Painting is mostly done in the new protein wisdom pub, and the new floors will soon be laid. The reclaimed Russian Pine coffee table we ordered back in September should ship soon, which will allow me to move our old leather chair and loveseat down into the room, which is going to ape the style and coziness of an Irish pub, only without all the shamrocks. Instead we’ll have a coin-operated pool table, a dart board, and maybe even a shuffle board table.

Today, I put up the first two of my original US movie 1-sheets, which I’ll be using to decorate the walls of the space. Luckily, I was able to find these two highly in-demand titles rolled (most 1-sheets prior to the mid-80s were issued machine folded, with a few overruns kept back and stored flat; rolled posters from this era are highly sought after) and I’ve had them placed in archival frames, along with a mint rolled half-sheet of The Bad News Bears. I only have 2 half sheets, BNB and The Seven-ups. Here are the first two on the wall, measuring about 28″ x 42″ framed:

I have a few others I’ve collected that speak to my love of a particular type of movie from a particular era: still folded are a number of cult films and 70s favorites, such as Billy Jack (you knew I’d have that one!), Serpico (another gimme), Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Stepford Wives, Death Wish, Mr Majestyk, Hard Times, The Mechanic, Play Misty for Me, Every Which Way But Loose, Heaven’s Gate, Busting, The Hunter, Carny, Magic, Nashville, Night Moves, Altered States, It’s Alive, Hardcore, Three Days of the Condor, The Marathon Man, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Coma, The Longest Yard, Cisco Pike, Outland, Black Gunn, Prince of the City, Supercops, Vigilante Force, Catch-22, Machine Gun McCain, Seconds, and My Bodyguard. Most of these, I’m proud to say, are investor-grade pieces in Excellent/Very Fine to Near Mint condition. Rolled, I’ve picked up Angel Heart, Miller’s Crossing, Sorcerer, To Live and Die in LA, the pictured Warriors and The Thing, and Escape from New York. Additional titles — Alien, Straw Dogs, The French Connection, The Conversation, Midnight Cowboy [X-rated litho], and Day of the Locust — have all been linen-backed. The linen-backing process de-acifies the paper, smooths out the folds, and makes folded posters suitable for display (some people like the folded posters to remain folded; for me, it depends on the poster: if the image has a black background or a lot of black to it, linen-backing — along with minor touch ups to the fold lines — creates a crisper display image when framed, and the process will guarantee the paper doesn’t disintegrate. It can be a pricey process, but fortunately I’ve been able to find estate sales that have sold original linen-backed 1-sheets at far below market value.

I’ll probably have a few of the folded posters linen backed (Serpico, Death Wish, and a few more iconic posters), and I’m still looking for a nice Exorcist one-sheet, along with Two Lane Blacktop and Vanishing Point.

When more go up I’ll share the photos.

Also, for those of you who’ve asked, I’ll begin posting a few photos of the house as it comes together. We’ve been able to get a decent amount done, but because of the unexpected financial outlay for my Mom’s funeral and the legal fees paid to the lawyers to make sure my brother doesn’t live comfortably off my mother’s late-life misery, we’re a bit behind where we wanted to be at this point.

Here are the chairs, rug, and mirror we have in our living room. We’re combining mid-century modern with rustic and industrial, which is a nice blend of styles that fits my wife’s and my tastes perfectly. The chairs are from Joybird (as is the sofa, not pictured). The coffee table (and matching end tables) we found on clearance at a Furniture Row store, at a price that would have made Wal-Mart blanch. The rug is a wool piece that looks like river stones. Unfortunately, the puppies have often mistaken it for that, and have had little compunction about leaving a remnant for us. On the plus side, though, Walking on it is like getting a foot massage:

And here’s the great room, off the kitchen. The sofa and loveseat come from Joybird.com; the reclaimed wood and zinc table is 5’x5′ and I love it. I did have to add my own seal so that spills and such wouldn’t damage the patina, and as a result the table is a bit more amber than when we originally purchased it; still, it’s beginning to fade back to its original hue — and in a pinch, I can sleep on the thing:

The egg chair interior is done in cowhide and goes with the ottoman, both in distressed black (which looks like aged deep brown). We found the chair at the sole Restoration Hardware outlet in the state, where a woman literally tried to pull Satchel off of it in order to buy it out from under us. Satch, as you know, is a wrestler and uses his weight well. She lost. And we got it at about 1/5 of the original retail price.

Seriously. It’s like being hugged by a Guernsey.

update: Speaking of wrestling, I leave this afternoon to drive up to Bennett — about 100 miles — for tomorrow morning’s Regional Championships. Satchel has to weigh-in between 6-8, after which we’ll be spending the night in a Best Western. My wife won’t be home from New York until later this evening so she’ll be heading up tomorrow morning, leaving at the leisurely time of around 6:15 a.m.

Since Districts, when Satch placed second, he’s looked like an entirely different wrestler. His confidence came back, his focus has been there, and he’s been ultra-aggressive in practice. Last night he dominated a good kid who outweighed him by 17 lbs. The night before he beat a kid 3 lbs heavier — who hasn’t lost this year in Metro tournaments — 25-0, teching him in the first period. The other kids in the group who were to rotate in were fighting among themselves, trying to get out of wrestling him. He then called out our 12 and older former champ, who outweighs him by 10 lbs, and wrestled him to a 4-4 tie.

This is what we’ve been waiting for all year. It remains to be seen if he carries it over into the tournament; he tends to be less physically dominating when he doesn’t know his opponent. He is reluctant to “hurt” other kids, particularly those with whom he’s not terribly familiar. We’ve been trying to tell him that it’s part of wrestling and that it’s okay. If that message sticks, and he comes out aggressive, imposing his will, and moving around at the speed with which he’s capable, I think he’ll make it to States.

He just can’t be flat and expect to win against this level of competition. That he’s been that way most of the season and still medaled in every tournament is a testament to just how good he is and just how really good he can be.