We’re on the road this weekend, on our way to Shreveport where Bigg will compete at the Shreveport Strongest Man, an ASC event. It’s his first comp back after his bicep tear last summer in Holland so we’re excited to get after it.
Anyways, starting the day with awesome Alterra, French pressed coffee is the way to go. Enjoy your weekend, if you have an extra minute, send some strong thoughts Bigg’s way.
We were in Westminster, MD last weekend for a Starting Strength seminar at CrossFit Retribution. Rip’s friend, Jim Steel, stopped by and brought his friend Rob Wagner. Let me say this, the fact that I’ve worked by Rip day in and day out for the last two years along with the fact that I’ve been on his seminar staff for almost four years now doesn’t lessen the respect I have for him and his knowledge. Familiarity tends to dampen such things, not in this case. So to sit at a dinner table with he and Jim Steel, who’s been around the strength world for 30+ years and is the Strength and Conditioning Coordinator at UPenn, and listen to their stories is quite an amazing night. ADD in the fact that Steel brought Rob Wagner, a Masters World Champion powerlifter and legendary strength coach, and I just became Starstruck.
It was one of the greatest Saturday night dinners ever, one I won’t forget for a long, long time. The conversation was filled with great stories and lots of laughter. We had heard that “Captain” Kirk Karwoski will be showing up at some point and without even looking up, you knew the exact time he got to our back room dinner. A hush came over the room and people just stopped to stare. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen. ADD in the fact that I got a big hug from the greatest squatter in history and that pretty much tops off the night.
It was an amazing evening. Seriously, it would be completely douche of me to consider myself part of this crew. So I do not want to give that impression. I just happened to be fortunate enough to sit at that table and enjoy the evening with these legends of the strength game. It was a great night, one for the books. I’m appreciative to these guys for sharing their free time and allowing the rest of us to revert back to giddy school kids as we took it all in.
If you don’t know by now that I am a huge lover of HBO’s Deadwood, then you haven’t been paying attention. I spent an entire weekend watching Season 1 on DVD years ago and have been hooked ever since.
This is one of my favorite scenes of all three seasons. It’s gritty and shows an awful lot about life. On one hand, you have Dan Dority who is a natural killer but so likable that it’s impossible to want him to lose this fight to the death. On the other hand, you have Captain Turner who is so calm and cool in his badassery that it’s hard to want him dead. But in those days, the “everybody wins” attitude we have now didn’t fly. Someone would lose, someone would die.
At one point during the fight, Captain Turner is about to finish off Dority and it breaks your heart. We knew The Captain was probably stronger of the two but again, no one wanted Dority to die. Swearengen knows he’s about to lose his right hand man and you can see on his face the moment when he accepts Dan’s death. But then the Captain hesitates, being advised by his boss (George Hearst) to drag out the fight. This proved to be a bad decision and Dority wins in the end. It’s a confusing thing, feeling happy because Dan makes it but sad at the same time that a strong fighter like The Captain is beat.
What does this have to do with barbells? Dunno. We were in Maryland all weekend at a Starting Strength seminar and I’m taking a break from finishing some follow up work from the seminar. I needed some entertainment and this worked.
Deadwood Urban Dictionary word of the day:
Captain Turner-The act of dislodging one’s eyeball from its socket with only a finger.
tosabarbell 