WHO IS THE PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN???????

Had my JET interview for teaching english in Japan. I mispelt sergeant (sergent) and did not know the prime minister of Japan. FUCK. I'm annoyed at myself because I could have done better, I could have been a contender, but I fucked it. ARSE. And I have to wait until April to see if they've rejected me. GREAT BIG SHIT ENCRUSTED GAPING ARSEHOLES.

King of the World - David Remnick

Nearly finished it now. It's bloody brilliant. It uses 1930-1960's america as metaphor for boxing. From the arrogance of Johnanson (the original rabble rouser in the 1910's, he enjoyed provoking the middleclass whites, sleeping with as many women as possible and marrying a white girl) to the gentlemanly Joe Louis. Expressly told not to speak in public, not to photographed with white woman and not to enter a nightclub on his own, so all of america could unite behind their black champion. Top sports columnist of the time, James Cannon famously said he was a credit his race, the human race (though the Southern states withdrew their support after Louis lost to the German born Schemel, citing the superiority of the Aryan and the white historical legacy), through to Floyd Patterson, another the people's champ who had the support of JFK. Finally to Sonny Liston, the bad negro. Fresh from prison for armed robbery, with the backing of the mafia, the type you'd cross the road to avoid and to the hero of the book Cassius Clay. It explodes some myths (he didn't throw his gold medal into the river after being refused service at a restaurant, he just lost it), and reveal some truths (he was already in contact with the Nation of Islam before is first title fight with Liston, before changing his name to Muhammad Ali). It not only charts his progress as a boxer (Clay never did any weight training, that is why, even at 200 lbs he had the speed and grace of a gazelle) but his religon and politics. It shows Ali transcending all of those before him, not falling into the media stereotype of good or bad, but just doing whatever the hell he wanted, and telling everyone at the same time. Also shows his conflict with the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, who called all whites "blue eyed devils" (Ali's backers were all white and so was his ringside doctor and trainer), and how eventually, he is even more important than them.

This book is so much more that just about boxing. He has real insight into everything happening at the time, with quotes from Malcolm X to Frankie Carbo, the mafia boss who ran boxing upto the 1960's. Stories about Emmet Tills, Norman Mailer, Anglelo Dundee (Ali's first trainer), Cus D'Amato (Liston's trainer, who was also Tyson's first trainer), ex cons to JFK. I recommend it to anyone interested in Ali, boxing or civil rights.