T-shirt #348 - Kalamazoo College Alumni

TODAY'S COUNT: 17 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!

T-shirt #348 - Kalamazoo College Alumni

Welcome to the 365 T-shirts blog as I count down my final entries. I appreciate your readership! Lots of pictures today plus blog recap. Check it out.

Today's shirt is another of my Kalamazoo College shirts, but since I have written about K-College quite a bit (and have more T-shirts in case I have something more to share), I am going to take this opportunity to write about something else, which, in all honesty, would still have been possible even WITHOUT a Kalamazoo College education, though such education didn't hurt.

I was already a dedicated writer before I went to college. Banging away on my Smith Corona (first the manual and later the electric), or on those rare occasions I could go to work with my father (sometimes on a Saturday) and use the office's IBM Selectric (don't let the name fool you, it was still a typewriter), I applied myself diligently to writing. I wrote many short stories in my youth, starting in fourth grade. I published my own magazine in junior high. Throughout high school, I wrote a column for the local village newspaper about magic called "The Wizard's Corner," which I serialized the adventures of an action hero/ escape artist modeled on Harry Houdini for most of my senior year. I wrote a couple of short plays. I started several dozen projects that I did not finish. In junior high, I spent many days writing comic book reviews for a magazine that I never published, but I did apply myself assiduously to long days at the typewriter. And after graduating, I wrote my first short novel, a love story meant as a gift to my high school sweetheart, an unrequited love. Then in college, I wrote three book length manuscripts: an autobiography, a postmodern novel, and a collection of short stories and poems.

The upshot being that producing large volumes of content is in my blood. And so...

It's time for another BLOG RECAP because I haven't done a full one in some time.

My concern at the moment regarding content on my blog is how I may limp to the finish line simply due to time constraints and being behind on posting entries.

Had I planned smartly, I would have applied myself better during my hiatus, saving time so as to work ahead, enabling me to finish strong with the final week or even two weeks of excellent posts full of worthwhile content. I like to think I provide something fun to read every day, but I know that some days my content is better than other days. I have taken to referring to my lengthy posts as "love letters," explorations of adoration and fan affection for some pop culture; however, these are time consuming to complete. The research alone is daunting and often paralyzing. I have several half finished entries of the longer, love letter variety that have been in the works for months, one of which is actually published and is still unfinished (stay tuned; I hope to finish it soon). Thus, had I planned better, or been possessed of more time, I would have banked at least seven such love letters to spoon out in heaping, sugary goodness in my final three weeks of T-shirt bloggery. Alas, this is not the case. And with work and other time demands, there may be more shorter entries than longer ones as I conclude, which feels very much like a limp to the finish line sort of ending: a whimper not a bang.

My current plan is saving these love letters for after March 22nd when I am no longer obligated (to myself mostly) to transmit a daily post and can take my time to craft meaningful, beautiful, adoring love letters to my most favourite popular culture artifacts. We shall see.

So, on to more blog recap. As you can see by this first list, I have more white T-shirts than anything else, though black follows closely and then grey. I am impressed that 58 of the shirts I posted were gifts and that only 38 of the shirts I posted were new, as in acquired since March 22 of 2013. Then again, I have a box full of over 20 new shirts that I have not posted yet.

SHIRTS BY COLOR/PURPOSE

Shirts by Color - White (91)

Shirts By Color - Black (72)

Shirts By Color - Grey (52)

GIFTS (58)

Shirts By Color - Blue (49)

New T-shirts (38)

Shirts I Made (31)

Shirts by Color - Red (24)

Shirts By Color - Assorted (17)

Long-Sleeved Shirts (16)

Shirts By Color - Green (12)

Shirts By Color - Yellow (12)

Pajamas (10)

Shirts By Color - Purple and Pink (8)

Dead T-shirts (4)

Work Shirts (2)

Also, there's always problems with accuracy. The colors should add up to 347, as today's would not be in this count yet. However, the colors add up to 337 shirts, which means I missed ten shirts somewhere along the way. So these numbers need to be examined with some suspicion.

I do my best to keep the categories accurate, but some have fallen low due to neglect and some are just missed. But generally speaking these numbers are somewhat accurate. At the very least, every post on this blog appears under at least one of the labeled categories.

TOP TEN CATEGORIES BY SUBJECT

Comic Books (105)

Just Logos and Symbols (56)

Sports (53)

Favorite Things (50) & Posts with Music videos (50)

TV and Movies (49)

Family (48) & Ultimate (48)

Music (45)

Comic Book Artists (43) & Cover Galleries (43) & Reviews (43)

DC Comics (41)

Books (36) & Friends (36)

SUBJECT MATTER

Please note that I considered ties as one item, so the above list is a top ten list with three ties in the fourth, eighth, and tenth positions.

