I’m sorry if you’re a Beat Freaks fan or whatever… but QUEST DE-STROYE-D LAST NIGHT’S EPISODE. NO QUESTIONS ASKED!!! You know it. The judges know it. MTV knows it. Beat Freaks fans know it. I know some Quest members personally so you may think I’m biased but honestly… they were ON POINT with every aspect from beginning to end with what could be one of the best performances in ABDC history. They deserve to win it.
You probably noticed a bunch of updates yesterday. Never falling behind on blogging ever again. I got all fancy shmancy with the images (2×2 grid style) to cut back from posting even more pictures… quantity control. In the end it probably saved me a total of 0 hours 0 min 0 secs.
Not sure if I like the way I handled captions for the grids though… maybe for photo intensive posts only.
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!
Last weekend, Tish and I joined Owen and Annie as they were hanging out in my hometown, America’s Finest City… you guessed it, San Diego. We met up with them in their hotel on Friday night. With nothing really planned, we grabbed dinner at TGIFriday’s in the beautiful Gaslamp District which was alive as it should be on the eve of the weekend.
Yes, that is Street Fighter 4…
Happy Hour Appetizer feast…
We crashed in their Comfort Suites room which was surprisingly super nice and headed for the World Famous San Diego Zoo the next day. 90% of the zoo animals were either sleeping or hiding. The World Famous Sleeping Zoo! What a bust.
Here are some animals that I managed to get on camera… (minus 1st pic )
The zoo closed at 4pm and since we only grabbed a snack inside it was time for a late lunch/early dinner. Being from SD, you would think I would know all the good local spots but you need to keep in mind that I haven’t been living and breathing San Diego for almost nine years. My internal Yelp is set to Irvine! With that said, Yelp is your friend… our friend that helped us find really good and cheap sushi.
Our Yelp research brought us to Chiba Sushi located near Qualcomm Stadium. Vietnamese owned and operated… yes, we know our sushi LOL. Plus, everything was so cheap… when was the last time you saw a soda/beverage item for 75 cents?! Rolls averaged 3-4 bucks. There was a small crowd when we got there which gave us some doubts but later into the evening… the place got crackin!
This is my SD sushi spot! Give it a try if you’re ever craving sushi in San Diego. After dinner, I showed them around Mission Valley and Fashion Valley shopping centers. There was a lady at FV passing out Yogurtland coupons for free 5 ounces. She read our minds and we headed to Hazard Center (no one goes there… bad location IMO) for our yogurt fix. Yogurtland is popping up everywhere. Pinkberry sucks! The people want DIY and selection!
We ended the night by visiting my family before heading back up the to OC. My mom has been growing/dealing banana trees and making bank! LOL. Apparently, good banana trees are hard to come by in the states and my moms got the good ish from Vietnam! Don’t believe me? Ask your parents.
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…
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)
After our NOOE editorial shoot. We met up with Hom, Quyen and Tuan for a guys night out. It was a long day so it was nice to chill out over some drinks and bomb ass sandwiches and partake in “boys will be boys” antics.
We walked to Seven Grand in Downtown LA where the other guys were waiting… the ambience was like no other… lots of browns and nice furniture… not your typical bar.
Whiskey Sours all around… first time. Tastes like a frothy alcholic apple juice. Chivas Regal was also in the house promoting their brand and their ambassador bought us all Chivas Regal on the rocks! Gangsta. Khai chatted it up with him and his assistant for a bit about NOOE… possible events?
We all then proceeded to buzz walk (those are the best) over to Cole’s for some French Dip sandwiches. Hom was the “spot caller” for the night… so far so good.
Cole’s was supposedly the originators of the french dip so of course we did not expect any less… but that didn’t stop us from giving Hom a hard time… “Hom. Are you SURE this place is good?” “This better be good, Hom.” Hahaha.
Louis approves. We actually all enjoyed our sandwiches… might be the alcohol messing with the taste buds since when you’re drunk… anything is good. Bacon potato salad was on point! Good call, Hom… 2 for 2.
Afterwards, Hom thought it was a good idea to end the tour with a visit to his office… after realizing what he had just said, he quickly dubbed it a bad idea but we weren’t about to be invited and then uninvited. You can slowly see the defeat in his face as we got closer to his building LOL.
We rummaged though his stuff and pretended to be Hom at work. As you can see, he was being a good sport about it… hahaah.
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.
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