T-shirt #169 - Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast Brown

T-shirt #169 - Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast Brown

Today's T-shirt is another filler, which I am using just to post a shirt and will then veer off into other topics. In all, I have THREE Space Ghost shirts. By far, this is the most comfy. I already went on lovingly, about Space Ghost in T-shirt #69. My full Space Ghost love letter is yet to come when I render my post for my third and final (as of this writing) Space Ghost T-shirt.

A round-up of stuff today.
First up, it's mail call time.

Look at what arrived the mail the other day. Kickstarter dreams do come true.

I owe Warren Ellis (whom I have blogged about many times, but notably in T-shirt #75 and T-shirt #22 ) for turning me on to the music of Meredith Yayanos and her Kickstarter project, which has now reached its fruition, the completion of the musical piece entitled A Blessed Unrest from a duet (with Dan Cantrell) calling itself The Parlour Trick (and that there is the link, yup).


THE PARLOUR TRICK

This is the text from The Parlour Trick site about the project: "The Parlour Trick’s first full-length release, A Blessed Unrest, is named after a well-loved quote by Martha Graham. Creatively and thematically, this album is very much a “Madwoman in the Attic” affair. Some of the compositions are dense and meticulously arranged. Others are more sparse, ambient soundscapes. Instrumentation includes piano, violin, harpsichord, theremin, voice, celeste, percussion, bowed glockenspiel, accordion, bells, musical saw, an ancient wheezing pump organ, a nonagenarian typewriter, and cutups from wax cylinders (both freshly recorded or repurposed). Ninety-five percent of the material was recorded in a century-old Craftsman house, including ambient recordings of creaks, groaning floorboards, mysterious knocks and rustles. Both ultra-modern binaural recording techniques and antique devices were used to piece it all together."

I also LOVE how Meredith Yayanos describes her own predilections: "Violinist, thereminist and vocalist Yayanos created The Parlour Trick music project in 2006 after being inspired by some of the creepier and more dysfunctional aspects of Victoriana. Her work is informed by a lifelong study of classical, folk, and experimental music.... In her compositions and arrangements for The Parlour Trick, Yayanos experiments with fusing modern classical, varied folk traditions, and aggro-ambient palettes. The loose narrative of The Parlour Trick’s first album A Blessed Unrest was inspired by Yayanos’ fascination with 19th century concepts of the afterlife, mourning rituals, and can be considered a kind of creative response to outmoded perceptions of female hysteria. Many of the pieces composed or co-composed by Yayanos are conscious riffs off (t)rappings of Spiritualism and lingering concepts of the “monstrous feminine”. Yayanos began collaborating on material with A Blessed Unrest duo partner Dan Cantrell in early 2009."

Check out one of the tracks on the The Parlour Trick site or the cool video (on Vimeo) of the same track as danced by Rachel Brice.

If the subject matter, the "Madwoman in the Attic" thing, the Victoriana thing, if that sounds good, then you will like the music. Trust me.

You can buy the album from the site. The Kickstarter is over, but the album is available for download.

VIDEO of "Half Sick of Shadows" danced by Rachel Brice

FUN WITH ERNEST CLINE

I love the inter-connectedness of social media. I turned on a friend to Ernest Cline's wonderful book Ready Player One, and he in turn, shared with me this wonderful interview with the author.

I wrote about Ready Player One in T-shirt #107 and oh so briefly mentioned in T-shirt #61.

ERNEST CLINE INTERVIEW

Ernest Cline interview Ready Player One

Ernie Cline gave away a DeLorean like the one in Back to the Future! Though it's not a replica.
It's the ECTO88: "What if Doctor Emmett Brown and Dr. Buckaroo Banzai collaborated
with Knight Industries to create a unique inter-dimensional
time vehicle for the Ghostbusters?" ( ERNEST CLINE)

Ernest Cline - Win a DeLorean - Comic-con 2012

Apparently, it's done. He gave it away.

DELOREAN GIVE AWAY

Also check out his website: ERNEST CLINE.

