T-shirt #58: Grey Area

Grey Area - 2005

T-shirt #58: Grey Area - It's an age-related joke

Time for another Ultimate shirt.

This time it's Master's Ultimate.

Master's Ultimate is for players 33 years old and up.

I helped form this team, which we called Grey Area,



I pushed to form this team after attending a Regionals Tournament in Columbus in 2001. UPDATE 1306.15: I verified my records, and I am now fairly certain that the Regionals I write of here was in 2001.

My friend the "The Brewmaster" and I (Greg Kormelink, the guy holding the beer on the left in the above photo) car pooled down to Columbus along with a few east siders to pick up with some guys from Minnesota who were short on players but wanted to play in the Master's division, which was only fielding five teams at Regionals with two teams advancing to Nationals. I had never played beyond Regionals before, and since I was still trying to run around like an idiot at the, then, age of forty, I figured I only had a few years to go to Nationals before I might have to give up the sport due to old age (BTW, still playing, if you can call it that).

Our rag tag almost took second place. We started with 13 players and ended the tournament with NINE. Somehow, we played seven or eight games in two days. I have rarely been so tired, but it was a good tired. Our final battle for second place and a bid to Nationals went into "overtime." We lost a close game 17-15 and took third place with a bunch of guys who had never played together before and two subs.

So, needless to say, we were encouraged that with a real team of experienced players and some actual practice, we should have no trouble going to Nationals the next year. Returning to Michigan, I worked together with a few friends to form a team we ended up calling Grey Area, for the double meaning of grey hair and the middle ground of complexities between the polar opposites of black and white thinking. We practiced. We went to Regionals, and so did a bunch of other old men. Our competition was suddenly much more fierce. Chicago's Chronic and some Ohio-Kentucky conglomeration each had about 40 players. We played well, but we did not advance to Nationals.

I played with Grey Area for a few years in the middle 2000s as we tried again and again to advance to Nationals, always falling a little short. There are many potential causes. For my part, I ran out of both money and means. I could not afford (more in time than money) to journey to a tournament for a whole weekend and play only a half dozen points. Meanwhile, more players were joining ranks in Kalamazoo because of our KALAMAZOO ULTIMATE DISC LEAGUE (see T-shirt #56), and, ultimately, we formed a Kalamazoo Master's Team (Senior Discount) to square off against the east side Master's team (whose name I forget but has something do with the Motor City). Grey Area disbanded.

I have fond memories of my years playing with Grey Area. I have many good friends from those years and that team. We had a great group of guys.

ABOUT THE SHIRT: This is one of my first ever moisture-wicking shirts. I love our logo. I chose the number three to acknowledge two of my favorite sports players Alan Trammel (who wore number three for the Detroit Tigers) and Ben Wallace (who wore #3 for the Detroit Pistons).

- chris tower - 1305.18 - 12:13

T-shirt #57: Batman the Animated Series and my Mimobot

T-shirt #57: Batman: my Mimobot Died

I had planned to feature another Ultimate shirt today. Plans change. This is why I eschew theme weeks. I know this was surely of great concern to you, my readers (all two of you), but do not fret, 365 T-shirts will remain random and open to the vagaries of life and existence.

And so, today's shirt is brought to you by a sad event in my life: the death of my Batman Mimobot flash drive.

I love my Batman Mimobot flash drive. Well, I "loved" my Batman Mimobot flash drive. It has died. I can no  longer access its contents. It is kaput. These flash drives do not last forever. This one lasted about four years, and it had enjoyed nearly daily use.

I am a back-up freak. I back-up constantly. I am terrified about losing data. Back in the olden days, when my computer had no hard drive at all and all long-term storage was committed to 5 1/4" floppy discs, I spent an entire day writing a brilliant (at least I thought it was brilliant) chapter for a novel only to have it vanish in an unexpected power outage. I had not saved it once that entire day. I am sure I am not the only one who has ever had this experience. But for me, this experience heightened my neurosis and anxiety about saving and backing up data by an exponent factor so immense it takes scientific notation to measure its true value (how about at least 6 x 10^24 times the anxiety?).

