Slip sliding away. 7/9/2005
I first heard about the animated series ‘Inital D’ from the engineer working in my department when I was running the factory operations for a Japanese firm in 2000. He was absolutely raving about the series, and I put it down to youthful enthusiasm, for at the time I was getting my kicks chasing a little white ball across 4 kilometers of grass.
About 2 months ago, I picked up the entire series in VCD from my brother-in-law, also a big fan of the series, because of the hype surrounding the impending release of the movie ‘Initial D’, starring Jay Chou. I sat down and watched a few of the discs. And it failed to hold my attention. Mainly because I have done the driving in the movie, for real, in various canyon roads across Colorado.
A favourite was Pikes Peak, a race to the top and back again. We would sometimes do this on motorcycles, sometimes in cars, and on one memorable afternoon, after the end of term, in a station wagon belonging to one of my classmate’s mothers, stuffed with 12 of us in various stages of inebriation. Drifting, for me, was second nature. The feel of the back wheel stepping out on me when powering out of a corner in the wet was something I developed a sixth sense for, and caused my racing buddies to dub me, “The King of Rain”, a sobriquet bestowed on a vastly more talented and skilled rider than I was, a certain Mr. Randy Mamola.
Anyway, I was wandering around town today, being driven for lunch, when I spotted this, and it cracked me up laughing. I first saw it some time last year, and had wanted to take a picture then, but didn’t have a camera with me. Today, I got my chance, and it still makes me laugh everytime I look at it.
A closeup of the sign.
