Archive for December, 2011

In My Craft or Sullen Art

Posted in Reading, Real Men with tags , on December 29, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

Writing is hard. Fighting is much easier, in a way; if you train hard and win, you progress. With writing, you can work assiduously, but ‘success’ (finding an audience) seems to come down to ‘market forces’, or whatever else governs publication. The simple fact of all this, however, is that it’s whinging. Both are arts; styles of asceticism and require sincere, selfless dedication.

The impulse to quit is grounded in vanity. When I need a righteous kick in the pants, Dylan Thomas is the man I go to see. Continue reading →

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Shotgun Party

Posted in Fiction with tags , , , on December 28, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

Many of the episodes in Mouthful of Stones are ‘true’. However, this doesn’t mean that all of them overtook your humble narrator. This story belongs to a very good friend who had once been a member of the now-defunct armed robbery squad. After hearing it, I inserted a first-person narrator to make it fit the shape of my design. Continue reading →

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The Dark Knight

Posted in Film with tags , , , , , , , , on December 26, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

I sat down and had another go at Batman Begins the other night. After sitting through the first ridiculous half-hour, it sucked me in. It’s a great looking film, and distinctly Christopher Nolan; he’s only 41 (so says Wikipedia) and he’s been permitted to make a whole lot of frighteningly big-budget films, real close together. How you feel about them depends on whether you feel that his tropes are strongly established (a Kubrickian sense of individuals dwarfed by technology and architecture, organised along ruthlessly symmetrical lines) or all a bit repetitive. I’m willing to ascribe to the former. Continue reading →

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Icons: Part I

Posted in Film, Journalism, Observation with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 24, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

Many years ago, my good friend Jonathan Devenish and I dragged ourselves off to see Andrei Rublev at the now-defunct Lumiere Cinema. Continue reading →

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A Tribute: Mark Fowler

Posted in Journalism, Kickboxing with tags , , , , , , on December 19, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

Tragedy has struck at Andrew Parnham’s Photajaroen (PTJ) Thaiboxing gym in Ryde, Sydney, and the repercussions have been felt around the country. It’s a loss for the sport itself and more negative publicity we don’t need, but worst of all, the Australian kickboxing community has lost a significant member of its social fabric. Continue reading →

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Full Thai: Tommy Murray

Posted in Journalism, Kickboxing with tags , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

International Kickboxer Magazine, November/December 2011

Tommy Murray is that rarity; a Victorian fighter who specialises in Full Thai Rules. He holds a swag of titles, among them a couple of WMC belts. His biggest challenge-to-date will be when he fights Ben Mahoney in front of a home-town crowd in Shepparton, Victoria on September 10. Mahoney will be representing JWP’s Boonchu gym, possibly the most venerated Thaiboxing gym in the nation. Tommy gives JARROD BOYLE the rundown in the last days before the fight of his life.  Continue reading →

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Mick Siebert: Back in Black

Posted in Journalism, Kickboxing with tags , , , , , , , , on December 11, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

International Kickboxer Magazine, November/December 2011 

Mick Siebert is the kind of heavyweight we love to watch; big, skilled and lives to fight. He has spent some time getting his demons in check and has returned to the ring with a highly impressive decision win over the seasoned American K1 veteran, Carter Williams. He talks to JARROD BOYLE about his return to the ring and his plans for the future.  Continue reading →

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A Small Skirmish in the War of the Sexes

Posted in Observation with tags , , , , , on December 7, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

Some weeks ago, I attended a dance party known as ‘Devil’s Playground’. Continue reading →

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The Fifty Dumbest Quotes in Sports

Posted in Journalism, Kickboxing with tags , on December 3, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

Let’s have a laugh.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/937285-the-50-dumbest-quotes-in-sports

 

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