We can barely watch any MMA (mixed martial arts) fighting -- sneaking peeks between the gaps of our fingers splayed across our faces -- as we feel the punches reverberating through the room. Often left bloodied after a match, we wonder why -- why does anyone willingly go into the ring time-and-time again?
Fight Life, a documentary from James Z. Feng, explores the passion MMA fighters share for this combat sport, from the small competitions to national championships.
As punches are throw on screen, one fighter declares, "it's tough, but that's a fighter's life." But it seems he's not just referring to the physical toll of the opponent's punches, but the rigorous training, the pay, and the doctors' bills.
Oh, MTV. How hard can it be to create quality crap programming instead of crap crap programming? You seem to know the difference because you brought us The Jersey Shore (that would be "quality crap," in case you were wondering).
The newest season of The Real World, number 29 -- zoiks, takes place in S.F., so of course I'm going to watch it. I also went and visited the "house" they filmed it in on Sutter at the end of filming. I saw the cobbled together set with its token primary colors and plenty of nookie nooks, met the cast members, and even signed an "embargo," as they call it, saying I would not reveal the season's "big" secret. It turns out the big secret is in the name of the show itself, so isn't much of a secret. It's the Ex-Plosion factor -- halfway through the season they are going to bring in everyone's exes and make them all live together. This will be, of course, only after they have already paired up with other cast members so as to create tension, drama, and hopefully massive bitchiness.
The Write Stuff is a series of interview profiles conducted by Litseen, where authors give exclusive readings from their work.
Matt Pine's debut novel City Water Light & Power was published last May on Cairn Press. He is a founding ensemble member at the San Francisco Neo-Futurists. If you love tweets about waiting for the bus, you'll only be slightly disappointed by @obligaccount.
When people ask what do you do, you tell them... ?
Type, mostly.
If someone said I want to do what you do, what advice would you have for them?
Pour yourself a cup of coffee. Repeat.
