertaining and informative programming. These occurrences will take place on the big day leading up to, during, and after WrestleMania 22 LIVE on pay-per-view.

Sponsored by Snickers, this year's edition of WrestleMania will take place from the sold out Rosemont's Allstate Arena.It is slated to be seen by thousands in attendance from forty-three states and sixteen countries. It will also be shown via cable and satellite television providers in over ninety countries.*

Wrestling Media Network Schedule

Beginning on Sunday, April 2nd 2006, at NOON EST/9:00AM PST, Monday Night Mayhem (MNM) with hosts The Big Mosh and Blade will kick off the extravaganza with several recognizable figures in professional wrestling including Bill Apter, Lisa Moretti (formally Ivory), Nora Greenwald (formally Molly Holly), Scott Hudson, Kevin Kelly, D'lo Brown, Dr. Tom Pritchard, and Michael T.

On Sunday, April 2nd 2006, at 3:00PM EST/NOON PST, Pillar To Post (P2P) Live plans to deliver a Professional Wrestling Historian in Sheldon Goldberg. There will be a special edition of The Walkers Views Show with hosts William "Walkie" Walker and Chuck D as a timeslot inclusion.

On Sunday, April 2nd 2006, at 6:00 PM EST/ 3:00 PM PST, "Internet" Dave of WrestleTalkRadio.com and "Deez Nutz" will provide a complete retrospective of WrestleMania's past. In the final hour leading into WrestleMania 22, the two plan to provide an important and historical look on this year's offering via the WMN.

And concluding, on Sunday, April 2nd 2006, at 7:00PM EST/4:00PM PST, its "When World's Collide 2," a combined two-show simulcast of WTR Sunday Night (WrestleTalkRadio.com) and Wrestling News Live (WrestlingNewsLive.net). WTR's hosts in Tim Stein, The Gigalo JJ Sexay, "Internet" Dave and Tits "Boom-Boom" MacGee will join WNL's Trey, JSK and Adam Martin of WrestleView.com for a second round of nonstop interaction. In their last meeting between the two, which took place for the November 2005 WWE Survivor Series Pay-Per-View, it resulted in a visit from the Springfield Police Department. Will lightening strike twice this time around? Tune in for pay-per-view coverage of WWE WrestleMania 22 to find out.

Vancouver

Headed there for one day next week, and I just discovered that I may have an extra hour or three left over to do a bit of sight-seeing. Can anyone here recommend a cool place there that would be worth the visit?

Latest ITR

The 2006 Hall of SHAME!!!

Bulldog SPEAKS!!!

(Bet you all thought I had a British accent, didn't you?)

Searches That Brought People To This Site

For those of you relatively new to this blog (and WOW, it seems like there are a lot of you recently!), from time to time I look at some of the bizarre search engine queries that brought people over here. To wit:

- "Raw Satire Matt Hocking". Uh, nope, that's not me. But thanks for playing.
- "Where is Chris Jericho". How the fuck should I know?
- "Answers to Mensa test". So NOT available here.
- "undertaker vs giant gonzales video". Even if I had a copy of that, I wouldn't publicize it. Seeing that match once was enough, thanks.
- "20". Okay, sure. I am, after all, the leading authority on the number 20.
- "Cinzia Hart news"; "Bret and Cinzia"; "Bret Hart divorce". Heheheheheheheh - see my archives for the backstory to this one.
- "wwe brutus the barber beefcake biography". Yes, you found me out. I am secretly ghostwriting the new WWE-authorized biography of Ed Leslie, entitled "Cuttin' and Struttin': Brutus The Barber Beefcake's story".

Latest WWI Column

Behold my ultra-rare CD collection in "Piper, Savage, Heidenreich and Others Sing the Hits"!!!

Kamala Website Reviewed

Check this shit out from the always hilarious Matt at X-Entertainment.com. An awesome review of a seemingly awesome website.

Oh, but one thing strikes me - who was it that "broke the news" of Kamala's burgeoning musical career? Hmmm, who was that again? It was almost EXACTLY a year ago, too, wasn't it?

Oh yeah, right.

In any event, very, very, VERY well done.

Movie Review - "The Pink Panther"

I was never a HUGE fan of the originals, but I've probably seen most of them at one point or another. My son (who likes the cartoon version, even though he's never seen an episode of it) kept asking me what happened in the original film, but damned if I could remember. So my parents, as kind of a joke, got me the original on DVD. I fell asleep halfway through it. Not that it was overly boring; it just didn't keep my interest. Peter Sellers was hilarious at times, but I don't know; I definitely gave up at the mid-way point.

Now, I wasn't expecting much out of the remake (given the horrible reviews), but I did want to give it a chance because I think Steve Martin is hilarious. And as Inspector Clouseau, he did a very convincing job with the voice, the mannerisms, the pratfalls, etc. The problem was - everything was SO PREDICTABLE.

I don't mind the odd visual gag that you can see coming a mile away, but this was virtually every joke. And that... I have a huge problem with. Why invest 90 minutes of my time when I know EXACTLY how every joke is going to end up?

So I blame the writing far more than the cast, who were fine on the most part. You'd figure after all the write-throughs this thing has gone through, someone could have made the script a tad more interesting....

