POWERLIFTERSvs. BODYBUILDERS – CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?

Bodybuilders are the low hanging fruit of the weightlifting world. So visible, so easily parodied…And the sport is so incredibly weird, at least in it’s current form. To win a bodybuilding competition you must look completely unnatural on the stage – roll-on tan, dangerously dehydrated, the works. Let’s acknowledge the elephant the room, i.e. the […]

Why Powerlifting does not = Chick Magnet: a Primer

In past posts I have expounded at length about the many benefits of powerlifting. We’ve also examined the “why” of powerlifting; namely, it’s insanely fun to be able to lift heavy shit. However, nobody every tells you the shameful truth underlying this otherwise laudable sport. Sit back, gentle reader, and clutch your emotional support pillow […]

Where do you want to live for the rest of your life?

I don’t feel old. Nevertheless, if I was in States I’d probably start receiving mailers from AARP as of next year (I’m in my mid 50s). Thanks to training in powerlifting for the past 8 years I’m a fair bit stronger now than I was in my 20s or 30s. I’m not a senior citizen […]

Tulum – Douchebag mecca or victim of it’s own success?

If one were to magically procure Admin rights to Instagram and was able eliminate all post from Tulum, I’m fairly certain that’d reduce total content on the platform by at roughly 30 percent. Why is that? What makes makes Tulum the ideal backdrop for the willfully self-obsessed narcissists weirdly expending a great deal of energy […]

An ode to fringe activities…

OR THE LONELINESS OF THE POWERLIFTING WINE-CHUGGER. OR HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE BY NOT BORING THEM TO TEARS WITH YOUR HOBBY/SPORT/LIFESTYLE CHOICE/DIET Happy new year, everyone. I made an early night of it last night so after a nice dinner with friends I went to bed shortly after midnight CET. As a […]

La Perle des Antilles

This may sound maudlin, but sometimes hate does turn into love and sometimes, if you’re in the right frame of mind, a challenging situation is indeed an opportunity. By the time I left home at 18, I had moved house 17 times in 3 continents, 4 countries, 3 US states and the District of Columbia. […]

Return of the prodigal Hamburger

People with German ancestry are the single largest ethnic group in US. Yet, it’s a testament to their ubiquity that it’s often not understood by Americans themselves just how subtly German popular culture has influenced their own. My mother’s family are typical German-Americans as they live in Midwest in a semi-rural setting. German-americans largely live […]

The Mythical Land of Oz

I was born in The Land Down Under. While it wasn’t exactly an accident of birth (heck, I was even conceived in Oz) my birthplace is not one of my more salient facts. If you met me today absolutely nothing about me screams, or even whispers, Australian. I am relatively unsullied by and downright ignorant […]

Been down so long looks like up to me

To those of you who started reading this post because you are fans of Richard Farina – my apologies. This post will not discuss his seminal novel of the same name/title (see above). For some reason when I sat down to ponder reverse culture shock this phrase/title literally popped into my head. Score one for […]

The best books you’ve never read

The purpose of this post is share my all time best literary “finds”. My definition of a “find” is a work that is not mainstream but undeniably brilliant. These books are, in my opinion, masterpieces. A masterpiece is, in my experience, a book that is usually not very accessible at first but once […]