March 2015 - Page 2 of 3

Photos & Stories from Hoodslam

One of the most memorable experiences I had on my recent trip to the Bay Area was Hoodslam, a monthly underground professional wrestling event in Oakland. It’s hosted at the Oakland Metro Opera House and features a dozen or so wrestlers performing theater on stage. It is incredibly self-aware and entertaining. Here’s the flyer from the event that I went to on March 6th, with video and photos further below:

Hoodslam

Highlights from Hoodslam

The local hero is a wrestler named Drugs Bunny, a Prohibition-era gangster wearing a bunny mask who does fistfuls of cocaine on stage. The crowd chants “Drugs, drugs, drugs” to show support for Drugs Bunny.
A wrestling match between The Predator and a wrestler playing Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Arnold character comes out first amidst ambient music, red lights, and helicopter sound effects, as he creeps into the ring with a giant gun. As he gazes into the crowd, the Predator emerges silently behind him and sits poised atop the edge of the ring as the crowd goes nuts.
A bowtie-wearing referee chain smoking joints in the ring
Link of Hyrule (Legend of Zelda) versus Obese Gamer, a 300-lb shirtless slob. Obese gamer is invulnerable to Link because he pulls out a golden Zelda cartridge with a Game Genie plugged into it. Link overcomes this obstacle by throwing the stoned referee at Obese Gamer, which stuns him.
Scorpion Junior wrestling against Mexican Batman. Scorpion Junior is a pregnant adult male wearing a Scorpion mask (Junior is a 1994 film wherein Arnold Schwarzenegger gets pregnant). During the fight, as fans chant “Miscarriage” Scorpion Junior gives birth on stage and throws a tiny Scorpion at Mexican Batman with a rope attached while yelling Get over here!. Scorpion Junior becomes the first wrestler in Hoodslam history to be disqualified for breaking the only rule of Hoodslam: “Don’t bring your f’ing kids”. This is a slogan that appears on some of their apparel.
Ken from Street Fighter wrestling against Juice Lee, or Bruce Lee on steroids. Other events have featured Ken & Ryu from Street Fighter as a tag team duo.
The band featured at the event, called Arnold Corps, features a lead singer that looks and sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The band is described on the flyer as “Pioneers of Austrian Action Adventure Rock ‘n Roll”.
Hoodslam is promoting an upcoming show called EnterTania

The entire production is ridiculous and a real joy. It’s filled with references to 1990’s American pop culture. If you are in the Bay Area or you visit there, I recommend you check this out. Here’s a link to their official website: BirdsWillFall.com

Hoodslam Video

Below is a video I found on Youtube describing Hoodslam and featuring its founder, a Persian American wrestler named Dark Sheik.

Photos

And finally some of my photos from the March event, which are part of the San Francisco 2015 set:

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Visit the official Hoodslam website

Game Review: “Papers, Please”

Papers, Please is a “Dystopian Document Thriller” where you play an immigration inspector at the border of a fictional Communist state called Arstotzka. It is one of the most imaginative and unconventional games that I have played, which reminds me what games are really all about: being emotionally affected by a novel experience.

Paper Pushing

On the surface this game is about scrutinizing paperwork, which sounds like a tedious gameplay mechanic. But it blossoms beyond tedium with lush details that combine to create the brooding, oppressive atmosphere of Arstotzka, a dictatorial nightmare. One where you silently walk to work in the cold and toil all day only to be forced to choose between heat in your freezing apartment or medicine for your sick child. Papers, Please is not about documents: it’s about making very difficult choices and struggling for survival.

As you receive instructions on verifying paperwork, you begin the drudgery of your job as the complexities begun to ratchet up. At first you are cross-referencing information between multiple documents on a virtual table-top. In time you begin subjecting visitors to X-ray and finger-print scans to verify identity and right to entry. It only gets more complex and dark from there.

Papers, Please

In the course of a work day, you interact with many different characters who guide the narrative. The memorable ones are prostitutes, pimps, drug smugglers, and terrorists, and they all have a story to tell. They’ll appeal to your emotions and ask you to break protocol, which often ends in someone getting shot. Which feels bad since the atmosphere and narrative in Papers, Please is so convincing.

Eventually you will become skilled in your task of checking paperwork, but it’s never quite enough. Papers, Please conveys oppression, brutality and misery with stunning elegance, and it strikes an emotional chord through its characters.

Papers, Please Trailer

Conclusion

Jorji Costava This is one of the best games that I’ve played because it’s such a clever and successful experiment in storytelling. You feel for inhabitants of Arstotzka in a way that is difficult to describe because beneath its surface, this game is about life, liberty, and justice. It’s about the choices that we all have: to do the right thing, or to do what we’re expected to do. And it deals with fate, which we have no control over: that we can be crushed at any time regardless of the choices we make. That’s an astonishing achievement for a game about an immigration inspector.

“Glory to Arstotzka!”

Rating:

Papers, Please available on Mac, Windows, and iPad