T-shirt #93: Free Katie

T-shirt #93: Free Katie

This shirt was a gift from my friend Christine Doré given the semester that we worked together, she serving as my teaching assistant in my sections of WMS:100 at Western Michigan University (for that story: GO HERE and dial back).

Often I would give gifts to the TAs and they would give gifts to me, especially after the Fall semester, given the proximity of Christmas.



I feel free to confess this now: I had a crush on Katie Holmes (in so far as anyone can have a crush on someone he has never met and has only seen playing another character in a television show).










I watched DAWSON'S CREEK primarily because Katie Holmes was amazingly smart, cool, and beautiful: in sum, adorable. And DAWSON was clearly an IDIOT, which is the quick summary of that show: "Dawson's Creek: a show about how stupid Dawson is and how not stupid Pacey is (and a few other characters and their stories)." Great show if you like episodic, sudsy-style weekly melodrama for teens with a hip vibe and smart mouthed teensters spouting rapid fire dialogue for which the WB became well known (see my other faves such as Gilmore Girls, Felicity, Veronica Mars, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer).




ANYWAY.............................

So there was this whole Winona Ryder thing in which she had allegedly shop-lifted from a Saks store in Beverly Hills. She was taken into custody and was found to be in possession of  items she had not paid for and addictive narcotics for which she did not have  a prescription. An L.A. gift shop owner started a fun T-shirt campaign with these "Free Winona" T-shirts.

I had been discussing with Christine how I wanted a "Free Winona" T-shirt but had missed out on getting one right around the time that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes started seeing each other (and soon got married). So, Christine got me this "Free Katie" T-shirt (which is around 2005).

Lo and behold, there's a FREE KATIE website.

Yes, I was also surprised. But why should I be?

There was a whole campaign to "free Katie" for the clutches of culty evil and "love." And there's many fan sites and blogs and images and a wealth of material at the touch of the fingertips on the keypad.

There's everything on the Internet. It's a good thing Al Gore invented it.

Funny, also, this:

Awkward! Katie Holmes is left embarrassed after she meets fans wearing 'Free Katie' T-shirts

Apparently, there are other styles of "Free Katie" shirts as seen in that article from 2012.


My crush on Katie Holmes is now just a distant memory as falling in love with my wife and getting married has changed everything. I still think Katie Holmes is attractive, smart, cool, and bad at choosing men for relationships. But the ardent crush on her TV persona (or any of her movie personas)  faded long ago.

Still, the shirt is funny. Or at least, I think it's funny.

RESOURCES ABOUT FREE WINONA

HIP NEW RALLYING CRY: "Free Winona!"

FREE WINONA TUMBLR



I used to keep a top ten list of celebrity women that I found most attractive and with whom I would most like to "spend time" if I had the opportunity (which I never would). I don't really keep this list anymore now that I am married. My wife trumps all such lists. And I am not just saying that because I know I should say it. I actually mean it. But given that this blog is about making lists, I have decided to share the top ten list of women who had most often held places on this list, but in an effort to de-emphasize this list, I will list horizontally rather than vertically: Ashley Judd, Lauren Graham, Katie Holmes, Eliza Dushku, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sadé, Erykah Badu, Susan Sarandon, Morena Baccarin, and Gong Li.

Do you sense a theme here? All these women (except Sarandon) share one common trait. Others had made the list in years past: Diane Sawyer, Tia Carrere, Gillian Anderson, Elizabeth McGovern, Joni Mitchell, Suzanne Vega, Kate Bush, MIA, Dana Delaney, Polly Draper and others. Winona Ryder made the list at some point. And when Alanis Morrisette sung about being jilted, I wondered if I could be the kind of guy that would make her happy. Going farther back, my attractions are peopled with women such as Julie Newmar and Yvonne Craig (as both will be featured in an upcoming blog post). There were others, such as
Ava Gardner, Jennifer Jones, Susan Dey, Jane Seymour, Barbara Bach, Raquel Welch, Lara Parker, Diana Rigg, and Maureen McCormick.

But I do not actively keep this list anymore. I can acknowledge that Zoe Saldana is super awesome as Uhura; I am not immune. But the passion of the interest has changed since I fell heels over head for my wife and got married. But I can still appreciate beauty in a kind of distanced and abstract way.

On a somewhat unrelated note yet related to this blog: Yesterday, my wife told me it was National T-shirt Day/ I can find no confirmation this using Al Gore's Internet. Puzzling that.

