Charlottesville is the proud home of the first theatrical, philanthropic ladies arm wrestling league, CLAW (Charlottesville Lady Arm Wrestlers), founded in 2008. Originally an idea that sprang from a joke between friends, the ladies arm wrestling phenomenon has spread to 16 cities so far and captured the attention of the New YorkTimes, the Guardian, Washington Post, MORE Magazine, and Penthouse, to name a few. On June 16th, Charlottesville will host the inaugural championship, SuperCLAW, featuring a face-off between women from the first 8 leagues. Arm-warriors from Charlottesville, DC, New Orleans, Kingston, Brooklyn, Austin, Chicago, and Durham will compete for the Cape de CLAW and a large cash prize to donate back to their communities. Here's the lineup: PLEASE GO TO THE CLAWUSA website to check out full bios of the wrestlers and the organizations they're fightin' for! 1. Austin: Pain Fonda (wrestling for Community Yoga Austin) 2. Brooklyn: Cop-ophelia (wrestling for Center for Anti-Violence education) 3. Charlottesville: The Homewrecker (wrestling for A FERTILE Foundation) 4. Chicago: Armageddon (wrestling for Sideshow Theater Company) 5. DC: TBD (wrestling for Ladies Auxiliary of the American Legion Post 8 ) 6. Durham: The Dirty Butcher (wrestling for Durham Crisis Response Center) 7. Hudson Valley: Heather Weizen (wrestling for Family Planning Advocates) 8. New Orleans: Sistah Mary Slammer (wrestling for Hagar’s House, a transitional home for women and children in New Orleans ) There will be exhibition wrestling & shenanigans from other leagues & musical performances from We Are Star Children and BETTY. Get tickets now: http://www.jeffersontheater.com/superclaw or wait for... Pay-What-You-Can tickets, which will be available at the door the night of the event on a first-come, first-served basis.

Shot and edited by Billy Hunt and featuring the wonderful music of the Birdlips, The Homewrecker gives a modern girl some simple instructions on how to live a good life, a happy life...a fulfilling life. CLAW, this Saturday, March 24 at Blue Moon Diner. General admission tickets are $5 and available at the door. There are a few ringside seats ($75) left. Please email Malaina Poore at malaina@vocalvirginia.org or call 434.243.7878 ext. 22 to make reservations.  Doors open at 7 p.m., wrastlin' starts at 8 p.m.

UPCOMING CLAW.......MARCH 24, 2012

At the BLUE MOON DINER.  Gates open at 7pm, wrestling starts at 8pm. $5 at the door. Music from Pantherburn, TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb and DJ Western Front. Bring cash.  There are ringside seats available.  Please contact Malaina Poore at Malaina@VocalVirginia.org (434)243-7878 ext 22 (888)771-2030.

Recently, I asked some CLAW wrastlers what they LOVED about CLAW. Here's what they had to say:

Many thanks to Billy Hunt for the incredible photography here.

Bree Luck ("Stiletto Southpaw") What I love about CLAW is: 1. Powerful women raising powerful funding for small, strong organizations that pack a powerful punch for our community. 2. Getting to wrassle with women from all walks of life in Charlottesville. I admire their strength, their style, and their soul. 3. Having the excuse to make the transformation from stressed out mom/schoolmarm to a badass superhero once in a while. 4. It gets me to the gym. Mendy St.Ours ("Tropical Depression"): What I love most is embracing absurdity, hilarity, extremities, and vulgarity for one night every three months. Giving women, who are always the responsible ones, the anchors for the dreamers, the nest-guardians, one night to SSSCCCCRRREEEEAAAAMMMMMMM!!!! Edwina Herring "Jamaican Mafia": I love so many things about it. I like that it combines visceral thrills with theatrical elements... I love the causes they support. Miller Murray Susen ("Miller Time"): I loved when I started wrestling with CLAW that very few people knew who I "really" was, and I could totally escape into a freewheeling, larger-than-my-life alter ego--leave the frantic tedium of housewifery behind for a few supercharged hours. Of course, by now I've been outed as a frumpy housefrau, but the community has grown so close-knit and supportive that I still feel safe acting out and stirring it up. I'm as "sexy" and cuckoo as I wanna be, just for the magical evening. In short, when a CLAW's going on, there's no place in Cville I'd rather be spending time. Tara Bobara ("Pit Bull"): What do I love about CLAW? I love the fact that I can participate in something so simple that raises so much money and consciousness, and does so much good in the community. I love the fact that I can come out and be something that I'm not, and be appreciated in all of my gaudy, contradictory weirdness, just as much as I am appreciated in my real life and my real persona. I love the fact that women are so powerful in so many different ways, and that CLAW is a celebration of all of them. The mental, the physical, the passionate, the creative, the communal forces of divine womanhood are all represented in CLAW. Because it bears repeating:  UPCOMING CLAW.......MARCH 24, 2012...at the BLUE MOON DINER.  Gates open at 7pm, wrestling starts at 8pm. $5 at the door. Music from Pantherburn, TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb and DJ Western Front. Bring cash.  There are ringside seats available.  Please contact Malaina Poore at Malaina@VocalVirginia.org (434)243-7878 ext 22 (888)771-2030.

