T-shirt #117: Snoopy and Friends

T-shirt #117: Snoopy and Friends

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATCHEL!!

Our puppy Satchel is ONE YEARS OLD today, July 16 2013 (or 1307.16 as I like to note dates).

Satchel Paige Tower, named for both a name that ends with -el like Liesel and Satchel Paige the Baseball player, is our baby child and we, her mom and her dad, dote on her passionately and incessantly.


Though Satchel was born a year ago today, we did not adopt her and bring her home until August 24th 2012.

She is a beagle and springer-spaniel mix, known as a spreagle, though, since she is mostly beagle, I thought that today's shirt devoted to Snoopy and Friends was a good choice.

This Snoopy and Friends shirt was a gift several years ago from my sister. She knows how much I love Snoopy.

I am also obligated to include a picture of my childhood Peanuts books. Note the wear and tear.

I did not imagine ever being lucky enough to have a beagle, and they do howl. Though Satchel is relatively quiet as beagles go.

LOVE beagles.

HAPPINESS IS A WARM PUPPY

I would be rich if I could genetically-engineer the puppy to either always stay a puppy or extend the baby-sized, tiny, puppy stage to a couple of years as opposed to a couple of months.

I have been a Snoopy fan for all of my life as evidenced by owning a Snoopy toy with different outfits for Snoopy as seen in the photos, such as the Sherlock Holmes Snoopy outfit as pictured.

So far, we have not dressed up Satchel in any outfits.

We are crazy dog people. I narrate the puppy's life. I speak for the puppy with my own special puppy voice, vocalizing what the puppy is thinking.

What the puppy is doing at all times is of great interest to us.

We have wished more than once that we could have streaming video when she is home alone or at one of her favorite places: CAMP FIDO.

Satchel is also known as "the Boo Boo," "Boo," "Satchel Boo," "Puppy Doodle," "Poopsy Doodle," "Poopsy Doodler," "The Doodler," "Pastry Strudel," and "Sneaky Pickle."

As you may note, I like making up names for the puppy.

My new thing is calling her "Pooper" and then replying for her: "Dad... why do you say "Pooper" to me."

Today's entry will be mostly pictures as I devote it all to Satchel and her birthday.

Happy birthday my wonderful, sweet puppy girl.

We plan to dote on you extra much today.

And now some videos and photos...

Satchel Special Time Video 1307.12

Satchel likes to "nurse" blankets. She was weaned too soon. She was the runt. You will see her knead the "breast."

SATCHEL BOO BOO STUCK IN A CUP

SATCHEL FIRST DAY AT OUR HOME = 39 DAYS OLD

SATCHEL PHOTO GALLERY

I could go nuts here with Satchel pictures. But I am going to restrict myself to recent favourites and some all-time favourites.

Satchel perching a la Snoopy 1306.24

Satchel sleeping 1307.04, tired of explosions in the night

Satchel sleeping with dad later in the day 1307.04

"Dad. Why do you say Pooper to me? You know I don't like that, Dad."

Satchel playing 1208.31

Satchel held by Ivan 1209.03

Satchel on the dash of Liesel's car waiting for her to get out of work
1209.13

Satchel in an Instagram photo created by Liesel
1305.17

Satchel Camp Fido Pick of the Week
1212.12

Re-assuring mom and dad that the puppy is happy
after we left her in Piper's care to go on a trip
Friday 1209.28

Another Instagram photo by Liesel 1212.26

- chris tower - 1307.16 - 10:48

T-shirt #116: KUDL: Orange Team 2008

Pictured here Left to Right: Back Row: Derrick Rosenberg, Me, Cody Leonard, Pat Dingle, Ryan Walters, Nick Palfey.
Front: Chris "High School or Schoolie" Hayen, some guy we picked up for the tournament,
Diane Nguyen, Jamie Prouse, Kater Tots Lankford.
NOT PICTURED: Jen Blacker, Bill Brieger, Marc Korn, Jason Mirjah, Jessi Prouse, Darrough West, and Keith Wikle.

T-shirt #116: KUDL: Orange Team 2008

Welcome to the entry for T-shirt #116 and KUDL (Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League) Monday.

I am a little late getting the blog up the last two days (not as late today actually) because things are a bit "kerflooey" here at good old Blog Central, located in Uncle Beaver's office in the palatial Eldorado Ranch and Hoosegow.

This shirt color looks orange but is officially tilted "Mandarin."

Today, I am featuring the shirt from our 2008 KUDL team, which, if memory serves, was named Orange-Handled Scissors. Design on the shirt by teammate Mr. Ryan Walters or better known to all of you haters as Touchdown Jesus.