A definite pass, in this humble Bulldog's opinion.

Saturday Night's Main Event thoughts

If I didn't come across loud and clear in my latest ITR, I was a HUGE fan of SNME growing up. The first half-dozen or so that aired, I was too young to stay up until 1 a.m., so my father would tape it (on Betamax!) and I would wake up early on Sunday morning to see how it all turned out. Although there weren't many surprises per se, it was always an interesting show because the matches were DIFFERENT than what you would normally see on the syndicated shows, and thus it was must-see television.

Last night's..... ehhhh. Part of it was because, we see basically the same caliber of matches every week. The set looked like a watered-down PPV stage, and otherwise, it was business as usual. I DID appreciate the synthesizer-themed opening and the way that the main event went on first, a nod to SNME's past, but honestly, that was about it.

HHH/Cena vs. Orton/Mysterio/Angle made no sense to me. If the goal was for dissention among the WM main event participants, why not just have HHH/Orton vs Cena/Angle/Mysterio? At least the Orton run-in on Monday would have made a bit more sense. These five clearly didn't care about the Raw vs SmackDown aspect, so why exploit that fact? I also understand why HHH would have interfered with Cena's pin - he's a heel and his main goal is to see Cena screw up - but why would you have Mysterio do the same thing to Orton? Sure, they have bad blood there, but they were obviously able to team up for the length of the match. So a terrible, terrible so-called "dream" match.

The other stuff wasn't much better. Sure, a few decent bumps in the Michaels-Shane O' Mac match, but you expected that. The JBL-Austin beer thingie could have been hilarious, but it just fell apart in a hurry. And this was the BEST way to turn Mickie James after six-plus months of buildup? Ugh.

Yes, it was "different" than the usual Raw and SmackDown fare, but not different enough. They may do okay in the ratings, but I'd be shocked if they'd do well at it again (barring an appearance by, say, The Rock). Ugh.

Hilarious "Shoot" Interview

Iron Shiek goes nuts

(Stolen from Scott Keith's blog)

Latest ITR

Live From Detroit....

It's Saturday Night's Main Event! Although we're still more than 2 days away from the return of Saturday Night's Main Event on NBC, it's never to early to start getting fired up about WWE's return to prime time network television. [Sorry UPN, you don't count.] Saturday's show will feature not only all the stars of RAW and SmackDown!, but it'll also include the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin to our TV screens. To help you get a jump on all the SNME hype, the Canadian Bulldog has prepared a full preview of the huge show. Check it out (and get plenty more of Bulldog's patented EXCLUSIVE~! newsbites) in the latest and greatest edition of Inside the Ropes.

Latest TWS

The True Wrestling Story of Cowboy Bob Orton

Review - The Lord of the Rings stage play

Now, first and foremost: I am NOT a Lord of the Rings fan. I'd read the books as a kid and seen one of the movies (well, about 98 % of the first one, before I literally walked out of the theatre in frustration). But I had to go this one. Long story, which I won't get into here. Just understand that I had to attend it.

The show premieres on March 23, so this was a "preview" performance, where they try to get some of the kinks out and (hopefully) reduce the run time a little. I will try to avoid "spoilers" for this, but if you do have specific questions, just drop me an email:

The set: The stage was really the most incredible part for me. The floor was a massive, round turntable that came apart in about two-dozen pieces. So the stage was constantly shifting and turning around to form a hilltop or mountain or whathaveyou. Most of the time, the set looked like a forest, and there were faux branches on the top and sides of the set, extending all the way to top of the balcony.

The music: It was okay. My fear was that, say, Frodo would break out into a choreographed dance number. That totally didn't happen. He does sing in a couple of numbers, but its more consistent with the story. The music is mostly slow, celtic-type ballads, also consistent with the setting.

The acting: It was fine. No one, expect for Gollum, really stood out for me as doing anything above and beyond the call of duty, performance wise. And Gollum got a big standing O at the end, so I guess it wasn't just me who felt he'd done a great job.

The story: It was broken up into three parts, similar to Tolkien's books and the films. Each part was roughly an hour long, with a 15 and then 10 minute intermission. I knew about this going into it, but I'm sorry, this is WAAAAAAAAAAY too long for anyone to sit still. People sitting near me were getting restless. When there was a "technical glitch" on stage, several folks were audibly groaning, even though it was fixed in less than 10 minutes. The show ended at 3 hours, 40 minutes, which I can't stress enough, was too long for a theatrical production. At least for me. I have very little experience to relate this to.

Anyways, that's my take. I'm sure it will do quite well in Toronto. I just couldn't see myself going back. But.... as I said earlier, I'm not a LOTR fan to begin with.

World Wrestling Insanity Announcement

We're pleased to announce that the Canadian Bulldog is now on board with us as a weekly columnist. He had been doing articles for our "Other Columns" every two weeks or so, but now he's got his own section and slot each Tuesday. We're happy to have him on board and I urge all of you to check out his work if you haven't yet. His "True Wrestling Stories" are some of the most creative and unique pieces you'll come across online. Be warned, wrestling personalities, CB will find out your true wrestling secrets and expose them to the world. Whatever he can't find out, he'll just make up.



