T-shirt #84: Elektra

T-shirt #84: Elektra


This shirt qualifies as another shirt that I purchased not really intending to wear outside of the house. I liked the image, and so I ordered and purchased it. I have relaxed my restrictions on shirts that I will wear in public and those I will not. If I have to run to the grocery store or to drop off the puppy at Camp Fido, you will likely see me in one of these shirts. Unlike the Conan shirt from T-shirt #21, you might see me more places wearing this shirt. Part of this fashion choice is that the shirt features just the face of the character of Elektra, created by Frank Miller in the Daredevil comics from Marvel. No words. Just the image. That's powerful.

This shirt, billed as the "Daredevil Elektra Miller T-shirt" is for sale on stylin online and other locations. Our local comic shoppe, Fanfare Sports and Entertainment (where I bought mine) should be able to obtain it, if you are local. I always advocate purchasing from a local business over an Internet business in order to keep local revenue local and to support a thriving, healthy local economy.

I have not mentioned yet in over 80 blog posts that I worked at Marvel Comics in the Epic division as a college intern in 1985. I helped with the production of the collected Elektra Saga and the Elektra Assassin comics featured in pictures here on this page.

The individual issues of the Elektra Saga were published in 1984, just before my tenure at Marvel. Elektra Assassin was being discussed and plans were afoot when I was at Marvel and in the Epic offices. I remember riding the cargo elevator with Bill Sienkiewciz, who I considered a highly successful artist due to his expensive and very cool parachute, cargo pants (Urban Outfitters?) and his expensive, retro-military leather portfolio.

Back to Elektra. Comic books have a great deal in common with soap operas. Obviously, both are episodic fiction. But really, both are deeply rooted in the romantic traditions. Often comic book creators have forgotten that many (though one cannot say all) super heroes are human beings. Batman is not just interesting because he has cool gadgets and a great costume and breaks bones to teach criminals a lesson; Batman is also Bruce Wayne, and the stories must not ignore Wayne. The same holds true for Clark Kent-Superman, Peter Parker-Spider-Man, and Matt Murdock-Daredevil among so many, many more.

Like soap operas, the supporting cast creates the canvas on which the artist will work. The heroes fight crime and save the day, and often those stories are compelling, but the stories that keep the readers returning to the book are the personal relationships between the hero and a large cast of supporting characters, which often include the villains he/she fights as well as loved ones, romantic interests, former romantic interests, co-workers, the friendly bartender, and best friends. Tragedy often figures into these stories, giving comic books their strongest tie to soap operas: both are melodramas. Pathos is a necessary ingredient.

Matt Murdock's personal life has been explored in the pages of Daredevil comics with great consistency and complexity. Never married, Murdock/Daredevil has had a string of relationships, many of which ended tragically because of his dual-identity. When Frank Miller took over both writing and art duties on the Daredevil comic (though much of the art was finished from very "loose" pencils by Klaus Janson),  Miller invented the character of Elektra, who debuted in the very first issue that Miller wrote and pencilled (Daredevil #168 January 1981). Miller established Elektra as the great love of Murdock's life from his college days at Columbia University in New York. After her father was murdered, Elektra left New York, and Murdock lost track of her. She joined a ninja sect called the Hand, another invention of Miller's, which tied into Murdock's own expanded origin and martial arts training with a man named Stick.



One year (our time) after her debut, Elektra is killed by Daredevil's arch enemy Bullseye  in Daredevil #181 (April 1982). But the story does not end there. The Hand captures her body to use ninja magic to resurrect her. Daredevil intervenes aided by Stone, an ally of Stick's. Though Daredevil reclaims Elektra's body from the Hand, he is unable to resurrect her, but his love for her has a purifying effect on her soul. At the end of the story, Stone and Elektra's body disappear, leaving the story wonderfully open-ended.  The story should have ended there. Miller's work was done, by and large. But this is not how things work in comics. The original creator's vision is not honored, and since the company (in this case Marvel) owns the character, and she sells lots of comics, her story will continue.

Miller's work with Marvel and his take of Elektra wrap up with two other comics pictured above. Miller wrote a series drawn by Bill Sienkiewciz, Elektra: Assassin (1986), which is more parody than a part of the regular Marvel universe. Much debate in comics circles has surrounded when the story takes place. Epic editor Jo Duffy explained in the Elektra Omnibus that Elektra: Assassin takes place prior to Elektra's appearances in Daredevil. In 1990, Miller and Dark Knight Returns partner Lynn Varley complete a one-shot graphic novel called Elektra Lives Again, which depicts the story of her resurrection following the events he chronicled in the Daredevil comics of the early 1980s.

Elektra is a current character on the Marvel landscape and is featured in the new Thunderbolts series as of this writing (June, 2013).

I am not going to discuss the Elektra movie, even though I like Jennifer Garner very much. As with the Daredevil movie, it wasn't all bad (and it was not much good either), but the shirt is not meant to invoke the movie, so I'll leave it at that.

I cannot claim I read the Elektra story from the start with the issues of Daredevil starting in 1981. In fact, it was my good friend Mark Brager, who I met at college, who introduced me to this saga and those Miller Daredevil comics along with several other great comics (Cerebus, American Flagg, Swamp Thing), due to his proximity to a direct sales comic shop, something Kalamazoo lacked until around 1983 with establishing of Fanfare Sports and Entertainment.

MORE INFORMATION ON ELEKTRA

ELEKTRA story on Wikipedia.

ELEKTRA on Marvel Wiki.

