Location Scouting -- Rucker Park: Shanghai

After watching a colorful piece about graffiti in China’s cultural capital on cnn.com I decided to check out one of the sites first hand. Although Dr. J never dunked at this Rucker Park and Kobe never imitated Jordan at this Rucker, I still had high expectations because of the name. Our regular courts at XuJaHui Park feature well manicured life sized pictures of Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose documenting their 2009 visit. The other places (Moganshan Lu. and Changning Lu) featured in the Shanghai graffiti documentary are well done, however Rucker Park’s character illuminated a link between art and sport. Hip-Hop music, break dancing, graffiti, and basketball all became popular in China in the last fifteen years and are often grouped together as they are in the US.

We walked into an old factory in Pudong’s Lupu District and made our way up a decrepit stairwell with posters of such stars as Dikembe Mutumbo. On the third floor the familiar squeaks of sneakers mixed with snares and bass made us smile. Some of the graffiti pieces on the staircase and the walls of the gym were awesome.

The six yuan admission we found to be immediately worth it because of the chain on every hoop. The sound of a leather ball ripping down on a chain net is a glorious sound. It’s the definition of character, and for generation hip-hop, it’s the definition of childhood. The ten indoor courts were practically empty but the walls were packed with practice hoops and tags thrown up by different local artists featuring English and some Chinese characters.

As my stiff muscles began to relax and we tried to warm up Jay-Z and Pharrel’s twentysomethingth collaboration played on the Rucker’s speakers . The local headband wearing dudes didn’t let us finish our game of twenty one before they demanded we play for honor. We won and they went home. The games were tight and it was good cardio. At least we don’t have to chop off our pinky finger to keep our honor (culturally insensitive joke).

As we hung out and played the greatest “everyman for themselves” game, I felt I was playing at a place where great players will play. While the original park’s history in Harlem/Washington Heights goes hand in hand with the NBA and New York City, this Rucker is China’s temple of Basketball. As the CBA gets improves with players like Starbury and the popularity of Mr. Naismith’s sport continues to grow, Chinese players will excel during this century. Yao Ming played here, and PEAK who has countless NBA stars signed is sponsoring Shanghai’s Rucker Park. Come one come all to ball! Five minute walk northeast from the Dalian lu. Stop on the 4 train.

Scouted by Thomas Demerath

Original -- The Brazilian

Link: The Brazilian
Site: YouTube
Length: 9:56

Well this is a little gem from back in college that I edited that I am finally confident can be put out for a few more people to enjoy. The Brazilian was a project I helped edit/produce my senior year at Boston University and although I was a bit suspect of the content to begin with, I did feel like we ended up creating a great short piece in the end that is fun for the whole family... kind of.

Rosita Lama Muvdi came up with and directed this piece on vagina waxing (well, in the end, just waxing in general) with a focus on a specific wax style - The Brazilian. The Brazilian is when you go straight up back to the basics like a little girl - zero hair down there. In my own lifetime of watching/reading pornography (yes, I dabble), even I have noticed the slow but certain progression to there being a plethora of women out there who go completely waxed. And as we found out from making this film, it is not only strippers and porn stars who are doing this - women all in my age group are doing this without haste. In this documentary, we not only provided explanation for waxing, but also got the perspective from men and women about waxing as well as actually taking three first time waxers to a salon in Boston and getting them waxed (yes, two of the three individuals are male). Check it out - I doubt you will get bored.

News -- 2010 Oscar Nominations

Not much else to be said. If you have not seen it somewhere else, here is the full list (below are the ones that I care about, of course). Get ready for the 2010 Academy Awards also known as Avatar Night. I am perplexed by the 10 nominees for Best Picture. Why would they do that? District 9 for BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR? Come now, Academy. BOLD AND ITALICS OF MY WINNER CHOICES.

Best Picture
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Best Direction
“Avatar” — James Cameron
“The Hurt Locker” — Kathryn Bigelow
“Inglourious Basterds” — Quentin Tarantino
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” — Lee Daniels
“Up in the Air” — Jason Reitman

Actor in a Leading Role
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actress in a Leading Role
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actor in a Supporting Role
Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Supporting Role
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”

Cinematography
“Avatar” — Mauro Fiore
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” — Bruno Delbonnel
“The Hurt Locker” — Barry Ackroyd
“Inglourious Basterds” — Robert Richardson
“The White Ribbon” — Christian Berger

Documentary (Feature)
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
“Which Way Home”

Film Editing
* “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
* “District 9” Julian Clarke
* “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
* “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film
* “Ajami” Israel
* “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
* “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
* “Un Prophète” France
* “The White Ribbon” Germany

Music (Original Score)
* “Avatar” James Horner
* “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
* “The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
* “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
* “Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)
* “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
* “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
* “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Visual Effects
* “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
* “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
* “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
* “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
* “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
* “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
* “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)
* “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
* “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
* “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
* “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
* “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Site Update -- New Writers

Just an FYI for those out there checking the blog, we have added two writers. For now they are writing under surnames Jordan "The Machine" Beane and Matt (yeah I know, SOMEONE is a bit more creative than the other). The Machine has already put up a great review of recent cinema wonder An Education and we will just have to wait and see what Matt decides to grace us with. Both are good friends and great writers so this is sure to bolster the team immensely. I will let you all guess which one of these two freakazoids is a true blogger at heart. WILL THE REAL BLOG BLOGGER PLEASE STAND UP? More to come shortly.


James is Goodenough
Founder