The Monterey Historic Automobile Races was a California event that I actually had no idea existed. In a year filled with Central Coast experiences (driving Highway 1 to LA, and working in Carmel for a month), I found myself back in the area in August.
I actually began the weekend working for the telecast of the 49'ers verses Broncos game from Candlestick Park. I assisted the cameraman on the moving scissor lift and his driver. The driver was a cool guy and told me about how he invested in property in Shelter Cove a long time ago and it has yet to pay off. The best thing about that game was how at the end, when the Broncos came within one point of the 49ers with only seconds to go, the Broncos decided to go for two points. I'm sure that we all can agree that nobody wants to see a preseason game go into overtime, so they did us all a favor! I didn't get to leave until 12:30 AM and drove straight to Monterey from there.
Terry respecting a classic in the pits
My Uncle, Terry, invited me to join him at this event. He came all the way from Elko, Nevada. He graciously kept me full of car knowledge and beer during the entire weekend.
And they're off!
This is a picture from an actual race. Cars from the same era would race each other, and as you can see, this was one of the "oldest" classes of cars. One of the coolest things about the old cars was how they sounded, and how the sounds changed with different generations of cars. Some of the old cars sounded exactly like airplanes!
A view from one of the towers
Some shots from the pits
Porche Panamera, the official car of the race
This big sports sedan had yet to be released in the USA, but Terry and I got a chance to get in and see how it feels. It is a very luxurious inside, and I'm sure it's awesome to drive. Those of you who don't know much about cars (like me) may not realize that this is Porsche's first 4-door car in a very long time!
Porsche cars are usually this size:
Somebody brought their crazy custom truck just for show
At night we went and saw the cars at the downtown auction
Checking out these cars, and the people who bid on them is worth going to Monterey to see in itself. Admission is free, and there is a lot to keep you busy!
McLaren F1
In high school my friends and I would look up McLaren F1s on eBay because we heard that they were the fastest, street legal car.
Believe it or not, it is forbidden to put a dead body in a locker at Tokyo Station according to signs on the walls. I guess this rules out the option of a five-hundred yen funeral.
I think what makes these parties free is the price paid by vendors to sell at the party. A big room on one of the hotel's floors gets filled with products for sale. Most of the items are artistic, unique and eclectic.
Shirts with protruding designs
A trendy, wall mounted tissue case
Let's hear it again for free beer and wine!!
Last night's Halloween at Claska!
Last night Miho, my German roommate Alex, his girlfriend, Asako, his friend, Tim, and I, went to a party at Claska together. It wasn't a costume party at all, but I really felt weird going to a party on October 31st without doing something out of the ordinary so I stole Ryan's western shirt, and wore it with an old had that an elderly man gave him when he was sunburned in a small, coastal town. I then bought the mask for one-hundred yen at the party! Unfortunately, there were probably less than ten people dressed up at the whole party. Oh well, more attention for me!!
At gakugei daigaku station
I was the closest to having a costume on in our group. Alex attempted to dress like a "pimp" by putting on some of Ryan's regular clothes. Asako was dressed in a nice dress, and Miho was business-casual as she went to the party straight from work. Tim ended up in some devil horns, but I'm not sure how he got them.
Alex and Asako at dinner
Miho and I at dinner
Tim on the roof, looking at Tokyo Tower
Tokyo Tower from the roof
The roof was the last place we hung out before deciding to leave. As we passed by the reception desk I remembered that I forgot my jacket at the first party I ever went to at Claska and asked if they still had it. Luckily for me continued hanging on to it since April! Miho and I made our way to the train and got a reminder of how crazy Saturday night trains are in Tokyo. The cars were full of drunk people, one of which had vomit all over its floor. Miho unexpectedly ended up with Alex's hat on at the end of the night, but as expected she fell asleep in her seat!
My most memorable, and also most scary Halloween was my 2006 experience at San Francisco's last official "Halloween at the Castro." Being an intern for the Golden State Warriors at the time, and thus having to pickup food at Panda Express for my superiors, I came up with the idea that it would be easy, and fun to make a Chinese food take-out box costume. I called around and found a shipping store that sold white boxes for four dollars. Then, I found the mask online and printed it out. I then blew it up at Kinkos, and had it laminated. While doing that, I asked the staff if they had any clip-art of "those tall oriental buildings with multiple roofs." They told me that they are called "pagodas," which was all the info I needed to get my own clip-art for free online. I printed out the clip-art, and had my Chinese roommate tell me how to write "please eat me" in Chinese and printed that out too.
On the streets of The Castro!
I hit the streets with my friend Daniel, aka "Tigger." A strong mixture of vodka and orange juice kept us warm and energetic that night, and helped us fit in with the rest of the wild partygoers.
Both Daniel and I were quite eye-catching and we spent a lot of time being asked to take pictures with people. However, we somehow never got any pictures together!
