October92009
September292009
September202009
Funny. But it’s also the problem with Golden Boy Promotions’ monopoly on boxing. Why were Mosley and Hopkins in the ring to begin with? Why did Max Kellerman, a journalist, invite the confrontation to the interview? Mayweather deserves his moment. He should be allowed to rattle off his sponsors because without them, boxing would be deeper in the stinker than it already is. Kellerman should not pile on the backhanded questions (“Let’s talk about the weight,” “Let’s talk about Marquez’s size,” “How about a real challenge, Floyd?”) without first giving Mayweather a chance to speak, to give credit to Marquez and to address the people who spent $50 (or more, for tickets) to watch the fight. Then, fine, ask him the real questions. I appreciate Golden Boy for helping to keep boxing alive, for making good matches and not screwing fighters like Don King, but I think the sport’s losing some of its transparency. The promotional company simply has its hands on too much. The Ring, a magazine I’ve read cover to cover since I was 10 years old, is owned by Golden Boy, and you really can tell. Almost every article reference de la Hoya, who is totally irrelevant now as a fighter. De la Hoya has a blog on the web site. Worst of all, Golden Boy people (de la Hoya, Hopkins, Mosley, Richard Schafer) are used as sources for stories and for in-depth interviews. Talk about conflict of interest.
Also, Max Kellerman deserves this. He needs it. If he’s ever going to be a good commentator and a good interviewer, he has to live through incidents like this. Good work, Floyd.
“Jim? Jim?”
September112009
For you, from me
“Love is a trajectory across the hollow of history.”
-Susan Howe (but I wish I had written it)
September72009
"I’m not alone in having been born backward into an incoherent realm of texts, products, and images, the commercial and cultural environment with which we’ve both supplemented and blotted out our natural world. I can no more claim it as “mine” than the sidewalks and forests of the world, yet I do dwell in it, and for me to stand a chance as either artist or citizen, I’d probably better be permitted to name it."
— Jonathan Letham
August182009
Lorenzo Lamas. Deborah Gibson. In a B-movie that has nothing to do with their genitals.
August62009
August52009
Alice Munro. A writer whose stories change your life.
From “Chance,” about a girl who meets a fisherman on a train to Vancouver.
“She is too keyed up to be hungry, but she examines the bottles on the counter, which people must have brought for the wake. Cherry brandy, peach schnapps, Tia Maria, sweet vermouth. These bottles have been opened but the contents have not proved popular. The serious drinking has been done from the empty bottles ranged by Ailo beside the door. Gin and whisky, beer and wine.”
“He is someone she might dally with. Dally is the word. As Aphrodite did, with Anchises. And then one morning she will slip away.”
August12009
"Holanda was skinny, and I never weighed over 110, but Letitia was scragglier than we were, and even worse, that kind of skinniness you can see from a distance in the neck and ears. Maybe it was the stiffness of her back that made her look so thin, for instance she could hardly move her head from side to side, she was like a folded-up ironing board…"
— “End of the Game” by Julio Cortázar
…and the road goes on forever