No extra ruminations or reflections today. Just straight up comic recap. Mostly, as I did write about the episodic narrative, melodrama, and romance. I could analyze the fantasy/fetish aspects of a character like Elektra for both her creator and her audience, but these ideas should be self-evident. Aren't they?

From the Elektra Lives Again hardcover - Miller/Varley-1990

- chris tower - 1306.13 - 7:55

T-shirt #83: The X-Men Logo

T-shirt #83: The X-Men Logo

Logos are cool.

But why? Why are  logos so cool?

I have written about logos many times so far in the history of this blog. One of my best descriptions of this idea set comes with the Flash Logo and T-shirt #20. In entry #20, I listed many of my favorite logos and their appeal. Few logos are as iconic as the X-Men logo. And yet the X-Men were named by default. Originally, Stan Lee wanted to call the comic The Mutants, but this title was rejected by the publisher as being too arcane ("no one will know what the Hell a mutant is"), and so The Uncanny X-Men resulted not as a tribute to Professor Xavier, the team's leader and teacher, but for the X-Gene that gives the mutants their powers.

UNIFORM COOL: I AM AN X-MAN: Part of the appeal of logo shirts is the uniform aspect. It's costume play. When I wear a logo shirt that matches or resembles the costumed hero's uniform, I am engaging in a form of "dress up," what role players now call "cos play" because these days everything people do must be defined with a label and a sub-culture.

The X-Men have all gone through many uniform changes. The movies and animated series programs also affected uniform changes in the comics. Unlike many superhero groups, the X-Men had a uniformity from the earliest days of the team in regards to their wardrobe. Whereas groups like the Avengers, Justice League, and Teen Titans are all collections of individuals with their already established costumes, groups like the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have more of a homogeneous relationship and often have matching uniforms. The original X-Men all wore matching uniforms with iconic X logos. Later incarnations got away from that model, though the character of Cyclops has consistently worn some version of the classic blue X-Men uniform that he began wearing in the late 1960s during the re-invention period by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams (more forthcoming on this subject). This shirt most closely matches Cyclops' uniform.


LOGOS ARE VIRAL

Logos assume iconic status and spread like viruses. The most powerful logos are simple yet stunning. They tap into something primal and deeply rooted in the human psyche. They correspond with a reptilian, seminal core located in the locus coeruleus or basal ganglia of our human brains, what some feel is the first step of our pre-mammalian, evolutionary development.










I am extrapolating. But the power of a logo derives from instincts, and our instincts trace back to our reptilian and bird, pre-mammalian origins. Because we all share this feature of the brain stem, the reaction should be universal. One can argue that these logos are archetypal. I am arguing that our connections and attraction to them is not only hard-wired into our anatomy, and possibly coded at the genetic level, but also tied to a spiritual, energy connection through the Collective Unconscious. The most iconic logos are archetypes because they are ancient, archaic paradigms matching our repeated experience not just as a species but as living and evolving beings. The simple X logo is one of the best examples of this kind of iconic archetype.

PATTERN RECOGNITION: This blog will always mention good books. One such book is Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. I often recommend this book, especially for people with a tentative interest in science fiction because, really, this book does not qualify as science fiction at all. One of the reviews  that I include below suggests that this is not the book to start reading William Gibson in order to tap into what makes him a great writer. I disagree. Neuromancer is a dense book that many fans without an ardent interest in that particular brand of science fiction will find inscrutable. I love it, and I have to read it every couple of years to keep it fresh in my mind. However, Pattern Recognition is a much more accessible book. Set  in the present, it does not qualify as futuristic or overly scientific. The book fits today's subject because the main character, Cayce Pollard, works as a freelance consultant who brand tests logos for marketing firms because of her phobia for trademarks and logos. The stronger Cayce's allergic reaction to a logo, the more powerful it is, the greater power it will have to spread virally throughout the culture, bore into our brains like a digging parasite, and nest. Gibson mixes Cayce's logo validating work with her trauma over losing her father in the 9/11 attack in New York and her hobby regarding "the footage," an Internet cult following anonymously and randomly posted small video clips. Every time my wife asks me to recommend a book, I recommend Pattern Recognition. The reviews on Amazon are actually quite insightful and articulate. But I also like the links I am sharing here.

Pattern Recognition Review - City of Tongues

Another Pattern Recognition review - Inverarity

THE ORIGINAL UNCANNY X-MEN: KIRBY TO NEAL ADAMS: I read many of the early X-Men comics in reprint in the years following the run by Neal Adams and Roy Thomas. I was also a huge fan of Neal Adams' work on Deadman, Green Lantern and Green Arrow, The Avengers and Batman. In my entry for T-shirt #43: Deadman, I refined my list of favorite artists. As I have written many times, part of this blog's function is to catalogue with lists the popular culture elements that had the greatest impact on me as a child, a teenager, and an adult.

In fairness to these artists, I surely need to group them by era. I had dropped Alex Ross from my initial list for this reason to make room for Neal Adams. Probably, I should make a separate list for the 1970s or even the 1980s that would feature George Perez and John Byrne.


If I listed the original 1960s artists with greatest impact on me in a top five, they would be:

• JACK KIRBY
• GIL KANE
• NEAL ADAMS
• GENE COLAN
• JOHN ROMITA

This is a difficult occupation because I am leaving out some artists that I dearly love like Steve Ditko and Nick Cardy. But lists are exclusive by nature. Go ahead. Try to make a top five and not leave out someone beloved or important.

