In 2011 ChinaShop Magazine (of which I am the Editor-in-Chief) partnered with legendary rock venue, The Roxy Theater on Sunset Blvd in Hollywood, to renovate one of their back stage dressing rooms. In an effort to do more than just spruce it up, we came up with the idea of getting a beautiful turquoise Polarts couch and asking all the bands who played the Roxy throughout the year to sign it.

It is covered with signatures, a few dirty pictures, and a full year of rock history. Some highlights of 2011 at the venue include secret shows by the Foo Fighters, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and daily practices for the Van Halen reunion. Notable interviews, business deals and scandalous memories have no doubt taken place on this couch.

At the beginning of 2012 we replaced this unique canvas with a completely new, albeit different shaped, turquoise Polarts couch. We then took our little autographed gem and donated it to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) for their annual Man & Woman of the Year Charity Event that happened this past weekend at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey.

Thanks goes to Vanessa Ragland, nominated for Woman of the Year, who got us involved in her fundraising efforts. Vanessa has contributed to ChinaShop in collaboration with Cole Stratton to provide the witty video segments we have come to love called Culture Pops.

Extra special thanks goes to Nic Adler and Heather Kohos from the Roxy for allowing us to refresh their little piece of rock n roll real estate, and partnering with us to do cool things like get bands to sign the couch. Also special thanks goes to photographers Dustin Downing and Lisa Johnson who helped us document various bands throughout the year on the couch.

The event raised $700,000 for the fight against blood cancers. We were honored to be able to donate a piece of rock ‘n’ roll history to such a worthy organization.

On a personal note, the couch has been a true passion project of mine. I got the idea originally from friend and photographer, Dustin Downing, who did something similar in Austin years ago with a couch and a rock venue. I thought it was a brilliant way to collect autographs and give something unique to charity. Although we could not be at the Roxy nightly to document every single band signing, or in some cases, defacing, the couch, it was always on my mind. When Heather Kohos, the awesome and super accommodating manager of the Roxy, would tell me of someone very cool being in the club the first question out of my mouth was always…did they sign the couch? This past March we replaced the couch with yet another very cool couch, which I personally delivered, as well as took responsibility for the original. It lived in my tiny office for over a month while awaiting its big charity debut. Then, much to my husbands dismay, I not only delivered the couch to the Ritz Carlton, but offered to deliver the couch to whomever won the silent auction. Which we did, at midnight, on Saturday, dressed to the nines. I was extremely relieved, as well as a tiny bit sad, to see the couch find a new home. But if I had it to do all over again, I would.

To see the full gallery of photos in the Roxy, on the couch, go to ChinaShopMag.com.

Words by Barbie Brady (@barbie5×5). Photos by Dustin Downing (@MeTakeAPhoto) and Lisa Johnson (@lisajohnsonpix).

Nothing gets me more excited than a free sticker. Perhaps its my inner 8 year old, or perhaps that intoxicating toxic smell of vinyl and adhesive. For years I have squirreled away a whole drawer full of the sticky tape. Every now and again I pull some out and paste them inside one of my sketch books. I took some time to scan a few of those pages for your amusement.

When I was young the only access you had to stickers was essentially on those sheets at the Hallmark store. Eventually the mall got a verified sticker store but those were expensive and sold off the roll. Spencer gifts always had a few premium rock n roll band stickers but the price was dear…something like $2.99 for just one Rick Springfield sticker…and this was in 1983 for gosh saks.

In my mid 20’s I started working in the action sports and entertainment arenas. The hot thing to do for both was to go to the apparel trade shows to network. The two hot ones at the time were ASR in San Diego, and MAGIC in Vegas. You could find no greater glut of stickers than at ASR. Action Sports screamed out for sticky tape to decorate your skate boards, surf boards, helmets,and bikes. Stickers allowed you to not only show your love for your favorite brands, but eventually became the mark of the sponsored riders.

During the 90’s the ever present street team, during this conventions, would blanket not only the convention center but the entire surrounding city. This didn’t sit well with the establishment. Soon fines were imposed for the brands who’s stickers were discovered on public or private property. And hefty fines they were at $1000 bucks per sticker found. This was such a successful deterrent that the free sticker nearly became extinct.

Certain brands still offer up the occasional free sticker at MAGIC but you have to keep a watchful eye out, and generally gab a little in exchange for some of the finer ones. Fair enough I say. I’m a sticker whore of sorts…I’ll give you a business card if you fill my suitcase with your devine branded throw away. I promise you, I adore them.

So this is a call to the universe. Whether it be a super fine sparkle back, or a vinyl decal, please know that your efforts in sticker design do not go unnoticed. And if you want to send a few my way…well heck yea I’ll take em.

My love of sweets came to a glorious climax this past weekend at a party I dubbed, Bourbon & Bon Bons. I baked every night last week, making 3 flavors of ice cream, 3 flavors of popsicles, 2 kinds of cupcakes with 2 kinds of icing, chocolate chip & meringue cookies, tarts from Fruute, whoopee pies from Frosted, and home-made whipped cream which makes everything better (you know it does.)

