Congrats guys!

From the Orisue blog…

Orisue has been in business for nearly 4 years now, and we’ve never had a physical retail space of our own. That is until next week! We will be opening our first ever pop-up shop in beautiful Venice Beach, California! We will be sharing the space with 9Five, Aerial7WeArePlus. and

We’re kickin’ off the festivities with an opening party Tuesday Dec. 22. Music will be provided by O-Team members DJ SourMilk & DJ Ever as well as Aerial7’s own DJ Ayla Simone. There will also be a special performance by U-N-I. To top things off drinks are on the house courtesy of Belvedere, Corona Extra & AMP Energy Drink!

The opening starts at 7PM and goes until 11PM.

The Pop-Up Shop Featuring: Orisue, 9Five, Aerial7 & WeArePlus
1511 Abbot Kinney
Venice Beach, CA 90291

Make sure you RSVP at: AK1511.com/RSVP
(21+ Only)

Source: Orisue

Join myself and the rest of the usual suspects aka CADC ALUMNI as we show the UCI student body how ALUMNI get down (1. Alcohol and 2. on the dance floor). Well I don’t really like to dance anymore so it will just be a drinking demonstration… but my tolerance has gone to shits since college so… eh… um… well there is no I in TEAM… thanks for picking up the slack guys/Nahgooz!!!

Check out these guys too… they show DC MAD LOVE AND SUPPORT.

www.heistandco.com
www.prodigydjs.com

Here is my post from last year’s party… oh how I love archives. This is why you should blog, kids.
http://thomasphantom.com/wordpress/?p=53430619

Not so long ago, I drove up to Fullerton to attend the first CADC banquet ever… celebrating our fifteen years of dance, drunken nights, and camaraderie. Its quite strange that we decided to recognize this on our 15th year and not for years before… like having your first birthday party at age 15 haha.

Big thanks goes out to Louis (Tikko) and Kevin Siu (Marriott)… both DC alums, for brainchilding (word?) this event. Also, special shout out to the decorating committee! Sweet sixteen, you’re up next!

The venue was very dim lit for banquet/formal/fancy mood purposes so my iPhone camera was benched most of the night…

(Only good pics)

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Our third annual camping trip brought us to Callville Bay at Lake Mead, NV. If you haven’t been houseboating, you should give it a go. Nothing beats bashing the waves on the speedboat while working on your uneven tan or basking in the calm of nature at its finest. It was surely something else. Mucho thanks goes out to the team of Louis and Janet, our captains… and the finest (party) crew aboard Club 008.

Overpackage

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Tish and I had the pleasure of revisiting perhaps one of our favorite cities of all time… San Francisco! Instead of being rushed like our last visit (only one day), we had some more time to take in what the city had to offer at a more comfortable pace. We also had some friends who were in SF as well so that made the trip even more epic!

Enjoy the pics!

Off to LAX

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Last night, I had the privilege of attending a lecture given by Johnny Earle aka Johnny Cupcakes at Whittier College. Tish and I thought we were gonna be late and miss the 6pm start time (which quickly brought back horrible HORRIBLE college flashbacks) but as we walked into the student center area there was a massive line of eager fans snaking up a flight of stairs. Whew!

The lecture actually started around 7pm and lasted for two hours. In those two hours Johnny shared his whole JC story and gave insight/tips on how he started his business. It was a real motivating and inspiring lecture full of surprises and funny moments. There was even an “Oprah moment” when he told everyone to look under their chairs for a goodie bag surprise… which went along with his creating memorable moments tip.

• Goodie bag: Power Ranger/Saved by the Bell cards, JC cards and a mint.
• Copycats… “those bit*hes!” LOL!
• Johnny doesn’t understand the appeal of beer pong because the ball gets so dirty.
• A relation-ship!

I was quite surprised to see how down to earth and personable Johnny was. A lot of brands say they care about their customers but I think Johnny really goes 110% to show it. Buying fans pizza, letting fans chill at his own house, thinking of creative ways to take care of his customers who he considers family. He’s like a friend that you never knew you had. He even agreed to grab dinner with whoever stayed after the lecture. Johnny Cupcakes is for the people!

Good stuff. Thanks, Johnny!

www.johnnycupcakes.com

This year, Tikko Studios and myself were fortunate enough to attend Magic Trade Show in Las Vegas. For years, I’ve always seen pictures on blogs and always wanted to check it out. Magic is closed to the public and only open to buyers and shops/stores. What is Magic you ask? Well, twice a year (Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter I believe) clothing brands come out to Vegas to showcase their upcoming lines and buyers come out to meet with them and stock up their stores.