The cover featured here for Uncanny X-men #59 (though the word "Uncanny" does not appear on the cover) may be my first X-Men issue. It was published in August of 1969, right around the time my sister was born and might have been part of the week of gifts and special fun to which I was treated so that I would not feel neglected once my baby sister arrived and received the more majority of my mother's time and attention.

KIRBY SCREWED: I just read the first issue of a new magazine called Comic Book Creator. The issue can be read for free online. There is also a great blog article on Comic Book Justice: Taking Credit (Part One) about Jack Kirby. Though not directly related, but in keeping with my trend for recommending books, another book that I frequently recommend to my wife along with Pattern Recognition as "one of the best books on the shelves of this house" is Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which explores the ways in which comic book creators of yesteryear were not fairly compensated for all their creations. There may be no comic book creator as prolific and as poorly compensated as Jack "The King" Kirby.

Just for some quick perspective on this issue: Kirby created Captain America, the Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Spider-Man, Thor, Iron Man, the Hulk, Doctor Doom, the Silver Surfer, and The X-Men among many, many more. The total movie revenue (just movies, not the merchandising or other related revenues)  earned so far from just those creations listed is SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS ($7,310,655, 909). This figure does not include revenue from Iron Man 3 or any movie thereafter.

Jack Kirby died in 1994. The Marvel/Disney empire is reaping astronomical profits based on Kirby's creations. Kirby's family has received exactly zero compensation in profit sharing from the movies featuring these creations.


THE NEW X-MEN: WEIN & CLAREMONT & COCKRUM & BYRNE & JIM LEE & OTHERS: I really fully became an X-Men fan, like so many others, with the introduction of the new X-Men in the Giant-Size X-Men comic in 1975 by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum and the issues that followed in Uncanny written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Dave Cockrum and eventually John Byrne. I also loved the Jim Lee (as I love Jim Lee the most of all the "Image" founder artists/creators) issues circa 1991. I have many other X-Men shirts, so this is a subject I can return to later, especially since I want to refine my list of artists by era. Still, forced to make a top five of all-time favorites both Jack Kirby and George Perez would make that list.

As for logos, I just like thinking about them. I like to get other people thinking about logos. I am interested in branding and logo identification as a viral, info-pathogen spreading through our culture and our Collective Unconscious.

Still, I stand by the first statement: Logos are cool.

- chris tower - 1306.12 - 9:11

PS: As a journal of my life, I would like to note here for the record that my mother is on her way to the ER with chest pains. Prayers, please. - cbt

T-shirt #82: Cerebus for Dictator

T-shirt #82: Cerebus for Dictator

"Everybody wants to Rule the World": 

Would the country be better off if we had a single dictator who made all the decisions? Do countries under a dictatorship prosper more effectively than those with other forms of government?

I am not a political scientist, so I do not know the answer to this question. Since dictatorships tend to be totalitarian and oppressive, I am not seriously advocating that fascism (as often dictatorships are also fascist governments) is my favored form of government or that I would prefer to live under such a regime.

And so, the shirt is meant to be funny. Ironic, even, if you subscribe to a more broad definition of irony.


This is my second Cerebus shirt. I only own two, so this is for Cerebus features. I already featured Cerebus as "Pope" in my blog entry for T-shirt #24.

This shirt features another idea that is common among people, and I have heard it come out of the mouths of many friends and associates: "The world would be a much better place if I was in charge."

Could we live in a new world order made to serve your agenda or my self-interest-based agenda?

Would a world with my agenda be any better than a world with your agenda?

Do we already live in such a world dictated by an Illuminati-like cartel of churches, heads of state, corporate executives, and assorted special interest groups?

ELIMINATE IT: THE ATOMIC PILGRIMAGE: If Cerebus were the dictator, in the version of the character featured in today's T-shirt image, he would just hack and slash whatever got in his way, whatever he didn't like. Ruling the world through elimination of whatever does not fit like a glove into your New World Order is a very appealing option. My friends (see T-shirt #81) invented the idea of the Atomic Pilgrimage, in which all the undesirables are marched into the desert and blown to smithereens with nuclear weapons. Marching to their doom would be all the rapists and other heinous criminals, religious zealots, all the power hungry and excessively greedy, all those deemed too "stupid" to continue to live, and so on. We rule the world. We choose who lives and who makes a date with a nuke. This idea is firmly rooted in misanthropy, which I explored in T-shirt #40. There is quite a bit of misanthropy in Cerebus (also explored  to some extent in T-shirt #24). I have tried to cast off my misanthropy, which seems unnecessarily arrogant and an unwise reaction the universe. If we are all connected, then the better reaction to the universe is love. But judgment comes easy; love is hard.

Also, I explored these ideas in T-shirt #64: Embrace Uncertainty.


SURVEILLANCE SOCIETY: Ruling the world through might and force is no longer necessary because technology has changed the game. Armies used to be the route to great power. (This idea was mentioned in last night's GAME OF THRONES, season three finale.) Knowledge and resources also played a role, but these could both be secured and defended with armies. Now, armies still defend possession of the means of control, but those who control technology control the world. Love the machine; fear the machine. Noticed all the cameras staring down at you from dozens, maybe hundreds of vantage points that you pass each day? More and more cameras all the time. RFID tags in your clothes, food, auto parts, and soon maybe underneath your skin. Computers tracking your purchases, web page views, personal data, habits, vices, all while running your face through facial recognition software and using MRI scans to identify how your brain lights up in reaction to different stimuli.

