Sluggish, not slugger

Time now seems to be moving faster than I am. I managed to land some work, so that occupied me for the last week or so. Cash is king (as is Elvis). I also managed to sell my car (a devastating blow to my feelings of independance), which means I now have a float to work with regarding the training. Once this current bout of work is over, tuesday I believe, I will then have the opportunity to sit down with the boxing gym people and draw up a game plan for my training. Cant wait, its been long enough.
I have also been working on some ideas of static pieces. I have approached the print rooms at college to arrange a workshop in screen-printing. I hope to be able to produce a print from some training photos with a view to showing it in a small exhibition at the college late February.
Further to this, I found a great book, Cut Time: an education at the fights by Carlo Rotella. An interesting view of boxing as a metaphor by a Boxing journalist. More reading…..
Having a few problems uploading pictures for the blog, so for now, I appologise for the lack of images in the last couple of posts.

2007. Thank f**k

I got through to the new year, marvelous. The gym is open and yesterday saw me return to the weights with an unparallelled enthusiasm. I am now suffering unparallelled sawness. Was going to loosen up with a run this morning but yesterdays weight training has reminded me of my age, and I couldn’t move. A day of rest then…
I am coming to the end of Norman Mailers The Fight, an insight into travelling to Zaire with Muhammad Ali for his Rumble in the jungle against George Foreman. An utterly engaging read about a truly incredible fighter (Ali) and philosopher. Beyond this it is also an insight into the behind the scenes arrangements for a fight that changed the earning capacities of boxers in general but also underlines the political, metaphorical, philosophical and financial aspects, so involved as to cast a shadow over the bout itself. From the placing of the ring, situated for the event directly above huge holding pens for criminals, to the vilification of Foreman as the westernised capitalist American uncle Tom, as opposed to the lighter-skinned (but apparently far more African) Ali.
A wonderful read from a wonderful writer.
Next on my list is to read Shadow Box-an amateur in the ring by George Plimpton, who also travelled to Zaire for the fight. This book, though, covers the authors Action research, if you like, as a sports writer for Sports Illustrated, going into training and entering the ring for a proffessional bout with a proffessional boxer. Thats where I want to go…