Urban Testing Ground

[GIANT VILLAGE 6 - CANCELED]

Sounds impossible but it happened. The largest outdoor New Years eve party sponsored by "soon-to-be-out-of-business" GIANT was suddenly canceled just hours before it was to start. 15,000 angry and confused party goers were turned away by security guards only to be told that it was the fire marshall that shut it down. But apparently, that wasn't the case. It was the GIANT promoters themselves that pulled the plug. Hey guys, you printed "rain or shine" on the tickets what part of that do you not understand? Maybe it was for the best. Who really wants to ring in the New Year watching the "Black Eyed Peas"? I heard they got a backup gig at the JC Penny's office party.

Watch video from the closed "GIANT" gates and see what my girlfriend and I did instead.

By the way, this video was all shot on my Casio EX-S500 camera!

Click here to watch! [0:55 / 6MB QT]

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.

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]