Joey Redmond - My Blog

Like seriously who books these gigs? Canada is only good for two things, hockey and beer and no NHL teams are playing during the summer. Luckily Mark from PAS Magazine’s condo was clutch because instead of a kitchen table he had this…….

As you can see this game simulated a great Canadian classic…..Ottawa Senators Vs. Toronto Maple Leafs! If you have to ask who won you must not know enough about hockey, Go Heatly, Speeza, Emery! So many constant battles on the sticks made me get over my hockey cravings. Mark kept giving me this good beer that said Made in India claiming it was Canadian but I wasn’t buying it! Another off topic note, they don’t have the iphone in Canada and I had several people like accost me over mine asking if they could take pictures with it……it’s a wonder Americans stereotypically think Canadians are weirdo’s.

Friday night we went with Mark to an event called Cravefest? The first annual music festival that was important and exciting I guess blah blah? It was pretty fun and the vibe was cool but their were just a ton of artist walking around the VIP upstairs with awards and these glass trophies and I didn’t know who any of them were, so I was just generally confused but I do remember the event was sponsored by Jagermeister!

So the next morning we crawl out of bed (or I was sleeping on the living room floor on a mattress built out of leather couch cushions?) Don’t ask please. Well regardless we arrived at Downsview Park to see some Canadian Drifting! Luckily the Drift Alliance made the hike across the pond to throw the great American party and throw the Canadian National Handstand contest (more on this later).

They made the weekend that much more fun which shouldn’t shock anyone that knows them personally or has seen their heavy.com videos. Let’s talk about some nitty gritty competition here though, we had one American come out to represent the red, white, and blue and destroy some Canadian Drifters! This man was MA-Motorsports Brian in the “Zombie Car” as Matt Petty kept yelling all weekend. I know Brian from when we filmed Slide America in Englishtown and I’ve seen him rip it up so I was excited to see how he would wind up doing with this competition.

Brian killed it and wound up in second place behind one of the Kenji Yaminaka lookalike Hankook Skyline R32’s, pretty sure it was Jean-Sebastian Lefleur in the Yakuza/Hankook car who took home first place. It was really a treat to see some guys like Marcos Santos Drifting.

Well big thanks to Edmund, Sophia (who I harassed several times about media credentials that she kindly ended up giving me even though I never applied for), Drift Mania, Drift Mania staff, Downsview Park, Drift Alliance, Montye for selling it up, and the border patrol for letting us back into the States!

So I pretty much suck at getting my shit together to blog but yea…….I decided to steal some images from Krudmart to help expedite this blog because I am never at the house to take some quick snaps of the clothes. We landed in Buffalo HELLA early in the morning on Friday, like early enough that I questioned my existence on Earth. Well we rolled to Krudmart at around 11:15am and apparently they agree with us, as they were closed due to the 12:00pm opening. I knew I liked the way these guys did business! I was stoked to go check out the shop since I’ve been ordering online with them for a minute. So we walked around the general area and found Jim’s Steakhouse. I had my doubts since we were kinda far from Philly but this place was pretty solid, open till like 5:00am or something stupid too.

So Krudmart finally opened and we rolled on through. I picked up the new Rogue Status “Art of Deception” shirt and a Acapulco Gold shirt. We met the retail manager RJ who was a cool ass dude and hooked me up with a Krudmart shirt! Here is Krudmart before we bounced out to Canada! If you find yourself going to Krudmart, bring RJ a beer, he is a bartender by night, he is expecting you…….

Somehow we made it across the border after like hours of harsh interrogations and those Canadians searching our car…..I think they thought we were undercover gangbangers. Oh well, we were just carrying peace and tranquility in our rental car so they finally let us roll through. RJ actually referred to a place right in downtown Toronto called Live Stock that we went to swing by before we hit up Performance Publications to see Mark. It was a pretty dope little spot, a ton of shoes and some guy inside took a picture with my iphone. Apparently they aren’t out in Canada yet, stupid Roger’s Wireless. They had a sick ass Billionaire Boys Hoodie that I am so pist at myself for not buying still to this moment. What can you really do though?

Finally after that we rolled to Mark’s condo to continue our evening but this entry is long enough and we are in a new country so I will continue this one with a part two later…..

You gotta love the Japanese anime sound bites from those bad comics. Well I had to run to Birmingham to deliver the title to my old EK Hatch I sold. I was on I-20 heading east back home in Georgia and a rig had his rear tire explode and fly right into the front of the poor Bridget. That is a shot of the front damage, it left some other love down the fender and side of my car as well. Woohoo, now only if I can get a damn insurance adjuster out here to come look at it……..

Well for starters we stayed at the Inn Marion in Novado and they took out the damn diving board, weak! So that set a horrible mood for the weekend in Northern California. The race was great though but I was insanely busy filming and shooting pictures.

The fog on the 101 was insane, here is us crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

Formula D was pretty wild. The Drift Alliance ended up taking home first and second place which was just crazy! The best image of the weekend has to be Calvin Wan’s Infiniti G35. Calvin was looking good till this accident in qualifying, I am sure it was extra frustrating for him being that this was his home track.

