T-shirt #293 - New York City Coffee with Stain

The illustration above is clearly labeled, so I do not have to repeat the credits. It's very gothic, so it says New York to me. I have been meaning to share it. Francavilla has a blog called Pulp Sunday, and this the banner for it. He has not updated it since August of 2013 as of this writing.

T-shirt #293 - New York City Coffee with Stain

I have no idea where the stain on today's T-shirt came from. I am thinking it may be a coffee stain, which would be appropriate given the art on today's shirts, which I bought during one of my many visits to New York in the years since 1985 when I lived there for an internship at Marvel Comics.

Yes, let me repeat that in case you missed it.

I worked in New York for three months in 1985 as an intern at Marvel Comics.

I have only one post in my New York category so far: T-shirt #236: Happy Ending Massage Parlor and T-shirt #126: New York: Open 24 Hours.

The entry for T-shirt #236: Happy Ending Massage Parlor does not contain much in the way of New York content. I simply included it in the category because I bought it in New York, and as such, I referenced New York.

My T-shirt #126: New York: Open 24 Hours gave some basics of that time in New York, though I have discovered many things since in subsequent visits. Since I have other New York shirts, I will attempt to spread out my New York content.

BTW, the image to the left is the back of the shirt, and the images above and below are from the front of the shirt, showing the mysterious stain.

Those who have tuned into the blog during the construction period may have seen that this post was under development for a couple of days. In the interest of speed and catching up, I am going to keep things short today.

I flew to New York right about this time of year back in 1985 in the aftermath of one of the worst ice storms in west Michigan recorded weather history. My family had been without power for a week, until my father bought a generator, our first, which did not vent well, but did provide us with enough power to have lights, heat, do laundry, cook, and even for me to record several tapes of music to take with me as I had borrowed a friend's cassette deck for this purpose, a stereo component that I am embarrassed to say I still have in my possession today, though I have tried to return it and re-establish contact with this friend (yes, you Mr. Locke) many times.

I lived in the Century Paramount hotel. Check these links.

CENTURY PARAMOUNT HOTEL OFFICIAL SITE

CENTURY PARAMOUNT HOTEL ON WIKIPEDIA

It has undergone a great transformation in the gentrification of the Times Square area of New York that has been underway since the late 1980s. When I lived there, a man was stabbed in a fifth floor room by his wife and stumbled to the lobby, smearing blood all over the nice marble floors. We had a fire, for which we were evacuated when I was very ill and unwilling to be moved. The firemen pounded on my door and kicked me out. There were also flying cockroaches that were over two inches long. It has been really transformed since then. The website shows amazing photos, though I still recognize much about the building, especially the exterior.

Even though I kept my stuff at the Paramount, I also, more or less, lived with someone on a boat at the 79th Street Boat Basin, which was quite an adventure in winter in New York. The boat had a coal stove. Try finding scrap wood for fires in New York in the winter. Sounds easy, and it is once you know the meat packing district. But then getting such kindling from the lower west side all the way to West 79th street on the subway at rush hour is a bit of challenge.

This area has been re-modeled and gentrified as well. When I was staying there, these colonnades were abandoned or often the squatting temporary living places of homeless people. I saw New York rat scuttle through once as I walked under the West Side highway. It looked the size of a small child's bicycle.

These are my New York stories for today. I will share more later.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 72 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first publication - 1401.08 - 21:20
Final publication - 1401.10 - 18:57

T-shirt # 292 - Bruce Springsteen - The Rising Tour 2002

"I will love you with all the madness in my soul..."



T-shirt # 292 - Bruce Springsteen - The Rising Tour 2002

If you have checked the blog recently, you may have discovered that I have been on vacation and enjoying time with my best friend Tom Meyers, better known as the Lord of Chaos, who was visiting. I chose all the t-shirts during his visit with him in mind. As I finish the blog, two days late (first time I have EVER been so late), I add these preface remarks about how I selected this shirt with Tom Meyers in mind.

Bruce Springsteen is one of the greatest American poets, performers, musicians, and artists of the last fifty years. He's up there with Sandberg, Frost, Woody Guthrie, and other great Americana writers/artists.

I was a BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN fan before I met my friend Tom Meyers, but I must confess that Tom's passion for Bruce Springsteen inspired me and increased my interest in "the Boss" ten fold.

My first Springsteen album was Born to Run, which my mother gave me as a gift in late 1980 or early 1981 when we went to a record store in the mall (State Vitamin), and she bought me several albums, which also included Wind and Wuthering by Genesis, Peter Gabriel's first solo album, Alan Parsons Project's Pyramid, and a few others that I no longer recall. I followed shortly thereafter by acquiring The River, Springsteen's current album at the time.

Though I have a special place in my heart for The River because of those days of listening to it in my early years of discovering music (during my college years my exploration expanded exponentially), Born To Run remains my favorite Bruce Springsteen album, and in my humble opinion, I consider it one of the best albums (not just rock music but including all albums in the modern music arena) of all time.

Rolling Stone magazine agrees. The seminal music magazine ranks Born to Run as Number Eighteen on its Top 500 albums of all time list. For me, this is too low.