Thanks so everyone for indulging in my sweets obsession. Of course I have been doing nothing but eating sugar every night since but believe me when I say, tomorrow the diet starts. For real!

American’s are generally unhealthy. This is a fact. A big fat fattie fact. The sheer number of fast food restaurants (over 160,000 in the US alone) is a bit overwhelming, but none are less healthy, and more blatantly honest about it than The Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas.

When you enter, before you are “admitted,” you must first be helped into a hospital gown. No napkins necessary (I secretly wondered what their laundry bills must be like), and then you are shown to a table. In the middle of the room is a large scale. After all, they do advertise that if you are over 350lbs you eat for free.

Like the spectator that I am, I was over-joyed when a heavy fella stepped inside and onto that scale. Sirens, lights, a whole “to-do” ensued because our friend was nearly 400lbs (397lbs to be exact). The occupied tables applauded his robustness and went back to consuming their bypass burgers.

The menu is fairly limited to burgers, fries, milkshakes, sodas and alcoholic drinks. You can get either a single, double, triple or quadruple bypass burger. Each burger comes with tomatos, cheese, bacon and some thick suspicious looking sauce. I opted for a single bypass burger and asked if I could get it sans bacon, cheese and sauce, with potentially just lettuce, pickles and tomato. I mean, this is how I like my burgers after all. But Bridget, our “nurse” waitress told me that they don’t have lettuce or pickles since they are too “healthy.” When I pointed out that technically lettuce and pickles both contain nearly zero nutritional value, she just looked at me with a blank stare. Hmmm… ok then, as plain as I can get it please. I don’t wish to muck up the works.

I didn’t particularly enjoy the burger, if I’m being honest. It was ok. Not exactly “good enough to die for” as advertised. The buttermilk shake however, was amazingly rich and creamy. It was definitely a step above hospital food.

At the end of our meal another ruckus erupted when an average sized man finished his quadruple bypass burger. That’s like 4lbs of meaty grossness! He had to be placed in a wheelchair and wheeled to the exit after his “procedure.” Since my companion and I only had the singles, we were allowed to walk to the door on our own accord, considered “out patients.”

It was an odd dining experience with far more spectacle than substance. Bridget informed us that the whole show is meant to shine a light on how unhealthy American’s eating habits are and to somewhat shame people into changing. The shame part was clear. Even I felt a little bit dirty for partaking in the event. I couldn’t look Mr. 400lbs in the eye.

I’m not sure how feeding people truly unhealthy food, and then championing them for their excess promotes change? And a man actually did have a heart attack while eating there just the day before we arrived. He’s fine, by the way, only his pride and sense of ironic timing won out. But if you are headed to Vegas, and you find yourself hungry down on Fremont Street, swing by the Heart Attack Grill for your very own bypass burger. See how you measure up, and maybe have one on the house.

For some fun facts on fast food check out the rest of this article on ChinaShopMag.com.

The BoomCase is decidedly clever, and unconventionally cool. Essentially it’s an old suitcase, lunchbox, briefcase, case of any kind really, that got turned into a speaker system for your iPod. In fact, not only are these one of a kind, but you can send them your own favorite old nostalgic suitcase and they will turn that into a speaker and return it to you 10x better.

The Self Powered Portable Suitcase Stereo system that works with your iPod/iPhone or any device with a headphone plug. The BoomCase will last 9+ hours on a single charge (Charger Included). In addition to running on batteries, The BoomCase can also be plugged in when the party goes inside. To save on weight, you can opt for a plug-in only version.

Read the rest of this story at ChinaShopMag.com.

I find myself recently inspired by the art of the popsicle. I mean, sugar and me have had a relationship going back, back, way back to the day of pixy sticks from the Candyland on Main St. But icy treats both refresh and satisfy my current need for a nightly sugar induced coma.

A few years ago I modeled for a photo shoot where I created an alter-ego, Popsicle Girl. It was fun to think that her super power was simply making tasty treats and smiles.

For Christmas my husband bought me a Zoku Popsicle Maker. Now, what’s to making a popsicle you may ask? Not much if your being honest with yourself. I mean, technically ice cubes can be played off as popsicles for the purest. But the Zoku Popsicle Maker consists of a superfrozen element that helps you make a popsicle in like 7 minutes. In our need-it-now society, this is pretty trick.

I have actually fallen in love with making and eating popsicles. I throw all sorts of awesome ingredients in our blender and voila! Instant delicious! Memories of the popsicle treats my Mom used to make come flooding back. She had this amazing Jello/Kool-Aid recipe that produced the most intense shade of red and purple tongue you can imagine.  Why is everything better once its frozen and consumed from a stick?

My true super powers are about to be tested, as tomorrow I am hosting a dessert party for my friends. Bourbon and Bon Bon’s is hopefully to be the first in potentially an annual homage to my sweet tooth. But for the past week I’ve been mixing up popsicle bites to die for. The freshest pineapple. The creamiest creamsicle. A chocolate & raspberry layered treat. I’m even going to attempt to make the very popsicles from my childhood; a little intense cherry…OH YEAH!