Here's my neurotic back uppityness explanation: Every time I pause, I save. At least once an hour, and usually more like three-four times an hour, I drag the current files on which I am working to my flash drive, which is always plugged in. Folders are always open for quick drag and drop backup. At least once a week, I move all the recent files to my laptop, backing them up again, and a couple of times a month I backup to a third computer and a backup, external hard drive (totaling at least four backups in all). It's on my to-do list to set up an automatic backup to the external drive from the desktop, but then there are a lot of things on my to-do list. I am running a power backup after years of not having one, so at least, I am more protected from the unexpected power outage. I do not store very much in the "cloud," simply because I have not investigated its best use AND I do most of my writing in Word Perfect, which is not currently supported (as far as I know) in Google Docs. ALSO, I have found the Google Doc system to be slow quite often, and this annoys me.

I know that some of my astute readers will proffer advice about auto-back ups or synching systems in a way that would save me time. I do spend more time than I probably need to spend moving individual files one at a time off a "new file" temp folder on the flash drive to the laptop, the third computer, and the backup hard drive. But I like the process. Having to manually move the files forces me to think about them and consider ways to improve my sorting system.

Granted, my system is a bit old school. I was happy as a pig in slop when I upgraded from my original non-Batman 1 GB flash drive to the what seemed like a huge 4 GB Batman Mimobot drive. Still, I had to be selective as I could not store all my data files on the flash drive with only 1 GB or even 4 GB to work with. However, with my main data folder at 5.9 GB, and probably only another 3 GB at most of vital files I need to move around and backup frequently stored in other directories, I am surely going to be able to store all of that data on my new 16GB Batman Mimobot drive. Yay! Soon, Batman will be back in the HOUSE, suckahs.

Still, the death of my first Batman Mimobot makes me sad as well as increasing my determination to transfer files more often. Checking my records, I had not transferred files to the laptop since May 9th. So, to update the laptop, I ran a search for all the files on my desktop modified between May 9th through May 16th. I am still not quite done with the laptop update. And yes, I could achieve these ends with a wholesale overwrite of all the directories, but yesterday, in a rush to get to a class where I would have time to transfer files, I only had time for the search and moving a few files.


Bored yet?

OBVIOUSLY, I find my whole backup process quite fascinating as you may have inferred from the copious text I have devoted to it. In part, I am just working through the process as I describe it, analyzing whether or not it's the best system for my work, or at least a system I am willing to live with despite its inefficiency. At the very least, I will be moving files more often to the laptop to prevent finding myself in this situation again.

As for the T-shirt, it's one of the many Batman shirts I own. I already featured Batman or Batman related imagery/characters in T-shirt #7 and T-shirt #28. I love the cross-referencing. This one commemorates the Batman: The Animated Series TV show that aired originally on Fox from 1992-1995 masterminded by many people, but primarily, Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. The show gave Batman a stylized look that has become known as "Dark Deco," a very film noir-based approach to Batman. The show was outstanding and won many awards, including four Emmys.

I was sad to see the show end. But I am more sad to witness the death of my beloved Batman Mimobot. Luckily, I can buy another one.

- chris tower - 1305.17 - 9:51

T-shirt #56: Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League(2009)

T-shirt #56: Ultimate:Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League (2009) 


Looking for something fun to do in the sun this summer?

Play Ultimate.

I play Ultimate. Most people know it as Ultimate Frisbee. But we Ultimate players just call it Ultimate. And the thing we throw? It's a disc. Frisbee is a name trademarked by Whammo. Using the word  "Frisbee" for discs is like calling all facial tissue Kleenex or all copy machines Xerox.

You may be surprised, if you know me at all, that I have reached Day 56 of the T-shirt blog without devoting any space to Ultimate, one of my great loves, and one of the things that has most significantly defined my life for the last 29 years. Yes, you read that right. TWENTY-NINE YEARS of playing Ultimate. I started playing the summer of 1984 and have played ever since.

