Only last week I murdered a rock...

December 14, 2003 4:33 PM

GOAT.Well, that's my Christmas list sorted.
posted by Pretty_Generic (22 comments total)

Make sure you buy the recipient a bigger coffee table to go with it.
posted by rschram at 4:45 PM on December 14, 2003

"Bound by the official bindery for the Vatican, in pink leather, the color of Ali's first Cadillac."
posted by Guy Smiley at 4:51 PM on December 14, 2003

Well, PG, all you're getting your kid gloves on is a used copy of David Remnick's King of the World. The $2.90 one, for the lousy link. ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:53 PM on December 14, 2003

Miguel, even if you'd been a garbage guy, you'd have been the greatest Iberian cigar-smoking garbage guy of all time.
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:57 PM on December 14, 2003

All 10,000 copies are individually signed by Muhammad Ali and Jeff Koons.

'Splains the shakey hands...
posted by dash_slot- at 5:15 PM on December 14, 2003

this is the same "renowned" taschen that produces books fullof "artistic" nudes that you find in remaindered book stores?
posted by andrew cooke at 5:30 PM on December 14, 2003

Wow, there's a more expensive version of an already very expensive book. Thrilling.

What'd be nice is if this was in the context of a really great post about Muhammad Ali. Maybe something that linked to Ali's career record (every fight here except the one vs. Mr. Tooth Decay). Maybe a word on the development of the Ali Center [flash] and the role he's played in supporting Parkinson's research. You could tell the kids where they could hear Muhammad Ali's Historical Theme Song. It could reference some notable matches, like the Ali-Foreman '74 fight (that spawned the great 1996 documentary When We Were Kings). The Clay-Liston fight in Lewiston, ME (with the phantom punch [scroll down to #6]) could have been the subject of a great post in its own right (there's been at least one fantastic post about a single sports moment here on the blue). In honor of Ali, at his most charismatic, the whole thing could rhyme. Now that would be a post I'd really like to see. (Did I just ask for a pony?)

This? This is just another example of PepsiBlue, isn't it? But yeah, that book sure is neat. And it sure is expensive.
[and to answer andrew's question: yeah, it's that Taschen]
posted by .kobayashi. at 6:12 PM on December 14, 2003

Total proceeds $33 million.
posted by stbalbach at 6:41 PM on December 14, 2003

draft dodger
posted by billybobtoo at 6:43 PM on December 14, 2003

This is the biggest masturbatory exercise I've ever seen that doesn't involve rubber gloves and a satisfied elephant.

What.
The.
Fuck.
Mohammad?
posted by Hildago at 6:54 PM on December 14, 2003

SEVENTY FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

Like Hildago said: WTF?
posted by davidmsc at 6:57 PM on December 14, 2003

This is a bit of a follow-up to his previous dubious achievement, the 66-pound Helmut Newton anthology called Sumo -- the previous coffee-table book that serves as its own coffee-table. A profile of Taschen {some NSFW} on moving his US publishing house from NY to LA.
posted by dhartung at 9:01 PM on December 14, 2003

Whenever I see things like this (that is, obscenely expensive things that will no doubt actually be purchased) I can't help but think of the type of person who can afford to purchase them, and how that kind of money could better be spent.
posted by travis at 10:19 PM on December 14, 2003

Taschen just likes really big things. (From kobayashi.'s last link.)
posted by taz at 12:00 AM on December 15, 2003

I saw the link and assumed it would be to this GOAT.
posted by dgaicun at 1:36 AM on December 15, 2003

Dgaicun - I go to clemson, i should probably read that. The frats here suck though, all though i get the impression that they pick on you more the more unstable you are. So perhaps he was in for more than anyone would normally receive.
posted by sourbrew at 4:06 AM on December 15, 2003

.kobayashi - great post. In the first link in the main body of your post it shows a few pics of Ali fighting...the first one has a caption identifying his foe as Joe Frazier. Isn't that Floyd Patterson in the pic, though? You'd think they'd try to get that right.
posted by vito90 at 5:47 AM on December 15, 2003

TIP: If you see any links on the .cx domain purporting to be about this book, DO NOT click them.
posted by milnak at 1:34 PM on December 15, 2003

The G.O.A.T.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 3:16 PM on December 15, 2003

vito90 - Thanks. I'm no boxing expert (which is why I want someone else to do the post up right someday; I cobbled that example together all too quickly) but I think you're right-- I don't think that's Joe Frazier. Don't know whether or not it's Patterson, though.
posted by .kobayashi. at 5:00 PM on December 15, 2003

yup, it's Patterson. here's Frazier
posted by goddam at 6:43 PM on December 15, 2003

I'm glad you're here, .kobayashi.

Ali wasn't just the greatest boxer of all time. He was the greatest celebrity of all time.
posted by fuzz at 7:08 PM on December 15, 2003