The Chronicles© - No Equal Since 2008 | www.stickydiljoe.com » Random

Making Moves…

stickydiljoe — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:30:31 +0000

It’s been a pretty slow week online for the most part…I wish I had more event coverage or features and what not to toss up here on The Chronicles but there hasn’t really been any events and the stuff I’m shooting is usually for work. The lack of any major update on the site may make it appear that I am not doing anything and just sitting on my ass, but I’ve actually been pretty busy working on numerous things. In just this month alone, I think I’ve shot about 4-5 cars for work as well as for the site. You won’t see all of it right away because it takes time for them to get published, but believe me, I’ve stayed busy. I’m trying to grind harder than ever this year and get as much work as I can. I just want to be able to have some extra resources so that I can either use it to travel or just to have money in my pocket later on. The site will continue to grow because it’s still a really big part of my everyday life. Even when I don’t update, I am consistently working on ways to improve the site or to add content that you guys want to see. It should be pretty obvious to many of you who have been around for awhile that I’m always trying to make things better, whether it be work, play, or just life in general. I know I’m not the greatest photographer, but I’m still learning and hope to someday be up there with some of the best guys in the industry. Writing comes pretty naturally for me, but even so, I am always looking for ways to make stories more interesting for you guys. There’s no better feeling than getting feedback from a fellow enthusiast who has had their car featured and for them to tell me that I did a good job of telling their story to the world. I’ll never be a “workaholic” by any means but I am most certainly on the grind constantly…

Whenever I have some spare time, I’ve been focused on getting some new merchandise for the Chronicles Storefront as well as for the upcoming SF Wekfest event. Wekfest is undoubtedly one of the biggest events of the year and I will be having a booth there once again so I really wanted to have some new stuff for the supporters of the site…

One new thing that I will be adding that I haven’t had in previous years are these new digital die-cut stickers. I’ve always done my own stickers by myself here at home on my plotter but I thought it would be cool to try something new. These stickers are much easier to apply and much smaller so you can basically slap them on anywhere. One of my favorite designs from the past has always been the Robocop/Unicorn Stickydiljoe.com design so I used it to make these die-cut 4-inch stickers. They were honestly a pain in the ass to cut on my machine back then but since they were being printed this time around, I was able to re-do some of the artwork and added more detail. They were a pretty good seller but I stopped selling them because they were so hard to weed-out and put together. You can see in the pic above that I’ve added little details here and there to make Robocop stand out more. I drew in new lines in his arm and leg area to make it look more like the original Robocop design. Minor details that most wouldn’t notice but hey, I’m a man of details and I think it looks much better now. These will be a lot cheaper than my usual vinyl stickers so make sure to stop by the booth at Wekfest where they will debut and snag a couple of them…

For those of you who haven’t been a Chronicles fan very long, I design and print a new shirt every year. We are heading into the fourth year of The Chronicles, so we are now on the fourth tee. These are limited in production so after the first initial batch, I usually don’t print more unless the demand is great. The version II shirts did really well, so I made a second batch of those as did the Hurt Feelings shirts. For this year’s shirt, I wanted to go back to my roots and went back to the original Chronicles logo. To this day the original logo is still my best selling sticker so it was only appropriate to use it on this year’s shirt…

For the back of the shirt, I’ve added the logos of those whom have contributed to the site the most throughout the years. The three car crews; Phaze2, DPK, and Premium Garage Krew were the ones that built the cars that helped bring attention to this site from the very beginning. People wanted an inside/behind-the-scenes look at what these guys did and they were and remain an essential part of this site’s success. I’m proud to have these guys represented on the back of The Chronicles shirt and I hope you guys support the site by representing these new shirts year-round. They will also debut at SF Wekfest and will come in both black and white versions. You’ll also notice the new “No Rival, No Equal, Est. MMVIII” logo on the back. I’ll elaborate more on it later but it should be pretty self-explanatory…I’m pretty excited about these shirts and I can’t wait to get them back from the company that’s doing my shirts….

On a random note, I went down to the Extreme Dimensions facility yesterday to meet up with Bisi Ezerioha to shoot the Bisimoto 2012 Civic for an overseas publication. This doesn’t really apply to anyone stateside because we don’t get that particular magazine here, but I thought some of the overseas Chronicles fans would get a kick out of this. A UK-based publication known as “Total Honda” wanted to feature Bisi’s Civic in their magazine and hit me up to shoot it. I’ve never done anything for any other overseas mag so I thought it would be cool to try it out. I’m pretty familiar with the car and communicate with Bisi regularly so I was the right guy for the job. They wanted to put the car on the cover and wanted to post a little teaser on their Facebook page so I shot the car, came home and processed the photo, and sent them the image that I felt would be good as a cover image. I’ve never shot a cover before so it was pretty cool to have the opportunity to do it. The people over at Total Honda seem really nice and enthusiastic about working with me so we will see how that plays out in the future…

Here’s a behind-the-scenes pic from the shoot yesterday. Extreme Dimensions has a huge lot with a lot of industrial buildings surrounding it so it made for a cool backdrop…

I was pretty surprised by how quickly they put the cover image together, but here is what they put up today on their Facebook page. It’s still a mock-up image so some changes will be made before it goes to print, but I think it looks good so far…

Not bad, right? Again, we don’t get that publication here in the states so you guys won’t see the feature later on, but I think there are ways to order single issues from them if you were really interested in checking it out. For you guys overseas that do get the magazine, I believe this issue drops on February 23rd, so stop by your local newstand or wherever you guys get magazines from and support my ass as well as Total Honda Magazine….

