NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 79: Angry Birds in Wildwood!

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Angry Birds T-Shirts on the Wildwood Boardwalk

Have you checked yourself into an Angry Birds 12 step program yet? If not, you need to come to terms with your addiction! The widespread fixation with Angry Birds has had millions of people’s fingers attached to their touch screen smart phones as they attempt to slingshot birds into innocent swine. I’ve never even played the game, but it seems like everywhere I look at least one person is playing this damn game. According to Wikipedia, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 300 million times so far combined across all platforms. I haven’t seen this kind of fervor for a video game on a phone since Tetris or Bejeweled. Although I haven’t launched any birds from a virtual slingshot myself, I actually have had the pleasure of flinging wrestlers via the WWE Superstar Slingshot game app. That game is the same concept although instead of birds you can catapult John Cena into Randy Orton. If you’re an Angry Birds obsessed New Jerseyan, the schlocky t-shirts I spotted on the Wildwood Boardwalk are especially for you. Do these tees signal the metaphorical angry bird jumping the shark?

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 78: Coaster Hero

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Coaster Hero T-Shirt from Six Flags, Great Adventure

You should only be allowed to wear the Coaster Hero t-shirt from Six Flags Great Adventure if you’ve rode every roller coaster in the park. But what if you can’t make it to Jackson, New Jersey to even attempt that sinuous feat? Well, technologically we’re probably not far away from having a video game chair in our homes that can simulate the same thrilling feeling of a roller coaster. Years ago, games like Sim Coaster and Roller Coaster Tycoon gave us the chance to design our own virtual coasters. Now that we’ve moved well passed Windows 95, who knows where technology will bring us? Rocking out with Guitar Hero for the past several years has been quite a trip so maybe we’ll be able to buy a game that lets us “ride” any coaster in the world in the comfort of our own homes. Or does The Sharper Image have that already?

Come back tomorrow for our thoughts on the new Green Lantern Roller Coaster at Six Flags!

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 77: New and Improved Sexy Armpit T-Shirts!

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People always ask me “Jay, when are you making more Sexy Armpit T-Shirts?” It’s not like T-Shirts grow on trees people! A lot of work goes into creating a decent looking t-shirt and I’m no graphic designer by any means. Luckily, with sites like Cafe Press, Zazzle, and Red Bubble, it’s possible for anyone to create their own tees. A few years back, I whipped up the first ever batch of Sexy Armpit t-shirts through Custom Ink. Although they were fairly reasonable, creating the t-shirt through them wasn’t the easiest process.

Custom Ink charged extra for how many different ink colors a shirt has. This is how they soak you. It also forces people into taking necessary colors out of their graphic, therefore creating a crappy low budget looking t-shirt. I had to compromise the integrity of my graphic because I couldn’t afford to print up shirts with the logo as is. Custom Ink’s customer service group was excellent and they offer discounts if you order in bulk as well as if you agree to have their website printed on the back of your t-shirt in an average size font. But because of all these issues I decided to go elsewhere this time around.

I figured it was about time to at least have t-shirts available if someone wanted one. As you all know, I’m a t-shirt fiend and always have been, so I would actually wear a t-shirt with my own blogs logo. I created this new t-shirt through Red Bubble and I can honestly say that this tee has improved in every way possible. The logo is bigger and clearer with more accurate colors and you can also choose from any different color you want. Besides a regular tee and a v-neck, there’s also the option of ordering a girl’s baby tee style, a long sleeve t-shirt, as well as a hoodie.

Several years back, I gave out the first round of Sexy Armpit t-shirts away for free, solely as promotional items. The problem with that is, custom t-shirts are really damn expensive! I can’t afford to buy a bunch of these shirts so I tried to keep the prices low by taking almost half of what the average markup is. This translates to me not making much back on each tee. I wish these shirts could be a lot more reasonable because then more people would be apt to buy one, but above all, it is indeed a cool looking t-shirt. Not only fans and friends of this blog will like wearing it, but also fans of The Garden State and all things Jersey.