I am going to indulge a bit in the examination of best albums of all time, according to two sources, before I return to an examination of Springsteen.

TOP 500 ALBUMS OF ALL TIME - THE ROLLING STONE LIST

Compare this to the British ranks by Q Magazine:

Q Magazine Top 100 albums of all time list

Rolling Stone  has five Beatles albums in its top twenty and three by Dylan. The Beach Boys Pet Sounds makes number two. And though I agree that The Clash's London Calling and the Rolling Stone's Exile on Main Street belong in the top ten, I am not sure that I would rank three different Beatles albums (Sgt. Pepper, Rubber Soul, and The White Album), two by Dylan (Blonde on Blonde and Highway 51 Revisited) and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On over Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run.


The Q Magazine list makes more sense to me, though with some variations. The Brits rank the Clash's London Calling at Twentieth, with which I disagree, and Springsteen does not appear in the Top Twenty at all. However, instead of the Beatles reigning supreme in the Top Ten, Q Magazine ranks Radiohead's  OK Computer as Number One, Radiohead's The Bends as Number Two, and Radiohead's Kid A as Number Ten. Revolver is the only Beatles in the Top Ten at four, Nirvana's Never Mind at three (Seventeenth on Rolling Stone's list), and other bands in the Top Ten that did not make Rolling Stone's list, such as the Stone Roses, Oasis, REM, and U2. Q Magazine actually ranks Achtung Baby over U2's The Joshua Tree, and I do not know many people who would agree with such an arrangement.

Enough recap. Any list of greatest albums of all time must include Born to Run in the Top Ten. I agree with London Calling and Exile on Main Street being in that group. But there must be other changes. Q Magazine  ranks Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon as Number Fifteen and Rolling Stone has no Pink Floyd in the Top Twenty, which feels like an oversight to me. I might rank The Smiths over Oasis or the Stone Roses.

Furthermore, in discussions with my visiting friend, who has returned to this home on the eastern seaboard as I type this sentence, which is the day after the official first publication of this blog, there are other albums that must be included in a Top Ten Greatest list, such as the Who's Quadrophenia and David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. He also agreed that U2's The Joshua Tree should rank above Achtung Baby. We both agreed that the Beatles deserve one spot as does Radiohead, though not multiple spots. I feel the Jam and Talking Heads deserve spots. We both agreed that Dylan may not deserve a spot. Objectively, though I am not a huge fan, Nirvana's Never Mind probably deserves a spot, but I am not going to give it a spot. Thom Yorke actually based a great deal of OK Computer on the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, and though this increases its merit, I do not know that album very well, so I am going to add an album I think is seminal and powerful, and one that I have come to love as one of my all-time favorites. And though it did not rank in my top tier in  T-shirt #97, this simply proves that the method of those rankings (which I will discuss in a moment) is not as objective as rating an album as a "best of all time," and so, with a little help from my friend, our combined list goes something like this (not in order):

BEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME - MY LIST

1. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
2. London Calling - The Clash 
3. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars - David Bowie
4. Quadrophenia - The Who
5. OK Computer - Radiohead
6. Joshua Tree- U2
7. Exile on Main Street - Rolling Stones
8. Revolver - The Beatles
9. Déjà Vu - Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
10. Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

Some other stuff just does not make the cut. I feel strongly about the Jam and Talking Heads. But have these bands produced two of the top ten best albums of all time or would they be among my personal faves? I have many personal faves that if I am to apply some objectivity would not be in a top ten of best albums of all time. I dropped Nirvana, as I claimed. I considered the Beach Boys' album, but I went with this list because there is an effect of my own prejudice. Revolver is not my favorite Beatles album, but then neither is Sgt, Pepper's. I would be more inclined to choose Let it Be, which is my favorite Beatles, but I am trying to synch with some of the best of lists.

I wrote about my personal favorite albums using the ones I have listened to most often as my main point of criterion in T-shirt #97, and though I might defend that King Crimson's Discipline is one of the most amazing
rock albums of all time, it's still an argument I am making based on personal criteria: what I have I listened to the most, what has had the greatest impact on me, which albums have given me the greatest enjoyment? My list for T-shirt #97 contains a Top Ten albums rated with such criteria, but Springsteen does not appear in the list. However, the list above feels like a greater and more objective evaluation of best albums, and yet the selections are obviously driven by my own subjective analysis. Some would cry in frustration: "Where's Led Zep??" "What about Queen?" and so on. The arguments would really never end. So there's the list. I am three days late finishing this blog post, so I have to get a hustle on.

Here's what Rolling Stone wrote about the Boss' "masterpiece":

Bruce Springsteen spent everything he had – patience, energy, studio time, the physical endurance of his E Street Band – to make his masterpiece. There are a dozen guitar overdubs on the title track alone. "The album became a monster," Springsteen recalled. But in making his third album, he was living out the central drama in its gun-the-engine rock & roll: the fight to reconcile big dreams with crushing reality. He found it so hard to re-create the sound in his head – the Jersey-bar dynamite of his live gigs, Phil Spector's grandeur, Roy Orbison's melodrama – that he nearly gave up and put out a live album. But his attention to detail produced a timeless record about the labors and glories of aspiring to greatness.

