DRIFTING Book Release Party was off the hook!
Okay, holy sh!t it's late in the day and I just woke up. (11:15am) We got back from my book release party super late last night. Here's some pics.
This is my boy Calvin. He was at Irwindale Speedway yesterday, making some adjustments to his competition car (Falken G35) because it had a pretty new motor, and new suspension setup. After, he came to my place to pick me up, so we could roll to the party together.
We were gonna meet up with our boys in the Los Feliz area, but we decided to stop for Chinese food in Pasadena cause it was on the way, and the others weren't ready yet.
We just randomly found a Super Street in a stack of magazines at the Chinese food place. SS really IS everywhere. Good shit guys. We opened up the issue, and low and behold! There's a big ass 2 page spread of Calvin's personal car, his white FD3S RX7, when he was competing at the D1 Grand Prix Round in Las Vegas. It was hot as hell that day!
I've been good friends with this guy since... I don't even know. Somewhere between 1994 and 1996. Now he is one of the top drivers in the Formula D series (Team Falken G35) and was one of the first US drivers to get a D1 license. But back then, he was just Calvin with the blue 1986 2tone blue AE86 coupe.
He designed the Cipher Garage "AE86 Silhouette" logo that everyone knows so well, back when we started the AE86 Driving Club in San Francisco CA. Now there's a website in Australia claiming the name AE86 Driving Club, but everyone knows the original one was our group from SF. It's all good though, props to the guys in Aus because anyone who likes AE86s is a friend of ours.
This is the 2page spread on Calvin's FD3S I was talking about. I'm not sure who shot this photo, maybe it was Henry Dekuyper, or maybe it was Jonathan Wong... but either way, they get mad props from me. Awesome photo if I do say so myself.
The light hits the FD just right on the left side, cause the sun was setting, and you can see Calvin inside the car, and the headlights are on, even though they're just popped up a tiny bit. The wheels are spinning, the sponsor logos are sharp, and the background has nice blur.
If you understand drifting and photography, you can tell from the way the smoke is coming off his rear tire, that this photo was taken mid-corner, when he was in the initiation phase of his drift.
After eating, we went to Jay's pad to meet up with some of our boys. (L-R) Garrett from HKS, Jay from Schikane(shaved head old Japanese man on top), Herbrock One from Cipher Garage (full hair old Filipino man in the chair), Stan Tran from Drift Over Grip (we were all waiting for this fucker to get off work, so we could leave), Jay's gangsta lookin brother Todd, and C Wan.
Right when we were about to leave, I got a call from our girl Charlene. She wanted us to wait for her so we could all roll together. Dammnnnnn Char! Hurry uppp!
Finally Char got there, and a bunch of the guys jumped in her car, while Jay's brothers Todd and Rob jumped in the back of Calvin's rentacar Dodge Magnum. When I turned around to look back there, these fools were chillin in the back of the car with open beers in the cupholder! LOL idiots! Man finish your drank before we leave, we don't want C Wan getting busted with open containers in the car while he's driving yo!
This is the line about to form outside of the venue, Nacional. This girl right here is Char. You might recognize her from an episode of Redline TV on Speed Channel, where they did a segment on me as a photographer. She was the model in the shoot, but we do go out and chill alot in real life.
It was funny to see people like John Naderi, the editor of Super Street Magazine, and Eri Moriyama, one of the top import models in the industry, waiting outside in line! Dude just let them in already guys. I stayed outside in the line with my friends to make sure everyone got in, before I went inside. That's what good friends should do.
I was chillin outside with these lovely lovely ladies. Really they are some of my favorite girls of all time. Awesome personalities, I'm not even talkin bout their looks. Hot models are a dime a dozen, but the girls who really stand out to me are the ones with awesome personalities.
Oh but it doesn't hurt that Eri (left) and Char (right) are hot as hell. I really think the world of these two!
This is a rare photo of the Cipher Garage OGs together. This is HerbrockOne (left) and me, AntonioE86. Herb is rockin a shirt from our girl Joyce Lex's clothing line, called Sinful Things. We love Joyce! Look out for her brand and buy her stuff, it will make you look cooler.
I've known Herb forever too. He's not even like my friend anymore, Herb is more of a family member like an older brother. (haha sorry Herb!) I'm just clownin, I like to make fun of Herb and Jay's age all the time. I should stop. But I don't think I will.
Herb owns two AE86s currently, in case you were wondering.
These are my boys, the Yoshida Brothers. Todd, Jay, and Rob. They make high end wallets and stuff, you might see their brand at exclusive shops like Stussy and Undefeated or Union on La Brea. The brand is called "PORTER" by Yoshida and Company.
Haha you WISH fool! No really, their brand is Schikane Clothing, and they make fresh shirts like the famous "Drifting Is Not A Crime" one seen here. Click on the pic to peep the website.
These guys are my good friends, especially Jay. He is super super cool, and a real good person, even though he tries to act all hard in photos.
I like Todd cause he has a bunch of AE86s, he is a real 86er at heart. Jay has a black 86 hatchback, but he needs to clean it up more before he can roll with us. Hurry UP freakin Jay, I'll help you! Rob doesn't have an 86, but he's still hella cool because he used to go out in Hollywood 5 nights a week. Now that's G.
Haha! Like our boy Tobin always says, "fuckin Jay never gets a good spot!" Jay has a pretty gay smile in this photo, but if you were there this would be funnier, cause the pic wasn't sposed to turn out like this. I'll just leave it at that.
I forgot the guy's name at the left, but starting from the stripes, it's our girl Thai (She's the shit! She drove out all the way from South OC just to see me at my party! Love ya Thai!), Jay, Stan in the back, Char, Eri, and Calvin.