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 76: Charlie’s Corner

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The online t-shirt shop Shirts With Balls has gone exclusively eBay in order for the owner to pursue their political thrash metal band…sounds like the next pilot to tank on ABC. The store once carried vintage style t-shirts from random bars in New Jersey. And, because I am a total weirdo, I saved a t-shirt pic from their site back when it was on sale. This one is from Charlie’s Corner, a bar in Secaucus that has been raked over the coals on the Internet. I’ve never drank at Charlie’s Corner and I don’t think I will anytime soon, but it was still amusing reading up on the place.
Here is what some sites and reviews have said about Charlie’s Corner: 
*Beware these aren’t from Peter Travers:
“The beer selection is white trash approved, the staff are a bunch of skanks…” 
– tluv80 at city search
“If you saw the kitchen area you’d just as soon eat out of the toilet and cut to the chase.” 
– tluv80 at city search
“The waitresses are practically hookers” – clubplanet.com
“…Good parking…” – liltbones at city search

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 75: Lipstick and Cigarettes

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Lipstick and Cigarettes covering Duran Duran’s “Rio”

Lipstick and Cigarettes performed last Friday night at The Saint in Asbury Park and The Sexy Armpit was in attendance. L&C are quickly becoming a fixture to the NJ pop rock scene which is awesome. The band’s music (which is available on iTunes and elswhere) is a modern take on the ’80s new wave pop rock style. Their hard work is paying off since they’ve been in rotation at local college radio stations and they’re playing some great gigs in the coming months. I recorded their cover of Duran Duran’s “Rio” which was chosen by the winner of their T-Shirt contest they held at their Facebook page. You can see them live at The Court Tavern in New Brunswick on Saturday, April 16th.

Their first official T-shirt is now available at ALL Lipstick and Cigarettes shows!
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Lipstick and Cigarettes are also featured in:

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 74: Take Sesame Street To The Jersey Shore

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Mash-ups in pop culture are inevitable no matter how blasphemous. If you grew up watching Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, then there’s a damn good chance you are furious over the mere idea of the Sesame Street gang getting mixed up with the cast of Jersey Shore. It’s like the apostles banding together to create one righteously badass boy band, it’s just something that’s never supposed to happen. But when t-shirt sales are involved, all bets are off!

For some reason I can see Bert and Ernie going tanning and doing laundry, but I doubt I’d catch them at the gym since they seem pretty doughy. Maybe The Situation and Pauly D. have inspired them to tone up for beach season or bathtub season in their case? Oscar seems to fit right in. He’s chillin’ in a trash can that has an “I Heart Jersey” sign on it, and I’m sure he’ll be quite happy since we’ve got a helluva lot of trash here in Jersey. They really should’ve got the Muppets in on this and asked Miss Piggy if she wanted to be Snooki.

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In the t-shirt pictured above, It looks like Cookie Monster turned red from too much tanning and had a sex change. I always thought Cookie Monster was male but seeing him as Snooki Monster has me worried. I hope Cookie Monster didn’t go and have any weird Muppet operation. I realize it’s only a play on words but who knows, right? Do you have a direct line into Cookie Monster’s personal affairs? Does he tell you his innermost feelings? Maybe he was never comfortable as himself and he engorges himself with COOOOOOKIES to help alleviate his misery. Until you truly know Cookie Monster then don’t make any assumptions! If he wants to have an operation to become a pudgy, tanned guidette who eats pickles instead of cookies, then so be it. We love you either way Cookie Monster.

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 73: Shamrocking New Jersey

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Charcoal New Jersey Shamrock T-Shirt available at Cafe Press 
I Shamrock New Jersey! Tee available at Fresh Tease

Can’t decide what to wear for St. Patrick’s Day? Is your Leprechaun costume still getting dry cleaned? Look no further than our T-Shirt selections to wear on St. Patrick’s Day this year.

Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day all get accused of being too commercialized, but what about St.Patrick’s Day? It’s just another reason to sell green decorations and candy and plaster everything with shamrocks. Instead of just wearing St.Paddy’s themed t-shirts, the wearing of the green has been blown completely out of proportion since people also spray their hair and skin green as well.

St. Patrick’s Day is getting out of hand. If any holiday deserves to be even more commercialized than it already is it’s Halloween, the most fun time of the year for kids and adults alike. St. Patrick’s day is supposed to be a religious celebration yet it’s become mostly about going out and getting trashed. This may be fun for those of legal drinking age, but what about the kids? At least there’s the Shamrock Shakes at McDonald’s because without those St. Patrick’s Day sucks for kids.

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Hoboken Shamrock T-Shirt available at Solid Threads
I (Shamrock) Love New Jersey available at Skreened

Since the beginning of the month, all over New Jersey there have been St.Patrick’s Day parades rolling through main streets of towns. The earliest St. Patrick’s day parade in New Jersey took place in Morristown in 1780, and since then, the whole thing has snowballed from there. The celebration is now a month long event rather than just one weekend. In case you miss a parade in one town, you can go to another town’s parade the next weekend.

