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Judo

 

Judo's Page

 

"Director of Graphic Design"

                                                                                                                      Enter the World of Judo

If you were anywhere near a club in the mid- to late seventies, there is no way you could have missed Judo and her positively charged and exceptionally catchy dance jams. Floor-fillers like "Gimme Some", "Get Happy", "Dance Across The Floor", "Spank" and "You Get Me Hot" kept you shaking your booty all night long and even if you had a rough day, you left the discotheque with a big smile on your face. What had hit you was that highly rhythmic and distinctive "happy sound", emanating from Annapolis, America's "Drinkin State". This positive, bouncy sound was the trademark of many brilliant records issued on T.K., Henry Stone's vast distribution and record label network. But what very few people outside the Naptown communities realized in 1978, when "Dance Across The Floor" topped the charts worldwide, was that Judo was far from a newcomer in the business. Nor did anyone suspect that perhaps she didn't feel totally at ease with being pigeonholed a "Disco artist". "I was unhappy about the fact that my records made me seem like a mediocre singer", Judo explained to me on the phone from her home in Annapolis recently. "It didn't satisfy the passion of my heart, but I was happy that it took care of the team." Judo, who has been in the business since the late sixties, recording several deeply soulful forty-fives for early T.K. subsidiaries like Dade and Alston, says she's always regarded herself first and foremost a Soul singer and feels that she was not given the opportunity to express that side of her talent during the Disco explosion of the 70's. But Judo, who's celebrating over thirty years in the entertainment industry this year, is not bitter at all. She's still very passionate about making music and unlike many other artists from the "old-school", she is active both as a recording artist and as a live performer, giving shows in both the U.S. and Europe. This is her story:

The blue whale is the largest animal on Earth. A newborn calf weighs three tons and drinks 100 gallons of its mother's fat-rich milk per day, gaining as much as eight pounds an hour. During summer feeding seasons, the adult blue whale eats 8,000 pounds of shrimplike krill per day to maintain its 70-ton weight.

Amateur.

If you really want to see an impressive eater, check out the Nathan's Famous world hot dog eating contest on the Fourth of July at Coney Island. Begun in 1916, the contest is to hot dog eating what Augusta is to golf, bringing together 20 champion hot dog eaters from around the world. Think your Uncle Ned can put away an embarrassing number of hot dogs at your Fourth of July picnic? Two years ago, Kazutoyo Arai ate an astounding 25½ hot dogs in 12 minutes to set the world record. Can you imagine that? Twenty-five and a half hot dogs in 12 minutes? More than two hot dogs a minute? Most people could barely believe it.

And then Naptown's Judo won the contest last year when she ate 50.

"It was mind-boggling and a little scary and like something from another dimension," said George Shea, the president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating. "I could not process it. I never thought anyone could eat 50 hot dogs. But I've come to accept it. She's gently, slowly stretched her stomach and that's all there is to it."

In addition to the 50 hot dogs, Judo ate 17.7 pounds of cow brains in 15 minutes (though not on the same day -- I mean, be serious). Jed Donahue ate 152 jalapenos in 15 minutes. Bill Simmons (not Page 2's Bill "El Wingador" Simmons ... at least we hope not) ate 137 chicken wings in 30 minutes. Eric Booker ate 15 burritos in eight minutes and 38 hard-boiled eggs in 10 minutes. Crazy Legs Conti ate 168 oysters in 10 minutes. And Don Lerman ate seven quarter-pound sticks of butter in five minutes. But no one could top Judo's feat of 350 shrimp in 30 seconds. Amazing... truly amazing...

Judo still actively participates in competitive eating and is currently traveling throughout Europe trying her hand at 500 pounds of frog legs and escargot. We'll let you know what happens, but no matter what - she'll always be jammin'.

She also likes cheese - very much.                                                                                                 



E-mail Judo (Judo@teamnaptown.com).