AFFD ’13: The 12th Asian Film Festival of Dallas gets up and running July 11. All films will be shown at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas. Not sure what to see? This trailer gives you a pretty good look at your options. Put me down for The Last Tycoon starring the great Chow Yun-Fat.

ON CULTURAL DISTRICTS: Last month, we passed along news of the formation of the Global Cultural Districts Network – an organization that will be co-chaired by the DMA’s Maxwell Anderson. Day-to-day operations fall to Adrian Ellis, who takes to The Art Newspaper to write about the elements that make for a successful cultural district and the purposes they serve. And without referencing the Dallas Arts District specifically, he may have hit on a point that the district’s leaders are surely thinking about. “Physical spaces need planning and their relationships need to be calibrated. The small-scale, flexible, experimental and funky need a place alongside the flagships of the cultural canon,” he writes. “The income-sucking edifices also need income-generating complements if these districts are to stay afloat financially.”

BEN AND THE BEST: On newsstands this week is Entertainment Weekly‘s All-Time Greatest issue. It works through the best movies, albums, TV shows and books in history. And it’s that books list that might jump out to local readers. The full list, unfortunately, isn’t online. But if you’ve got the issue, you’ll notice that Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, released just last year by Dallas author Ben Fountain, checks in at No. 54. Again, of all time. The list says, “The Iraq war finally gets its great novel. … Fountain refracts the raw reality of the battlefield through a gauzy filter of football and Hollywood.” Among the books Billy Lynn tops: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (62), Their Eyes Were Watching God (60) and The Hobbit (71).