September 9, 2009 Bulldog's
Bookshelf Canadian Bulldog, WorldWrestlingInsanity.com "Calhoun does an excellent job capturing the promotion's
bizarre history, its rabid ECW-like fans, the death threats he received
over the Counte Dante name, and even backstage politics... At times,
it reminded me of reading something out of Rolling Stone."
August 9, 2009 Creepy
KOFY Movie Time KOFY TV-20, San Francisco
TV horror host and alternative rock DJ No Name picks Beer,
Blood and Cornmeal as his book of the week on the Creepy
KOFY Movie Time during a Saturday night showing of Prehistoric
Women (1950):
June 22, 2009 Incredibly
Strange Wrestling Jason S. Ridler, Ridlerville "It's been the most engaging pop culture
read I've had since the carney memoir "Eying the Flash,"
and forcing me to put down both a biography of Eisenhower and the
philosophical musings of Pema Chodron! Now that's bad ass! Check
it out if you want a worm's eye view of a unique and bizarre example
of trash culture done right!”
April 2009 Because
Ideas Matter... Recommended Readings Professor J. Rocky Colavito, Butler University "Calhoun intricately traces the developmental
trajectory of the promotion, and though the promotion’s flame
out comes as little surprise, it still saddens us because of how
well we have come to know the players... Highly recommended.”
January 2009 My
Dinner with Dante Dan Kelly, Roctober #46 "A torrid collection of tales of bizarre
wrestling matches between sasquatches, leather daddies, devil chickens,
and more, intermixed with booze, punk rock and blizzards of tortilla
shells, Beer, Blood and Cornmeal also charts a forgotten
period of SF music history...”
October 7, 2008 The Invisible
Web Episode 20 Bob Calhoun talks BBAC, ISW, the BDFS, Lee vs. Kirby and the
Gene LeBell controversy with the podcast devoted to "anomalous
phenomena, combat sports, civil rights, and other subjects not usually
addressed by mainstream media."
September 4, 2008 Pinning
a Lion, Tortillas Flyin’ Dan Kelly, Chicago Reader "Calhoun describes it as a moment
where wrestling grappled with surrealism, and surrealism won out
with a suplex powerslam—a scene where audience members whipped
corn tortillas through the air while watching chickens engaging
in less-than-mortal combat with lions, Scientologist boy bands taking
on leather-daddies, and racist clowns battling Hasidic Jews.”
September 1, 2008 Incredibly
Strange Wrestling's Geeks, Freaks and Tortillas Lewis Wallace, Wired.com "A breezy and hilarious read, Beer,
Blood & Cornmeal tells how a loose group of musicians, horror
movie fans and a few actual professional wrestlers pushed lucha
libre beyond the limits of taste and safety.”
August 27, 2008 Beer,
Blood & Cornmeal Steve Duin, The Oregonian "...An epic and ribald account of
seven years of Incredibly Strange Wrestling.”
July 1, 2008 Some
Visitors were Proud but not Loud Leah Garchick, San Francisco
Chronicle
Calhoun's reading on the sidewalk in front of the closed down Cody's
on June 30, 2008 earns a mention from The Chronicle columnist. Also:
check out the blurbs and blogs on Calhoun and Cody's on Shelf
Awareness (about halfway down the page) and the
East Bay Express. If you missed it, here's video of
the reading courtesy of FORA.tv:
July 2008 Maximum
RocknRoll Reviews "Beer, Blood & Cornmeal" Craigums, Maximum RocknRoll "This book was like candy--I could not stop eating it up:
maybe it's because I knew half the people/bands mentioned or maybe
because I was party to the dotcom-cum-bomb era of San Francisco,
1995-2003 when all of this takes place, or maybe because I am a
sucker for road tales involving unreal characters willing to do
unbelievable things? Or maybe because it's just a great read."
June 3, 2008 ECW
+ BEA = LOL Tabassum Siddiqui, Quill
and Quire
Canada's leading publishing mag covers The Count's BEA appearance
on their blog site.