This is me and my boy Lamont. He owns a successful IT networking company. I met him on a super hot day in Lake Havasu Arizona, when we were on the Bullrun. It was a cross country "race" from New York to LA, with
parties at every major city in between. Lamont is cool as hell. I didn't see him much after taking this photo though! Where'd you go man??
This is me and my good friend John Naderi, the Editor In Chief of the almighty Super Street Magazine. He looks so stoked to see me, I think he was planning on grabbing my ass or something. Haha! But seriously Nads is a great guy! Hella cool!
Damn showstopper! Everyone in line turned around to look when my girl Heidi jumped out of the car with her friend Tammy.
Heidi's brother is a super talented designer, definitely one of the most talented guys in the industry, but he wasn't there! Where the hell were you Jason?
This is my boy Prosperus One from the might Delta Nine Emcees crew. The first time I saw him, he was onstage at this club me and my boy Kero One used to go to every Sunday night, called Plan B in downtown San Jose. Prosperus was battling this local dude named Pro. We never even saw him before, we were like "who the hell is this asian cat battling Pro?!" but we thought he was sick, and he definitely kicked Pro's ass. We didn't see him at the club after that, but we thought it was cool as hell cause in the past, me and Kero had a freestyle battle with Pro and his boys too.
Now Kero and Prosperus are doing big things with their music careers, especially Kero. Check him out on Myspace. www.myspace.com/kero1
The party was off the hook! Super cool atmosphere at Nacional! Thank you to Steve Levy and Matt Colon and Ray David and everyone at OverAmerica for making this happen! Thanks also to all my friends who came out to chill! You guys are the best! For those who didn't come out, you suck. And you missed out on a fun night with good people!
This is my girl Cindy! Don't I look so happy to see her? Haha, she's a super good friend of mine, she makes sure all the Cipher Garage inventory and DRIFTING books are shipped out on time! She drove out far just to come to this event, thank you Cindy. I love you girl!
Man I look shitty in this photo. This is my boy Andy Yen. He is one of the most OG AE86ers out there, Andy was the shit in the Canyons with his red, no wait... cream, no wait... dark green, no wait... UPS brown AE86 zenki coupe. He was the first drifter from the USA who ever got profiled in a "drifting feature" in a Japanese magazine. It was in Drift Tengoku Magazine, and it was shot/written by my Japanese brother from another mother, Kenta Ogawara. Wish you were here at the party fucking Ken. Ken was in Tokyo.
Andy competed in the first 2 years of Formula D, but now he is a judge in the Formula D Series.
Andy paid me the biggest compliment ever. He came up to me at the club and told me "Congratulations man, your book really came out good man. We didn't expect anything like that, you really filled in alot of blanks for alot of people out there in the drifting world." WOW. Man. Seriously that meant alot to me. That right there was the highlight of my night I think.
To have OG drifters like Alex Pfeiffer and Andy Yen get behind my book and endorse it and be so supportive of me and my book, that really really means alot to me. They might not know this, but I really hold those two especially in the highest regard.
Alex and Andy are the foundation man. They were the inspiration for alot of people to start driving hard at touge. They are great friends, and the leader of some of the most hardcore mountain driving AE86 crews- Battleswing and Swingbattle is the shit in the mountains, and you just can't beat them. Alex was the King of the Hill at Tantalus (Hawaii) and at "Blair Witch" (Northern Cali. Andy was the King at GMR (Socal).
Andy and Alex are super picky guys, and super particular. Super critical as well. And for them to come up to me on separate occasions and tell me they liked the book... man. That shit means alot to me. Really.
Thank you Andy. And thanks Alex. (BTW Where the hell were you, Alex and Crystal!!!)
Wow I was so surprised to see THESE guys out at the party, especially cause they live hella far! This is Dave and Mark Slidesquad. No that's not their real names, but everyone calls em that. Me and Kenta laugh, cause it sounds like they're married when you say it that way.
Dave is in green, reppin his SF tourist hoodie. He is in my book, as a pioneer of the drifting scene in the USA. He has an EF Civic painted camouflage to look like Keisuke Hatakeyama's EF FWD drift Civic in Japan. Then he bought my old red hachiroku (the one with the license plate "DORIFTO" which he eventually ended up selling back to me), and then a 1972 240Z with triple side draft carbs and RS Watanabe wheels. Dave always goes to Japan, and I think he was the first of our group to go to Ebisu Circuit. Dave is an innovator man. He's kinda weird, but that's what makes him cool. There's so much to say about Dave, he is quite a character. He is also a vintage F1 maniac and loves vintage European cars as much as he loves vintage Japanese cars!
Mark Slidesquad is rockin the Ferrari shirt in red. He is one of the coolest guys I know! Such a nice guy. It's funny, we always trip cause Mark is such a chill person, but Dave has the most sarcastic, dry sense of humor! And he gets all crazy when he's hyper! So we're like, damn Mark! Don't you wanna kill Dave sometimes? Haha they're roommates, and good friends. Good thing Mark is such a chill guy! Mark is cool cause he has AWESOME OFFSET wheels on all his cars at all times, and also he always has a different hot asian chick with him at all times, every time we see him. Yup that's one cool English fucker. He used to own a hachiroku too, but now he owns a red RB powered S13 Silvia (first one to do the swap) and a white S14, and another car, I think a Porsche 911 or something? Damn Mark is a baller now.
My boys from Super Street! Carter Jung (thanks for the nice writeup on my book Carter), Jonny "JDM" Wong, and Roel "I always find a way to write about balut in a car feature story" Concepcion. These guys were all asking me about my hat, like what is that? And of course, it's a Kangol.