Scared yet? The virtual Panopticon has arrived. Want to rule the world? Want to run a computer program that scans millions of data streams: camera video, RFID information, data based repositories of consumer markets? We are being watched, our data analyzed, and complex plans are being hatched to keep us controlled, fat, and complacent.

There are many, many books on the rise of surveillance society, living off the grid, and the issues of privacy and freedom. Three of my favorites are No Place to Hide by Robert O'Harrow, The novels of John Twelve Hawks starting with The Traveler, and Welcome to the Machine by Derrick Jensen and George Draffan.

Though I should mention Cory Doctorow, also, as I am currently reading Homeland, a very good sequel to the excellent Little Brother.

How prophetic was Pink Floyd's frightening, slow, dirge-like "Welcome to the Machine"?

So what? What does all this have to do with Cerebus?

Nothing and everything.

Ruling the world, control through the machine, and how we cope in the end: DOCTOR WHISKY. Cerebus used to booze it up quite a bit as a means of coping with the disastrous ruin of his life created by the choices he had made. My favorite author Warren Ellis (whom I have blogged about in T-shirt #75 and T-shirt #22) often sends Twitter prescriptions from "Doctor Whisky." In 2008, he held court from a pub near London on Twitter with his thoughts on whisky, whiskey, and bourbon. With due credit, I want to enter his thoughts into the permanent record here beyond the jump because these Twitter messages are what made me a whisky lover.

As for this edition of 365 T-shirts, that's a wrap.

"Hey, you, get off of my cloud" kind of sums it up.

- chris tower - date - time

T-shirt #81: Starship Enterprise Schematics

T-shirt #81: Starship Enterprise Schematics & Friends

Friends are important.

One thing I have learned (and I often feel that I have not learned very much at all in life) is that people are drawn together because of similar interests.

Pictured here are my friends Jeff Waldeck and Steve Curl on the occasion of Jeff's 50th birthday.

Not pictured is Timothy Travis, with whom we met the night before and I was too intoxicated to remember to have a picture taken. Sorry, Tim. Next time.

I am wearing a T-shirt displaying  a cutaway schematic of the Starship Enterprise. The shirt has been worn by the character of Sheldon (Jim Parsons) on the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. My wife gave me the shirt as a gift for Christmas in 2012.

Of the many things we four all have in common, we share the love of Star Trek. We all own the original Enterprise blueprints published in the 1970s (or at least Jeff and I still own ours, Steve owned them at one time, and Tim was not part of that discussion, so I cannot claim that he owned them though surely he knows what I am talking about and has at least looked at them). After all, Tim, Jeff, and I programmed Star Trek and Super Star Trek text-based games in BASIC on the Altair 8800 (or was it the IMSAI 8080? There was some debate on this point of order) in high school, ultimately teaching the computer programming class together as we had in a short time learned more than our teacher.

The four of us gathered Saturday night June 8th for some reminiscing and drinks. We all still share the same interests that brought us together in the first place: science fiction movies and TV (such as Star Trek and Star Wars), role playing games (we all played D&D together in the '70s and '80s), live action role playing (which we did in the 1970s before it was called LARP), and a variety of other things including blowing up stuff. Jeff and Steve re-met through the Burning Man community, once again drawn together by common interests, though only corresponding as online avatars until one dropped a location clue (Kalamazoo) and they exchanged actual identities.

I have been interested in re-connecting lately, in large part due to the subject I explored deep within the entry for T-shirt #77. Jeff and I have been trying to connect for a few years as he lives in Idaho, but he returns to Kalamazoo at least once a year to see his family. I had been searching for Tim Travis off and on for the last five years, and only recently scored a successful search via Facebook. I have no good excuse for not seeing Steve Curl more often, as he lives in the greater Kalamazoo area. The crazy life stuff, work, family, and just the chaos of day-to-day living sometimes distract us too much. Now, we are all back in touch, and at least, I can see Steve on a more regular basis. Plans are already afoot to gather more of our cronies  for a D&D reunion game session next year. I intend to make this happen. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I have blogged about Star Trek so much that I hardly that I hardly need to generate more content about the great SF TV and movie franchise. Instead read  T-shirt #39, T-shirt #13, T-shirt #11, T-shirt #4, and T-shirt  #72.

It should be self evident as to why we were all fascinated by how the Starship Enterprise works and the layout of its decks, corridors, shuttle bay, and engine room.

Jeff and I played many games of an early version of Star Fleet Battles with tiny ship miniatures, 360 degree compass targeting, and string when in high school.

We also blew up stuff, which now Steve and Jeff can do without breaking laws at Burning Man.

It's good the reminisce about such things.

Friends are important. It's cliché, but it's also true.

- chris tower - 1305.10 - 7:42

T-shirt #80-Detroit Tigers est. 1901

T-shirt #80-Detroit Tigers est. 1901

Today, I present various thoughts on the Detroit Tigers, my favorite Baseball team and my  favorite sports team (of any sport) of all time.

A point of order: I capitalize Baseball even though one is not supposed to as it is considered a common noun. I do not think there is anything common about it.

A point of order #2: As I write this blog, my beloved Detroit Tigers are poised on the brink of sweeping division rivals, The Cleveland Indians, and winning a fourth game in a row. Usually when I comment on a potential sweep, the Tigers lose, so I probably just cast a jinx. Still, even if the team loses, the Detroit Tigers will have a 3.5 lead in the division. If the team wins, it takes a 5.5 game lead in the division, which feels very comfortable for June 9th.


