365 T-shirts - the reasoning

This blog should be sub-titled: a journal of my life in geek.

I get my geek on with things about which I am geeky: comic books, Baseball, Ultimate, science fiction, my favorite bands, books I have read and loved, and Jungian psychology to name some of the most frequently traversed subjects.

I began this project simply as a way to count my T-shirts. I own a lot of T-shirts. But how many do I have? Do I have 365? We shall find out.

When I started this blog, I thought about how each T-shirt means something to me. I bought it for a reason, after all. I set myself the task to post an entry about a new T-shirt every day as a way to simply write something every day, a warm up for writing fiction, which is my passion. Writing is like exercise. Warm ups are good for exercise. But after completing a month of blogging about T-shirts, I have learned that this blog serves as a journal; it documents my life in geek, sort of a tour of my interests in pop culture. The blog serves as a tool for self-inventory, for assessment and analysis of self and the origins of self, for stepping through the process of individuation in catalogues, lists, and ranks.

The blog also made me aware that I have some serious gaps in my T-shirt ownership, and I am in the process of collecting some new T-shirts for several of the great popular culture icons that I truly love. Stay tuned.

I was also a bit surprised that people checked out my blog and continue to check it, read it, and even comment on it. I am very appreciative of this readership. Please feel free to share your thoughts in my comments section. I will respond.

Also, please note that I have moved the original introductory text to the side bar. And now, I present to you the most recent entry of 365 T-shirts: a journal of my life in geek. Thank you for reading.
(Second Update - 1310.24. First Update - 1306.05 Originally Posted - 1304.25.)

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

T-shirt#6: Discipline

T-shirt#6: King Crimson: Discipline

"So I unplugged my shirt, and said, listen I am with this band, and we're making a recording..."
From "Thela Hun Ginjeet" - King Crimson - Discipline
In 1981, I was working at Kalamazoo College's student radio station WJMD when an album arrived in the mail by a band that I had not yet discovered: King Crimson.
 I had heard of Robert Fripp, who was the erstwhile leader though not the front man (he hides), because he had played with David Bowie, notably on Heroes and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps).

King Crimson formed a new iteration after the demise of the 1970s prog-rock, art rock band versions of itself with Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, and Bill Bruford along with Fripp..

Though I just put the album on the turntable to give it a listen, mostly due to its attractive red cover art with the knot design (as seen on both the shirt and the other accompanying image on this page), the effect produced matched hooking myself up to an electroshock therapy machine. The music at times drove forth urgently with galvanic yet very controlled intensity while at other times textures shifted into ethereal and bucolic wonderment. I was captivated. Discipline quickly became one of my favourite albums, and King Crimson became one of my favourite bands.

This is my third King Crimson shirt featuring the art work from the Discipline album. I bought my first shirt when I saw King Crimson live in concert in 1984 at Pine Knob, but that shirt has been lost in time and space for many years (contrary to what this blog may suggest, shirts, especially T-shirts, do not last forever).

My second King Crimson Discipline shirt is a polo-style shirt, which I may display if I actually do not have 365 T-shirts. (Do polo shirts count for this theme?) This shirt, the actual T-shirt, was purchased at another live show in 2006 for the Power to Believe tour.

The shirt mirrors the main theme of the album: discipline. Fripp embodies strong discipline with his precise and complex guitar work. I wear the shirt when I have to remind myself of the importance of discipline to achieve a goal, such as when I am buried in work and have a deadline for a huge project. Today, March 27, I am finishing final grades for one of the schools for whom I teach, and I must remember discipline in all things. The shirts helps: DISCIPLINE.

KING CRIMSON - DISCIPLINE








 -chris tower
1303.27 10:40

Photo courtesy of Liesel MK Tower

updated 1403.19 because of the video problem has been fixed, apparently. But the video on this page was taken down because of copyright infringement or some such. So I am replacing what I had here originally with the entire album. Take that Fripp!
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