I have listed the individual players as seen in the photo in the caption along with the players who could not attend the tournament and thus are not pictured. The dude in the center is unknown to me. We picked him up the day of the tournament. Also, note the cool haircut. Previous photos of my ultimate days (such as in T-shirt #88 from 2007 or better seen in T-shirt #106), I had the long hair up until the summer of 2008, when, upon losing my job in the Gender and Women's Studies department at WMU, I cut my hair. Luckily, just in time, as my wife likes the shorter hair better, and I met her not long after this picture was taken (if not not long, one means four and a half months).

This good looking and quite sexy crew of Ultimate players you see in the photo actually played in the finals that year after winning all the games up to the finals.

We won our place in the finals after a decisive and hotly contested game against the Canary team. Our teams were arguing calls back and forth throughout the game. It came down to a time cap and what is called a "universe point" in Ultimate. For Ultimate players, I need not explain the universe point concept. For others, it simply means the game is tied and whichever team wins the point, then, wins the game.

Both our team and the Canary team (whose name had something to do with urine, unfortunately) were very determined to win the point due to all the arguments and contesting of calls throughout the game. We had the disc or got the disc on D. I do not remember. Cody Leonard broke long, and Schoolie hucked it to him. The disc sailed toward the back corner of the end zone. Cody knew that there would be some question as to whether he caught it "in-bounds" or not. Since our teams had almost come to having a fist fight over calls (no kidding; it was this serious), Cody caught the disc, checked his feet, called himself "in," tapped the disc to the ground, and ran off the field.

As you can imagine, the Canary team erupted with protests, and I do not blame them. But Cody knew his status as "in-bounds" would be hotly contested. In the rules of Ultimate, he makes the call as to whether he is in or out. He called himself in, and before the arguments could begin, he ran off the field. 

Game over.

Cody's heart was in the right place, surely. He wanted to avoid conflict. But, unfortunately, what he did just made matters worse. Canary insisted that the point be re-played and that the game was not over. Canary wanted to determine if Cody was in or out with their own examinations but that was no longer possible. Given that fist fights almost happened already, the ensuing argument came very, very close to a fist fight situation. One of my players had to tell a Canary player to stop back, to "not do this," as blows were about to be thrown. 

Thankfully, the argument ended, but the Canary players were not happy, and they shared their unhappiness with the rest of KUDL. As our team tried to play in the Finals against the Black team led by Kent Elliot, we were booed and jeered and heckled mercilessly. The entire league joined in, which is part of the fun in watching the finals, and now they had an evil villain to root against. Every time one of our players made a catch or a good throw, and certainly a score, we were booed. As it was, the Canary game had wiped us out, and we had very little left in the tank. We lost, and the Black team won the game and the summer season. Kent Elliot--one of the original KUDL founders, though not one of the car poolers--won his championship to go with then winners Matt Frayer/Natalie Dale (year one-2006), and Ed Kenny (year two-2007) as original captains who won championships in our league. My turn to win would not come for another two years when my team won in 2010 as featured in T-shirt #74.

Tonight is costume night, an annual tradition at KUDL. The photo above is from last year's costume night when I was the Canary-colored team (turnabout is fairplay indeed), though you can only barely see my T-shirt under the yellow night gown. We're zombies, if that is not obvious from the look of line leader Josh Danks.

My post for T-shirt #106 also features a picture from a past KUDL costume night, and a hint for those reading about what I am going to wear THIS YEAR for costume night. I know you all have been following closely to catch my clues. :-)

Obviously, expect pictures of this year's costume night here and all over Facebook very soon.

Everything written here today, though especially costume night, are just a few of the reasons I love Ultimate and KUDL.

Cheers Orange Handled Scissors!! You were a super fun team.

If you are reading, and you are not KUDLer, do you play Ultimate?

Why not? Can't you see how fun it is? Does your sport have costume night?

- chris tower - 1307.15 - 16:01

T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs Est.1876

Listening to Baseball on the radio -
Damn, 720 WGN has a good signal!

T-shirt #115: Chicago Cubs Est.1876

I love listening to Baseball on the radio.

This is one of the central truths of my love for Baseball. It is presented in its most classic form on the radio. I grew up listening to the Detroit Tigers on the radio, the sonorous voice of Ernie Harwell crackling across my AM band, hand-sized transistor late into the night.

I have already blogged about my beloved Detroit Tigers seven times (see categories index) and I am not done yet with my Tigers shirts. More to come.

Wearing my "dressy" Cubs shirt and
my 1914 Vintage "Cubby" hat

And I have more to write about Ernie and that handheld transistor with the fake leather case next to my pillow at bed time.

As a kid who loved Baseball, it should be no surprise that I collected Baseball cards. In fact, I did not like bubble gum, and I was a bit annoyed at how the gum would discolor (if not melt and stick to) one card, often the card that I most wanted to collect.






As a lover and collector of Baseball cards, I bought many of my packs on the summer vacations of my youth in Traverse City at a little liquor store at the top of a hill between Traverse and Long Lake.

The store is still there.

I wrote about this and other nostalgic childhood activities in T-Shirt #85: Up North.

