T-shirt #352 - Cub Fan - Bart Man

TODAY'S COUNT: 13 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!

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T-shirt #352 - Cub Fan - Bart Man

Baseball season is upon us, and I am making my nefarious plans for my Fantasy Baseball Empire with my first draft tonight.

Actually, I am going to wing it. I don't have time to prepare my own stats log and analysis, so I am going with the work of Baseball Forecaster and my own reasonable intuition for this league, in which I placed eighth of twelve last year. I think I can beat that record.

I did not win any of my leagues last year. The best I finished was second out of eight. I finished fourth in the league I run (TIGER TOWNE), third of eight in a league run by my friend Craig, and sixth of twelve in a New England league. I was kicked out of a rotisserie league run by a crazy madman, so I decided to reboot his league with the other players who may well be disgruntled.

Today, I am renewing the "hiatus shirt" mandate in order to possibly catch up by Monday on the seven incomplete blog entries found elsewhere via my main address. They are now sufficiently buried so as not be so persistent to my psyche's wellness, and yet, I know they are there.

Several gravitational anomalies aligned in the galaxy to produce this blog, which originally had been schedule as not one other but two other shirts.

And then I saw this: 365 Days of KirbyTech, Day 66: The Finkatronic Ray, which reminded me of my Cub Fan Bart Man T-shirt as a herald (get it? If you're a comic geek given my picture of Homer-Galactus below, you will get it.) of SPRING and BASEBALL SEASON.

I have given shouts to both the BULLY SAYS COMICS OUGHTA BE FUN and the wonderful Pencil Ink blog, and this morning I decided to let those bloggers know of my appreciation for their efforts with comments on their sites.

Bully is doing a 365 Days of Kirby Tech series, which, yesterday, manifested as tech from the Simpsons comic. Wonderful stuff. Here's one of the pics he shared from Panels from "Captain Cupcake and Pieboy!" in Simpsons Super Spectacular #5 (July 2007), script by Mike W. Barr, pencils by James Lloyd, inks by Andrew Pepoy, colors by Rick Reese, letters by Karen Bates.

Meanwhile, I decided to post -- pretty much -- just pictures today. So here, we go (with a little text in between, D'oh!!) Okay, Don't have a cow, man.

There are 21 entries (including today's) in my Baseball category, which is a sport name that -- as you may or may not know -- I like to deify with a capital letter.

I featured the shirt that goes with this hat in T-shirt #182.

Here's some text from that blog:

T-shirt #80: Detroit Tigers est. 1901 may be my best  Baseball post so far, though T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs est. 1876 also shares a great deal of good Baseball stuff. I love the sense of history. I love the stats. I love my teams.

But it's all best summed up by this quote from the great Ernie Harwell:

"Baseball is a ballet without music. Drama without words. A carnival without kewpie dolls. Baseball is continuity. Pitch to pitch. Inning to inning. Season to season."

When I saw this T-shirt, I had to have one. I like the Simpsons, but I would not characterize myself as a massive Simpsons fan like some folks.

"Don't Have a Cow, Harry!" refers to Harry Caray, former announcer for the Chicago Cubs, who always used to say "Holy Cow!" and since Bart Simpson often says "Don't Have a Cow, Man" then this is a great joke connection.

Harry Caray died in 1998. Here's a little weird irony: in the 2003 playoffs, one of the Cubs few post-season appearances in the last 20 years. In October of 2003, the Cubs were playing in the National League Championship series against the Florida Marlins (who won the World Series that year), there's one incident that is defined as the losing moment for that Cubs team, preventing them from advancing to the World Series. It has come to be known as the STEVE BARTMAN INCIDENT.

Lifelong Cubs fan Steve Bartman interfered with a catch by Cubs outfielder Moisés Alou. Had Alou caught that ball for the out, the Cubs would have been four outs from the National League title and the World Series. As it turned out, the Cubs lost the game and eventually the series.

Get it? The shirt is "Bart Man" and is from Cubs merchandise no later than 1998 and possibly earlier, and yet it foreshadows the infamous "villain" of the Cubs' 2003 loss. Really, it's a sad thing. Steve Bartman is a well meaning Cubs fan who got caught up in the excitement of a ball coming his way and made a mistake, like we all do (make mistakes that is). It just so happened to be a mistake that is believed to have cost the Cubs a National League title and a shot at winning the World Series.

Remember how in yesterday's blog I mentioned saving time for date night with my lovely wife? Well, here's our sashimi/sushi dinner from Friday the 7th of March using a gift certificate given to use for Christmas.

We love delicious sashimi/sushi at KUMO.

YUM.