I never said I wanted points for difficulty. I just really want to make frozen treats that make people smile. Freezer fun for everyone!

Las Vegas has a bit of anything you could ever imagine. The big casinos cater to all sorts of lifestyles and fantasies. However, there exists a little bar, downtown on Fremont Street that will satisfy an itch you didn’t even know you had to scratch. Welcome to Insert Coins. Bring your quarters. Stay a while. Engage.

Brainchild of Christopher LaPorte, this state-of-the-art arcade videolounge gamebar has something for everyone. LaPorte searched high and low for classic arcade game machines. Taking actual quarters, they possess an honesty and integrity that immediately transports you to that junior high hang out, where you sipped your soda and first flirted with the kid who held the high score on Ms. Pacman. I asked LaPorte how often they break? “Everyday. It’s like taking a 50 year old car out on a Sunday drive. Except these are driven daily. I have a tech that comes by every afternoon to maintain them. They are unique and they need a lot of love.”

Read the rest of this article on ChinaShop.

I have a steel rod in my spine and about 40 tattoos. I’m not exactly skittish around needles. Two weeks ago, while visiting a good friend in Florida, I asked her to take me to her Acupuncturist. She told me all sorts of great things about her and I wanted to see what it was all about. Tara Reed is her name and she is absolutely excellent at what she does. The problem is, she’s in Florida, and I live in LA.

So once I returned home, feeling relaxed, sleeping like a baby, I knew I had to find a local fixer. Today I had my first treatment at Poke Acupuncture in West Hollywood. Russell Brown is exactly who I hoped he would be. The world of acupuncture can be full of wacky new age type hippies talking about chi and yoga. Russell is my kind of person; more punk rock, less hocus pocus.

For those of you who think its a little weird to get needles stuck in you to help you mend, or balance or heal….well it is. But the Chinese have been doing if for centuries and with good reason. It’s not some voodoo magic, its a science like all medicine. And so much better for you than those medicines that abuse your liver in the service of masking the issues at hand. The actual needles don’t really hurt at all going in. Once there, you don’t even notice them. Although if you are in serious pain this may be a different experience. Russell said to me that he believes that the needles cause “tiny traumas in the body and really just promote circulation to the impacted areas, allowing them to get more blood, which helps you heal.”

Let me stop right here with a hefty disclaimer…I’m not sick. I’m not even particularly achy. I just know that every morning I wake up an I feel the same. My piriformis muscle in my butt always hurts. My shoulders are always tight. I never sleep well, I toss and turn. I’m cold all the time. I bruise super easy. Did you know that’s not normal? But it has been my normal for so long its just the way it is. So I decided that maybe there was something I could do to bring a little more healing and balance to my life.

After the first treatment, I stopped feeling cold all the time, my butt stopped with the constant, persistent ache. My shoulders felt like the knots finally took a break already. And I was reminded that sleep is actually supposed to be restorative. And it IS!

So, yea, its a little weird. But its also kind of amazing. If you are interested, do some research on Acupuncture. You may be surprised what you learn. And if you live in LA I strongly recommend visiting Russell at Poke.

Oh hi Reggie Bush! Sure, you can come up to the house and spin records for a bit. Until 5am you say? Why no, I can’t say that I mind at all.

I spent this past week in Aspen at the X Games. Of course, I never actually made it to said games for all the awesome that was happening around me. One of my jobs is to manage a group of DJ’s who are so cool and sweet and fantastic that its not really like a job at all.

The best night of the bunch (and believe me when I say that every night was in contention for “best”) was the impromptu house party afterhours that we hosted at our chalet. Tina T taught Miami Dolphin, Reggie Bush, how to scratch earlier that evening. We convinced him to return to our little slice of heaven in the hills and practice later. It was one of the most fun evenings I’ve had in a long time. And Reggie is actually getting pretty good on the ones and twos. He’s got a partner who wants to DJ with him who call themselves the Black House Junkies. I think they should work on the name, but the logo is a cute little monkey with a black eye.

I’m not going to lie, I love my job. And I’m sorry if I come off as sounding like one of those sickening tweet-holes who is constantly saying they love their life. But…I kind of do. Reggie Bush is a humble, intelligent, handsome, good-natured, easy-going guy. It was a real privilege to hang out and get to know him.

I’m a Steelers fan for life, but I think I’ll make an exception for just one Miami Dolphin.

I heart Instagam. For those of you who don’t have this app yet..get it. You need to have an iphone or an ipod touch. I purchased an ipod touch for this reason and this reason alone. Seriously. If you have discovered, much to your dismay, that you actually not only see the purpose in twitter, but that you actually enjoy it. Instagram is like tweats for visual people. Instead of 140 characters of wit and wisdom you can just post a cool picture, treated with a cool filter, and have it speak volumes.

If you have the app, I strongly encourage you to use it. Its such an easy and delightful way to chronicle your day, in a visually inspired way. Follow me @ChinaShop and let me know so I can follow you back!