- chris tower - 1306.22 - 8:58

T-shirt#92: Mad Magazine

T-shirt #92: "Some think I am MAD..." AT Fanfare

Today's shirt features the Mad Magazine logo.

I buy my comics and assorted other merchandise at
FANFARE Sports and Entertainment.





I had these candid shots taken in Fanfare by Andrew (Thanks Andrew! I just learned his name.)

I have been buying comics and related merchandise from Fanfare since 1984. Next year will mark the 30th year of my purchasing history! Is that something of which I should be proud? (Because I am proud.)

Featured in the photos are long-time manager Bill Artis (on my right; your left) and associate manager Jeffery Johnson (my left; your right), who is a writer and a member of a writer's group to which we both belong. Bill is about the biggest Superman fan I have ever met. He even likes the art of Curt Swan, which I think is quite amazing as I think Swan makes Superman looks fat, like he has a spare tire. Inexplicably, even though Bill (not Swan or Superman) has lived in Michigan all his life, he is a fan of ATLANTA sports teams. I heckle him about these two things all the time.

Jefferey is a huge Spider-Man fan, which should be obvious due to his "Amazing" apparel. Jeffery is a very excellent writer and has agreed, kindly, to share his work with me so we can discuss it both in the writer's group and apart from it. I do not know if Jeffery has any interest in sports, but we often discuss Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead in addition to various comic books that we're reading. Since Jeffery works at FANFARE, he gets to read comics FOR FREE, which I consider a tremendous benefit.

Jeffery also has been posting videos about his life, which he calls "Game of Triplets" because of his babies.

GAME OF TRIPLETS.

I am thankful to live in a town with an excellent, independent, locally-owned, direct-sales comic shop like Fanfare. Owner Tom Fleming (who I may coerce to be pictured in the future along with the other Fanfare employees) has savvy business sense and has built Fanfare from a tiny hole in the wall housed in the studio of a defunct radio station to a thriving powerhouse in the local economy.

I am also thankful for the community that exists at Fanfare. Though I do not take advantage of the weekly gaming opportunities that Fanfare provides for its customer base, I do delight in having conversations with the employees and have forged strong friendships (at least on the pop culture and semi-personal level) with many of these wonderful folks. I hope they enjoy chatting with me as much as I enjoy chatting with them as I visit (at least once a week) for my comic book crack hit: "And through the years, we all will be together, as the fates allow..." (I know, it's corny, but I am very fond of my peeps at Fanfare).

MAD MAGAZINE: Obviously, I am a huge fan. I own a few shirts that depict Mad or EC, its original company. Mad Magazine is now published by DC Entertainment.  So, in short, this is a subject to which I will return.

Like with so many things from the 1970s and my childhood, I was (and am) mad for Mad Magazine. I read it avidly throughout my childhood (probably around 1970 through 1980). Like many things, I moved away from it once I went to college but later re-discovered it. My childhood years were strongly influenced by the monthly magazine itself and the collected paperbacks published in the '70s. Though I do not own all the paperbacks, I own several (and like my interest in collecting the Doc Savage Bantam novels, I may need to collect the Mad Magazine paperbacks as well, though I am leery of accumulating too much more stuff, but there are not that many paperbacks in this set).

Since marrying my wife and joining this family, I gift a subscription of Mad Magazine to my step-son Ivan each year for his birthday. Do I gift this because Ivan really likes Mad or because I do? Who likes it more? It is difficult to say.

I may not enjoy its sarcastic humor and parodies as much as I did when I was younger. But I still enjoy it, if only for the way the humor reminds me of a time in my life when I felt that Mad Magazine was THE BEST THING EVER.

Here's a new feature, in case I am not generating enough content already...

WEEKLY COMIC BOOK STACK

Each week, after I go to Fanfare and buy my comic books for the week, which I order by the month two months in advance from a catalogue (the Previews Catalog from the Diamond Distribution Company) of all solicitations available to the store, I put the comics in the order I wish to read them. Comics on which I have not kept up fall deeper in the stack with the others that are accumulating down there. For the week starting June 19th, these back-logged titles included Ultimates and, even though I adore it, Fables as well as the former Batman and Robin title, which is now, this week, Batman and Batgirl. I also dropped the Lobo: 100 Bullets mini-series issue #1 deep in the stack because I am not too excited about it, but I did buy it.

