For the first time in the history of boxing, a boxer and a trainer are facing criminal charges and facing potential jail time. For the first time in the history of boxing, that boxer and trainer are related (uncle Roger and nephew Floyd Jr.). For the first time in the history of boxing, both men are facing the same charge: beating up a woman.
I’m finding it harder and harder to defend the reasons why I love boxing so much. It is sad for the sport, and sad for my own passion as a boxing fan.
I’m the last person you will ever hear slandering anyone with a mental disability, but I’m more than a little bit worried that there is an actual company called Cerebral Palsy Transport Inc.
You know, sometimes a person, no matter how good intentioned, has to consider the context of their flair.
November 18, 2007. The idea of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. going toe-to-toe in a super-über-mega-fight first comes to light. Mark Vester of BoxingScene.com writes:
“In the dark, among writers, there has been some talk of a dream bout between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., at 140-pounds. Pacquiao came into the ring weighing 142 for his rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera, Mayweather can still make the junior welterweight limit. That fight, logically, is possible, yet unlikely to take place.” (“De La Hoya Eyes Pacquiao Bout? At 147?”)
This thought got the writers buzzing, and writing about the dream match-up, Chris Mannix and Bart Barry among the fantasizers.
September 26, 2008. The fight is still just a writer’s fantasy, a fight fan’s pipe dream, but Manny comes out with his first reaction. When asked if he would be interested — should he beat Oscar De La Hoya — in a Mayweather showdown, Manny has this to say to GMANEWS…
“That’s a possibility. If I win this fight maybe Floyd Mayweather will come out of retirement looking for a big fight.” (“Pacquiao eyes possible bout with Mayweather”)
Manny mentions later that year that the fight will work as long as his promoters can get with Floyd’s promoters and work it out.
December 20, 2008. After Manny destroys De La Hoya, Floyd answers with praise for Manny and confidence in beating him. Dan Rafael reports, from a conversation with manager Leonard Ellerbe, that Floyd said:
“It was a tremendous win for Pacquiao. He’s a good fighter, but I’ll beat his ass.” (“Mayweather to evaluate fight possibilities, adviser says”)
To set the tone for how the next year would unfold, it is important you pay attention to Ellerbe’s next words, from the very same article…
“Floyd has given Team Mayweather the green light to go out there and evaluate the biggest fights for him, to come back to him and present it to him. Then he will consider it.”
It is clear from this statement that Floyd holds the cards. He’s in retirement, but has given his manager the green light to start looking for fights. Manny is among those available.
Manny fights whomever his promoters put in front of him. He’s made a hell of a career out of it. And Floyd has made a hell of a career by being his own boss, and controlling his own destiny. There is a critical difference in that observation; monumental, in fact.
January 25, 2009. Shortly after Manny signs on to fight Hatton, and is no longer available as an opponent, Floyd begins to trash Manny. Gabriel Morency of Sports Rage recorded Mayweather saying the following…
“We all know, if you did your homework, that Manny Pacquiao is a ‘good fighter’. […] He’s been knocked down in the first round before and like three or four years ago, he’s the guy that’s outboxed by a washed out Erik Morales […] One of the Marquez brothers knocked him down three times in the first round and still got a draw so we know that he’s got outboxed in that fight, for real.” (“Mayweather Jr. belittles Pacquiao’s ring prowess”)
Pacquiao shrugs this off and continues to train for Hatton. Roach and Arum, on the other hand, see the megafight as something big, and make several statements in the interim implying they would like to see the fight happen.
March 2009. Dan Rafael reports the following: While Mayweather’s dad is busy training Hatton, and declaring he is going to “whup Pacquiao’s ass,” his son also indicates he wants to take on the winner of Pacquiao vs. Hatton.
May 2009. The buzz of Mayweather fighting the Pacquiao/Hatton winner is growing stronger. After Manny KO’s Hatton cold, that very same night, Floyd announces his return to the sport, and he’s got news: He will be fighting Juan Manuel Marquez.
May 27, 2009. Both camps begin to toss ideas around to the press. Top Rank and Team Pacquiao are interested in the fight with Mayweather, but want an even split. Floyd is quoted as saying:
“It will be a cold day in hell before that happens.” (“Floyd Mayweather Jr: ‘Pacquiao Will Never Get 50/50′”)
Arum eyes Mosley and Cotto for a fight that November, having reached a preemptive impasse with Mayweather. As we all know, Cotto got the calling, and the fight went down later that year.
