Wootie woo! Its time for another AvantTrash contest! This time we have teamed up with Filter Magazine to bring you into the world of The Republic Tigers! Hailing from Kansas City, the Tigers emerged from the ashes of Golden Republic and have been adding steam to their buzz train with a performance last Thursday on Letterman and an upcoming tour with Nada Surf! AliUptown herself of this very blog will be catching them June 8th at Ribfest in Chicago we suggest you do the same should they meander into your areas*.

Here is your chance to pick up their lovely new album Keep Color** as well as an awesome DAKINE Messenger Bag. This isn’t Target stuff, this is fancy bag you want to throw your iPods, Obama Buttons and Moleskine SketchBooks in and strap to your bagless vegan/indie/hipster butt.

There will be 2 winners for this contest:
- First Prize gets and autographed copy of the CD Keep Color along with a Republic Tigers T-Shirt.
- Grand Prize takes a copy of Keep Color as well as the DAKINE Medic Street Series over-the-shoulder travel bag, a favorite of The Republic Tigers. It retails for $60 if that makes you want to win it even more.

So get ready to roll up your right pant leg and ride your fixie down to the Pure Luck cause here comes the CONTEST!

The last contest was easy, this contest is an education! We want you to be smart enough to put some books into your brand new bag. The Republic Tigers hail from Kansas City, close to our old neck of the woods. And knowing what Midwest pride is all about I have decided to show you 4 pieces of Kansas City Paraphernalia (spellcheck, are you sure thats how thats supposed to look?) and all YOU have to do is NAME WHAT IS PICTURED (click to enlarge) and you’ll be entered to win! Send your answers to contest@avanttrash.com and 2 winners will be drawn and quartered at random after the contests’ end at 11:59pm PST on Sunday, June 1st. Here we go:

1. SUBJECT: ARTS & HUMANITIES

2. SUBJECT: SPORTS

3. SUBJECT: CURRENT EVENTS

4. SUBJECT: HISTORY

BONUS: THE FUTURE

Good Luck and stay tuned for reviews and photos from a long Memorial Day weekend!

—–
*Your geographic areas, not your other areas.
Republic Tigers Tour Dates:
MAY
28 Mt. Pleasant, SC - Village Tavern
29 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506 w/The Helio Sequence
30 Athens, GA - Center Stage Theatre #
31 Jacksonville, FL - Jack Rabbits #
JUNE
1 Orlando, FL - The Social #
2 Miami, FL - Studio A #
3 St. Petersburg, FL - State Theatre #
5 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge #
6 Memphis, TN - TBA #
7 St. Louis, MO - Bluebird #
8 Chicago, IL - Ribfest Chicago #
9 Indianapolis, IN - The Music Mill #
10 Columbus, OH - The Basement #
11 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom & Tavern #
# w/ Nada Surf

**As heard on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, Grey’s Anatomy, Gossip Girl and wherever modern alternative rock radio knows whats good for them.

Geez yo, I haven’t posted here in forev! Not since intr0vert’s/my joint postings (and by joint I mean me throwing in my two cents while napping on the couch as he typed) during my visit to Hollywood. Speaking of, I thought maybe some of yous (anyone?) would be interested to know about my goings on in the city of angels and dirtbags.

intr0vert was an excellent tour guide and host, my experience wouldn’t have been half as enriched if he hadn’t been my guide. I must admit, when he made the trip to Chicago for my birthday, I probably wasn’t the best tour guide-I’d only been there 7 months and didn’t have my tour guide/public transportation chops up to par yet. (I’ll do better next time, I promise!)

Let me share with you a few misguided misconceptions I had about L.A.:

-You can’t smoke anywhere in L.A.

Mostly I got this idea from Sex & the City, when Carrie goes to L.A. to meet with a production company , and is prevented from smoking wherever she goes, even on the outside deck of her hotel room. (”I have an addiction sir!”) I guess I also had this impression because of the whole Hollywood health/physical appearance obsession that I read about in the news on Perez all the time. I was surprised that a few places we went to had smoking rooms, some were not even open air. Chicago is not down with that shit. You can’t even smoke in outdoor seating areas here. Anywho-doesn’t really affect me, just an observation.

-Nobody walks in L.A.

