Tractor Pulls of the early 1980s

One thing my dad always liked was going to tractor and truck pulls. I remember going to these with him quite a bit when I was a kid. He even drove his Ford Bronco in one. I think the drive train fell out.

I was going through his stuff recently and I found 15 photos that he took at one or more of these events. They're not dated, and I'm not sure if they are all from the same event or not, but they're probably from sometime between 1979 and 1982.

Anyway, here are some "vintage" tractor pull photos for you from my dad.

S.P.I.I.T.A.M.P. Vol. III, Number 1

It's all Joey's fault.

Really.

Anyway, here we go again...

Self-indulgent thing where I write about me, writing.

So, okay, so my friend Eleanor asked me to participate in a thing, and in that thing I am going to participate. You will be witnesses.

Eleanor is great, by the way and it is flattering as all hell to be asked to do something about the stuff I do by someone who does stuff that I admire more than I would feel comfortable saying out loud to her. Anyway, this is a thing that was started, as near as I can figure, by Eric Kaplan and it spread from there because everyone who does this is suppose to ask three other people to participate. I didn't do that, but if you want to do it, you should. I am sorry that I broke the chain, everyone.

 Oh, my friend Patrick did this, too. You should read his. Here it is. Okay here are some questions and also some answers...


1) What am I working on?

 I am working on my Professional Wrestling Fanzine The Atomic Elbow. It's basically what I am always working on. At least for the past couple of years. I am as surprised as anyone that I've been able to stick with it, really.


 2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

 Not sure I would call print-only 'zines about wrestling a "genre." As far as I know there are less than ten of them in the entire world. Mine is probably the eighth best. Maybe seventh if that one guys stopped publishing his. I guess it's slightly different because I try as hard as possible to write about as much non-wrestling stuff as I can within the context of wrestling. Sure it's fun to read about who suplexed whom or whatever, but I'd much rather talk about the nearest JC Penney store to Palmetto, Florida. I'm not gonna tell you where it is, but the answer is in issue 6 (June 2013).


 3) Why do I write what I do?

 Why does anybody do anything? Most dudes my age have boats or play golf or have affairs or whatever. I'm not interested in any of those things, but I am interested in 'zines and professional wrestling. So that's what I do.


 4) How does your writing process work?

 Usually I just mash as many words as I possibly can out of my keyboard and then try to whittle it down into something that makes sense. I'm my own editor, though, so more stuff makes it into the final product than maybe should. I have to keep reminding myself not to get too precious about it.

 I'm really inspired by my friend Tom McHenry's attitudes about writing. It's not a new or novel concept, really, but he once wrote something somewhere about how the main focus should be to just do the work and not worry too much about it.

 I think about that all the time. I just put some words on the page. The world will tell me if they're good or not. If they're not, I'll try to do better next time.

 Thanks for looking at this. You're one of the good ones.


 EDIT: Oh, hey, my friend Joey did this, too, and his is super interesting. Go read it.

The Atomic Elbow Issue 9!

I thought it would be thematically appropriate to cram a copy of The Atomic Elbow #9 in a camellia bush because it's the first or second day of Spring, but I don't know. It looks like I just put a thing in a tree and I don't think the theme really comes across, you know?

ANYWAY, the ninth issue of The Atomic Elbow is now available!

The first 100 copies have gold foil stamping on the cover, 1990s Spider-Man style!

This one starts off with an amazing drawing of the Four Horsemen by the Hand of Beaver.

There's an interview with host of TBS's "Dinner and a Movie" and nWo member (4 Life!) Paul Gilmartin!

There's an article about the time I went to a wrestling show in Pennsylvania (there's very little writing about wrestling in this article).

There's an interview with CHIKARA's Mike Quackenbush. I chose a barely readable font for the title. It's like I'm Raygun magazine over here or something...

Scott "Star of Savage" Holland is back with an article about independent wrestling and why you should be paying more attention to it (hint: because it is great). 

Scott Stripling made a comic about Arn Anderson, and that's in this issue, too!

J. "Anonymous" Rex wrote a review of the A.J. Lee fanzine Total Girl Chaos.

And there's another over-long, digression-filled, overly-critical article about a wrestling event you've probably never seen. It's also got a reference to mid-90s NASCAR. It's an Atomic Elbow tradition!

All of this and more is waiting for you right now in the Atomic Elbow Online Store! GO GET IT! Thanks!

S.P.I.I.T.A.M.P. Volume II, Number 74

I don't know... it's a thing?

Here is number 74...

S.P.I.I.T.A.M.P. Volume II, Number 73

It's probably cheating, but I'm the one making the rules, so...

Here's number 73.

S.P.I.I.T.A.M.P. Volume II, Number 72

Hello. The robot is back. Enjoy whatever it is that guy does.

Here is number 72.