NEXT CLAW: MARCH 24, 2012 AT THE BLUE MOON DINER AT 8 PM. BE THERE. Since 2008, Billy Hunt and Brian Wimer have been helping to create, produce, edit and promote the upcoming matches of CLAW. Here's a little video retrospective. Move over Rocky and your raw eggs. Stiletto Southpaw takes us through her morning ritual to prepare for taking on The Punctuator. CLAW recruitment video...and people say wrastlers don't get discovered in diners over veggie burgers anymore... The music video that re-inspired adding pogo stick riding (and van rocking) to the 2012 Summer Olympics Ah...the girls...check out the promo for CLAWNEY ISLAND: Intimate counseling footage of Nurse Cheryl getting some long-awaited mental help:

1.  The Pilgrims held the first CLAWnucopia match. Absurd.  False.  They get credit for everything.  "They" also inspired the Prius and perforated notebook paper.  We claim the first CLAWnucopia match.  On Saturday, November 19th, give thanks for the fruits of our labor, align with your favorite wrestler, and dance.  Come see your favorite Charlottesville Fundraiser as we gather CLAWbucks for Quality Community Council. 2.  CLAWnucopia is about family. As in annual football game in the backyard with Uncle Billy after we have lunch and we leave Mamaw crying and washing dishes in the kitchen?  No.  As in "I got all my sisters an' me" on the way to empowering women and strengthening local communities through theater, arm wrestling and philanthropy?  Yes.  Uncle Billy (Hunt) may be around shooting extry-good photos if he's not with Uncle Brian (Wimer) making the movie about CLAW. 3.  CLAWnucopia is a religion. There appears to be superhuman controlling power around, and there is much rejoicing, but there isn't much teaching and discussing.  Bribing, and wrastlin' and strutting and get-ups and fist pumping and dancing and bands. 4.  The Pilgrims would not understand CLAWnucopia. Spectacle would not shock the Pilgrims. 5.  All CLAWnucopia wrestlers eat turkey. Protein is important as our ladies prepare to take down their opponents, but there has been no published early reports on whether they are training on turkey or tofurky loaf. 6.  "The Promiscuous Puritan" was the first CLAW wrestler. She sounds like a contender, but she wasn't the first.  Read here to learn about how CLAW got started. 7.  "The Sassy Sabbatarian", "Plymouth Rockstar" and "Antisex Annie" are financially backed by Donald Trump. Donald Trump's name has been batted around as a celebrity judge, but it was tabled -- he's not ready. 8.  Pilgrims and Puritans get the best seats. Nonsense.  Their hats are too high.  First paid, first served on this one.  Contact the Quality Community Council at 434.977.3045 if you want a ringside seat. 9.  The matches will be determined by pulling on a wishbone. You never know what's going to happen at CLAWnucopia. 10.  CLAWnucopia will be marching in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Ann "In a Hurry" Curry and UVA's own Katie "Pow Pow Pow Pow Take That" Couric would be natural contenders as new wrestlers for a Times Square battle, but there is no date for that at this time.  However, CLAW is spreading across the nation.  Click to read about these CLAW USA chapters: San Francisco (BAAWL), New York (Hudson Valley BRAWL and 5 Borough Ladies Arm Wrestling), Chicago (CLLAW), New Orleans (NOLAW), Washington, DC (DCLAW), Durham (LUEWWD), Austin (CLAWstin), Charlotte (QCLAW), Taos (BRAWL), and Boston (BAWD).  Get a cup of tea and LIKE all these groups on Facebook if you want to keep up with the crawl of CLAW across the country. At the BLUE MOON DINER.  Gates open at 7pm, wrestling starts at 8pm. $5 at the door. Music from Beleza Brazil, We are Star Children, and DJ Western Front. Bring cash.

In a cave on Mount Ida on the island of Crete, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by a number of divine attendants, including the goat CLAWmalthea ("Nourishing Goddess with Arms"), who fed him with her milk and egg white protein shakes. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and strength, a deathly stare, and an uncanny way to persuade celebrity judges. While wrestling with his nursemaid (who was a lawyer by day) he "accidentally" broke off one of her horns, which then had the divine power to provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had done for the small god. This "Horn of Plenty", or CLAWnucopia, as it became known in legend, appears throughout history in times of hunger and thirst, to provide nourishment (and money for non-profits) for all those who exert themselves for others through the divine sport of Arm Wrestling. On Saturday, November 19th, give thanks for the fruits of our labor, align with your favorite wrestler, and dance.  Come see your favorite Charlottesville Fundraiser as we gather CLAWbucks for Quality Community Council.

At the BLUE MOON DINER.  Gates open at 7pm, wrestling starts at 8pm. $5 at the door. Music from Beleza Brazil, We are Star Children, and DJ Western Front. Bring cash.