Johnny Cupcakes

Cruised around Malibu last week.  Browsed up a storm at this random sidewalk/antique sale.  Crosses, mini horses, and statues – oh my!

Julia treated us all to breakfast at Coogies.  Great little spot.  I got some tasty blueberry pancakes.  They were no match to my Moms, but still very enjoyable.  I puked a bunch the night before, from overdosing on amazing popcorn at the Archlight movie theater.  All of my friends got sick that whole week – from food, airplanes, allergies, and a bit of the cold.

Also had giant sandwiches and great conversations with some swell guys over at Band Merch.  My friend does some work for them, so we got a quick lunch fixin.  After waiting an hour to pay our bill – we finally left.  That was where the freaky lady with the boots-n-bag combo was first spotted!

My good friend Ajun’s child.  Named after the almighty Lana Thompson of greatsville.  Have I ever told you how much I want to have kids?  Well, I anticipate that day.

This cute kid is one tough cookie.  But when it comes to juice boxes, pools, Mickey Mouse, or the piano – she lightens right up.  Whenever she gave me the cold shoulder, I’d say things like “balloons-candy-birthday-princess-disney-santa-crayons!” – all in one sentence, to get her attention.  She caught on to my tricks real quick.

Meet Dave the architect.

Back in 2003 when my old band On Broken Wings did our first full U.S. tour with Evergreen Terrace, Remembering Never, and this band Scarlet – we randomly crashed at Lana’s (my dear friend who I blogged about in December) – friend Ajun’s home, in lovely Calabasas, California.  During our whole existence of touring, I have never felt so comfy at a home/with a family like theirs.  A solid group of warm hearted, funny people in which I adore.

One of our many faulty touring vehicles, pooped the bed on us.  Rather than paying a ton to have some sketchy mechanic fix it, Ajun’s dad Dave, took a look at the problem and fixed it up for us!  We were excited that we didn’t have to spend our weekend in Cali looking for a decent place that was open, and getting swindled.  Before leaving, we left Dave an envelope of cash, for getting us out of this jam we were in.  A week later when driving through the desert, we stopped to change our oil.  Scrounging up band money for gas station food, said oil change, and throwing out all of the bottles we had to pee in on the road (even that memorable Snapple Apple glass bottle that latched right on to me!)  When popping open the hood, we discovered an envelope of cash, taped to the inside!  There was a little note from Dave, saying something along the lines of, “I thought you guys might need this”. What a great guy – i’ll never forget that gesture amongst gestures!

5 years later, and I’m still close friends/family with Dave and his family.  Ajun got married and moved to Japan with baby Lana and her husband Andy, who got stationed there.  Jesse attends college a few hours away, Dani was a baker – but now dabbles in other fine things, and Julia migrated to Ventura and is a sr engineer for U2.  Dave holds down his quaint fort in Calabasas.  He’s happily working from home, living the American dream.  One of the most creative people I know.  When he’s not working, Dave collects and restores anything Volkswagen or vintage, and enjoys the finer things in life.

Dave’s being a HUGE help in bringing my wacky ideas to life – for this new LA store.  Don’t worry Boston people, I plan on re-designing the Boston shop sometime this year, too.  Lot’s of surprises in the works!

This photo pretty much sums up California.  Just kidding…kinda.  I was trying to take a photo of this ladies boots and bag combo – so I pretended to take a photo of my friend.  Her boots were like the hairy version of that special boot you climb inside, in Super Mario Brothers 3.  This photo does no justice.

My trip was excellent!  California is neat, even with it’s handful(s) of wacky people, bags and boots.  I got a lot of work done, attended some meetings, hung out with old friends, ate lots of great food, had sushi for the first time and loved it (yeah yeah, I know, I’m crazy), made good friends with traffic, and enjoyed the rainy and somewhat cold weather.

I would of updated my blog every day/night, but I was busy busy and had little to no good internet signal.  I gave up after trying several times to hijack the surrounding Californian neighbors wireless networks.  In the next couple of days I will post some photos and what not.

I love Boston, and am excited to be back home.  Go Celtics!

I got into LA a few days ago.  Almost missed the flight though!  I’ve never seen bigger lines in an airport, in my life.  It was the begining of school vacation – so I guess that explains the hectic herds of people.  I was unable to take any photos of these lines, because I was too busy scheming up ways to make my flight on time, while balancing my luggage.

I apologize for the lack of updates, just been scrambling around to a few different meetings in California, as well as catching up with some old friends.  Started planning out/designing half of the new Johnny Cupcakes Los Angeles shop.  If you’re wondering where it will be – it’s on Melrose Ave – right by the Kid Robot, G-Star, Paul Frank area.  Again, the tenative plan to officially open up shop, is this May (unless things move a bit quicker than planned).

Every day, for the past 5 years, I’ve been e-mailed/asked to open up a store in just about every state/city/country.  “Johnny, ya’ll should open up a store in Tornado Valley, Kansas – I’d like shop there every day!”  “y0 y0 jc – y0u sh0uld 0peN uP a sH0p iN mUrDaViLLe mIcHigaN s0 i cAn wRk 4 U.”  “Ello, you can open in store at country my neighborhood lithuania please, happy would be i!”  “You gotta open a Johnny Cupakes shop on 123 Fake Street in Wisconsin – I would be your number one shopper!”  etc. etc..  A lot of these requests in desolate destinations, ALWAYS say that they’ll shop at my store every day if I open there.  I’m very happy that my customers would do that, but I mean – cmon’!  Are you really going to shop at my Tornado Valley, Kansas shop every single day?

So why Los Angeles, California?  It’s one of the most request locations.  I have been shipping hundreds of shirts there, every month for the past 5 years, to deticated online customers.  And most of all, it is t-shirt weather year round.  Yea, I probably will be wearing a bicycle helmut every day, incase of earthquake-idge.  And my head will probably explode and/or implode due to the terrible traffic.  With those few things set aside, I feel as if opening up a Johnny Cupcakes shop in Los Angeles, on that side of Melrose Ave – was a swell choice.

I will start offering more in store exclusives and limited edition items for each of my locations, as well as online.  Just so everyone feels special, and can get a piece of the collectible collections.  There will be special releases in both Boston and Los Angeles locations.  There will be some different east coast and west coast colorways and limited designs.  Some stuff you will not be able to get online, and some stuff you will only be able to get online.

I’ll be in LA until Sunday February 24th.  Stay tuned for more California adventures throughout the week, and be sure to spread the word about this new chapter of my life/brand that I will be opening on or by this May.

I had a comfy sleep and woke up to a relaxing day. Poured myself a bowl of Special K (with the red berries), had a cup of Orchard Island orange juice, ate a bazillion fruit leathers, and just sat on my computer without having to be in a rush. While checking my e-mail, I received quite a few that were telling me to turn on the Food Network, so I did. One of the chefs on this Food Network chocolate contest, was wearing the Classic Crossbones logo shirt, and my Make Cupcakes Not War shirt. I couldn’t think of a more fitting television channel.

It was nice and sunny out, and then all of the sudden, BAM! There was a snow squall. The sky turned black, and intense wind/snow attacked with full force, for five strong minutes.

I then visited my olde stomping grounds, at Newbury Comics. Picked up a handful of albums and Garbage Pail Kids. I’ve owned half of these long ago, but had to get some new non-scratched compact discs.

Big L, U.N.K.L.E., Peanut Butter Wolf, The Mars Volta, Nas, Aesop Rock, RJD2, Raekwon, The Whitest Boy Alive, Liam Finn, Kings Of Convenience, Wu-Tang Clan, and a few others…