Thanks for looking…

Weekend Wrap-up…

stickydiljoe — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:44:48 +0000

For any of you who ever wondered what “NWP4LIFE” stood for, it started out as a small internet message board for a small group of Honda enthusiasts that hung out at a pizza place in Irvine, CA. That pizza spot was known as “Northwood Pizza”. When that group of individuals decided to come up with a name for their forum, they decided to name it after the spot that hung out at regularly, thus the name “NWP” aka NorthWood Pizza. It seemed like ages ago but now the forum is one of the most notable Honda enthusiasts forums in the entire world and has more than enough members to consider it the “small group” that it once was. Awhile back, I want to say maybe a two years ago or so, Northwood Pizza was bought out by the owners of the Yogurtland next door and while it remained a pizza place, numerous changes were made. The entire restaurant was re-modeled but what always stayed the same was the pizza…up until last year that is. For whatever reason, the new owners decided to shut down Northwood Pizza and turn it into a seafood/crawfish spot and NWP would be no more. The forum still stuck around of course, but the pizza was GONE. When we found out that it was closing down, we headed down there for one last slice before Northwood Pizza was no more. It was always an important spot to us because the food was great and the location was a landmark for a lot of great times that we had. We even took one last photo outside to commemorate the occasion…

This was back in May of 2011…

Everyone thought that Northwood was done for good until a couple months ago when we heard that the people that worked at Northwood so long would be bringing it back. They got the rights to re-use the name and would re-open Northwood Pizza in the same shopping center, just in another building. This location would be much smaller than in the past, but much easier to manage. It would serve more as a take-out pizza spot, but there was still enough room to accommodate a small gathering. What was best about bringing Northwood Pizza back was well, the great pizza…When we all caught wind that it was returning, we all decided to plan a get-together and have a small meet there like the old days…

Everyone seemed to have very different schedules, but it was finally decided that last weekend would be the weekend that we all went out there to eat Northwood Pizza. It was a bit of an impromptu gathering and wasn’t heavily advertised, so we expected it to be a small and poorly planned. It didn’t matter though and people didn’t even have to bring their cars. It was just more about getting together again and catching up with old friends…

The original sign and all, just in a different location…

Even though it was late notice, the turn-out was still pretty good…

One big difference since the original Northwood closed down is that we have a new addition to our stable of friends…Everybody seems to be getting a little older and progressing on in the journey through life…

Pie eating some yogurt from the Yogurtland next door…

Mike from PlanB Motorsports rolling through in his Evo X…

Larry Le’s pearl white Integra LS with ITR front conversion…

Andy Hope, who is an amazing driver and also previously the head editor of Sport Compact Car magazine, got a chance to enjoy some Northwood Pizza for the first time and brought out his clean EF Civic on Precedeo CST wheels…

Our old pal Jared from DPK, also enjoying some self-serve yogurt after devouring some pizza…

Many of us ordered a pile of meat with a side of pizza…

People made the trek out from all parts of Socal…

…including Bryant Nguyen from San Diego. His TSX on air was a little dirty but nobody cared…we were just happy to see him there…

Collin brought out his BB6 Prelude with a very rare Wisesports/Wisesquare front bumper…

Overall, it was just a nice chill day…no drama, no worries about people doing stupid ricer fly-bys and burn-outs. Just old friends, nice cars, and great food. A lot of guys also donned their NWP4LIFE gear to represent….

That pretty much summed up the weekend. On that Sunday, I woke up bright and early (actually it was still dark) to meet up with Mark Sutakajana and his 4-door DB Integra. As you know, he was the #5 spot on The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011 so it was just a matter of time until he got his chance to be featured in print on the pages of Honda Tuning magazine. We’ve had our eye on his Integra for quite some time now so it was good to finally be able to get the shoot done for HT. He injured his leg a couple weeks ago so he was unable to drive his car, but luckily for us, he’s got good friends and his buddy was willing to wake up early to drive his car out there with him…

I love being able to capture a moment when an owner stands by his creation, soaking in the moment and realizing that he’s built something great…Congrats to Mark and make sure to keep an eye out for his feature in an upcoming issue of Honda Tuning magazine….

I also had a chance to meet up with another favorite Honda of mine a couple days before that. Sam’s FA5 is coming along nicely and he wanted me to get some quick shots of it before he adds the final touches on his build. He’s got some big surprises in store so keep an eye out for his car. He is also Honda Tuning-bound as well but we all want Sam to be 100% content with his build before we put it in print…

That’s all for today, thanks for looking guys…

Just Because…

stickydiljoe — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:11:50 +0000

…You ain’t got shit to do on a Saturday anyhow, so why not just come out to Northwood Pizza and grab a slice with some of your fellow car enthusiasts. We’d be hanging out and eating regardless of whether or not you came, but it would be cool to chill with good people and great pizza…

It’s gonna be a good week…

stickydiljoe — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:16:52 +0000

No time for a big update today with it being Chinese New Year and all, but here’s a preview of things to come this week. As with the previous weeks, we are going to have a lot of good content coming your way…

I’m gonna kick off the week with coverage from the 1st ever “So you think you can Stance” event, brought to you by It’s JDM Yo!!!…

It was definitely an interesting event and the first of it’s kind…I was surprised by the turn-out and people looked like they were really into the “competition”…

The best thing about this event was the variety of different builds that showed-up…There were definitely some cars that I had never seen before…

I also have some photos that the guys from Tactical Art took when the Super Street staff stopped by to check out their shop and shoot some of their cars…

It looked like an interesting day over there and they also had a couple new cars pop-up that we had previously unseen…

I have to head out for now but make sure to check back tomorrow for the first chunk of updates….

