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Also this issue: Ikara Colt Flower Show Gilbert Gottfried |
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February 27-March 5, 2003
mixpicks
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Professional Bull Riders, Inc. take their traveling bull-riding competition, replete with rock ¹n¹ roll pounding, pyrotechnics and lasers, very seriously. The Built Ford Tough competition series, billed as PBR¹s "major league,! might be the perfect rodeo event to meet the ever-dropping American attention span. Riders need only hang onto their bucking 2,000-pound bull for 8 seconds to score points. Throw in explosions and giant video screens, and you have enough to occupy even the most distractible thrill seeker.
Riders from around the globe come to compete in this event, which was founded in 1992 by athletes intent on making bull riding a standalone sport, and which hits Philadelphia this week. Live shows, featuring 45 riders, are bolstered by a wide variety of online information for the hard-core fan: injury reports, schedules, profiles of riders -- and even of bulls. A fantasy league lets you pick three riders, three bulls and a corporate partner: You score points based on the riders¹ performance -- and, presumably, score spam from the corporate sponsor.
Worried about the treatment of the bulls? The website offers a section on their welfare. It assures us that no cruel methods are used to make the bull buck; according to the site, "a bull will only buck if it possesses the innate desire and natural instinct to do so.! With sponsors including the city of Las Vegas (where PBR World Finals are held), bull riding looks to be on the way to mainstream success. Whether it will be a hit with Philly¹s tough crowds remains to be seen.
--Brian White
Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series, Fri.-Sat., Feb. 28 and March 1, 8 p.m., $10-$100, First Union Spectrum, 3601 S. Broad St., 215-336-2000.
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