STOP THE KILLING IN SYRIA

I know I do not need to tell any of you that things are terrible in Syria. I steer clear of politics for the most part on this blog. If anything, this blog is more about escapism, escape from these kinds of horrors in the world. However, with the recent use of chemical weapons on the people of Syria, many of them children, it's time that the international community no longer sits in the side lines.

Citizens can do a lot with their support. Here's one thing.

LINK TO PETITION TO STOP THE KILLING IN SYRIA

CITY OF BONES BOOK REVIEW

I just finished reading The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, and I was unimpressed. I chose the book and its audio edition to read (listen to) prior to the release of the film, which is now considered a flop at the box office. I can see why. The book is not the single worst thing I have ever read, but it's really not very good. Because of the strength of the audio narration and the story, I stayed just interested enough to keep listening to the fourteen-plus hours of audio book. But then, I like listening to books that are not very good because it is instructive for what I do not want to do with my own writing.

City of Bones joins the glut of supernatural YA novels that over-burdens the market since the success of books like Twilight and The Hunger Games. Not that this book is appreciably better than either of those, but that's just the point, it's not better. The premise is mildly interesting, but it is not well-explored. In the book's world, there are specially trained "Shadow Hunters," who kill demons and protect "mundies" in the "mundane world" from their evil. These Shadow Hunters come from some mythical and magical land called Idris, which can only be visited through magic portals. A young girl, Clary Fray, a presumed Mundy, though she isn't, gets caught up in this Shadow World in the quest for The Mortal Cup, which is sought by the villain Valentine, who turns out to be her father--quite obviously. There are some mildly interesting twists and turns in the story, but the author tips her hand to all of them before the characters catch on, so that when they do, the impact falls flat.

In fact, lack of proper set up and delivery is the book's greatest problem. The author keeps her characters in the dark too long about stuff that has become painfully obvious to the readers, and then she tries to make a dramatic reveal in which the characters catch on, which only makes them seem exceedingly stupid and the story over-long and hackneyed.

If you are in the market for an uneventful, cliched romp through half-baked ideas about demons, angels, vampires, werewolves, magic lands, and rune-spell-casting try this one, but I recommend the audio edition. Listen to it on a long road trip, while gardening, or even while sleeping. Otherwise, skip it.

PHOTO GALLERY OF OPENING MY MAIL
I close today with a series of photos of me excitedly opening my package from Meredith Yayanos and The Parlour Trick. Enjoy.

Opening the package of the CD and post cards

Contents of the package

Opening the tri-fold CD case

More CD case

Back of the CD

- chris tower - 1309.06 - 9:17

T-shirt #168 - KUDL 2009 - White-NO PLAY

T-shirt #168 - KUDL 2009 - White-NO PLAY

I have two white KUDL 2009 shirts. This follows a practice I call PLAY and NO PLAY. Sometimes, I obtain two identical shirts and mark the tags of each as PLAY and NO PLAY. Can you guess my purpose here? It seemed to me that shirts I wore playing Ultimate became mud-stained or torn and wore out more quickly than those I kept nice to wear off the field, say to a restaurant or to a class (for me class means work). I have always enjoyed the kind of job where I could wear T-shirts at work, while teaching classes. In fact, shorts and a T-shirt is my favorite work outfit, year around. So, my point being that I have two white 2009 KUDL shirts. Is it cheating to post another one on a different day? I don't think so. This blog is dedicated to shirts in my closet, right? Well, I have two identical white KUDL shirts from 2009 hanging in my closet. That's two days worth of shirts. (POINT OF ORDER: Yes, it's true that I was seen wearing a white 2009 shirt in T-shirt #123, but that was my white PATAGONIA shirt from that year and this one (plus the other one in my closet) is made of cotton.)

