During the mid 1990s, for about seven years, a bizarro-comedic, punk rock, monster movie, lucha libre wrestling league known as Incredibly Strange Wrestling rocked the Bay Area. There was a dude in a Chewbacca outfit called Mucho Sasquatcho, there were racist clowns and gay lucadores, and more masked men and women than a furry love-in. Jello Biafra thought it was cool. Green Day could be seen in the audience. James Hetfield dug it . . .

Man. I moved here too late.

Bob Calhoun's Beer Blood and Cornmeal is a rollicking ride through this spectacle from the POV of a participant: Calhoun was Count Dante, part carnival barker/part new age kung fu guru, who both played shows with his band (the awesomely named Black Dragon Fighting Society, stolen from the Heroes for Hire comic) and wrestled dudes in chicken outfits for shit and giggles. I'm only half way through the book but enjoying the hell out of it. I can only imagine how this main event nightmare road show will finally self-implode like the last fifteen minutes of an E! True Hollywood story. I hope Sasquatcho survives!

It's been the most engaging pop culture read I've had since the carney memoir Eying the Flash, and forcing me to put down both a biography of Eisenhower and the philosophical musings of Pema Chodron! Now that's bad ass!

Check it out if you want a worms eye view of a unique and bizarre example of trash culture done right!

JSR