"Honestly, I just think Palpatine knew all along..."

A trio of  Imperial Stormtroopers throw back some drinks and talk about where they were the day the Death Star blew up. Brilliant.

The key here, is plausible deniability.

Fox News bullshitter Glenn Beck pleads with his viewing audience to NOT kill the people they disagree with.

Gawker is running with the theory that the folks at Fox are becoming increasingly concerned about the ferocity of the shitstorms they’ve kicked up, citing Shepard Smith’s recent offhand mention of the crazies they know are watching at home.

This bizarre and almost chilling clip is a bit like watching Beck pull down the mask and wink at the audience. For just a moment the blowhard character steps back and is interrupted by the more than slightly terrified performer who hides within. It’s one thing to play a bad guy, quite another to turn around and see the bad guys that will follow you.

via Gawker

Yes We Can!

I’m wearing wrist sweatbands this summer. It’s kind of my new thing. Awesome to wear and to look at, retro yet classic design and they help keep your hands dry – they’re the perfect accessory to any outfit!

Also – The only album I’m listening to constantly and like, all the fricken time, is the Kings of Leon’s Only By the Night. Brilliant, beautiful record.

"Revelry" live in Los Angeles

So this is weird...

Tag Team Back Again! Straight from the “MMA today is really just the old days of pro-wrestling” department – Tag-Team MMA! Seriously!

The flaws with this sort of match arrangement are obvious from the start – whoever manages to catch the first tag gains a huge advantage and once one team member is tapped, the other is basically left in a handicap match against two opponents.

Purists will see this as a bastardization of the sport and I’d be hard pressed to disagree. Still, one can’t help but imagine how exciting such pairings might be in the UFC should Dana White ever lose his mind completely.

Behold the Power of The Lord

A Holy French Fry

As well all know, Jesus is all-powerful and can basically do whatever the hell he wants. This includes having his sacred image appear on everything from bagels to pancakes to the late Nell Carter’s ass. (Though that last one can’t be confirmed, I do have it on good authority such an event once delayed production on a third season episode of  “Gimme A Break.”)

Here’s a montage of news reports detailing the various times and places The Lord has popped up in America in just the past few years.

The Value of Determination

Not fun.

Two relatively unknown fighters, Toby Imada and Jorge Masvidal, squared off back in May at the Bellator Fighting Championships IV. Despite getting his face mashed into putty in the first two rounds, Imada came back in the third with an inverted triangle choke that may very well be the submission of the year. Brutal yet ingenious, it highlights something MMA has taught me again and again over the years – just because someone looks to be losing doesn’t mean they are. And the fight ain’t over until it’s over.

Misawa

Mitsuharu Misawa

Last Saturday, just as Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” was released in the land of the rising sun, tragedy struck as Japanese wrestling legend Misawa died in the ring. And though the story of a past-his-prime wrestler (Misawa was 46) pushing himself to the point of breaking may draw comparison to Aronofsky’s film, that’s about all Mitsuharu Misawa had in common with “Randy the Ram.”

A former high school wrestler, Misawa rose to fame in Japan’s puroresu world in the 1980s as the second Tiger Mask. After removing the mask mid-match in 1990, Misawa would rise in popularity, becoming one of, if not the most popular wrestler in Japan for the next decade.

In 2000 Misawa formed Pro Wrestling NOAH, an organization revered around the wrestling world for the quality of it’s in-ring action and talent. Misawa was fighting in a tag-team match in the main event at a NOAH show in Hiroshima when he took a back suplex that rendered him unconscious and which caused the immediate spinal cord damage that killed him.

To call Mitsuharu Misawa a great wrestler is to understate the case. Renowned pro-wrestling critic and reporter Dave Meltzer has been reviewing matches from around the world since the early 1980s. In that time he has awarded 65 matches a 5-star rating. 24 of those matches featured Misawa. A multi-time world champion who developed an international reputation among fans despite rarely wrestling outside of Japan, Misawa built his reputation not with hype, catchphrases or elaborate gimmicks, but with the quality of his work, his connection with the fans and above all, his love and passion for wrestling.

That wrestling somehow isn’t “real” or that it is in some way fraudulent or “fake” is both the most common and the least pertinent criticism of the art. Those who wish to dismiss it out of hand will point to the pre-determined outcomes as reason enough. But wrestling is not sport. It is theatre, a spectacle of athletics that uses sport as it’s canvas upon which to paint stories of pain and hope and victory and loss.

Mitsuharu Misawa was an artist who died in the creation of his art and who will continue to inspire others as the legacy of his work and his contributions to the form continue to influence and inspire the next generation.

Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi - 5 Star Classic

Unstoppable 

At the Sasquatch Music Fest one man turns an otherwise sedate crowd into a dance party. This video is making the rounds today with people declaring it a metaphor for everything from savvy marketing to the desire within all of us to spread joy. I just think it’s cute.

Han Solo P.I. – Imagine the world we could be living in if Lucas had spent the 80s making this instead of Ewok movies. (Side by side with the original Magum P.I. – and this is amazing – HERE.)  /via metafilter

My dad wore a cast for five years!

So Evil WWE Champion Randy Orton was on a Mexican talk show yesterday and freaked out on the host before storming off set after the gentleman made the mistake of bringing up The Legend Killer’s recent rash of injuries.

God I love wrestling.