T-shirt #50 - Star Wars: The Rebel Alliance

T-shirt #50 - "That's no moon..."

A friend recently reminded me of that excellent quote from Star Wars in regards to the Death Star, which at first is mistaken for a moon.


Thinking of this moment in the film makes me want to watch Star Wars again.



And in a way, I have been. Studying it, actually.


I am teaching a mythology course right now, and in last night's subject matter, we were focused on heroes and the hero cycle, connecting to the excellent mythological analysis of Joseph Campbell and the great book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. These two subjects are linked. Star Wars makes for a great example of the great mythological hero saga.

I first discovered The Hero with a Thousand Faces in one my first college courses, a religion class, at Kalamazoo College. This is where I was introduced to the ideology of Carl Jung. I learned about archetypes, like the shadow, and animus and anima. I learned about the process of individuation. But most of all, I learned about the Collective Unconscious.

I did not make the connection at the time between Jung's Collective Unconscious and the Force from Star Wars. I am not sure when this came together for me. But now the documentation can be found on You Tube. Lucas clearly was attuned to the same material. If Jung were alive today, he would see the direct parallels between the Force and his idea of the Collective Unconscious.

We're all connected. Everything is connected.


It's important for me to remember the Force today, to remember that we're all connected, because I am still not feeling very well. There's your newsy journal update for the day. But no details. They're unpleasant.
Instead enjoy this great song (if you like ambient, floaty, electronic), and remember: "we are all connected, everything, every energy, every being is all connected."

- chris tower - 1305.10 - 18:32

Magic Sound Fabric - We Are All Connected

T-shirt #49: Hawkman

T-shirt #49: Hawkman or Wings are Cool

Super-heroes with wings = cool.

The Angel, the Falcon, Dawnstar, Birdman, Man-Bat, Bumblebee, Red Raven, and Stingray among others.

And Hawkman.

Wings are cooler than big capes, though big capes are a close second (Doctor Strange and Batman being two of the coolest cape-wearers... though some people would add SPAWN to this list).

These loves, like a love for capes, all originate in childhood play. Toys with wings are very cool because flight simulation play is a very natural tendency, especially for boys. Freud linked flight dreams with sex, but then Freud linked everything with sex. There may be something to Freud's theories, but I think they may be outmoded. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, I spent a lot of time simulating flight, thinking about flight and even wearing capes. (Big surprise.) I do not consider these cape wearing play times to be based in sex fantasies. These were flight fantasies. I wanted to fly. Besides, the futurists and science fiction writers promised that by 2013 (and possibly much sooner), we would all have our own jet packs and flying cars.


WHERE'S MY DAMN JET PACK?

So, this all brings me to Hawkman. Today, I am wearing my Hawkman shirt, ordered before I started this blog but purchased since the blog began. And though the picture does not represent the color well, it is a very gorgeous golden color, another yellow-gold shirt for spring.

I am not sure that I am ready to make a top ten or top twenty superhero list yet (though this kind of categorization is partly what this blog is all about), but I am ready to make a distinction about my love for certain Silver Age DC heroes. Loving Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman is kind of taken for granted. I really loved the secondary heroes who were featured less often, such as The Flash (T-shirt #20),  Deadman  (T-shirt #43), The Atom, Adam Strange, Elongated Man, Phantom Stranger, Red Tornado, the Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and Hawkman.

Several of these heroes enjoyed their own titles (Aquaman, Phantom Stranger, Flash, The Atom) while others were paired in companion books (Hawkman/Atom, Green Arrow/Green Lantern) while others languished in special appearances only.

Part of what makes DC comics confusing for many readers is the mixed up history. For a long time, Marvel was more linear and simplified by comparison, though this is no longer true. Hawkman is a good case study in DC's ongoing continuity entanglements with its characters as there are multiple versions of Hawkman to choose from. The good news is that they all have wings. And wings are cool.

Hawkman started out as Carter Hall debuting in Flash Comics #1 in 1940. American archeologist Carter Hall is the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian Prince Khufu killed with his consort Chay-Ara (Shiera Sanders, aka Hawkgirl) by the priest Hath-Set.
Later, when DC rebooted its Golden Age characters in the Silver Age in the early 1960s, Hawkman becomes Katar Hol, an imperial prince from the planet Thanagar who becomes a member of the the planet's Hawk-Police that leads him (and his wife/partner, Shayera Thol, aka Hawkgirl and later, more appropriately, Hawkwoman) to earth tracking a Thanagarian criminal. Katar underwent another reboot in 1989 with the prestige series Hawkworld by Timothy Truman, followed by the Hawkman volume 3 series that ran until 1996. DC has once again rebooted Hawkman with the New 52. Hawkman is now just Carter Hall, but it has yet to be established if he is an alien Thanagarian or a reincarnated Egyptian.