Some people expect to see me in a T-shirt all the time. Okay, yes, every day I wear at least two T-shirts, sometimes more. As you may know from following this blog, I have T-shirt pajamas, so there's one T-shirt per day. I always put on a different T-shirt when I get up in the morning. This morning (and by this morning I mean Monday, Labor Day, as I am currently working three days ahead on the blog), I put on T-shirt #1 Son of Satan after I shed my pajamas and set off to feed the pets, get some juice, morning medications, and coffee, do my light treatment, examine all the Baseball box scores, record the scores of my favorite teams on my log sheets, set my fantasy Baseball lineups, and all my other morning, pre-work rituals. Later, I wore two other shirts making four total for the day, which is probably my maximum except on especially hot summer days with lots of sweaty activity.

And by presenting a second KUDL shirt in a row and the third Ultimate shirt this week, I am striving to get ahead, evidenced by the fact that, as I stated, I am writing this on Monday, Labor Day. Never fear dear reader. I have non-Ultimate content for you today.

Some comic book reviews.

Weekly comics list.

And then some favorite Marvel comic book covers, just for fun.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SKIP THE FOLLOWING REVIEW SECTION IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!

Captain America #010

Rick Remender claimed that the "Dimension Z" storyline would forever change Captain America and have far-reaching and long-lasting ramifications. I gave this story line and Captain America in general a loving tribute in T-shirt #106.

But in considering how Remender would re-integrate Cap back into Marvel Comics continuity after ten years, his time, in Dimension Z, and knowing that something major would happen, I wondered if Cap would sustain some debilitating injury, lose his super soldier power, age dramatically, or any number of things.

HERE'S the SPOILER - stop reading if you don't want to know: I did not expect the death of Sharon Carter, Cap's longtime girlfriend and great love since his re-introduction in the 1960s. Sharon has been a major player in the Cap books since her re-introduction after a long hiatus in which she was virtually off the canvas. Cap has had other girlfriends between his original relationship with Sharon and his rekindled one in the last ten years or so of the book's run. In fact, Sharon was the one who killed him in the DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA story line a few years back under the brainwashing influence of Doctor Faustus.

In this comic, the conclusion of "Dimension Z," Sharon has come through to Zola's Dimension to rescue Cap and help close the portal that Zola is attempting to use to send a battle station filled with demon hordes through to Earth and bring about an apocalypse that would leave billions dead.

The issue is a crazy rocket ride of excitement and a fitting end to the gorgeous, fun, and edifying love letter to Jack Kirby's Captain America by Remender amd Romita, JR. In addition to the death of Sharon Carter, Cap is saved by Arnim Zola's daughter Jet Black, who brings him through the portal and is now with him on our Earth. Lastly, though presumed dead, the final panel reveals that Cap's "son," the boy Ian, who was really Zola's son but whom Cap raised as his own son while a fugitive in Dimension Z for ten years, has become NOMAD, which is a fitting re-birth for the hero Cap created when he shed the Cap uniform and identity in other pivotal 1970s stories and who was carried on by Jack Monroe, the 1950s replacement "Bucky."

Lazarus #3

Originally, I wrote about Rucka and Lark's Lazarus back in T-shirt #138. I gave the first two issues a big thumbs up and generated a lot of text, both mine and other people's, to muster support for the book. Issue three is even better. With the set up preliminaries out of the way, Rucka and Lark can settle into story telling mode, developing the plot more fully of the brother-sister twins who are colluding to take over the Carlyle family and how the Lazarus, Forever, is in the way. Sent on a mission by the Carlyle patriarch, Malcolm, last issue, Forever arrives in Mexico to negotiate with the Morray family. The issue opens with a standoff as Forever will not give up all her weapons, preferring to keep her sword in its back sheath. The Morray Lazarus, Joacquim, backs Forever's play when she slices off the hand of the guard requesting her weapons. The sequence is tense and beautifully rendered by Lark's gorgeous art work. The other story line developing is the obvious attraction between Joacquim and Forever, which calls into question whether a Lazarus can have some of the things of normal life, like a relationship. We also learn in the first sequence that some foods are off limits to a Lazarus because of how food enzymes may interfere with the Lazarus implants.

Meanwhile, Jonah and Johanna Carlyle hatch their coup, which goes to a new level when Forever successfully negotiates a treaty with Morray. The final scene shows Joacquim and Forever stopping along the way back to Carlyle territory for a drink and to watch the sunset with overtones that something sexual may happen between them when they are hit with a missile strike: CLIFFHANGER ending.