I’m also visiting the Rywire facilities as well because Ryan had a chance to spend some time over the weekend to update his ITR build, shit is going to be crazy, stay tuned!!!…

Happy New Year…

stickydiljoe — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:25:45 +0000

What’s up guys, I know it’s been a little slow over here this week but that’s because I’ve been busy finishing up work for Super Street and also because I’ve been trying to figure out this whole Top Ten Hondas list for 2011. I started compiling a list of cars a couple months back for potential cars that would make the list and now I can honestly say that I am happy with my picks. The main issue that I’m having to deal with at this point is what order the cars should go in and who goes in what place. Last year, it was much easier because their were some clear cut builds that belonged at the top. 2011 has been a much more well-rounded year. There were definitely some stand-out builds, but I feel like there wasn’t like, one guy that really stood out above the rest of the crowd, you know what I mean? The cars were great, but the level and quality of the builds seem to be pretty even across the board. If I can’t decide on which build is “better” than the other, I then have to take into consideration how much impact each owner/car had on the community as well as how many events and appearances it made during 2011. It’s tough because there are some Hondas in regions where they don’t have a lot of events and certain parts of the country have way more going on than others. Take for example, the number of great builds that come out of Washington up in the Northwest. The quality is right up there with any other state, but they just don’t have any events. They have meets here and there but it is few and far between. That being the case, then you have to think about how often you see these cars on the net, and even that is a toss-up….

Ehh, it’s going to be tough but the list should be finalized by the new year, like it has been for the past 2 years. I want to say I have about 12-14 cars right now with a couple having to be cut off the list, then I will have to arrange them from 10-1. I started working on the graphics and photos for the list already so that won’t take up too much more time. I already know that there will be some cars that won’t make the list that some of you will complain about but the cars that made the list, made it because they fit my criteria of what I’m looking for. That and there were a couple builds that were great, but didn’t come out until later on in the year. This is the Top Ten Hondas of 2011, not the “Top Ten Hondas of 3 Months Ago”…

On another note, December marks the greatest statistical month we have ever had on The Chronicles. We broke the record for hits in a month a couple hours ago and we still have one more day left in December. It’s been a great year, thank you all for your continued support and I look forward to what is in store for 2012…Happy New Year’s everyone and keep an eye out for the Top Ten Hondas of 2011!!

Do Work.

stickydiljoe — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:07:31 +0000

Shot two days before Christmas, in the middle of nowhere hours away, on a morning when it was so cold that the water in the dirt tire tracks was frozen ice…it was definitely a interesting morning for sure. I worked through the holidays and am now finishing up the story now (it’s around 3:30am)…During the last couple days, I also finished up another shoot/story where I rented a car and drove out hours away to San Luis Obispo, CA to meet a fellow enthusiast who drove out from Washington state. I also have a loving girlfriend who is my heart and two separate families that we had to go make time to see during the holiday weekend as well as friends who are important to me. It would have been very easy to just refuse work, rest, and hang out for the holidays, but this work isn’t going to do itself. You know what I mean?

This is a random ass post, but it’s been brought to my attention that there are some kids out there who are drowning in self-entitlement, chomping at the bit to critique and speak ill of others when they have nothing to show for themselves. These individuals aren’t talking about me, but I’ll use myself as an example to show you that there are people out there grinding and working their asses off to make something of themselves. Not hype-beasting, gathering Facebook friends, and using other people’s content to make themselves “known”. It’s a shame that you can even try to tell someone that they aren’t doing something correctly when you haven’t figured out how to do it on your own. It’s a shame that there are some kids out there these days that have replaced humility with self-entitlement and the glorification of pride that’s never been earned. To have humility, to be a humble human being, is not something you can wait in line to buy like a fucking pair of Concords….it has to be LEARNED.

It’s very easy to criticize the work of others, but appreciate the dedication to their craft. I may not be the best around, but I fucking love my job. Go blog about THAT….“Things may come to those who wait…but only the things left by those who HUSTLE.”

