Lucha Loco is the artistic result of Venville's quest to find and capture the essence of these masked gladiator-like showmen throughout many different trips to Mexico City in 2005. Venville says, "Lucha Loco represents something that is missing from life in the western world since the disappearance of the circus and vaudeville. There is poetry in its vibrant and expressive style that is lacking from wrestling."

As a child of profoundly deaf parents, Venville is fascinated with the unspoken language and still countenance of the luchadore mask. It is through Venville's tenacity and desire to observe this serious form of expression while revealing the humanity underneath that culminates in the stunning portraiture series Lucha Loco.

Detailed color photos introduce the figure, the name reveals the character, but the quote reveals the mind behind the mask -- ranging from the emotional -- Super Porky who says, "Here in Mexico us wrestlers work every single day. Sorry, do forgive the tears" -- to the humorous -- Coco Verde, "We don't mix the character from free wrestling with sex," -- to the simple -- Las Momias, "We're the mummies, here to serve the people."

In the introduction, Mexican poet, novelist, and literary critic Sandro Cohen, astute to the ironic imagery, observes that "El Solar, strangely, found it necessary to confess that he once wanted to be a lawyer, and in Mexico that still means fighting for the little guy. Real life didn't allow him to be an avenger for the downtrodden, but wrestling did."

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Scientists Invent Robot Arm Wrestler

Robots.net reports that Korean scientists have developed a robot that arm wrestles.

The arm-wrestling robot was developed by Professor Chul-Goo Kang and his colleagues at the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent System (IRIS) of Konkuk University. Robo Arm-Wrestler greets people when they are approaching by saying "Hello", "Nice to meet you", or "Please take a seat for a match", and so on. Robo Arm-Wrestler has some artifical intelligence which automatically adjusts its strength for the challenger and it also considers its competitor's attitude and reflects his will and tenacity in deciding who wins.

Hello. Nice to meet you? Now come on that's no way to challenge an opponent. Those of us "fortunate" enough to watch Sylvester Stallone in Over the Top know that you must be very aggressive and accept nothing but first place.

John Grizzly: "When I get to the table, that person, I don't care who they are, they're my mortal enemy. I hate them."

Harry Bosco: "My whole body is an engine. This is a fireplug" [makes a fist] "... and I'm gonna light him up."

Bob 'Bull' Hurley: "I drive truck, break arms, and arm wrestle. It's what I love to do, it's what I do best. Being number one is everything. There is no second place. Second sucks."

Robo Arm-Wrestler should be reprogrammed with some of those lines from Over the Top.

Posted on December 1, 2005
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