Since this blog is dedicated to lists and categories, dedicated to self-inventory and reflection as well as a historical record for posterity, I decided to list these weekly comics in the order I have arranged them for reading. This occupation will reveal what I am reading (which will draw ire or at least comments from some of the peanut gallery) as well as what I have favored as the top of the stack reflects the comics I am most eager to read. Unlike some people (ahem - Joshua Upson), I do not (cannot) save my favorites for last. I would never read my favorites each week if I saved them, due to the stacking up of titles in my back log. As for this week's read, so far, I only managed to read the top two as of last night.

COMIC BOOKS FOR JUNE 19TH

Age of Ultron - Book #10
New Avengers #7
Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #24
Fantastic Four #9
The Superior Spider-Man #12
Avengers #14
Thunderbolts #11
Uncanny Avengers #9
Legion of Superheroes #21
Max Brooks - The Extinction Parade #1
Mara #5
Mind the Gap #11

This week I also bought this Galactus Bottle Opener pictured here. I mean, come on. How could I NOT buy this? And it has magnets for easy refrigerator hanging!

More to come on the subject of Mad Magazine but that's all for now.

- chris tower - 1306.21 - 11:56

T-shirt #91 - Jesus Christ Superstar

T-shirt #91 - Jesus Christ Superstar

Jesus Christ Superstar rates as one of my top five favorite all-time stage musicals. In fact, it is my Number One favorite.

Recently, I reviewed a production of JC Superstar staged by the Marshall Civic Players (MCP):

"Superstar is Flawed Production."

Oh, yes, if you did not know this about me, I write theatre reviews for the Battle Creek Enquirer.

I did not give the MCP's production of JC Superstar a very good review. Though for me, when I criticize flaws and poor choices by a theatrical company, the actual criticisms are limited and mixed with plenty of praise, and the review always ends with a call to action, urging the reader to go see the show and support the live theater.

In May, I was set to return to Marshall to see the MCP's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. After some MCP faithful complained about my JC Superstar review on FACEBOOK, I was eager to return in the hopes of giving Midsummer a good review and assuage some hurt feelings and anger. Often (though not always) I feel badly making criticisms of a theatrical production, especially a community theater of all volunteers. The people involved work so very hard on a show and sacrifice so much that in some ways they simply deserve praise for all the hard work. But like grades in college (my other job), we cannot give A grades for effort alone. There is not an effective way to judge effort. The assessment is always based on the end product. And I am a "theatre critic" not a platform to create 100% positive advertising for the production.

And yet, audiences are not filling theaters as they had been a decade ago, let alone decades farther back. Every year, I seem to have the same conversation with Brendan Ragotzy of the Barn Theatre about the dwindling audience and the expense of running a professional summer stock theater. It was not that long ago that the Barn had to adjust its schedule to allow for an extended run of a hot show with audiences packing its house. Not so in recent years. The Barn even had to close for one year to recoup lost revenue and regroup.

As for my recent review, was my objectivity affected by my love for Jesus Christ Superstar? Possibly, somewhat, though I think I gave the show a fair assessment and loads of praise along with some key criticisms. Do I bring preconceived notions and expectations to a viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar? YES. I expect the part of Judas, the show's key role, to be sung in its original arrangement, someone with a high range. And though the actor playing Judas need not be African-American in every production (despite the original Broadway production and film castings), the juxtaposition of a black Judas and a white Jesus--especially given the skin pigments people probably actually had in that part of the Middle East 2000+ years ago--creates an interesting dynamic on many levels.

Carl Anderson who played Judas in the 1973 film.

Anyway, when I was all set to return to Marshall in May for Midsummer, I was hit with a gastointestinal flu virus that knocked me on my back and made a trip to Marshall and sitting through a potentially LONG Shakespearean production impossible. I was disappointed as I felt I owed the MCP a good review.

Today, Thursday June 20th, I return to Marshall to see Sondheim's Company but not at the MCP's venue but at a place called the Great Escape Stage Company. I am attending with a friend who I made through reviewing, despite some criticisms, which are now water under that oft-mentioned bridge: Gregg Morris.

Back to JC Superstar.

This is the LP I am talking about: with shrink wrap!

Though the Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice rock opera hit Broadway in 1971, it did not reach the consciousness of a young Michigan child (that's me) until the film was released in 1973. The scuttlebutt at the time, as so many gossips were spread solely by word of mouth back then since the Internet had not yet been invented, was that in the title song, "Superstar," Judas sings: "Jesus Christ Superstar, who the Hell do you think you are?"