Closing out the year with a bang. Thanks for looking, and thanks for your support…

The Top Ten Most Viewed Chronicles Posts Of The Year…

stickydiljoe — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 03:58:34 +0000

With the year quickly winding to an end, it’s good to take a look back at the year and see how 2011 has turned-out. This year, I can proudly say that The Chronicles is as popular as it has ever been in its 3-years of existence. We have eclipsed well-over 3-million hits all-time a couple months back and December will probably close out as the best statistical month we have ever had. Not bad for a site that does zero advertising and has a very devoted audience of mostly Honda-owners, right? I normally do a Top Ten Hondas of the year and that will come in a couple days, but I felt like this time would be good to reflect and take a look back at the most popular posts of the year. This stats are slightly skewed because viewers don’t have to always click on a particular post to see it, but it’s hard to dispute 365 days worth of viewing and clicking time. These are the ten most viewed (clicked) posts of the entire year on The Chronicles. With so much more traffic this year and a flurry of new viewers, it’s cool to see what posts probably attracted many of you to The Chronicles in the first place…

One post that omitted from the list is the link that takes people to The Chronicles Storefront. The storefront link has no bearing on the posts or content on the site so it’s not necessary to include it. I was pretty surprised by some of the results. I mean, the most viewed are usually because they contain some sort of drama or situation that is bigger than the site itself but it’s surprising to see some posts that were completely drama-free and actually dealt with what this site was about in the first place; cars, Hondas in particular…

I’ve attached the links to the original posts as well so you can view them if you missed them during the year, or just weren’t a regular viewer of The Chronicles at that time…

We’re going to start from bottom to top (10-1) with number one being the most clicked on post of 2011…I’m sure some of you can already imagine which post it was, haha…

10. The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2010…#1…

View Original Post Here…

I wasn’t at all surprised by this….If anything, the whole Top Ten Hondas concept has been one of the most popular ideas on this site. I was a little surprised by how the #1 selection ended-up being the least viewed out of the three posts. I guess you can just chalked that up to there being more reading content on the other two posts that contained choices 2-10, and with them being image-heavy, people probably clicked on those to view that post individually. With the number one selection, there wasn’t as much reading content nor images to load so it was easier to view just on the site itself…

It’s good to see that one of the most popular posts also contained two of the most popular builds of 2010…

9. “You Should See This…”

View Original Post Here…

This was popular because it dealt with all automotive enthusiasts in general and not just Honda guys. It was one of the most talked about events during the early part of the year and showed just how incredibly stupid some people can be. The ordeal took place at an M&M Donuts meet down in Anaheim, CA and had to do with a kid who apparently was going after some guy who had stolen his wheels. I know, it sounds like one of those stories where there is going to be a happy ending and the original owner getting his wheels back, but it had absolutely nothing to do with stolen wheels. The whole story went an entirely different direction when the kid decides to drive like a fucking maniac asshole in front of a police officer and then subsequently getting pulled over in the process and getting a thorough reaming from the police. It’s totally understandable that somebody would want to go after the person that may or may not have stolen his wheels, but to rage out in a parking lot full of people in front of the police was a fucking terribly idea. Stupidity and ignorance are two reasons why this post made it into the most viewed of 2011…

“Did I FUCKING stutter??!”….haha…

8. “It’s The Chronicles of a Mastermind Yo!!”…featuring Amy Fay and Chaba…

View Original Post Here….

This particular post makes the list because there are a lot of perverts on the internet…and many of them are fans of The Chronicles…haha. Amy Fay was definitely one of the “it” girls of 2011 in our import automotive community as was Chaba, so it’s not wonder why a post containing images of them ended up being one of the more clicked on posts of the year. I put the emphasis on Amy Fay because I spent a majority of the time at this shoot taking photos of her, while Tony and the It’s JDM Yo!! crew were shooting Chaba. It was a good day because well, it’s always good to try something new like shooting models, but also because I got a chance to see the twin Spirit Rei Odvias in-depth for the first time. I bet many of you didn’t even notice that there were cars there in the post until I mentioned it just now, but yes, there are actually photos of car shit in there. Amy Fay and Chaba are incredibly popular, even before they appeared on this site, so there were a lot of non-car enthusiasts/casual perverts Googling their names and ended-up over here. To this very day I still see the search terms “Amy Fay” and “Chaba” appear on my site. They were both a pleasure to work with so I’m very happy that they were two of the most viewed people on The Chronicles for 2011…

7. The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2011…10-6…

View Original Post Here…

This post ends up on number 7 on the list because it was the post that kicked-off the 2010 Top Ten Hondas list. People were interested in seeing who was on the list, in hopes of trying to figure out who would fill out the rest of the list so there’s no doubt why it was popular. With guys like Ejay Adriano and his DA Integra, DPK David, Phil Robles, RC Chacon, Kane Chan, and Arn Reyes, it should have been an easy choice to be one of the more viewed posts of 2011. Just thinking back now, man, that was quite a list of characters last year with some pretty fucking amazing builds…it’s going to be hard to top that list with all the talent that was on it…

6. The Rywire ITR Build…Part 4…

View Original Post Here…

This was the surprise pick of the list…Man, it just shows you how much anticipation there is for this build and how many enthusiasts have their eyes peeled on the build-up of Rywire’s Integra Type R. I made this post literally 14 days ago and it instantly shot right up to the top of the list at the number 6 position. It took an entire year for a majority of these clicks to be compiled for the rest of this list and this one singular post shot right up to the top in a mere two weeks time…fucking amazing. I had no idea how crazy people were over this build until the post itself broke my single day record at just over 10,300 hits. It’ll be interesting to see how many people stick around to see the completion of this build in 2012…

