25 October 2023

The rocks got moved, most of them at least, I made two trips with the wheelbarrow and that was enough for one day. There’s a reel on my Instagram drawingmylifeaway124 which got me discussing the Rocky IV vinyl. I was looking at the back cover with photos from the movie, I don’t know the last time I’ve watched it but was obsessed as a kid. I remember trying to do one armed push ups in front of the TV and jumping around the living room like a boxing ring mirroring the actors’ moves. The beauty of being a kid was I thought all that was real, not that Rocky was a real person though there is a statue of him in downtown Philadelphia, I didn’t know anything about movies or boxing to realize what was fake. For instance there’s a photo of Rocky that takes up half the cover where he’s starring intensely while looking calm and collected, except his body is oiled up and muscular. Now I know he’s flexing those muscles as hard as he can while pretending to be calm. I’ve also been a fan of actual combat sports for decades now and can safely say those guys in Rocky don’t know how to fight. When I’m doing heavy bag work, the thing I remember most is “keep your hands up”. Hands up are the last line of defense protecting the head and always keeping them up builds my endurance. They can’t keep their hands up in a movie because they’re paying to see the actor’s face. The movies don’t lose any love from me and I’d like to watch some of them soon, the connection is deeper. The begging trumpets in Gonna Fly Now could get me out of bed to do anything or get back up at the thought of Mick saying, “I didn’t hear no bell.”