September 2009. Floyd’s father issues a public apology to Manny Pacquiao for accusing him of using steroids prior to his fights. mb.com.ph reports: “Pacman accepts public apology”. This begins the tainting of Pacquiao’s name, which follows much more heatedly in the months to come, though nothing besides accusations from Mayweather’s camp will ever be produced to prove anything of the sort.
November 19, 2009. Immediately following Manny’s victory over Cotto, Mayweather speaks out. USA Today interviewed Floyd as saying the following:
“Tell Manny Pacquiao to be his own man and stop letting everyone, including his loudmouth trainer talk for him. I am my own boss, speak for myself and tell it like it is. If Manny Pacquiao wants to fight me, all he has to do is step up to the plate and say it himself.” (“Mayweather Calls Out Pacquiao; Talks on Fight Set to Begin”)
Later that month, Bernard Hopkins makes a prophetic statement to Ronnie Nathanielsz of BoxingScene.com…
“[Mayweather] will probably fight Mosley before he fights Pacquiao.”
This is in November, folks, before negotiations with Pacquiao ever even begin.
December 2009. A hectic month in the way of negotiations between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. A 60/40 offer has already been proposed by Floyd, rejected by Arum, and now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty…
December 2, 2009. Lance Pugmire of the LA Times reports that Arum is flying to the Philippines to discuss the details of the Floyd fight with Pacquiao, and to stay there through Manny’s general election. Before he lands in the Philippines, the word on the street is that Floyd has already agreed in principle to some of the contractual details from Top Rank.
December 4, 2009. Arum presents the proposal to Pacquiao. Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s manager, says Arum presented:
“What he thought was the best proposal he can bring to the table. […] Manny has some additional requirements, requests, which Arum didn’t think was a problem. The requests of Manny were so realistic that Arum doesn’t feel it’s a problem and it’s pretty much a done deal.” (“Pacquiao vs Mayweather, fight set for March, could be in Dallas”)
Keep in mind, the blood testing and drug use accusations are not out in the open as of yet. Manny has just reviewed the contract, agreed with minor tweaks, and Top Rank thinks it’s a done deal.
December 13, 2009. But wait, here’s where it gets interesting. A contract has been presented to Floyd, agreed to in principle, presented to Manny, and barring minor tweaks, it’s a done deal, right? Not so fast, fight fans.
Floyd’s father, who apologized though never took back his accusations that Manny has been using steroids in his last few fights, urges his son’s camp to revive the controversy. And they do. Mayweather’s representatives make a new demand: Both fighters must take Olympic Style Drug Testing during the training for their match, if they are to fight at all.
This is, it should be noted, a direct result of the newly un-estranged father, Floyd Sr., making a statement to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated after the Pacquiao/Cotto fight:
“I know Floyd is the best. But when [your opponent] uses something illegal, even the best can get hurt.” (“Talks of megafight heat up, with Floyd Sr. taking first jabs”)
The month wears on, but the mood shifts. More and more quotes and audio/video excerpts are put out into the court of public opinion, all with the same intention: Raise suspicion about whether Manny Pacquiao is a dirty fighter.
Regardless, the negotiations move forward, even though they have lost a head of steam over the course of a few weeks. Pacquiao does not like the idea of giving blood too close to the fight, as evidenced in a video from shortly after after Manny’s loss to Erik Morales, nearly five years before Floyd was ever a candidate. Pacquiao goes on-air a few days after that loss and claims he was weakened by a last minute blood test taken from him after the athletic commission had misplaced his original blood-work. (Video of Pacquiao on Filipino network, TFC)
Mud is now flying everywhere, and Pacquiao is deeply offended by a radio interview Floyd Jr. gave to RA the Rugged Man on Sirius channel Shade45, leaked from October 2009, just before the Cotto fight, where Floyd said:
“We all know the Philippines has the best enhancing drugs.” (Mp3 of Mayweather Interview with RA the Rugged Man on Shade45)
The fanfare and posturing eventually led to stalled negotiations. The two sides could not come to a compromise on this drug testing addendum.
December 22. Bob Arum says Manny will not have blood drawn any closer than 30 days away from the fight. Team Mayweather says this is no good. Arum says the fight is off.