I asked Tom to choose his favorite albums by Springsteen, as we are old and still album-oriented in how we think about and experience music. Though I am happy to see the LP vinyl record make a resurgence in popularity. I have two cool stores in town in which to purchase albums, and I need to hook up my turntable. Tom could neither rank these albums nor the favorite songs list that follows. Springsteen love is too much a level playing field. It was almost too difficult to choose five albums and a dozen songs.

MY FRIEND TOM'S FAVORITE FIVE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN ALBUMS
(not ranked)

• Born to Run
• The Ghost of Tom Joad
• Tunnel of Love
• The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
• Live in New York City

I agree with this list, for the most part. Though I would replace the live album with The River, which may not be one of his greatest, but it's one I am awfully fond of because it was my second Springsteen album. Devil's and Dust, Nebraska, and The Rising would all vie for spots. It's quite difficult to choose actually. Though, I think Tom and I would both agree that Born in the USA is not making this list. I don't even own it.

TOM'S PLAYLIST OF FAVORITE SPRINGSTEEN SONGS  (Not ranked)

• "Blood Brothers"
• "Devil's and Dust"
• "I Wish I Were Blind"
• "Stolen Car"
• "Dead Man Walking"
• "Straight Time"
• "Thunder Road"
• "Incident on 57th Street"
• "Two Faces"
• "Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"
• "Wild Billy's Circus Story"
• "All that Heaven Will Allow"

I will include some videos of both Tom's favorite songs and my favorite songs to conclude this blog entry.

I have seen Bruce Springsteen in concert four times. The photos in this blog entry feature my one and only Springsteen shirt (unless I buy another) from the Rising tour in 2002. My own playlist, which I will share, is in part dominated by songs from The Rising because I made it to listen to on the way to the concert, which was all the way down in Columbus, Ohio. I am not sure whom I was planning to take with me to the Columbus show, or if I was just planning to find someone who would go with me once I had the tickets. Regardless, I found a student who was a huge Springsteen fan who agreed to go with me. The concert took place after the semester ended, so his grade was already assured. He's a good guy, and we had fun, though I am not sure I remember his name. His first name, I think, was Matt.

In the picture to the left, I believe I had tickets to the Ann Arbor acoustic show for the Ghost of Tom Joad tour when the Battle Creek Enquirer asked me to review the show at Miller Auditorium, so I was able to see two Springsteen shows in the same week. I do not even remember who went with me to the Ann Arbor show. I know I saw the Miller show by myself as the call to go was too last minute to find anyone to go with me, but I remember meeting someone I would date off and on that night while buying sushi at D&W, so the evening is firmly fixed in my memory.

I present two versions of my Springsteen reviews from 1996 in their entirety.

REVIEW #1 (SHORTER):  Kyle Shirk of South Bend, Indiana could relate to Bruce Springsteen at the Boss's Tuesday night concert at Miller Auditorium in Kalamazoo because he's been in the big guy's shoes. Eight-year-old Kyle sang "Youngstown" for his first grade class back in May when his turn at show-and-tell rolled around. He has the song, from Springsteen's latest release "The Ghost of Tom Joad," memorized, and unlike the Boss, Kyle sang it in class without a guitar.
The Shirks--Kyle and his parents Wayne and Tammy--attended the Bruce Springsteen concert along with 3400 other Boss fans from far and wide. The Shirks called yesterday to get tickets after listening to a busy signal for hours the day they went on sale. For Wayne Shirk, this is his 30th Springsteen concert. It's number two for Tammy and Kyle.
But they're a Springsteen family through and through even if Wayne has seen the Boss a few extra times. Kyle's full name--Kyle William--comes from "Reason To Believe" of "Nebraska," Springsteen's last foray into the Woody Guthrie inspired folk sound he's returned to with "Tom Joad." The Boss's "If I Shall Fall a Step Behind" from "Tunnel of Love" is featured on the Shirk's wedding video.
Wayne Shirk believes in starting Bruce fans at a tender young age of, well, birth. Kyle has grown up with Springsteen and named each tune Bruce began throughout the concert, including singing along on "Youngstown." Though Kyle sang along on a few other Springsteen tunes Tuesday night, he denies that he's working up anymore songs and has no plans to bring his musical talents to show-and-tell anytime in the near future.
For others the Springsteen concert was less of a family ritual and more of a gift. The Miller usher corps, numbering in the hundreds, competed in a lottery to earn their place at a door, said Helen Goyings, one of the lucky 50 selected in the random drawing. But for Eilene Harrison the concert was worth a little bit more: a fur coat.
Harrison put her name on a waiting list for tickets and received a call yesterday at the Oshtemo Post Office that the tickets were available. She hooted, hollered, and flung postage stamps in the air at the news. She coerced co-worker Randy Barnes to pony up his credit card to redeem himself for breaking a previous date.
"He stood me up for the Allegan County Fair," Harrison said, "so he had to redeem himself. It was either this or a fur coat. I told him that if he takes me to Bruce, it makes up for missing Vince Gill."
Some people might think Harrison settled for something of lesser value, but for the 3400 fans giving Bruce Springsteen three standing ovations Tuesday night, the concert was worth a great deal more than a fur coat