5. Wekfest 2011 Weekend…Part 5…The Finale…

View Original Post Here…

The winner of the most misleading position on this list easily goes to this post. Now you may be wondering why I am saying this, considering how popular Wekfest is and how it’s one of the most anticipated annual events in our community. I get that, I too am a fan of the Wekfest series and I could understand why a particular post about one of their events I covered would be up at the top of this list. Just wait a second though….because this post is up here for a reason totally unrelated to Hondas, cars, or maybe even Wekfest. Part 5 of the Wekfest SF coverage sits at number 5 on the most viewed posts of the year because of a photo I got of a particular nip-slip from a very popular import model. People have been waiting to see these nips for years now and on that fateful day at Wekfest SF 2011, a unicorn shot out of the sky and in it’s haste, blew Christine Mendoza’s shirt aside and graced The Chronicles audience of something they have longed to see. It’s the sole reason as to why I am linked to Freeones, a very popular pRon forum where people have been hunting down photos of Christine Mendoza forever…You’re welcome perverts!!…

4. Attention!! Help Wanted…

View Original Post Here…

I really wish this post would have helped us out when we needed it to….I’m happy to say that we have some very thoughtful friends and enthusiasts out there who were willing to help us repost this link everywhere during 2011. We had all been hanging out, eating dinner one night when Darryl from DPK’s Diamond Black Volk CE28s were stolen out of the car of DPK Jared’s daily driver. We were in utter shock when we found out what happened when we went back to our cars and I came home and immediately made a post regarding the matter. It was great that it got so much feedback throughout the web and people helped post up the link everywhere, but unfortunately, the wheels were never recovered…Man, it would have been great if I could have come back and had a happy ending to this story but alas, nothing turned-up…

3. The Chronicles Top Ten Hondas of 2010…5-2…

View Original Post Here…

I’m a firm believer that this post trumped the previous two posts consisting of the Top Ten Hondas of 2010 purely due to international influence. Yonas Liu’s Honda Civic show/drag/track car hit the list at number 5 and was more than deserving of the accolade. With him came a lot of fans of his and fellow enthusiasts from Australia that helped bring an international audience to The Chronicles. Since then, even Yonas has become a fan of the site and I speak to him regularly on Facebook about all his adventures. While he deserves a lot of the credit, it’s hard to deny the popularity of ATS Garage and Bisimoto Engineering for casting a bright light on this post, leading it into the 3rd most clicked-on of 2011…

2. Exclusive Content…The Bisimoto Engineering 2012 Honda Civic SEMA Build Revealed…

View Original Post Here…

I expected this to be right at the top because it was the previous owner of the record for single hits in a day on The Chronicles. It’s pretty wild to see how the Rywire build came in and took the record away two months later but as you can see by the seeding, there were more clicks by year’s end for the Bisimoto 2012 Civic build. One of the great things about being friends with Bisi Ezerioha and his wife Hedi is that they always give me first dibs every year on their SEMA builds. Last year, I was lucky enough to get the first public photos of the Bisimoto CR-Z and in 2011, I had the opportunity to provide the build-up of their 2012 Civic Si coupe. This build was more significant for me personally because I was there for a big chunk of the build and even had a chance to help out here and there with the completion of it. There was very little information as to what Bisimoto Engineering had planned for SEMA and in response, there was a lot of feedback when this completed build hit the web in November. I was more than pleased with the results and even more pleased to see that it hit just a broad audience of people that weren’t limited to just viewers of The Chronicles. Hate it or love it, you gotta understand that whatever Bisi is working on, there is always a ton of people waiting to see what he comes up with next…

Now, for the number one most viewed post of 2011 on The Chronicles….

It’s probably what you expected it to be. And it’s also drama-related like I stated in the beginning, that’s why it’s here at number 1…

1. This is awesome…and stupid… aka the “Get Da Fuck Outta My Cahhhh!!!!” girl and the tale of the CR-X that wasn’t her’s…

View Original Post Here…

This was just absolutely mind-numbingly awesome…and also totally and utterly retarded…haha. I don’t think you guys grasp just how noteworthy this post was in our community. The Bisimoto 2012 SEMA reveal is number two on the list, but this post DOUBLED the number of clicks that it generated, just based purely on some stupid kids…haha. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you probably remember this sticker that I made…

Oh man, I fucking cashed-in on that shit so bad…haha. It was just the perfect sticker for that perfect moment in time when this was trending all over the world. You guys can click on the link to see the original story if you missed it, but the basic story behind it is this; a guy shows up to a Honda meet in Washington spots his CR-X that was stolen and decides to hop into the car, with his own keys, and take the CR-X back. Well, the girl that apparently bought it from whoever stole the car, goes completely fucking ape shits and just unloads on the dude verbally, attempting to get the guy out of his car. Her friends come in and start punching the guy through the window, and mayhem ensues… It’s such a crazy story that you can’t even make that kind of shit up. The YouTube videos for it were absolutely hilarious so I just had to make a sticker documenting the event. I don’t know what happened at the end, and I could honestly care less, but it’s proof that stupid bullshit trumps ALL. Haha. I created this site three years ago and I can honestly say that I’ve turned it into something great, but it doesn’t matter, because random ass people from all over the world only come on here to watch a crazy broad scream at some dude while other dudes are punching him to get a beat-up CR-X back….AMAZING.