SENSE OF HISTORY: A team named the Detroit Tigers has played 112 years of Baseball games in a single and continuous history. The team that would become the Detroit Tigers began in 1894. The Detroit club joined three others (Boston, Chicago, and Cleveland) as charter members of the Western League. In 1901, The Detroit Tigers established the team as a major league Baseball team in the new American League.

The sense of Tigers history is both rich and fulfilling. But the entire fabric of Baseball history colors in the shapes of American culture from the days of games in vacant lots in the early 1800s. By the mid-1800s, the Baseball craze had taken hold of America with New York as its hub. When people ask why I love Baseball, the history is my number one answer.

STATS HEAD: My number two reason for loving Baseball is the statistics. My world of Baseball love opened wider in the 1990s when I discovered the geeky statistical analysis of Bill James and started watching stats that were different than the standards of batting average, earned average, pitcher win-loss record, and batter runs batted in with which the press was narrowly focused (and which are featured on the backs of Baseball cards). My love for the game grew exponentially as I began to investigate other indicators of offense, defense, and pitching success and what combinations of these elements it takes to advance to the post-season in the MLB. Now, these statistical analyses are much more prevalent and common. I am in hog heaven reading complex analytical articles on whether home runs do really come in bunches or whether managerial pitching changes really do maximize wins over a season.

TIGERS STADIUM: I love Baseball stadiums. I plan to visit every major league stadium before I die. I have already visited ELEVEN stadiums or the stadiums of just NINE teams as I have a couple of doubles
(Detroit[2], Cleveland[o], Milwaukee[o], New York Yankees[o], Chicago White Sox[2], Chicago Cubs-Wrigley, New York Mets, Boston-Fenway, and Seattle-Safeco: [2] indicates two stadiums, new and old, [o] indicates the old stadium which is now torn down). Though some of these stadiums are much nicer, grander, or quirkier, my heart rests with the now demolished Tigers Stadium once gracing the corner of Michigan and Trumbull in Detroit Motown Motor Rock City.

COMERICA PARK IS NICE, TOO: As much as I loved Tigers Stadium and have many fond memories of going there starting in the very early 1970s, I do LOVE Comerica Park (though I hate the name). I love the park because the Detroit Tigers play there. But I also love the Park. I love its location, its decor, its layout. It's a fantastic venue for Baseball and for the Detroit Tigers.

SOUNDS OF BASEBALL: Any stadium will do it for me, but wherever the Detroit Tigers play gives me the most special thrill in terms of the overall atmosphere: sounds, smells, tastes, sights, and feelings. The energy of the Baseball stadium is holy. It is my church. Yes, yes, I am being corny. But I am also being real. When I go see Baseball, I feel the strong connection to the history, the statistics, and to all the people who share my love (at least to some extent) for the game, and if I am in the Tigers' park, for the home team. Very few things give me a thrill and a super-charge like going to see the Detroit Tigers play.

Also, I rarely listen to the TV broadcast's announcers. Usually, I mute the TV and turn on the radio. I love those radio guys (Dan Dickerson and Jim Price). But every day, I miss Ernie Harwell, who was the voice of the Detroit Tigers for most of my life.

I LOVE JV: Though I could write about Tigers throughout history, and I am sure I will as the year progresses and I devote more blog space to my favorite team, today, I am just going to write about the current team. And of the current team, few players are as amazing as Justin Verlander (JV). This is not news to anyone who loves the Tigers or even anyone who follows Baseball. As one of the best (if not the single best) pitchers in Baseball and surely a Hall of Fame bound player, Justin Verlander is one of a kind, and the Tigers are very lucky to have him. Most of all, I just love his attitude, his demeanor, the way he conducts himself. Classic.

LET'S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY: JV is a human being. They all are all the players. Some Tigers fans seem to expect JV to shut out the other team every time he pitches. He cannot dominate all the time. As good as he is, he is going to give up some runs. People need to relax. Just because he gives up some runs or even takes a loss does not diminish what he has done, is doing, and will do. RELAX.

THE ROTATION: The current Detroit Tigers rotation is arguably the best in all of Baseball. What team can match Verlander, Scherzer, Fister, Sanchez , and Porcello? Granted, the current statistics do not bear out this opinion with 100% assurance. The Detroit Tigers do not lead Baseball in ERA, WHIP (Walks+Hits/Innings Pitched), Hits Allowed, or Walks Allowed. BUT the team does lead the majors in STRIKEOUTS by a significant margin (591 as of, today, June 9th 2013 with second place Boston at 551). A closer look reveals that the Tigers lead the AL in WHIP and are top five in ERA (3rd), Hits Allowed (2nd), and Walks Allowed (4th).

MIGGY: THE TRIPLE CROWN WINNER: Last year, Miguel Cabrera won the Triple Crown (leading in Batting Average, HRs, and RBIs). He was also the Most Valuable Player in the majors last year. He was the first MLB player to win the Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski won it in 1967. Even so, one cannot claim that Cabrera single-handedly led the Tigers to the AL Championship and into the World Series last year. It was a team effort with great contributions from everyone.

The trade that brought Cabrera to Detroit in 2007 for prospects is arguably one of the best trades in the history of Baseball.

THE SMART GM: Long suffering Tigers fans will not so fondly remember the years with Randy Smith as General Manager, marked by poor acquisitions and terrible draft choices. When WMU grad Dave Dombrowski took over as General Manager of the Tigers in 2002, this trend was reversed and smart decisions based on solid statistical evidence began to be made. Scherzer, Sanchez, Fister, Guillen, Ordonez, Fielder, Peralta, Infante, Jackson, Benoit, Valverde, Cabrera, Verlander, Martinez, Torii Hunter, and more. Need I go on? These acquisitions speak for themselves.

