Books 2.0

Ready Player Two finally in my hands. The sequel to Ready Player One picks up 9 days after the ending of the original book. Only a few pages in, but so far it involves Wade Watts discovering a second easter egg in the real world left by Halliday. The egg contains a new Oasis technology inspired by the S.Q.U.I.D. technology used in the movie Strange Days. In fact Strange Days is directly referenced in the description of the technology. It even looks similar accept it has an attachment that also runs down the spinal cord.

Also Wil Wheaton who voiced the audiobook of Ready Player One has also done the audiobook for Ready Player Two, which I am looking to find as soon as possible so I can listen to both back to back at work.

I honestly couldn't wait for the next season of Invincible so I figured I might as well buy the three collected compendiums of the series so I can read ahead. Holy crap are these hard to find now. I know they've been out of print for a while which isn't helping and I think the sudden popularity of the show has people tracking down the comic. Amazon.ca doesn't even know if they will be able to get compendiums one or two again, but they are supposed to be getting more stock on compendium 3 at the end of the month.

So last night I turned to ebay and found several on sale at fairly expensive prices which I put on my watchlist. I wake up today and they were all purchased overnight. At work decided to look again and saw a seller had compendiums one, two and three all for sale in separate sales. A quick email and I asked if I could buy them all together and get combined shipping; got an email back within minutes and the seller put all three in a bundle for me and I snatched them up. It hurt though. It was about $80 more than it would have cost on Amazon.ca to get them since I had to pay international shipping and import fees. I paid my vehicle permit renewal today and that was $220. These cost more than that. I figure with no PS5's available for several more months I might as well go ahead and splurge, since the likelihood of finding another seller with all three compendiums for sale isn't too likely. But just watch, a month from now these will be getting reprints for sale at half the cost.

Wow, Billy Robinson’s Physical Chess book was a very quick but cool look into the traditions and origins of catch-as-catch-can (CACC) wrestling, as well as an overview of Robinson’s career. I’d love to see someone do a really in depth dive into CACC, it’s fascinating, especially when you consider that it is a mosaic of stuff travellers/sailors in the area brought back from all over the world and modified to fit the style. More of Robinson and Gotch’s involvement in training Japanese wrestlers, especially the story of his involvement with UWFI and Sakuraba would be amazing. Overall, this is a fun read, and more evidence of the complete divergence of pro wrestling from its legit roots to the dog and pony show it has become today. Another good one to try out, cheap as dirt on kindle!

I just finished the Stan Hansen bio “The Last Outlaw”. I’ve wanted to read this for ages, and finally got around to it. I generally love reading stories from “the boys” in the pre WWE monopoly territory era and before, and this is more of the same, albeit with the twist that Hansen spent the majority of his in ring career in Japan. Just like anyone’s recounting of the past, the reader needs to use a critical eye, but regardless of how correct the author is versus accepted history, this book is an entertaining read, and would be a great dive for real Stan Hansen fans.

There’s some great stuff about his days playing football (and where he initially met Brody!), how the Funks helped him break into the business, his early developmental days, his first trips to Japan, his switch from New Japan to All Japan, his respect for and close relationship with Giant Baba, insights into what happened to Brody, and piles of other stuff. There are piles of amazing stories in this book, some really funny shit (especially involving Terry Funk!), and a Stan Hansen guide to life in Japan!

As great as the stories are, if there was some kind of professional editor involved in this project, I think he took the cheque and ran as soon as the idea for a book came up. Lots of repetition, lots of rambling, jumping back and forth throwing continuity out the window, stuff like that. Don’t let that scare you off, this is fun stuff with a unique twist thanks to the multi decade look at the Japanese puroresu scene through the eyes of a gaijin and all of that.

Check this one out, it’s long and could have benefited from having a few pages left on the editors floor, but the stories and the history of such a strong presence in pro wrestling history is worth a look for fans!

PS: This even came to mind a few times, but it was still a fun read! 😁

Wow. If the one I saw is the same one you’re referring to OG, that is one long, ramblin’ ass promo! I’ve never seen it before, and I’m assuming it was made for All Japan. Funny thing about that all English promo in Mexico is that the only time it gets translated is when he talks shit about Chyoshu! And yes, that is how the book can feel at times, but remember, it came out in the early 2000s, that was a few concussions and years after the promo, so he’s a bit more rambling than he was back then!

Here it is in all of its glory for others ignorant to this little masterpiece as I was!

That sounds amazing, I need to hear it! I think this promo is my new favourite Hansen promo of all time, to hear it mixed into a high quality, timeless classic produced by such an esteemed member of the community would likely be a life altering experience!

Epic…

That is amazing. Stan Hansen should come out of retirement so that he can have another retirement match where he comes out to that song!

Thank you for finding that, OG, and thank YOU SonnyBone for composing it! I’ll be laughing about that for a while, and I think it needs to go into regular rotation for me!

I got a couple of young guys I work with into some of the golden era / Four Pillars Japanese scene, mostly with gifs of moves in messages, and one guy in particular gravitated to Stan Hansen (the visual is tremendous, he does the arm up pulling the elbow pad down when he gets heated up about something now, and he’s 5’6” and maybe 150 lbs!), so they’ll love the song!

I can’t wait to check out the rest of them, it must have been a lot of work composing all of that, but a lot of fun as well! There are some seriously talented people kicking around here! 😁