As a boy loving Baseball, it seemed a travesty to love only one team when there were so many to choose from. My fandom really started to kick in at the age of eight (1970) when Major League Baseball fielded twenty-four teams. I loved the Detroit Tigers, and I kept hoping they would win another World Series since I was not a huge Baseball fan and much younger (six years old) when they won in 1968, though I had read all about the games and the team was still intact in many ways in 1970.


But I wanted another favorite team. The next closest city to Kalamazoo (other than Detroit) is Chicago.

I could not like the Chicago White Sox as they were division rivals to the Tigers. So I decided to like the Chicago Cubs. After all, they had a cool name. They were the young team, the babies, the Cubs to the football Bears, which I thought was cute. I liked the team colors (red, white, and blue), and they had many cool players as I saw in many of my 1970 season Baseball cards, such as Ernie Banks, Randy Hundley, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins, Milt Pappas, Joe Pepitone, and guys with neat names who I had many Baseball cards for but who did not play much, like Boots Day and Roe Skidmore.

I may not be the Number One Cubs fan ever, but I am going to write about one.

Most of all, I loved Ron Santo. He started his Baseball career before I was born (in 1960) and by the time I was an ardent fan, Ron Santo was in the twilight of his Baseball playing career. But I loved him. He played the way I liked people to play: with everything he had in him. He liked to jump and click his heels as he took the field. And the stats on the backs of his Baseball cards showed that not only could he field (five time consecutive Gold Glove winner), but he could HIT, leading the league in walks four times, in OBP twice, and even once in triples (my favorite hit in Baseball). He hit over 300 home runs in his career, a feat only one other third baseman ever managed (Eddie Mathews).

Santo was dynamite. For sure, he would be elected to the Hall of Fame when he first appeared on the ballot after his 1974 retirement. But then, nothing. By the time, Santo was eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot (1980), I was filled with teenaged hormones and had quite forgotten how much I loved Baseball. I had moved on to performing magic, doing theater, playing role playing games, and hanging out with friends, none of whom liked sports. And then came college and girls. Since things like Baseball were the province of the "popular" kids, I eschewed all things sports from about 1976-1984, when the winning seasons of both the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago Cubs promised a possible World Series between my two favorite clubs, a legacy that was narrowly missed when the San Diego Padres edged the Cubs in the five-game NLCS three games to two, taking the decisive Game Five 6-3 with Cubs ace Rick Sutcliffe taking the heart-breaking loss.

By 1984, when I re-discovered my love for the Chicago Cubs, I also discovered the joys of cable television and the strong signal of WGN Radio that I could pick up much better in Kalamazoo than in Richland. And soon, I discovered that I did not always have to tune into WGN from Chicago because a local radio station would broadcast the Cubs games, such as WQSN 1360 AM. Though some days, especially in Richland, the WGN signal was stronger than the local broadcast's signal.

After graduating from college, cable television was finally available in my "rural" area of Richland, and I began to watch many Chicago Cubs games that were televised on WGN television. I was excited about a new rookie who joined the team with Ryne Sandberg, Andre Dawson, and Rick Sutcliffe who debuted in 1988: Mark Grace. Others soon followed, such as Shawon Dunston, Greg Maddux, and Jerome Walton. Eventually, the team featured one of its most dynamic players: Sammy Sosa.

I was an avid listener/watcher. I liked Harry Caray (the TV announcer), but in 1990, third base Cubs legend Ron Santo joined Pat Hughes on WGN radio and I was hooked. Ron and Pat were hilarious. As much as I loved Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey, Pat and Ron were more engaging and more entertaining. I became a more fervent advocate for Ron's election in the Hall of Fame as both a player and a broadcaster. His candidacy seemed even more important when I learned that he had played his entire career with diabetes, which he kept secret. Though he revealed his diabetes in 1971 on "Ron Santo Day," I was not aware of it until it was openly discussed in the many Cubs radio broadcasts to which I listened.

I would listen in the car throughout the state of Michigan as WGN's signal is so strong that it covers most of Michigan. And while taking my own vacations in Traverse City as an adult, I would often go out to my car, which could pick up the WGN radio signal easily from its parking spot on the Old Mission Peninsula.

It became clear to me that Ron Santo was cheated out of his rightful place in the Hall of Fame. Much to Ron's chagrin, Pat Hughes would openly and vocally tout Ron's merits for the Hall of Fame based on his excellence as a player. (I also think Ron deserves election as a broadcaster.)

