On January 13th, I cajoled Sarah Cass to come along with me on an adventure to eastern Washington in order to catch a WWE House show. “House Show” in pro-wrestling nomenclature describes an untelevised, live event. Not only do these tours keep people around the country interested in the spectacle of sports entertainment, they allow the wrestlers to work out rivalries and practice their move sets before the televised weeklies or monthly pay per views. It’s also a chance to see the WWE stripped of pretenses: no fireworks, professional lighting, special effects or long, poorly-scripted and acted “promos.” Traditional steel railings separate the crowd on the floor from the ring. Wrestlers generally don’t take big “bumps” during house shows, using more conservative in-ring work rather than propelling themselves out of the ring onto the floor below. After every bout in Yakima, the wrestlers, both heels and faces (“bad” and “good” guys), high-fived fans around the ring. It was an amazing show and I was happy to jeer with the best of ‘em. Do you know how good it feels to scream “BOOOOOO!” at the top of your lungs?

Most of the crowd consisted of working class Mexican families; Yakima is one of the largest farming communities in Washington State. The men in the crowd outnumbered the women probably seven to one. In fact, the line to get into the Yakima Sun Dome had an express line– for the women. Everyone was frisked for cameras with removable lenses (poor Sarah had to take hers back to the car) and, I presume, weapons and outside alcohol. Mostly cameras, though. Anyway, here are some of my point n’ shoot pics from third row ringside with commentary. Can you tell I had a blast?

The Yakima Valley Sun Dome at sunset on the Yakima Fair Grounds.

Jack Swagger put up a nice fight against R-Truth. He’s a big dude from Oklahoma with a speech impediment.

Tag Team champs, Air Boom, consisting of Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne, took on Epico and Primo, a Mexican tag team. Epico and Primo got a HUGE pop from the crowd and screamed insults in Spanish throughout their match. They temporarily won the tag team belt but the ruling was over turned as a bad call and the match continued. Kofi and Evan, the babyfaces, eventually won the match, retaining their championship. However, the next night in Oakland, Epico and Primo officially won the belts at a house show there. Evan was suspended for 60 days because of his second WWE Wellness Policy violation. Apparently, he was suspended after testing positive for “spice,” a type of synthetic marijuana that supposedly isn’t identifiable in drug tests. WWE had no other choice but to pass the belts to another team in order to keep the faltering tag team division viable.  The Wellness Policy is strictly enforced by the company after multiple national steroid scandals over the past two decades.

The ruling being overturned…

Chris Jericho came to the ring to say nothing, literally. This whole gimmick is so strange… I don’t know how I feel about it. Also, I missed the whole Jericho era, so his return means nothing to me.

Beth Phoenix is an original Buffalo bad girl. Awesome. She’s the “diva division” champ and she kicked Eve Torre’s ass. The women’s division is treated like a joke on the roster, matches lasting a couple minutes on televised weeklies, if that. This match, however, lasted just as long as its male counterparts and featured amazing feats of strength and acrobatics.  This lady is pretty effin’ rad. Her arms are HUGE.

The Kane and Cena rivalry… meh. Not a fan of super-cena, though I appreciate that he’s essentially the face of the company. I just find his character flat and his wrestling style, boring. He’s a total bro and his neck is pretty much thicker than his head.

CM Punk is my favorite wrestler and Dolph Ziggler is quickly becoming a close second. CM Punk started out in the indies, wrestling in barns and high school gyms before signing a contract with the WWE in the mid 2000s. Since then, he’s almost been future endeavored several times and came damn near to quitting this summer. Without CM Punk, I can pretty much say my interest would have waned in the WWE months and months ago. He’s a great talker and a talented wrestler, a combination of skills rare in WWE’s current line-up. Plus, he’s like 6 months older than me, so I feel connected to the sport in ways that I didn’t when I was a kid or a teenager. I mean, he wears Misfits T-shirts on television and he’s a legitimate straightedge, rockin’ the X’s on his hands in ways I haven’t seen since 1995. On his Twitter account, he takes instagrams of the comic books he’s reading on tour and generally takes the piss out of the idiots that tweet him. In fact, I don’t really think that CM Punk likes wrestling fans at all. Basically, he’s my meta-wrestler dreamboat.

Magic? I think so. I can’t wait for the next show.

