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Jerusalem, Mecca, Varanasi, Disneyland, like all holy places, one must make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. We made the trek to Highland Park last week to the temple of Mark Trombino's Donut Friend. Mark got his start in the donut business like most people. He started out in the music industry, making good music sound great for the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Blink-182, Motion City Soundtrack, Midtown...the list goes on and on here.

Mark's take on the donut is a refreshing one. Sure, they have some with fun band-inspired names, but it's way more than that. He's brought a novel approach to an industry that hasn't seen a new idea since the donut hole was discovered in 1913 (we aren't counting the Cronut as a new idea since it's still just a donut, and fried croissants have been around since the early 80's). Mark's idea, put simply, has combined the ease of ordering at Subway with the toppings of a PinkBerry yogurt shop.

You can pick your donut canvas from several choices. We went with vanilla cake. They take your donut, slice it in half and that's where the fun begins. Now, we move over to the fillings. Locally sourced jams and other concoctions of delight await. The raspberry habanero jam was calling our name. 

From there you move down to glazes, yes glazes. And then, regrettably there is only one last step, your toppings. Candies, nuts, sauces, sugars, bacons, and more. Enough to blow your mind that this is really happening....that this place really exists and it's not just a fever dream brought on by the onslaught of Stage 2 Diabetes.

Be sure to check out this place. It's pretty amazing, but we suspect that most of you didn't get halfway through this post before jumping into your car and heading to the new holy land, which is 5107 York Blvd.

London has called and we have answered. We've jumped on the coattails of the Filmage movie crew and HMNIM is headed to London. The Descendents documentary has been playing all around the USA and is finally going to be playing across the pond. First stop is London, and that's where we get on. There are two showings on Saturday the 16th, 8:00pm & 10:30pm and two showings the following day, Sunday the 17th, 1:30 & 4:00pm. All four screenings will have our very own Mark Hoppus in attendance to make the movie experience that much better for everyone. Sure, he's in the actual movie but that wasn't good enough, he's going to be right there eating your popcorn and talking over pivotal scenes in the movie.

As we did in San Diego, we've come correct with a limited edition Descendents X HMNIM collab tee. In San Diego, we had the black tee edition, for London we played around with a Union Jack colorway, but in the end we decided that was a bad idea, so white it is. With special London edition artwork in the neck, and a hand-numbered hangtag. 300 shirts were printed for the event. Once they are gone, they're gone.

Were you wondering where this pumpkin came from? Wonder no more. We are going to tell you. This Royal Crown blue pumpkin comes to us from one of the most prestigious farms outside of London. A place, world renowned for their fertile soil and harsh weather, making it the ideal spot for the Royal Crown blue. A place where pumpkins flock to like the salmon of Capistrano. We are talking about a little place called...Hoppus Farm.

The Royal Crown blue is known alternatively by these names, 'triamble', 'queensland blue', 'crown', 'jarrahdale', take that knowledge and file it away incase you ever make it onto a pumpkin quiz show. The Royal Crown blue was born and raised on the Hoppus Farm until the day came where it willingly gave its life for the greater good of Halloween.

The octopus logo was hand carved by Mark himself.

You know darn well that you were going to carve a pumpkin anyhow, but now you have a better reason than Halloween. $100 dollars worth of HMNIM. Now that you are properly incentivized what are you going to carve? Standard triangle face with square teeth? Witch on a broom? The world is your oyster as they say. Be creative, be weird, be original and that's how you will win. 

You can submit entries to the HMNIM facebook page, or just tag your photo on Instagram with #HMNIM

Every October the internet is flooded by amazingly carved pumpkins. If you see a pumpkin that totally takes your breath away, you can be 96% sure it was carved by Ray Villafane. It was as if Ray was put on this earth to do one thing, carve pumpkins. Sure he can do other things, but his pumpkins are masterpieces, so why bother to do anything else? The downside to being this good at this one thing is that he only has a short window of time to show the world what he's capable of. Such a shame.

The take away from this post is not that you suck at carving pumpkins, but that you should strive to find the one thing in this world that you can be amazing at. Keep your mind open, try new things whenever you can. The world's best surfer probably doesn't live by water, the best musician, may never pick up a guitar, the person who could cure cancer might never take a science class, you get where we are going with this. There is no way to know what you could be great at unless you make an effort to try to do everything.

Last night, London saw the opening of the latest Lazarides annual art show, this time aptly titled "Brutal."  It took place in an abandoned bank building on The Strand.  First recorded in 1002 as "la Stranda," meaning "shore," The Strand runs along what used to be the north bank of the Thames River, before the construction of the Victoria embankment. It now delineates the southernmost edge of the Covent Garden district, and is in no way pertinent to this blog post, or the art contained herein, other than the fact that it is the name of the street upon which the show took place.  Also, my wife almost tripped crossing the road and her friend dropped her phone, but the screen was okay.  Let's move on, shall we? 

Lazarides is the gallery at the cutting edge of the intersection where fine art meets street art, and this show is no different.  Walking into the venue, you feel like you're entering a zombie apocalypse, or a rave from the early '90s.  Decaying walls, exposed concrete, darkness, and loud music.  We arrived early and were met with performance artists beating the walls with metal pipes and baseball bats.  A crowd gathered and watched as they eyed the audience members and launched into a macabre contortion act.  

We wandered the dark ground floor halls of the forgotten financial institution, and around every corner we encountered work from some of the world's foremost artists.

Conor Harrington.

Antony Micallef. 

Miaz Brothers.

Pete Hawkins.

And other works from Know Hope, Estevan Oriol (photographer for the blink-182 untitled album and director of the "Down" video), Todd James, Katrin Fridricks, Faile, and on and on and on.  Paintings, sculpture, wall projections, installations, video art, and photography.  

There was even a cafe in the back serving soup.

We spent the night hanging out with artist and collaborator Rich Simmons, and here's a photo of us awkwardly standing next to one another.

Here's another photo from the night, of me standing next to my wife in front of work by the Miaz Brothers.  She's the one standing on the right.

As we were leaving, the event was in full swing, and as we approached the exit, I got to meet Antony Micallef.  We spoke for a few minutes about art and and the importance of honesty in expression, and I'm happy to report that the dude is friendly, smart, and very down to earth. It's awesome when you meet one of your heroes and he turns out to be a great human.

Brutal runs through the 27th.  You can book tickets online.  Steel yourself and enjoy.