In the mid-1990s, I discovered Bill James and the greater world of statistical analysis in Baseball beyond looking at Batting Average and Earned Run Average. Bill James ranks Santo sixth on the the all-time greatest third basemen in history with only Home Run Baker, Wade Boggs, Eddie Mathews, George Brett, and Mike Schmidt ahead of him. Bill James writes an excellent entry in his Historical Baseball Abstract about Santo's merits for the Hall of Fame. It's quite a funny section as he leads it off with a letter from a disgruntled TV viewer who heard James advocate for Santo's candidacy and claim that there are fewer third baseman in the Hall than players at any other position. The viewer took this the wrong way thinking we should elect all these second-rate players to bring up the number of third sackers. Rather, James had meant that Santo should be elected because, among the small number of third basemen in the Hall, he was a better player than many of them. James specifically names George Kell (a Detroit Tiger) who he ranked 30th all time among third basemen and Fred Lindstrom, who he ranked 43rd, who are both in the Hall of Fame, and Santo is not.

I enjoyed listening to Ron Santo's brilliant comedy as a radio host, his vast knowledge of Baseball, and his absolute, unequivocal love of all things Chicago Cub for 20 years, until Diabetes finally caught up with him, and he died in 2010 at the age of 70. Ron Santo had lost both of his lower legs, which were amputated below the knee, one in 2001 and the other in 2002, due to his Diabetes. And by the end, he also struggled with Bladder Cancer.

Santo should have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his lifetime. Santo's Hall of Fame election came in 2011 for the Class of 2012. He received 15 of a possible 16 votes by the Golden Era Committee, which formed in 2011, and elected Santo as its first act. The Golden Era Committee features such players as Al Kaline, Hank Aaron, Brooks Robinson (7th on James' list right after Santo), and Billy Williams, who made an impassioned plea for Santo's induction.

Another accolade described here also should have happened in his lifetime, but he was taken too soon: "On Wednesday, August 10, 2011, Ron Santo was memorialized and "immortalized" at Wrigley Field with the presentation of a statue in his likeness. The statue is a portrayal of a young Ron Santo playing defense at third base, leaning to his right while throwing a ball" ("Ron Santo," Wikipedia, 2013).

I still listen to Pat Hughes and his new partner Keith Moreland, who are quite good, but nowhere near as wonderful as Pat and Ron with all their running jokes as well as Ron's elation when the Cubs did something exciting and his abject despondency or even anger when things did not go the Cubs' way.

SOME GOOD LINKS

RON SANTO BASEBALL ALMANAC

RON SANTO - BASEBALL REFERENCE

RON SANTO WIKI

RON SANTO DIES

PAT HUGHES' EULOGY FOR RON SANTO

This is what I am talking about in the videos that follow... great Pat and Ron stuff. There's several if you search on You Tube. Here's three. The first is a good assortment of clips (five minutes). The second is a single hilarious episode (short - 2:34), and the last is a good short memory (41 seconds).

Classic Ron Santo and Pat Hughes

Ron Santo - "They Oughta Shoot Him"

Favorite Ron Santo Moment

We all miss you, Ron. Thank you for all the great Baseball times.

- chris tower - 1307.14 - 18:59

T-shirt 114 - Detroit Pistons Championship 2004

T-shirt 114 - Detroit Pistons: The Return of Chauncey Billups

From a purely fan point of view, I am excited that the Detroit Pistons have signed Chauncey Billups. I wanted to see Chauncey retire as a Piston as much as he apparently, given his comments to the media, wanted to retire as a Piston. He considers himself a lifetime Piston.

Chauncey Billups will mentor young guards Brandon Knight and Kentavious Caldwell-Powell. Chauncey may start, but he will rotate with the other guards. He will give the Pistons a smart ball handler who is capable of running the offense and shooting clutch three-point shots. No one expects him to back down defenders in the lane or barrel into traffic to draw fouls like he did in 2004 and 2005. With Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey also in the mix, the Pistons have a strong back court and believe that with further mentoring that Brandon Knight will be the successful point guard everyone expects him to be.

When I saw this news, I decided it was a good time to feature my Detroit Pistons 2004 Championship T-shirt.


Right now, I am running about a week ahead on the blog, trying to sketch out the entries, write some text, add pictures, do research, as I have found that waiting until the day I plan to post is not a workable method. When things are going right, I have the day's entry written by at least the day before. But every time I get ahead, the advance work is eaten up, and I find myself writing an entry the morning of posting (like now). Even though I am scheduling and sketching ahead, I have found that it is easy enough to insert and re-number, and so I am going to try to use breaking news like the Billups signing to give my blog less narcissism and more relevance.

I like the signing of Chauncey Billups. He showed some spark last season with the LA Clippers when he returned from his injury, and he has a solid basketball mind. Like Ben Wallace, if bringing him back means that he can retire as a Piston, I also think this is an excellent choice.

In other news, the Pistons signed Rasheed Wallace for the coaching staff, which may also have an important impact on the team and its young players.

The Billups signing comes shortly after the Pistons signed strong forward Josh Smith, who had been playing with the Atlanta Hawks.

I like the idea of a starting five of Billups, Knight, Monroe, Drummond, and Smith. This is a powerful group.

