Riding With Street Racers,
I bumped into Mike today, on my way home. He happened to be driving pass. I jumped into his car. He talked about how he hasn’t had a day off, for ages. I told him my new theory of why he took that ring, the same reason we all do bad things, because we didn’t think we will get caught. He said, “What to do when someone doesn’t pay you back, and you are desperate?” I said, I didn’t know.. “Kick the shit out of him? Maybe?” We laugh. I can’t but genuinely like this person. He is so out there with his emotions, no bullshit. I pick up a bag of chocolates on the dash board and he goes, “Oh, take the whole thing will ya?” just because that’s him. I eat at it, because that’s just me.
He tells me he has a new job and new friends, and I knew what he was saying. “So do they race?”
“Hell yeah, do they race. You know, “Car Lord?”
I say, “Of course!”
“That’s that crowd.”
“They are the top of the top then.”
“Yeah, I will call you when they come out. You know the cops pulling people up a lot during this time.”
“Grand Prix. Yeah, You think they will let me interview them?”
“Well the Car Lord is in prison you know?”
“Yeah. You think I could get an interview with him in there?”
“NO! They are Chinese, it’s shameful you know to be seen there!”
“Maybe I can present it to him, that he gets to tell his side of the story. Finally.”
Mike looks at me, slightly impressed, “Hmmm.”
“If you take me in Mike, you can do the interviews. You know, it’s hard for an unattached woman to get in. You can be the person that gives me some footing.”
“Yeah.”
Right now it seems impossible for this to happen. That the car lord will let me film his crew. After all that’s why he is in jail. (Rumours is it’s not the real reason he is in jail. He’s just connected and the cops decided to do him on car racing, because they can’t get him for anything else.) But I heard the “No Way,” a million times in the context of the film, and it turned out there was a way. So maybe. I hope so.
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Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 
Having been in countries I am not a native in, I know the difficulty of interviewing subjects. And I also know about the excitement of the anticipation of getting a “really big fish” on the line.
Good luck with that.
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