Jazz movies

I wrote this post 1.5 years ago and mentioned the lack of biopics about jazz giants like Coltrane and Miles. Well, it turns out new films were made or announced in 2015: one for Coltrane and one for Miles called "Miles Ahead" written, directed by and starring Don Cheadle. He looked real cool in the released photos. A lot of it was fictional though and was set against the period when Miles was near his creative low point ~50 years old. In addition, there was another recent release about the greatest electric jazz bassist ever, Jaco Pastorius, simply titled Jaco. It was made with the contribution of former Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, who was a true fan and a sincere guy. The January issue of Bassplayer had a special feature about this project and how he got involved. It was an interesting read. (Coincidentally I re-read the part of Alex Skolnick's autobiography about how the Pastorius family was not doing well financially while fighting for the rights of Jaco's music recently. Trujillo acquired Jaco's famed bass of doom so that it could return to the family. Isn't it funny that two metal guys both had something about Jaco to talk about?)

Super Bowl 50

美式足球係我最最喜歡睇既運動,  年年聽傳媒報導，大量球迷會湧去super bowl主辦城市朝聖，究竟實際上有乜活動？我一直唔知，因為未去過。今年在自己地頭，無理由唔去踩場，結論係四個字：不外如是。(好聽一點，或者講：點都應去，好過唔去：p)

睇過NFL頻道播出既地圖，整個三藩市灣區都有相關活動，除左比賽當日既球場，SF金融區Embarcadero被營造為重頭戲Super Bowl City,  Justin Herman Plaza附近封左好幾條街，進入"City"要過金屬探測器，保安嚴密程度僅次於機場，"City"內有乜呢？除左飲品(掠水酒) 食物㰙位，就係一間間贊助商既檔口，展示一點旗下和足球及SF 拉得上關係的產品；唔好睇少呢啲，都幾多人排隊，我估遠度而來既遊客也唔會介意花少少時間掛？當然也見有好似我講明一定唔等既本地友。我唯一等既係入去Levi's 睇佢賣啲球隊球賽logo衫，真係設計得幾好睇。

最後一提：有無留意舊史Super Bowl講係邊一屆一定用羅馬數字，但今年就變左阿拉伯數目字？我個陰謀論朋友可以會話個league打壓歐洲文化，不過官方透露羅馬字50係L, 俾人覺得好Loser(香港人用親L 都唔係好野啦), 明年會轉番羅馬字喎。無論如何，今屆就係金禧，我送一個字：撐！

All-star games

Gotta admit I haven't been paying much attention to the NHL All-star break even though I have NHL games on TV almost every night after the football season is over (sans Super Bowl) as a non-basketball fan. Then I found out it was on the same day as NFL's "All-star game" aka Pro-bowl. I was curious about the decision of putting both games on the same day by the two leagues but couldn't find much info on the net. Most articles ridicule the mere existence of these games as both have low TV ratings. In fact, NFL have indeed consider getting rid of the game a few years ago. I think the game went downhill after it was moved to the week before the Superbowl (for filling the void between the 2-week break from conference championship weekend) which prevented players from SB teams to play in the game to avoid injury, which is obviously the right thing to do but it significantly lowers the star power of the game. To be fair, the SB stars didn't play much during the "old" Pro-bowls that were held after SB either. And this new format of teams chosen by two former stars and HOFer (Michael Irvin and Jerry Rice) which was copied from NHL mixing players from different conference was confusing too. Nevertheless, I recorded and watched the game, which proved how hardcore a football fan I am! Oh yeah, the former Cowboy's team beat the former Niner's.

Ironically,  this is the year NHL moved away from the 2-opposing-all-star-team-drafting-own-player format and went back to conference/division competing with each other. However, instead of one 60 minute game, they played 3x20 min game. Each game pits one division against another in 3-on-3 format! The two winners play against each other in the last game to determine the winning division. This season was the first one that NHL uses 3-on-3 during overtime. And it was controversial: players don't like it but I do. I think it's easier to score this way without going into shootout. However, this wasn't even the controversy of this game! It has to do with one player: John Scott. BTW, I watched the pro-bowl first and the bottom ticker had already shown me him winning the MVP honor :( So, who is John Scott? I haven't followed the NHL like I used to so I only know the biggest of the biggest stars like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Quick, Sidney Crosby, and local players like Joe Pavelski...etc. Turns out John Scott plays the role of an enforcer (whom teams put on ice to fight rather than playing the puck!) most recently for the Coyotes. Why was he controversial? He was voted in by fans who wanna showcase the fan-vote loophole of the NHL All-star game. And he was traded to the minor league just before the game. Some in the league management actually tried to dissuade him to play but he refused to back down. He was chosen as the Pacific division team captain and scored twice in the game (his career total was 5 goals :) and as I mentioned already he won the MVP with real fan support at the game. It became a feel-good story and actually shed some positive light on the game drawing attentions from NPR and Wall Street Journal. The NHL got a lucky break from a potential publicity disaster.