Kangol is my favorite brand of hat! And Roel says "dude isn't it funny how only black people and filipinos can rock Kangols hard?" Of course! We then figured out that it's because filipinos are like the "black guys" of the asian culture. Think about it for a minute, and you'll know what we're talkin bout. Hm, I wonder if Roel still has his AE86 that he was building up in Super Street.
Me and my girl Sharon. I have known her for sooo long! Me and my boy Herb met Sharon at the first Hot Import Nights at Irvine Spectrum, it was like the 2nd ever HIN. She was modeling on some Civic, and we were jocking. I got her number and actually I had photos of her on the old school Cipher website!
I think Sharon is pretty hot, and she's a pretty wild girl! I like that! Haha but for real, she is so sweet. Her bday is coming up, close to Halloween, and she wants me to go to her party, which I'm down to go to... but she says I have to wear a costume. Herb is down, and he even has his costume ready! But damn man, I don't like wearing costumes, I think it's pretty gay. But I dunno, Sharon keeps telling me I need to go, so I think I might have to go just to show love to my girl... but damn, I don't wanna wear some costume. Well, we'll see how that turns out.
HerbrockOne and Sharon! Man what a crazy reunion!
Damn! I love these two people too! Mark is my BOY! Always lookin fly reppin Cipher Garage gear to the club (Offset is Everything shirt) and his hot ass mama Erin is always lookin good of course! Mark has a sick clean orange 1973 TE27 S5 that he bought from our boy Santos, and also a turbocharged AE86 Levin that he rocks at Just Drift events (he is a pretty damn good driver! Proud of you homie!) and also a TE71 box-type Corolla that he rocks on the daily. Fresh, this guy has a cool collection!
On the other hand, his girl Erin rocks a fly black on black 5speed SC300 (Mark can't wait to drift this thing) and she is not only hot, but her cooking is off the hook. I'm going over to their place for Thanksgiving, don't even think I won't!
This is my boy Anthony next to me. He may look like some weird perv stalker, but he is really a cool guy. We used to work together, back when I was ballin with a high end Director of Sales and Marketing job and a private office with a huge window overlooking Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. But back then, I still drove my AE86 to work every day- in fact, I was driving the CLEAN one, the kouki hatchback that was a SEMA booth car.
Anthony was the IT Manager over there, and when I got hired, he set up my computer, and the login/password he set was "teamcipher" and "redgts" and I was like WTF?! How did this guy know...?
Back then, I used to rock a suit to work every day, and I worked in the corporate environment, so I used to try to "speak and act like a white guy" to fit in with the corporate structure. So I kept my fixed up 86 on the downlow. But this stalker right here knew my website, even before I worked there, apparently he was into old school Toyotas too! Maybe it's a filipino thing.
His website is www.kp61.net it's the most authoritative website out there for KP61 Starlets. He is my boy. He made the www.ciphermediagroup.com website for me. Thank you for everything over the years Anthony, you stalker!
Some of the most talented mofos in the industry right here! My boy John Pangalinan (left) really turned Speedwell Shoes around, lining up top drifters with their own "pro model" driving shoes, with fresh new custom colorways for each driver. On my right is my boy Ray David, from "the Rock." Ray is the creative director for C16, so we collaborated to do the cover of the current issue! I shot the cover of Ken Gushi's Mustang in Seattle, and Ray flipped the script using his Hollywood magic and skills beyond belief! He is the man, and he also rocks Kangols like crazy. These two guys are the shit!
Fred David right here is a sick DJ. For those of you who have had the pleasure of hearing him spin, he rocks the spot for sure! He always represents the 805 whenever he can! He just came out with a new CD, on his new label called Clockwork. If you like original J-Dilla beats, you gotta check out Clockwork Label's new CD from Johnson and Jonson, it's fresh as hell.
Fly Heidi and me! Everyone come up to her at the Cipher Garage booth at Formula D and say wussup! Better yet, hand her $20 and she'll give you a new copy of my book, DRIFTING! And some fly new Cipher Garage gear!
The boys! Maynard, me, Lou, and my boy Arnell. Arnell is a close friend of mine, he is also known as D1 A1 of Falken Sound. He tours around the country with us, and spins quality hip hop at the Falken booth everywhere we go. I gotta give Arnell props for introducing hip hop culture to the drifting scene.
Because of Arnell and the music he spins, there have been multiple freestyle rhyme sessions at the Falken pit area, bboy floor-rockin sessions and all that. Big ups to Arnell for showing love for hip hop culture. Not all drifters are rock and roll.
Castro and Zach! Castro is cool as hell, he works as a Hollywood lighting guy for TV and movies. I could learn a thing or two from him! Also, he is gonna be shooting at Formula D with me! Cool!
Zach back there is Castro's boy, and he's looking for an AE86! I think he's cool already!
Heidi and Arnell, homeboy has that "hashish n trees keep my eyes Chinese" look in this photo, to quote directly from a Nas song. haha
Here's Tammy and Heidi again, rocking some cool ass outfits at the function. I think Tammy's style is cool, I dig the socks. And Heidi just attracts attention because of her "lady in red" uniform over there, but her face is really gorgeous too, so that doesn't hurt either.
My boy Tobin Honda just got back from a trip to Hawaii a couple hours before coming to my party, but him and Craig came through!!! Hell yeah guys, thanks so much for rollin through! You're the shit!
Those of you might recognize Tobin's name because he pretty much single handedly put Enkei Wheels on the map in the drifting community. No disrespect to anyone at Enkei, but I personally think that Enkei USA was pretty disconnected with the drifting industry, because they didn't really cater to the market like they could have. However, for 2 years, Tobin fought to promote Enkei as a wheel company and made it popular with the grassroots drifters, and pro level drifters alike. Respect Tobs! He recently resigned from his position at Enkei. I don't know what they're gonna do without him. They gotta find someone good pretty quickly.