These recent moves should vindicate Joe Dumars whose track record over the last few years, after trading Billups for Allen Iverson, has not been stellar. The Ben Gordon/Charlie Villanueva signing went bust. The acquisition of Corey Maggette had no impact at all on the team. And though Dumars has drafted well in recent years, the Detroit Pistons have not played well and have been absent from the playoffs since Billups left.


CHAUNCEY BILLUPS SIGNS WITH PISTONS NEWS ARTICLES & COMMENTARY

YAHOO

FREEP

DETROIT JOCK CITY

PISTON POWERED

DETROIT BAD BOYS

Sadly, KIM ENGLISH has been let go.


A little bit about the shirt: Though I was a huge fan of the Bad Boys of 1989 and 1990, I think watching the 2004 team was a much more emotional experience. In 2005, I had trouble sleeping during the Finals, and after Game Seven's loss, I was beside myself with anguish and grief. This is the moment that I realized I was a little too invested in sports and needed some perspective in my life. Though, really, I think I was projecting other anxiety and emotional turmoil onto the sports, or at least that's what I have figured out in self-analysis since then.

I have already blogged about the Pistons in T-shirt #65 and T-shirt #29, and I still have other Pistons shirts (and shorts) to feature in the future. Stay tuned Pistons fans.

The Pistons won in 2004 when I was visiting my friend Tom in Seattle, and so I was watching the games in the afternoon because of the time difference. But prior to that victory, I had watched nearly every regular and post-season game and attended several at the Palace. The Detroit Pistons are my heart, and the 2004 championship may have meant more to me than the Bad Boys era trophies, especially since the team was disrespected by the majority sports commentators, especially on ESPN. The buzz was that the Lakers were not playing up to par. One commentator tried to put a stop to that nonsense and proclaimed that the Pistons were just BEATING the Lakers with superior play in every aspect of the game.

Chauncey Billups was the MVP of the 2004 Finals. He will always be the MVP in my book.

Welcome back Mr. Big Shot!

- chris tower - 1307.13 - 8:28

T-shirt #113: David Byrne & St. Vincent

T-shirt #113: David Byrne & St. Vincent - Michigan Theater Ann Arbor July 8, 2013

Concerts are great fun. I love going to concerts. I had been looking forward to this one for months. I debated buying a shirt. I actually wanted one of the women's cuts, which featured a better design.

Usually, though there are rare exceptions, concerts increase the enjoyment of the music by an exponential factor. However, sometimes, as my friend Erik Pye was quick to point out, the studio-recorded music becomes somewhat disappointing because it does not sound like the live music.

In this case, my enjoyment of Love This Giant by David Byrne and St. Vincent, which was already high, has increased because of the concert.

Today I present the resources for you, dear reader, to explore this great art if you wish.

Though the concert was not the best I have ever seen, it was very good. I have some great shows and so it's tough to break the top ten of my concerts. But I do encourage everyone to go see David Byrne and St. Vincent if you get the chance.

Given that the title of David Byrne and St. Vincent's album comes from Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," and many lyrics were drawn from Whitman, which inspired me to look at the poem again, so I was tempted to dedicate myself to weekly explorations of the poem's 51 stanzas. I am not starting this today, but this idea is on one of the mind stove's burners and it's simmering.

At the concert, David Byrne dedicated "Outside of Space and Time" to the Higgs-Boson Particle.

David Byrne & St. Vincent - Outside of Space and Time 

- Live @ Orpheum in Boston

I have no good pictures from the Ann Arbor show, but Annie (St. Vincent) Kelly has dyed her hair blonde.

photos by Amanda Hatfield and Chris La Putt @ BrooklynVegan.com

Batman headphones
courtesy of Ivan Simons

GREAT LINKS!



LOVE THIS GIANT SITE

VICE ARTICLE - St. Vincent isn't interested in vacation"

BROOKLYN VEGAN REVIEW - SHOW at Williamsburg Park
- Great review!! Tons of amazing pictures. Some videos. Awesome.

LOVE THIS GIANT WIKI

ST. VINCENT WIKI

DAVID BYRNE WIKI

SET LIST FROM Ann Arbor show 1307.08

GUARDIAN INTERVIEW: "Most People Assume this is an art project"

PITCHFORK INTERVIEW



 REVIEW FOR THE CONCERT AT THE MICHIGAN THEATRE ANN ARBOR 1307.08

SET LIST FOR CONCERT AT THE MICHIGAN THEATRE ANN ARBOR 1307.08

photos by Amanda Hatfield and
Chris La Putt @ BrooklynVegan.com

MY TWO FAVORITE SONGS FROM LOVE THIS GIANT

• "Ice Age"
• "Outside of Space and Time"

Sneaking in as a new favorite: "I am an Ape"

Honorable mention: "Lazarus"

TOP TEN FAVORITE TALKING HEADS SONGS

1. "This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)"
2. "The Great Curve"
3. "I Zimbra"
4. "No Compassion"
5. "Road to Nowhere"
6. "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)"
7. "Life During Wartime"
8. "Don't Worry about the Government"
9. "Burning Down the House"
10. "Seen and Not Seen"

David Byrne & St. Vincent - Marrow

Now, the usual weekly thing. The comic book stack. Not much to report except that some of the books I am usually caught up on have fallen into the backlog (such as Nightwing and Buffy) simply because I do not have enough time to read everything right now. And one title, Ultimates, has come back into the current fold as I read my backlog of the comic, though I am questioning why I still buy it. But the biggest news of the week is the Paul Chadwick book!! Yay!

