[BLOG] 48 PHOTOS RECAPPING 2011 FOR ME.
I love pictures. I dont like being in them, but I like looking at them. Its cool to really take a picture, even if noone is in it, and just kind of let it tell a story. Let it remind you of a memory. Which is a HUGE HUGE reason why I want a IPHONE. I WANT INSTAGRAM!! LOL. Its a pretty dumb reason to want a phone, but dude I’ve been doing the color process photos foreeeverrr. Its always been my thang. Haha.
Anyways, be prepared for a HUGE POST. This is going to be a RECAP of my year. I’m going to bookmark this post, because I want to remind myself of all the things that happened in 2011. So i went through my photos of myself of 2011 from FACEBOOK….and I just downloaded all the pictures that had some random meaning to it. From HUGE MOMENTOUS occasions to little things that really effected me as a person that I never would have imagine been so vital of who i am today. Ready set GO!
1 ) What better picture to start off w/ then this one! This is more near the end of 2010 but it definitely represent a lot of what I wanted to do in 2011. This was taken at PLAN C offices on the rooftop in the middle of LA. Taken by one of my JETSET promoters Nicky Wong. Definitely says a lot about my love for LA. 
2 ) This was a behind the scene shot of my first artist : Joseph Vincent’s first music video. A huge deal. A chance for us to show the world what we were about. This was definitely a one of a kind music video. We shot everything in ONE TAKE. For Joseph’s first music video, I was really proud of how he did on this. After a year it has garnered over 3.8 million views : Check it out here
3 & 4 ) One of the first thing Joseph and I both talked about was that we both really really wanted to go to Australia. We’ve heard so many things…I mean why not right? After 6 months…(end of january) Myself, and Joseph trekked out to Australia. He rocked two shows, and the reception of him out there was amazing. The people of Australia were great! I got to pet a kangaroo & I got to meet some great people that I now consider as fam.
5 ) One new thing about 2011 was that I started doing the DIMSUM thing a lot. I really like tea. I think its the idea that its more about the conversation. I think growing up in America….the culture of dimsum is about the food and what not…but its really more about the conversations you have with the people you go to dimsum with. I mean it aint a real YUMCHA spot unless you got loud canto peoples right? From taking out of towners to my favorite spots (Elite, 888, NBC, Lincoln Plaza, to this new spot on atlantic…) or to random business meetings. Dimsum was definitely a must hit in 2011.
6 & 7 ) whatsupwally.com. One of my best friends is wallace vu (Orisue). I’ve spoken about him before on this tumblr, but definitely has still been a big part of my life this year. Probably the one friend that always gives me shit for not keeping in touch as well as I should. I love that about him. ”Can we be friends again” From our awesome boba hang outs to the dope clipper games he would take me to (before LOBCITY…) Definitely that one dude that makes me feel sane for staying in this game.
8 & 9 ) Funny that these 2 pictures are about a week from each other and at one of the venues I was promoting at the time.. I manage Joseph & Toestah, but I do have a couple of friendships with other peeps in the “biz”…whatever you want to call it. #8 is Kev, or you may know him as Kevjumba. Dude is a smart guy, and definitely going through a lot of growth in his career. Its always interesting to chill w/ this guy and have our deep convos. Also pictured in this photo is Julie Ma. A person I had no idea I would be tight with. These two people are probably the strangest combo in one picture ever, which is probably why I like this photo.
#9 is a picture of Dennis & JReyez when they came out to LA. Dennis was super sick during this trip, and I think we definitely got closer as friends after a weekend of taking care of him lol. Proud of these two guys. They’ve gone a long way since I’ve met them, and excited to see whats in store. Also a mini shout out to blondie fashionistaaa whos out in NY now!! Proud of you britt
10 ) If you told me 10 years ago that I would get to work with JIN THE MC…i would tell you to get the heck out there. I was that ASIAN PRIDE kid in high school…passing around the download link to Jin’s freestyle battle on 106&Park. Jin has become sort of a role model for me now and I am definitely proud to call him a big bro in what I do. This was the last day of his 2 week trip out in LA, where he got back into the studio to record a couple more tracks for his new english album. 