So, yeah - I'm going to be doing something for WWI pretty much every week now. This will have NO impact on Inside The Ropes whatsoever - I will still be writing it every week as I have been for three years now (though there won't be one today). The plan is that I will pen a True Wrestling Story one week, and then something else the other week. Not sure what the "something else" will be quite yet, or whether it will just be different every week (likely the latter). Suggestions and ideas, of course, always welcomed....

New Book Review Site

Wanted to point your attention to the 2006 Buk Reevu. Things are just starting up, but I know that Trevor and Tim have some great stuff planned. I may also contribute now and again with some books I've read, whenever I get spare time (eg never).

Anyways, definitely worth keeping an eye on that site....

EIGHT IS ENOUGH!!!

After much hype and hoopla, the Canadian Bulldog's mysterious project, code-named "Eight is Enough" is here for your enjoyment. What, exactly, is it? Well, think of something Bulldog's done with aplomb seven times in the past. Something that's never failed to entertain, and which might deserve an eighth installment... and once you've pictured that, add in a copious helping of the Diabolical Mister Fuji, and ENJOY!

ITR: Eight Is Enough

Firestarter

So I started at a fire at my house yesterday, although not intentionally...

To set the stage, my son has had a cold this weekend, and I'd asked what he wanted for dinner. He asked for some hot dogs (really, Veggie Dogs, but he doesn't know the difference. Unless he's reading this blog - GULP!). So I put a pot on the stove and started boiling some matter. The most routine thing in the world, and I didn't expect any inherent trouble.

As the water starts simmering to a boil, I start hearing a crackling noise from inside the pot, and before I can really do much, a flame pops up from under the burner. Nothing huge mind you, but it was a bit freaky. So, like an idiot, I remove the pot and then.... pour the boiling hot water on the burner.

Yeah, that surprisingly doesn't work well, as the flame just starts growing, and now it's something I have to worry about. I rush outside (my son, by the way, was safely downstairs and away from any danger, I should point out) and grab a couple of handfuls of snow to dump on the flame. this works (slightly) better. Then a pot full of (now cold) water finishes the damn thing off.

Still not entirely sure what happened there, but nonetheless, it was kind of weird.

TravelBlog

(Instead of "Travelogue". Get it? Get.... aw, never mind...)

So this has been my last three days. On Wednesday, I'm getting ready to leave work within the hour (or so) for the airport. But an assignment comes in that I pretty much have to handle ASAP. I end up leaving on time, but VERY stressed over the assignment in question.

I'm on a flight from Toronto to Quebec City (which I hadn't been to since I was, oh, about 13) that was arrive there around 9:45. The plane didn't get in till 10:30, though, for lord knows what reason, and as a results, some plans I had made for once I got to the hotel had fallen through. I'd arranged to meet a colleague for drinks, but by the time I arrived at the hotel (the famed Chateau Frontenac, which in my opinion wasn't that great). Plus, at that hour, it was impossible to see too much of the snow-covered city anyways. So much for sneaking at least a QUICK look around.

Wake up at 6 a.m. to tackle my workload, which unfortunately is all done from my hotel room, save from a brief escape in the early afternoon to another hotel-type location. By 4 p.m. or so, I dash for a taxi and head back to the airport. Time spent outdoors (excluding cab rides): less than one minute.

Fly in to Toronto after another lousy, cramped and delayed flight, but this time I'm panicking because I have to grab a connecting flight to Winnipeg. I make it with, oh, about five minutes to spare before boarding began (oh, did I mention that I haven't eaten anything this day yet? Well, I haven't. I was living off of coffee, basically.)

On the bright side, the flight to Winnipeg was great. I was bumped up to first class for some reason and actually had a decent conversation with the person seated next to me (I usually dread talking to complete strangers, but at least this woman was polite and interesting). I get into Winnipeg about 11 p.m. (10 local time), a quick cab to the hotel and I'm ready to crash. I will say, though, that the hotel I stayed at (The Delta Winnipeg - I don't think I've ever stayed at a Delta in all my years of business travel) was great, and the people were extremely hospitable. Again, no time to sight-see, though.

Woke up at 5 a.m. (6 eastern standard time, for those keeping count), and it was basically the same routine, except this time I had the foresight to order up some breakfast to my room. Worked in the room till about noon (I forget who's time zone, though) then hopped in a cab to another hotel, attended some meetings, did two interviews, and before I knew it, it was time to leave. Well, that's not entirely true, I did get about an hour to relax in a nice little Irish pub.

Now, I'm at the Winnipeg airport, waiting for the final journey home. I realize, this probably doesn't sound like a horror story to most people, and I guess in truth it wasn't. More frustrating and tiring than anything else, I guess.

I'm determined to see some of the actual sights in Canada, and not just their hotel lobbies, before I die.

Out of Blogffice Alert

I will be (largely) offline the next few days, travelling to beautiful (but freezing) Quebec City, Quebec, and then Winnipeg, Manitoba, which I suspect is also freezing. Should be back Saturday morning.

If anyone sees 8IE by then, let me know what you think.