Rucka maintains more back matter with letters and a news roundup of relevant technology.

In the end, I am on the edge of my seat, fully engaged in this excellent comic and eagerly awaiting the next issue.

Uber - issues 0-3 (except #1 which I seem to be missing)

I let the Kieron Gillen and Caanan White project from Avatar, called Uber, stack up for a few months before I delved into it, but it was worth the wait.

I have always enjoyed Avatar comics. They are excessively bloody and brutal, but they are frequently very good. Warren Ellis has done a lot of work for Avatar in recent years and so have Alan Moore and Garth Ennis among others. I picked up Uber based on the ads in Previews and Kieron Gillen's name, as I have enjoyed his writing on various Marvel books, most notably, lately, Young Avengers.

Put simply, Uber is about the development of a superman program in the last year of Nazi Germany's reign during World War Two. The story follows an undercover spy who smuggles out the genetic technology developed by the Nazis to help the allies, seen here in England, to develop their own super soldiers to combat the Nazi Ubers.


Gillen shares smart postscript essays about the development of the book and his concerns about a book that could be misconstrued to glorify the Nazis and Nazi Germany, to glorify the violence, especially in light of the rape scene in issue #1 (more on this later after I read it - see Weekly Comics section below).

Gillen struggles, rightly so, with depicting real persons, such as Hitler, in the pages of the comic. I think he manages to depict Hitler, Churchill, and many of the others fairly and precisely enough for the purposes of his story.

It seems to me that Gillen feels too much angst and struggles too much with the ethical questions. For a while, he described himself as a "paranoid wretch."

Uber is a very interesting comic, and Gillen's back matter makes it an even richer reading experience. For instance, Gillen recommended THE FALL OF BERLIN 1945 by Antony Beevor as essential reading. It's obvious that Gillen has put a lot of time and effort into creating this story, which is always commendable.

However, discovering that I am missing issue #1, I am going to return to this subject in another blog post.

Meanwhile, if you are a comic reader, or a history buff, or both, and if you can handle GORE (which is Avatar's trademark style) consider picking Uber now in the individual issues or in the collected first volume, which will be due soon (as the first story arc completes with issue #5 that also arrived this week, again see the Weekly Comics below).

Also, Gillen is all over the Internet with his own blog and a Tumblr:


kierongillen.com

kierongillen.tumblr.com

WEEKLY COMICS STACK

DC has started its "villains month." I am not excited. All the DC books for the month of September have been "taken over" by the villains who replace the title heroes on the covers and in the issue titles. The complete-ist in me does not want to skip issues of titles that I have no interruptions in the sequence going back 30 years or more. BUT I am under-whelmed by this month's "gimmick." I only ordered two of this week's villain books. I skimmed the others and was not inspired. However, so as not to miss issues, I may re-visit these issues and buy up the ones for the comics I normally buy. Damn them to Hell.

In any case, on the strength of my love for the Frank Cho art alone, and my adoration for the Art Adams cover, X-Men - Battle of the Atom #001 takes top spot. I do like Bendis' writing a lot, and I generally have no complaints with him. I follow X-Men - Battle of the Atom #001 with the companion book All New X-Men #016 as these seem to work as a matched pair.

If you look back to T-shirt #141, which should be the corresponding month, you can see that Green Arrow held the top spot followed by All New X-Men (still number two), and Avengers A.I. in fourth as it still is. Neither Avengers nor Infinity came out a month ago. Other comics move up the ranks if you compare, and comics like Fairest and Uber have come up out of the Back Log. Notice how small the Back Log is.

I am excited for Hickman's God is Dead from Avatar. I did not order Dynamite's Codename Action #1, which is part of the Captain Action franchise (I wrote about the Captain in T-shirt #128), but I was compelled by the art and the cover and so I added it to my stack.