December 24. An overlooked development surfaces but never grew legs. Keith Kizer, president of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, having seen the negotiations stall, offers to do the pre-fight testing, in an attempt to find a middle ground. Arum is interested:
“The commission has suggested it, and we’re very much in favor of it. We would love it. It’s something that is a positive development.” (“Mayweather-Pacquiao Talks Back On?”)
The idea is rejected by Team Mayweather.
Pacquiao wishes Mayweather a Merry Christmas in the form of a defamation lawsuit. Negotiations dwindle on the verge of death.
December 28. Natasha Aiello of 15rounds.com reports that word of an agreement regarding a weight penalty in the original contract has been tentatively reached. Team Pacquiao wanted Floyd to agree to pay $10M for every pound he comes in overweight. This is above and beyond the NSAC penalty, which demands 20% of the fighter’s purse for coming in overweight. Half goes to the opponent, the other half goes to the commission. Here’s the scoop at the time:
“Insiders say Golden Boy has tentatively agreed to use the tests enforced by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, but only if the NSAC standards are also adhered to in the weight clause, reducing the $10 million penalty per pound over from the contracts to $600 thousand per pound over. Roach has no problem with this, stating ‘I don’t care how much the penalty is. If Floyd shows up overweight, we won’t fight him.’” (“The latest inside the Pacquiao – Mayweather saga”)
January 5. The holidays come and go, but still no resolution. Both sides agree to mediation, to see if they can come to terms once and for all. They meet before Judge Daniel Weinstein, who has worked with Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank Promotions before, regarding a contract settlement for Manny Pacquiao himself. Manny eventually offers a 24 day cut-off for testing. Floyd says 14 days or no fight.
January 7. The mediation fails. Negotiations dead. Both parties walk away. Fight is off.
March 13. Pacquiao goes on to fight and beat Joshua Clottey by 12 round unanimous decision.
May 1. Mayweather goes on to fight and beat Shane Mosley by 12 round unanimous decision.
I am not going to chart the most recent “negotiations”, because they are even more bizarre than the first attempt, ranging from one side claiming everything was all but signed to the other side claiming there was no contract to begin with.
Will we ever see Floyd and Manny face off in the squared circle? I don’t know, but the word according to millionaire Robin Leach (yes, that Robin Leach) is that Floyd is now looking for another fight in 2010, in Abu Dhabi (a location Michael Koncz has been toying with for Pacquiao recently).
If there was a hat, and a rabbit, now would be a great time for a magician to pull one out of the other. If such a magician exists, I guarantee you all would be forgiven by both sides.
By no means am I some sort of fashionista, but really? Socks and sandals are bad enough, but Nike Socks and Adidas sandals?? I just hope nothing bad happened to this dude after I got on the train.
She was gone in a flash, and maybe you saw her on the night of the primary elections, scouring the country in an effort to fix all hanging chads.
A leisurely hand washing turns to mayhem as Rose emerges yet again, this time aiming to rob us of our hair brushes, hand cream, and heartburn medication.
“In these newly preserved tests, made in 1922 at the Paragon Studios in Fort Lee, New Jersey, actress Mae Murray appears almost translucent, her flesh a pale white that is reminiscent of perfectly sculpted marble, enhanced with touches of color to her lips, eyes, and hair.
She is joined by actress Hope Hampton modeling costumes from The Light in the Dark (1922), which contained the first commercial use of Two-Color Kodachrome in a feature film. Ziegfeld Follies actress Mary Eaton and an unidentified woman and child also appear.”
George Eastman House is the repository for many of the early tests made by the Eastman Kodak Company of their various motion picture film stocks and color processes. The Two-Color Kodachrome Process was an attempt to bring natural lifelike colors to the screen through the photochemical method in a subtractive color system.
First tests on the Two-Color Kodachrome Process were begun in late 1914. Shot with a dual-lens camera, the process recorded filtered images on black/white negative stock, then made black/white separation positives.
The final prints were actually produced by bleaching and tanning a double-coated duplicate negative (made from the positive separations), then dyeing the emulsion green/blue on one side and red on the other. Combined they created a rather ethereal palette of hues.”
In other words, how the hell did I miss this one?? Stunning. I like how the medium is so new, that the actress is used more as a still-life model akin to the painters of old. Painting with pictures, indeed.
Sara Magenheimer and Eben Portnoy holed up in a barn in Massachusetts in the dead of winter for two months, in what ended up being a bit of a musical cleanse. They went into the barn as Fertile Crescent and came out (re/unborn?) as Woom. The album I am reviewing is a product of this retreat. It is called “Muu’s Way.”
