The Best Fights of 2012

First of all... bestboxingblog.com compiled their best writing on boxing in 2012. Definitely worth a read.

Next, I was going to scour the internet to find videos of my favorite fights of 2012 and then discovered somebody had already done it for me. And although I might have quibbled with a fight or two on their lists, I tapped out and came around to their way of thinking.  However, I would replace the Sarah Kaufman fight with Cain's victory over Dos Santos.

Without further ado... http://www.allthebestfights.com/

2012 best BOXING fights Manny Pacquiao vs Marquez 4 Sebastien Gauthier vs Rodrigo Guerrero Chris John vs Piriyapinyo Yamanaka vs Tomas Rojas USERS BOXING RANKING

2012 best K-1 MUAY THAI fights Artur Kyshenko vs Murthel Groenhart Pidsanu vs Siragnern Yury Bessmertny vs Gago Drago Genji Umeno vs Chan-Hyung Lee USERS K-1 & MUAY THAI RANKING

2012 best MMA fights  Ronda Rousey vs Miesha Tate Eduardo Dantas vs Zach Makovsky Brian Rogers vs Vitor Vianna Sarah Kaufman vs Alexis Davis 2 USERS MMA RANKING

Thanks, guys!

Plus, as a matter of ethnic pride, I wanted to highlight the Dominican, Javier Fortuna, who had two impressive KO's this year during ESPN's Friday Night Fights.

My Favorite Films of 2012

I don't go to the movies as much as I'd like and I've made it a mission in 2013 to go to film festivals more.  However, I do have Netflix and Hulu+, a nice flat screen and dark quiet settings, so I still got to see some good films.  Just that they weren't all released this year. 

(in no particular order)
Thanatopsis
A Woman is A Woman
The Grey
Hara Kiri
Superfly
Zero de Conduite
The 5 Deadly Venoms
Valhalla Rising
3 Women
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (the long version)
House
Vampyr
Simon of the Desert
WR: Mysteries of the Organism
Entrevista Con La Tierra
Haywire
The Avengers

Update: I had to add 2 more films to this list.
Chronicle
Looper

VICE mag presents: FIGHTLAND

On its way to conquer the media world, VICE magazine now has a new site dedicated to mixed martial arts.

Stuff I Dig: Semiconductor

Semiconductor is artist duo Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt. "Through moving image works they explore the material nature of our world and how we experience it, questioning our place in the physical universe." They believe in art and science co-existing together and as Kevin Holmes notes, "their work explores natural phenomena, the idea of a world in constant fluctuation, and gives form to the seemingly invisible—the technical and the molecular—while marrying sound and image to create fascinating experimental films."


Two I really dig: more on Brilliant Noise


more on Magnetic Movie 

https://vimeo.com/semiconductor

Just Saw This: Hara Kiri (1962)

Hara Kiri (original title: Seppuku) | Masaki Kobayshi | 1962 | Japan | Format: 35mm | 133 min

After re-watching it again, I'm ready to declare this film classic as one of my top 5 films of all time and the best samurai film I've ever seen (Sword of Doom, also starring Tatsuya Nakadai, comes at a close second).  This one has it all though: a great plot, hypnotic acting, poetic cinematography, poignant use of sound and editing, thrilling fight scenes... Kobayashi brought his A+ game on this one.  

Seriously, this film left me in a state of awe...
Oh, the still long shots, 
the compositions,
the use of angles and zooms,
the ironic revelation of samurai honor and political facade,
the sentimentality and humanity,
the tension -- Wow!

By the way, I love the self-reflexive meta moment around 2:34 of this trailer.  And I am convinced Tatsuya Nakadai would have played the ultimate Itto Ogami.
And here's Roger Ebert with more thoughts on Hara Kiri. 

Training Video Vault: Guro Dan Inosanto JKD Panantukan

After writing an earlier post about panantukan, I had to revisit this amazing and effective martial art because panantukan was the art that made me fall in love with boxing [again*]. It was also the bridge that helped me connect all the other elements of jeet kune do (primarily, trapping, muay thai and grappling) into one fluid fighting whole.  With panantukan as my bridge and my base, I could flow with more confidence in my trapping when I started inserting panantukan elements into it, overwhelm my opponents with panantukan combos, destructions and grabs when I boxed them and confound my opponents by inserting panantukan techniques in surprising ways when I kick-boxed or grappled them.  