I do want to point out the mix of DC and Marvel comics in the top 6-7 comics in the stack.

WEEKLY COMIC BOOK STACK

COMICS FOR JULY 10TH

The Walking Dead #112

Superman Unchained #2

Young Avengers #007

Justice League #22

Daredevil #028

Batman #22

The Superior Spider-Man #013

Uncanny X-Men #008

Hawkeye #012

Batgirl #22

The Fearless Defenders #6

America's Got Powers #6 of 7

Wolverine #006

Indestructible Hulk #010

Secret Avengers #006

The Ultimates #27

Great Pacific #8

Sheltered #1 (Recommended by Andrew at Fanfare)

Ten Grand #2 (as I noticed I did not have it when I bought #3)

BACKLOG

Nightwing #22

World's Finest - Huntress and Power Girl - #14

Astro City #2

Avengers Arena #012

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 9 - #23

SPECIAL PURCHASE

Harlan Ellison's 7 Against Chaos illustrated by Paul Chadwick and Ken Steacy

photos by Amanda Hatfield and Chris La Putt @ BrooklynVegan.com

My heart stopped when this song started at the concert.

"Love me until my heart stops, love me until I'm dead."

David Byrne & St. Vincent - This Must Be The Place HD Live

Maybe I have a little crush on Annie Kelly (St. Vincent)?

photos by Amanda Hatfield and Chris La Putt @ BrooklynVegan.com

- chris tower - 1307.12 - 11:03

T-shirt #112: Rorschach

Me having dinner at Sava's in Ann Arbor

T-shirt #112: Rorschach - Going to David Byrne and St. Vincent

What does the Rorschach ink blot test or the Rorschach character from the Watchmen comic book have to do with David Byrne and St. Vincent's tour to promote the album Love this Giant?

I do have a connection, but it's going to take some text to make it.

I have been wanting to get more pictures of myself in T-shirts that are not taken in my office, living room, or bedroom.

How many photos have my office door and the Deadman toy in the background?

Faced with the question of what T-shirt to wear to the concert, this shirt was in my closet as I planned to feature it in the blog soon, which is part of the process, moving shirts from auxiliary closets to the main closet.


So this T-shirt was hanging there, and it seemed like as good a choice as any other. And then I made a connection. More to come on the connection.

Me foolishly shopping for more books that I think
I need in the Dawn Treader Book Shoppe in Ann Arbor

The shirt is meant to recall the classic character of Rorschach found in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' The Watchmen published by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987.

When I looked in the closet, I saw this shirt and thought, why not?

Mainly, I made my decision because I was not sure I wanted to write more rhetoric about The Watchmen, not because I do not love it, because I do, but I am thinking about how subject matter may be incidental. Do I always have to feature the subject of the shirt with my blog writing? Do I always have to explore the subject of the shirt in great depth? The Watchmen is one of the greatest comic books/graphic novels ever written. Especially since the movie came out, it is one of the most often read graphic novels in the history of comics. In fact, Time Magazine ranked it as one of the 100 best novels ever written.

My point is that it's a little boring to always write about the thing on my shirt.

Rorschach is a cool character, and The Watchmen is a great novel. You should just read it. Nothing I can write will have a greater effect on you than the book itself.

Before the concert, Marquee in the background

So, when I saw this shirt in my closet, I realized that I may not be able to write anything that really adds significantly to the discussion about The Watchmen. I liked the idea of wearing it to the concert because it's white, and I tend to wear white shirts in the summer. Also, the Rorschach shirt reminded me of identity because the Rorschach Test assesses a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning or, in part, a person's identity.

So, why not? Why not wear the Rorschach T-shirt.

Read The Watchmen, if you have not already. If you have read it, maybe you should read it again. I may read it again. It's worth reading often. But I am dedicated here to what is going on in the pictures.

On Monday, July 8th, I went to see David Byrne and St. Vincent at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor on their tour to promote their album called Love This Giant.

David Byrne and St. Vincent
Performing "Naive Melody"

The name of the album comes from "The Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman:

"I behold the picturesque giant and love him, and I do not stop there, I go with the team also." - from Stanza 13.

Here's the full poem.

THE SONG OF MYSELF BY WALT WHITMAN

Rorschach makes me think of identity and self and Whitman's "Song of Myself" is the quintessential, romantic, transcendental poem to self. Everything is connected.

