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FIRST--

In this month's Muse magazine, there's a great feature on Golden Scene Distribution company written by The Golden Rock.

Golden Scene deserves our respect because the owner, Winnie Tsang, has a genuine passion for films. Often times she'll buy and distribute a film in Hong Kong knowing it won't make her any money; she distributes it because she believes it's a good film. (Example: Happy Go Lucky...that film grossed like, 20k in HK during its entire theatrical run)

Without companies like GS, we wouldn't be getting wonderful indie gems such as Away We Go or Sunshine Cleaning in Hong Kong.

In a sense, GS is an underdog just like the small indie films they distribute--as one of the few distributors locally without their own cinema line (Edko and Intercontinental each have their own chain of cinemas), they're often pushed around by the other distributors. Their films may be given odd showtimes, or have screens pulled by theaters to show their own films.

So yeah, Golden Scene is a company worth supporting. Winnie is a true film lover. In fact, when I interviewed her she told me her ultimate dream is to own her own theater, so she can show all her favorite movies. Now this is a fucking dream! I'm so tired of hearing dreams such as "I want to buy a nice big house" or "I want to have this sports car".

The GS PR girls are hardworking and friendly (voted by HK blogger last year as the friendliest film PRs in HK), and they hold screenings at the Pacific Place AMC--the most comfortable and conveniently located theater in Hong Kong (other distributors make us travel to Kowloon Tong or Kowloon Bay for a screening...BOOOOOO!)

The Golden Rock is a dude I've never met and have only interacted with on this very site. He was nice enough to offer me pointers when he found out I was also writing for Muse (the hip hop story)  But I've been reading his stuff dating back to my days in the US--he writes regularly for LoveHKFilm.com, which was a powerhouse Asian film site a few years back. It's kinda died down lately cause the webmaster is busy and HK films have um... been shit.

SECOND--

Check out this piece by ESPN writer Ric Bucher on Steve Nash playing pickup ball in Beijing. This story broke earlier in the week as a "fun story"--Nash showed up in disguise thinking no one would recognized him. But Bucher dug deeper and the result is this insightful read. Even if you don't know/care about ball.

The piece touches on these few topics:

1: China is opening up and starting to accept western culture. I think China is perfect for a cultural movement right now, because they're just starting to open up, capitalism is still relatively new to the people, and the cats are starting to feel some form of freedom. MC Yan thinks the timing is ripe for a hip hop revolution up north. David Stern believes it's time for a bball revolution. I concur.

2: Sports can overcome racial/language barriers. In Nash's words "It's hard to do that in China with the strong language barrier. But ball can break down that wall. It always does."

3: As I've written/mentioned several times over on my fb/twitter/AnD lately. Steve Nash is a bad motherfucker and an inspiration. The dude just shows up to play in disguise, hoping no one will recognize him. LOL.

More importantly, he taught me the meaning of vengeance--back in 04 all he heard was how he wasn't good enough, how others are more qualified, etc.

Nash proved everyone wrong in 05 with the MVP and a six game smackdown of Mark Cuban's Mavs.

Nash = Vengeance. Nash = Inspiration.

(Actually, I DOUBTED him  on my Xanga in 2004 too, so maybe I should STFU because I was one of the haters. But I can respect his vengeance, even if I was one of the people he was aiming at)

Alright, encore over. December 4th

"And if you can't respect that, then your perspective's wack. Maybe you'll love me when I fade to black"