11 ) New orleans…Joseph did a show out here. For some strange reason I felt a very deep connection out here. Maybe it was the southern hospitality. But I really liked being out there. The people and the atmosphere was amazing. Plus I like cajun & seafood. But definitely remember while I was out there, i had a moment of clarity about my personal life and personal relationship. I came back to LA a more truthful person to myself…and was definitely done w/ secrets. (This flick has nothing to do with that but this was my last night on Bourban Street. Straight to the airport…swhwasty and all. **please don’t mind the drunk white girl photobomber**)
12 & 13 ) 26th birthday…I didn’t do birthdays very often. The past 3 years…yes at a club and all but…big birthdays to really celebrate. Rarely. It was cool to get a cake this year, and do the whole candle blowing thing. I got to share my birthday w/ David Chou who I now consider a really good friend of mine. A tough time at the time, but we both hosted our birthday parties together as a solo event w/o any promotion groups…just the two of us. (FLOAT) and it was a huge success even though a lot of people couldn’t get in. Also this may have been the official true beginning of BOWTIEGANG LIFE.
I think that night…or even that weekend. I came to a lot of self realization about myself in my work career & my personal life. I needed to take the big boy steps. A memorable birthday to say the least.
14 ) One of my good friends from middle school (Garvey) got married to his High School sweetheart. Garvey was a pivotal 2 years of my life…It effected me more then I ever thought. (Thanks for pointing this out Samson) This was cool to come back and see all my old friends. Seeing the peeps that I used to hang out with was an amazing thing. This post was more about reminding me of my old childhood friends. Especially the homie Samson…that I dont have any pictures with this year…lol (Congrats William. )
15 & 16 ) New York New York. I had been to New York before. Twice actually. The first time for less then 48 hours. I didn’t like it. The 2nd time…I was intrigued. I did a little bit more sight seeing the 2nd time i guess. The 3rd time, I fell in love. Mainly because of these 3 people right here. (The picture below was suppose to be my last day in New York. We did day time drinks at HOTEL EMPIRE. I remember at this point I was very very disappointed of leaving. I even tried to change my flight. )
I spent the week there instead of the weekend. It was more about spending the week there as a “NEW YORKER” then as a tourist. My friends (rich/danny) could only hang out after work/school, which allowed me to get my work on in NY. Also my good friend Jeena had just moved into NY and she wasn’t sick of the artsy fartsy touristy stuff yet. Definitely a “perfect trip”. To top it all off…I missed my flight and they gave me an extra day out in New York…and I came back to party w/ my friends…and low and behold even more friends were arriving that night which was like the cherry on top.
Strangely a lot of things happened on this trip in my personal life…looking back now, it was good. 
17 & 18 ) These dont’ really have anything to do with each other lol. I just remember that I liked this picture hahaah. It was from the Wiz Khalifa Taylor Gang video and I thought it was tight. lol plus its raver gear…ahah The 2nd photo is from after the PRIVATE AVICII concert. I really didn’t like avicii just the fact that he had a concert at the palladium on my birthday lol. After getting a showing of his private set at COLONY i was an instant fan. Ironically…this was one of the last time I was into Electronic Music. Yes we got free aviicii shirts. Big ups to WILL LEE…the MAN OF HOLLYWOOD.
19 ) Ahhhh EDC. MY first rave. 3 years in a row. Call me whatever you want to call me…you haters. I loved it. EDC LAS VEGAS was dope. Adult Disneyland. Thats all. It was about having fun and enjoying music & just GOING WITH THE WIND. 
20 & 21 ) I told you. I fell in love with New York. I came back again. This time for 4th of July. I was going through a lot the first half of the year. This was my chance to hit back the city that I fell in love w/ a month ago, and kind of find myself. Lot of personal time thinking.
My first night back was amazing. Rich, Danny & Co welcomed me back the first night w/ Crown Royal & 4LOKOS…partying like a champion and terrorizing the city of New York. Definitely tons of quotables that whole trip. I rekindled a friendship with an exgirlfriend that had a huge impact on my life. That was probably the coolest thing about that whole trip.
I also got to hang out w/ another creative soul like myself : Kimberly Wang…who I had no idea that I would have anything in common with but strangely appreciate our friendship very much and definitely a unique bond! Also a Miss NY USA 2012 competitor. 