I bought the album when it came out last year and loved it immediately. Originally, I bought tickets to bring my wife, Liesel, to the show, but when she had to work and could not re-arrange her schedule, I asked my friend Erik Pye (not pictured) to accompany me as I knew he was also a lover of the album.

St. Vincent solo: "Cruel"?

After a quick and easy drive to Ann Arbor, and parking in the Liberty Street ramp against my better judgement, we had dinner at Sava's. A good evening always starts with a good dinner. And thus the first photo: I am happily at dinner.

I had the Paella and a Pilsner Urquell, my favorite beer, which they had on tap. We shared a bowl of mussels in coconut curry sauce.

SAVA'S - Ann Arbor - 216 S. State Street.

After a delightful repast, we were off to the Dawn Treader Book Shoppe to do a little searching for used books. I even had a list. Unfortunately, I could not find used copies of the Zelazny and Gene Wolfe classics recently recommended to me. The second picture shows me deep in the SF-Fantasy-Horror section with Seven of Nine peering over my shoulder. This is the same place where my wife took a photo of me a couple of years ago and labeled it "Chris in his natural element."

We had coffee and queued up to enter the theatre. Going green, I had no tickets. I had to share my credit card and ID, and the tickets were printed with a nifty little contraption with a shoulder strap by the usher. Please note the third picture as I am about to enter the concert.

I am not one for tons of concert pictures or videos, but I did snap two. Lastly, Erik tried a picture of me after the concert with the performers names on the marquee in the background. You can barely make out my dark shape in the foreground in this final picture to the right of this text.

Today's blog entry culminates in the purchase of a new T-shirt and the two St. Vincent solo albums that I did not own.

Though I am not going to give a full review of the concert, and though I plan to feature more on these artists and their album in tomorrow's entry (featuring the new T-shirt), I do want to share a few thoughts before closing.

Erik and I were discussing how we never go to a concert and are treated to the headliners coming out and doing their show promptly and without an opening act. I was just stating how much I would like to experience such a show, when out came Byrne and St. Vincent and their huge brass band and did their show. No opening act.

One of the things I enjoy most about concerts is the outpouring of love the flows back and forth from audience to performers. I have seen many concerts and been a part of many audiences. This show featured a really great audience and a massive flood of love, which cascaded from the crowd to the stage and back again. There were many shouts of "I love you" for both David Byrne and St. Vincent, though the majority of people at the show were there to see Byrne because of their love of Talking Heads. It's powerful to be part of that love, like standing in the ocean as the waves swirl around and surround you.

PLEASE NOTE: As we were told with the band's live album: "The Name of this band is Talking Heads." NOT The Talking Heads.

I loved the show and the whole experience. My love co-mingled with the love of the audience as we shared this wonderful experience. It is times like this one when I have hope and faith for humanity. I feel connected to a greater force, a force of pure goodness and love, and I let the art flow over me, and I sing along.

"I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you."
- Whitman  - "Song of Myself"

"The threat of natural disaster promises an emotional epiphany; urban apocalypse gives way to a garden party." 

- D.Byrne&St.Vincent

- chris tower - 1307.11 - 9:29

T-shirt #111: Atom Ant

T-shirt #111: Up and at 'em, Atom Ant

This T-shirt thing is not a new interest, obviously. If I had not been buying and receiving T-shirts as gifts for years, I would not be in a position to wonder if I have 365 or more shirts.

Today's blog will present various related thoughts and ideas via blurbs and snippets: the proverbial sound bite. Though now, as I edit, I notice that the text looks like more paragraphs than bites. I am so Baroque.

This Atom Ant shirt was a gift from Liesel and the kids for Christmas 2011.

When I was making my gift wish list (yes, I make lists), I examined various T-shirt web sites and discovered that one could now buy T-shirts featuring many of my favorite cartoon characters, such as the Jetsons and Atom Ant.

In trying to decide among the various Atom Ant shirts, I chose this one because it is not the classic pose like some of the other images shown in today's entry. Look down at the one by the Wiki quote.

I liked the look of "surprise" and maybe fear on Atom Ant's face in this image. This is definitely a "what the fuck" look or an "oh shit" look, though Atom Ant would never say either statement.

I remember watching a lot of Atom Ant during my childhood, but in researching for today's entry, I learned that there were only two seasons and a total of 26 episodes produced by Hanna-Barbera and broadcast on NBC between 1965-1968. It seems to me that I saw a lot more Atom Ant and for more years than those years.


I made a top ten favorite list of Hanna-Barbera in
T-shirt #101 for the Jetsons. Atom Ant ranked #3 on that list but maybe I did that simply because I knew I was going to feature this shirt.

Here in the photo to the left, you can see up close the toy I own (as seen in the photo above).

Lots of Atom Ant videos are available for viewing on You Tube.