Had to take a pic with the ladies, fo sho! Thanks for the bunny ears, Junior B! haha
Kenji, me, and Barry Wong from Hawaii! Barry drives the Kaaz S13 in Formula D, and he has a matching car in Hawaii! But I'm so happy for him, he told me he just bought another hachiroku (he's originally an AE86 guy) and he is building it up again for drifting! Sick! I also heard Barry ballin now, with his own house in Hawaii Kai! Damn baller, congratulations bradda! Wish his gf Kandis, and all our other Hawaii friends like Paul, Royce, Justin and them guys were here too!
At the bar with my boy Daryl, the owner of Belle 1 Racing Communications. Daryl and his brothers run the Belle-1 jumbotron at all the Formula D and D1 events. They also provide all the radios to the drivers and teams at the events! Without Belle 1, there would be no communication at drifting events.
Thank you guys so much for promoting my book on the jumbotron, and for inviting me to your bomb ass BBQs! Dope!
Schikane crew represent! These are my boys! I hang out with these cats all the time. Tobin and Jay came up with the idea for the Fashion Icons Show, which was the first fashion show aimed at the automotive apparel market. Kenta from Tokyo Drive and I worked with them on the behind the scenes aspects of creating the show, and I was the host of the evening. We packed a club on Hollywood Blvd and Highland beyond capacity, and there were tons of industry folks, friends, and fly ladies all up in there! Stay tuned for the NEXT Icons show.... coming this December!
Hollywood Heidi and Chrizle are so fun to chill with!
Everyone in this photo is an AE86er. Calvin Wan, Lance Kirianoff (aka Potatoes O'Brien, pink AE86 in Formula D), me, Colin Frost (red 85 AE86 in Maxim Magazine, now a writer for Drift & RWD Sport Magazine), and Martin Harjani (white Hasselgren AE86 with Formula Atlantic motor).
Herb and his nephew Pauly cheesin it up!
Here's Heidi laughing about something Lance said to her... oh wait. That's the wrong Lance! Where's my boy Lance Feliciano? Usually those two are attached at the hip or something.
We all went outside, and apparently even though we told him to come outside with us, Calvin Wan didn't know we were outside. So he was wandering around the club by himself! hahaha LoSERRR! haha but we found Arnell outside at the famous Hollywood hot dog carts, where the mexican guys always serve you up a grilled hot dog wrapped in bacon, sauteed onions and peppers for only $3 bucks. This is always the spot at like 2am after you've been partying.
I was so happy to see these two together outside the club. Really. Tobin and Char look great together, I don't think anyone could look better than these two.
And Jay had to throw in a flyer from www.autofonimages.com into the pic! Go to that website, so you can download my photos to your cell phones!
Here's the same photo, but this time with flash. And Stan in the background!
Man I kinda wish I brought my Canon SLR out, so I could have taken better photos at the event! I just brought my new toy, this pocket sized Casio Exilim. But if I brought my digital SLR, I could have taken way cooler photos, but I just didn't want the burned of having to carry it around all night, when I was supposed to chill with my friends.
If I brought it out, I would have popped a quick flash onto Tob and Char from the left side, so I could expose their faces in a flattering way, without getting a shadow from Char's low hat.... but at the same time, I'd rock a longer shutter speed so I could expose the ambient light in the background, and you could see the Hollywood street scenery going on in the background. Also flashing from the side would not put any light on Stan, so the photo wouldn't be ruined! But too bad, I left it in the car.
All night, I couldn't stop thinking about how many limitations this little Exilim pocket camera had, and how I needed something SMALL where I could still control the position of the flash, and still have low light sensitivity. But nobody makes a camera like that. Dammit. I never stop thinking about photography or how to properly expose a scene. Ever. Serious.
Hollywood Heidi and Chrizle are all G'd up in Chrizle's Hummer. Heidi is cool, she is looking to buy an AE86. Seriously. She has a fixed up Civic, but she knows AE86s are better. Saw wussup to her at the Cipher Garage booth on Saturday!
We all rolled back to Del Taco, and then back to Jay's pad to eat. Herbrock One right here was the founder of Driftwell clothing, that you see EVERYONE rocking on the race track and at events, and even at the mall. Seriously, it's everywhere.
Even this shop in Hawaii called Razor Concepts in the mall sells fake Driftwell stuff. I even saw it with my own eyes, their fake shirts. They liked his shirts so much, they copied it and bit it and have been making money selling it in Hawaii. Razor Concepts is pretty shady man. Too bad they don't know Herb owns all the trademarks on Driftwell, and they are gonna get sued. Dumbasses. Think up your own designs.
Like how I conveniently framed the D*well stickers in the background when I took the shot? Too bad the lighting from this little camera is shitty. Anyway, like always, Herb was telling us some funny stories, and we were laughing our asses off. We were talking about how I didn't want to wear a costume to Sharon's party on the 27th, and he was tellin me he's down, and he even has a costume already. I was like WTF?
This is Thao, she is a drifter too, she drives an S13, but I heard she sold it, I dunno why. Thao was clowning on Herb as he was telling a story about how he wore a costume to Lance Kirianoff's 80s Costume party. It was hella funny, seriously.
Jay was laughing his ass off, and clowning Herb too, while Thao was egging him on! Hey man stop making fun of Herb! hahaha no seriously, it was really funny. Freakin Herb.
Okay that's it, I need to go to Irwindale, and then buy supplies for the weekend! Peace!!!
