Irvine, CA – I was pretty excited to attend the AutoCon (short for Auto Connection), on December 10- for one, it’s the last car show of the year, and it was being held in an outdoor venue, which is something we haven’t seen much of these days.  Being located at the old El Toro Marine Air Base location (which is being converted to a fairgrounds), I was hoping that the show would be located on parts of the old airstrip with some of the hangars in the background- I figured it would look cool, Top Gear style- but unfortunately it was relegated to a lot location just outside of it. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing though, as parking was convenient and it was still just a few steps away from getting to the hot air balloon ride.

The show itself was surprisingly diverse, with some fresh cars that I hadn’t noticed before, probably due to entrants coming in from the whole west coast of the U.S. Overall there was a good mix of modern imports, European, and domestic cars, as well as some rare and classic cars. Some that stuck out for me were the old school Celicas (both 1st and 2nd gen), a 4th gen donked out Impala, a super cleanly restored ’69 Mercedes 280SE (I think), the Scion Xb converted to a 60′s wagon look (complete with holiday luggage on the top), a race Shelby Cobra and a Nissan President, among others. There were also a lot of cars with rather… interesting… detailings, whether it be the paint designs or the miscellaneous engine bay decorations. However, I also noticed a disturbing (in my opinion, no hate intended) trend developing among the “hellaflush” movement, where people seem to be trying to outdo each other on how badly they can damage their front fenders to stay as low as possible. Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t see how badly rolled, paint cracking, hammer banged fenders can in any way look aesthetically tasteful. To each their own though .

Other than the cars, the event also had the usual distractions; vendors selling their wares, as well as the brave models willing to walk around with nothing more than a bikini in this cold winter weather- for this, I applaud you ladies! More importantly, the show organized a small festival of some of the most popular food trucks in the area with which to delight our taste buds with. To be honest I really hope other shows start doing this as well- one can only eat a cardboard flavored 8 dollar convention center hot dog for so long. I wasn’t willing to try a “lobsta” roll for 12 dollars (I understand it’s made of lobster meat, but for 12 bucks I could get myself a nice steak), but the Dogzilla dog was great. Mixing salty meats with sweet King’s Hawaiian bread- I wish I had thought of it

Overall, I would say the AutoCon was one of the highlights of the car show year – the turnout was massive (the parking lot itself could’ve been a car show), the cars were great, the food was good, and I enjoyed the outdoor venue. The roll up stage was a great idea that really allowed the owner to talk details about their car, something that I think other shows should implement as well.

Thanks Justin at AutoCon for letting us cover the event, and once again congrats to ACE for winning a crapload of awards

Los Angeles, CA - If you were born in the mid-70′s to early 80′s, there’s probably one thing that you remember fondly from your childhood (ok, maybe there’s three if you include Saturday morning cartoons and the scrambled porn channel)- video games. If you, like me, came out of the womb clutching a keyboard and joystick, and constantly look back on all those great games you played back in the day, then the annual iam8bit Art Show is your ticket to refined nostalgia in the eyes of nerds just like you and I, who happen to also be extremely talented artists.

As implied by its namesake, the show focuses on art mainly from the Atari to NES area of 8-bit games, so most gamers will be familiar with the subjects displayed in the works- Mega Man, Mario, Q-bert, Galaga, the Skate or Die kid, Metroid, and of course Pac Man.  I’m not much of an art guy so I won’t pretend I noticed the sophistication of an artists’ brush strokes or how a piece spoke to me and its hidden commentary on the effects of capitalism on newborn babies in Zimbabwe.  All I can say is that I enjoyed going through the exhibit and was thoroughly impressed with some of the details that these artists put into their work. My favorite pieces would probably be the huge Mario mural (main pic) and the Dr. Mario/Princess upskirt figurine (yes, I’m a perv).

Overall, I am pleased to see video games being taken seriously as an important social medium, despite its negative stereotypes portrayed by the older generation.  It is through shows like this that maybe some day, people will understand how much of a positive impact games have had on our generation, and its cultural impact to society as it is today.  I for one, will not deny how glad I am to have been brought up on video games, and to have dedicated people create such games.  If it wasn’t for video games, I probably would have never known what a “dirge” was, nor heard such beautiful compositions by amazing artists like Nobuo Uematsu.