In the weeks to come, I will be giving some love to some of my favorite teams and favorite Ultimate experiences. I have TONS of Ultimate T-shirts. We're going to see a lot of these T-shirts in the weeks to come on this blog (assuming you're following, and I hope you are).

I have not neglected Ultimate on this blog. I have been waiting with purpose and foresight to start my Ultimate blogging as our Kalamazoo league nears its annual draft day. Our draft will be held Saturday the 18th (two days from now), and on that day, we will draft teams for our EIGHTH annual Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League summer season. I am very proud to be a founding member of this great organization.

You can find Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League on Facebook in group of that name.

You can find us on the web at Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League (KUDL).

Links to registration can be found on both the web page and the Facebook page.

Or here:

So… If you are a lady ultimate player (or want to be) please follow the link below.

https://scorereport.net/ultimate/KUDLsummer2013W/instructions.html

We closed registration to men, though we maintain a wait list. We are in our final push to recruit women players as we are a co-ed league, and we always struggle to maintain a 5-2 or 4-3 gender ratio on the fields. If we increase our women players total to 40 women, we can expand to ten teams, a number of teams which we have only enjoyed once in our eight-year history.

Men who still want to register will want to write kalamazooultimate@gmail.com to be placed on the wait list. OR we have a special deal in which we add a man if he is "baggaged" (our term for players who want to be on the same team) with a woman player.

WHAT IS ULTIMATE? It's the greatest sport ever invented. 

Simply put, it's a team sport in which a disc is used to score goals. Teams of seven face off. The offense works the disc down the field in a series of passes until someone catches the disc in  a 25 yard by 40 yard goal area. Total field size is 70 yards long, 40 yards wide, with two 25 yard long end zone at each end of the field, just to give you an idea of how much distance is traveled with all the running. Chasing discs, chasing other players, or running hard to break free and get open (what we call making a "cut") involves A LOT of running. For new players, disc skills are not important (though catching is usually a plus). If a player is willing to run, especially in playing defense, a player will find the sport challenging but a total blast.

Ultimate is a non-contact sport. There is no tackling. Players do not run with the disc. Dropped discs, discs that sail out of bounds, or blocked throws cause immediate turn overs, in which the other team takes possession and begins making passes toward their end zone. Because of this offensive scheme, Ultimate is a fast paced sport. It's not the disc golf game. It's the game with all the running.

It's funny. I started today's entry intending to share about a shirt from a team I was on years ago called Grey Area (not a KUDL team); however, when I started to write about Kalamazoo Ultimate Disc League, I decided that the natural choice was to switch to a KUDL shirt. This is not even the most significant year of KUDL or my favorite shirt. The image actually has a small printing flaw (designed by my friend Ryan Walters). But I knew I had good action pictures of myself in this shirt from 2009 when my wife came to the field and took the shots.

Summer Ultimate season starts June 3rd. 

Though some weird miracle of longevity, I am still playing after twenty-years though I am not sure we can call what I do "running."

I am blessed and excited to start another year of ULTIMATE.

If you are reading this and have never tried it, there's still time to register, especially if you're a woman player or know a woman player who will sign up with you.

PLAY ULTIMATE!!

- chris tower - 1305.16 - 16:01

T-shirt #55: Thunderbirds

T-shirt #55: Thunderbirds Are Go!