Being told this by "offended" classmates, I begged my parents for the record album. At this time, there were three albums: the original double album from 1970 (released before the Broadway production launched), the double LP movie soundtrack, and a single LP of selections from the rock opera. My parents bought me the less expensive single, selected LP, and I listened intensely. Remember, we did not have the Internet to look up lyrics transcribed by other people (who seem to have a lot of time for hobbies like transcribing lyrics for the Internet.... says the kettle calling the pot "black"). I could not be sure of what Judas was singing, but I was pretty sure he was not singing: "who the Hell do you think you are?" All I could be certain of was the line ended in "you are." Later, I would learn that the line is "Do you think you're what they say you are?"

I used to dance and sing these lyrics with the microphone and toy speaker my parents gave me for Christmas, often in the outfit pictured here (right).
Other music in rotation at this time: The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, David Cassidy, Michael Jackson, the Jackson Five, Josie and the Pussycats, Tony DeFranco and the DeFranco Family, Bobby Sherman, Donny Osmond, the Osmonds, Marie and Jimmy Osmond, The Harlem Globetrotters Theme Song, and Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods.

LAST COMMENT ON JC SUPERSTAR: Once I went to college, I met many people also fascinated by Jesus Christ Superstar. I discussed launching a production of the show and fiddling with gender. My friend Elaine Klein would have made a great Judas (and loved the role as much as I did). How would the show's dynamic change if Judas was a woman? Or what if Jesus was played by a woman? What if the all the roles were played by women except Judas? And so on, the gender variations are fascinating and would open up all sorts of interpretations.

CHRIS TOWER'S TOP FIVE FAVORITE STAGE MUSICALS

1. Jesus Christ Superstar
2. A Chorus Line 
3. Godspell
4. Hair
5. Rent

Second five (to round out the top ten)

6. Sweeney Todd
7. Forever Plaid
8. Scrooge
9. Rocky Horror Show
10. The Who's Tommy

Notables that I like but do not make my top ten: The Magic Show; Once Upon a Mattress; West Side Story; Pippin; The Fantastiks;  Little Shop of Horrors;  Avenue Q; Wicked; The Lion King; Baby;  I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change; and the 25th Annual Putnam Spelling Bee.

Singin' in the Rain is among my favorite movies of all time and a great musical, but since it started in film and this is a stage musical list, I left it off. I also happen to love the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that's a story for another time.

Though I have seen Jesus Christ Superstar many times, I am most fond of seeing the Ted Neeley Farewell Tour" or the "New A.D. Tour" September 23, 2006 at the Wharton Center in East Lansing, Michigan.

I have heard of the 1994 version featuring the Indigo Girls, but I have not seen or listened to recordings.

- chris tower - 1306.20 - 9:15

T-shirt #90: Quisp

T-shirt #90: Quisp: little, sugary flying saucers

The other day,  I eschewed brands and logos in the entry for T-shirt #87; however, I had forgotten that I owned this shirt featuring the cute, little alien from the Quisp breakfast cereal.

Quisp was a breakfast cereal made by Quaker Oats starting in 1965, very similar to Cap'n Crunch in taste. I always thought of the cereal as being shaped like little, flying saucers because of the alien mascot hence the garish title line that I colored in pink and green. Quaker claims that the cereal is shaped like Qs (as in the letter) though I have seen the shapes described others as flying saucers, too. Either way, the "crunch corn cereal" will fill you with "QUAZY energy," according to the box's text.

The advertisements for Quisp were created by Jay Ward, an animator who had worked on the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon (one of my favorites). In both 1972 and 1976, Quaker ran a competition between two of its cereals, asking fans to vote on which cereal would remain on the shelves and which would be discontinued. Each time Quisp beat Quake and Quangaroos, respectively, to remain in production.

Though sales began to fade as the '70s also faded and Quisp was eventually discontinued, its frequent return is further proof of the power of fandom, crying out for the cereal of their youth. Quisp has returned once a decade since the Seventies.

Quisp became the first cereal for sale on the Internet starting in 2001.

In the 2000s, Quaker sold a commemorative watch via the Quisp website (now defunct).









Marie Javins, a longtime blogger (also a comic book creator), writes about the watch on her blog
NO HURRY IN ... (now Jersey City)  AFRICA
in 2007.