REVIEW #2 (LONGER):  The crowd sizzled with the equivalent of heat lightning in excitement as Bruce--the Boss--Springsteen kept them waiting an extra twenty minutes. The 3400 people packing Kalamazoo's Miller Auditorium to capacity Tuesday night had one thing on their mind: the Boss. No opening act. No frills. No fancy set. Just the Boss man and his guitar.
If you wandered by Miller Auditorium Tuesday night, you might have heard what sounds like BOOs but was really people yelling "BRUCE" enthusiastically between each song.
Springsteen wanted them quiet during the songs though, and he set this tone from the start. Without hype or fanfare, he strolled out on stage in the darkness, and as the lights bathed him for the first time, he held his guitar at shoulder-height, briefly, before launching into the opening chords and harmonica wails of "The Ghost of Tom Joad," his latest release.
For each tune, Springsteen tells a story either of the song's theme, such as "trying something new," or longer tales of mexican migrants, Vietnam veterans, Texan shrimp fishers, and the epic hero of Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," Tom Joad, for whom Springsteen named his album.
Though most of the songs from the new album are quiet, somber, dark songs of pain, loss, and emptiness, Springsteen varied the evening with resonant and powerful acoustic versions of some of his older hits, like "Darkness on the Edge of Town," "Born in The USA," and "Promised Land."
But fans who expected the driving electric-powered guitar force of "Born To Run" settled for the "Tom Joad" songs which comprised most of Springsteen's 18 song set and two encores of six more songs. Though Springsteen returned to some of the songs of "Nebraska," the album with which many have compared "Tom Joad," he performed a suite of "Joad" songs from the southwest: "The Line," "Balboa Park," and "Across the Border" as well as "Sinaloa Cowboys," "Galveston Bay," and "Dry Lightning" among others.
Though many fans hooted and cheered at the beginning of the concert, soon Springsteen won them over with his pleas for quiet and his ability to mesmerize a crowd with a combination of stories and music (and musical stories). His talks between songs were often as quiet as the songs themselves and sometimes just as revealing and emotionally intense. The crowd was soon spellbound.
But Springsteen delivered some humor to break the somber mood. He joked about the state of Michigan with a song dedicated for that purpose and warned against the evils of late night television and infomercials with a happy-go-lucky "Sell It and They Will Come" song.
The Boss ended his main concert after only ninety minutes and the two encores brought the entire evening to a little over two hours, well short of the marathon three and four hour concerts he's been known to do, as recently as this last January in Detroit at the beginning of the first part of the "Joad" tour.
Though "Tom Joad" has turned gold since its release almost a year ago, Springsteen joked about low record sales. Regardless of its sales, the album has earned Springsteen much recognition not only for tipping his hat to Guthrie and Steinbeck but for his gritty portrait of the dispossessed of America and his brave social commentary.
The fans in Kalamazoo's Miller Auditorium would agree. After two hours of the "World According to Bruce Springsteen," they all drove home with a great deal to think about.

I also saw the 2005 acoustic tour promoting Devil's and Dust. As I mentioned earlier, my playlist was made for the tour for The Rising, but I must have remade it prior to Devil's and Dust  as that song appears on it.

• "Thunder Road"
• "Born To Run"
• "Jungleland"
• "Into The Fire"
• "The Ghost Of Tom Joad"
• "Devils & Dust"
• "Independence Day"
• "The River"
• "Tunnel Of Love"
• "Nebraska"
• "The E Street Shuffle"
• "Growin' Up"
• "Human Touch"
• "The Rising"
• "Streets Of Philadelphia"
• "Adam Raised a Cain"
• "Straight Time"
• "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)"

I have listened to Springsteen for years and could relate many experiences and impacts with and of his music. "Thunder Road" is a personal anthem. It is by far one of my favorite things in life. I have read many articles and reviews and things about Bruce, but this blog entry is already late and it would be five times larger if I tried to capture everything. Instead, I would like to share one moment.

I saw an interview with Springsteen a few years ago on CBS' 60 Minutes television program. One thing Bruce said struck with me. I cannot remember the quote verbatim, but essentially he said that his whole life (up until then, which may have been about 2005), he had been waiting to become the man he thought he should be, when he realized that it was time to start living as the man he was, the man he had become. This comment resonated with me as I felt I had the same experience, and so I started living as the man I had become rather than the man I thought I should be, was expected to be, had hoped to be. Of course, as soon as I did that, my life changed 1000000% and now I am that man that I had been waiting for. Funny that.

