The Proof's in the Pudding

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I missed this when it came out.

"Repton Boxing Club" by Alasdair McLellan for British heritage label Sunspel, featuring Ryan Pickard (2011)

Boxing is one of those old-school sports I feel like I should be repelled by -- just the thought of a broken nose makes me cringe -- but even knowing next to nothing about it I find the whole enterprise totally fascinating and even romantic. (And this is not because I watched Rocky as a kid, because I didn't.) There's so much ritual to it, and so much reverence for the past. From an outsider's perspective it seems like it requires a physical and mental discipline that verges on the religious. Maybe it's so ugly that it comes full circle to beautiful.

While we're on the topic of beautiful destruction, another movie I want to see again:

Raging Bull (1980)

Public Listening

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This trailer doesn't come close to doing it justice, but two nights ago we watched Public Speaking, Martin Scorsese's HBO documentary on Fran Lebowitz, and it's the best thing I've seen on TV in quite awhile.

"This is on for your education...we're gonna re-educate you."

Via Jen Graves at SLOG, The Guardian has posted its list of the top fifty arts videos on YouTube. James Dean and Paul Newman screen testing for East of Eden, Jack Kerouac reading from On the Road, Nirvana practicing in an Aberdeen garage circa 1988, Marcel Duchamp's Anemic Cinema, Aretha Franklin's Lady Soul TV Special – the list is heavy. Here are two videos that make 1970s New York City feel like a small town:

Martin Scorsese's 1973 short on the inspiration for Mean Streets:


And Jean-Michel Basquiat on Glenn O'brien's TV Party, 1978:


48 more things to look at here.