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.)

Thursday, February 27, 2014

T-shirt #343 - 50 Years of Peanuts Comics



T-shirt #343 - 50 Years of Peanuts Comics


DISCLAIMER

I am front loading the pictures today because I am very tempted to just let the pictures carry the content today. But no, I am a writer after all. So I write.

AN ASIDE ABOUT A FILM

I feel I should mention that I watched Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen last night with my wife. Typical Woody. A rehash of various themes he's explored before with some new elements. I liked it better than Purple Rose of Cairo. Woody has smartly transitioned to using actors, in this case Owen Wilson, who does a great Woody-esque performance, in roles he used to take himself.

Just had to get that bit out there. I liked Midnight in Paris. It's part of my WATCH ALL THE WOODY ALLEN MOVIES project. I refuse to let recent or even far past news events (smear campaigns) lessen my appreciation for Woody Allen's work as a filmmaker.

TODAY'S T-shirt

The Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz is for me, like is for many of you, a treasure, a companion, a dear love, a favorite, a familiar friend, and an amazing, daily installment in the lives of these beloved characters.

Surely, the art and the comics can speak for themselves. I wish I had time to scour the entire history of the Peanuts strip, thousands and thousands of strips, to select the very best to share here. Instead, I share a selection gleaned from the Internet and some pictures of me with my shirt and my dog-eared Peanuts books.

I can also say, quite proudly, that I now have a beagle as a member of my family, my own personal Snoopy as I discussed in the entry for

 T-shirt #117: SNOOPY AND FRIEND AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATCHEL.


I love this picture of the Satchel boo as a puppy fitting on the dash of my wife's car.

I was already pre-disposed to love this beagle because of how much I love Snoopy and always have. My family knows about this affection and have given me many Snoopy themed cards over the years, Snoopy toys, books and comics, and surely, I had a Snoopy birthday cake. I also had (and I still have it, though it's not in use) a Snoopy bed spread.

I am amazed by the output of Peanuts comics over the years, exactly 50 years, as commemorated by this shirt. Schulz did not live much past his retirement, which he announced in late 1999 after learning of his fatal colon cancer. He died in February of 2000. His last strip (shown at top and the Sunday version farther below) was published the next day.


The legacy Schulz has left behind is staggering. In his lifetime, he produced 17, 897 strips total. Fantagraphics Books is publishing a set of COMPLETE PEANUTS, totaling 25 volumes, the last of which will be published in 2016.

I, too, miss Mr. Peppers. :-)



Thank you Charles M. Schulz. You have been missed every day since your passing though your characters live on.


Peanuts on Wikipedia

VARIOUS PEANUTS COMIC STRIPS & ART

















COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 22 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.27 - 18:59
final publication - 1403.03 - 8:10
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