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.)

Sunday, May 5, 2013

T-shirt #45: Star Wars: The Evolution of Darth Vader

T-shirt #45: Star Wars: The Evolution of Darth Vader

When I started this blog project, I realized I did not own any Star Wars shirts.
Not a single one.

Reviewing even the shirts long discarded, out grown, or converted to rags (see yesterday's T-shirt #44), I never owned a Star Wars shirt.

Even back in the day.
Not a one.
(Yes, I know I am writing fragments, but I am doing so for effect).


STAR TREK vs. STAR WARS

As I mentioned yesterday, I have featured four Star Trek shirts already of a total of eight that I own. But I am a fan of both franchises. Granted, Star Trek had a more seminal effect on my geekhood. How could it not? It's older. Though I was pretty young when the original show aired in its nightly time slot (1966-1969), I did watch it as much as possible. I was already a huge fan of Lost in Space, and so I naturally loved Star Trek. It's original time slot made it easier to watch as a young boy between the ages of six and eight as it came on early in the evening, but when NBC dumped it into the 10 p.m. Friday night slot, I missed a great deal of the show. But the show lived on in syndication, and it filled one of three slots in the triple threat of after school programming in my intermediate school years (grades fourth-sixth). Every day, from  from 4-6 p.m. as I did my homework, I would watch a 30 minute block of Bugs Bunny cartoons, followed by Gilligan's Island, and then Star Trek. I collected all the Star Trek books, toys, and models. My cousin actually joined a Star Fleet fan club and had official uniforms, of which I was envious, but I did not have such opportunities. But, please realize that for most of my childhood, there was no Star Wars to love.

By the time Star Wars came along, I was fifteen years old and taking driver's education. Though it came out in May, I am not sure if I saw it until school recessed for the summer in early June. By the time I did see it, I was blown away and quite hooked. However, I did not forsake my Star Trek love. But I put a lot of energy into Star Wars geek love from 1977 to 1983. After all, at the time, the Star Trek franchise was languishing in mediocrity. Though many of us enjoyed the animated series(1973-1974), there were no new products (other than the books) issuing forth from the Paramount pipeline until the first motion picture (1979), owing its existence to the way that the Star Wars franchise revitalized an interest in science fiction (especially "space opera") that had waned for the better part of the 1970s from its filmic heyday in the 1950s and 1960s born of its "pulpy" popularity as a written form dating back to the late 19th century.

With these two great franchises, I do not see the decision of fandom to be a dichotomy, such as the question of PC or Mac. (Honestly, I do not even see that marketing strategy segregation as necessary.)

Why not both?