ADDING FIELDER: Signing Prince Fielder to a monster long term contract in 2012 was not solely due to Dombrowski's brilliance, it was also due to Illitch's pocket book. Fielder batted .313/.412/.528 with 30 home runs, 108 RBIs, and 85 walks in 2012. Those are outstanding numbers.

HEY VICTOR! The Tigers success depends on production throughout the lineup. After missing all of 2012, Victor Martinez is slowly starting to heat up. If he is hot come playoff time, watch out.

LEYLAND IS NOT THE MAGIC BULLET: In 2006, after Leyland was brought in to manage the Tigers, many people attributed the team's turnaround and World Series appearance to Jim Leyland. Not me. Leyland is a good manager, but he was not the secret ingredient that catapulted the Tigers from a 71-91 team in 2005 to a 95-67 team in 2006 and winners of the American League Championship. Though I often criticize Leyland for being too traditional in his Baseball horse sense, he seems to be doing a great job managing this year in 2013. Though it may not be quantifiable with statistics, one of the key measures of a manager's success is having his team peak at the right time, managing personnel for the greatest possible performances from the greatest number of contributors. Leyland seems to be doing well with this personnel management element this year.

I like that my team is in first place in the division on June 9th. So far, it's a good year.

GO TIGERS!

- chris tower - 1306.09 - 10:21

T-shirt #79 - The Planet of the Apes: Evolution

 T-shirt #79 - The Planet of the Apes: Evolution


Today's topics include pride, time loops and paradox, and how T-shirts come to be featured in this blog. Today's blog also features one of the best movie franchises of all time: The Planet of the Apes films.

Film first. Other nonesuch second and third.

The original Planet of the Apes movies introduced me to the ideas of the time loop, paradox, and the unsolvable question of the chicken and the egg.

Between 1968-1973, 20th Century Fox released five movies that comprised a cyclical story about an apocalyptic future ruled by apes and how that future came to exist. Fox followed with two TV shows: a live action show (1974) and an animated show (1975, though the animated series is not considered part of the films' storyline) to further develop the story and its associated characters. Since then, there have been two remake/reboot movies and plans for a third due out in 2014.

The original Planet of the Apes movie came out when I was just six years old. It's possible that my parents took me to see the film as I was a big fan of other science fiction or related genres TV shows and movies, such as The Time Tunnel, The Land of the Giants, Star Trek, Batman, and Lost in Space among others. My first viewing of The Planet of the Apes film is lost in time. I asked my father, and he distinctly remembers seeing it in the theatre.
As Planet of the Apes came out in February of 1968, we were still living in Traverse City at the time, though he thinks he saw it in Kalamazoo, which means I might have seen it during several re-release periods. I have seen the film many times since then, so tracing back to my original viewing is difficult.

The Village playset.

My first clear memory of the Apes films was seeing Beneath the Planet of the Apes, which I may or may not have seen before I saw the original Planet of the Apes movie. I am reasonably certain I saw this in the theatre upon its release. I remember being very disturbed by the nuclear bomb worshipping cultists in the underground remains of the old New York City subway station with their deformed faces and telepathic powers. This film is truly creepy.

A great deal of my playtime as a young boy involved The Planet of the Apes franchise. As seen here, I had many of the figures and playsets. I wrote stories about The Planet of the Apes. I wrote synopses of all the episodes of the 1974 TV show. I collected and read the comic books published by Marvel Comics about the apes and all the movie novelizations. I devised my own stories of time loops and paradoxes during years of play time during which I was as obsessed with the Planet of the Apes as I was with other great and inspirational TV shows and films, such as Dark Shadows, which is one of the few I did not mention in my list two paragraphs previously.

The idea of paradox fascinated me. In the five-film  Apes story, during the first iteration, two of the key players, Zira and Cornelius, are born in a future version of the Earth circa the 3900s. After Taylor (Heston) and his astronaut crew are flung into Zira and Cornelius' future (Planet of the Apes), Taylor and an astronaut from a second ship, Brent (Franciscus), play a role in the destruction of the Earth (Beneath the Planet of the Apes). But before, the planet is destroyed, Zira and Cornelius launch Taylor's space ship and journey through a time warp back to 1973. In what was the near future to this film's present (Escape from the Planet of the Apes was released in 1971), Zira gives birth to a child (monkey) that grows up to be Caesar the leader of the ape revolt that culminates in the use of nuclear weapons and Earth's partial destruction (Conquest of the Planet of the Apes). The fifth film (Battle for the Planet of the Apes) takes place at least twelve years later in a world post-nuclear holocaust and chronicles struggles between humans and apes, raising the question as to whether apes and humans can co-exist in peace or in a state of constant war.

The stories create a time loop. In the first iteration, in which Zira and Cornelius are born in the earth of the 3900s, Caesar is a historical figure who started the ape revolution against the humans, though by this time the original human society is much forgotten by the majority of apes, who believe that they have always been the dominant species on the planet. And yet, Caesar is Zira and Cornelius's son, who does not exist until they go back in time, and Zira gives birth to him. And yet, he cannot exist until Zira and Cornelius are born 2000 years in his future. I use the term "first iteration" because from our perspective in learning the story, it begins for us with Planet of the Apes and a version of Zira and Cornelius before they go back in time and before Zira gives birth to Caesar. And yet, Caesar has already been born. Hence the "paradox," and my introduction to the chicken-egg conundrum. Though I should not say that this was my first introduction to such a puzzle, since many of the SF related shows I listed dealt with similar time paradoxes, especially the TV show The Time Tunnel.