May 20, 2008 Alan
Wojcik Reviews "Beer, Blood & Cornmeal" Alan Wojcik, Pro Wrestling Daily "...Quite possibly the funniest book
on wrestling not written by a current WWE superstar... From clubs
closing due to the dotcom boom of the 90's buying them out to wrestlers
getting injured or just flat out leaving the promotion, Calhoun’s
writing makes you care about ISW and the people that were part of
it. Buy it and enjoy it, it will make you appreciate the art of
professional wrestling.”
May 8, 2008 Getting
Bloody with Count Dante Andrew Tweedy, Ottawa XPress "He (Calhoun) manages to portray the
sheer ridiculousness of ISW without ever coming across as ridiculous
himself, weaving it all together with his great sense of self-deprecating
humour and downright disbelief.”
May 4, 2008 San
Francisco Chronicle Best Sellers Beer, Blood and Cornmeal debuts at #9 on the San
Francisco Chronicle's Bay Area Bestseller list in quality paperbacks.
April 28, 2008 Irony
is a Bitch Laury Silvers, Slam! Wrestling "Well-observed and sharply funny.
(Calhoun’s) characterizations nicely communicate the wrestlers’
addiction to performance and risk-taking in and out of the ring.”
April 22, 2008 Look
Back in Anger Michael Leaverton, SF Weekly "...(Bob Calhoun's) memoir of those
turbulent times, Beer, Blood and Cornmeal, reveals more than
what we have any right to expect from a man who presided over matches
pitting lions against Christians and a pedophile against a young
boy."
April 17, 2008 'Beer,
Blood and Cornmeal': Wild wrestling Reyhan Harmanci, The
San Francisco Chronicle "...a behind-the-scenes look at one
of the best oddities to come out of the Bay Area over the past few
decades: Incredibly Strange Wrestling."
April 16, 2008 Our
weekly picks; What to do April 16-22, 2008 Johnny Ray Huston, San Francisco
Bay Guardian "Bob Calhoun is qualified to write
Beer, Blood, and Cornmeal (ECW Press). For one thing, as Count
Dante, he ruled the San Francisco-based, lucha libre– and Cash
Flagg–inspired phenom known as Incredibly Strange Wrestling,
even taking on a Sasquatch in the ring. For another, he loves to
grapple with colorful words. Calhoun traces his passion for writing
back to a childhood spent prizing the comic books and Famous Monsters
of Filmland magazines on spinning racks at dime stores. He celebrates
the release of his latest literary labor with a reading at Edinburgh
Castle, where he's often told an extra large, if not tall, tale.
Will the fish-and-chips fly like the tortillas once did?"
March 5, 2008 Wrestling
With Suburbia Gary Singh, The
Metro (Silicon Valley) "('Beer,
Blood and Cornmeal') just makes
you want to don a leopard skin and get paid 20 bucks to go in the
ring and beat up a dude in a chicken suit."
August 23, 2005 Pub
pays tribute to a true Scot -- Canadian James Doohan Jane Ganahl, San
Francisco Chronicle "Writer Bob Calhoun, in a closing
toast, offers a compromise: "Let there be no more arguing about
which city should honor Scotty! I say put his plaque at the steps
of the Scottish Parliament!" And glasses are lifted with a
"Hear, hear!" Scotty the Fixer would have been proud.
December 22, 2004 The
Pub in Publishing: Readings and writings at the Edinburgh Castle Karen Zuercher,
SF Weekly "Bob Calhoun brings a preacher's zeal
to his satiric evangelism in praise of obesity. Several tubby Santas
cheer in support. It's over in an hour, and then a band takes the
stage."
Sunday, July 14, 2002 Edinburgh
Castle a literary fortress in the Tenderloin Anne N. Marino, San
Francisco Chronicle "Later that night a Count Dante from
Incredibly Strange Wrestling does a God-knows-what performance art
piece about the surgeon general"