THE VIDEOS - SOME OF TOM'S/ SOME OF MINE

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

Bruce Springsteen - Blood Brothers (NYC, 1/07/2000)

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

Bruce Springsteen - Dead Man Walking

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

Bruce Springsteen - All That Heaven Will Allow (acoustic) (live, Oslo, April 29th 2013)

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

Bruce Springsteen w.Tom Morello - Ghost of Tom Joad - Madison Square Garden

25th anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert 10/29/2009

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Jungleland (PROSHOT)

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

Bruce Springsteen - Thunder Road Live in NYC *********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

Long Live The Boss. Thank you, Bruce Springsteen. Thank you for the memories.

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

*********************************************************************************

  COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 73 shirts remaining - chris tower - first published - 1401.07 - 21:11
Final publication - 1401.10 - 12:51

T-shirt #291 - Wrigley Field

T-shirt #291 - Wrigley Field

Greetings blog reader. Not that you will notice any change, but today's blog is brought to you by the Park Club in downtown Kalamazoo where I have stationed myself with my trusty Asus Ultra Book to write while my friend (the one who is visiting) is interviewed by prospective employers.

I am happy to report that my blog of "A Year in T-shirts" (T-shirt #290) from yesterday is already immensely popular. My page views for the day are currently at sixty-three views up from fifty-six views the day before and thirty-two the day before that one. I have often suspected that Blogger's charting of these days is not wholly accurate. The stats always seem to be running a day behind, so "today's" view numbers are for January fifth, Sunday, and not January sixth, which is today, Monday. Nevertheless, I am still very pleased with these numbers.

The entry for "A Year in T-shirts" (T-shirt #290) is currently clocking in at sixteen views "today" followed by the previous days 10,000 Maniacs post and a few others.

Today, I chose this shirt to be able to deliver a short blog entry, though I warn you, dear reader, expect more Cubs shirts between now and March. I featured all but one of the Detroit Tigers shirts I currently own last year, but I only featured two Chicago Cubs shirts, and I own more than two.


My second Cubs shirt post, T-shirt #259, was devoted to the first Cubs shirt I owned, one that is soon destined to be a dust rag. I posted it to have an entry I could keep short and write about current Baseball news, as I did for that entry dated December fifth, 2013. My first Cubs entry, T-shirt #115, was a longish love letter about Ron Santo. I added my "Dinner Party" category to this entry only because I would love to have Ron Santo at my fantasy Dinner Party (if you do not know about my Dinner Party, you can drill back in the category posts by clicking the link in the list on the right side of the main blog page for any given day); however, due to the rules I set for my own Dinner Party, I cannot invite Ron Santo as only people who are still alive can be on my "list" of people I would want at such a Dinner Party, if I were to be granted a "Make A Wish Foundation" wish, which I do not expect to be granted.


Also, not only am I keeping myself to limited content today, but I am not intending to deliver much in the way of Chicago Cubs content. I have other Cubs shirts. Look for more Baseball and Cubs content in future blog posts. I have more Cubs shirts to come as I shared already. Besides, this shirt was one of those freebies either at the Wrigley Field gate or when one signed up for a credit card, I forget which.

After all, as I previously reported, my friend Tom Meyers is visiting until Wednesday, and so I am trying to manage my time. However, after role-playing in the adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons known as Pathfinder all day yesterday, we recessed to watch the end of the SF-Green Bay football game before bed and had a substantive discussion about how sports seasons are too long, how too many teams make the playoffs, how revenue sharing is a disaster (and a failure) in Baseball, and various other sports related subjects, such as how many pass interference calls are missed in football games.

We want fewer games in each season, fewer teams in the playoffs, more revenue sharing in Baseball, and more pass interference and offensive interference calls in football.

As for my Chicago Cubs fandom, the team is my second favorite after the Detroit Tigers. Though there were glimmers of winning ways in the 2000s, we Cubs fans are back to suffering so far in the 2010s.

OH! Let me know what you think of the baseballs as eyeballs pictures. I thought it was an inspired idea. I have "Baseball Eyes." Some clever musician could probably get a song out of this: "Baseball Eyes."

Tune in to my blog again for more sports nonsense.

Back to D&D and friend time. Thanks for reading.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 74 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1401.06 - 13:45

T-shirt 290 - Plain White - A Year of T-shirts

T-shirt 290 - Plain White - A Year of T-shirts

Greetings. Happy Sunday. Welcome to a collection of my shirts so far. I thought that the end of the year would be a good time to recap visually. I considered creating a video, but I wanted the visual impact of the grid. But before I explored how to make a photo grid (more on this in a minute), I had to decide what shirt to feature as today's shirt. Since I did not own any plain white t-shirts, I thought this would make a good choice for today's blog. And since I bought a pack of three, I have two more plain T-shirts to fill in when I need an any subject shirt.

As for the photo grid, I tried collage sites online, but did not find what I was looking for. Then I stumbled on a tutorial video for making contact sheets in Photoshop. This way you get to see my file names! I am bit pleased with the naming conventions I use with the exception of one shirt that snuck through as "picture091.jpg." I have rectified this oversight since.