22 ) I said goodbye to a place I called my 2nd home. CLUB MURA. I loved this place, and had a lot of good times here. The all nighters….the quiet smoking balcony. The Pizza parties. The slumber parties. The amazing LA VIEW. LA CAFE. The HQ for all party fiends. This place was legendary…from Far East Movement to Joseph Vincent to Jreyez, to Super Models…this was definitely a end of a era.
( A LA view from the bedroom balcony )
23 ) Someone I call a big sis. Both of us were always “the kids” and 2011 was time for us to GROW UP. Her first…me later. Linda Ngay…one of my biggest supporters in what I do. She’s one of the best at what she does, and proud that I know her. This is us at her farewell party for PLAN C at GAAM. 
24 ) TIME TO MAKE MOVES : I told ya. After signing Toestah my rapper…. With the help of my singer : Joseph Vincent…we pushed TOEST to record his first cover/remix video. Putting everything together over a weekend…and with the help from our good friend DUNO…we filmed everything in one day. We created a flippin dope video! Check it out here…
This picture is dope…because this really is MY TEAM right here…. We’re on another rooftop w/ Khoazy (One of the illest producers you’ll meet)…Toesteeezy (#MMB)…my bff (who is probably the biggest fans of these two guys)…me throwing up the dubs…Duno (A director that I’ve shared a lot with this past year…my super intern Annelise (who i am very glad I got close to this year also!)…and of course JV (this kid is a warrior! i swear it.)
damn…this is a lot of photos.
25 & 26 ) MORE MOVES : Party Til Am, Topshelf are two of the nightlife promotion groups that I had the honor to be a part of. I played the creative director role for both teams, and got to learn a lot from my partners at the time. After my birthday I took a 2-3 month long hiatus from the whole promoting thing. I wanted to just take a breather and let the dust settle after my previous venture (Topshelf). When I was ready, I wanted to do something on my own. I had a vision that I wanted to put in place.
Inspired from my earlier travels…I bought the domain http://www.wearejetset.com. (JETSET LA). A team of young go getters. JETSET LA represents a lot of things. It represents being a go getter..hustling & partying hard. It represents the LA LIFESTYLE. Not just the nightlife stuff, but everything about LA that makes LA what it is. From taco trucks to Raves. While traveling I realized that a lot of the things people want to do when they go to LA, a lot of the LA natives themselves have never done it. I recruited a couple of people that i felt represented the “YOUNG WILD & FREE” motto. After a couple months of “being in charge” I definitely felt the heavy responsibility. Its time to grow up. 
27 ) EVEN MORE MOVES : I love my city. I’m from Monterey Park…the 626…the SGV. This was something that was in the making for a very long time. I always wanted to do something big for my city. Inspired by what PK did with Kollaboration. He created an event that made it okay for the people of ktown to come out and sing/rap/perform. I wanted to do something like that for my own hood. We didn’t have anything like that.
Dreamchasers was going to be that. Dreamchasers was about inspiring the youth of the SGV to go out and “chase your dreams”. Having Toestah be the opener & Joseph headline the event was no problem. I had to fill out the rest of the roster. I invited out JK FILMS (SGV LOCALS), AJ Rafael, Jreyez, Andrew Garcia, Jennifer Chung, and Jason Yang. All of whom I had a personal relationship with somehow prior this event. With the help of this eclectic group of performers we inspired over 500 kids, and raised over $7,000 for my local high school choir.
I even got a cool plaque from the city of monterey park.
28 ) I like this picture, because its hard to get everyone together sometime. I labeled this as my family on my facebook profile. Toestah & Joseph it make sense yes. Jennifer Chung was a new addition to my life this 2011. She has been a blessing. Definitely one of those positive influences in my life to be a better person. To top it all off she is one of the most amazing song writers I know. I’m very proud of her and am glad to see her become the star that I know she is capable of. This other dude is Garrick who i’ve known for quite some time also. Part of theyshootfilm.com (plug for you dude)…he is easy one of my favorite photographers. He shot Joseph for the first time, and is almost always my go to photographer. One of the few people in this “industry” that keeps it real…and I like that about him. (Us Partying it up at the MYNINJA PARTY) 
29 ) Nightlife is always great w/ this group of friends. Aaron & Jenn, (super bff couple) like Wally always tries to find time to hang out with me. Even when I’m super tied up with stuff. Couples never go out to clubs, but I know they mostly go out to support me and see me, and I’m very appreciative of that. And of course theres my hyobeen…a basketcase but I see myself in her a lot. This was a very fun night for all of us I think. Definitely good times all around! :) Miss SantaKlaws was also created that night.