“GET DA FUCK OUTTTTAAA MAH CAAAAAHHH!!!!!”

Haha, thanks for looking…

On set…

stickydiljoe — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 02:48:51 +0000

Sorry guys, not much of a heavy update for you all since I spent most of my morning up in the Lancaster, CA area shooting a car for Super Street magazine. I got a bunch of stuff going on that needs to be completed before the holiday break so that it can make it into the issue so I didn’t have time today to put together a solid update. After I got home, I worked on the photos and then knocked out for a couple hours. Now I’m back on the road again to get to a Christmas party with some friends. Here are a couple behind the scenes shots from today’s shoot for Super Street. This car is becoming quite popular since it debuted at Hot Import Nights and I’m proud to say that I was one of the first people to spot it as it was rolling in that Friday night. Since then, Brandon Burke’s S13 has popped up all over the web but he saved the best for last and now he’ll soon grace the pages of one of the best import automotive publications around…Thanks for looking and have a happy holidays everyone…

I absolutely loved how grimy and messy his garage was and considering the fact that he built this entire car inside the garage, I had to get a shot of the car inside. How clean and subtle the car turned out is in stark contrast to the environment that it was built in….Man, I fucking love it… Here’s an outtake from that series of photos…

Just a man alone with his thoughts…

Exclusive Content: A trip to the Philippines…

stickydiljoe — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:46:59 +0000

If you’re here looking for coverage of the annual Norm Reeves Honda Meet, then you might want to come back tomorrow…I’m still busy going through the photos from that day and I also have some work I need to finish up for some magazines. While I’m going over all that stuff, today, we are going to take a very special look at some photos that Patrick Lauder shot while he was in the Philippines. Patrick, for those unfamiliar with the name, is a part of Quickworks Photo. The guys from Quickworks are freelancers like me and shoot for various magazines in the aftermarket automotive industry. They are up in Northern California so if you see a magazine feature pop-up from Norcal, more than likely, it was shot by either Joshua Works or Patrick Lauder. Anyways, Patrick was recently overseas in the Philippines visiting family and while he didn’t plan on it, ended up finding quite a bit of work over there. I have no idea what the tuning scene is like over there. I probably know about as much as you guys. I’ve seen photos and the Philippines is probably most well known for Rota, a company that has spent it’s entire existence stealing the hard work and designs of some of your favorite authentic Japanese wheel companies. While that may leave a bad taste in the collective mouths of the entire industry, we shouldn’t forget that there are guys over there just like us, who enjoy cars, building cars, and are a part of a tuning community. From what Patrick has told me, there are actually some very, very well-built vehicles over there with some quality parts on them. He saved a majority of his best work for magazines like Honda Tuning, but there were some photos leftover that weren’t used and that he shot just for the hell of it, and we are going to take a look at those photos today…

These aren’t in any particular order and I can honestly say that I can’t provide you with any vital information in regards to what is going on in the photos. These were the handy work of Patrick Lauder and he basically shot whatever was in front of him at the moment. While he was over there, he also had a chance to stop by the Manila Auto Salon, which is a small car show that was taking place. Whether you like the content of the photos or not, I remind you to just sit back and take it for what it is. It’s not everyday that you get to see some new cars you’ve never seen before, in a country that you may or may not have ever been to or plan to go to in the future. Thanks go out to Mr. Lauder for these great photos and for allowing me to share them with all of you guys and gals today. Enjoy…

5th generation Honda City…this chassis fits right in the middle of the line-up of Honda vehicles offered in Asian markets between the Honda Jazz (Fit) and Honda Civic…You won’t see these here in the states because honestly, they’re a little unnecessary for the U.S. market and we like big ass cars that don’t fit into normal parking spots…

Rotas were apparently of course, with examples like this where guys are rocking them with their authentic counterpart’s decals…

Another vehicle that you won’t see here in the states…Suzuki Celerior/Alto/Mazda Carol/Nissan Pixo…

Old school Mitsubishi Lancer in pretty remarkable condition for it’s age…

A yellow EG Civic parked along the side of the road on some “TE37s”…I use that last term loosely, haha…

If you are Asian or knew someone who was Asian, then their family at one time probably had a crappy van like this or something similar to it… In the U.S., it was the Toyota Van in 80s, throughout other parts of Asia, Mitsubishi Delicas like the one above served as family haulers or supply haulers…At least the Mitsubishis actually had a name and not like Toyota, that just came up with the creative name “Van”…You can also tell that there wasn’t much time invested in the design of these things….

One car that was available in all markets throughout the world that you hardly ever see anyone modify are these mid 80s-early 90s Ford Festivas…I don’t want to say they were underrated because they were probably one of the crappiest cars of that time and terribly unsafe to drive. You see a “KIA DOHC” banner on the windshield because these cars were sold in some markets as the “Kia Pride”…We know them as Fords here in the states but they were actually developed by Mazda and in some parts, were known as a Mazda 121….There wasn’t anything even remotely Ford about them other than the badging…I’m just filled with useless information…

Modified Honda Jazz passing through the streets…we of course, know this as a Honda Fit…

Another EG, this one more beat-up than the yellow one earlier…

Patrick informed me that Mugen Civic RR conversions/replicas are all the rage in the Philippines right now….Makes sense though because the conversion doesn’t require as much work there seeing as how they already have the Japanese front and rear-ends…

Though it isn’t the genuine article, this Mugen RR replica is about as close as you can get aesthetically…

Here’s a little collage of images Patrick put together…clicky here for a larger version (1400×933)….