It should be no surprise to anyone that comic books dominates my subject matter with the top slot at 105 entries. I use this category liberally so even when the T-shirt is not comic book themed, I have categorized a shirt as "comic books" if there is comic book content in the post. Glancing through the comic book category, I count eleven posts that are not comic-book themed shirts in the three dozen or more shirts, going back to posts made in October. I could get crazy and count the ratio of comic book content to comic book imagery on the shirt, but I would suspect that it's probably no more than a third of those 105 shirts that include comic book content apart from what the shirt depicts.

As for the overall number, 105 posts is fewer than a third of the posts so far with content dedicated to comic books in some way. So though most popular this still leaves 242 posts thus far (not counting today) that examined subjects other than comic books.

Those who have been reading my blog should also find it no surprise that over half of the comic book posts I made were with T-shirts sporting the basic logos and symbols of comic book character uniforms as I have said repeatedly that this is my favorite type of shirt, the replica of the hero or villain's uniform (though mostly heroes... I have few to no villain shirts).

Sports also takes second place in general subject categories, which again is a catch all category for content as well as the actual subject matter of the shirt. However, here the vast majority of shirts are either Baseball, football, basketball, college, or Ultimate, with a few weird exceptions, such as writing about sports with a Stereolab shirt.

Favorites logged in 50 times tied with music videos in the fourth slot. Music and posts with music videos are very close, meaning that I have five more posts with videos than shirts that specifically depict some musical artist. I am not surprised to see family as a frequent subject as well as Ultimate (tied in sixth), especially since for most of the year I posted at least one Ultimate shirt a week. Comic book artists rounds out the top ten with 43 posts. This is a category I added after I realized that there were times I would specifically write about the art in comics and specific artists. Though I have made lists of favorite artists by decade, I have not yet listed my favorite all time artists as I am not sure I can. Well, I can make the list, but reducing it to a top ten or even a top five may be too difficult for my poor, fandom addled brain.

(Here's the list again as I need to see it as I write so I figure you need to see it as you read).

TOP TEN CATEGORIES BY SUBJECT

Comic Books (105)

Just Logos and Symbols (56)

Sports (53)

Favorite Things (50) & Posts with Music videos (50)

TV and Movies (49)

Family (48) & Ultimate (48)

Music (45)

Comic Book Artists (43) & Cover Galleries (43) & Reviews (43)

DC Comics (41)

Books (36) & Friends (36)

Once I decided to go nuts with sharing comic book covers (mostly, though there are a few other posts in that category with a series of non-comic book images), I have managed to share cover galleries the same number of times as the artists and reviews all of which are tied in eighth and mostly because these posts would qualify in all three categories.

DC Comics beats out Marvel as I have many more DC T-shirts, not because I love DC more but because DC's Graphitti company (or the company licensed to produce DC Comics apparel, which is probably owned by Time Warner) did a better job, in the 1990s especially, of creating, marketing, and selling cool T-shirts.

I like seeing the synergy in both books and friends being categorized an equal number of times.

SECOND TEN (11-20) SUBJECTS ON THE BLOG

Lists-Weekly Comics Stack (34) & Women in comics (34)

KUDL (30)

Science Fiction (29)

Causes and Good Stuff (27)

1970s Nostalgia (26)

Hiatus (24) & Marvel Comics (24)

1960s Nostalgia (23)

My Oldest (21)

Baseball (20)

Blog Recap (19) & Concert T-shirts (19) & Places (19)

I started the Weekly Comics List before I was halfway through the year, so the majority of the year features this weekly post, which I plan to continue even after I complete the blog year. I like that it is tied with Women in comics, which may be a category in need of updating. That one may be underserved. KUDL is in the second tier as over half my Ultimate T-shirts are from KUDL but not all of them. I am slightly more apt to write about 1970s nostalgia, my halcyon era of age eight through eighteen, when I truly came of age and was most engaged in the popular culture world around me as a child. But the 1960s is only three posts behind that 1970s mark.

It's amusing that I have posted as many Marvel Comics shirts as entries I labeled as "hiatus." I am also impressed to see that twenty-one of my posts feature images of my oldest comic books. This is how I am collecting those comics for now, though I may throw them all into one blog post at some point.

After Ultimate, Baseball ranks as the highest numbered sports category, as it should be, because these numbers reflect my fandom.

