Our friends at Off the Top Rope Productions sent us word that March 24, 2011, will be the 1st annual National Sputnik Monroe Day!  Long overdue, Sputnik!  Congratulations to all who put in the hard work to make this great day happen!

Spring is in the air & Shangri-la Projects Bands are Too!  Come on out, America, & keep this economy rolling along!  You work, you ride. Easy credit here.

Any area of the country has access to Shangri-la Projects goods this week:
East Coast:  Catch the Strapping Fieldhands at Fishtown Festival live (this looks like a free show) & pick up their newly reissued cdDiscus.  No regrets on this seminal record (remember those???)


Memphis area Shangri-la Projects fans can enjoy some tasty live music at the Westin Sole patio the next two Wednesdays (free music! beer & burgers specials!) with Good Luck Dark Star solo from cocktail hour til 9ish--in the heart of the Fedex Forum/Gibson Guitar area of Beale St.

Also, Grifters' side-project Dragoon will play a record release party atBuccanneer Saturday night!! 

Sweet Home, Alabama folks can meet & greet author Ron Hall at Charlemagne Records in Birmingham, Alabama, Saturday, April 24th from 1-3 p.m signing copies of Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling as well as Playing for a Piece of the Door: A History of Garage & Frat Bands in Memphis, 1960-1975 & the supremely ltd. edition The Memphis Garage Rock Yearbook.  Tres cool stuff!  Come on out, Birmingham!

And those of you lucky enough to live in Austin, Texas, can check out our award-winning pop stars For Her And The Snow, who will be revisiting their former home base for the first time in years at Flipnotics Friday night!  Check out this excellent live show! 

Thanks for all your supports and keeping the economy bubbling up! Over 21 years of kissin' ass & taking names!

Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets:  The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling is out now & getting amazing reviews!  You can purchase Ron Hall’s 4 year odyssey into the best of Memphis wrestling from the early 1950’s through the late 1970’s right now directly from us at our online store.  We take Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, or you can mail us a check if you’d prefer.   Want to order by phone?  Holler at us at 901.359.3102.  Ordering from outside of the U.S.?  Shoot us an email and we can talk postage.

Or head down to your local retailer & pick one up:

Tennessee
Valle’s Italian Rebel 1636 Winchester Memphis
Shangri-La Records, 1916 Madison Ave., Memphis
Davis-Kidd Booksellers, 376 Perkins Ext., Memphis
Sun Studios, 706 Union Ave., Memphis
Tater Reds, 153 Beale Street, Memphis
Burke’s Books, 936 South Cooper, Memphis
Rock ‘N’ Soul Museum, 191 Beale Street, Memphis
Borders Books, 4552 Poplar, Memphis
Goner Records Cooper-Young, Memphis TN
Old Millington Winery 6748 Old Millington Rd., Millington TN
Hooked on Books, 747 W. Poplar Collierville TN
The Great Escape 5400 Charlotte Ave. West Nashville, TN
Len Rossi’s Health Food & Care Center 1605 Franklin Rd. Brentwood, TN (Get Mr. Rossi to autograph your copy when you buy it!)

Mississippi
Downtown Books, 515 Franklin Street, Corinth MS
Spice of Life Books, 1801 South Harper Rd., Corinth MS
Reed’s Books, 129 W. Main St., Tupelo MS
Lemuria Books, 4465 I-55 N # 202,  Jackson MS
Square Books, 160 Courthouse Square, Oxford MS

Arkansas
That Bookstore, 316 W. Main St., Blytheville AR

Florida
Sundog Books, 89 Central Square, Seaside FL

... and of course you can always find Sputnik on Amazon.com.

Watch our commercial (just 45 seconds or so) on YouTube and get a sneak peak of what’s inside the book!

The reviews are in!  Check ‘em out…

Bob Mehr in Memphis’ Commercial Appeal
Wrestling ruled: New book links Memphis grapplers, music and culture
“Sputnik, Masked Men and Midgets” is a testament to one of the enduring traditions of Memphis pop culture, but Hall simply hopes the book is as entertaining for people to go through as it was for him put together. “I want people to feel the same thing,” says Hall, “to get that same charge that I did when I would first find these pictures and clippings. Hopefully it’ll be a fun, weird, enjoyable read for everyone.”