COMICS FOR WEEK OF 1309.04

X-Men - Battle of the Atom #001
All New X-Men #016
Infinity #2 of 6
Avengers A.I. #003
Iron Man #015
Forever Evil #1
Uber #1 (because I missed it)
(JUST TO REVIEW - Uber #s 0-4)
Uber #5
The Superior Spider-Man #017
Daredevil: Dark Knights #004
Count Vertigo (Green Arrow) #1 (#23)
Darkseid (Justice League) #1 (#23)
Sheltered #3
Trillium #2
Fairest #19
God is Dead #1 (From Avatar Press)
Codename Action #1 (From Dynamite)

Back Log
Satellite Sam # 3

COVER GALLERY - ASSORTED FAVORITE MARVEL COVERS

I have always loved this Romita cover.
I cannot remember how Pete squirmed free
of this one, but the cover is a classic
taunt for reading the issue.

One of my earliest Avengers books.
Now that I know Ultron is the villain
of Avengers Two, I thought this
would be a good cover to share.

One of my first FF comics.
I love the soap opera feel of the
cover depicting multiple
simultaneous stories

One of my earliest Thor comics.
Love the perspective of Galactus'
hand.

Just how much punishment
can Wolverine take? Classic
John Byrne cover.

- chris tower - 1309.05 - 9:38

T-shirt #167: KUDL 2007 Green

T-shirt #167: KUDL 2007 Green

Grading Robot in full energy production today.

Work explodes.

I am currently running at four classes at two online schools (two at each). Today, I begin two courses at WMU, start the KUDL Fall season, start a class I am taking (I hope, assuming I get re-admitted to WMU), and by the end of October I will have a seventh added with another stint at University of Phoenix. There is also the chance that if Park needs me to teach three in Fall II (starts October 21) that I could be running with eight classes to teach and a ninth as a student for the rest of the year.

I need a vacation. Oh, wait, I am getting a vacation. It will be a partial work vacation, but I am off to Hawaii (the big island) and two days in Portland with my wife from Sept. 28-October 8th. Expect another run of pajamas, dead t-shirts, and quickies during that time period. I have to take some time to figure out how the auto-publisher schedule thingie works. It did not work for me when I tried to set it for my days in the hospital. Luckily, I was conscious enough to check and managed to publish the post on the day of my surgery before the end of the day. Mr. T-shirt Blogger is not allowed any skip days. Any cessation or missed day would violate the purpose of the blog.

Back to work.

For those with whom I play Ultimate, see you tonight for KUDL week one Fall League 2013.

In other news, I came out my door on Sunday to take a walk to find a mysterious cage sitting next to my driveway.

I had no idea where it came from or why it was there. This is not necessarily the kind of uncertainty that I like to live with during my days here on this planet. Luckily, the mystery was ultimately solved, but it puzzled me for most of the day before I found out the truth. Is there a cage fairy? Who goes around leaving cages on people's sidewalks? Was the cage left at the wrong address?


As for today's shirt, this is the green shirt for the 2007 league. I would wear it tonight but apparently I am drafted on the white team. Luckily, I have this shirt in white, too. :-)

NOTE: YESTERDAY'S POST: I am honored that one of my friends re-sent my Twitter message of yesterday's post, calling it to the attention of THE GOOD MEN PROJECT, who added me on Twitter and added my post to the site! I added yesterday's post, T-shirt #166, to my list of top ten favorite posts, which now includes 12 posts total. I am not sure how to rename the category as I am obviously working on a top twenty now.

This post needs a song. Remember T-shirt #163 about Everything But the Girl? I mentioned Tracey Thorn's solo album Out of the Woods as one of my recent and all time favorites. Time for one of the best songs off that album, my first favorite: "Hands Up to the Ceiling."

TRACEY THORN - HANDS UP TO THE CEILING

- chris tower - 1309.04 - 8:33

T-shirt #166: FAO Schwartz

T-shirt #166: FAO Schwartz

I love teddy bears. Not just bears. Stuffed toys. I love cute little stuffed toys. I own several. Throughout my life, especially as an adult, this was not a fact that I shared with too many people because our culture frowns on an adult man having affection for stuffed toys let alone owning any or many.

