Headlock and Load
Inside a San Bernardino wrestling school, only the strong survive
Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” pulses through the sound system. As the Rocky theme song pounds, zealous fans circle as Empire Wrestling Federation members Spandexed to the max mingle in the incongruous setting of a Pomona art gallery, Andi Campognone Projects.
The artistic element of the wrestlers that come through the ranks of Jesse Hernandez’s School of Hard Knocks is finally getting the mainstream appreciation they crave, and it’s through the lens of award-winning photographer Thomas McGovern. This past weekend, the gallery hosted a book release party with McGovern’s poetic photographs displayed.
What started as a leisurely bike ride through his new hometown, the urban sprawl known as the City of San Bernardino, turned into four years of documenting the Inland Empire wrestling scene with his camera and pen. The result is the recently published book Hard Boys + Bad Girls. McGovern’s work has hung in collections in the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress. His photos graced the pages of The Village Voice, and the book Pandemic: Facing AIDS.
The Cal State San Bernardino art professor rolled up on the funky, little storefront totally by chance. The strange noises coming from behind the school’s windows lured the storyteller in him through the doors.
Click below for the full story:
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Oh Captain! My Captain!
Paul Watson continues charting his course—being a controversial pain in the ass for whalers
Paul Watson demands attention. The founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society—an aggressive, marine life activist organization—is a vegan with a vengeance.
Watson has become somewhat of a household name after he shopped around and landed a reality TV show, Whale Wars, on Animal Planet. The show documents the organization’s campaigns to stop whale hunting in an Antarctic whale sanctuary.
To say that Watson is a controversial, polarizing-yet-galvanizing figure in the eco-activist world would be like saying sugar is sweet. Greenpeace talking heads swear Watson is not, as he claims to be, one of their founding member. Greenpeace states that Watson’s philosophy does not match its own and that his approach causes more harm than good.
Watson would tell you that all of Greenpeace’s founding members were kicked off the board, and he is one of them. He would also say that holding up signs and taking pictures is for wussies, and it does not save whales.
Click below for the full story:
http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/oh_captain_my_captain/3380/
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Here's another:
SPOKELICIOUS
Once a month, the Cycledelics bike bunch of Riverside just let it ride
http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/spokelicious/2377/
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And there's America's tatted sweetheart
The Incredible Inking Woman
In Kat Von D’s world, before Miami, before L.A., there was . . . San Bernardino!?
http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/the_incredible_inking_woman/2489/
Daredevil Michael Hughes is ready to rocket his way into the record books—the rest of the world just doesn’t know it yet
http://www.ieweekly.com/cms/story/detail/flight_risk/2571/
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Atheists and agnostics find a way to keep their nonbeliefs alive—without getting crucified
Flight Risk
Daredevil Michael Hughes is ready to rocket his way into the record books—the rest of the world just doesn’t know it yet
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Twist of Faith