And even before today, I recapped about the blog as often as I shared concert shirts or wrote of places, which is probably more interesting to me (like this entire entry) than to anyone else.

This is the shirt I am actually wearing today.

Here's the list of the rest with various favorite shirt pictures to dress up the list a bit!

THE REST OF THE LIST OF CATEGORIES BY FREQUENCY

Beliefs (18) 

College (18)

LOVE (18)

Humor (17)

The Blog Journey (17)

Detroit Tigers (16)

Lists - Music (15)

Rules of Chris (15)

Cartoons (14)

Hawaii (14)

Top Ten Lists (14)

Flying (13)

Just Good Stuff (13)

Lists-My Ten Best Blog Entries (12)

Writing (12)

Batman Related (11)

Grading Robot (11)

Star Trek (11)

Comic Strips (10)

Dinner Party (10)

Letting Go & Growing Up (10)

Lists-Artists (10)

Satchel (10)

episodic narrative (10)

Why T-shirts? (9)

fantasy sports (9)

Dungeons and Dragons (8)

Jack Kirby (8)

Posts with videos (8)

Work (8)

Fantastic Four (7)

Food. (7)

Gene Colan (7)

Superman Related (7)

Warren Ellis (7)

Wearing T-shirts (7)

1980s Nostalgia (6)

Computer and Tech stuff (6)

Jungian Psychology (6)

Lists-Superheroes (6)

Magic (6)

Science (6)

Self Care (6)

TPTA (6)

Toys (6)

audio books (6)

Athletics Shirts (5)

Chicago Cubs (5)

Christmas (5)

Detroit Pistons (5)

George Pérez (5)

Kickstarters (5)

Liesel (5)

CBLDF (4)

Comedy (4)

Halloween (4)

Identity (4)

John Buscema (4)

Kalamazoo College (4)

Lists-Random (4)

Space (4)

Theatre (4)

UofM (4)

football (4)

whisky (4)

Detroit Lions (3)

Feminism (3)

Games (3)

Jim Starlin (3)

NBA (3)

New York (3)

Star Wars (3)

Teaching (3)

Women (3)

romance (3)

Death (2)

Expectations (2)

Gay Rights (2)

Gratitude (2)

Introversion (2)

Lists-Recommendations for non-comic book readers (2)

Narcissism (2)

Ray Kurzweil & the Singularity (2)

Sassy women (2)

Satchel. (2)

The machine (2)

Vampires (2)

Venn Diagrams (2)

WMU (2)

Why I love Comic Books (2)

Aquaman (1)

Art (1)

Basketball (1)

Brands & Products (1)

Comics (1)

Fandom (1)

Horror (1)

Japanese Related (1)

Lists-T-shirts (1)

Memory (1)

My Videos (1)

POP! (1)

Pop Culture-General (1)

Relaxing (1)

Stupidity (1)

Survival (1)

The Internet (1)

The environment (1)

advertising and brands (1)

misanthropy (1)

my Father (1)

my Mother (1)

other people's shirts (1)

shirts with sayings (1)

the Future (1)

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUTNDOWN: 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

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 17 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.04 - 18:42

T-shirt #347 - Unknown Superhero T-shirt - Yellow Star on Black

TODAY'S COUNT: 18 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year!!

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUTNDOWN: 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

T-shirt #347 - Unknown Superhero T-shirt - Yellow Star on Black - DC Comics - circa 2000

I have no idea what this shirt is supposed to depict.

I know that this is a DC Comics character, probably a superhero, and I know that the T-shirt was printed and sold in the year 2000. I tried some searching to discover the true identity of what this shirt is meant to resemble, and I have found nothing.

The Internet may be powerful, but one comes up with very little useful imagery searching for "DC Comics 2000 yellow star on black T-shirt." Given the logo, it's possible that this is one of the many variations of Starman. But all such searches produced no results. Given that the shirt is fourteen years old, a general search for DC Comics shirts produced no useful results either.

I just looked through this list at the following link and found nothing to match this shirt.

TOP 100 DC COMICS CHARACTERS COMIC VINE

Okay, so I don't know what this shirt is supposed to replicate.

How about a variety of comic book related content to fill out this happy Monday in March.

Some jackass wrote that

KIRBY WOULD NOT BE RELEVANT IN COMICS TODAY

This is a ridiculous statement on many levels. The link above is a retort to a debate on many comic book boards by a blogger (Manuel Carmona) who disagrees with the argument that Kirby would not be relevant today. So apparently the jackass (or jackasses) are the people on the message boards arguing about Jack Kirby. It's inane arguments like this one that keep me from frequenting comic book message boards. Back in the day, I used to frequent Compuserve comic book message boards and subscribed to Yahoo Groups for various comic book groups, and eventually I left this all behind because debates of this kind would drive me completely nuts.

