Acme Gamestore - Busted!

Say it ain’t so guys! Not sure if you’ve heard, but the owners of the trendy gaming shop, Acme Gamestore in Hollywood CA, were recently busted for selling modded Xboxes (see Sept. 4th entry on Modding Xboxes). It wasn’t so much the modded boxes that got them in deep shit, it was the fact that they were selling them pre-installed with 70+ Xbox games! Come on guys, where’s your heads at?

They both face up to 5 years in a federal penitentiary, so does a third individual “Patrick.” He’s the one responsible for the modding.

I interviewed the owners Jason and Jonathan about a year ago when they held a Halo 2 competition. They’re always having parties and holding tournaments to drum up business. Apparently, business wasn’t as good as everyone thought.

[Acme owners: Jason & Jonathan]

R.I.P. ACME

Watch the video and meet the guys behind Acme. [2:02 / 4MB QT]

Click here to read the full story at Red Herring.

Tequila Release Party @ Meltdown

A few weekends ago, the guys from Muttpop invited me to attend the release of their baddest, meanest and very first vinyl figure creation "Tequila." Spawned from the creative minds of Jerry Frissen and designer Gobi, Tequila is a character from their masked wrestling based comic entitled "The Luchadores Five."

The event took place at Meltdown in Hollywood and the eager fans were picking up the limited number of figures by the armful. Muttpop released 3 versions of "Tequila." 1) Original 2) Hot & Spicy and 3) RAW! Gobi (who flew all the way from France) was there to draw sketches on boxes and sign autographs.

The "Luchadores Five" series is beautifully done and I urge you to check it out. You'll be hearing and seeing more from Muttpop in the near future. Guaranteed!

Thanks to Robert Silva (President of Muttpop) and to Jerry and Gobi.

(Jerry, Bob, Joel, Gobi)

Watch the video here! [2:33 / 14.9 MB QT]

Dean Gray Tuesday

So my friends from Bootie LA, Adrian and Mysterious D (see Mashup) sent me a link to the "Green Day" mashup album entitled "American Edit." Created by the collective DJ group "Dean Gray," this album is full of some of the best mashup tracks of 2005. Warner Bros. has in the past shut the site down, but you can get it now while it's still up.

And don't forget to check out the bootie events at The Echo.

Download "American Edit" here!

Peel Here @ the Ghetto Mansion

Last week I attended a sticker exhibition down in what the hosts call the "Ghetto Mansion." The art studio turned gallery, is home to Lucha Libre artist Damon Robinson and the sticker man himself, "Sticky Rick." This was the first sticker showing I've been to and it was cool to see pieces from Shepard Fairey, Robbie Conal, Make One, my friend Alayna, Enik One, John Q and others. Combined with live music, flowing spirits and spontaneous tagging by "The LA Phantom" the evening was an ideal slice of what's happening now within the urban cities.

Thanks to "Sticky Rick" for inviting me down and introducing me to everyone. Damon Robinson who's got some great Lucha Libre bean bags and other items on sale, check it out. Also thanks to "Make One" for the artwork, "Alayna," for the contact, "Mr. Mora" for telling me about the event and DJ Troma for the use of some of his traxs.

Check the video out here! [3:14 / 8.23MB QT]

Anonymous Tagging

It's been a busy week. I'm only a third into the "Peel Here" piece. It's turning out to be a lot more complicated than I expected. Just trying to have some fun with it. Started it on my Powerbook until my G5 iMac finally got returned from the Pasadena Apple Store a few days ago. (Service sucks there.) There's still something wrong with it. But enough of my bitching.

Here's a bit of preview. I shot this outside the "Peel Here" party.

Watch the video here! [1:09 / 5.8 MB QT]