Densha Otoko (Train Man)

Thumbing through an old copy of The Source (August 1993), a photo at the top of the "Graf Flix" page leaped out at me. The picture shows a train that was painted by my San Diego buddy, Sake. When the flick was published I didn't know Sake, but had seen his work in The Source and a few other mags, including Phase 2’s I.G. Times, I believe.

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Anyway, 13 or so years later I ended up meeting Sake and doing an art show in San Diego with him and our mutual homies Mikey and my Joey, who were both part of the crew that introduced us. I didn't know what to expect of the show and really didn't put my best foot forward with the paintings that I did. But Sake, Mikey and Joey picked up my artistic slack.

Now, what really gets me at the moment is that it didn't occur to me until now that I had actually come to know Sake's work from this photo when it was published all those years ago. Pretty amazing.

Another noteworthy item on the magazine page itself is the photo of the blue & pink "Hyero" piece. It was painted by the now legendary Mike Giant. I first encountered Giant's work when he and his crew came through Chicago in '92, and left some beastly graff in our version of the Hall of Fame (see previous post). If memory serves, some guys I knew from the Ice Pack Crew showed him where it was, and he gives them a shout out on this page, too.

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Looking at Sake's photo once again, I notice that he dedicated the freight piece to his then-girlfriend-and-now-wife Chyna. But he also gave a shout out to Giant in the short list on the right side of his piece. I don't know if it's actually Mike or another Giant, so I'll have to check with him. (Or Sake could just read this post and drop me a note in Google Reader, since we see each other's online shares.)