Back in the day--which one of my friends tells me was a Tuesday--we fans of the geeky genres (SF, fantasy, comic books, horror, etc.) were starved for material. I am not sure that people who were born since 1980 "grok" what it was really like to be a kid in the 1960s and 1970s, anymore than I "grok" what being a kid in the 1940s and 1950s was like. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, there were a dearth of options for TV shows with science fiction or otherwise fantastic themes, especially in the live-action arena. Granted, there are many notable examples: Star Trek, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, Planet of the Apes, Dark Shadows among many others. Later, we enjoyed shows I already mentioned like The Incredible Hulk and The Amazing Spider-Man, and shows I have yet to mention but will soon, such as Battlestar Galactica. And yes, these are abbreviated lists. I am omitting several good examples (Green Hornet and Batman, for instance). Still, I think it's a well-established fact that compared to today (even compared to the 2000s or 1990s), there are so many more options to satisfy the geek urge to see live-action depictions of SF, fantasy, horror, super-hero, or similar genre types TV shows (and I have not even touched on the animated world as that's another can of worms) that my statement stands: people born since 1980 do not truly understand what it was like back in the day, how starved we felt.

What's my point? We would pretty much watch anything no matter how bad it was. Now, don't get me wrong. I don't think any of the shows I listed on my list were "bad." Or maybe it's just that I have a fondness for them all born of nostalgia. And, to some extent, the classic shows of the '60s and '70s have enjoyed resurgent fame due to the more sophisticated kids of today who have an appreciation for the cheesy '70s shows. These shows have become legends, touted by media of today (YouTube, the Internet, various TV shows) and their parents. Yesterday, my step son, when learning that Marvel is working on a new Hulk TV show, said: "if it doesn't have Lou Ferrigno, I am not interested." You would expect that would be something that I would say having grown up watching Ferrigno in my formative years. But my step son is cool (so is my step-daughter but that's a story for another time).

Today, many of these iconic TV shows of the past just do not measure up according to most of today's media consumers. How many parents have tried to share a beloved artifact of the 1960s or 1970s with a child of today (or a child of the recent yesterdays) and have it gone unappreciated or have it outright insulted with invective like "stupid" or "this is crap." Not everyone born since 1980 has an appreciation for what has gone before, which is not criticism. I am not trying to take some moral high ground that anyone "should" appreciate these artifacts of another era gone by. It is what it is. Not everyone is like my step-son. But this issue of appreciation for the past and adoration of the past based on nostalgia relates to the subject of my shirt today.

Thunderbirds is one such relic that may not stand the test of time and be appreciated by the media-savvy consumers of today. My love for it may be inseparable from my nostalgic adoration for it. Do I love it because it is truly a wonderful program for the time period, or do I love it because it came out in the late 1960s and was syndicated thereafter, and it was part of my formative years, and there was not much else on TV to watch at the time. After all, I owned a Thunderbirds coloring book. I am deeply invested. The images stir fond memories of childhood games and imagining what it would be like to have a hanger with my own spaceship in it.

Despite a 2004 film directed by STNG's Jonathan Frakes, Thunderbirds is not one of the most well-known or most loved relics of 1960s SF television, and it's not even arguably live action as it used puppets. Thunderbirds is well described in the Wikipedia page for anyone interested in really investigating it further. Simply, it was a British SF program, later syndicated in America and the subject of two films, produced from 1965-1966. It depicted the adventures of an International Rescue squad, who operated in secret from its hidden island headquarters. Set 100 years in the future, the Thunderbirds piloted sleek spacecraft and wore cool, color-coded uniforms. Special effects were well executed for the time period, and the characters were all depicted by marionette puppets with a "new" method called "Supermarionation."

The shirt brings back fond memories of watching Thunderbirds in black and white, unable to see the color as we did not yet own a color TV. It's also a yellow shirt, continuing my theme of yellow shirts for spring, though this theme will soon end as I only have so many such shirts. This shirt is my favorite among the small set of yellow shirts I own.

I hope the questions I have posed today provokes some interesting thoughts about the power of nostalgia, appreciation for media of another era, and how starved we were for any SF TV back then.

"Thunderbirds are GO!"

- chris tower - 1305.15 - 8:14

T-shirt #54 - They Might Be Giants

T-shirt #54 - They Might Be Giants

Hello again. I just returned from having breakfast with my good friend Chris Dilley, General Manager of the People's Food Co-op of Kalamazoo and all around good guy. We're pals. We do self-care together by hanging out for breakfast, seeing geeky guy movies our wives might not like, or playing games with other geeky-minded, nerd types (guys who may not self-identify as nerds or geeks, but really, who are we kidding, right?).

