FREE BURRITOS

Like we always do at this time.

For the 5th year in a row, we bring you the 0484 NBA BRACKET CHALLENGE. The winning bracket this year will walk away with a $340 Chipotle Gift Card (about 52 burritos worth).


Matt and I noticed that some companies have been getting a bit out of control with their contest requirements. Of course, unlike 0484, most of those companies are run by 'adults', so we tend to do things a bit differently. Anyway, if you have some time to kill, you can fill your bracket out here.

NBA PROMO PREVIEW

Our NBA Playoff Bracket Challenge is coming.

Matt and Ryan and I shot a quick little spot to promote our NBA Playoff Contest with our boy Jordan Warren out in LA last week. Whole shoot came together really quickly. If there's anything film school taught me, it's how to procrastinate pre-production until the last possible minute. That, and creative ways to get away with shooting stuff for dirt cheap.

We basically wrote, produced and shot the entire spot within 24 hours. Shout out to Rick Escamilla for hooking everything up to let us shoot at the Hollenbeck Youth Center. Jordan was great to work with, as always. I've known him since I made Eviction Notice in college and we've stayed in touch and shot a few things together since then. The kid has a ridiculous amount of talent - working with him is really fundamentally different than filming with almost anyone else.

Anyway, vid launches later this week. P.S. We're giving away a lot more burritos this year.

36 HOURS IN DENVER

Quick trip out to Denver last week.

Matt and I touched down Monday night. Sam and Tayler were nice enough to come through and pick us, and all of our gear, up at the airport. We grabbed some dinner at a diner downtown and then went straight back to the hotel where Matt and I unpacked and prepped everything.

Woke up Tuesday morning and filmed a few exterior shots around Downtown Denver.

Then we headed over to the Forza Gym inside the Ritz-Carlton. This is gym where Carmelo used to train, back in the day. His logo, in Syracuse colors, and signature are ingrained at center court.

Anyway, we filmed a few scenes here for a small independent movie that's currently in the works.

Matt filming here with Zo Azubuike. Zo's brother Kelenna is a shooting guard in the NBA. He's actually the guy who Mark Cuban signed to replace Lamar Odom a couple weeks ago.

Tayler and Matt squeezed a workout in between scenes.

Then we wrapped the day up by heading to a high school just outside the city and filming with Anthony Tolliver from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Both Anthony and Zo were really chill. We got to chat with them a bit about all aspects of the league and everything from Ricky Rubio's injury to the Mavericks' upcoming playoff picture.

Then we woke up before dawn on Wednesday and came home. Anyway, good trip for sure.

Meanwhile, we're staying busy back home. About to shoot a bunch of new stuff in next few days. Stay tuned.

JEFFSTAPLE AND RZA II

Me and the RZA connect.

The videos that Matt and Ryan and I made with jeffstaple and RZA dropped yesterday. And they're now worldwide thanks to Hypebeast and Freshness Mag and NahRight amongst others. It's one epic 20 minute interview split into 2 parts. What's cool about jeff's 1-2-1 series of videos is that they really are direct and intimate. There are no product-plugs and pre-canned answers so everything is truly real and direct.

Anyway, the videos cover everything - from the roots of the Wu and RZA turning his life around after being incarcerated to working on his forthcoming feature film. There's some deep stuff in here - for real. I know 20 minutes may seem like an eternity online but they're worth it, trust me.

Check out jeff's site for his commentary about how it all came together and some behind the scenes stills. Thanks to Amanda Lopez for the shot of me and Bobby Digital.

Also, worth mentioning, both RZA and jeff were really chill to work with. RZA was humble and charismatic. Jeff was pretty laid back and took a lot of our input throughout the shooting and editing process.

FORMULA D WEEKEND

The new Formula Drift season kicked off in Long Beach a few days ago.

Our boys at The ID Agency have been handling all the marketing for FD for years. As of a couple months ago, they brought us on board to help handle everything related to the Formula Drift website - content updates, live event streams, ad management and tracking, and everything on the backend. We're also helping to launch their all new e-commerce store which will go live later this week.

Anyway, Matt and Ryan and I stopped by the ID suite on Saturday and took in some of the action. Great weather, front row seats and all-you-can-eat hot dogs - 'nuff said. Anyway, you can check out more pictures of smoking tires and stuff at formulad.com

Shout out to The ID Agency for the work. And the hot dogs. And shout out to Spellman for programming his ass off last weekend making sure everything ran smoothly.