30 ) Another cool night with some of the more positive influences in my life. The return of my big bro Carl. Also a night of celebrating cchou’s bday…w/ some of my favorite ladies in the world. Made me realize how lucky i am to have great friends like these people here. Who can forget Carls talk w/ the homeless drunk in little tokyo…(you know those guys that ask for money because they ‘just got out of the towers’) 
31 ) Another music video for #teamjv. We were planning to head back to Australia again at the end of September, and we wanted to shoot another video before we headed out there. With an amazing producer like Keyvn we put together this DOPE music video…with our director homie DUNO. We’ve gotten over 800K views in less then 4 months.
Click here to check it out
We rented out a 50’s diner and worked on this music video from 11PM-5AM (This picture below is around 5:30AM…after we cleaned up the inside of the diner) 
32 , 33 , 34 ) And its baaack to Australia! The Land down under. This time we were coming out for 2 weeks. With a trip already under our belt…we were ready to conquer Australia! We did 4 shows in 4 days, with a grueling schedule but we ended up pulling through and delivering 4 amazing show. We got to be part of an amazing line up that included JK FILMS, Poreotics, YoMama, Architeks, and JR Aquino. After the first week…we stayed another week to shoot a music video with Jin, and did 2 more shows.
Talk about hustle bustle! Of course our FAM : Urban Agent took care of us while we were out there….We reunited with our old friends, but also had the chance to create new friendships in australia that was equally amazing!
35 ) I was awesome-o for Halloween. No story or anything, thats all dude. Awesome-o from southpark! How sick is that? I’m a huge southpark fan btw.
36 ) Chi Duong aka Tae Yang. The homie returned back from Alaska. Celebrated out in KTOWN. It was a fun time. Got to reunite w/ all the homies. No story really about this picture. I just really like it. It brings good memories…plus i was celebrating MOVEMBER in this picture….like i said you cant tell…but up close. I looked weird.
37 & 38 ) Vegas 6.0. An Annual Vegas trip for the good friend Eric Wang. It started 6 years ago and its gone on every year since. I’ve missed the past 2 years, but I made my return this year, and what a great trip it was :). Gone to reconnect w/ friends, and I haven’t been to vegas in forever!
(A group picture of everyone this year….and a group picture of the original group that went the very first year!) 
39, 40, 41 ) After returning from Vegas…i threw 2 Holiday Parties. One with my old fraternity. One of my early mentors (Ryan Castillo) & (Stanley Han) who got me started in this whole promoting business, who are also La Betas…asked me to jump on this Christmas Toy Drive at Oiwakes in Little Tokyo. I thought it was a great idea and a great way for all the OLD Betas guys and friends to get together and just chill out and hang out! It was a success and we collected 3 HUGE BOXES of TOYS for the kids.
The 2nd was a JETSET HOLIDAY PARTY….we invited out all our close friends for something intimate to celebrate the holidays with some singing & music. Definitely glad that the homies Rene/Nicky & Aaron/Jenn were able to come out and support me on that. Definitely was a good christmas present for myself in general. (You can read it all in my previous post) 
42 , 43 ) Hong Kong like I said was special for me. A nice little end of the year present that I really really enjoyed. (LKF & HONG KONG bREAKFAST)
44, 45, 46, 47, 48 ) These last 5 images…I’m not going to talk too much about it, because they don’t really represent 2011. They represent 2012. They will be projects that I will be working on. Things I’m very excited about. I hope that you are too. Stay tuned for these…
Wow. that was a lot of pictures…and this was a very long post. I’m kind of glad I did this though. It was cool recapping the year, and trying to figure out where my head was at the time. I have concluded that I am definitely blessed with some GREAT FRIENDS…(i already knew this…but didn’t realize how many…)
I’m excited for 2012. The year has barely started but things are shaken up already.
I hope ya’ll enjoyed this post. Cuz it took a crap long time to do it. LOL.
Peace&Love
Tom D. Ngo