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This is the shirt I am actually
wearing today

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUNTDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday for the last TWENTY posts in the T-SHIRT blog year, which started on March 22, 2013. I will close out daily transmission on March 21st, day 365 of my T-shirt blog-tastic extravaganza spectacular. I will give myself a short hiatus of total non-transmission or  publication for an as yet undetermined period of time, though I am estimating about two weeks. After my blog vacation hiatus, I will resume T-shirt posts on a regular basis, also as yet to be determined (weekly? Twice monthly?) to finish blogging about all the T-shirts that were not featured in the blog year. At some point, once I feel I am rolling along nicely, I will begin regular posting through my main blog: SENSE OF DOUBT. T-shirt posts will direct to the T-shirt blog from SENSE OF DOUBT. I will continue to post THE WEEKLY COMIC LIST, the features of occasional T-SHIRTS I AM WEARING THIS WEEK, book reviews, comic book reviews, and other popular culture nonsense as I have been for a year now but all will go up at SENSE OF DOUBT and some will direct back here to 365 T-SHIRTS. Ultimately, I will begin Internet publication of my fiction, primarily the comic book satire episodic story called POP! among other projects. So, in summary, 365 T-SHIRTS will continue though intermittently. SENSE OF DOUBT will host my main blog presence and fiction writing as well as links to any T-shirt posts shared here. I hope you will continue to follow me in my journey as a writer and a content provider. Thank you for your kind attention and time you have spent with me on this and/or any other day this year. I am humbled and blessed by your readership. - chris tower, blogger, originated 1403.02
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HIATUS TEXT: REVISED 1402.18:  I have been trying to maintain a hiatus from large or over involved blog posts beginning with the start date of my hiatus on January 20th (almost a month ago) during which time I logged 21 posts, which I consider "Hiatus Shirts." By this term, Hiatus Shirt, I mean the shirt is not one that would cause me to write a great deal on the subject it features. These are shirts about which I can write anything, either a lot or a very little. The hiatus will continue, though as it has for the last few weeks, not consecutively as I will continue to mix Hiatus and Non-Hiatus shirts. The blog's year (365 shirts) draws close to a close. (I like the double word use in that previous sentence.) I hope to finish strong with some good entries with high quality content and imagery on some beloved subjects. To earn this time, I will need to intersperse shirts of little consequence, what I have come to call Hiatus Shirts.

My original goal of working ahead remains. I need time to write the enormously lengthy text to complete the extensive love letter to certain beloved popular culture icons featured on my many special shirts. Even with "Hiatus Shirts," I will try to share some worthy content as I have either an idea, a new suggestion of something to read/look at/listen to, or another installment of my various features, such as the WHY T-SHIRTS item, the WEEKLY COMIC BOOK LISTS, and the SHIRT I AM ACTUALLY WEARING TODAY among others. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

Thanks for reading. I am always honored that people have taken some of their valuable time to look at my ongoing web writing project. Keep checking this address. I promise to make it worthwhile.
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COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 13 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.08 - 13:11

T-shirt #340 - Freer Gallery of Art

T-shirt #340 - Freer Gallery of Art

I missed a shot of the sleeve of this shirt, which reads: THUNDER GOD - adaptation of a Japanese Scroll painting by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). - 1997 Freer Gallery of Art.

Also, just known as HOKUSAI at WIKIPEDIA and special Katsushika Hokusai  site. Hokusai is quite famous. See one of his most famous images farther below and/or check the links.

Because I am so far behind, for once, I am going to let the image carry the message (mostly).

HIATUS TEXT: REVISED 1402.18:  I have been trying to maintain a hiatus from large or over involved blog posts beginning with the start date of my hiatus on January 20th (almost a month ago) during which time I logged 21 posts, which I consider "Hiatus Shirts." By this term, Hiatus Shirt, I mean the shirt is not one that would cause me to write a great deal on the subject it features. These are shirts about which I can write anything, either a lot or a very little. The hiatus will continue, though as it has for the last few weeks, not consecutively as I will continue to mix Hiatus and Non-Hiatus shirts. The blog's year (365 shirts) draws close to a close. (I like the double word use in that previous sentence.) I hope to finish strong with some good entries with high quality content and imagery on some beloved subjects.

To earn this time, I will need to intersperse shirts of little consequence, what I have come to call Hiatus Shirts.

My original goal of working ahead remains. I need time to write the enormously lengthy text to complete the extensive love letter to certain beloved popular culture icons featured on my many special shirts.