All right, so maybe I’m a humbug, but all St. Patrick’s Day seems to be about is getting shitfaced in bars from green beer. The parades create tons of traffic, and the excessive drinking makes people puke green behind every corner. There’s also cops everywhere you turn looking to hand out tickets for public intoxication with their “zero tolerance” policy. Instead of getting caught up in all that, maybe I’ll pick up some mint chocolate chip ice cream, turn on Weezer’s Green Album and have a Sexy Armpit style St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Hopefully I’ll get a visit from my green friends, The Great Gazoo, Slimer, and Sludgey, The Sexy Armpit mascot.

NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 72: Garden SK8

Garden SK8 T-Shirt
Today’s shirt comes from Skate Rags Online 
(Thanks to Adam J. Dabonka for the heads up!)

The front of the tee features the outline of New Jersey looking like the underside of a skateboard. It was designed by graffiti artists Snow and Dr. Crab. The stores description of the T-shirt is also cool:

“This t-shirt pays tribute to not only NJ and its millions of skateboarders state-wide, but to anyone who has sat for hours in traffic on the NJ Turnpike going to the beach on a July afternoon. From Hoboken, Newark, Red Bank, Sayreville, Hackettstown, all the way down to Wildwood and Cape May. Love it, Hate it…and usually a little bit of both…it’s NJ!”

I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but Skateboarding still enjoys a huge following in New Jersey. We are lucky to have a bunch of well designed skate parks throughout the Garden State that kids and adults flock to. Friends of Miss Sexy Armpit even built a half pipe in their backyard for their son to skate on. Damn, I wish my parents built me a wrestling ring in the yard, I’d probably be a mid-carder by now! When I was a kid (In the ’80s, I know, I’m ancient) skate culture was booming with Tony Hawk, Vision, and Powell-Peralta but even with that huge success it wasn’t as mainstream as it is today. Now you can go into the back aisles of Target and get a Tony Hawk skateboard for less than $20 bucks! Back then certain models were several hundred dollars!

I’m no master skater by any means, in fact, I’m not fond of being on wheels unless I’m in a car or riding a bike. While I stick to my BMX, if you are a skater you should discover Jersey’s skate parks. Many of the 60 some odd parks are city run, open to the public, and free to get in. Other parks are privately owned, like Garden SK8, an indoor skate park in Pine Brook, NJ. The creatively designed facility offers lessons, clinics, rentals, and parties. Their website touts it as “Hands down the most technical street course and gigantic bowl also known as ‘The Pirate Bowl'” And for the best t-shirts to skate in, check out Skate Rags Online.

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NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 71: Jug…handles

Just when you thought there was way too many, they decide to create more: Jughandles! They are the opposite of breasts, a natural resource that we can never have enough of. The world can always use more boobies, but when it comes to jughandles, New Jersey has way too many. It’s almost as if the highway designers just want to f*ck with us. It feels as if there’s another jughandle every 50 feet. You know what? I speak to many people who don’t even know what a jughandle is! Read Wikipedia’s entry on them here if you have no idea what they are. Usually people unfamiliar with jughandles are from out of state, and they aren’t completely bombarded by convoluted u-turns and asinine roadways. Today’s tee comes from Great To Be Here, an online store specializing in funny t-shirts for people who are “Passionate about Places.”

Top 10 Other Meanings of G.T.L: NJ T-Shirt Tuesday 70

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The Situation isn’t the only one who can coin original acronyms. Anyone can do it! Acronyms make it easier to remember names, companies, lists, and other stuff, but when the acronym has more than one meaning, that’s when remembering them all becomes a task. Since we are already familiar with Gym, Tanning, and Laundry, I have gathered together many of the alternate words that the letters G.T.L also stand for. Even TNA Wrestler Robbie E. formulated his own credo of G.T.W (Gym, Tanning and Wrestling.) Feel free to create your own! Here’s some from The Sexy Armpit:

Goobers. Trannies. Lint
Ghouls. Trix. Lauper
Gremlins. Tomes and TalismansLabyrinth 
Guidos. Wasabi. Licky Boom Boom Down
Gwildor. Torture. Labias
GaGa. Teeth. Lingerie
Grendel. Titties. Lube
Ghoulash. Tacos. Lime-aid
Go-Bots. Transformers. Lion-O
Tokka. Grover. Lurch