This is my boy Calvin. He was at Irwindale Speedway yesterday, making some adjustments to his competition car (Falken G35) because it had a pretty new motor, and new suspension setup. After, he came to my place to pick me up, so we could roll to the party together.
We were gonna meet up with our boys in the Los Feliz area, but we decided to stop for Chinese food in Pasadena cause it was on the way, and the others weren't ready yet.
We just randomly found a Super Street in a stack of magazines at the Chinese food place. SS really IS everywhere. Good shit guys. We opened up the issue, and low and behold! There's a big ass 2 page spread of Calvin's personal car, his white FD3S RX7, when he was competing at the D1 Grand Prix Round in Las Vegas. It was hot as hell that day!
I've been good friends with this guy since... I don't even know. Somewhere between 1994 and 1996. Now he is one of the top drivers in the Formula D series (Team Falken G35) and was one of the first US drivers to get a D1 license. But back then, he was just Calvin with the blue 1986 2tone blue AE86 coupe.
He designed the Cipher Garage "AE86 Silhouette" logo that everyone knows so well, back when we started the AE86 Driving Club in San Francisco CA. Now there's a website in Australia claiming the name AE86 Driving Club, but everyone knows the original one was our group from SF. It's all good though, props to the guys in Aus because anyone who likes AE86s is a friend of ours.
This is the 2page spread on Calvin's FD3S I was talking about. I'm not sure who shot this photo, maybe it was Henry Dekuyper, or maybe it was Jonathan Wong... but either way, they get mad props from me. Awesome photo if I do say so myself.
The light hits the FD just right on the left side, cause the sun was setting, and you can see Calvin inside the car, and the headlights are on, even though they're just popped up a tiny bit. The wheels are spinning, the sponsor logos are sharp, and the background has nice blur.
If you understand drifting and photography, you can tell from the way the smoke is coming off his rear tire, that this photo was taken mid-corner, when he was in the initiation phase of his drift.
After eating, we went to Jay's pad to meet up with some of our boys. (L-R) Garrett from HKS, Jay from Schikane(shaved head old Japanese man on top), Herbrock One from Cipher Garage (full hair old Filipino man in the chair), Stan Tran from Drift Over Grip (we were all waiting for this fucker to get off work, so we could leave), Jay's gangsta lookin brother Todd, and C Wan.
Right when we were about to leave, I got a call from our girl Charlene. She wanted us to wait for her so we could all roll together. Dammnnnnn Char! Hurry uppp!
Finally Char got there, and a bunch of the guys jumped in her car, while Jay's brothers Todd and Rob jumped in the back of Calvin's rentacar Dodge Magnum. When I turned around to look back there, these fools were chillin in the back of the car with open beers in the cupholder! LOL idiots! Man finish your drank before we leave, we don't want C Wan getting busted with open containers in the car while he's driving yo!
This is the line about to form outside of the venue, Nacional. This girl right here is Char. You might recognize her from an episode of Redline TV on Speed Channel, where they did a segment on me as a photographer. She was the model in the shoot, but we do go out and chill alot in real life.
It was funny to see people like John Naderi, the editor of Super Street Magazine, and Eri Moriyama, one of the top import models in the industry, waiting outside in line! Dude just let them in already guys. I stayed outside in the line with my friends to make sure everyone got in, before I went inside. That's what good friends should do.
I was chillin outside with these lovely lovely ladies. Really they are some of my favorite girls of all time. Awesome personalities, I'm not even talkin bout their looks. Hot models are a dime a dozen, but the girls who really stand out to me are the ones with awesome personalities.
Oh but it doesn't hurt that Eri (left) and Char (right) are hot as hell. I really think the world of these two!
This is a rare photo of the Cipher Garage OGs together. This is HerbrockOne (left) and me, AntonioE86. Herb is rockin a shirt from our girl Joyce Lex's clothing line, called Sinful Things. We love Joyce! Look out for her brand and buy her stuff, it will make you look cooler.
I've known Herb forever too. He's not even like my friend anymore, Herb is more of a family member like an older brother. (haha sorry Herb!) I'm just clownin, I like to make fun of Herb and Jay's age all the time. I should stop. But I don't think I will.
Herb owns two AE86s currently, in case you were wondering.
These are my boys, the Yoshida Brothers. Todd, Jay, and Rob. They make high end wallets and stuff, you might see their brand at exclusive shops like Stussy and Undefeated or Union on La Brea. The brand is called "PORTER" by Yoshida and Company.
Haha you WISH fool! No really, their brand is Schikane Clothing, and they make fresh shirts like the famous "Drifting Is Not A Crime" one seen here. Click on the pic to peep the website.
These guys are my good friends, especially Jay. He is super super cool, and a real good person, even though he tries to act all hard in photos.
I like Todd cause he has a bunch of AE86s, he is a real 86er at heart. Jay has a black 86 hatchback, but he needs to clean it up more before he can roll with us. Hurry UP freakin Jay, I'll help you! Rob doesn't have an 86, but he's still hella cool because he used to go out in Hollywood 5 nights a week. Now that's G.
Haha! Like our boy Tobin always says, "fuckin Jay never gets a good spot!" Jay has a pretty gay smile in this photo, but if you were there this would be funnier, cause the pic wasn't sposed to turn out like this. I'll just leave it at that.
I forgot the guy's name at the left, but starting from the stripes, it's our girl Thai (She's the shit! She drove out all the way from South OC just to see me at my party! Love ya Thai!), Jay, Stan in the back, Char, Eri, and Calvin.
This is me and my boy Lamont. He owns a successful IT networking company. I met him on a super hot day in Lake Havasu Arizona, when we were on the Bullrun. It was a cross country "race" from New York to LA, with
parties at every major city in between. Lamont is cool as hell. I didn't see him much after taking this photo though! Where'd you go man??