Me on the sidelines……hard at work or hardly working?

Somehow I lived to wake up another day after eating this………Go animal style or go home!

Somehow we found our partners in crime at baggage claim from Exedy Racing Clutches. SFO is the worst airport in the world if you need a rental car. You have to ride a terminal train that takes you to some area where you have to walk a ton, then ride an elevator to get on another train. That train takes you like miles off site from the airport to the rental car station. This is the sign Russ kept pointing out and making comments about crabs living in the sewer. I am not sure if that’s the funny part about them or the fact that it says Only Rain Down the Drain?

Well we finally found Enterprise and boy did they give a new car to the wrong guy…….we got a brand new Chrysler 300 with 10 miles on it. Well she was ready for some adventure so we headed downtown to find Mark’s new clothing store that opened a few weeks ago called Fatlace.

We finally found it after not being able to find some stupid road for like hours. San Francisco downtown really doesn’t make any sense and road names change at intersections and go sideways and upside down. Yea, get a taxi if you wanna visit this place or use a map or something helpful. Anyway, the address is:

1630 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115

Fatlace carries Staple and quite a few other awesome brands. I just remember Staple because I picked up a Staple shirt. I have too many clothes as it is, geez. I ran out of hangers a while back and now if laundry is all done I cannot fit all my stuff in the closet, ugh. Here is the wall you always see in the Fatlace photos. Go visit and buy cool stuff if your in Norcal because it’s Hella JDM. I still have that old school shirt too somewhere.

I haven’t visited Nashville since I think the fall of 2005 so I took a trip. My parents actually live right outside Nashville now so I went to see the new house and enjoy putting some more miles on the Infiniti. The house is fantastic and it seems like they are having fun up north. Here is Eric and Mom at lunch one day.

We made a little stop over at Nissan North America where my Dad works now. They make the Maxima, Altima, and some other cars at the plant. The plant where all the fun cars are made is down in Mississippi like mine. Here is a shot of the front entrance at the Nashville plant.

Now I have to hype you on the best place in Nashville if not the state of Tennessee. I hyped my friend Mary Brenna on it because her boyfriend is currently working in Nashville, she went and confirmed my suspicions of the excellence of Jack’s BBQ! Now I just have to get the Bridgestone people out that way and I will consider it mission successful. Go check it out, it’s right on Broadway by the stadium, you cannot miss it. The Kansas City sauce is to die for! Be forewarned that the 911 BBQ Hot Sauce is really hot.

Yea so we came up with a new hobby while putting together an introduction for our new films. Andy Sapp had a television laying around so we got motivated and threw it off a building. To give the television static we plugged it into a converter and tied in an extension cord before we flung it off the building. Quality Points for static flying televisions!

Here is the setup stages of the event.

This is right before the drop. I should show you the pictures of the camera the television landed on but I have to keep some things as surprises. Keep your eye out for the video! KABOOM in Dunwoody, gotta love it.

So I got the pleasure of spending the weekend in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is round 5 I think in the NOPI Drift competition? The setting for the event was gorgeous, sitting out on the river right to the side of Heinz Field. The event was pretty calm, sadly Andy Sapp’s BMW went down for the count early with a clutch issue and we couldn’t get it fixed to have him qualify. He did get to do an interview at length with the Speed Television crew so keep your eyes peeled for that one.

The weekend really was a blast, after qualifying we went to the hotel and got showered up and went to the Hard Rock Cafe at Market Place where the Hogan’s rented the place out to toss Nick Hogan his 17th birthday party. I rolled in with Wes Hamachi, Ernie Fixmer, and Jason Small who were the first people to arrive on the scene. It ended up being an awesome party and all I really have to say about the night is Bret Michaels……if you weren’t around then you won’t understand.

My two favorite drivers of the weekend was by far Gary Lang and Nick Hogan. Gary Lang came all the way from New Mexico with his game face on and really just laid it down GANGSTER all weekend. He ended up falling a tad short in competition but he was spot on all weekend ranking in two top qualifiers. Nick Hogan came out in his freshly built Nissan 350z and really ran solid. He told me on Saturday the car was way more comfortable and forgiving and it showed! He wound up taking third place on the podium after falling short to MA Brian in the top four event.

Gary Lang and Damien Bagley doing battle in the competition rounds.

Nick Hogan in his new Nissan 350z.

The other great treat of the weekend was Honda brought out the Honda Element Drift thing which was pretty wild to see out ripping it up on the track.

Of course big props to Mikey Palmer, Bill Sherman, and Enjuku Racing for taking home another victory for the weekend!

I picked up some new King Stampede gear for the summer time. I snagged the “Weird Hero’s” shirt, “Hey Moon,” and “Real Magic Cult,” all from King Stampede. I fell in love with the brand when I came across it a couple months back. I’ll be in Buffalo soon so I cannot wait to stop by Krudmart. King Stampede, “Live from Somebrew Galaxy.”

Well the Scion got sold, sad day. I am skipping a ton of blogs because I got so behind and I want to post newer stuff. I said goodbye to the Scion, so the G35 is getting some more play time. She left with just over 5,000 miles on her