We would not have modern comics as they are today without Jack Kirby, so arguing his relevance to today's comics predisposes he already existed to drive the comic industry to its current state. I could move to dismiss the argument just based on this faulty reasoning.

Saying Jack Kirby would not be relevant TODAY and his comics would not sell also assumes that if Kirby were working today, he would be producing comics in the styles of the 1960s and 1970s. This is also a ridiculous assumption because if Kirby were a current creator of the present his work would do what it did in the past, which is to innovate and make more dynamic the characters, stories, and situations that he tackles. He would also be able to produce an enormous amount of work even more efficiently and brilliantly.

This specious argument is also like saying that Shakespeare would not be relevant and sell plays today. These creators are products of their time and advanced their work beyond the quotidian dreck churning about the in the frothy canals of the time period. The genius of these creators would rise to the surface and be self evident no matter what time period they worked in, and they would find ways to innovate the current status quo.

I just added the rss feed for TRUTHFUL COMICS (the right thinker blogger above) to my reader. We need more right thinking people.

VARIOUS FUN ART & COVER GALLERY

Above, fan created artwork Wallpaper from HERE.

JLA and Avengers -
art by the Maestro -
George Pérez.

CLOSE UPS OF MY AVENGERS PRINT

I have shared pictures of the 41st Avengers print by George Pérez and Tom Smith before. But here's some close up shots. A wee bit of glare from the glass, which adds a nice ghostly effect.

1963 - COVER GALLERY

Speaking of Jack Kirby, Alan Moore and various artists did a take-off a few years ago on Marvel Comics circa 1963 (mainly the work of Jack Kirby but also Steve Ditko and others). These are brilliant and FUN comic books, smartly conceived and executed.

I have been meaning to share about them for a while now. Today is about pulling things out of my T-shirts Blog folder to fill up content since I cannot write about the shirt as I do not know what it is.

Read more about these comics via the following links. The Tor and CBR links are particularly good.

1963 on COMIC VINE

TOR - THE GREAT ALAN MOORE RE-READ

CBR ON 1963

1963 ON WIKIPEDIA

 

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 18 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.03 - 19:51

T-shirt #346 - The JAM

TODAY'S COUNT: 19 blog posts remaining in the T-shirt year

OFFICIAL BOILERPLATE TEXT OF THE LAST TWENTY POSTS COUNTDOWN: Hi. Thanks for reading. I am posting this "boilerplate" text everyday, at the top of the blog, 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

T-shirt #346 - The JAM

Today's shirt features what is one of the greatest bands of the modern era: THE JAM.

I would put THE JAM next to most any band in an evaluation of musical impact, fury of fandom, raw power, lyrical strength, chart topping songs and albums, quality of albums as a whole, pop hooks, originality, and many of the other factors used to evaluate bands.

Even so, when I created my BEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME LIST in T-shirt #292, I did not include any albums by THE JAM in the top ten list.

THE JAM were among the two bands I mentioned immediately following my top ten list as an unfortunate omission. However, in my personal top most listened to albums, the Jam's All Mod Cons logged 20th as you can read here in the oft-recommended T-shirt #97.


Despite these rankings or lack of rankings, the Jam are definitely among my favorite bands of all time, ranked third when I listed favourite bands in T-shirt #46: DEVO.

I first discovered the Jam in the early 1980s, probably around 1981-82 with the purchase of the 1980 album Sound Affects. In 1982, I had tickets to see them at the Michigan Theatre in Ann Arbor, which I sold for less than I paid, out front, because my then girlfriend of the time had lost interest in attending and wanted to visit her grandparents in Greektown instead. The Jam broke up shortly after this concert appearance, and I have never gotten over missing my chance to see them live.

JAM MIX








In 1983, I started dating another woman who had just spent the summer living in Britain and had become a HUGE Jam fan and discovered the rest of their albums, primarily Setting Sons and my personal favourite: All Mod Cons, which I think is a truly great album despite my failure to rank it in an objective listing of top ten greatest albums of all time.

I have been a huge Jam fan ever since, though I am most interested in PAUL WELLER, the Modfather, whom I have followed through his years with THE STYLE COUNCIL and later (and currently) his burgeoning solo career. I have yet to see Paul Weller live, and this is definitely on my bucket list of things to do before either one of us, me or Paul, kicks. Along with never seeing The Jam, missing Paul Weller ranks with my other missed live shows, such as Pink Floyd, Roxy Music, and Joni Mitchell.

