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…