Big thank you to the fellas over at Orisue for the hooks: Michael, Allen, Travis, Jeff, Matt, Alain and the Mohawk King himself, Wally. They’re doing great things at Orisue.

• Packed and ready to go from Chino Hills
• Railroad x delay
• I love the Del Tacos on the way to Vegas… they don’t mess. Lots of sauce!
• A REAL Chicken Soft Taco (more than 5 pieces of chicken)

Settling in the hotel room.

• MAGIC entrance… Massive!
• Michael getting us in
• J.K. Rowling??? LOL
• The O Booth

Welcome to S.L.A.T.E.

• Crazy amazing new construction model… residential buildings I think.
• Inside the Bellagio…

The Bellagio buffet… heard Wynn was better? Next time…

The way home…

Nice little vacay.

For couples day, Tish and I went to Old Pasadena for the atmosphere… the hustle and bustle, sights and sounds, shopping and walking. Its a very popular place for the the 14th of February. I made reservations for dinner at Tani Sushi and it was probably one of the most satisfying dinners I’ve… we’ve had in a while.

But before we get to dinner, I wanna touch upon this little gem in Glendale that Tish showed me before we got to Pasadena. Porto’s Bakery and Cafe is a must-visit if you’re in the area or if you just wanna drive there. It was quite a site to see hordes of people waiting in line to buy baked treats. People were walking out with bags and bags like shopping spree status! I’m not sure if Valentine’s Day had anything to do with it but man, I wouldn’t be surprised if it got that crackin’ on the daily.

With any popular establishment, there are the signature staple items that have played a role in their success. Although I haven’t read up on Porto’s history… a quick facebook status update resulted in replies to get their potato balls and cheese balls. We didn’t get a chance to grab some cheeseballs during the ordering frenzy but we did manage to get some potato balls, raspberry jelly cookies, and two guava cheese pastries (the reason we were there in the first place)… and a sandwich on a last minute whim (called The Cuban).

Maybe it had to do something with the hype/mad hysteria playing with my taste buds but the pastries and potato balls tasted excellent. What was even more excellent was the sandwich which caught us both by surprise. I’ve never eaten a sandwich so soft that it literally melted in my mouth. Words cannot describe… you have to try it yourself. We’re definitely coming back in the future to try their other items… theres sooo many!

Back to dinner at Tani Sushi… everything was ON POINT (infinity points for me) from the service, drink refills, timing of dishes. Also, since we made reservations, our server gave us a coupon good for a discount on our next visit… now thats building customer loyalty! I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

• Poke Salad
• Last Samurai Roll and Crunch Shrimp Tempura Roll
• Kobe Gyu Beef skewers

Afterwards, we walked around and did some shopping. Of course, I had to hit up the Apple store to see if they had the 17” MBP Unibodys which they still didn’t. Boo. Anyways, its gonna be hard to top this in 2010.

Here are some picture recaps of the CADC/Level 3 clubbing performance. We wrapped up our NOOE lookbook photoshoot in Fullerton early that day and headed up to LA for some crunk times. Note to self: never going to 18+ events ever again!

• TK (Wildboyz/Victory/Segue/5DTV), Chantha (ABDC, TM), David (TM)
• Jason Parrrk, Brian, Tuan
• Jmo and Jo (Revolve, NOOE)
• Monica, Jo, Kyle (thanks Christine!), Lydia (ABDC, Boxcuttahz/Quest), Khai (NOOE)

DC ripped it!

• Khai and Jay Arr (21XL)
• Mark and Jo
• Kuoch (designsbysteppie), ?, Morris
• Current DC and alums

Late night Hodori (where the NEVERODDOREVEN name was born)

Nightcap.

I went down to SD a couple weeks ago to celebrate some birthdays of friends whom I hadn’t seen in a really long time. I don’t visit home often and when I do I rarely connect with them so it was definitely good seeing and catching up with Ryan, Can and Phil.

I really need to stop taking pictures while I’m driving…

Surprise birthday cake fail… LOL. I’m bummed there was no one taking video!

Kearny Bowl… the spot back in HS

• Friends
• Can, Phil, Ryan
• Linh and Can
• Alina (?) and Ryan (I’m bad with names)

We hit up Tajima afterwards… some people in SD swear by this ramen spot but I still think Daikokuya in LA Little Tokyo is top on my list. That sounds pretty good right now. Tajima wasn’t bad though.

Back for the first time.