Theme Park at its Darkest

The US Should Invade Libya and Topple Gaddafi

Posted in Journalism, Observation on February 26, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

http://www.theage.com.au/world/libyans-call-on-the-world-to-act-20110225-1b8mh.html

Damon Young the Philosopher Gets It

Posted in Kickboxing with tags Fighting on February 25, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/forget-the-cheap-shots-cage-fighting-is-a-virtuous-sport-20100411-s0ot.html

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In Defence of Sam De Brito

Posted in Reading with tags Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace, Matthew Johns, Sam De Brito, The Lost Boys novel on February 25, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

In my last post, it may have appeared as if I attacked Sam De Brito. I described his novel The Lost Boys as a “mediocre horror story for women”. I then went on to say he was part of a new wave of Australian authors working to establish themselves with a predominantly female readership through a peculiar combination of obsequiousness and provocation. While I think both comments are true, he writes some terrific posts for his blog, All Men Are Liars. Continue reading →

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Cormac McCarthy's 'The Crossing'.

Posted in Reading with tags Cormac McCarthy on February 19, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

“He woke all night with the cold. He’d rise and mend back the fire and she was always watching him. When the flames came up her eyes burned out there like gatelamps to another world.

“A world burning on the shore of an unknowable void. A world construed out of blood and blood’s alkahest and blood in its core and in its integument because it was that nothing save blood had the power to resonate against the void which threatened hourly to devour it.

“He wrapped himself in the blanket and watched her. When those eyes and the nation to which they bore witness were gone at last with their dignity back into their origins, there would perhaps be other fires and other witnesses and other worlds otherwise beheld. But they would not be this one.”

Cormac McCarthy,

The Crossing

p.73

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Jarrod Boyle Versus Alistair Overeem

Posted in Journalism, Kickboxing with tags Alistair Overeem, Golden Glory on February 18, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

In 2008, I was training at Golden Glory with last year’s K1 World GP champ. Following is the footage of he and I – albeit briefly – going at it.

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Lucy Tui: First Lady of Australian Kickboxing

Posted in Journalism, Kickboxing with tags Chakuriki, Kyokushin karate, Lucy Tui, Mark Hunt, Thom Harinck on February 18, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

Lucy Tui and I commentating for 'Eruption' in 2010

International Kickboxer Magazine Vol.18, No.6

For Lucy Sassen Tui, fighting was in her blood; her father had been the New Zealand heavyweight amateur boxing champion in 1954. She was one of nine children, closest in age to her brother, so she found herself joining in with the boys at playtime. “I was very sporty,” she remembers. “I did a lot of athletics while I was at school, and I held the record for the 100-yard dash as a teenager.” This was an excellent base for her martial arts training, which began like so many other kickboxers – in Kyokushin karate.

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Absolute Carnage: Training with Nathan Corbett

Posted in Journalism, Kickboxing with tags 'John' Wayne Parr, Boonchu, Chris White, Gokhan Saki, Nathan Corbett, Richard Walsh, Tomihara, Tyrone Spong, Urban Fight Gym on February 18, 2011 by Jarrod Boyle

International Kickboxer Magazine Vol.18 No.6

Every fighter who is exceptional does it after their own fashion. In a fundamental sense, this is logical. The easiest fighters to read are the textbook ones; you can read them because, well, their technique looks exactly like it should. A lot of the time, the most dangerous people are unorthodox, because they don’t look like anything you’ve seen before. This principle holds true not only for the way a fighter executes technique, but also penetrates all the way into training. This series of articles will spend time with several exceptional fighters and come up with the goods on what makes them unique. A good part of it is physiology and talent, but it has everything to do with doing things differently. Continue reading →