My first introduction to Hawkman came in the early issues of Justice League and then Hawkman #24, published in February/March 1968, featuring two stories among my favorites from those early comics: "The Robot Raiders from Planet Midnight" (isn't that the best title ever?) and "The Man Who Grew Wings."

I am reading the current Hawkman comics, even though I am not enjoying them as much as most of the other New 52 titles. Still, Hawkman has wings. And wings are cool.

FINAL NOTE: The toy comes from the excellent series Kingdom Come created by Mark Waid and Alex Ross and published by DC Comics in 1996. According to Wikipedia: "Hawkman: Now a literal 'hawk-man', he has become a guardian of nature, though also referred to as an ecological terrorist. The story does not specify which version of Hawkman this is, apart from "combining the spirit of the old with the otherworldly flesh of the new", which suggests Carter Hall in the body of the post-Zero Hour "Hawkgod". He is killed in the nuclear blast" ("Kingdom Come (comics)," Wikipedia, 2013).

Did I mention that wings are cool?

- chris tower - thinking about flying - 1305.09 - 9:12

One drawing courtesy of Elvin Ching/ ZeroPointFive

Art by Elvin Ching



Loaded backwards in time - edited 2004.14 from a picture taken 1308.18

Me leaving hospital after prostate removal surgery. Sunday 2013, August 18th

T-shirt #48: New Order FACT. 50 1981 Movement

Oh, yes, I own the album, too.

T-shirt #48: New Order - FACT. 50 1981 - Movement

How do I follow up yesterday's post about the loving Boo-Boo?

I don't even try. What could be equivalent? I love New Order, but hardly with same ardor that I love my puppy.

I had considered doing theme weeks: a week of music shirts, a week of TV/film shirts, a week for just comic book themed materials. But I am enjoying the randomness. I often just grab a T-shirt. Okay, this is a good one. I'll go with this one.

T-shirt #47: The Boo-Boo

T-shirt #47: Kiss my Boo-Boo

My wife and I are crazy dog parents. I am okay with this.

Back in August of 2012, we adopted a puppy: Satchel Paige Tower. She is a "spreagle": Springer-Spaniel/Beagle mix. She is our baby, the joy of our lives.

Liesel has taken to calling her "the Boo Boo" or "the Boo."

I already owned this Boo-Boo shirt, given my love for Hanna-Barbera cartoons, such as Jonny Quest, The Huckleberry Hound Show, and the Yogi Bear Show. Thus, this short is a fitting choice for today since Satchel takes good care of her dad when he's ill.

Adopting Satchel has been another in a series of amazing events dating back to 2008, which include meeting and marrying Liesel, loving her kids, securing more than enough work, and buying a house. The puppy has been a wonderful addition to our family, and I love her very much, especially during these last two days when I have been in bed with this horrible illness.

I have many nicknames for her, such as Poopsydoodle, the Doodler, Doodle bug, and Sneaky Pickle.

We're crazy dog parents. But she's our baby. And we love her.

-chris tower - 1305.07 - 18:50 - feeling better but not well

T-shirt #46: Devo: Are We Not Men?

T-shirt #46: Devo: Are We Not Men?


We are violently ill.

Sounded better as the answer to the question. Without using the "hospital we," I should say that "I am violently ill." Really, you do not want details.

I knew something would impede my daily progress and routine eventually. I did not want to take a skip day. Instead this is a placeholder entry that I will fill out and update tomorrow, assuming I feel well enough. I thought being busy or on the road or something else would be what derails my daily regimen. I do not get ill that often, though this is like the second or third time since January, so maybe my assessment is wrong.

As you know, I feel that spring means yellow shirts.

When I feel up to it, I will answer the questions that I know interests you all most: why is DEVO not one of my top ten favorite all time bands? But why is DEVO one of the top ten bands/artists I have always wanted to see live and have not.

UPDATED TEXT AS OF 1305.07
I cannot remember exactly when or how I was introduced to DEVO, but it was before 1980's Freedom of Choice and the monster hit "Whip It."

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?

T-shirt #44: What happens when a T-shirt dies?

T-shirt #44 - The Death of the Vess T-shirt

What happens when a T-shirt dies?

How does it know it's dead?

What qualifies as "death" for a T-shirt?