This is me and my good friend John Naderi, the Editor In Chief of the almighty Super Street Magazine. He looks so stoked to see me, I think he was planning on grabbing my ass or something. Haha! But seriously Nads is a great guy! Hella cool!
Damn showstopper! Everyone in line turned around to look when my girl Heidi jumped out of the car with her friend Tammy.
Heidi's brother is a super talented designer, definitely one of the most talented guys in the industry, but he wasn't there! Where the hell were you Jason?
This is my boy Prosperus One from the might Delta Nine Emcees crew. The first time I saw him, he was onstage at this club me and my boy Kero One used to go to every Sunday night, called Plan B in downtown San Jose. Prosperus was battling this local dude named Pro. We never even saw him before, we were like "who the hell is this asian cat battling Pro?!" but we thought he was sick, and he definitely kicked Pro's ass. We didn't see him at the club after that, but we thought it was cool as hell cause in the past, me and Kero had a freestyle battle with Pro and his boys too.
Now Kero and Prosperus are doing big things with their music careers, especially Kero. Check him out on Myspace. www.myspace.com/kero1
The party was off the hook! Super cool atmosphere at Nacional! Thank you to Steve Levy and Matt Colon and Ray David and everyone at OverAmerica for making this happen! Thanks also to all my friends who came out to chill! You guys are the best! For those who didn't come out, you suck. And you missed out on a fun night with good people!
This is my girl Cindy! Don't I look so happy to see her? Haha, she's a super good friend of mine, she makes sure all the Cipher Garage inventory and DRIFTING books are shipped out on time! She drove out far just to come to this event, thank you Cindy. I love you girl!
Man I look shitty in this photo. This is my boy Andy Yen. He is one of the most OG AE86ers out there, Andy was the shit in the Canyons with his red, no wait... cream, no wait... dark green, no wait... UPS brown AE86 zenki coupe. He was the first drifter from the USA who ever got profiled in a "drifting feature" in a Japanese magazine. It was in Drift Tengoku Magazine, and it was shot/written by my Japanese brother from another mother, Kenta Ogawara. Wish you were here at the party fucking Ken. Ken was in Tokyo.
Andy competed in the first 2 years of Formula D, but now he is a judge in the Formula D Series.
Andy paid me the biggest compliment ever. He came up to me at the club and told me "Congratulations man, your book really came out good man. We didn't expect anything like that, you really filled in alot of blanks for alot of people out there in the drifting world." WOW. Man. Seriously that meant alot to me. That right there was the highlight of my night I think.
To have OG drifters like Alex Pfeiffer and Andy Yen get behind my book and endorse it and be so supportive of me and my book, that really really means alot to me. They might not know this, but I really hold those two especially in the highest regard.
Alex and Andy are the foundation man. They were the inspiration for alot of people to start driving hard at touge. They are great friends, and the leader of some of the most hardcore mountain driving AE86 crews- Battleswing and Swingbattle is the shit in the mountains, and you just can't beat them. Alex was the King of the Hill at Tantalus (Hawaii) and at "Blair Witch" (Northern Cali. Andy was the King at GMR (Socal).
Andy and Alex are super picky guys, and super particular. Super critical as well. And for them to come up to me on separate occasions and tell me they liked the book... man. That shit means alot to me. Really.
Thank you Andy. And thanks Alex. (BTW Where the hell were you, Alex and Crystal!!!)
Wow I was so surprised to see THESE guys out at the party, especially cause they live hella far! This is Dave and Mark Slidesquad. No that's not their real names, but everyone calls em that. Me and Kenta laugh, cause it sounds like they're married when you say it that way.
Dave is in green, reppin his SF tourist hoodie. He is in my book, as a pioneer of the drifting scene in the USA. He has an EF Civic painted camouflage to look like Keisuke Hatakeyama's EF FWD drift Civic in Japan. Then he bought my old red hachiroku (the one with the license plate "DORIFTO" which he eventually ended up selling back to me), and then a 1972 240Z with triple side draft carbs and RS Watanabe wheels. Dave always goes to Japan, and I think he was the first of our group to go to Ebisu Circuit. Dave is an innovator man. He's kinda weird, but that's what makes him cool. There's so much to say about Dave, he is quite a character. He is also a vintage F1 maniac and loves vintage European cars as much as he loves vintage Japanese cars!
Mark Slidesquad is rockin the Ferrari shirt in red. He is one of the coolest guys I know! Such a nice guy. It's funny, we always trip cause Mark is such a chill person, but Dave has the most sarcastic, dry sense of humor! And he gets all crazy when he's hyper! So we're like, damn Mark! Don't you wanna kill Dave sometimes? Haha they're roommates, and good friends. Good thing Mark is such a chill guy! Mark is cool cause he has AWESOME OFFSET wheels on all his cars at all times, and also he always has a different hot asian chick with him at all times, every time we see him. Yup that's one cool English fucker. He used to own a hachiroku too, but now he owns a red RB powered S13 Silvia (first one to do the swap) and a white S14, and another car, I think a Porsche 911 or something? Damn Mark is a baller now.
My boys from Super Street! Carter Jung (thanks for the nice writeup on my book Carter), Jonny "JDM" Wong, and Roel "I always find a way to write about balut in a car feature story" Concepcion. These guys were all asking me about my hat, like what is that? And of course, it's a Kangol.
Kangol is my favorite brand of hat! And Roel says "dude isn't it funny how only black people and filipinos can rock Kangols hard?" Of course! We then figured out that it's because filipinos are like the "black guys" of the asian culture. Think about it for a minute, and you'll know what we're talkin bout. Hm, I wonder if Roel still has his AE86 that he was building up in Super Street.
