So the first round of Formula D is kicking off next week in Long Beach, CA – April 9th and 10th, 2010. We will be attending as there will be 2 cars competing with graphics designed by me; Garage Boso S15 driven by Ross Petty and the Discount Tire/Falken S13 driven by Daijiro Yoshihara.
(images from wreckedmagazine.com check out their site for more coverage on Formula Drift’s Tech Day @ UTI.)
Last Friday was Japan Nite at The Indendent in San Francisco. Parking around Divisidero is insane as always and almost like tradition, we missed the first band which was Jinny Oops! But you can check them out for yourselves on their myspace page:
Jinny Oops!
The second band was Okamotos. These guys really rocked out! The front man is really young at I believe only 19, but he worked the stage with swagger that mimicked Mick Jagger. I think that they all only range from 18-19 years old throughout the band but that surely wasn’t an issue. They worked the crowd and got everyone involved with a lot of crowd participation. Definitely a lot of energy on the stage. Great performance overall and I love seeing them again if they were to return next year. Check them out @ Okamoto’s
Next up was Red Bateria Vacuum. Three girls take the stage, tune their instruments but when the lead stepped up to the mic with her axe in hand, a demon emerged! These girls really kicked ass! All-girl punk rock band was the description but what you got was 3 demons with instruments that put out one bad ass show. Their sound really gets you pumped up! You can check them out @ Red Bateria Vacuum myspace page or you can check out some of their performances on youtube: RBV on Youtube
Then it was time to set up some equipment that included an Apple MacBook Pro, a Nintendo DS Lite, a Sony PSP, a Gameboy Color, a Korg Kaossilator and an LCD monitor. Omodaka took the stage as he is a returning ‘band’ from last year’s event. I loosely use the term ‘band’ as he refers to his equip as his band members. He captivated the crowd once again with his ‘Japanese Electronica Folk Music’. I think that’s how I would describe it. His performance is definitely something that needs to be seen as well as heard. I think watching for yourself is best: Omodaka Videos
For the final band of the night, it was Chatmonchy. These girls have a soothing pop/rock sound if that makes some sense. I really liked their performance and ended up grabbing all three of their CDs. To me, it’s music that I can drive, draw or relax to but won’t make me fall asleep with it’s energetic melodies. It’s no wonder why Sony Music Japan picked them up. They gave a great performance and ended the night with one last encore which took a different direction towards a ‘Beach Boys’ vibe. They have a myspace music page @ Chatmonchy myspace page
As always, Japan Nite was a lot of fun and we look forward to next year’s event. I just hope we can break the streak and catch the first band for once…
-Jeff
The SEMA show is going on in Las Vegas this week. It actually started yesterday. I wish we could have been out there for the whole week, but we’re going to be out there just for the end of it. Well, I suppose if you’re headed out for Vegas this week or you’re already in town, we’ll see you there!
The results are in! Garage Boso won the Best Looking Car of the Year in Formula Drift 2009 Season. Congrats guys!
Oh yeah… Ross also won ‘Best Style’ of the year award too.
So they finally aired the episode when Mike Rowe and the Dirty Jobs crew filmed Mike collecting dirty mattresses around SF. Unfortunately, they only showed my back. (T_T)
Well, you can watch the episode here: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/dirty-jobs-mattress-recycler/
The clip is “The Mattress Man”. It was still cool to meet Mike Rowe and to ‘kinda’ be on TV.
So many things have gone by but I haven’t time to write up on them all. As I’m writing this, we are all getting prepared to leave for Gardena to meet up with Frank and Ross at Garage Boso. This weekend is Formula D round 1 and we are going be there in support of Boso and their “Rossta” S15 that I drew the graphics for. More detailed news to come! Stay tuned…
Uh-oh… I’m caught!
Luckily, they were really cool about it and let me meet and take a picture with Mike Rowe. I signed the waiver along with my neighbors Cindy and Sam. They were able to get on the show, but they told me to step aside, which really really sucked. I might be in some of the footage walking around since I kept snooping around but I won’t know until they air the episode. Didn’t get to have my 15 minutes, but maybe I’ll get my 15 seconds! What is this episode about? See for yourself and watch the show if you don’t watch it already. Check them out @ http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/dirtyjobs/dirtyjobs.html
Junior has been added to the Cage Combat Fighting fight card scheduled for February 21, 2009 in Santa Rosa. More info @ www.cagecombatfighting.com (site seems to be under construction at the moment) We will post updates as soon as they are available.
I never had the chance to post this news up so here it is. Angry Guy Art Studios and Never Too Latte have sponsored a new MMA Fighter, Osmar ‘Junior’ Delima. He recently won his MMA debut fight on November 4, 2008 @ Cage Combat Fighting Championships Rumble in the Park II. Osmar claimed his first win against Gabby Solorio ending the contest with a submission (Guillotine Choke) in 1:01 minutes in the first round. Congrats Osmar!
I don’t have any footage from the fight, but here’s a highlight video of Osmar’s older fights.
I love the way he gets past the guy @ 2:20.
So we’re on our way to our friend Rico and Kirsten’s wedding on 101 south and we hear this roar. Flying past comes an Audi covered in decals. My first impression is, “he shouldn’t drive that fast with his car all covered in decals like that… he’s just asking for a ticket”. But then I read the back and it says “Gumball 3000″! Luckily we have cameras in the car (since we headed to a wedding) but we missed the first car we saw along with a few others that were too fast to snap pics.
All of the pics we able to take are posted up in the gallery.