I’m hoping that the iam8bit art show will continue developing and hopefully branch out to newer generations of video games, but for now, this is it- you owe it to yourself as a gamer to browse through the gallery and enjoy the art.

For more information, you can visit http://iam8bit.com/

Also, each piece is available for sale!

Long Beach, CA – On August 21, we attended the hotly anticipated Motion Auto Show, hoping that something would finally fill the void that’s been missing in recent years – a car show that was actually good and worth staying the whole day for.  Thankfully, Motion did not disappoint- the fact that we actually drove out to ghetto ass Long Beach alone should prove how excited we were for this (are ghetto LBC jokes still in fashion?). You know a car show is gonna be huge when vendors and competitors bring out their mother freakin’ ice sculptures.

Set up by the Pro-Motion Distributing company, no corners were cut in the planning of this event- all the big vendors were here; including Mobil 1, Falken, and my personal show favorite, Scion. More importantly, big vendors = free schwag, free schwag = happy attendees. You know you love those free hats that you’ll never wear.  Of course, the other component that makes a car show worth attending is surprisingly, the cars that show! In this regard again Motion sets the bar, with most of the biggest teams making their appearance- ACE/High End, TWC, MFest, Hybrid, you name it- they were there.  There were quite a few unique appearances as well as you will see in our gallery.  The S2000 without spark plugs and those crazy pipes in the engine bay that I have no idea what they do.. I don’t know how it runs, but I like it.  We must also mention the M3 with the pedobear sticker, it should have won something.. like Best Decal In Show. Or something.

On the lifestyle side of things, the show managed to cater to a wide variety of audiences, with some dance competitions, sports exhibitions, AND- a STREET FIGHTER IV competition hosted by the MLG and NOS Energy drinks!!! As they would say in the fighting game community, I was literally getting hype to see something like this breaking into the mainstream. Joystick warriors rejoice, you are no longer displaced to the dark corners of the local arcade!!

In all seriousness though, the Motion Auto Show was all we had hoped it would be- a turn-around in what was a stagnant and slowing trend in exciting car shows. We’re glad that Motion is bringing it back and setting the bar for future car shows from now on!

Thank you Mike Morita and Ryan Nguyen, for setting up this awesome show as well as for your kindness and generosity. Special shout outs to the MFest crew, and ACE/High End as usual .  Also special thanks to up and coming contributor, Victor Gonzalez!

Long Beach, CA – So you read our article on the Motion Auto Show. But deep down inside, you felt something was missing. “He mentioned that one major component of car shows are the cars… but he forgot the other half… the models. WHERE ARE THE MODELS?!?”  Fret not dear reader, for we would never turn a blind eye to such things! Yes, we go out of our way and take pictures of all the booth babes and models that are a staple of the car show just for you! When we previously mentioned that Motion did not disappoint, we were also referring to the fine selection of ladies that appeared throughout the day (even some of the showgoers were pretty hot; sometimes we weren’t sure if some of these girls were actual models or just attendees).  All we can say is – some of the kids that came probably hit puberty immediately at Motion- and that by the end of the day, we were thirsty for milk.  We’ll stop typing now and let you enjoy the pics we got.

Thanks for the extra contributions Steve!

Anaheim, CA - Spocom, one of our favorite annual car shows, was surprisingly held at the Anaheim Convention Center, which luckily for us meant it was only a few minutes away.  We’re not sure if the show itself extended to the parking lot as well, considering how many modified cars were parked in there- one in five cars there was most likely an EVO.  As usual, Spocom did not disappoint; catering not only to car fans, but to the lifestyle and culture as well.  In addition to the usual gamut of hottie models (our favorite part of the show, as usual), mostly tastefully modified cars, and various live competitions on the main stage, new to the show were the urban clothing and accessory booths selling off their wares.  This included such brands as Crooks & Castles and Meister, to name a few. Noticeably absent was the lack of free stuff.  Perhaps it is a sign of today’s battered economy; but we sure do miss the random free CD’s, T-Shirts, baseball caps and stuffed paraphernalia.

Highlights of the show for us were Skyline Alley (never have we seen so many GT-Rs parked next to each other), the extremely clean and restored 1st generation Honda Civic coupe, the guy wearing a chained rim around his neck (can’t get any blinger than that), and of course, the boobies!! Shout outs to the High End crew, and congrats on winning (as usual) a ridiculous amount of trophies!