Here are some good QUISP resources:

QUISP ON WIKIPEDIA

QUAKER QUISP: HOMETOWN FAVORITES

EVERYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLY EVER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT QUISP

QUISP RETURNS TO STORE SHELVES - 2011


Today's blog entry on Quisp could inspire me to create an entire bevy of entries dedicated to 1960s and 1970s products.

Does anyone remember Funny Face drink mix?

Check out THEY ALWAYS COME BACK for more information.


VINTAGE QUISP AND QUAKE CEREAL COMMERCIAL FROM THE 1970s

PS: I also loved King Vitamin and the old standby: Cap'n Crunch.

- chris tower - 1306.19 - 7:36

T-shirt #89 - Lone Wolf and Cub

T-shirt #89 - Lone Wolf and Cub

There have been comments by readers (verbal mostly) that my blogs entries are very long. It is true. I can't deny that I am verbose, wordy, Baroque in the extreme. See? Right there, I could have just described myself as "wordy."

Then, yesterday, a good friend told me that I am cool, and cooler than he originally believed. I am touched by this compliment.

With the original concept for the blog, I intended to make short entries. If you do not believe me, dial back to the first five entries. They are all short blurbs. Not crazy long essays. Even T-shirt #6: Discpline is very much on the short side. But then they started to grow. Some are crazy long. I need to continue my dedication to variety both in subject matter (at least day-to-day) as well as length.

And so, in keeping with that variety thing, another short-ish entry.

Like many American comic book readers, I have Frank Miller to thank for introducing me to Japanese Manga, principally the series: Lone Wolf and Cub. Miller's comic Ronin (1983-1984) sparked my interest in Manga just before my internship in New York, where I was able to find Manga racked in comic book stores. No surprise that my interest flared as Ronin was inspired by  Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub. In 1987, the now defunct comic company FIRST COMICS began publishing translations of the manga with covers by Miller and others.



Other companies followed as interest in and sales for manga translations grew. Marvel Comics' Epic division--where I worked in 1985--published Akira under the stewardship of Jo Duffy, who had great interest in manga and Akira in particular. Other manga translations followed as Eclipse Comics partnered with Viz Communications division with titles such as The Legend of Kamui and my all-time favorite Mai, the Psychic Girl. (Eclipse was helmed by the Mullaney brothers who hired Cat Yronwode as editor. Yronwode is due to be featured in an upcoming blog entry that I have already started writing and researching, so I think this connection is interesting.)

Starting in 2000, Dark Horse Comics began releasing the Lone Wolf and Cub translations in trade paperback format. DH Comics added the volumes (28 in all) to its digital platform in 2012.

A re-imagined version titled Lone Wolf 2100 was created  by writer Mike Kennedy and artist Francisco Ruiz Velasco with Koike's indirect involvement in 2002 (published by Dark Horse). Though the series did not sell as well as the original, I thought it was excellent.

Dark Horse recently announced obtaining the license to Shin Lone Wolf and Cub, a follow-up to the original series by  Kazuo Koike and Hideki Mori.

The original Lone Wolf and Cub manga began publication in Japan in 1970 and spans 28 volumes totaling over 8700 pages in all.

It is regarded as one of the greatest and most epic manga of all time.

- chris tower - 1306.18 - 10:00

T-shirt #88 - KUDL - White Castle of Bunnicula - 2007

T-shirt #88 - KUDL - White Castle of Bunnicula - 2007

I have decided to post a different Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League shirt every Monday this summer, building to this year's shirt, which will make its appearance on the last Monday or the tournament  Saturday depending on my mood.

We started the league in 2006, and in that first year, we were called KUSS: Kalamazoo Ultimate Summer Syndicate, which we thought sounded cool.

In an effort to be more friendly and inviting, we changed the name starting with the 2007 season to what it is today: KALMAZOO ULTIMATE DISC LEAGUE or KUDL. And we added the "kudly" bear as our logo.

KALAMAZOO ULTIMATE DISC LEAGUE can be found via the web at http://kudl.org/.

We can also be found on Facebook at Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League.