Some of the You Tube  like "Atom Ant Meets Karate" are very racist in depictions of Asians and Latinos.

Atom Ant Meets Karate Video clip - STEREOTYPE ALERT

"Atom Ant is a cartoon ant and superhero, created by Hanna-Barbera in 1965. His name may have been derived from adamant, which gives indication towards his great strength, exceeding "250 times his own weight". The name and character might also be a gentle parody of the Charlton Comics character, Captain Atom. Atom costarred in The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show (sharing top billing with Secret Squirrel). In syndication, Atom Ant aired alongside Precious Pupp and The Hillbilly Bears.

"Atom Ant (voiced by the late Howard Morris then by Don Messick in later episodes) operated out of an anthill in the countryside, where he possessed such things as a mainframe computer and exercise equipment. His powers mostly consisted of the ability to fly, super speed, and incredible strength.

"He was often contacted by the police, who sent him out on assignment. Some of these missions parodied those of Batman. The police force was constantly shown to be underfunded and inept, as they relied on Atom Ant to do all their police work. The only two police officers were the chief and deputy chief. The department only possessed one rusted patrol car. Atom Ant fights various villains including recurring ones like Ferocious Flea (voiced by Don Messick) and mad scientist Professor Von Gimmick" ("Atom Ant," Wikipedia, 2013).

#WarnerArchive #WarnerBros #AtomAnt
Theme Song with Lyrics | Atom Ant | Warner Archive
Aug 5, 2016



Warner Archive
Atom Ant (1965) #WarnerArchive #WarnerBros #AtomAnt
Atom Ant theme song.

Lyrics below:
Up and at 'em it's Atom Ant

He's strength, he's might,
He's speed, he's fight
He's Atom Ant, that tiny ant, and his atomic power

Has what it takes and always makes
The vilest villain cower
He's rough, he's tough,
And bad guys yell enough
When he is up and at 'em
Atom Ant.


Directed By Joseph Barbera, William Hanna
Starring Ted Cassidy, Henry Corden, Don Messick

Atom Ant | Up and Atom | Boomerang Official

Apr 23, 2019

Boomerang Official

Who remembers this tiny but mighty cartoon bug?

Atom Ant's catch phrase is "Up and at 'em, Atom Ant." My shirt reminds me that I need to keep egging myself along to accomplish things with this "go get 'em" -type attitude.

There are lots of things to do in each day. Like, I have to go to the store to buy food so that the wife and the children do not starve. (Though Liesel also goes to the store much more often than she would like. Neither of us like how often we are at the grocery store.)

I often rock the T-shirt as I shop.

"Up and at 'em, Atom Ant."

Things to do. Things to do.

I also dedicated an early shirt to my work attitude: T-shirt #6: Discipline.

I have also mentioned work in
T-shirt #36: Kraftwerk and the concept of Grading Robot.

I have been enjoying a work break but next week I will have to bring Grading Robot up to full power again: "Up and at 'em, Atom Ant!!"

The work matrix

So, back to work. Here's my weekly to-do list (image above). A friend of mine suggested to-do lists to help with my organization and juggling as many as nine classes. After a few weeks of writing daily lists, I noticed that many items were repeated, and I was wasting time writing them over and over again.
So I gave birth to the weekly matrix to-do list. I modify the file each week based on what I have to do.

For instance, last week was not so busy, and so, in the matrix, the far right column, which is the majority of the demanding and time consuming work-work was shorter and contained fewer tasks.

One more week in which Grading Robot is operating at a quarter power and speed. It all ramps back up for the month-long sprint starting next week.


This is the central command station of the home office. I added the second monitor earlier this year, and I have found many uses for it.

The dark blob nestled inside the desk pod is the Herman Miller Aeron chair I bought last year, which has made all the hours of sitting so much more bearable.

Is it all too messy?

In the image on the right, you can see the left side of the office. The art finally hit the walls back in March at the last big work break like the one I am enjoying now.

Note the hats, toys, and yesterday's T-shirt (lower left corner) draped on the standing work station with the laptop underneath.

On the TV, you will find the Mystery Machine, Underdog, Robby the Robot, and Doctor Strange, who is perched on a baseball.
These all may make appearances in future blog entries. I am nothing, if not a show off.



The office is due for an over haul. This is one of the projects for this work break like that so many others has not been accomplished yet. Messy? Oh, yes. But it's a work space that constantly shifts. And actual work is accomplished in the space. The mess is definitely proportionally related to the amount of time I am spending maintaining it and keeping it cleared.

You can see part of Aquaman in the top center of the photo (hmmm, future blog prop?). Previews, with which I order comics from Fanfare, is sitting waiting to be conquered, and that issue of Comic Creator I have been buzzing about it under the phone: KIRBY'S KINGDOM.

- chris tower - 1307.10 - 9:16

PS: Today's is my step-daughter Piper's birthday. This does not seem related to Atom Ant in any way but I wanted to mention it.