Johnny Cupcakes

Just to let everyone know, Billabong’s group CEO took immediate action when becoming aware of my Johnny Cupcakes’ golden Tooth design which was used on one of their t-shirts. We were also assured that Billabong’s subsidiaries have discontinued selling the Johnny Cupcakes looking Billabong Teeth t-shirt. Thanks for fixing that awful mishap CEO, I appreciate it!

Hook it up with an oem, limited edition Nixon watch / Johnny Cupcakes collaboration!

I got a lot of work done when I was in California. I also met some great people and ate lbs of great sandwiches every day. I’m sure I’ll be back soon to check up on the progress of my new LA shoppe. I’ll keep you all up to date with the everything. Soon I will hopefully know a date of when the grand opening will be. There’s at least a dozen people who plan on flying out to the west coast to be first in line for the opening, who need to book their flights and hotels. I am honored and like I said, I will keep everyone up to date.

I’m back in Boston and have to shake off this jet lag before I get sick. Time to brush my teeth and watch Karate Kid.

Look at this juicy gem I stumbled upon when in San Francisco this past weekend. There’s so many nice cars in California. Actually, there’s so many awesome and obscure vintage things in general, which are all in great condition. It’s gotta be all that nice weather, disposable income and over population.

This past weekend I stayed in Berkeley California with some good friends. We had an amazing breakfast at a place called Fellini’s. It was a vegan breakfast yet tasted better than the real thing. We also saw that new Jet Li / Jackie Chan movie. That was not so good. Later that night I kept puking up movie theater butter / popcorn tidbits. I’m going to hold back from eating popcorn for a long time.

I’ve been trying my hardest to keep some secrets about the Los Angeles Johnny Cupcakes shoppe. I thought about it – and rather than keeping a ton of secrets that would only be good to surprise people on the opening day – I thought it would be better to bring you all along the journey of my wacky ideas physically coming to life.
This is a small tiny piece / sample of what’s to come.
This small tiny piece / sample is heavier than me. This photo does no justice of how dope this is in person. These blueprints are only the beginning of what else is to come. My shoppe will have a handful of unforgettable custom made contraptions. Think Pee Wee’s Playhouse + a cupcake factory on steroids with a shot of Disney Land. Stay tuned for more!

Thank you Carlson and co.!

Power house, Japanese brand A Bathing Ape / Bape – opened up steps away from my new LA shoppe. Freshly installed palm trees were planted around the store. I attended their private party a few nights ago.
Clean, simple interior with some fun Bape-like elements..
In addition to Pharrell and Nigo’s presence, I encountered some other cool people. Rick Ross, Takasha Murakami, Mike Tyson, Omarion, Dr Romenelli, NERD, Kanye West, various press and some new + familiar faces.
Jonah of Superbad fame.
Pete Wentz. I missed him when he popped in my Boston shoppe, but alas. We have some mutual friends, we are both entrepreneurs and we were both in hardcore bands signed to Eulogy Records at one point.
Alex of Homeroom clothing. We met at a trade show a while back. Great kid, chock full of ideas (and delicious bubble gum), designs some amazing products and has a good head on his shoulders. We’re going to meet up while I’m in San Francisco this weekend.
Fellow Bostonian, Daniel Weisman. Manager of the musician Wale. We were supposed to hang out last year when he was up in Boston too. We chatted about bits of life, over champagne glasses of water.
New York artist Kaws.

Lupe Fiasco was just as excited to meet me as I was to meet him! One of the most down to earth people I’ve met. He was full of life all night and wasn’t wasted or on drugs. He told me he’s been watching my brand grow for a few years now and he loves / respects how I’m just some regular dude who hustled and came up from nothing / out of nowhere. We’re going to try to meet up when his tour hits up Boston next month. Safe travels!

Things are moving along great with new shop! Good news and bad news…

 After a couple great, progressive meetings at the almighty Carlson and Co – I spent about 7 or 8 hours at Starbucks, using the internet and catching up on lots of e-mails, blog posts and more. I’ve never had a sip of coffee in my life although I don’t mind the smell of it!

ps: (fyi, I barely have any junk mail, those are all real messages) I appologize if I haven’t replied to anyones e-mails, I’m trying to get better I swear. Same with myspace, I get soooo many messages I can’t reply to them all, so don’t take it personal. If I don’t reply to you – try contacting me again a week or so later. 

This is my good friend Nontra. We’ve been friends for about 4 years now. Moved from Maryland to attend school at SCAD — graduated and moved to Minnesota to design for Target in the kids department — then migrated to Los Angeles to design kids clothes for Disney. Both her boyfriend Jack and myself have been on her case about starting her own company. We grabbed some delicious eats at Jones, including a lava-hot apple pie. While eating and discussing life goals, I loaded my machine gun full of motivation bullets and pumped her full of lead.

She’s super smart, chock-full of single child DIY sass, shops a ton so she definitely has a grasp on fashion, has hard working entrepreneur parents and graduated with plenty of design skills. So what’s wrong? The motivation and willing to take risk isn’t there. It’s a common trait amongst most humans. Everyone is afraid of taking risks and failing. Especially when it comes to business.
After a long long pep talk I had with her, Nontra is now loaded up with wisdom, encourage and motivation (at least for now…). I’m going to do whatever it takes to help her get in gear with her own business. And that means weekly check ups! No more slacking Nontra – you have no excuses!