joe frazier rip
And now, a few words about boxing. I used to look down on it as nothing but a blood sport, a matter of brutish, brainless men, bashing it out before shady audiences of equally brainless, possibly mafioso punters.
“Boxing is an art form,” my first boss, Lucio Manisco, told me when I was in my early 20s. Lucio was the chief correspondent for an Italian TV network in New York, and I worshiped him, for he was a true maverick reporter, in the way that Clarence Darrow was a maverick lawyer. A passionate defender of human rights, he did things like regularly interrupting his live news feeds with anti-Desert Storm rants.
But much as I tried to understand his admiration of boxing, I couldn’t get beyond my repugnance, and while I loved films like Rocky, Raging Bull, and Million Dollar Baby, I favored the characters over the fight sequences.
Until I saw Tatanka. Based on the real life story of Olympic medalist Clemente Russo, as told by anti-mafia crusading journalist Roberto Saviano, it’s about how a boy from the wrong side of the tracks redeems himself from a life of crime through boxing. It’s not a great film, but for some reason, it made me understand what Lucio had said all those years ago.
I saw how all the true champions – Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Jake La Motta, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Robinson – were great because they represented something greater than themselves. And how at its best, boxing is not just about a contest of brute strength, but also of heart and courage and passion and integrity.
So here’s to you, Smokin’ Joe. I think this fight is something to behold.
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19 comments:
il sinistro più maligno del pugilato (un grandissimo)
sip.
Boxing takes a lot of courage and discipline, no doubt, but so would a banging-your-head-against-a-wall competition.
Any deliberate encounter with physical harm requires the same sort of qualities and any sport can be used for politics.
Is boxing less barbaric than dog fighting?
Instead of fighting for the money, why didn't the boxers, promoters and audience just be nice, share it out among themselves and go and calm down? Wouldn't that be more sensible?
But it's good that people can be lifted from a life of crime by legitimising normally criminal activities like fighting.
I think this idea could be extended.
Imagine, for instance, sports burglary - people compete to break into houses and make off with the plasma TV and the silverware. You could have amateur and professional leagues across Europe, dodgy geezers from Naples could compete with strung out heroin addicts from Edinburgh and wide boys from Krakow.
Now that would be a mega TV hit.
Here you go Girlontoast, another fighter with a social conscience. Not the world's most eloquent philosopher but he's got character eh?
http://maxkeiser.com/2012/01/07/jeff-monson-anarchy-is-americas-solution/
boxing is less barbaric than dogfighting because it involves consenting humans.... happy new year J
Happy new year Mrs Tape
Would you say that physical competition and violence is an essential part of life?
i'm nobody's missis J... as far as the big, deep questions: fighting the good fight is an essential part of life, everything else is death
You can be Mz if you wish - it's just convention.
Or you can be Ae if you want - Androgyne Entity.
Ae Girlontape?
What do you think about this SOPA thing, Ae Girlontape?
Seems like bad news to me, but there is a lot of pushback.
it's probably a bad thing, but as a generator of content i sometimes wish i could go after all the image thieves. not that i haven't tried.
The way people do business is changing, and it's all got a bit messy. I can well see that someone in a business which uses copyright is going to be threatened. Some have been succesful in retaining the old way of business - like Metallica vs Napster, and some have just given in to the tide of copying and changed the way they do business.
I did notice, however, when I read a biography of Metallica, that they used to listen to pirate copies of music on cassette.
Indeed, have you ever seen a musician who *hasn't* got a stack of copied stuff next to their stereo?
So I suppose the free stuff argument goes both ways - to some degree, anyway, though that would depend on the value of your work.
But I think the SOPA thing is more about censorship - power to silence criticism just as the criticism is getting louder.
What if you got a really strong law that let you go after pirates of your work, but then you were prosecuted for all the youtube stuff you link to by the same law?
I guess it depends on the fine print - I credit everyone and everything i link to - and that's really all I ask for - my name next to my work. But also, free circulation of ideas is key to creativity. And also, I'm sure SOPA is all about censorship as you say.
The US has also just passed a law to remove works from the public domain and return them to copyright.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/business/public-domain-works-can-be-copyrighted-anew-justices-rule.html?_r=1
I guess there is a tax incentive here - the state takes a slice of tax on copyrighted works?
I'm starting extradition proceedings against you for linking to copyright material. I reckon there are about 300 offenses on this blog alone.
I'm going to have you banged up with a fat psychotic butch dyke with a bad case of scabies, whose going to give you prison tattoos all over your face.
Do you like your cell unbearably hot or inhospitably cold?
cute. but i'll tattoo her before she does me.
oo!
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