Ranking the Jam albums is easy.

1. All Mod Cons (1978)
2. Setting Sons (1979)
3. Sound Affects (1980)
4. The Gift (1982)
5. In The City (1977)
6. This is the Modern World (1977)

This list does not count compilations or special editions, like Beat Surrender seen in the photos. I was fortunate and blessed to receive a copy of Dig the New Breed, a live compilation album released as the band broke up in 1982, and the deluxe 30th anniversary edition of The Gift as Christmas gifts in 2013 from my wife.

The Jam are an amazing success story. Formed in a flurry of punk activity in Britain, the band emerged as one of the punk bands that was not so stereotypically punk. Though the band formed in 1972, the recording and popular years were short: five years. They burned twice as bright because they burned half as long as many others.

Yes, somewhat lazy, but effective, here's the main WIKIPEDIA text on the Jam that does a good job summing up how great the band was.

The Jam were an English punk rock/new wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped clothes, and they incorporated a number of mainstream 1960s rock and R&B influences rather than rejecting them, placing The Jam at the forefront of the mod revival movement.

They had 18 consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in December 1982, including four number one hits. As of 2007, "That's Entertainment" and "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?" remained the best-selling import singles of all time in the UK. They released one live album and six studio albums, the last of which, The Gift, hit number one on the UK album charts. When the group split up, their first 15 singles were re-released and all placed within the top 100.

The band drew upon a variety of stylistic influences over the course of their career, including 1960s beat music, soul, rhythm and blues and psychedelic rock, as well as 1970s punk and new wave. The trio was known for its melodic pop songs, its distinctly English flavour and its mod image. The band launched the career of Paul Weller, who went on to form The Style Council and later had a successful solo career. Weller wrote and sang most of The Jam’s original compositions, and he played lead guitar, using a Rickenbacker. Bruce Foxton provided backing vocals and prominent basslines, which were the foundation of many of the band’s songs, including the hits "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight," "The Eton Rifles," "Going Underground," and "Town Called Malice."

I have copious reading materials about The Jam and much more that I could share, but I also have another and a newer (nicer) shirt, so the full love letter will wait for a future post, after the 365 days of posts has ended.

For now, just videos featuring some of my favourite Jam songs. ENJOY. Happy Sunday. Have a cuppa and settle in with music from one of the best bands of all time.

Difficult to pick, but I restricted myself to TEN songs, the full album of All Mod Cons, and two documentaries. Piffle. Not that much. Sue me. How can one select even ten best and favourite songs from a band this great?

One of the best songs ever written...

The Jam - That's Entertainment

I thought about going with a live version of this song, but I love the video. It's classic.

The Jam - Going Underground

The Jam - Down In The Tube Station At Midnight

(from All Mod Cons)

The Jam - Start

The Jam Live - Town Called Malice (HD)

This is one of the most venomous songs ever, and I love it. One of my favourite Jam songs: 'BUTTERFLY COLLECTOR."

The Jam Live - The Butterfly Collector

The Jam Live - Beat Surrender (HD)

The Jam Live - To Be Someone (HD)

(From All Mod Cons)




The Jam - A-bomb in Wardour Street

(From All Mod Cons)

The Jam - Saturdays Kids

If you like what you have heard of the songs I posted, check out the WHOLE ALBUM!!

The Jam - All Mod Cons (Full Album) Vinyl

Another mini-documentary... If you like this, check out the other FIVE parts.

The Story of The Jam - Part 1

WOW!! A documentary on the making of my favorite Jam album. How awesome.

The making of all mod cons ★ The Jam

*

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 19 shirts remaining - chris tower - 1403.02 - 12:49

T-shirt #345 - Camp Fido - long-sleeve

T-shirt #345 - Camp Fido - long-sleeve

Just pictures today. It's about time I did something simple.

If it's not obvious, I love my dog: Satchel "the boo boo" Paige Tower.

Better known as Poopsy, Poopsy Doodle, the Doodler, Puppyness, Duh Boo, Her Booness, Boo Boo Puppy, and the Sneaky Pickle.

Okay, just a wee bit more text. CAMP FIDO is a great local business. This shirt is produced and sold by CAMP FIDO. It was one of my Christmas presents in 2013.

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

Pictures of me with Satchel were taken by Piper.
Many of the pictures below were taken by my wife Liesel.
Rather than crediting her with each picture, just know that the good ones, those are hers.

COUNTDOWN TO END OF THE BLOG YEAR - 20 shirts remaining

- chris tower - 1403.01 - 18:51