So, far I have blogged about KUDL three times, and maybe I should have saved some of those shirts for this weekly KUDL posting. Nah... I have A LOT of KUDL T-shirts: T-shirt #56: KUDL 2009, T-shirt #59: 2007 Pink Shirt, T-shirt #74: COOL PATROL CHAMPIONS! Okay, and if I run out of KUDL shirts (not likely), I can surely fill in with other Ultimate shirts. There's going to be A LOT of Ultimate shirts. :-)

Pictured here at the top, you see me wearing the 2007 shirt. It's actually the cotton shirt, which I will feature separately because today is dedicated to the PATAGONIA, moisture-wicking shirt pictured in the final photo with the team. See? There's two of the same shirt right there, not counting how I featured this in pink for T-shirt #59. In the picture, I am posing with my good friend Dave Heimberg at the Grand Rapids tournament HUCKFEST in November, by when my toe was surely healed (see explanation to follow).

After a disastrous season as the Purple team with KUSS in 2006, the white team I drafted for 2007 definitely held its own (we won games; Purple did not). I am very proud to have been a part of the White Team in 2007 and forged many strong friendships with that team with people I did not know prior to drafting them, such as Dave Mandrick, BJ Cherup, Keith Wikle, and Paul Abueva.

The 2007 KUDL logo was designed by Ryan Walters. I am not sure who designed the bear. But if and when I find out, I may update this blog entry. You know how I am about historical accuracy.

THE WEEK FIVE EMAIL TO THE TEAM
(for posterity, historical accuracy, and amusements)

Hey White Castle of Bunnicula,

For those who missed last week, we decided on our team name: White Castle. I added the “of Bunnicula” because so many teams seem to be “of something,” so I decided it was best that we conform. As you all know, I am a big fan of conformity.
Check out game reports on the KUDL message board, which is also the place to do a lot of our trash talking...
We won last week, both games, against a depleted Blue team (don’t let Little tell you otherwise). We had only two women (Mya and Deanna) who played every point of both games and were awesome, and even sore and at half-speed Robshaw and Wheels rule the field. Andrew and Dave Mandrick made many key, and awesome plays. Mike Wallace was out for the first time and played well with roommate BJ, who matched well on defense against some of the best blue players (Little).
Sorry to be such a slacker and not spam you weekly, but, well, I have no excuse actually. Anyway, our week five, June 25th game is a biggie, a grudge match between the Ed and Kyle led White Russian (Black) and our far superior team returning to field one, the Woodward Street field.
Ed (Kenny) has been talking a lot of trash and apparently the plan is to see just how many scores he can catch between my legs. I am not making this up.
So we really need to beat these yahoos. Herein you will find my helpful (I hope) scouting report and some directions on the zone, which we may surely face, even if it’s not windy.
SCOUTING REPORT: Okay, first of all, they’re called White Russian to stick it to us. I wanted the colour black for our team and Ed poached it before I could select it. There also seems to be this mistaken impression that I am much like “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski.
Captains Ed and Kyle. But Kyle is gone. So that leaves Ed, who likes to huck. Chris Lee is on the DL with a torn ACL, so even if he plays, he can’t really run. They have some players with a little experience: Cody Leonard and Colin Priest but I don’t think they match our players of greater skills and experience.
They have a ton of newbies, many of whom are young and have wheels but no throwing skills. And they have two old guys who match very well on me, especially if I continue to recover from whatever injury I have.
Their women are pretty tough. Jen Blacker is a great player. Dube is also very very good. Our women are great, too, but it’s going to be harder on them if we only have two and they play every point. Jen and Dube are much faster and tougher than the Blue women. And in addition to Jen and Dube, Black has Kate (who is steady and solid and may play even without Kyle), Peggy, and Alexandra. They could have all five women rotating out there and even want to go 4-3 at times. So we really need our women!!
We will see the return of Kent “The Designer” Elliott. I hope the rest of you who had to miss can make it back, too. We need all our numbers to make certain that we dominate black!!
STRATEGY? Ed will huck it. But without Kyle and Chris he is down two handlers. I suspect they will play zone even if it’s not super windy. We will have to try to deny Ed the disc and keep tough coverage on their deep threats.
On offense, we have Mya deep all day, and I think we’re fine with that. We have to keep the rest of our women involved ESPECIALLY DEANNA WHO IS OPEN ALL THE TIME AND MUST BE THROWN TO (this means you Dave)!!! ;-)
I think matchup wise we come out ahead especially if we are all there. I amazed that we beat Blue without Kent, Maria, Jackie, Kathryn, Bill, Nic, Paul, Michelle, and Keith. So I hope you can all make it. If we have numbers and we run them, I think we win.
ZONE
Ed is sending instruction stuff to his team every week, so, since I am big copy-cat imitating conformist, I must do the same.
We discussed zone briefly, but we have to be ready to play O against it and to throw it on defense if we want to beat Black.
Check out
http://www.ultimatehandbook.com/uh/strategy_zone.html
This is what Ed’s team has studied. We will throw the 3-3-1 zone. Read up and be prepared!
If we have a critical mass of people early, then we can practice zone or just warm up with a drill to put the fear in BLACK.
We are on field set up duty, which I can handle, but please do try to get out early.
peace - tower of rectal plantar facetious forgetfulness