Because of the way Photoshop makes the contact sheets, the easiest thing was to arrange the files alphabetically by file name. Given that I did not use a naming convention that would order and number them, re-organizing them in ORDER is a much bigger project, but it is possible project. Obviously, you can see where this is going. By the end of my blog year, I may assemble a set of contact sheets with the pictures arranged in order of appearance. Then again, given the scope of such a project, I may not.

Another problem I encountered is the original file I assembled contained 280 files out of 289 shirts published thus far (actually looking ahead a few days), and when I made the file, I included 11 doubles (or in some cases 3-4 images of the same shirt as you see with this first contact sheet). As I write this, as I am working ahead, I am in the process of looking for the nineteen (19) shirts I missed in my original assembly. I have found seven of these shirts so far, but it's a time-consuming, cross checking process. By the time, you read this, I am hoping to include a final contact sheet, making a total of fifteen (at twenty images per sheet that's 300 shirts, which is just right as I posted 289 yesterday and used 11 doubles/triples/quads in my original set).

One drawback to the alphabetical arrangement is the shirts often group together by type based on my naming conventions. There's a great deal of variety, but all the KUDL shirts will be found with the Ks and all the pajama shirts will be found among the Ss for "sleep." Feel free to explore how the naming conventions group some shirts and not others. Then again, this may be one of those things that is only fascinating to me because I am over-enamored of my own process.

Given that I am still playing D&D with my best friend who is visiting, we which means less time to write the blog, I have not finished my exploration of the blog's history and found all the missing t-shirts.

FUN GAME FOR MY READERS: How about this? If you are a faithful reader and interested in spending a snowy day exploring my blog, feel free to participate in a game of What T-shirts are Missing? By my estimation, as explained, NINETEEN (19) shirts are missing from the sets of photos presented below. How many missing shirts can you name? Leave me a comment if you play and we shall see what happens. I do not expect a huge turnout, so if anyone plays at all I may award prizes.

A GALLERY OF SHIRTS FROM THE 365 T-SHIRTS BLOG

SHIRTS 1-289

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 75 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1401.05 - 19:29

T-shirt #289 - 10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in Eden

T-shirt #289 - 10,000 Maniacs - Our Time in Eden

My friend Tom Meyers, better known as the Lord of Chaos, is visiting, and we are playing Dungeons and Dragons, specifically Pathfinder (which is D&D 3.5, modified by Paizo), so these entries during his visit will be brief. See him pictures in this same shirt as we share a love for this band: 10,000 Maniacs, whom I wrote about it originally in T-shirt #257 and featured my tickets.

Here's a short interview with him about his love of 10,000 Maniacs.

Me: Do you remember when you first learned about 10,000 Maniacs?

LOC: I first learned about 10,000 Maniacs walking through the northern end of Trowbridge Hall some time after we graduated with my friend Chris Tower. We heard someone playing the Wishing Chair album and maybe the song "Back of the Moon." I was struck viscerally with the way the main vocalist phrased words and sentences in the lyrics and the sound of her voice. I was captured by it. For me, it became the most meaningful music of the time.

When I listened to 10,000 Maniacs now, the music transports me to those times in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It brings me backs to specific times and feelings and emotions to when I first heard the song. Listening to a song today, I can go back to when I first heard it, how I felt then, what was happening.

I really like the fact that they were contrary to the popular music of the time. They were unique, different, and non-commercial.

In My Tribe transformed me more than The Wishing Chair because I really felt that it was a more mature sound. It was better mixed and better produced. I knew a guy who hated that the band sang about things that were important, but I loved that about it. And another thing, the poster, the images, the patch, the symbols, all of the visual elements were important to me. And this album propelled 10,000 Maniacs to my number one favorite musical group, and the album made it imperative that I see them live. It was one of the first albums I actively shared with other people, telling people "you have to listen to this. It's awesome."


I have seen the band six times in concert. The last of which, during the Our Time in Eden tour, I had front row seats, and I felt that Natalie was making eye contact with me, singing to me, and could tell that I was the band's biggest fan. I can't listen to 10,000 Maniacs without being reminded of my feelings during those years for a woman I knew in law school.

Me: What is your favorite 10,000 Maniacs album?

LOC: That is a very difficult question. If I have to choose one album, I would choose their last: Our Time In Eden.

Me: Rank the album in terms of your favorites?

LOC: I don't count albums after Natalie Merchant left the band. They are all very closely ranked but here goes:

1. In My Tribe
2. Our Time in Eden
3. The Wishing Chair
4. MTV Unplugged
5. Campfire Songs
6. Hope Chest
7. Blind Man's Zoo

Me: What are your top ten favorite 10,000 Maniacs song?

LOC: "These Are Days," "What's The Matter Here," "Cotton Alley," "Stockton Gala Days," "The Painted Desert," "Don't Go Back to Rockville," "Let the Mystery Be," "Back of the Moon," "Tension Makes a Tangle," "Verdi Cries."

Back O' The Moon - 10,000 Maniacs

10,000 Maniacs - Stockton Gala Days - Letterman

10000 Maniacs - "Don't Go Back To Rockville"

cover of an REM song.

 

I post songs on THIS IS MY JAM. Here's my jams for the last two years. Enjoy my odysseys.

