This has been out for a while but just never got the chance to scan and upload it. This is my first major appearance in Inside Kung Fu Magazine – a magazine that I used to read weekly when I was a kid. =)

Click the picture to expand and read.

I’ll still have to properly scan it someday, but for now I guess a photo will do. You can also see that the cover has good ol Mr. Billy Blanks on it. I was kinda hoping the cover would be featuring my boss, but I guess we can’t have everything all the time. haha =P

Enjoy!

Chris Yen and I

I had a lunch meeting with Chris Yen, Donnie Yen’s sister, last week… and it was a very productive meeting! Read on!

Chris Yen Inside Kung-Fu

For those of you who don’t know – Chris Yen is an awesome martial artist and entrepreneur. Early in her martial arts film career she worked with acclaimed action director Yuen Wo-Ping in 1986 on a project shot in Taiwan. Later in her career she went on to work with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson helping her brother out on the set of Shanghai Knights. Soon after she went to Hong Kong to film a stylish female assassin role in “Black Rose.” Chris Yen’s performance in Black Rose led to a profile in the South China Morning Post, which in turn led to a featured appearance with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show, broadcast live from Hong Kong to millions of viewers. Invited to LA for auditions by a top casting director from Columbia Pictures, she has been featured in several commercials and was cast as the lead in the youth market action film Adventures of Johnny Tao, as well as in a supporting role in A Good Day to be Black and Sexy, an official 2008 Sundance Selection. She continues to work hard and develop projects with her writing partners.

Her brother Donnie Yen has appeared in more than 40 films and TV shows, including: “Ip Man”(2008), “Flash Point” (2007), “Saat Po Long aka SPL” (2005), “Shanghai Knights” (2003), “Hero” (2002), “Blade II” (2002), “Highlander: Endgame” (2000), and “Iron Monkey ” (1993).

Interestingly enough in March 2009 I posted an article on Chris Yen on the WushuKicks.com Wushu News blog – http://www.wushukicks.com/chinese-martial-arts/tag/chris-yen/ It’s amazing that a year later we got to sit down to chat over lunch.

Enough with the talk. If you haven’t seen her demo reel… check it out. I particularly like the wheel kick at 1:12.

We got in touch through a mutual friend and originally met up to get some feedback on her thoughts on Martial Arts Complete and some sponsorship. If you’ll notice in the picture at the top that pink and white “M” is a Mooto hoodie courtesy of MOOTO USA. Much thanks Mooto! and of course we got love for WushuKicks.com up in there as well.

Chris Yen and Martial Arts Complete

This ad isn’t the FINAL version yet, but it’s pretty close. I must say I’m pretty proud of this because I took this picture on my Nikon D60 at a boba cafe, edited it, and did the design as well. And to do Chris justice I must say that it was not a planned out photo shoot or anything and she just came in her casual attire, but she came out looking great. After clearing out the background and putting in our martial arts complete background I think the whole thing looks pretty cool!

Business aside, we had a lot to talk about regarding wushu, martial arts training, movies, productions, refinancing, and the tasty ham and corn on french bread appetizers. Chris mentioned that she will be back and forth between Asia and the states and we talked a lot about her personal project Kore8Films and what it takes to get things off the ground. It was a really great meeting and I am honored to be able to sit down with such an accomplished yet humble martial artist. Definitely look out for her in some big projects ahead!

ham and corn on french bread

another version of my comp card. i made this one for fun

Lately I’ve just been settling back down in LA, catching up with a few friends, and mainly working on the biz side of life. Here’s what I’ve been up to the past 3 days.

Business
I finished incorporating my business, setting up a merchant account, getting a federal tax ID number for the corporation aka EIN, transferring all biz related payments from my sole prop acct to my new biz acct, applying for a business credit card to be used only for business – this way I will be able to keep clear track of spending, getting quickbooks for accounting, organizing recent orders and making new bulk orders, following up with clients, finishing up some marketing materials, creating additional business cards, working out a pricing sheet/sales forms, confirming site redesign layout, following up on packaging price quote, and talking with a franchise owner in LA Fitness.

Martial Arts
Been training about 4 times a week. I train san da once or twice a week – I got some 16 oz gloves and been working on the bags as well as doing other kicks (non standard wushu kicks), pure wushu once a week, and gym/lifting or possibly tricking once a week. It averages out to about 4 times a week. I’m going to start training people again for private lessons. Don’t want to make it a full time thing so probably will accept a max of 3 students for now, but it’s something I enjoy and it’s a good to get a little income as well. I created a lesson plan involving cardio, fitness, conditioning, wushu, kick boxing, pad work, and partner training.

I plan to keep 4 days a week of training if not more because it’s just so fun. Also, this UFC gym opened up near my place, so I might check it out. It would be good to work on some brazilian jiu-jitsu as well. Did I mention I joined LA Fitness? I’ve been meaning to go swimming there. The pool looks very clean and inviting, but so far I’ve mainly just got around to using their bags and weight machines.

Entertainment
I did a demo for LA Wushu / Coach Tim Storms at LAFA’s Annual Food Fights event. It was at the Diavolo Dance space in downtown. It was a fun charity event that featured a bunch of the stunt/fight groups in town and we all gathered and put on a show to raise food for those without. That was fun and got to see some buddies from The History Channel Art of War project. I also re-realized how much I freakin love performing and doing demos. It was an event for a good cause and I just overall had a good time / felt good afterward. =)

I am supposed to call back an editor from Inside Kung Fu tomorrow so we will see how that goes. I hope something works out with them because when I was in high school I remember reading their magazine and to be in it, would be awesome. Then there’s this Pacific Rim online press that covers a variety of celebrity and entertainment news. I may be doing an interview with them next week or the following week.

Aside from that, I made a comp card (which I am still working on), I majorly cleaned up my film resume, I submitted to a few productions, and I am having headshots professionally printed this week to attach with my resume.

Misc
Getting some house work done. I’ve been cleaning the house like mad and I cleaned my room. I’ve also brought in a contractor to help redo/fix the front patio area but its been raining so its really messing things up. This is something I’ve really been needing to do. Hopefully I wont have to do anymore renovations/repairs for a while.

To Do
Set up virtual terminal / payment processing
Repair/replace cell phone
Recycle bottles
Revamp website