I spent Christmas in Kentucky visiting my recently relocated parents. Louisville is a much larger, healthier city than Buffalo and is known as the “northern most southern city.” I wish I could say that I had more time to explore Louisville. For the first few days in Kentucky, I was still recovering from a  severe stomach virus that left me immobilized for several days before I left Olympia. I did get the chance to explore Cave Hill Cemetery though, which reminded me of Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. I used to lived mere blocks away from Hollywood Cemetery and loved summer evening strolls through it dearly. As a family, we also took a car tour through “Lights Under Louisville,” and I was left breathless from laughter. Absolutely absurd. I can’t even describe it. What a sham. I also forced my parents to descend several hundred feet underground while visiting Mammoth Cave National Park. The picturesque drive there reminded me that it wasn’t until I lived in the Pacific Northwest that I truly understood the difference between a “woods” and a “forest.” Lastly, we ventured downtown to visit the famous 21C hotel and museum which featured a permanent installation by my favorite grad school mentor, Virgil Marti. What a sweet surprise. I love that dude.

On December 13th, friend Simon and I went to Portland to catch Dinosaur Jr.’s west coast tour featuring an interview by Henry Rollins, a Scratch Acid reunion and a set by Pierced Arrows. It was an awesome day– Simon and I walked around various PDX neighborhoods, went to Powell’s, took a stroll in the park, and had dinner at sushi joint in Old Town. For the entirety of the show, Simon and I closely guarded our front stage real estate, even through the crazy Scratch Acid set. I thought I was going to die. I protected myself by fiercely grabbing the stage and pushing away, lest my lower body be crushed to death by throngs of people in the frenzied pit. Yow grabbed my head and hair a couple of times, using it for balance as he leaned into the crowd. GROSS. Afterwards, Dino Jr. took the stage, playing a few hits before launching into their 1988 classic “Bug” in its entirety.  The best thing about the show was being able to watch Henry Rollins squatting stage left throughout the Dino set, tears running down his face during a couple more poignant tunes. Rollins has been a fan since the beginning of J’s career. It was an amazing, unforgettable show; I felt like I was 16 again… exactly a half a lifetime ago.

At the beginning of December, I went on an Eastern Washington and Oregon Adventure for a few days. I stopped in a few small towns but I spent the most time in Walla Walla, WA and Pendleton, OR. Once you cross the Cascade Range, The true, rainy, green Pacific Northwest disappears and is replaced with golden rolling hills, farmland and sage brush. Really, eastern Oregon and Washington are almost indistinguishable from Idaho and western Montana. The vastness of the landscape is refreshing. In the Pacific Northwest, the sky seemingly  hangs low enough to touch it; there’s a finite space between your feet and the low clouds that sometimes obscure the tops of the tallest Douglas Firs. Over the mountains, there’s space– miles and miles of landscape uninterrupted by forests and mountains– the sky, untouchable.

The lovely Theresa Pfarr tied the knot in a Vegas Chapel inside the Luxor. After the ceremony, I rode in the limo with the wedding party and documented a few stops along the Vegas Strip with group photos. The reception involved delicious tapas, homemade decorations and a ton of dancing. An uproarious good time was had by all… so uproarious, in fact, that the bride lost her wedding license along the way. Happy trails, Theresa and Sean!

The first weekend of this past November, I flew to Las Vegas to witness friend Theresa Pfarr tie the knot. I was excited to spend time in Vegas as I had previously only driven through it on my way to friend Nic’s wedding in Death Valley back in March. However, Vegas showed itself as a true vortex of human vice and excess; I couldn’t stop thinking about the sheer amount of energy needed to sustain such an unnatural environment in the middle of a desert. The strip alone was overwhelming for this Pacific Northwest hippie. I felt like I was walking around with my mouth open in disbelief every time I ventured out of my hotel room. Luckily, Emily Hall and her new husband Jun were there to explore Vegas with me. After a day walking around generally acting like the tourists we were, Emily, Jun and I went to the Mandalay Bay Shark Reef. It was actually a beautiful aquarium and, you know, if you’re a nature nerd in Vegas, it’s a pretty cool place to get away from the strip’s perpetual mall vibes.

Next Post: The Wedding

Welcome to 2012. The world may be ending but, what the hell, it’s way past time for a new website. The wonderful Forrest Peaker at SlowClouds designed my site so hey, hire him! I feel more professional already. Thank you, Forrest!

Please check out and subscribe to Printopia as I complete print and photography related book reviews and conduct interviews with artists living and working in the Pacific Northwest. New work is making its way onto the net, which is exciting and a little terrifying. There’s now also a bona fide photography section where I will be placing favorite photographic images. In fact, the homepage is devoted to the “photograph of the week” which will feature, you guessed it, a new photograph each week. My teaching and student work area is expanded and updated, so hey, hire me!

Play will remain an outlet for sharing my adventures, thoughts and photographs. Eventually, I will upload all my old blog posts from 2004 -2008 for posterity and the fun of it. Maybe my own way-back feature, or something. Oh, and duuuuuuuuuudes… I totally have comments now so leave a nice note or something. I am currently blog-backlogged, so look for posts on Las Vegas weddings, Eastern Oregon adventures, Christmas in Kentucky, and the WWE’s live RAW tour in Yakima!