Sawyer Paul's Blog, page 206

In case of revolution, break glass.

In case of revolution, break glass.

"You might find a nice girl to be miserable with."...

"You might find a nice girl to be miserable with."

That's the dream, kids. That's the dream.

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative..."

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take awhile. It's normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your way through."

- Ira Glass (via wilwheaton)

Last week, a story broke about TNA Wrestling performer Shannon...

Last week, a story broke about TNA Wrestling performer Shannon Claire Spruill (much better known as Daffney) and her problems with management in regard to on-the-job injuries. She has filed a lawsuit against the company. Cageside Seats had the most thorough account: 

It's a grisly list by any standards: a serious concussion at Bound For Glory 2009 after she was chokeslammed from the ring apron by Abyss onto a barb-wire board, another concussion in her program with Tara after she got clobbered on the head with a toolbox, and then a deeply bruised sternum, a severe stinger and yet another concussion in the now infamous try-out, dark match for indie wrestler Miss Betsy after a botched sunset flip.

I'm not going to go over every detail of Spruill's case, as I'm not only not a lawyer, but primary sources for this information are difficult to come by. Instead, I will focus on offering an argument about injuries and poor work environments. 

First, I will use an example from a similar art form: The circus. From What the circus can teach us about Sports Injuries:

Scientists have long believed that emotional factors play a part in whether a person sustains a sports-related injury, but the role of confidence has been controversial. Some studies have found a correlation between robust self-confidence and physical harm, perhaps because a bulletproof ego can lead to risk-taking.

From the study itself, Psychological predictors of injuries in circus artists: an exploratory study, the results were as follows:

Results Of the five a priori exposures of interest, injury, emotional exhaustion, self-efficacy and fatigue were associated with an increase in injury risk (risk ratios between 1.8 and 2.8), but Conflicts/Pressure was not (risk ratio=0.8). Of the several specific psychological aspects that are considered risk factors for injury, low self-efficacy had the strongest relationship.

This study is interesting not because of the findings, but because of its mere existence. Cirque performances are considered interesting enough to scholars that studies have gone into their physical and psychological well-being. As of the publication of this article, almost no studies have explored the psychological effects of professional wrestling. 

But the study's results are interesting. Self confidence has an effect on physical performance, with the least confident subjects reporting more injuries. 

Did Spruill suffer from low confidence, which led to taking unnecessary risks and injury? It's possible. But what led to the low confidence? Before joining TNA, Spruill was a successful wrestler on the indie circuit, where she played an enjoyable character stemmed from her work in WCW since 1999. I don't know her injury record during that time, but one has to assume she was well enough to perform all those years. Though she never "made it big," in WWE, Spruill has always been a well-liked performer in the craft. 

But I believe the "low confidence," if it existed, came from working for TNA, a company long known for allowing (and possibly encouraging) their performers to take unnecessarily "hardcore" risks to their bodies. Every marquee match in TNA is built around heightened danger, often literally. The number of times a performer like Frank Kazarian has fallen from over ten feet onto no visible padding is alarming. Spruill, who played a "hardcore"-style female wrestler, was known for utilizing foreign objects, tacks, tables, and chairs, which is rare in female wrestling. While WWE, their main competitor (though TNA is hardly WWE's competitor) has banned blood and masks their brutal-looking moments with smoke and mirrors (the 20-plus chairs that fell on Wade Barret last December actually fell on a steel table above him, for example), TNA still "entertains" fans with death-defying maneuvers, stunts, and gore-filled contests filled with weapons. As well, WWE has built a phenomenal record of taking care of injured performers, while TNA's track record is spotty at best. Multiple lawsuits have been filed against the company by former performers (Konnan's being the best example). 

But perhaps the low confidence, if that is in any way the case, comes from discrimination. At the same time that Spruill was injured and filed the lawsuit, TNA was telling a story about concussions and the importance of athletes taking better care of themselves (sorta, kinda, anyway). It was, in my estimation, the most important story TNA has told in years. Yet while Matt Morgan rallied against "management" for forcing its workers to work hurt, the actual management expected Spruill to work hurt. 

Discrimination in athletics is in no way confined to professional wrestling. In 2010, The University of California-Davis was hit with a discrimination lawsuit for cutting its female wrestling program. This example is only one of many, and we are a long, long way off from women and men competing (and, evidently, performing) on equal grounds. 

This isn't the end of this article, though it's all I can do today. Further research will go into this. I hope Spruill will be okay. 

Police believe L.A. art show featuring Banksy is breeding criminals | Nerve.com

Police believe L.A. art show featuring Banksy is breeding criminals | Nerve.com:

L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is currently holding an exhibition (running through August 8) called Art in the Streets, which is the first major U.S. museum show devoted to the history of graffiti and street art. It traces the evolution of tagging and street art from the nascent hip-hop culture of the '70s to the global movement we see today. The exhibition features installations by fifty representative artists, including man/myth/legend Banksy, Fab 5 Freddy, and Shepard Fairey of Obama Hope-poster fame.
But now L.A. police are accusing the museum of attracting petty criminals to the Little Tokyo neighborhood near the Geffen Contemporary Gallery where the artists are being celebrated. Several artists featured in the exhibition have moved beyond the gallery confines and marked up walls and urban furniture in surrounding streets with their trusty spray-paint cans, and even posted videos online showing them tagging a wall in Hollywood. The police are accusing the gallery of glorifying vandalism, and forcing them to remove graffiti from the streets. One art blogger noted, "These artists are good enough for the city to put their work in one of its major cultural institutions. But if they do it on the streets, where the art is meant to be seen, the city will have them arrested."

What is your opinion of women's professional wrestling? - TH

I often wonder why men aren't the sideshow attraction. 

Somebody ask me something

I've got an hour with nothing to do.

mirandaaa:omg, I remember watching this one. I think I had it...

mirandaaa:

omg, I remember watching this one. I think I had it recorded on VHS somewhere and I would watch the shit out of it. I don't quite remember why exactly he was being tortured though…

inothernews:Members of the group Liberate Tate demonstrate at...

inothernews:

Members of the group Liberate Tate demonstrate at the Tate Britain art gallery in London against oil company BP's sponsorship of arts institutions, and to mark the one year anniversary since the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico.  (Photo: AP via the New York Post)

Just turned on the Ask and Reply services.

Go to town.