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.)

Friday, October 11, 2013

T-shirt #204 - Gotham City Police Department - SWAT

T-shirt #204 - Gotham City Police Department - SWAT

Those of you who regularly read my blog (hello) may be wondering why today's T-shirt does not feature a Detroit Tigers logo given last night's masterful performance by Justin Verlander and a decisive two-run homer by the Big Man, Miguel Cabrera, to take Game Five of the ALDS from the Oakland Athletics (for the second year in a row) and advance to the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox.

But, hey, come on. Yesterday's shirt featured the Tigers and tomorrow's shirt will also feature the Tigers as they prepare for Game One at Fenway Park on Saturday night. This time of year, as long as the Tigers keep winning and advancing, I could feature a Tigers shirt every day, if I actually owned that many Detroit Tigers shirts that I have not already featured. As of yesterday, I have featured eleven Detroit Tigers T-shirts so far on this blog, and amazingly, I still own more.

Because I am still trying to catch up after returning from my trip, today's entry will not be lengthy. I managed to go buy comic books yesterday, where I talked Tigers with a young man, Andrew, who loves the Tigers as much as I do but was so nervous about last night's game that he could not talk about it. Fortunately, they won, which surely allowed him to sleep easily.

So, today, I will just share two weeks worth of the weekly comics lists as I was out of town and missed a week.

Today's shirt features another of those faux logos of what police officers, namely S.W.A.T. in Gotham City in this case, would wear as an under shirt or as just a shirt period, a casual uniform. I love this kind of thing. Obviously, Batman related. Do I really need to explain the connection? I suspect that this shirt will be more popular with the debut of the upcoming TV show called Gotham City, which I wrote about in T-shirt #190.

Also, I need to confess a change of geek practice. Usually I read a few (and sometimes many) comic books every evening before bed. Since returning from my trip, I have not read a single comic book, and I did not take any with me. Given that I left on the trip just two days after buying weekly comic books, I did not even manage to read all the comics in my main stack before I left.

 Why no comics? I am reading a book called Night Film by Marisha Pessl. In a sense, reading this book is an anniversary gift to me wife. But the book is so good that really the gift is mine, to me. On our anniversary, relaxing in a hot tub at the Kilauea Lodge in Volcano where our hosts, her aunt and uncle, gave us a night's stay as a gift, Liesel asked me to read the book Night Film as a gift to her. I agreed and because of the wonders of technology, I logged onto the lodge's Internet with my Kindle once we were back in the room, bought the book, downloaded it, and started reading it that evening. The gift was really hers to me as the book is so fantastic that I can barely tear myself a way from it. Surely, I will write more about it on this blog once I finish it. But as of now, it joins Ready Player One and Red Shirts as among my favorite books of the year and may make a top ten favorite all time as it is that good.

So, my point being that I have not knocked down the stack of comic books that remained in my drawer when I left for Hawaii, and last night, bringing home a huge stack, as this week's stack of comics was twice the size of the week before, I did not read a single comic. I did not even unpack and order the comics until this morning, electing instead to crawl into bed with Night Film and the Tigers game (TV on mute and radio broadcast in one ear via ear bud). I read, watched, and listened until I could keep my eyes open no more (a little after 10 p.m.). I woke around 11:30 and checked the score to make sure the Tigers won, so I could sleep soundly and peacefully.

Back tomorrow for more Tigers content but for now my comic book lists and a touch of commentary. Thanks for reading!!

WEEKLY COMIC LIST

These lists are only accurate in so far as they represent the order I would have read the comics had I bought them each week after completing most of my stack from the week I left for Hawaii. So, obviously, I had to integrate three stacks of comics. Top listings remained near the top, but overall Walking Dead sits atop the stack, as it usually does. More of the comics from 1310.09 sit near the top of the stack, though the top four comics from 1310.02 are prominently placed. Lazarus still holds a high place as does Green Arrow. Since I am very much looking forward to Afterlife with Archie it remained second after The Walking Dead. Though I featured the cover for Mind the Gap, it holds court lower in the stack where I place comics that I do not consider quick reads. I have not written about Mind the Gap much at all on this blog. I tried it solely based on solicitations and the look of the art and have enjoyed its story immensely.  I like the current story in Batgirl very much, so this comic ranks highly. But Infinity, which is good but a bit convoluted, takes a back seat to other comics as do the, now, three issues of the Battle of the Atom story.

Of course, I bought the new Paul Pope comic book. I had not intended to buy the Mind MGMT volume, but when I saw it on the shelf, given how much I enjoyed the first volume, at the recommendation of astute comic book reader and smart guy, Joshua Upson, I snagged it.


COMICS FOR THE WEEK OF 1310.02

Forever Evil #2
The Mighty Avengers #002
Green Arrow #24
Lazarus #4
All New X-Men #017 (Battle of the Atom Chapter Six)
Iron Man #016
Thunderbolts #016
Green Lantern #24
Hunger #002
Uber #6
Mind the Gap #15
Batman: Detective Comics #24
Earth 2 #16
Mara #6
BACKLOG
Action Comics #24
Fairest #20
Daredevil: Dark Knights #005















COMICS FOR THE WEEK OF 1310.09

Walking Dead #115
Afterlife with Archie #1
Batgirl #24
Batman #24
Captain America #012
Infinity part four of six
Thor: God of Thunder #014
X-Men #006 (Battle of the Atom Chapter Seven)
Avengers AI #004
Avengers Arena #016
The Shaolin Cowboy #1
The Fearless Defenders #010
Nightwing #24
Superman and Wonder Woman #1
Worlds' Finest: Huntress & Power Girl #16
Suicide Squad #24
Red Sonja #4
America's Got Powers #7 of 7
Rocket Girl #1
Sidekick #3

BACKLOG
Astro City #5
Ultimate X-Men #32
Wolverine #010
Uncanny X-Force #012

SPECIAL PURCHASES

Mind MGMT: Volume Two: The Futurist
Battling Boy #1 by Paul Pope from first second books
Locus October 2013 Vol. 71 no.3 Issue 633

- chris tower - 1310.11 - 11:21

No comments:

Post a Comment