California has been in a drought for the past few years, so I think just about everyone in LA was happy when we heard we would have some rain this week.  That was Sunday.  It is now Friday and it's still raining, despite assurances from the weatherman that it would be largely over by the afternoon on Friday the 22nd, which is when this is being written.

In the spirit of "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade (or at least a Gin and Tonic or two), we thought we would remind you that in addition to our wide selection of fashionable retro Ts on Awesome Avenue, we have some not-so-fair weather gear as well.   Ski-style hats and and a light jacket from our friends at Original Penguin, hooded sweatshirts from Roar.  And don't forget our Beatles hooded sweatshirt, which is a very heavy weight cotton-synthetic blend.   And of course, the piece-de-resistance, our Indian Motorcycle original jacket.

Enjoy your weekend everyone, I'll be back next week either chipper because the Jets are going to the Superbowl, or, well, pretty quiet about sports until baseball season starts....

My Mom called me up on Sunday to let me know the New York Jets won their playoff game.  The Jets, of course, had a mediocre season but seem to have taken on another life in the playoffs, and the fact that my Mother noticed tells you how unexpected it was.   That being said, I should mention that my parents had some of the first NY Jets season tickets starting in 1964 at the old Shea Stadium.   Anyway, if my mother who drifted away from any organized sports when the Dodgers left Brooklyn tells you how unexpected last Sunday's score was.  

The Jets have fumbled with a number of different logos over the years, and I'm happy to see that the classic logo of the Broadway Joe era (more or less) has been back on the field for a few years now.   And for all you Queens maniacs, we've got it on a t shirt.   We also have a Giants logo t.  Hey, we're all about equal time here at Awesome Avenue.  I know, I've hardly mentioned the Colts, but hey, Sinatra didn't sing that if you can make it in Indianapolis, you can make it anywhere.

So it's the Jets and the Colts on Sunday.   It was the Colts the Jets beat back in Superbowl III for the title.  Anyone from the Jets planning to "guarantee a win this Sunday"?

So next week my brother will be away and I have to feed his two cats.   During the week between Christmas and New Year's I took care of my neighbors' two darlings.  Perhaps that's why I have cats on my mind. 

One of the our newer arrivals is the Cheshire Cat Lunchbox.   Our various lunchboxes have sold well every since we've been in business.  Popular ones include two different Hello Kitty ones (again) and the Smurfs.  Of course no serious cat-oriented theme would be complete without some Cat in the Hat merchandise.  It's interesting to note how well Dr. Seuss and his characters have traveled.   We also have one or two Thundercat t's left.

Check out one of my favorite cat related sites.  It's from Japan.   I'd better stop here.  The boss has a dog....

We did a pretty brisk trade in our baseball cap collection this Christmas.   For those of you who watch this space closely, you know that we have usually several different classic logo designs in stock, including two Ford Mustang variants (by the way, the reports out of the Detroit Auto Show showing the new version of the 'Stang are hot), and a few others.  

We also carry some hats made by our friends at Original Penguin.   I find interesting that although they are men's hats I've seen more women wearing them here in LA than men.   I've seen two model-like women come out of the elevator in our building wearing them.   As the resident Single Man here at Awesome Avenue, I must say I approve.   Check out our Fedora style hats for cool cats.  Apologies to my brothers' two felines.....

December is always a busy time here at Awesome Avenue.  It never ceases to amaze me how diverse our customer base is.   We had a fair number of orders coming from military personnel overseas.  As my grandmother would have said, "wear it in good health".

The annual fashion shows are coming up and we promise to bring some great new items.  For the moment though, with winter at its peak and my mother complaining about the cold in New York, how about an old-fashioned board game to help pass the time indoors?   Check out our selection of games here, and don't forget to eye our piece-de-resistence, the reproduction 1935 Monopoly set.   No real estate bubble there.  Monopoly probably has traveled better than any board game in history.

Happy 2010 everyone.  That's twenty-ten.

Asking us to pick our favorite items is like asking someone which one is their favorite child.   However, some of the items we have brought in recently are just too good not to mention.

First, there is our Patron T-shirt.  It's design requires few words of commentary so I won't add any.   Our Journey UK Tour retro shirt is very nice too.  Remember how progressive their album covers seemed at the time?  Journey was never huge (as I recall) outside the US so this reproduction British tour shirt is a pretty interesting find.   I am told by friends in England that these days Journey is quite popular, and their tours have inspired "Journey Conventions". 

And my personal favorite...the "College T-shirt".  Our homage to John Belushi and our own overrated university educations.  Again, few words are necessary here.   My mother and aunt are coming into town for Thanksgiving...maybe I'll wear this on Thursday.

It seems like one of the hot sellers for the holidays this year will be retro video games.   We've stocked them for some time and like many the toys we carry they do very well for us at holiday time, but this year demand has picked up early.   We're not quite sure what the reason might be.   Maybe it's because of shows like My Secret Girlfriend or perhaps it's simply that people are X-Boxed and WIIed out. 

Our two big sellers are a retro inspired 1980s Pac-Man game and another Atari game; a Plug-and-Play Atari 2600 Joystick game with 10 different classic games loaded on.  You might find it a bit primitive, but the likes of Electronic Arts would not be here today were it not for those games which hit the arcades back in the 1980s.   And think of all the quarters you'll save!

Our slogan at Awesome Avenue is "Where Pop Culture, Fashion and Music Intersect".  From the day we opened our virtual doors music related items have been big sellers.   Our most consistent sellers have been retro concert tour t-shirts.  Music historians and pop culture enthusiasts have their lists of concert tours which were seminal for different bands.   Take the final Eagles tour of 1979 and the 1980.  I have distinct memories of my brother going to the show at the Yale Bowl in Connecticut. I was deemed too young to go.  We've brought in different shirts over the years, including some which will make you think "I can't believe people are nostalgic about that".    Most recently, we brought in a Journey shirt, and a Van Halen reproduction shirt from the 1970s.   Another new arrival is a women's Cure shirt.  My personal favorite, and apparently the crowd at Dodger Stadium agrees with me, is our RUN-DMC style.  Now if only the Dodgers could walk this way.

We don't think of ourselves as a Halloween store here at Awesome Avenue, especially with the type of costumes that seem to be popular out there.  But we do have a few items which might make a Halloween costume or goofy get-up complete.   Check out our Penguin Hats, and Flash Gordon T-shirt. 

Also check out our new arrivals section for some interesting new tees.  Our Patron Designs are pretty unique and could work with a slightly dressier outfit.   The latest and greatest include a Cure shirt and retro Journey and Van Halen concert t-shirts.

As always, free standard US shipping on Awesome Avenue.

Lunchboxes have been a mainstay of the Awesome Avenue collection since we started back in 2006.   Although kids don't carry them to school in the way they did a generation or two ago, there still is demand.   Perhaps some people are using them to carry lunch to the office, or store that sandwich in the office fridge in a way that nobody can say "oh, I'm sorry, I thought that was my leftover Turkey on rye".   Or perhaps it's just a cubicle decorative item, to go along with that red stapler.   Awesome Avenue was recently featured in an article in Woman's Day Magazine.  Follow this link to the specific article.  We couldn't say it better.

Some of our personal favorites are the "Welcome to Las Vegas" and the "Orange Crush" boxes.   Anything with "Hello Kitty" on it seems to fly off our shelves.  As always, free standard US shipping on Awesome Avenue.