Me and my girl Sharon. I have known her for sooo long! Me and my boy Herb met Sharon at the first Hot Import Nights at Irvine Spectrum, it was like the 2nd ever HIN. She was modeling on some Civic, and we were jocking. I got her number and actually I had photos of her on the old school Cipher website!
I think Sharon is pretty hot, and she's a pretty wild girl! I like that! Haha but for real, she is so sweet. Her bday is coming up, close to Halloween, and she wants me to go to her party, which I'm down to go to... but she says I have to wear a costume. Herb is down, and he even has his costume ready! But damn man, I don't like wearing costumes, I think it's pretty gay. But I dunno, Sharon keeps telling me I need to go, so I think I might have to go just to show love to my girl... but damn, I don't wanna wear some costume. Well, we'll see how that turns out.
HerbrockOne and Sharon! Man what a crazy reunion!
Damn! I love these two people too! Mark is my BOY! Always lookin fly reppin Cipher Garage gear to the club (Offset is Everything shirt) and his hot ass mama Erin is always lookin good of course! Mark has a sick clean orange 1973 TE27 S5 that he bought from our boy Santos, and also a turbocharged AE86 Levin that he rocks at Just Drift events (he is a pretty damn good driver! Proud of you homie!) and also a TE71 box-type Corolla that he rocks on the daily. Fresh, this guy has a cool collection!
On the other hand, his girl Erin rocks a fly black on black 5speed SC300 (Mark can't wait to drift this thing) and she is not only hot, but her cooking is off the hook. I'm going over to their place for Thanksgiving, don't even think I won't!
This is my boy Anthony next to me. He may look like some weird perv stalker, but he is really a cool guy. We used to work together, back when I was ballin with a high end Director of Sales and Marketing job and a private office with a huge window overlooking Sunset Blvd in Hollywood. But back then, I still drove my AE86 to work every day- in fact, I was driving the CLEAN one, the kouki hatchback that was a SEMA booth car.
Anthony was the IT Manager over there, and when I got hired, he set up my computer, and the login/password he set was "teamcipher" and "redgts" and I was like WTF?! How did this guy know...?
Back then, I used to rock a suit to work every day, and I worked in the corporate environment, so I used to try to "speak and act like a white guy" to fit in with the corporate structure. So I kept my fixed up 86 on the downlow. But this stalker right here knew my website, even before I worked there, apparently he was into old school Toyotas too! Maybe it's a filipino thing.
His website is www.kp61.net it's the most authoritative website out there for KP61 Starlets. He is my boy. He made the www.ciphermediagroup.com website for me. Thank you for everything over the years Anthony, you stalker!
Some of the most talented mofos in the industry right here! My boy John Pangalinan (left) really turned Speedwell Shoes around, lining up top drifters with their own "pro model" driving shoes, with fresh new custom colorways for each driver. On my right is my boy Ray David, from "the Rock." Ray is the creative director for C16, so we collaborated to do the cover of the current issue! I shot the cover of Ken Gushi's Mustang in Seattle, and Ray flipped the script using his Hollywood magic and skills beyond belief! He is the man, and he also rocks Kangols like crazy. These two guys are the shit!
Fred David right here is a sick DJ. For those of you who have had the pleasure of hearing him spin, he rocks the spot for sure! He always represents the 805 whenever he can! He just came out with a new CD, on his new label called Clockwork. If you like original J-Dilla beats, you gotta check out Clockwork Label's new CD from Johnson and Jonson, it's fresh as hell.
Fly Heidi and me! Everyone come up to her at the Cipher Garage booth at Formula D and say wussup! Better yet, hand her $20 and she'll give you a new copy of my book, DRIFTING! And some fly new Cipher Garage gear!
The boys! Maynard, me, Lou, and my boy Arnell. Arnell is a close friend of mine, he is also known as D1 A1 of Falken Sound. He tours around the country with us, and spins quality hip hop at the Falken booth everywhere we go. I gotta give Arnell props for introducing hip hop culture to the drifting scene.
Because of Arnell and the music he spins, there have been multiple freestyle rhyme sessions at the Falken pit area, bboy floor-rockin sessions and all that. Big ups to Arnell for showing love for hip hop culture. Not all drifters are rock and roll.
Castro and Zach! Castro is cool as hell, he works as a Hollywood lighting guy for TV and movies. I could learn a thing or two from him! Also, he is gonna be shooting at Formula D with me! Cool!
Zach back there is Castro's boy, and he's looking for an AE86! I think he's cool already!
Heidi and Arnell, homeboy has that "hashish n trees keep my eyes Chinese" look in this photo, to quote directly from a Nas song. haha
Here's Tammy and Heidi again, rocking some cool ass outfits at the function. I think Tammy's style is cool, I dig the socks. And Heidi just attracts attention because of her "lady in red" uniform over there, but her face is really gorgeous too, so that doesn't hurt either.
My boy Tobin Honda just got back from a trip to Hawaii a couple hours before coming to my party, but him and Craig came through!!! Hell yeah guys, thanks so much for rollin through! You're the shit!
Those of you might recognize Tobin's name because he pretty much single handedly put Enkei Wheels on the map in the drifting community. No disrespect to anyone at Enkei, but I personally think that Enkei USA was pretty disconnected with the drifting industry, because they didn't really cater to the market like they could have. However, for 2 years, Tobin fought to promote Enkei as a wheel company and made it popular with the grassroots drifters, and pro level drifters alike. Respect Tobs! He recently resigned from his position at Enkei. I don't know what they're gonna do without him. They gotta find someone good pretty quickly.