Getting dressed to meet Chris for breakfast at Kalamazoo's Crow's Nest, I decided to select a shirt and feature it on the blog. I mean, what else is the blog for?

I have already featured a People's Food Co-op shirt, and besides, Chris is more than his job. So, flipping through shirts in my closet, I chose this one because I am still sharing yellow/gold colored shirts which is my favorite color for spring, I figured Chris probably likes They Might Be Giants (TMBG) as much as I do, and TMBG has a great song about friends and big cities which immediately leapt to my mind (not sure why other than the friendship angle) when I thought of Chris Dilley (the song being "New York City" from the band's 1996 release Factory Showroom).


Friendship. Smart geeky people. They Might Be Giants. What else do we need today?




RANDOM DATA

• I have seen TMBG twice in concert. The second time was in Grand Rapids at the Intersection  before the public smoking ban passed, and I could barely breathe and did not enjoy the show as much because of the venue. The first time was at Irving Place in New York City two days before New Year's Eve for the first of three shows TMBG played in what was probably 2002 or 2003. I may update this part of the blog entry when I can find my ticket stub. I save all my ticket stubs in a notebook. Yes, I am well aware that I am quite incurably insane.
• Oh Wait!! I think there's a third time from back in the early 1990s. I must consult my book. I have no shirt from that era, but I have a vague memory of driving to Ann Arbor to see them with some friends.
• The Wikipedia page for They Might Be Giants is actually quite well done and extensive. There's an unofficial site that well address the New York City song: The Unofficial TMBG site. 
• The band They Might Be Giants is named after one of my favorite films, They Might Be Giants, starring George C. Scott and Joanne Woodward. Copies are hard to come by, and I am not sure if it's available as a streaming option, but it's a great film. Well worth a viewing. It's also about friendship, among other things.
• I discovered TMBG in 1988 with the release of Lincoln. I listened obsessively and soon knew all the words to every song; a practice that continued with Flood (1990) and many other releases. It's what you do if you're a TMBG fan, which I will explore in the next item.
• DO NOT JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER: Back in the early 1990s, because it was after the release of Flood, I was at a fraternity party at Indiana University because my friend Tom went to law school there (see T-shirt #40), and we were dragged to this party by some girls we liked. I have always been very anti-fraternity and found myself being very judgmental of these people as stupid, beer-guzzling, superficial, shallow jocks and preps. And then something magical happened. Someone put on the album Flood. Everyone (and I do mean everyone) started singing along. They ALL knew ALL the words by heart. They were ALL articulate and precise with their diction. I had a difficult time thinking of them as shallow or superficial since we shared a love for this album by TMBG, which I considered a band for smart people in my misanthropic stupidity (for more epiphanies about misanthropy, see, again,  T-shirt #40).
• Friendship - not just for smart geeky people. And as the shirt illustrates, drunkenness is not just for supposedly shallow and superficial frat boys.

- chris tower - 1305.14 - 10:37

T-shirt #53: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

T-shirt #53: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Last week Marvel Comics and ABC announced that the Joss Whedon produced television series entitled Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been picked up as a regular series for the Fall.



My oft-referenced writer Charles Skaggs shared  this news at his fine blog DAMN Good Coffee...and HOT!


This is very exciting news for many reasons.

First and foremost, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be helmed by fan favorite, and one of my personal favorite creators, Joss Whedon. I plan to give Joss more love on this blog. I have the shirts.






UPDATING ON 1307.18 - agents of shileders "TEASTER" video

LINK HERE

via POP CULTURE SAFARI!