Again, another thing I’ve heard through the grapevine of pop culture media. I was assuming that since everyone drives in L.A., that nobody walks. Not so, my friends. Oh, we drove almost everywhere…but then we parked 10 blocks away. Parking in L.A. is just as bad as most parts of Chicago. Any parking you find here is either permit parking only or will cost you $50. Not a big deal, I don’t ever wanna be the girl that bitches about how far away the car is, but it did limit my cute shoe options. You see, its a delicate ratio. Typically as the cuteness of the shoe goes up, its comfort level goes down.

On a side note: I also thought that there was no worthwhile public transportation there. I met an actual human being that took a bus to work everyday. Even intr0vert was considering trying the train out as a daily commute. And my experiences on the subway were fairly pleasant. Although, I’m not sure the idea of an underground train on a fault line sits well with me. I’m just sayin.

-Everyone in L.A. is beautiful and glamorous (thanks to Fergie, I can spell that word now).

Oh, there were plenty of beautiful people there. But there were a lot of really unspecial people there, too. The air in Hollywood was thick with ego, which didn’t surprise me so much. What surprised me was that I was expecting the clothes to make the man a little more. Actually, the woman. The chicks there seemed to fall into two categories: The strapless tube dress complete with hooker shoes (do hookers call them ‘work shoes’?) and makeup applied with a paintball gun, or cutesy, hipster chicks. I’m typically the type of girl that prefers to be overdressed, rather than under dressed. And don’t get me wrong, I wear a lot of makeup. A drag queenish amount. On a daily basis.

So…famous people. I was promised by intr0vert at least three sightings. The first was only half a sighting, as it was just Jael from America’s Next Top Model a couple seasons ago. She was a hot tranny mess on Hollywood, trashy outfit, crazy pink furry hat, and I’m sure was operating on one or more psychiatric drugs. We also saw Janeane Garafalo walking in Studio City and Vincent Kartheiser (from Angel-I’m a vampire nerd, remember?) at the Magic Castle. Some others too, I can’t remember. Some dude from a teen movie bummed me a smoke. Good shit, huh?

I will have to make this a to-be-continued post. Even though it was like two weeks ago. Lots happened, and I’m sure people are riveted by my recounts of my vacation. Long story short (too late!), Hollywood did not disappoint. More soon, I promise.

AliUptown is in town from Chicago this weekend! I’m trying to give her the optimum L.A. experience. She’s having nappy time already, i tuckered her out. Last night we went to Beauty Bar (you’re so great, why are you dying?), Boardner’s (the bar side, not goth night) and finally Tiny’s (where 10 cops walked in and arrested 2 HUGE bikers from the “Mongols” MC. After they passed by I turned to AliUptown and said, “So 10 cops walk into a bar…” and the girl next to me was cool enough to say, “…right!?” and dish the High-5. It was a moment.

So far today we walked by Hollywood & Highland to see the costume freaks and Grauman’s to get our coffee (i live 2 blocks away), we went up Beachwood Cyn by the Hollywood sign, cruised half of Melrose (i finally got a haircut), and had lunch at the Village Idiot. Now its rest time because we are going to CBS in Studio City to check out the taping of the PILOT episode of “David’s Situation” by Mr.Show geniuses Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. Not sure what the plan is for later tonight; maybe Los Feliz, maybe the Strip. I think we’ll hit the beach tomorrow and Silverlake tomorrow night.

Anyone have any suggestions?

My West Coast conversion countdown has begun. In two days, AliUptown and intr0vert will reunite when I visit my L.A. counterpart for his birthday (which is Mother’s Day, go buy a card). If you’re in the L.A. area, give us a call. If you are in the Chicagoland area…too bad. I can’t wait. Can you?

Coming 2009. 94 MPG.

(photo is just a concept, probably not the actual model)

intr0vertZero (11:54:59 PM): in echo park it smells like tijuana, in chinatown its all fishy, is that what Bangkok smells like?
Sxxxxxxxxxx (12:11:57 AM): Yes
Sxxxxxxxxxx (12:12:04 AM): it’s all the vaginas
Sxxxxxxxxxx (12:12:16 AM): that are for sale
intr0vertZero (12:28:09 AM): like prostitutes or do they eat those too?

This video comes from a link on Wordofmouthradio.org which is a show on New Hampshire Public Radio produced by my awesome friend and ex-Lincolnite Avishay Artsy:

I watched the Game in Portland. (I know it was on Jan 27th last year, but you know what i’m saying)

I very much love and miss my Portland friends.