Anyway, super busy week coming up - shooting a few new videos. Follow along with all the action via Twitter - should be fun, trust me.

GALAXY LACES AND JELLYFISH

We're not on Pinterest.

Nevertheless here are a few images I found online recently.

Speaking of Kanye, here's a download link to his new joint, Theraflu, where he talks about falling in love with Kim Kardashian and how Kris Humphries is lucky that Kanye didn't make Jay drop him from the Nets (Yikes, right?). Anyway, you heard it here first.

SANCTIOND

Our boys from The ID Agency and SA Studios threw the Sanctiond event in LA last week.

Naturally Matt and I stopped by to raid all the free food trucks.

Sanctiond is Cartoon's new line of car care products. To help launch the brand, Cartoon opened up the doors to his compound and showed off everything from his private collection of lowriders to his super exclusive tattoo studio.

One of the cool thing's about his studio is that it's filled with old school imagery of everyone getting inked. Young Eminem, 50 Cent's massive back piece, Snoop's Nate Dogg portrait, Christina Aguilera's lower back tatt, etc.

Anyway, awesome event, great turn out. They even had a Lowrider Hop Off which was pretty cool. (As you guys know, Matt and I never miss a good Hop Off)

All these images courtesy of John P from ID. Check his Fatlace blog for the full recap.

Also some coverage over on the Crooks and Castles blog - besides including shots of the body painted gogo dancers, theres a photo of yours truly standing around inside a garage next to a blue pinstriped lowrider.

SADOLLAH AND MALSAM

Went out to Vegas a few weeks ago to film a couple things.

Shot some cool stuff with Amir Sadollah. Amir's a UFC Fighter from Virgina who won The Ultimate Fighter a few years ago. We met up with him and spent the day out at Randy Couture's gym, Xtreme Couture.

The NASCAR Driver we work with, Tayler Malsam, came out to the gym as well. Amir got him in the octagon and showed him a few things. Amir was super chill - really nice guy. Great to work with - really looking forward to that video getting edited and coming together.

The South Point actually sold out at one point so we headed to the strip and stayed at The MGM Grand with the rest of Team Malsam. We got one of the remodeled rooms and grabbed dinner at The Grand Wok - it was all good.

Friday and Saturday we spent some time at the track with Tayler and the G-Oil/TriStar Racing team.

Decent race - Tayler caught a bit of damage from a car that was already a lap down but he held on for a 16th place finish.

Sam travels with Tayler and does it all for him including shooting sick stills and video every week both on and off the track. Really cool guy and definitely keeps everything running smoothly for Tayler. Plus he bought us dinner so naturally we taught him how to play craps.

The homie Amir actually came out to check out the race which was cool. Hung out in the pit all day with us and the crew and sort of soaked it all in.

The frenzy that follows Danica around is sort of insane but she seems to handle it pretty well. Through the first 5 Nationwide races this season, Tayler is currently 8th in Points Standings. Danica, meanwhile, is down in 17th. #nobigdeal

THE GRIND

It's been a busy couple weeks.

A lot of meetings and video shoots and traveling and energy drinks. No time to blog or sleep or shower or fill out a bracket much less watch the games.

Anyway, don't panic, regular updates should resume soon. In the meantime, if you really miss us, you can always stalk us via Twitter.

I found this recent rant from Gary Vaynerchuk about an hour ago - really agree with a lot of the sentiments in this piece. This blog is supposed to be the behind-the-scenes story of Matt and I (and Ryan and Spellman) building 0484 and figuring it all out along the way but honestly it's just such a small fraction of the full story.

90% of what we do is simply a grind. Only the fun looking stuff ever really makes the blog. There's so much bullshit that goes into running this whole thing that it's not even funny. But it's all about getting to the next level - over and over and over again. Some days it is fun but other times it really feels like work. Such an insane schedule the past couple weeks. We filmed 6 different videos since Saturday. If there was ever a sweatshop masquerading itself as a creative agency, this is what it would look like.

With that said, I wouldn't trade this for anything. And don't forget, Matt and I are still just kids. Come see us in 6 years.

UFC PREVIEW

Went back out to Vegas last week.

Matt and Ryan and I did some filming with a UFC fighter.

Shot on location out at Randy Couture's gym.

Matt's wanted to work on something like this for awhile, so I'm glad it all came together.

Plus I managed to pick up a few grappling tips.

More to come...