Even with "Hiatus Shirts," I will try to share some worthy content as I have either an idea, a new suggestion of something to read/look at/listen to, or another installment of my various features, such as the WHY T-SHIRTS item, the WEEKLY COMIC BOOK LISTS, and the SHIRT I AM ACTUALLY WEARING TODAY among others. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

Thanks for reading. I am always honored that people have taken some of their valuable time to look at my ongoing web writing project. Keep checking this address. I promise to make it worthwhile.

Just FYI, The Freer and Sackler Galleries are part of the Smithsonian system: LINKED HERE.

Quite likely, this shirt was a gift from my parents after a trip they made to Washington DC in 1997.

Seems a bit anti-climactic to post something so limited with only 25 shirts remaining. But with my current back log of EIGHT unfinished blog entries, a new record, I have to find ways to bring entries to a state that I consider "finished." And there's no reason why the content I had in mind for today's entry cannot be applied to a previous entry, like, say, yesterday's.

Thanks for checking me out, reader. More to come as I get into the final days of the 365 T-SHIRTS BLOG YEAR!!!

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 25 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1402.24 - 20:02

T-shirt #336 - VAMPIRE the Masquerade

OFFICIAL INCOMPLETE BOILERPLATE TEXT: Thank you for coming to my blog. If you have been here before, you know why I post unfinished blog entries. If you are new to the blog, and came here by an Internet search or some other nefarious means, you may be wondering why someone would post something incomplete to the Internet. The shirt (ha ha.... leaving in that typo: I meant "short") answer is that I must post something every day because of the goal I set for myself when I began 365 T-shirts in March of 2013. And though there is a way to post backwards in time thanks to Blogger's scheduler utility, I would rather post an incomplete entry when the daily chaos of work, family, and the universe prohibits me from completing the blog entry for that day. Sometimes, I need a few days to complete the entry, and readers who check may see a work in progress slowly bloom.
In other words, more tomorrow. Thanks for checking.


T-shirt #336 - VAMPIRE the Masquerade

"There are no such thing as vampires..."

THEATER OF THE VAMPIRE


This is getting silly. I am falling far behind. In my defense, I have work and a big homework project due.

And then today, this is supposed to be short, but I wanted to revise previous vampire content and add to it with some stuff on women vampires and the succubus.

If you came upon this, you can see my unfinished work (a few videos)...


HIATUS TEXT: REVISED 1402.18:  I have been trying to maintain a hiatus from large or over involved blog posts beginning with the start date of my hiatus on January 20th (almost a month ago) during which time I logged 21 posts, which I consider "Hiatus Shirts." By this term, Hiatus Shirt, I mean the shirt is not one that would cause me to write a great deal on the subject it features. These are shirts about which I can write anything, either a lot or a very little. The hiatus will continue, though as it has for the last few weeks, not consecutively as I will continue to mix Hiatus and Non-Hiatus shirts. The blog's year (365 shirts) draws close to a close. (I like the double word use in that previous sentence.) I hope to finish strong with some good entries with high quality content and imagery on some beloved subjects. To earn this time, I will need to intersperse shirts of little consequence, what I have come to call Hiatus Shirts.
My original goal of working ahead remains. I need time to write the enormously lengthy text to complete the extensive love letter to certain beloved popular culture icons featured on my many special shirts. Even with "Hiatus Shirts," I will try to share some worthy content as I have either an idea, a new suggestion of something to read/look at/listen to, or another installment of my various features, such as the WHY T-SHIRTS item, the WEEKLY COMIC BOOK LISTS, and the SHIRT I AM ACTUALLY WEARING TODAY among others. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.
Thanks for reading. I am always honored that people have taken some of their valuable time to look at my ongoing web writing project. Keep checking this address. I promise to make it worthwhile.

THE PRETTY VAMPIRE - A BLOG

Try searching just "Vampires women."

Or try searching - "Smokin Hot Female Vampire Suckfest"

Top 25 Sexy Vampire Women

Female Vampire 11

Hottest. Female. Vampire. Ever.

From Dusk Till Dawn HD table dance scene with Salma Hayek After Dark

From Dusk Till Dawn (7/12) Movie CLIP - Welcome to Slavery (1996) HD

From Dusk Till Dawn (6/12) Movie CLIP - F***ing Vampires! (1996) HD

Succubus Seduction Beowulf Angelina Jolie

Succubus-Bo | Lost Girl | Black Betty

T-shirt #222 - Vampires by Robert Lewis



1. BARNABAS COLLINS - JONATHAN FRID

I am a child of the 1960s-1970s, and as such, I was an avid viewer of Dark Shadows, a daily soap opera featuring an actual vampire along with ghosts and werewolves and witches and time travel that ran on ABC from 1966 to 1971.