Had to take a pic with the ladies, fo sho! Thanks for the bunny ears, Junior B! haha
Kenji, me, and Barry Wong from Hawaii! Barry drives the Kaaz S13 in Formula D, and he has a matching car in Hawaii! But I'm so happy for him, he told me he just bought another hachiroku (he's originally an AE86 guy) and he is building it up again for drifting! Sick! I also heard Barry ballin now, with his own house in Hawaii Kai! Damn baller, congratulations bradda! Wish his gf Kandis, and all our other Hawaii friends like Paul, Royce, Justin and them guys were here too!
At the bar with my boy Daryl, the owner of Belle 1 Racing Communications. Daryl and his brothers run the Belle-1 jumbotron at all the Formula D and D1 events. They also provide all the radios to the drivers and teams at the events! Without Belle 1, there would be no communication at drifting events.
Thank you guys so much for promoting my book on the jumbotron, and for inviting me to your bomb ass BBQs! Dope!
Schikane crew represent! These are my boys! I hang out with these cats all the time. Tobin and Jay came up with the idea for the Fashion Icons Show, which was the first fashion show aimed at the automotive apparel market. Kenta from Tokyo Drive and I worked with them on the behind the scenes aspects of creating the show, and I was the host of the evening. We packed a club on Hollywood Blvd and Highland beyond capacity, and there were tons of industry folks, friends, and fly ladies all up in there! Stay tuned for the NEXT Icons show.... coming this December!
Hollywood Heidi and Chrizle are so fun to chill with!
Everyone in this photo is an AE86er. Calvin Wan, Lance Kirianoff (aka Potatoes O'Brien, pink AE86 in Formula D), me, Colin Frost (red 85 AE86 in Maxim Magazine, now a writer for Drift & RWD Sport Magazine), and Martin Harjani (white Hasselgren AE86 with Formula Atlantic motor).
Herb and his nephew Pauly cheesin it up!
Here's Heidi laughing about something Lance said to her... oh wait. That's the wrong Lance! Where's my boy Lance Feliciano? Usually those two are attached at the hip or something.
We all went outside, and apparently even though we told him to come outside with us, Calvin Wan didn't know we were outside. So he was wandering around the club by himself! hahaha LoSERRR! haha but we found Arnell outside at the famous Hollywood hot dog carts, where the mexican guys always serve you up a grilled hot dog wrapped in bacon, sauteed onions and peppers for only $3 bucks. This is always the spot at like 2am after you've been partying.
I was so happy to see these two together outside the club. Really. Tobin and Char look great together, I don't think anyone could look better than these two.
And Jay had to throw in a flyer from www.autofonimages.com into the pic! Go to that website, so you can download my photos to your cell phones!
Here's the same photo, but this time with flash. And Stan in the background!
Man I kinda wish I brought my Canon SLR out, so I could have taken better photos at the event! I just brought my new toy, this pocket sized Casio Exilim. But if I brought my digital SLR, I could have taken way cooler photos, but I just didn't want the burned of having to carry it around all night, when I was supposed to chill with my friends.
If I brought it out, I would have popped a quick flash onto Tob and Char from the left side, so I could expose their faces in a flattering way, without getting a shadow from Char's low hat.... but at the same time, I'd rock a longer shutter speed so I could expose the ambient light in the background, and you could see the Hollywood street scenery going on in the background. Also flashing from the side would not put any light on Stan, so the photo wouldn't be ruined! But too bad, I left it in the car.
All night, I couldn't stop thinking about how many limitations this little Exilim pocket camera had, and how I needed something SMALL where I could still control the position of the flash, and still have low light sensitivity. But nobody makes a camera like that. Dammit. I never stop thinking about photography or how to properly expose a scene. Ever. Serious.
Hollywood Heidi and Chrizle are all G'd up in Chrizle's Hummer. Heidi is cool, she is looking to buy an AE86. Seriously. She has a fixed up Civic, but she knows AE86s are better. Saw wussup to her at the Cipher Garage booth on Saturday!
We all rolled back to Del Taco, and then back to Jay's pad to eat. Herbrock One right here was the founder of Driftwell clothing, that you see EVERYONE rocking on the race track and at events, and even at the mall. Seriously, it's everywhere.
Even this shop in Hawaii called Razor Concepts in the mall sells fake Driftwell stuff. I even saw it with my own eyes, their fake shirts. They liked his shirts so much, they copied it and bit it and have been making money selling it in Hawaii. Razor Concepts is pretty shady man. Too bad they don't know Herb owns all the trademarks on Driftwell, and they are gonna get sued. Dumbasses. Think up your own designs.
Like how I conveniently framed the D*well stickers in the background when I took the shot? Too bad the lighting from this little camera is shitty. Anyway, like always, Herb was telling us some funny stories, and we were laughing our asses off. We were talking about how I didn't want to wear a costume to Sharon's party on the 27th, and he was tellin me he's down, and he even has a costume already. I was like WTF?
This is Thao, she is a drifter too, she drives an S13, but I heard she sold it, I dunno why. Thao was clowning on Herb as he was telling a story about how he wore a costume to Lance Kirianoff's 80s Costume party. It was hella funny, seriously.
Jay was laughing his ass off, and clowning Herb too, while Thao was egging him on! Hey man stop making fun of Herb! hahaha no seriously, it was really funny. Freakin Herb.
Okay that's it, I need to go to Irwindale, and then buy supplies for the weekend! Peace!!!
posted by Cipher Garage at 11:17 AM
3 Comments:
I still have my s13 =) I sold the 2nd one, haha
dude...you were suppposed to CALL ME when you met up last night fag!
Hi, well be sensible, well-all described
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