Beer, Blood and Cornmeal

Incredibly Strange Wrestling was the bastard offspring of post-punk garage
rock and masked Mexican lucha libre. Fielding a cast of crazed characters with
names like El Homo Loco, Macho Sasquatcho and El Pollo Diablo, the show lived
up to its name. Christians fought lions, Ku Klux Klowns squared off against
Hasidic Jews and Bigfoots and bears mauled hapless hippies in some of the most
surreal grappling bouts ever staged. And if that wasn't enough, cult bands
such as NOFX, The Dickies and The Donnas provided the raucous rock and roll in
between the highflying mayhem. ISW emerged from the back alleys and seedy
clubs of San Francisco's South of Market scene to headline the historic
Fillmore and barnstorm North America on the Van's Warped Tour. At the height
of its popularity, Green Day's Billy Joe Armstrong and Metallica's James
Hetfield could be seen tossing tortillas (which the promoters supplied) at
ringside with the rest of the hell heads, boozehounds and tattooed party girls
that made up ISW's rabid following. Bob Calhoun broke into ISW as an untrained
grappler and rose through the ranks to become one of the creative forces
behind the subversive carnival. In his new memoir, Beer, Blood & Cornmeal,
Calhoun delves into the ISW's organized insanity with all of the dark humor
that it deserves. It's a story of urban misfits risking their necks for local
celebrity in one of America's most famous cities all told against the backdrop
of the dot com boom and bust and an increasingly corporate entertainment
industry. Beer, Blood & Cornmeal takes the highest tier of the music industry
and sends it on a collision course with the lowest rung of the professional
wrestling ladder. The threat of real violence is always lurking at the fringes
of the fake fights as shows end in riots and wrestlers disturbingly become
their squared circle alter egos.