As usual, feel free to peruse through our pictures of the show

It took quite a while, but we were finally able to get our hands on the angelic Francia Marie! Her exotic looks, captivating eyes, and all-natural 32C cups on a slender, five-foot body (we love boobies, you do the math) caught our attention immediately, so we knew we had to try and get her to shoot with us. Must be the half-German half-Filipina genes, because most girls don’t look this good without paying a hefty fee to the local plastic surgeon.

A shoot was originally scheduled about two years ago, but Francia took a year-long hiatus from modeling to concentrate on some different projects, including fight choreography, acting, and producing music. We thought she had forgotten all about us until we received a follow-up email a few months ago. Naturally, we jumped at the chance and started working out a  schedule with her.

We get a lot of flak here for mostly doing glamour shots involving half-naked ladies, so for Francia we wanted to prove that we’re not one-trick ponies here at Madlight Media. Our shoot took us through the amazingly diverse landscape that Downtown L.A. provides, in an effort to find a location suitable for a fashion look.  We settled on the train yard and a rooftop location in the heart of Downtown, but it was no easy task; fending off bums, police officers (for “trespassing”), and security guards while trying to just get a few shots in- but it comes with the territory when shooting guerilla style. Although we spent a lot of time getting chased around more so than getting any shooting done, it was easy to get great pictures thanks to Francia’s amazing ability to look natural all the time. Most importantly, she was a blast to work with, fun, and genuine with her conversations.

So was the two year wait worth it? We definitely think so, and we hope you do too!

If you’d like more of Francia Marie, visit her website at http://www.wix.com/findfrancia/marie

*Special thanks to Carlos Gonzalez for the location scouting, Mikhail Nava for doing the heavy lifting, and of course Francia for being game and following us through our misadventures that day. Also special shout out to the Urth Caffe in the Arts District for having the best turkey burgers ever made and being a cool rendezvous spot. And the officer who allowed us to continue shooting despite our trespasses.

Photographer: Dave Luong

Makeup/Hair: Francia Marie

Assistants: Carlos Gonzalez, Mikhail Nava 

Coming in only about three months late, a set that should have been posted for Valentine’s Day! We figured though that people would appreciate the real life angel that Christine is, regardless of the time of year! After numerous delays (and frustrations) in trying to find a model for the shoot idea, we were almost to the point of obliterating a certain photographer/model networking site by shoving our keyboards through our monitors.

Through some divine intervention we were finally favored some attention in the form of Christine King. Christine is the type of girl that most guys only dream of- long slender gams, a down to earth personality with an emphasis on having fun and living life to the fullest (perhaps too much emphasis), capable of producing seductive stares that stop you in your tracks, and most importantly- a connoisseur of cars. Yes, this girl can actually tell you the difference between a B16A2 and a B18C5, has built her own LS/VTEC Civic, and currently rides a kitted BMW 5 series slammed on some fat-lipped rims. She also thinks Black Ice air freshener is better than the squash Air Spencer, which unfortunately, we disagree with

We don’t know about you readers, but any girl that probably knows more about cars than we do and is blessed with an all-natural body to die for is what we would consider a match made in heaven.

Once again, many thanks to Christine for being game to the pin-up style shoot, and Heidi Pacifico for always hooking it up with her excellent makeup and hairstyling work (and her boyfriend for putting up with having to sit in a humid studio for over 4 hours haha)!

Photographer: Dave Luong
Model: Christine King
Makeup and Hairstyling: Heidi Pacifico
Location: Studio OC, Fountain Valley, CA

P.S. Title inspired by that damn song that I listened to for 2 days non-stop while editing pics And props if you can figure out the exclamation point reference!

July 18, 2010, Long Beach, CA – After first showing in Nor Cal, SpoCom finally arrived in So Cal, meaning we finally had a good car based event to go to! As usual, SpoCom does not disappoint with the variety of cars; import or domestic, new and old.  Eye candy was plentiful as well- in addition to the usual booth babes were plenty of hopefuls getting test shoots done on location, as well as the usual bikini and lingerie contests.  Also of importance was the abundance of free shwag, specifically from Scion (as usual) and Mobil 1! Nothing ever wrong with free shirts and baseball caps! Anyway, enough babbling, and on to the pics!