Smog and emissions obviously isn’t a real concern over in the PI…here you can see a bus just spewing black smoke…

Next up, we have some photos from the Manila Auto Salon…there were some pretty oddball cars here so I just selected a few to show you guys…The EK above is probably the more visually-appealing example of Hondas at this event…

Purple 4-door on some Carving Head/DAMD Lover Soul wheels…

Clean, restored 1969 VW Beetle…

White R34 Skyline on some bronze Volk TE37s…

1979 Porsche 911 with a Martini Racing livery…

Another Mugen Civic RR replica, this one in a very bright highlighter-like yellow…

Mugen-themed Honda Jazz…

This orange 4-door Civic had a clean, tucked engine bay…also had some legit Volk CE28s with caps and all…

Just from what I’ve seen in photos, it seems as if HKS is quite popular over in the Philippines. You see the logo represented a lot on many cars there…

1st gen. Toyota MR-2 in mint condition…you can see HKS Super Oil represented once again in this photo…

Vorsteiner Porsche 911 on BBS CK wheels…

R35 GT-R representing “Glade Sport”…Glade as in, Glade the air freshener/fragrance company…odd…but not as odd as the random air filter sticking out of the GT-R’s bumper…

While the Mugen Civic RR recreations are on point, the R35 replicas could use a bit of help…

Another modified Honda Jazz…

Neat little trunk set-up…

EVO X…

8th gen. Civic with a JDM Civic Type R conversion…not really understanding why the owner chose to go with a headlight with red housing though…

J’s Racing-themed Honda Jazz…

Another Mugen RR replica, this one with a K20…

…this one on the other hand, does not, and has the stock R18 1.8L motor…

A restoration shop in the Philippines, displaying the type of extensive work they are capable of with a worn-down 1937 Plymouth P3 and a completely restored 1953 Cadillac Limousine…

So that was what the Manila Auto Salon had to offer…. As you can tell, the 8th generation Civic is the most popular platform to build in the Philippines right now. The Mugen RR Civic is the “look” that most are striving but many continue to stick with the stock R18 motors in them. They have the K20a over there as an option but they are different internally and make only about 155bhp. Manual transmission isn’t an option either and the 2.0L models come with a 5-speed automatic with paddle shift. With that said, this 8th generation Civic you’re about to see is probably one of the more “built” 8th gen. Civics over in the Philippines. I posted up a preview shot of it last week but for those that missed it, you are in for a treat…

According to Patrick, he didn’t get to do a full shoot of this car for a magazine because for whatever reason, the owner was upset by the fact that he wasn’t getting full attention and didn’t get a solo-photo shoot. While in most cases I would understand the owner being mildly urked, we all have to understand that Mr. Lauder was only there for a short amount of time so if he was shooting for a feature, chances are there would be other cars lined-up there to shoot. Anyways, the owner cut the shoot short and just took off without allowing Patrick to finish. The good thing about the whole ordeal was that we now get to see the car today here on The Chronicles…

This Civic, according to Patrick, had all kinds of shit done to it but here are the more notable items…

-Custom “RE Amemiya green” paint
-Legit/real deal Volk Racing CE28Ns (Patrick got a good look at them up close and authenticated them)
-AP Racing big brake kit
-J’s Racing front bumper, rear bumper, rear wing
-FD2 Civic Type R sideskirts
-Bride seats
-K20A from a DC5 Integra/RSX
-HKS turbo that was dyno’d and made 400HP on pump gas

Click here for a LARGER VERSION (1400×933)… or click here for a DESKTOP VERSION (1920×1080)…

Click here for a LARGER VERSION (1400×933)…

Pretty wild right? It’s a shame that he had to take off before Patrick could get some more shots of it…

I hope you guys had a entertaining time looking through the photos. Obviously a majority of their cars aren’t comparable to the sheer number of quality builds out here, but it’s always cool to take a look at what’s going on in other countries. It’s good to expand your horizons every now and then…

That’s all for today. Thanks to Patrick Lauder for providing the great pics…

Wild December…

stickydiljoe — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:35:27 +0000

This has to be, by far, the busiest December that I’ve experienced since I started The Chronicles. Not so much so that I’m overloaded with things to do and have no time to finish, but just in terms of things that are going on still. Normally Decembers are a bit easier since Honda Tuning only does one winter issue that spans two months and I’m just doing a couple stories for Super Street. The site tends to slow down as well because there normally just aren’t as many events going on in the winter. This year has been very different though. I thought after SEMA things would slow down already but there continues to be a steady flow of content flowing in. Hot Import Nights was unexpected so we got coverage from that, but since communicating with Yonas from Australia and some other guys from Japan, there’s also content coming from all over the world. I didn’t get a chance to attend Autocon last year because we were busy doing our group BBQ with all our friends but this year I definitely plan on going. Autocon looks to be pretty huge so coverage should be great when I get to go through all of it. I’d probably just be sitting down and contemplating who would make this year’s Top Ten Hondas list for the entire month but all that is going on, I’m now going to have to set some time aside specifically for it.