My Jam Odyssey 2012 from This is My Jam

My Jam Odyssey 2013 from This is My Jam

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 76 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1401.04 - 20:52
final publication - 1401.05 - 14:24

T-shirt #288 - Underdog

T-shirt #288 - Underdog

Today's blog entry is dedicated to my best friend Tom Meyers who arrives today for a visit and a gaming orgy. Fifty year old men playing the same game they played in their youth. Though I started playing D&D at the age of fourteen, Tom discovered it in his twenties. Neither of us had the luxury of playing it in our childhood (as many others will reminisce that they did) since the game was not "invented" until 1974.
(Yeah, yeah, if you want to get TECHNICAL, oh geeky readers, the game of Dungeons and Dragons technically began in some form with the publication of the Chainmail rules for miniature play in 1971, but the first three booklet boxed set came out in 1974; I played it for the first time in 1976.)

But today is about UNDERDOG not Dungeons and Dragons (though Underdog would make a great character in D&D).

Underdog was possibly my first superhero. First seen on NBC in 1964, Underdog predates Atom Ant (1965) whom I wrote about in T-shirt #111, according to the Underdog Wikipedia. Though I did not have a blue cape, I did have a red blanket that my mother would pin on me, so I could run around as Underdog: "There's no need to fear, Underdog is here!" But my favorite battle cry is surely:

"When Polly's in trouble I am not slow, for it's hip-hip-hip and away I go!"

Though I did not have a blue cape, I did have a ring with a secret compartment in which to hide my "Underdog Super Energy Pill," which was often a vitamin supplied by my mother, though sometimes, since I may need many energy pills per day, a tiny candy that would fit inside the ring.

Okay, I am probably not being accurate. I just remembered that Mighty Mouse first appeared in the 1940s and was a staple of CBS Saturday morning cartoons from 1955 to 1967. And the mouse had a red cape like mine. I do recall crying out "Here I come to save the day!" (Mighty Mouse's battle cry) often, so surely I played at being Mighty Mouse, but I have more vivid memories of play as Underdog. And though I would like a Mighty Mouse shirt and toy, I do not own either, and given my recent binge-spending on T-shirts and such and sundry, I am cut off (by my own hand and choice).

Underdog ran for 124 episodes until 1967 but continued in syndication until 1973. This is important because I may not have seen all the episodes that began to air when I was two years old. However, with nine years of broadcasting, I surely managed to see them all at least once and usually all of them multiple times by the time I was eleven years old.

Underdog is a good example of how classic cartoons of yesteryear are kept alive. In the pictures, you see me with an Underdog plush toy, an Underdog PVC doll, and an Underdog T-shirt. The shirt is worn and old. It's one of my older shirts, and it's losing its thickness. I need a new one.

The toys demonstrate two very smart marketing ideas. Toy companies and others who hold copyright on the best cartoons of our childhoods have figured out that two things will happen with the release of Underdog gear: adults will buy the stuff for themselves (as I have done) and adults will buy the stuff for their kids. The Underdog PVC sits atop my TV in my office (as seen in the photo above), and though I have not found the perfect place for the Underdog plush, he's here, sitting nearby as seen in my office tour in T-shirt #268. Also, I have more Underdog gear that I did not have easy access to for the photos.


My friend Tom Meyers arrives for a visit today, as I mentioned, and he has bequeathed to me all sorts of Underdog stuff: a lunchbox, a storage bin, and a few other things that I cannot readily recall. And of course, DVDs. With streaming video, DVD, and YouTube, it's easier than ever before for a parent to say to a child, "Hey, do you wanna watch some Underdog with me?" And the love of this great cartoon continues, like  a virus, but a virus of love.

Wednesday, when I took my own Underdog, Satchel, for a walk, I stopped to chat with the neighbor across the street and his little boy, Caleb, who was wearing a Scooby Doo cap. Caleb explained that he is a massive Scooby Doo fan and began extolling the virtues of some movies he had seen. And so, the generation gap is bridged. The love of the old cartoons continues, though unlike Underdog I believe that new Scooby Doo material is currently being produced.

I have circled the subject of growing up and letting go quite a bit. I do not believe we must let go of all things dear to our hearts from childhood as we get older as some pathetic example of being "adult," which, in my mind, is simply a form of self-imposed misery and serves no purpose but producing misery and possibly resentment. Granted, I no longer put on my little red cape and run around taking energy pills from my secret compartment ring and crying out the rallying heroism of Underdog, though I surely would play such a game with a little boy or girl who was still afloat in the deep ocean of the imagination and the animistic universe if I had the chance. But I find it immensely comforting having my Underdog PVC figure watching over me as I work, and when I see Underdog perched on the TV next to the Mystery Machine clock and Robby the Robot, I am placated. I feel secure in knowing that though many things have changed in my life since I was that little boy playing at Underdog, many things have remained the same. With the modern world, we can keep these things from our past in our hearts, we can easily reconnect with these loves of yesteryear, and smart companies new and old market brand new products that we can purchase and enjoy anew and/or share them with the small children in our lives.

