International Kickboxer Magazine, Jan/Feb 2013
Kickboxing, as a sport, as been evolving since the early eighties. Its roots in Muay Thai have remained constant, however; Muay Thai continues to exist despite fashion and rule changes and springs up like a hardy flower in the most unlikely of places, taking root amongst passionate practitioners and audiences alike. JARROD BOYLE takes you on a whirlwind tour of the best fighters defining and promoting the art worldwide. Continue reading
With thanks to Julie Hock.
The madam opened the brothel door and in walked a young man.
“May I help you sir?” she asked. Continue reading
“Boxing and bullfighting are elevated above other sports because of the blood that is in them.”
– Ernest Hemingway (paraphrased from Death in the Afternoon).
I have posted a few love letters on here over time. I was taken with the idea when I heard about ‘The Love Letters of Great Men’, courtesy of Carrie Bradshaw in ‘Sex and the City’. Let’s face it; we watch for blood. It’s not just ghoulish curiosity; it’s also for catharsis. And if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I don’t give a fuck about anything that isn’t bloody.
The following is presented for your delectation. Continue reading
When I was a little kid, my sisters and I had a baby-sitter after school. She wasn’t very interested in us; stuck pretty much to reading her romance novels. And to get the peace and quiet required to read, she’d plonk us down in front of a lot of Walt Disney films.
My favourite? Sleeping Beauty. Maleficent the witch queen reminded me of the women in the magazines my father kept hidden in his study. Brazen and powerful, they stared down the camera and into me with a mixture of desire and contempt. Continue reading
Mark Castagnini is one of the key players in Australian Thai boxing. Beginning his career as a fighter, he went through traditional martial arts before taking up Thai boxing almost by accident and discovering that it bought him to the ultimate test of his training. From there, he has been involved with developing and disseminating the sport at every level, editing International Kickboxer Magazine, working as a commentator alongside Michael Schiavello on Foxsports, promoting events and running his own martial arts academy, Hammer’s Gym. Mark spends a little time telling us about his passion for the sport, what its Australian roots are and the directions the branches are moving in. Continue reading
This review is for the period the blog was renamed ‘Theme Park at its Darkest’.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
This report covers ‘Jarrod Boyle’s Blog’, which was changed to this address late in 2012.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 11,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 18 years to get that many views.
Click here to see the complete report.
One of the salient experiences of university life was exposure to academics. There was a kind of sadistic glee in some of those first-year lecturers and tutors, somewhat akin to people who enjoy corrupting children; they were going to apply ‘reason’ and ‘education’ to our conditioning and laugh their evil laughs as our bourgeois values fell away from us. As far as they were concerned, God and the Easter Bunny were much the same thing. Continue reading
Mel at work – doing what she does
Mel Walsh recently competed at the IFMA (International Federation of Muay Thai) games in Russia, bringing home a silver medal. She talks about family and fitness as the ‘headmistress’ of one of Australia’s premier Muay Thai gyms, Urban Fight Gym. Continue reading
