MATCH OF THE CENTURYWhat Ithaca needs downtown is a real draw, a bona fide crowd pleas er, bring 'em in from the hills and hollers type of night out. Ithaca needs wrestling.snorting, sweaty overweight male bodies charging at each other like raging bulls, drama, hyperbole, you know, farm boys masquerading as caped crusaders with 30 ft. high egos, flashy monikers like The Crusher,and the Dynamite Kid.
Some smart promoter needs to turn that empty Masonic Temple, former night spot, on the corner of Seneca and Cayuga into a tourney hall for today's knights of the ring.That's what needs to happen to turn Ithaca from a sleazy one night stand kind of city with it's old hat, give me a break already , nickel plated snob appeal, you know, bevy of art galleries, craft co-ops, highfalutin French restaurants and expensive rag shops into a pulsing, vibrant boys' (and ladies', they ain't chicks no more) night out kind of place with strip clubs, pool halls and yes, a venue for world class wrestling. No more punk college kids puking against parking meters at the end of 10 Jager Bomb evening.
People need something larger in their lives than a nine to five job, the usual weekend rounds of farmers' market, shopping trips to Wegmann's, apple picking, leaf raking and assorted drudgery. Even a war in the ancient breadbasket of civilization doesn't cut it the same way as watching the sweat and blood fly as two quarter ton stallions of disaster have at each other under a canopy of bright lights. As Roland Barthes, a dude who could really read the signs, would say, it's not what you think, it's what you see.
Hey, maybe we should put Gary Ferguson, the czar of Ithaca Downtown Partnership, ice sculpture extravaganzas, apple harvest festivals, and related snob fests, in tights and see what he can do in the ring against some able opponent like Ripper Collins.
Let's rumble.
Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 2:24 AM