I have been working on this post for several days, and I have to say that I am a bit nervous about presenting it. This is not an easy confession to make, and it feels like a huge risk. And yet, in keeping with the spirit of the blog as a journal of my life and of taking ownership for all aspects of my identity, I no longer feel like hiding and keeping secrets.

So, I am letting the teddy bear out of the bag.

I no longer want to be in the teddy bear closet.

Okay, not to be flip about that "closet" that we use to describe the place people hide their sexual identity from the world until they feel safe and/or brave enough to come out. For many of those people, their identity has been shoved so far into the back of the closet that it takes years for them to step out into the light, if they can ever do it at all. I am sensitive about the closet, so please do not mistake my analogy for being flip and in any way minimizing the difficulty and pain that some people experience as they struggle with the chrysalis of identity.

But my analogy is apt. And this is very much in keeping with one of the main purposes of this blog: to reveal, to uncover secrets, to confess, to be me.

This confession today and what it means to make such confessions reminds me of a musical from the 1970s made famous by Marlo Thomas: Free to Be You and Me. The title seems to reflect one of the themes I am exploring in this blog.

Or as James Taylor said: BSUR (Be aS yoU aRe). Same concept.

About the bears: The brown bear in the picture below is "Yukio," named for Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, who seemed like a kindred spirit when I read part of one of his novels, but in the end was not a kindred soul to me at all (though an interesting person with a good pen name). Ultimately, as for Japanese writers, I liked Kawabata's novels better and later, even more, Haruki Murakami. The other bear in the photo farther below, obviously, is Winnie the Pooh. Both bears are second generation bears. My first brown bear (seen in the final photo of me with many stuffed animals in the lower right corner of the shot) was named Timmy or Tim. I am not sure where this came from as I named the bear when I was two or three years old. As you can see he is still barely intact, very threadbare and fragile with his stuffing coming free in many places. The original Pooh also came apart at the seams, even though he received a new shirt made by one of my first girlfriends, which prolonged his life a few years. She was one of the first people I trusted with my secret love of teddy bears, and she did not judge or mock.

As for the shirt in the photos, for those not acquainted with FAO SCHWARTZ, it is a very famous toy store, located in New York City on Fifth Avenue across from the equally famous Plaza Hotel and just south of Central Park. FAO Schwartz was featured in the film Big, as Tom Hanks' character played there with a toy CEO and won himself a job in a toy company. Anyway, back to my subject about the teddy bears.

For many years, I was a closet teddy bear lover. And for many years, into my adult years, I continued to sleep with my teddy bears, secretly. This was a fact that I shared with very few people mainly because I did not know if I could trust people not to judge and mock. This was a part of myself about which I could not abide any mocking. For instance, during one quarter at college, I hung poster boards from the ceiling all around my bed mainly so I could sleep with my teddy bears without being seen. The teddy bears (two) were kept hidden under blankets or in a drawer. My roommate thought I wanted privacy for sex with girls, which is also part of the motivation of the poster board curtains. But since my then girlfriend was in New York for most of the quarter, the main reason was privacy for sleeping with my teddy bears. In graduate school, I met a guy about my age who also slept with a teddy bear. We had a good talk about it one time, but I never "outed" his sleeping practice to others, and he kept my secret as well. Throughout these adult years, when I was in a relationship and sleeping with a woman, then I left the teddy bears off the bed. But when sleeping alone, it was back to the snuggle with the bears.

As I share about this topic, a part of me wants to lash out. There's a part of me that is angry about the way people make judgments of others, of elements of people's identities, and I want to lash out and call those people names, call them shallow, or find other ways to needle their insecurities. But this strikes me as antithetical to what I am advocating here. My whole point about love of toys, stuffed toys in particular, is LOVE. The toys are just a manifestation and vehicle for recalling and focusing the emotions. In so doing, I cultivate an aspect of my personality that makes me a sensitive and caring individual. I would be violating my principles of love and forgiveness if I lashed out at the stone throwers. The whole point of my principles is to NOT be that way, to not invite the bad karma.