I'm always amused at the fact that I only took panantukan classes in my early days of training (when I was training 5-6 days a week) after avoiding the class for months because it sounded weird and unnecessary to me.  I would do nothing during the hour that the class took place except walk around Herald Square or go to Barnes and Noble until I figured more training is better than no training.  So, I started taking it to do something (plus, I liked hanging out with the guys in the school... oh the good ol' days).  The rest is history and I aborbed panantukan like a sponge.  It formed the basis for many of the techniques I use in my book, MMA Fighting Techniques.

*I grew up watching boxing with my dad but stopped watching them after I saw Rocky 2 and 3.  After Rocky, the fights we enjoyed together just couldn't live up to the epic melodrama I had seen unfold on the silver screen.  Brainwashed by "professional" wrestling, kung fu and action movies, I was disappointed to find that real boxers did not have the physique, choreography and brute force displayed by the likes of Rocky.  All of a sudden all that jabbing and dancing around the ring seemed boring and the combo flurries moved too quickly to register in my mind as anything but a blur-- I wanted comebacks-from-the-brink-of-death-knockouts or, somehow, a ninja front flip straight cross KO, dammit!

Academy of Jeet Kune Do Fighting Technology has a great article on the historical intersection of western boxing and panantukan and a great primer on a panantukan curriculum.  Click below for the Guro Dan Inosanto-inspired curriculum they posted.

Video Pick: Yaard "I Want You 2"

simple. diverse. and weird.
just like Coney Island.

Video Filmed, Edited and Directed By Christian J Petersen. 
Download for the song I Want You 2 available HERE 
https://vimeo.com/christianjpetersen/
http://christianjpetersen.com/​

Movie Pitching Tips

Reposted in full from my other blog:

lol...But seriously... 
What filmmaker doesn't want to see themselves before a room of studio executives or company producers pitching a hot new movie idea?  The unprepared, boring, nervous one doesn't.   

But you won't be that filmmaker, right?!  Say what you will about the mailroom kid in the skit above but, at least, he was prepared, passionate and enthusiastic.

Pitching is part of the job for beginners and veterans alike so it's important to hone and maintain  your skills.  There are some producers and screenwriters out there whose main (and only) skill is in pitching ideas and they get paid whether or not the movie gets made.  Of course, you want to do more than just collect a check for an idea or a spec script, you want to make the movie.  But it still starts with the pitch and you have to sell it.  

Start practicing now:

• Concise and informative information on the TEASER PITCH and the STORY PITCH 
• What sets a film or TV pilot PITCH apart from a SYNOPSIS (according to Ken Levine)? [Aside: Although I understand, pitching as a form of job interview where execs and producers will decide if they want to work with you on a project as much as it is about selling the project, I do love Troy's point in the comments section; "Why do writers have to pitch (orally) at all?  ...Writers write.  Most aren't concurrently great at pitching - though yes, you can get better at it with practice and Ken's tips. So what's wrong with that? What's wrong is that we (Hollywood, the audience) reap what we sow: Movies and TV shows originated by great pitchers... but not necessarily great writers. Which explains alot about movies and TV. -- there's food for thought]
• 5 Tips on pitching a movie
• 5 MORE Tips on pitching a movie (especially a comedy movie)  [I know one of the tips here contradicts one of Ken's points about not laughing at your jokes during your pitch but I think it's a matter of how you laugh and appearing genuine as opposed to coming off like a silly and obnoxious monkey trying too hard to make 'em laugh.]
• Transcripts of story pitches developed by Christopher and Kathleen Riley [please note, I am only posting their transcripts as reference not as an endorsement of their consultation.  Like any good producer would, please do your due diligence when seeking script consultation]: 
• DESTINY, broken down into parts for a duo to pitch  
• THE SKY'S THE LIMIT, not broken down into parts, one or more can pitch 

Plus for all you visual and auditory learners out there, here's a cross-section of some additional advice videos on how to pitch a movie and who to pitch it to.

Video Pick: XXYYXX - About You