John Branston in Memphis’ The Memphis Flyer
The King of Memphis Wrestling Books
Ron Hall’s new book Sputnik, Masked Men, and Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling, is one of the best collections of black and white sports photos I’ve ever seen and a hell of a lot of fun.

Michael Finger in Memphis’ The Memphis Flyer Best of Memphis 2009
Best Local History Book of 2009 AND Best History Book Title of All Time. In Sputnik, Masked Men, and Midgets, Ron Hall has produced a photo album that documents the early days of Memphis wrestling, when men like Sputnik Monroe and Jackie Fargo were the rock stars of their day. Packed with wonderful images, it even includes a CD of songs performed by famous wrestlers from the 1960s. Well done, Mr. Hall.

Mike Mooneyham in The (Charleston) Post and Courier
Book Chronicles Memphis Mat Memories
Author Ron Hall and editor Sherman Willmott have done a terrific job putting together an attractive, coffee table-style volume that contains nearly 400 nostalgic black-and-white images from a bygone age in wrestling history in one of wrestling’s most enduring cities.

Mark Satrang in Pro Wrestling Examiner
‘Sputnik, Masked Men, and Midgets’ is a fun Memphis wrestling tour
Overall the book is just a fun piece of pure nostalgia for those who knew and remembered that time and place. And for other wrestling fans it is quick history lesson told through images that paint a vivid picture of a wrestling era from days gone by.


Bob Pomeroy on geminispacecraft.com
Thumbing through the wonders contained within the pages of Sputnik, one has to ask whether any greater collection of early wrestling photos, promo shots, clippings, wrestling cards, and records–actually, Sputnik comes with a CD of classics like Sputnik Monroe’s “Sputnik Hires a Band” and Jackie Fargo’s “Champ of Champs”–has ever been compiled.

Paul Ryburn on paulryburn.com
Definitely a book worth having if you’re into the rich history of Memphis wrestling. 

Gary Saunders on dixiedining.com
The pictures are a treat and the accompanying bonus CD is a hoot.

Be our Facebook friend and find out about our upcoming Sputnik events!

After four years of research, Shangri-la Projects is thrilled to announce the release of the greatest book on  wrestling ever!  We give you Ron Hall’s Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets:  The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling to be released September, 2009!!!

Memphis music historian Ron Hall created a whole audience for the over-the-top Memphis garage rock scene of the ‘60s & early ‘70s with his two books: Playing for a Piece of the Door: A History of Garage & Frat Bands, 1960-1975 and The Memphis Garage Rock Yearbook as well as two compendium CD’s. The compilation CD’s gathered unbelievably rare lost 45 gems from many of the bands featured in the books. Not only did the books break all garage rock book sales records, they also revitalized the historic Memphis garage rock scene and helped many of the bands re-form 35 or 40 years later!

Now Hall has turned his attention to the also-amazing Memphis wrassling world — pre-cable, bleached hair, and steroids–with a new book Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling to be published by Shangri-La Projects in September, 2009.  Memphis wrassling WAS the roots and forerunner of the WWF and the WWE.  Many of the giants of the corporate cable wrestling world first wrestled in Memphis–including Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart, Lance “Banana Nose” Russell, and many others.  But before Lawler, in Memphis, there was Sputnik Monroe, Jackie Fargo, Don and Al Greene, Tojo Yamamoto, and Plowboy Frazier. Why do you think Andy Kaufman put his multi-million dollar career as a comedian and actor on hold? To come be a part of the greatest wrassling territory in the U.S., of course (and to wrestle Memphis women as well!)
Hall’s book captures the insanity of the ring and the outrageous costumes and get-ups of the wildest and most original wrestling era. The book contains over 400 images of wrestlers, programs, advertisements, and other Memphis wrassling ephemera. Any professional wrestling fan must own this book!

If that is not enough, the King of Memphis, Jerry “The King” Lawler adds his thoughts about early Memphis wrestling in the book’s introduction!  But, wait, there’s more…
Additionally, Hall’s book includes some of the most amazing early 1950s never-before-published live action Memphis wrestling photos from the Robert Dye, Sr. collection.

And, like all crazy releases from Shangri-la Projects, this book comes with still even more:  a cd of rare recorded gems from Sputnik Monroe, Handsome Jimmy Valiant, & Len Rossi–among others!!!!
This book is a must-have for any & all wrestling fans.  Read more about it at Ron Hall’s Early Memphis Wrestling Blog.

Available September, 2009!  Order yours now & it will ship before your neighbors get it!