How to describe Woom in a way that actually means anything? I’m so (un)happy you asked me that question. It’s scarcely worth doing a comprehensive sounds-like study here (though Deerhoof, The Acorn, and Cocorosie spring to mind), so in the spirit of the band and their style of songwriting, I’ll do it with a bit of poetic hyperbole:
Imagine, if you will, a beautiful girl beckoning you to come closer. She has a secret, and she is so sweet looking you want to squeeze her. Your ear is close to her lips, you can feel her breath (it smells like mint leaves and sea breeze) and just as she’s about to coo something meaningful into your ear, a car horn blares, and the girl is gone.
Okay here’s a simpler one: “Someone spiked my Shirley Temple,” I cried, “but I can’t stop drinking it. I don’t even drink!”
Woom is a band who does a lot with negative space. So much so that I was surprised to discover the ten track album barely crossing the thirty minute mark. They have the clickety-clack thing down pat. They’ll tap a pencil on a plastic cup to create a percussion bed, no problemo. Sara and Eben run this show with their voices more often than not, after all. Leads and harmonies linger longer than the bleeps.
The staccato nature of the songs also linger, for better or for worse. It is a bit of an anti-momentum LP which doesn’t allow you to let it fade into the background. Which is great if you don’t aren’t seeking full contentment. I personally like holistic experiences, however, and Woom certainly show their under-feathers more than once, giving me hope that this album is the beginning of a continued refinement.
That’s not to say this is a train wreck by any means. But it’s a slippery slope. Cocorosie, for example, haven’t repeated their debut success to date. But with Woom, whenever the train is about to derail into an art college dorm room jam session, they bring us back. “OK… OK… OK…” we hear at one point, as if they knew they were misbehaving.
As we meander through the album (and meander is the best word for it), we hear stories both poetic (“Circle on the surface, black blood on the white snow. It’s coming and coming and coming down, a strange style of voices.”) and literate (“Rafael, pull off the black balaclava. Put your ass down on the sofa. We’ll have some coffee and talk.”). It’s a mix I like, and this from a guy who doesn’t like mixed drinks (see above).
Standout tracks include “Quetzalcoatl’s Hip,” a quirky, seaside hymn about bottled ships and burials including a steel cameo near the end. I can’t help but think the title has a bit of wordplay in and of itself.
“Back In,” plays like an unplugged song The XX might have written if they stopped flirting with one another for more than two seconds.
Lead track “Backwards Beach,” beaches us onto the sandy shore of Woom Island in a wash of electro-sea swells, only to land on a beach haunted by sunny, strummy jangles and palm trees swaying to a sing-song breeze.
“Under Muu,” is a wonderful instrumental worth noting. It really reminded me of something The Acorn might have written and played, and I wouldn’t complain about an all-instrumental album from WOOM in this very tone; it’s excellence incarnate.
“Judith,” ends the album on an experimental note, with bleeps and glass breaks held together by the vocals like a piece of perfume-scented scotch tape. With this closing track, Woom appropriately remind us (and themselves?) who they are, and most importantly who they are not.
Personally, I do like them for who they are. But I want to love them for who they might become. We’ve reached a cruising altitude together, but are you equipped to take us out into space on our next expedition? Until then, I’ll sway and twitch to Woom’s sweet, strange take on music-making, and wander their melodic madness, one clickety-clack at a time.
She emerged from our toilet to terrorize our home. Her reign of fury ended with a vicious attack on our stock of Cheez-Its. She fell asleep shortly thereafter, and the unsuspecting mother was finally able to confine her to the padded cage we call a crib. When she will return, nobody knows. But everybody knows… she WILL return.
It’s late in the Summer, I know, but if your hometown is anything like mine, it seems we’ll never see the Fall. So I put together a late-Summer mix, sequenced in such a way as to evoke a time of day evolution, from the dust motes swimming in the early morning shafts of sunlight, to the evening headlights commingling with a sky full of stars, and everything in-between.
01. Cults Go Outside
02. Marina and the Diamonds I Am Not a Robot
03. School of Seven Bells Windstorm
04. Soft Landing Baptism
05. Ratatat Bare Feet
06. The Books Beautiful People
07. Wild Nothing Summer Holiday
08. Mumford & Sons The Cave
09. Local Natives World News
10. Arcade Fire The Suburbs
11. Active Child Weight of the World
12. Phantogram As Far As I Can See
Despite appearances, this was not a homeless woman. It was a young, Brooklyn hipster. There were people standing up because the train was packed. Never accuse New Yorkers of not having big hearts.