I removed the tag. Can you see it?

Great cartoons like Underdog live on in our hearts and in the hearts of those whom we inspire and to which we bequeath this brilliance, kindling a new flame.

I am an adult. I pay bills; I work for a living; I have a mortgage; I shoulder responsibility. But none of that excludes me from enjoying Underdog much as I did when I was two years old, and seven years old, and nine... and anyone who expects adults to divest themselves of childhood loves is an unpleasant and bitter Scrooge, which brings me to my next subject. Ah... streamy connections.

I just finished reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol via audio, narrated by Jim Dale, who brilliantly narrated the HARRY POTTER novels. Much in the same way that Scrooge learns to keep Christmas in his heart and practice goodwill toward his fellow men year around, so too, is this blog a journey of discovery of the things I wish to keep in my heart, those things that--like Christmas--embody the spirits of love, charity, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, compassion, and so much more. As I think about what I want to share in content for each shirt, I discover more and more about myself and the things that matter to me. There's more than an affection for popular culture icons here. There's a growing aspect of my greater spiritual connection to others and to the universe, which is a subject for another time. Stay tuned.

Underdog is surely a part of the milieu of my greater journey of identity, individuation, and spiritual awakening. For real. And so the Blog Journey continues...

UNDERDOG Cartoon Intro

Compare this opening intro trailer above for Underdog with the one for Mighty Mouse.

Mighty Mouse (The original cartoon theme intro)

And while I am at it, since I don't have a Mighty Heroes shirt either, I will share the Mighty Heroes theme for your edification, amusement, and as a blast from the past for those who remember.

The Mighty Heroes - theme

BTW, Why is Underdog called Underdog? What I mean is: what's he Under? Is this a reference to "underwear?" Is he down because he's a dog and he's little?

I know, I know: the underdog. The downtrodden. The unfavored. I don't think I got that connection when I was two or five or seven. Underdog was Underdog. Not because that's a comment on those who are the underdogs in our society but because that was his name.

Is Underdog a beagle? Definitely a hound of some kind.

He does look a lot like a beagle. Like my Beagle: Satchel. 

Sidenotes: I am not sure I knew this, at least I think I did, but Underdog's voice was supplied by one of my favorite actors: Wally Cox. It's good to remember what I may or may not have known and forgotten. This is part fo what my blog does for me, refreshes my memory, and what I hope it does for you.

Underdog's two main villains were voiced by Allen Swift. Simon Bar Sinister gets his name from the Bar Sinister, which is a diagonal line in medieval crests indicating a bastard birth. And Riff Raff is just a great name for a villain.

In working on this blog, I found an awesome resource: Don Markstein's Toonopedia: a vast repository of toonological knowledge.

Of course, there's an Underdog entry: UNDERDOG ON TOONOPEDIA.

CARTOON SUPERHEROES or RELATED - comic ones
Excluding traditional heroes like Superman and Spider-man, I am trying to make a list of either anthropomorphic heroes or comedy-focused cartoon heroes, which excludes favorites like Space Ghost or the Herculoids as per my list in T-shirt #101 - THE JETSONS and excluding Looney Tunes, which is an amazing category all of its own.

This is probably an incomplete list. I am always hoping with this work that someone will leave me a comment saying "Hey, you forgot.... blah blah." Like what was that one cartoon with the big robot that sort of looked like the Frankenstein monster but was giant sized and a little boy worked with him?

Mostly, I tried to keep the list to animals but that was very limiting, so there are some excursions, such as the Mighty Heroes Frankenstein, Jr., and Roger Ramjet, who are  awesome!!

THE TOP LIST

• Underdog
• Scooby Doo
• Atom Ant
• Mighty Mouse
• The Mighty Heroes
• Frankenstein, Jr.
• Sherman and Mr. Peabody!!
• Roger Ramjet
• Casper the Friendly Ghost
• Secret Squirrel
• Hong Kong Fooey
• Captain Caveman
• Popeye

THE OTHER BOTTOM LIST, not necessarily super but funny or favorite

• Gumby and Pokey
• Rocky and Bullwinkle
• Tenessee Tuxedo
• Huckleberry Hound
• Quickdraw McGraw
• Woody Woodpecker
• Heckle and Jeckle
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch ( I know she's not an animal but this was a favorite cartoon.)

MORE VIDEOS

I found episode one on You Tube but I cannot access it via Blogger. Check it out if you are interested. Meanwhile, here's two good ones (which ones are not good, after all, I mean, come on, man...).

First, "The Magnet Men" and then "Simon Says Be my Valentine."

The Underdog Show - Episode # 23 1965

The Underdog Show - Episode # 53 - 1966

My Facebook friend and neighbor
had this on his wall, so I copped it, as it seems
to fit the Underdog theme very well.

COVER GALLERY

And at the risk of making this even longer (and I was going to include comic book reviews - geez), I cannot resist including some comic book covers of Underdog Gold Key comics as well as some others I owned, like the one farther above for Frankenstein Jr.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 77 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1401.03 - 18:20