Awesome. Jonathan Frid was the first vampire in my life. I saw his work before even Bela Lugosi's Dracula, though Lugosi's predates Frid's.

Have you not heard of this? DARK SHADOWS WIKI.

2. TOMB OF DRACULA FROM MARVEL COMICS

From 1972-1979, Marvel Comics published The Tomb of Dracula comic book, which is one of the best comics in its genre of all time and definitely one of my TOP TEN COMIC BOOKS OF ALL TIME if I were to make a list (and expect a list before the end of my T-shirt year).

The comic was originally conceived and written by Gerry Conway, but the writer that distinguished himself best with the work and made the comic such a blockbuster success and a stunning read was Marv Wolfman.

The artist for the entire run of 70 issues was Gene Colan, who is one of my favorite 1970s artists and one of my favorite comic book artists of all time.

Here's just a taste with four images, two covers. I recently bought a TOMB OF DRACULA t-shirt (and may get a second one before my year is done). This shirt would be the perfect feature for Halloween, but I am not going to be able to write the love letter to that comic and to the great Gene Colan by Thursday, so I will have to feature the shirt another time.

TOMB OF DRACULA WIKI

Even the collected black & white volumes are well worth the investment and perusal.

3. BELA LUGOSI AS DRACULA

This is a classic. 1931 epic from Universal. But I came late to the party. I did not first see this stunning film until my teenage years, long after I was an ardent Dark Shadows and Tomb of Dracula fan. But still, I give Bela the edge in Dracula portrayal over my notable omissions, Christopher Lee and Gary Oldman.

4. NOSFERATU - Werner Herzog film 1979 - played by Klaus Kinski

Once again, I saw Herzog's Nosferatu long before I saw the original film from 1922. Though the original, NOSFERATU 1922 WIKI, is frightening, I give the edge to Herzog's Nosferatu, possibly and simply because I saw it first.

It's still one of the most frightening films I have ever seen.

5. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER VAMPIRES - ANGEL AND SPIKE

Knowing that I am a huge fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- and if you don't know that, then check out
T-shirt #170. But there's no way I make a short list of favorite vampires without Angel and Spike. And there's no choosing between them. Angel and Spike. Tie for fifth in today's list.

I will probably need to expand on why these two characters are so awesome at some point, but maybe I will save that for the next Buffy the Vampire Slayer t-shirt as I own another.

For now, these are my final images of the day.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 29 shirts remaining

- chris tower - first published - 1402.20 - 20:24
final publication - date - time

T-shirt #334 - And the last TPTA Corporate Olympics Shirt

 T-shirt #334 - And the last TPTA Corporate Olympics Shirt

This the last of the TPTA corporate shirts. This is a duplicate of T-shirt #326. This is another TPTA Corporate Olympics shirt to go with the entries for T-shirt #307,T-shirt #309, and T-shirt #318. There is very little to share on the subject of the actual shirt that has not been shared before.

HIATUS TEXT: REVISED 1402.18:  I have been trying to maintain a hiatus from large or over involved blog posts beginning with the start date of my hiatus on January 20th (almost a month ago) during which time I logged 21 posts, which I consider "Hiatus Shirts." By this term, Hiatus Shirt, I mean the shirt is not one that would cause me to write a great deal on the subject it features. These are shirts about which I can write anything, either a lot or a very little. The hiatus will continue, though as it has for the last few weeks, not consecutively as I will continue to mix Hiatus and Non-Hiatus shirts. The blog's year (365 shirts) draws close to a close. (I like the double word use in that previous sentence.) I hope to finish strong with some good entries with high quality content and imagery on some beloved subjects. To earn this time, I will need to intersperse shirts of little consequence, what I have come to call Hiatus Shirts.

My original goal of working ahead remains. I need time to write the enormously lengthy text to complete the extensive love letter to certain beloved popular culture icons featured on my many special shirts. Even with "Hiatus Shirts," I will try to share some worthy content as I have either an idea, a new suggestion of something to read/look at/listen to, or another installment of my various features, such as the WHY T-SHIRTS item, the WEEKLY COMIC BOOK LISTS, and the SHIRT I AM ACTUALLY WEARING TODAY among others. BTW, this is the standard HIATUS TEXT that I will include in every "hiatus shirt" entry.

Thanks for reading. I am always honored that people have taken some of their valuable time to look at my ongoing web writing project. Keep checking this address. I promise to make it worthwhile.

Above, you will see a picture of my sleeping puppy, tired from her day of demanding and arduous play at Camp Fido yesterday. We have a snow day today, which only affects the teenager, but it does mean that shuttle service to and from school is suspended.