Yeah, my emails are a bit wordy and more than a little outrageous, and yet, I go for the humor. If it's not obvious, there is much love and respect for the esteemed opponents. I have no idea if we won that game against WHITE RUSSIAN (Black), but Ed's team did go on to win the tournament. On the other hand, my toe had been swollen  for over a month. I did not know what it was at the time. By the August tournament, it had swollen to twice its normal size, and I could not run on it. I could barely walk. It would be another two years before I would identify this problem as GOUT, which I know have under control.

THE TEAM

WHITE CASTLE OF BUNNICULA - KUDL 2007 - Team pictured here from the tournament.
In the picture: BACK ROW(L-R): Kent Elliott, Paul Abueva, Alex "Wheels" Wheelwright, Chris Tower (Me), Deanna Roell, Jeremy Welter. FRONT ROW (L-R): Keith Wikle, William "BJ" Cherup, Dave Mandrick, Mya Hernandez, and Nick Martinez.
NOT PICTURED: Bill Brieger, Maria Markus, Michelle Miller, Matt Robshaw, Jacqueline Rogers, Andrew Schneider, and Mike Wallace.

White Castle of Bunnicula - KUDL tournament 2007

- chris tower - 1306.17 - 7:59

T-shirt #87: Aliens Zombies & Robots

T-shirt #87: Aliens Zombies & Robots

FATHER'S DAY : Today is Father's Day, so I am featuring a shirt that I gave my step-son Ivan for Christmas, one which I also bought for myself because I liked it. I think I may like it more than Ivan does.

This photo with Ivan was taken by my wife Liesel on Friday, June 14th, 2013.

I love being a step-father, but it has definitely been a learning process. I entered Ivan's (and Piper's, but I will feature her another time) life in 2009 when I met his mother Liesel. Before the year was out, I had married his mother and become his step-father.

I like to think that Ivan and I have a great relationship, and I hope, if asked, that he would say the same thing. He's a great person, and I am very proud to be in a parental role (one of four parents) in his life. I think I have learned a lot about being a step-father in the last four years, and I know that I have a lot left to learn. I embrace the process and try to keep myself open to learning, growing, and changing. Yes, I know this is a very corny thing to write, but it's no less true for being corny or hokey. I never forget that these kids already have a father. I am not their father. I am a secondary figure in their lives, which is okay.

My dad in 2007 with a penguin soap dispenser.

 The kids are with their father this weekend, and so we will not celebrate Father's Day for at least a week or possibly later this month when we celebrate a combined Father's Day and Birthday event with my father on Friday, June 28th.

Since it is Father's Day, I am also going to show my love, admiration, and respect to my Dad: Robert "Bob" Tower.

Pictures of my Dad have already been featured in pictures on this blog in T-shirt #41 and T-shirt #69 and has been mentioned many times, such as in T-shirt #27 and T-shirt #79 among many others.

I love my father very much. He is a great man, a wonderful husband, and an amazingly good father. I would not be the person I am today without my father's guidance. If I can be even a fraction as influential and helpful to my step-son, Ivan, as my father has been to me, I will have accomplished an incredible goal. As for examples of my father's greatness, he is known around Bronson Hospital as Saint Bob, given that he has been my mother's total caregiver since bacterial meningitis left her mostly paralyzed in 2000. As I write this, my mom is in the hospital for another stay (today is Day Six) because of chest pains and now a choking incident that happened yesterday (Saturday June 15, 2013).  I love you, Big Guy. (BTW, I call my Dad "Big Guy" or "beej" for BG = Big Guy. This comes from the 1970s TV show WKRP in Cincinnati.)

A few more thoughts on T-shirts and a re-cap of this blog before I sign off today.