Since I’m busy trying to finalize everything for The Chronicles booth tomorrow at Autocon, I’m just going to give you a preview of what’s to come for the rest of the month…

As I stated, I’ve been working on the annual Top Ten Hondas list of the year and here is the logo that I whipped up for it. I may make some minor changes later on but for the most part, I’m pretty happy with it. This year’s list will be much like year’s past and follow the same criteria. That means there won’t be any repeat cars from before unless they have made significant changes to the entire build. The list will consist of 10 new Hondas and with so many great builds this year, it’s definitely going to be interesting to see who rounds out the entire list. I’m also going to be taking into consideration many different factors such as; event appearances made, impact of build on the community, and total quality of the build itself. It’s going to be a good one for sure. You’ve seen the quality of the Hondas in years past so you should already expect the list to have some really amazing Hondas…

This is a real treat…. Patrick Lauder from Quickworks photo recently made a trip to the Philippines to go visit some family and found the time to go shoot some cars. He didn’t plan on doing it but there are apparently some pretty cool builds out there and he was able to capture them with his amazing photography skills. He’s a freelancer for automotive magazine publications like me but the difference is that he’s actually a good photographer, haha. He had his camera with him everywhere he went while he was in the P.I. and captured everything car-related that he saw. Mr. Lauder was kind enough to share those photos with me and I in turn will be able to give you guys a small glimpse of what the “scene” is like over in the Philippines. Above is just one of a number of cool builds he saw while he was there. The really, really good stuff he saved for print so keep an eye out for that, but in the following week after the Autocon coverage rolls out, I’ll toss these up so you guys can take a look…

Another event that was going on while I was busy staring at DUB trucks at HIN was the annual JDMYard End-of-Year Meet down in Australia. As you guys know, I’ve been in constant contact with Yonas lately on Facebook and he’s been giving me all the details on the changes he’s planning for his Civic. He put this meet together last week and judging from the photos that I’ve seen, the meet was quite a success. He’s got a couple guys that consistently shoot for him and cover events down there and they’ve been kind enough to provide me with some coverage from events there. I brought you photos from their Honda Nationals event last week and I will toss up some photos from the JDMYard meet when the time allows. I was planning on putting them up today but I’ve been too busy running around everywhere that I haven’t had the time to go through the photos…That is also something I plan on putting up in the coming days/weeks…

I’ve also been doing a bit of shooting myself…. I’m constantly trying to shoot so I can continue to get better at my craft so when Tony from It’s JDM Yo!!! hits me up to help him out with some photos, I’m definitely there to give him a hand. He’s constantly trying to expand his brand and I’m happy to see the rapid growth of his site. He’s putting together posters for future events as well as putting together an It’s JDM Yo!!! calender in the near future. A couple weeks back, I headed out to some mansion in Yorba Linda, CA to get some photos of the lovely Miss Holly Lee and Jon Jon Usaha’s supercharged VIP Lexus IS350. It was the perfect combination that day and I’m pretty happy with how the photos came out. I’ll will eventually post those up as well when I find the time but above is a sample of what I got…

If that wasn’t enough, I also recently met up with Tony down at L*CON Race Fabrications to shoot VIP Modular’s 5-Series BMW wagon for another It’s JDM Yo!!! poster/future calender shot featuring newcomer Avery Belle. Ms. Belle is on a fast rise in the import model community so Tony wanted to make sure to shoot her for his site when he had the opportunity to do so. She’s from Arizona but happened to be out here in LA for Hot Import Nights last week so Tony booked a late Sunday night shoot. That matte red wagon is very easy to shoot since the car just looks incredible in any type of setting and having Avery Belle there served as another great combination. She had been busy shooting all day in L.A. for various websites/publications so our shoot didn’t go very long, but I’m happy with what I got that night and I think Tony would agree…

Other than that, I’ve just been busy finishing up orders from Cyber Monday and preparing for The Chronicles booth this Saturday at Autocon. I was done using the Teal/Purple chrome combo after the 2YRS event last year, but since I still had some purple chrome left, I decided to do it once again. Unlike the previous sticker, this is the first time I’ve done this colorway for the original Chronicles decal and it will be available exclusively at Autocon 2011. If there are any left over, then I will toss them up in the online storefront but they are very limited and I expect them to go quickly at the event tomorrow…If you want one of these bad boys, make sure to stop buy and purchase a couple because once they are gone, they are GONE. Chrome purple vinyl isn’t exactly cheap and I don’t plan on buying it ever again…

Autocon 2011 is tomorrow and I feel like it’s going to be one of the better events of 2011. I mean, I didn’t go to last years but seeing how there is so much effort going into the planning of this event, it should be good. I will be there along with It’s JDM Yo!! so please come by and say what’s up and check out what we have to offer. Tony is bringing out every model he can fucking think of and he too has spent a considerable amount of time planning out this event so let’s all go out there and support him and Autocon. It’s a giant car show but it’s also for a good cause. You can bring a toy donation for the toy drive and then enjoy the food trucks, free hot air balloon rides, etc…. I’ll be there bright and early so the coverage for Autocon should be very interesting… click here for the fullsize flyer. It’s fucking huge…

That’s all for today…keep coming back because things don’t look to be slowing down any time soon…