2010 Free Press Summerfest Screen Print by Jermaine Rogers

This weekend, June 5th & 6th, The Blot will be attending Houston’s Free Press Summerfest, a indie rock music festival at Eleanor Tinsley Park. For a local, small music festival, Summerfest has a surprisingly strong lineup, which includes The Flaming Lips, Girl Talk, Bun B (of UGK), Slim Thug, Ra Ra Riot, Mix Master Mike, Medeski Martin & Wood, Stars, Kid Sister, Dead Prez, Detroit Cobras, Lymby System and Lucero. Best of all, a weekend pass only cost $25!


What’s even cooler is that Jermaine Rogers, one of The Blot’s favorite artists, was commissioned to create the official poster art for the Free Press Summerfest this year (seen below). Not only that, but Jermaine is being brought to Houston to exhibit his poster-art onsite at the Festival! I’ve gotten to meet Jermaine a few times and he is truly an incredible artist who enjoys interacting with his fans. If you’re in the Houston area, be sure to hit up the Free Press Summerfest this weekend and stop by Jermaine’s booth to see (and purchase) some awesome art.


The limited edition Free Press Summerfest poster by Jermaine Rogers will be available at the festival in very limited numbers, along with various other Jermaine rarities, including some prints not available for a while now. Jermaine’s tent will be prominently located near the main stage. Jermaine will be there and looks forward to seeing everyone who drops by. Tubes will also be available for all poster sales, and there will be arrangements for your purchases to be held for you until the end of the days show.

The Free Press Summerfest print measures approximately 30”x20” and is screen printed in brilliant pastel colors. This print has a signed and numbered edition of only 100 prints, but there will also be a couple of very limited variants that will available in even small quantities. A limited number of these prints will be held back for an upcoming online sale, including the Facebook Foil Edition.

The Johnny Cupcakes Houston Tour Stop - The Blot meets Johnny!

So, Monday night was the highly anticipated Johnny Cupcakes Suitcase Tour stop in Houston, Texas. The Blot got to Crave Cupcakes a few hours early to scope out a place in line and ended up hanging out with some really cool people from around Houston as we all waited for the arrival of Johnny Cupcake and Co.

Can you spot The Blot!?!

Hint: I make a lot of background appearances in the video!

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect. While JC's tour stops have consistently been drawing huge crowds, you just never know. There wasn’t a huge crowd when I first arrived (I was probably one of the first 30 people in line), by the start of the event there were easily 300-400 people all screaming Johnny’s name. Being in the front, I was able to see JC interact with his fans from the moment he arrived, and to be honest, it was pretty inspiring. Johnny’s such a nice and humble guy, and he really went out of his way to speak with each and every one of his fans.


The Johnny Cupcakes 2010 Suitcase Tour was created so Johnny could have personal meet-ups with fans from around the country and celebrate the humble buildings of his brand, and that was definitely accomplished here in Houston on Monday night. Johnny prides himself on building a community through his brand and that was never more apparent than the hours he spent sitting on a bench outside of Crave talking with fans, sharing stories, signing autographs and performing magic tricks for the youngsters in attendance. In many ways, the pop-up store inside Crave was secondary to Johnny’s primary goal of bringing his extended family together to celebrate their love for the "Cupcake and Crossbones."


But don’t let me fool you, everyone was hoping to get their hands on the limited edition gear Johnny was selling inside Crave. Luckily, Aly and I got inside early and had our pick of the merchandise. There were six tour exclusive t-shirts, and other tour exclusives like buttons, hats, ties and posters. We got tees and a couple buttons, and quickly headed outside to chat and take pictures with Johnny.


Besides meeting a lot of cool fellow JC fans, there were two main highlights of the night. The first was meeting Houston's own Bun B, one half of the legendary hip hop group UGK, who came out to take part in the event. But the real highlight of the event came when I introduced myself to Johnny, only to find out he reads The Blot Says…! How cool is that!?! I totally geeked out after he said that, but I tried my best to keep myself composed. If I wasn’t already, that news would have definitely made me a Johnny Cupcakes fan for life.


There are still a ton of tour stops left on the Johnny Cupcakes Suitcase Tour, and I highly recommend everyone attend one if Johnny's coming to your city (even if you’re not a diehard Johnny Cupcakes fan). You can find a listing of JC’s remaining tour stops here.

The Hundreds x Bun B T-Shirt Collaboration

So here’s the deal, I wanted to blog about the release of The Hundreds x Bun B t-shirt last week, but I was too pissed off I missed the event to write about it. You see, living here in Texas The Blot never gets to attend any of these big release parties that are always occurring on the east or west coasts. Yes, occasionally Chi-town gets some big events but here in Texas, and more specifically Houston, it’s unheard of!


It was quite the shocker then when California streetwear designers The Hundreds announced they were producing a limited edition t-shirt collaboration with hip-hop superstar (and one half of the famed Texas rap group UGK) Bun B and that the shirt would be sold exclusively at Houston’s own Premium Goods the morning of Saturday, December 27, 2008.


So here was a killer event finally taking place in Houston at a store probably 5 minutes from my home and can you take a guess where I was? Yup, still back in Alabama visiting the fam. Oh well…from the pictures I’ve seen from the event it looked like a huge success! There were a ton of people lined up outside Premium Goods in anticipation of the event, Bun B was there to take pictures and sign autographs, and the limited edition The Hundreds x Bun B t-shirt (which had a run of only 150 shirts) sold out in under 2 hours. Hopefully the great turn out for this release will mean future exclusive release parties down the road for those of us in the Lone Star state.