So as of some of you may have read below, when I got back from London 10 days ago I got into a real bad car accident. My car got totaled, along with 3 other cars. Luckily I walked out alive along with the rest of the passengers in my vehicle.
On another note, I had to get a new car. I felt real lucky to walk out of that accident in one peace. So I decided to give myself a nice gift. I figure you live only once.
I'm very thankful that after all of these years of hard work blowing up Five Four that finally I can reap some of the rewards. After 4 years of struggling, perseverance and luck, its good to see the fruits of one's labor.
Brazilian BBQ
Oli and Seth (Rock & Republic) showed up. Oli was disappointed that I had my FCBarcelona flag up in my office, damn Brit!!!
J Dubb (FF Marketing Director) gives everybody a big greeting...what everyone doesn't know he is secretly plotting for the late night frat style drinking
Paul (SGV) and Davey (FF Art Director) give us a salute...
B from the Bay had a gangster arrival
Max (KROQ) and Liam (Btoll Ent.) graced us with their young presence
J Dubb and Max staring at Brian trying to pick up on Melissa (Monarchy) and Amanda (FF)
Kelvin (Interscope), Dee and Jason (MAGIC)
Carl (Catch Music) and recording artist Hayes lounge in the Range...
Josh from QD3 Entertainment politicin' as usual
The 3 Stooges...our attorney Ben, Dee and Hayes...
My assistant Josh, gets punked by Deepak for wearing a hoodie in July, a yellow one at that
Soleil gives us the evil eye
DJ Bianca G was killing it on tables
Even Brooke (Rock & Republic) was getting down
Brian was still trying an hour later
Big Derek pimpin' Cubano mafioso style
Emannuel (FF Design Director) gulps Red Bull & Vodka like it was water...he was later driven home b/c he wasn't that coherent...YOUNG!
Nate from Monarchy gives everyone a "hi fuck you nice to meet you" greeting
J Dubb with Los (Red Bull)...the man responsible for the Red Bull and 80 bottles of vodka that were drank by everyone at the bbq...yes i said 80
KB (FF Lifestyle Designer) just got his paycheck that night and went to Checks Cashed and was passing out $ like he was P-Diddy, Puffy, Puff Daddy, Sean Combs, whatever he calls himself now
He even made a ring out of his $
Towards the end of the night J Dubb went out of control and was shooting alcohol down people's throats frat head style
Check out the ill gear I got at the vintage shops, there are all pretty old, rare and vintage Lacoste and Polo.
By this point, we had done enough of Camden and were ready to go back to our hotel in Knightsbridge. We went to go eat some ridiculous Indian food, probably the best I've had in my life. Thanks to Dee for the recommendation. Our flight is in a few hours back to L.A., time to go to bed.
Check out some of our latest press hits, J Dubb is straight killingg it right now...
BPM June/July 2006
Synthesis July / August 2006
URB July August 2006
The great DJ Shadow rocking our jeans...
After the dust settled, we checked in to the hotel and joined the parade for a bit. Bought some cheesy victory t-shirts and a flag to blend in with the locals...
The next day we did an 8 hour tour of Rome. We saw a lot in a very short time. After sleeping in until 2:30pm, we first headed off to the Colosseum, definitely a marvel to see.
The arc right outside the Colosseum...
More sights of Rome...
The infamous Spanish steps...
Vatican, enough said.
We then headed back to the hotel to rest up a bit. I was flying back to London the next day for some meetings and shopping. I decided last minute to head to Milan for the day and fly to London that night. Luckily I found flights on the web and was able to make it happen.
The last night in Rome we treated ourselves to a king's dinner and went over to Trevi Fountain, the fountain of wishes. Woke up early the next morning at 5am to catch my flight to Milan, Brian was headed back to L.A.
I got into Milan at 8am, checked in my bags and got into the city at around 9:30am. Definitely a very Metropolitan city with ridiculous shops all over the place. And the best part is that it's all a lot cheaper than in the U.S. I got some new Gucci kicks, YSL shades, Dior Homme money clip for about half what I would pay in the states.
I stepped into this ridiculous sneaker shop, they had everything...
Did a little sight seeing right about the Golden Triangle. Da Vince statue...
This ridiculous church, the Duomo di Milano
Had to get back to the airport to catch my flight to London.
We got back into London pretty late, about 2am. Got into the city at about 3am and went straight to sleep.
Yesterday we hit up Harrods, Harvey Nichols and the boutiques in Covent Gardens...
We didn't do much here. Lots of sleeping and resting. Checked out some of the nightlife here, these guys are animals. They party until 6am and then go to after hours until 11am. Anyways, we checked out a local hotspot called Gabana, fun time had by all. They mispelled Dee's name on the bottle, his new name is Tee.
It was the semifinal game between Germany vs. Italy that same night. The B&B show is operated by a German company, so it was pandemonium. They played the game in the big courtyard for all the B&B people to watch. Unfortunately, they lost the game to Italy. It wasn't a good look. There were drunk Germans kicking the trash and yelling in anger. They were over it about 10 minutes later after another round of beers.
That night we hit up the marina area for some great dinner and bars. We ended back at the hotel at 7am, another damn night of partying, it has to stop at some point...but when in Euro, do as the Euros do.
The show officially started on Wednesday, what an amazing show. It's definitely a lot cooler than any U.S. shows, peep below.
The Five Four booth was in the denim hall next to all of the big brands such as G-Star, Fornarina, Guru, Pepe and other big Euro lifestyle brands...