And yet, the time paradox from The Planet of the Apes is the one I remember best as having the greatest impact on my own sensibilities as a budding writer. As I mentioned, I wrote many Planet of the Apes themed stories and studied the entire set of tales closely with detailed synopses that I kept in a notebook. Shortly thereafter, I started my first major SF story epic, which I wrote in a series of notebooks from around 1974-1977. I called this story "Zeroes," and it dealt with a time cycle paradox and the idea of infinity. In my estimation, I could not conceive of something that continued without end that was not a circle. At some point,  one must come back to the starting point. I also grappled with the idea of multiple universes, multiple realities, and the atomic and subatomic foundations of our universe, which provide structure to the multiple universe idea: one universe after another universe consisting of a base level, atomic level, subatomic level, which is a new base level that has its own atomic and subatomic levels, and so on. I know these ideas did not originate with me, but Planet of the Apes was one of the principle and germinating sources for my own exploration of the ideas of paradox, cycle, and infinity. I mixed "Zeroes" with some other fictional elements. My play world of small woods, fields, fences, ponds, hills, and trees formed part of the story, and, also, I was inspired by the aliens of Jim Starlin in his 1970s Marvel Comics work. I invented a little, pointy-eared alien whom I called "Grok," not knowing that the word had entered my consciousness because of the Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land, which I had not read at that time.

DEAR READERS, Were you drawn to this entry because you also have a strong connection to The Planet of the Apes saga? Please share in the comments box at the bottom of this blog entry. I am sure my experiences share commonality with yours.

Yes, I also own the Treehouse. Pictures of toys courtesy of http://www.toysyouhad.com/Apes.htm

T-SHIRTS: As I have written about from this blog's inception, the original idea for this blog came from the simple question: do I have enough T-shirts that I could wear one every day of the year and never repeat? I have written already about how I originally rejected featuring this preoccupation as a blog from the first dawning of the notion because I might be branded as narcissistic. I am sensitive to name-calling. Childhood phobia. But also I rejected the idea because I did not really want to wear some of my T-shirts just once in the year. 

I like some T-shirts enough to wear them multiple times a year, and, as I have already explored, some become current favorites (such as T-shirt #19), others remind me of ways I have to be or things I have to feel (such as T-shirt #5), whereas others are very timely and are worn once or twice and sometimes for the first time in years (such as T-shirt #33). But the original idea confined my work here to the T-shirts currently in my possession or ones I would buy in a typical year, instead of a year  in which I am featuring daily shirts  in a blog. However, as I began writing this blog, I began to think about the things in my life that I love and realized that I did not own a single T-shirt to be able to display this love to the world as a walking billboard, a walking advertisement for the thing.

After starting the blog, I found myself engaged in serious inventory of the list of "the things that I love." As I wrote previously in T-shirt #45 and T-shirt #50, I realized that I had no Star Wars shirts when I started this blog. So, I bought two of them. Likewise, I realized I had no shirts for The Planet of the Apes, and so I bought the T-shirt featured here, which uses the same clever evolution motif as the Darth Vader shirt for T-shirt #45. After buying several new T-shirts in a flurry of spending inspired by writing the blog and especially by finding out that people READ the blog, I slammed the door and exercised some caution. Purchasing some T-shirts is just a normal thing for me. I like them. I buy them. This is how I ended up with so many that I may have 365 or more. But I could see myself going hog wild on T-shirts for things I loved that I did not own. I had to keep it in check or all of my disposable income (and the not so disposable income meant for paying bills and buying groceries to feed my family) would bleed out of every budgetary orifice in T-shirt purchasing. MAKE IT STOP.

Or, a quote that may have more resonance with this entry though less direct application: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"

I refuse to pledge a T-shirt buying boycott between now and March of 2014 (the 365 day mark), but I am going to keep it limited (though some may be received as gifts).

The reveal at the end of the Planet of the Apes was a great mind bender.

PRIDE: The last subject for today's blog entry deals with pride, which is a core motivation for creating this blog in the first place and a theme that I plan to return to many times. The reason for owning these T-shirts is pride. Each shirt declares a cool factor: "I am a Planet of the Apes fan, and I am proud!"; "Proud to wear a replica of the Star Trek Science Officer uniform!"; "I know what this cool logo represents, and you may not, so I feel proud and cool"; "I saw this band on this tour in this year, and the T-shirt is aged and threadbare proving that I have been cool enough to like the band for a long time." And more. You get the idea.

The surface idea of displaying pride on a T-shirt for loving a sports team or a comic book only scratches the surface of the real motivations a person would have to choose to be a walking billboard advertisement for some product produced by our culture. In the weeks to come, I will dial this idea back to its roots. Why these choices? Why this pride? ("Why this mountain? Why this sky?" - Laurie Anderson)

- chris tower - 1306.08 - 14:39

T-shirt #78: Suzanne Vega

T-shirt #78: I heart Suzanne Vega

I am grateful for many things in my life. Each morning, I run a list of these things through my head as a kind of meditation-prayer. I focus all my energy on the positive things in my life, what I love, the things for which I am grateful. Obviously, the list always starts with the people I love: my wife, my kids, my parents, my sister, extended family, dear friends, and then finally a few of the people I have never met but who have made a huge impact on my life.

Suzanne Vega is one of those people.

