Beyond Raising the Bar: Excerpts from a Life in Bodybuilding (2013)
By David Pulcinella
290 pp. (Memoirs)
(Available at Amazon.com)

Dear Mr. Pulcinella -

Like so many others, I've been following you since you starred in your brother's three Raising the Bar documentaries, about your efforts to graduate from being a top NPC athlete to being an IFBB professional.  And let's be honest: your brother is definitely a talented filmmaker, but what really made those films work was your honesty and charisma.  I felt like I could listen to your stories for hours.

And now that you've written and published Beyond Raising the Bar, I can.  But as much as I enjoyed your book, should you ever choose to write another, please allow me to offer some unsolicited advice:

Please, please hire an editor.

Here is the first of two videos I'm making about the 2013 OCB Spirit of America bodybuilding and physique competition that was held in Carver, MA on April 20, 2013.  It's inspired by a passage in the competitor handout that addresses "sportsmanship."  This video is more of a teaser -- the next one will explore the competition in greater depth.

Special thanks to the promoters and all of the athletes for making the day so special.  Let me know what you think!  And as always, you can go to YouTube or Vimeo for a larger player.

Here's a video I just finished putting together of the Metroland Championships held in Albany, NY on April 13, 2013, and promoted by John Weissenburger.  It was a bodybuilding, bikini, figure, and men's physique show especially (but not exclusively) geared to novice competitors, and I had a really great time recording the event.

As usual, head over to Vimeo or YouTube for a larger video player.

The Metroland Championships in Albany, NY were this past weekend (on April 13, 2013); it was a really great show and I had a wonderful time.  I shot footage of the entire event, and am currently working on a highlights video which should be up in a few days.  In the meantime, one of the bikini competitors asked me to assemble a video of her entire stage presentation, from prejudging through finals.  Here's the result:

I'm quite with pleased how it came out.  And if anyone is interested in their own competitor video from an event I attend, please feel free to contact me!  (For a larger player, check out the video on YouTube or Vimeo.)

Thomas Topham (1702–1749) and Joe Call (1781–1835) are two legendary strongmen, with the emphasis on "legendary": in the centuries between their deaths and the present day, true facts about their lives have become hard to discern from folklore.  Accordingly, a modern scholar must choose how to proceed when discussing these men. 

The Bodybuilder and I (2007)
Written and Directed: Bryan Friedman
86 min. (Documentary)

To an outsider, the world of men's bodybuilding can appear ludicrous.  Bryan Friedman certainly feels that way at the start of his documentary The Bodybuilder and I.  There's no mistaking his contempt as he watches his father, Bill, practice posing to John Williams' Superman theme (1978).  But in case we somehow miss Bryan's slack-jawed stare, his narration is equally blunt: "I think my father looks completely ridiculous."

Of course, Bryan also despises his father.

Here's my second video from the very enjoyable 2013 New York City Open Weightlifting Championships, held in Garden City, NY on March 24, 2013:

With all the split-screening in the video, you may want to head over to YouTube or Vimeo to watch this on a larger player.  In any event, the third and final video from the 2013 NYC Championships, which will cover the heavier men's weight classes and which will likely be in a bit of a different style, should be up within a week or two.

Heart & Steel: The Strongman Steve Schmidt Story (2012)
by Brenda Black
141 pp. (Biography)
steveschmidtmo.com

Steve Schmidt is an an impressive strongman.  He holds several United States All-Round Weightlifting Association (USAWA) records, including a 2,520-pound hip lift and 7,253 back lifts of 1,115 pounds each (for a total of over 8 million pounds) in under three hours.  He's in the Guinness Book of World Records for lifting a 100kg (220-pound) weight fifty times in a minute—using only his teeth.  He routinely puts on strongman shows at fairs and festivals, where he bends horseshoes, steel bars and rebar, and donates the proceeds to charity.  (He also bends steel bars across the bridge of his nose without any padding, which . . . wow.) 

As a tribute to Schmidt, Heart & Steel shines.  The book covers Schmidt's strongman feats in admiring detail, as well as providing some insight into his childhood, work ethic, faith and family life.  Apart from being devoted to his wife, Schmidt appears to be a fundamentally independent soul: he avoids doctors, is deeply religious but seems mildly distrustful of formal worship, and seems to be generally self-sufficient on his Missouri farm.   He is a believer in both hard work and fair play; early in his lifting career, he traveled to prisons to compete against the inmates, even though "I had to go through seven doors and competed with some pretty scary guys," because "[t]hose were fair competitions … they couldn't get the drugs" (steroids).  Years later, he agreed to attend a competition (and potentially set some new records) only if it happened to rain on the day of the event, because otherwise he had work to do on his farm.  In sum, Schmidt comes across as genuinely decent, humble, and highly focused.