Spent my Monday funday with gamer and Star Wars fanatic Christine Joy yesterday. Had initially planned to maybe shoot her out at Cockatoo Island, but decided to stay in my comfort zone, literally, by having a lazy day shooting her at home.
Really happy with the results. Just the right amount of light (it was on and off all day) and little Christine (she’s tiny!) was such a pleasure to hang with.
Braved the rain and checked out the 19th Biennale of Sydney at Cockatoo Island today with Mimi. Full feature on Zen Garage: http://zengarage.com.au/2014/03/19th-biennale-of-sydney
It’s here! The result of our collab with Geepdup. A long sleeve T that’s just as home at a track day as it is on the street.
Model: Bettina Banks
Stylist: Melanie Fernandez
Photographer: Selectnine
Last night the Zen Crew checked out Red Lantern on Riley. Celebrity Master Chef and Restaurateur Luke Nguyen’s second Red Lantern restaurant (the original still running on Crown St in Surry Hills).
More specifically we spent the entire night in the Red Lily Cocktail Bar out the back of the restaurant. A small but racy space with wooden stools and a marble bar. Our bartender Ken was an amazing man and had us exchanging pot shots all night. We pretty much tried every cocktail on the menu, all of which were amazing discoveries, we also had most of the ‘bar food’ menu which was next level and had some of us saying that it was the best bar food we’ve ever had.
We got to briefly meet Head Chef Mark Jensen who’s the co-owner and brother-in-law, and his wife Pauline (Luke’s sister) ran us through every dish that came out. Amazingly Luke was also in the house as he was serving dinner to 2 lucky winners of a competition he ran where the winners were flown first class from anywhere in the world to have dinner with Luke at Red Lantern on Riley! In between keeping the winners entertained Luke came back to the bar to hang out with us more than a few times during the night (he’s a champ, as down to earth as they come, we’re all converted!).
Ved took a lot of shots. I’ll be writing up a full feature for Zen Garage soon!
Serg and Rob.
The view from our Zen Stand. Amazing! The grand stand on the right and the strip on the left.
The Zen Stand.
Wouldn’t be Jamboree without a Bikini Comp!
Schembri!
Zen Sponsored drivers Schembri and Jabbit of Blaze Unit going off as usual.
Attended my first Jamboree yesterday. We were given the primo position for our Zen Stand, right at the top, overlooking the drag strip. Was a fast paced event, the action on the drag strip was amazing, so many 6 second passes! The drift shows really broke up the day too, probably the closest the crowd has gotten to drift action in some time.
Unfortunately it rained at around 4pm and that sent everyone packing, we packed up and bailed, but found out afterwards that the rain stopped and racing re-commenced at 7pm! Shame to miss the finals, there’s always next year though!
LOST (Leichhardt Open Studio Trail) is an event held in conjunction with Art Month each year in March. During this time artists studios throughout the local area open their doors to the public and Zen Garage was on the map!
Lost Maps showing all the open studios in Leichhardt.
Our resident arty chick Krysti Mclellan drawing live on the day.
Resident Zen Cars: Ved’s MK1 GTI and Justin’s R32 GT-R.
On the Go mobile mechanic working on Rob’s E30.
ARTcycle ran a guided tour of a variety of galleries and spaces on the LOST trail and Zen Garage was on their checklist.
Visit: http://www.artcyclesydney.com
There are always amazing rides dropping in to Zen Garage.
Michael’s awesome ‘KE04ME’ F20C powered KE30 Toyota Corolla.
S2K everything!
Yono’s super clean E30.
Sam’s absolutely amazing Lebanese BBQ, such an epic way to end the day.
Sergio, Ved and I were invited to Motoring in Motion, a preview to the 2014 Top Gear Festival Sydney at Sydney Motorsport Park.
Look what I painted! That Jayson Fong is so talented. His painting was going to be displayed in the Senna Tribute display. So cool.
A very small group of media were treated to an awesome day out. First up we had lunch (the steak and salmon were great!) and had the Australian Top Gear presenters run casual Q&A’s with Craig Lowndes, Robert Dhalgren, Neal Bates, Beau Yates, Lee Holdsworth and Will Davison. Amazing that they got all these top shelf drivers in to chat in front of us! Very cool.
Next up we were introduced to Volvo’s new S60 Polestar. Got to love that blue. What’s better we got hot laps in it on South Circuit with Robert Dhalgren at the wheel. He muscled that car around, the brakes were damn amazing. Super punchy.
Beau Yates’ 86.
This thing was a beast. Seeing it squat and drift… awesome.
After that we got to ride shotgun in either Beau Yates’ 86 or Neil Bates’ old school Celica rally car. I got to jump in with Beau (I’ve been a fan of his ever since seeing him drift at Oran Park when the Japanese D1 Drifters first came to Sydney). Damn his car is amazing. When it grips, it’s got so much torque, the shifting is amazing and the whole car just feels so smooth when sliding. Beau treated me to 2 laps, what a champ! Was great having a bit more of a chat than the past couple of times I’ve run into him.
After that we got happy laps on South Circuit in a couple of 911’s. I jumped in the convertible. Lovely car, my driver did a little grip driving and a little drifting too, full locking it nice and smooth.
Ved snipering Jeremy Clarkson.
Then the new Mclaren 650S was revealed to us. Bit of a treat as this car was only just revealed at the Geneva Motor Show 3 days prior.
What a thing of beauty.
Senna and Ved!
Ved’s Zen Snapback signed by Bruno.
To top the day off we got to meet Bruno Senna and check out Ayrton Senna’s 1988 McLaren MP4/4 F1 race car.
Ramspeed Twin Turbo Gallardo spotted in the carpark.
I walked away with this poster… oh noes it might be game on again!
Zen has a core group of mates, we look out for each other, share laughs and great times. We love each other. We call ourselves ‘the broners’, what better a way than ripping off the ‘brother’ logo (Alain’s idea and I just had to do it lol).
Watch this video, be sure to turn your sound up. The voice is Alan Watts a philosopher who passed away in the early 1970’s, but what he says really makes a lot of sense to me.
I’ve created a job where I truly do what I love. I live Zen. I see myself as a curator of the world’s various fascinating sub cultures and I’m free to discover and promote whatever it is that I’m into in this very moment, without feeling any sort of pressure or guilt to promote any one thing nor pigeonhole myself.
I hope this little video inspires you to find your Zen.