The show was a HUGE success. Our European distributor, Bernard, did a great job at putting everything together. Major props to him, Dee and I were very impressed with everything. The Euros were going crazy over Five Four. We are going to be sold everywhere in Europe now, everywhere from London to Stockholm to St. Tropez to Mikanos...good look.
Our good friend, Mikey Lev, joined us for the trip. He is an international playboy for all of you that don't know, along with Brian Toll who also joined us. They definitely made the trip a lot of fun, thanks for coming you international clowns...
Some other Angelenos were in attendance...
Mike T from Obey representing
It was about 120 degrees in the Sport & Street Hall where Obey was...
Creative Recreation was out there too, the Spring 2007 looked super hot...props to Rich over there.
So the joke of Barcelona was the gypsys. We were warned by many about the gypsys in Barcelona. Basically they are a group of crooks that travel and steal for a living. Pretty low scene. It was gypsy mayhem in Barcelona. Unfortunately, they came to the Five Four booth and stole our distributors laptop. One of the dudes got caught and is getting deported back to Chile...I heart gypsys.
On another note, check out the Replay campaign across the show at the Arena Barcelona. It was really hot.
That night we went to some super Euro beach party. It was thrown by a clothing line out of Spain called Desigual. The party was 45 minutes away from Barcelona on some random beach. We all fell asleep on the bus on the way there, we woke up, we were on the beach. I didn't know if I was in Spain or Portugal at this point. It was definitely what I thought a Euro beach party would be like, bunch of techno, bonfires, and drunk Euros. It was a good time had by all...
In the Bread and Butter Bulletin, Five Four was featured under a section called "The Look"...shout out to DJ Jon Alagem, you made it bro! haha
The show wrapped up on Friday, next B&B show will be this week in Berlin. Unfortunately, I have to get back to L.A. by Saturday so I won't be able to attend the show. I'm very excited about Five Four's entry into the European market. It's crazy how far we've come.
Our last night in Barcelona, we started off the night with some seafood paella. What a damn good dinner. Then headed off to the Untitled party for a bit. Looked for a cab for 1 hour afterwards to head to the Criminal party. There are no cabs in this city. It's unbelievable. I had to flag down a cab that was off duty and bribe him to take us to this next party. So we finally got there, I felt like it was in some ecstasy rave in Ibiza...not a good look.
The night ended back in the plaza where we started, taking pics at 6am in la Plaza de Cristobal Colon. Here's Dee and I giving the salute.
On the way to the airport, I had to buy some FC Barcelona gear...
The view from the restaurant was pretty sick. Service sucked, food was okay, viva la France...
The rest of the day was spent shopping and eating good old french mussels for dinner. The next day we hit up some more shops and ate some amazing crepes on the sidewalk cafes. Check out Brian people watching at lunch, he thinks the French girls won't see him staring at them thru his sunglasses...
We were with the Monarchy Clothing crew in Paris, it was Brady's birthday. The celebration spot for the evening was the famous Buddha Bar.
No visit to Paris would be complete without going to the Champs Elysees. Check out the flagship Louis Vuitton store, its about 5 or 6 floors. It's so sick! I haven't seen a lot of the product in there in most of the other LV stores around the world. The architecture and design of the store is very impressive, definitely a site to see and admire...
We did a little sightseeing on the last day before our flight, it started raining right before we left.
Notre Dame Cathedral
Arc de Triomphe
Eiffel Tower
We started off by having dinner at Electric House, a super cool restaurant/lounge that is members only. The food was great and atmosphere was perfect. We met up with Oli's friend Abby, who is Simon Cowell personal assistant, the creator of American Idol. Abby is super cool, she showed us a great time in London.
After a great dinner, many rounds of drinks and a couple shots of tequila, we headed off to Boutique 50, another members only club. The design of the club was pretty plush. There were mirrors all over the place, including on the cieling...pretty trippy.
In typical London fashion, we headed off to 3 more clubs the rest of the night. The clubs don't close there until between 4 and 6am, depending which clubs you are at. We left the club and it was daylight. Went straight to breakfast!
Woke up today kind of early since we had to go hit up some shopping before the big match, England vs. Portugal. Had just enough time to go check out Selfridges, the entrance has a really amazing statue.
So game time rolled around and before we left, Oli surprised us with some special gifts for my friend Brian and I...our own custom England jerseys with our last names on the back. They were super dope, mine had the #5 on it and Brian's had 4 on it. We rolled out to the pub rocking our jerseys.
Getting to the pub was another adventure. None of the cabs would take us there because the streets were filled with traffic of people rushing over to the pubs to watch the game. The cab drivers wanted to go home to watch the games as well. We had to take the subway to get the pub to meet up with Abby again. One hour later, 3 underground line changes and walking amongst massive loads of drunk Brits on the way to their favorite pubs, we finally got there. It was definitely worth the treach. The whole country basically shut down. It showed me how much culture and patronage there is here.
The pub was outdoors, and it was pretty hot outside. After 2 hours of yelling and cheering, the game was a dead tie at 0-0. Unfortunately, England lost the penalty kicks and Portugal took the victory. The country seems pretty down.
We headed for Sushi at Cocoon off of Regent Street. After a great dinner, we decided to call it an early night at 1am. It's 3:30 am right now in London, we have a 9am train to Paris. I had a great time in London as usual, I love the city and the people. I'll be be back here in 12 days for another 3 days, can't wait to come back.
One last note, I love to always see other countries literal translations or funny tag lines on consumer products. All of the cigarette packs here have anti smoking messages on them. It's pretty hilarious. I personally think its a marketing ploy by the tobacco companies in the UK. The Brits love to rebel and these messages only would make them want to smoke more, please view below.