SELECTION PROCESS: How I select T-shirts

Before I started the blog, my method of selecting T-shirts to own fell into nine categories. I know this kind of material may not be of interest to too many other people, but this blog exists to catalogue and inventory, and so I like to make a record of the process. This topic and the three that follow have been on my mind for a while, and so I felt it was time to document them.

1. T-shirts ordered at Fanfare (mostly comic book related) - T-shirt #1 Son Of Satan
2. Concert T-shirts - T-shirt #86 Erykah Badu
3. T-shirts bought on trips and vacations - T-shirt #85 - Up North
4. Gifts - T-shirt #63 The Comics Code Authority
5. Ultimate T-shirts - T-shirt #60 Team Venom
6. Sports T-shirts to show my fandom - T-shirt #15 - Tigers ALCS Champs 2012
7. Shirts I bought to support a business - T-shirt #9 The People's Food Co-op
8. Shirts I ordered based on Internet/social media ads - T-shirt #23 Planet of the Snapes
9. Shirts I had made to order - T-shirt #64 Embrace Uncertainty

Now, I would add a tenth category in that I have been purchasing shirts based on what I want to write about and feature in this blog, such as my Planet of the Apes shirt for T-shirt #79, my Evolution of Darth Vader shirt for T-shirt #45, or my SpektrModule shirt for T-shirt #75.

WILL I WEAR THIS SHIRT?

Shirts with "sayings": There are many T-shirt companies, even more now with the Internet that feature DAILY T-shirts. Prior to the easy accessibility to the Internet, catalogues like Wireless would offer all sorts of specialty T-shirts with cute sayings. Today's T-shirt came from the Wireless Christmas catalogue circa 2012. Though I am not finding it in a Google search at Wireless, but if you like it, try SNORG Tees in grey (not this nice green).

I am very choosy about the "shirts with sayings" that I purchase. I like the Venn Diagram idea, and since I had only one other Venn Diagram shirt, as gifted to me by my best friend (and also a great father), the Lord of Chaos, Tom Meyers, which I featured in T-shirt #77: Narcissism, wherein one could find a secret message that I do not think anyone has actually found yet, I bought this one. (How is that for a complicated sentence??) I think this shirt is clever enough to wear with some pride. However, I am very wary of the "I am Stupid" type shirts, and so very choosy of the shirts with sayings that I own. I have a few more, though, so I will be returning to this topic in the future.

Shirts with brands: Technically, almost all of my shirts fall into this category. A comic book is a brand. The logo of the hero is surely the brand's trademark (and it is legally trademarked). Movies, TV shows, sports teams, and so on are all brands, and I am providing free advertising for them with my T-shirts. In fact, I am spending MY OWN MONEY to be a walking advertisement for the brand. I know I have written about the advertising angle before on this blog, but I am not finding where and in what entries. Feel free to explore and let me know.

So, setting aside these approved brands, you will not see me in a shirt that advertises a clothing company (the Gap, Ambercrombie and Fitch) or a soda pop (though I did have a Pepsi shirt that is now a rag, but I am not sure where it is... though it may make an appearance). With the exception of two shirts advertising Bell's beer, I do not own any alcohol related shirts.

This blog is very much dedicated to the kinds of things I feel are worth wearing on a shirt and parading around with pride as a walking billboard for the product depicted. I am increasingly snobbish about what I find acceptable and unacceptable in this regard, and a trip to the mall the other night MORE than confirmed this snobbery for me. More to come on this subject in future blogs.

OTHER PEOPLE'S SHIRTS

Since I have started this blog, I am noticing other people's shirts much more often. Shirts that would not have hit my radar before are now glaring sirens or lit up like flares. Some people have some really STUPID shirts. Again with the snobby. See previous topic. More on this subject in future blogs, also.

T-SHIRTS HELD IN HIGHER REGARD

I am valuing T-shirts more now than I had been before I started this blog. This may shock some of you, my oh so faithful readers, but I did not really consider myself a T-shirt collector or some great T-shirt fan prior to starting this blog. Really, as I have explained many times, the blog came about as simply a curiosity. Do I have enough T-shirts to wear a different one every day of the year? It was more about being embarrassed for owning so many shirts not really out of a sense of pride, collectorship, or fandom.

Since its inception, this blog has come to mean so much more than a forum for counting shirts. I expect it to continue to evolve over the next 278 days (and counting). Stay tuned.

- chris tower - 1306.16 - 11:19