sometimes i do things that do not involve men in body paint

I thought that you should know about two crazy things that I have done lately. Two things that while not really related, both fall under the category: "Exhibitionist Men in Body Paint"

First off--
I went to a baby shower where there was entertainment, so you know it is going to be a good time. None of those games where you have to remember all the baby paraphernalia on a tray-- the kind of memory games that make me so anxious that there is no hope of me every remembering if there were two diaper pins and one rattle, or maybe the other way around?

No. My friends are way too high class for that. Instead there was this guy:

Clownvis Presley

He danced, he sang, he did magic tricks?

And that was NOT the first time my path crossed with Mr. Presley.

Then, as if that wasn't enough excitement for one month, we went to the South Broadway Athletic Club for the monthly wrestling match. I thought we were going to see something like the wrestling version of amateur boxing matches we used to go to in Maine. I was picturing young fit men in unitards and head guards. Then we walked in the door to see two burly dudes in denim cut-offs and broadaxes talking to another in tight black pants and silver body paint. Sooooo, it is that kind of wrestling.

The crowd was calling those two guys above Captain America v. Rainbow Warrior. Guess which one they favored.

I personally was much more comfortable with the hippie in the tie-died shirt, over the lanky Eruo-trash dude who, as my father pointed out*, looked like he was still wearing his favorite pair of Captain America underpants from grade school. I don't have a close-up, so you'll just have to trust me on this one, but honestly, this guy was way more hard-core Euro-techno-club than All American Man. But this was not the kind of crowd with whom I would have liked to argue, so I let it go.

*my dad wasn't there! i just showed him the pictures. But according to him, my great-grandmother was waaaaay into the wrestling when he was a kid.

Anyway the true crowd favorite of the night is Shaft.

This blur is Shaft giving the smack-down:

But anyway, it's weird. It is so weird that I feel that I need to talk on and on about it. About the dressed up men and their theatrical punches and stomps. About the crazed fans that just shout, and shout and heckle and jeer. About the little old LADIES wandering around with canes. About the fact that people bring their babies and small children and there is cursing and a cloud of smoke, not to mention grown men tossing each other about.

If I were a contemporary ethnographer this would be my playground.


P.S. If you just can't get enough, there are others who have taken better pics than me and my cameraphone:
velocity
bmarston
droob