Funny thing? I already wrote a blog about seeing her in  concert and various thoughts on Suzanne Vega on the main blog page in my Blogger collection: Sense of Doubt:

"Old Blogs that never got posted pt. 1."

If you're interested, you can read that blog entry, which, mentions narcissism several times, yesterday's topic.
Though I am tempted to re-post the entire former blog entry here, I am resisting as I feel it's time for at least one shorter post.  The link above will you take you the original entry (and I cannot resist quoting from it here); it's a LONG blog entry, but I am rather proud of it. It examines many of the issues I am going to touch on here and more. SIDENOTE: Did you know that Suzanne Vega published a book of poetry? Neither did I until I saw someone bring the book to the concert at the Ark in 2007, hoping to get it signed. So, I tracked it down later and bought it. Good stuff.

A couple of quotes from that blog entry: "If I made a list of musical artists with whom I would like to have dinner and a good conversation, Suzanne Vega would be at the top of my list. She radiates such keen intelligence that I think the conversations would be fabulous, and she also possesses such a warm and open manner that I think I could overcome the intimidation I might feel around other “celebrities.” I am sure that I am not the only one who would like to have an extended talk with Suzanne Vega, asking questions about the origins of her songs, the choices she makes, the scope of her career, and her plans for the future" (Me, 2008).

"There’s a confluence of ideas here. Suzanne Vega, connections between people, obtaining things we love from others, learning to evaluate without using personal taste as the only criterion, how memory permeates every experience with an artist’s work. And so, returning to my original comment about having dinner with Suzanne Vega, all of these ideas would make for a great conversation, I think. I would like to hear her reaction to these ideas and her experiences with creating and performing her music. Has she had similar kinds of experiences? Have others shared with her similar stories of how they have encountered and listened to her music? What varied experiences have people shared with her?" (Me again, 2008).

A few more thoughts before I sign off.

I find it a bit odd how we consume media and become so involved with it, so passionate about it. Just looking at how we consume and enjoy our music, many of us (and this is an important distinction because not everyone does this kind of thing with music) go all in. We invest deeply in the music we love. We listen repeatedly to favorite albums, favorite songs. With favorite artists, we collect all the music available, which conveys a special status. We become experts on the music of our favorite artists. We contemplate the meaning of lyrics, and ultimately, we may fantasize about meeting the artists we love.

Suzanne Vega would definitely make a top ten list of people I would like to share dinner and discussion (as I had already written about five years ago and quoted above). Or, if I could really live my fantasy, I might expand the guest list to 13 musical artists that I would love to invite to a dinner party. I would love to talk with Suzanne, if she was willing to share, about what prompted her to write "Marlene on the Wall," "The Queen and the Soldier," or other favorite songs not necessarily from that first album. I would like to tell Suzanne how much her music has meant to me, how it has affected my life, and how many of my memories, times in my life, have her music as a soundtrack or as a touchstone. Many of us use our music as a way to fully invest in the emotions we're feeling: celebrations when happy or anger and pain when heart-broken. I wonder what Suzanne would say about her music and its role in her life, and in our all our lives, in this fantasy discussion. It's unlikely that I will ever find out.

So, I am very grateful for Suzanne Vega and all that she has given me in my life, all that I have shared with her through music, what seems like deeply personal music, without knowing her at all, though feeling like I do know her, know her music.

So, each morning, I run the list of things for which I am grateful. I am not always listing musical artists, like Suzanne Vega, because I focus mostly on my family and community. Though from time to time, musical artists will drift into my consciousness, and I will thank the universe for them, infuse the positive energy of my love into the fabric of the cosmos, because, after all, we are all connected.

LAST WORD ON THE GRATITUDE THING: I got the idea for the gratitude prayer (meditation, list, incantation, catalogue, rumination, reflection, or whatever you want to call it) from a movie called The Secret. I am not quite promoting the movie as a "true" exposure of an actual science. In fact, many of the stories in the film are a bit fatuous. However, I like watching it. I showed it to a class (my second viewing) about a month ago, and the idea of the daily gratitude thing struck me. In the movie, one of the interviewees (I forget which one and it's not important) explained how he had a rock in his pocket. At night, he would set it on his dresser with the other contents of his pockets. The next morning, he would retrieve it and remember to list the things for which he was grateful as a daily routine, like a prayer. He had a visitor from South Africa and told the man about his rock and gratitude practice. The man called it a "gratitude rock." After returning to South Africa, he wrote his American friend and asked for some gratitude rocks to be sent to him because one of his children was very sick, and he did not have the money to seek medical care for the child. The interviewee balked at sending "gratitude rocks" because, after all, "they are just rocks," he said. But he found three nice rocks and sent them to his South African friend. Months later, the South African wrote back. The rocks worked! His son was healed and recovered. They paid for his medical treatment by selling a hundred gratitude rocks. People believed in the power of the gratitude rocks.

I found this story inspirational. I do not use a rock, but every day, I make my gratitude list. I send energy into the universe. I focus on the positive and try to limit or dismiss the negative.

I think it's working.

VIDEOS - UPDATE 1312.09

In working on my post for Monday Dec. 9th, T-shirt #263, I discovered that I had this post in the "posts with music videos" category, even though it featured no music videos.

So I am updating. First my favorite Suzanne Vega song.

Marlene On The Wall - Suzanne Vega

second favorite.

The Queen and the Soldier ~ Suzanne Vega [live]

Here's a newer one.

Suzanne Vega - Songs In Red and Gray

- chris tower - 1306.07 - 8:30
updated 1312.09
updated again 1601.08