For those wondering when new Beirut material might bless your ears, fret not. Paul Collins, Beirut’s bassist has started a new project called Soft Landing. While on a break from touring with Beirut in Brazil, he stole fellow bandmate, accordionist Perrin Cloutier and a friend from college. They spent every waking moment while on break to write and practice.
When all was said and done, they had enough material for an LP, which they recorded in Chicago with Griffin Rodriguez (frontman of Icy Demons). The album is due out this Fall on BaDaBing Records (Beirut, Shearwater, Sharon Von Etten, Damon & Naomi, WOOM, etc.).
I’m happy to share a track from that album with you here. It’s called “Baptism,” and it’s good.
In just one song, we discover a sound very distinct from Condon’s, though not a world apart by any means. There is still an infatuation with international sounds, wide influences, infectious songwriting. They enjoy their instruments and play them well. The music, the writing, it is for real, not extra-cirricular. The music swells and simmers, drums roll forward fervently, guitars wash over us, and everything just feels easy breezy.
Collins holds his own as frontman here, too, though his vim and conviction as bassist for Beirut makes this no surprise. Vocally, I’m reminded a touch of Goeff Farina of Karate fame, which is a good thing. Slightly flat notes (on purpose!) and a quasi-croon floating with an injured wing over the compositional gaps are welcome and distinctive. I like it. Do you?
If this first song is any indication, their self-titled debut should stand on its own in the way Daniel Rossen’s Department of Eagles project succeeded a couple years back. The question will be whether Soft Landing can keep up this prolificness while double dipping in two active bands. I’m sure several multi-act independent artists wish cloning were commonplace, then they could tour in two places at the same time. Imagine that!
July 14th – The Rock Shop, Brooklyn
July 23rd – Denver Biennial, Denver
July 30th – Bruar Falls, Brooklyn
If a commuter cleans a restroom that is out of order, is it ever really clean?
At first I thought this was a Prada hat. It wasn’t. Then I wondered, “Will this fit me?” It did not.
I realize some people may not even know what this thing is, though don’t feel excluded from the party. You can see for yourself it’s still a mighty horrendous merging of words.
For the rest of you, perhaps you can enlighten me as to how a deodorizer that sits at the bottom of a urinal in a public men’s restroom got deemed as a “cake” of all things.
I’m not even going to look up the etymology of it, because the phonetics alone should have overruled whatever lore led to its inception.
If Zooey Deschanel made morning music with Stars of the Lid before she had her first cup of coffee, and she sang without that subtle-but-evident hipster irony I have come to associate with She & Him, you’d have a rough idea of what Memoryhouse sounds like. Of course, they are also totally better than that cheesy metaphor. Wait. What?
It’s as though Fanfarlo hired Ricky Skaggs to run back up, and Amy Grant helped with some of the writing (to get the “Faith” bits just right). Of course, this melange sounds awesome, and if you can tolerate (and appreciate) the bluegrass undercurrents, then you’ll enjoy this band. Oh, and they’re not from America! Is that a bonus? I don’t know.
Imagine Jose Gonzales and Jim James had a baby (it can happen, ask Devito and Schwarzenegger), and this child was raised on Great Lake Swimmers (before they left the silo). The haunting melodies and tragic undercurrent somehow makes this even better than that.
A new kind of anthem band. This one eschews instrumentation in favor of barbershop harmonies and mixes mundane lyricism (“The lane next over’s always faster”) with profound delivery (see “Who Knows Who Cares”) to create one of my favorite albums this year.
If Joanna Newsom leased out her patent on wordy songwriting, you’d have two of the tracks from Josh Ritter’s latest album figured out. If you made one of them about a mummy who falls in love with a female paleontologist (“The Curse”), and the other about a Christopher Columbus type searching for a paradise in Antarctica, well then you’d have discovered two of the best songs this year.
Pretend you combined all of the previous albums by The National, set the blender to low, then poured your concoction into a drinking glass that was shinier than the one you drank your morning milk in. Oh, and if a close listen to “Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks,” doesn’t make you a wee bit weepy, you’re inhuman (subhuman?).
The best part about this sign is that there’s a $5,000 fine if you eat these crabs. As if getting cancer and damaging my unborn child’s brain wasn’t enough. Gotta love Jersey!