Also, few Marvel comics characters have been the subject of live action television shows. Most people know the 1970s show The Incredible Hulk with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. Around the same time, though not as well known, The Amazing Spider-Man TV show ran from 1977-1979. Before that the only continuing live action TV appearances of Marvel heroes came with Spider-Man on The Electric Company from 1974-1977. With the exception of a few minor series and the syndicated show Mutant X, there have been no ongoing, live-action television shows about Marvel heroes. Thus, Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a very special milestone for Marvel Comics and fans of Marvel Comics, especially since it's a spin-off from the successful Avengers movie, which was also well-loved by fans (and shepherded by Joss Whedon). Though Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. does not feature any super heroes in its initial cast, it would be surprising if there are no cameo appearances, especially of heroes not currently involved in the movie franchises. Though I suspect that future characters to be featured in film may show up in the Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. program. Ant man, anyone?

The news seems timely in a personal way as my family and I watched the film Zero Dark Thirty yesterday, a special intelligence and espionage tale of the pursuit and killing of Osama bin Laden. This is a side note that may only be interesting to me, but it did play a role in my choosing of the shirt for today. Then again, I would have chosen the shirt back on Saturday when Skaggs posted the news about Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but after searching my house for my S.H.I.E.L.D. shirt, I realized it must still be at my parents. I have since retrieved it after a visit to bring a gift to my mother for Mother's Day. But back to the subject of S.H.I.E.L.D.

S.H.I.E.L.D. has developed over the years in Marvel comics. According to Wikipedia: "S.H.I.E.L.D. is a fictional espionage and law-enforcement agency in the Marvel Comics Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 (Aug. 1965), it often deals with superhuman threats.
The acronym originally stood for Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division. It was changed in 1991 to Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. Within the various films set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as in the animated series The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, the acronym stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division" ("S.H.I.E.L.D." Wikipedia, 2013).

Though S.H.I.E.L.D. was invented by Stan "the Man" Lee and Jack "The King" Kirby, in my mind and heart, it is forever associated with the beautiful comic art and storytelling of the ingenious Jim Steranko, who is another artist that really should be part of my top favorites. I am surely going to have to revise my list again.

Steranko served as Kirby's immediate successor on Strange Tales chronicling the stories of S.H.I.E.L.D. Steranko added a fine art aesthetic to comic book art, melding the best of comics (Kirby, Wally Wood) with Pop Art and Surrealism (as his Salvador Dali cover swipe makes clear). Steranko's work was heavily influenced also by the Bond movies and Bond girls that became prominent in the 1960s. Also, Steranko is famous in comics circles for his definitive (and for a long time the only) history of comic books. Read about Steranko if interested on Wikipedia or at this cool blog devoted to Steranko: Existentialist Man.


I will not be surprised if Joss Whedon (who is awesome and a genius) is as big a fan of Steranko as I am (and as are many, many rabid comic fans) and plans to give his Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. program a Steranko/Kirby flair.

Sign me up.

- chris tower - 1305.13 - 9:35

T-shirt #52: My Family - Happy Mother's Day!

T-shirt #52: My Family - Happy Mother's Day!

I do not have a T-shirt with just a picture of my wife. But I do happen to have this T-shirt with a picture of our family, featuring the image we used for our New Year's card.

Pictured here in a photo taken in December are (working left to right) me, Liesel holding Satchel, Ivan, and Piper.



When I ordered the cards, VistaPrint gave me the option to order a T-shirt with the image. The company sent me two shirts, actually, so I gave the other one to Ivan. I love that Ivan is wearing a Dead Kennedy's hoodie.












I feel like I won the world's greatest lottery. I am blessed with many riches because of meeting and marrying my wife, Liesel. She is an amazing human being: a wonderful mother, wife, partner, and friend. She has given me not only a great marriage but a wonderful family with two kids that I love very much (and now a puppy, too). Our cat Vespers is not pictured.

I hope that I am able to give Liesel and her kids even a single iota of the happiness that she and her kids have given me.

Today, I celebrate Liesel along with all the mothers in the world (including my own mother: Hi Mom!).


Here's one of my favorite pictures of Liesel. Doesn't she look happy?

Happy Mother's Day everyone.

- chris tower - 1305.12 - 10:26