To the left, you will see the shirt I am actually wearing today, which was featured all the way back in T-shirt #4. Everyone should recognize it, even people with the most cursory knowledge of geek world. But for those who do not recognize it, it's the COMMAND shirt from Star Trek the Original Series.

If you click the link for T-shirt #4, you will see that back then, when I first started the blog, I was not writing very much. I was also taking boring pictures, which is one reason why I wanted to re-visit some of those early shirts. Also, though I am not extremely self-conscious about my weight, I think I look very fat in the picture featured on the page for T-shirt #4.

Did you click the link? I don't blame you. I know many people do not follow my many links. Often I am inserting links simply for my own reference.

Here, I will save you the trouble of looking it up.

Monday, March 25, 2013

T-Shirt #4: Original Star Trek - Command - Gold

T-Shirt #4: Original Star Trek - Command - Gold

Star Trek! One of those Facebook ads that show up because the social web 2.0 knows I love Star Trek snared me. Now that I am married, I am a lot more comfortable showing my true geek self. Not that I was all that shy about it before I got married. But there was quite a bit of hiding my in the closet, so to speak. I think the "closet" comparison is somewhat apt, not to minimize the way the term is usually applied, which is far more serious. Now, I am more comfortable with who I am. Also , geek (or nerd, if you prefer) has become cool. I always loved these uniforms. Once the ad caught me in its trap, I sprung for the blue and red ones, too. Damn. "Now, would be a good time to beam me up, Scotty..." - 1303.25 9:25

Wow... see how little text is there? Along the way of this Blog Journey, I have discovered my voice and the way in which I like to build entries. If I were to tackle this Star Trek shirt now, for one thing, I may put it off until I had sufficient time to deliver some quality content, but I would surely write about ten times as much text as I did originally.

Maybe the real lesson is to find the way to deliver quality content in the size of this entry. Food for thought as I close out my Blog Journey, the year of T-shirts.

Observe Yvonne Craig as the Orion slave girl, Marta, from the "Whom Gods Destroy" episode. Kirk's gold Command uniform, replicated with the t-shirt in the picture of me can be seen in this video. I have had these things lingering on my computer for months waiting for a chance to share.

For those who need a jog to the memory, Yvonne Craig also played BATGIRL, whom I lovingly described in T-shirt #28: BATGIRL and T-shirt #94: Batman, the 1960s TV show.

ORION SLAVE GIRL Marta (Whom Gods Destroy)

LAST THING, I PROMISE

To close today, I also want to share something I have been saving for a while. A comic book!!

Brave and the Bold 29 (volume 1) was originally published in May of 1960 as one of the earliest appearances of the Justice League, before the DC Comics team was featured in its own comic book, according to the DC Comics Wiki.

This is a classic, published before I was born. Gardner Fox is a famous writer in comic book circles for many of the classic Silver Age DC Comics work. The art is by Mike Sekowsky, who drew many of the early Justice League adventures. The entire production was overseen by Julius Schwartz.

One thing I love about this comic is "challenge" aspect. This was a common thing at DC. Unsure of how to do a team book, the team would often split, and so would the story. Told in chapters with individuals overcoming single challenges or small groups (duos in this case) overcoming a challenge, the team aspect seemed more manageable and the story more like the Olympics, almost as if the heroes are competing in individual events or in small team (two-person) events.

Synopsis for "Challenge of the Weapons Master!"
In the year 11,960 A.D. the super-criminal known as Xotar is fleeing the interstellar police. Having found the tattered remains of Wonder Woman's diary which documented the adventures of the Justice League, Xotar knows that he is destined to travel into the past and battle them where he believes that at least one of his super-weapons from the future will defeat the Justice League.

Traveling to the past, Xotar targets the League's honorary member, Snapper Carr. Using him as a pawn at the next Justice League meeting, Xotar immobilizes the group and has them challenge him to see if they are able to defeat him. The arriving members are Aquaman, Green Lantern, Flash, Batman, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman. He first challenges the Flash, who is able to destroy Xotar's shrink ray. Next he challenges Aquaman and Martain Manhunter to destroy his de-evolution ray, which the duo manage to destroy. Next Xotar challenges Batman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern to try and stop his magneto-bubble device, which they succeed in destroying. Believing that his final weapon, an illusion caster will destroy the Justice League, he allows them all to attack at once.


Having the upper hand at first, the timely arrival of Superman turns the tide, the Man of Steel destroys Xotar's weapons and the heroes return Xotar to his own time and turn him over to the authorities. As history would have it, the words in Wonder Woman's diary which were rubbed out over the centuries indicated that none of Xotar's weapons would defeat the League.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 31 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1402.18 - 15:54