KTVU estimated that 500,000 people filled the streets, most in some sort of costume. There was a stage with a packed crowd of around one-thousand people dancing to trance beats being mixed live by a local dj. As soon as I reached the fringe of that crowd my costume began to get smashed so we ended up keeping our distance.
Julian, AKA "Frenchy"
Halloween 2006 began a trend of randomly running into people that I know on the streets of SF. Julian was a classmate of mine at SFSU, and he was always trying to explain some sort of bizarre thing in Japanese class in the middle of a lecture, and whenever he was presenting in front of class he would somehow always end up on the floor. Anyway, randomly running into him seemed so awesome at the time. haha
Geisha-In-The-Box
Haha, this picture simply makes me laugh. I don't know who gave her the idea to do that!
Identical Couple
Anyway, the fun carried on until late at night. The last sane moment I remember I was with Daniel, and a few other people and suddenly there were a bunch of popping sounds, followed by a stampede of people. I was quite intoxicated, and without seeing, nor saying anything to my friends I joined the stampede of people and sort of jogged out of the area. I ended up by a Muni subway entrance and decided to just go home. I figured it had to be gunshots, and later found out from my friends that a person right by us was shot in the shoulder, and that they were helping that person out! I had no idea, and in the end nine people were wounded. It's said that there was a conflict between two groups, but innocent bystanders were also wounded.
Overall, it was one of the best parties I have ever been to, and I would go again if given the chance. Last year San Francisco had its first official Halloween party since that incident. It was held at AT&T Park, but didn't have too many people show up. It was a really good time, though!
The annual reggae festival at the Humboldt/Mendocino County border along Highway 101 has been a tradition of mine for over a decade. To many from Humboldt County it can be somewhat of a family reunion the way that we are able to reconnect with people we probably haven't seen since the prior year's event.
Filming one of my favorite musicians, Gentleman
(Photo by Kim Sallaway)
Of course, this tradition has transformed from a chance to let loose for a weekend, to a weekend full of responsibility since I started working on the film crew in 2004. Every year our crew seems to make better and better videos, which we all are proud of. This year, we were also able to entertain the crowd better with the help of two high definition projectors on the side of the stage (a major upgrade from more primitive projectors used in prior years).
I'm compared to Michael Jordan for all the wrong reasons
The music at this year's event was as good as ever, and I was very impressed with all of the surprise guests. The High Grade All Stars' set featured Mike Marshall, the guy who sings the hook for the legendary hip-hop song "I've Got 5 On It," and, of course, they performed that song and even mixed in some local references in the lyrics. Equipto also made a guest appearance during that set, which made for the first time I've ever seen him live. Some other artists that I spotted who were not scheduled performers were Yami Bolo, and Stevie Culture. The biggest surprise, in my opinion, was the high quality performance put on by the British band "Aswad." You may remember their brief time on the US pop charts with "Don't Turn Around," but unbeknownst to me, they never "turned pop" and put on some of the "most authentic" sounding reggae I heard all weekend. Check out this clip I was on camera for where they play some nice dub:
(Go on Youtube to watch in HD!)
Marcia Griffiths also put on a good show
Festival Atmosphere
One thing that is so fun about Reggae Rising, and all of the Northern California music festivals is the fun, and sometimes odd atmosphere. Many random things can be seen, and heard, it all makes for a great time. Probably the most random conversations/debates I became a part of is how you can't get a DUI on a Segway, only a "Drunk in Public." OK.........
Reggae culture everywhere
The herb smoking puppets (popular with the kids haha)
Disc-Golf backstage
The Couch Story
(It wasn't this couch)
Probably one of the weirdest things I saw all weekend was during Rebelution's set. As I sat in our lounge backstage I saw on our TV a couch being "crowdsurfed" in the thick of the masses. It was one of those things that makes you want to rub your eyes to see if you are really seeing what you think you are. My astonishment drove me to run to the front of the stage, via the quickest route, under the stage! By the time I got to the front, the couch had been set down near the front and people were dancing on it. During intermissions you could find people lounging on it and rolling joints.
Message board (for people who regret getting AT&T cell service)
Side angle of the stage
Right before filming on the back camera
Coworker, Joell, working in the thick of the crowd
One of the best things to come out of Reggae Rising 2009 is how soon we were able to get beautiful, HD footage of the concert on Youtube. Check below for the link, and when admiring the quality of the video, remember that these were mixed live, and there was no rehearsal. We never know what these artists are going to do!
All blogs found on this site written before 2009 have been imported from MySpace. Some may not look too pretty, and some of the pictures won't enlarge, but it is a small price to pay to not have to deal with MySpace's primitive blog setup anymore!
I recently graduated San Francisco State University. I majored in Japanese and minored in International Relations, and spent a year studying at Tokyo's prestigious Waseda University. I grew up in a very rural area of Humboldt County California. That remote setting built up a lot of ambition in me to get out and chase my dreams. Thanks for reading!
