The Big Fight

Wow… excellent day today.

Started slowly (as usual), so went down to the docks to see the goods ship unload, then we made our way to Piccolo’s house (first name terms now) and started to wrangle people into helping us build the boxing ring.

Piccolo and Ashley took the lead, along with some hired help, and before long there was an ‘old style’ ring right there in the yard. Just so you know… I’m not the type to make a 96 year old man do manual labour, but believe me he doesn’t let anyone do anything for him. The man is amazingly fit for his age.

Luckily for me, Norbert H. Kox an American artist is staying at Ashley’s house with myself, so over the last few days I’d managed to persuade him to play Ernest Hemingway for me. The other three ‘fighters’ were locals up for a bit of fun, and one of them was legendary boxer ‘King Jesse’ – a real gent, and the subject for tomorrow’s interview. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t quite sure if they truly understood they weren’t supposed to be actually hitting each other, so my heart was in my mouth as I attempted to direct the actors, but they totally respected my ideas and did everything asked – including no actual punches thankfully.

King Jesse was the 3rd fighter, and the only ‘real’ boxer. I had trouble persuading him to hit the deck, as he assured me he was never knocked down, but I was grateful that he swallowed his pride and played the part, although his family were teasing him after… “beaten at last” they said.

I was jumping in and out of the ring… getting POV shots, handheld action of the bouts, lady holding ‘Round 1’ sign, with Piccolo being the announcer and referee. Can’t wait to start cutting it. Today has been such a great day… I feel energised by the action. There’s a chance this won’t actually make the submitted film of course, but I’ll definitely be making something out of it whatever happens. Happy days.

Thanks for reading

Janx