"Light of the world, shine on me, love is the answer; shine on us all, set us free, love is the answer."

I am always amazed at how the language of talking about an issue like this one mirrors things like a hidden sexual identity. The judgments against are just as harsh, the culture just as crushing and intolerant, the feelings just the same. I am reminded of a subject that came in one of the Jill Bolte Taylor videos that I shared in T-shirt #161. Contrary to what we may believe, we are not thinking creatures who feel, but rather, we are feeling creatures who think.

In a discussion with my therapist last week, he praised me for the bravery of putting myself out there with this blog as my vehicle. I explained that I have never had too much trouble with confession as most of my stories and poems in my college years were confessional and exposing. And yet, perhaps, this is not true. I did write confessional stories and poems, but the confessions were a fiction and filled with lies. I did not really reveal my true self. I did not really take risks. I created the illusion of taking risks, and I lied. I used fiction and poetry as a way to manipulate my audience, and mostly just for shock and awe.

And there were many things I kept close to the vest, kept to myself, kept secret.

My love of teddy bears and my relationship with teddy bears was one of those secrets. And I think I was right to keep it a secret. Our culture is not ready for true difference. There are expectations to which we are expected to conform. There are molds into which we are expected to fit. And for those who do not meet those expectations and fit those molds, judgement is harsh and severe. Though there are not religions rallying dubious Biblical text against the lifestyle of an adult who sleeps with teddy bears, the practice is associated with emotionally undeveloped people and serial killers (Psycho for example; Texas Chainsaw Massacre for another). The practice is also associated with Freud's animistic universe, in which everything is alive and imbued with spirit, which Freud judged as a childish worldview that we all out grow as we develop. However, I do not see the practice of loving teddy bears as one that signals lack of emotional development. Rather, I think the practice reveals true emotional development. This is the same issue that I began exploring in T-shirt #128 with the promise of more exploration to come.

Why is the sacrifice of so-called "childish things" a sign of maturity? Is the pain of separation from beloved aspects of childhood truly a required step in the maturing process? Is there no value in these aspects of childhood?

And these lessons lead me to question what we consider as maturtity. If maturtity is defined as sacrificing beloved things or repressing/denying feelings so as to "let go" and "move on," then perhaps the emotionally undeveloped and damaged are not the people who still cleave to childish things but rather the people who are denying themselves the joy of the things that they love because the things are no associated with "adulthood."

Holding on to the feelings born in me during childhood makes me a more highly developed and sophisticated person not less so. I am not cutting away beloved aspects of my life and repressing feelings of love and affection. Instead, I embrace these parts of myself and work to keep all aspects of my psyche in balance.
Balance is key. Being lost in the animistic universe and neglecting responsibility is immature, though there are times to be lost in that peaceful, loving, and accepting world, again as explored in the Jill Bolte Taylor videos that I shared in T-shirt #161. My history with teddy bears does not make me less of a man, but rather it makes me a stronger man. I am a man who is not afraid of his feelings, not afraid to make himself vulnerable by showing love, expressing love, and ultimately, accepting love from others.

Some may argue that I was clinging to childhood and not moving forward with my life. There may be some truth to that claim, but, still, life changed around me, life continued to flow, and I flowed with it. I always vowed to myself that I would not give up the teddy bears until I was ready. Ultimately, I did stop sleeping with them, but only when I was comfortable with the decision and ready to move into a new phase of expressing love and affection with the love of my life, my wife, Liesel.

Of course, and now, ALSO, I have a puppy with whom I can snuggle.

Last thought that did not fit in with the flow in the text above: My sister is seven years younger than me. Because of the difference in our ages, I became her entertainer, her story teller, which is in part why I like to tell stories and in part why she likes to read stories so much. When we were working together to select a few stuffed animals for her to take with her on a family vacation, I invented a story that would provide a running narrative for most of her childhood.

I created the Protectors Five and Company, a crack-jack team of super-powered stuffed animals and dolls that were guardians for me and my sister when travelling with our parents, who were secret agents for the government posing as an architect and his wife. Since my sister had more than five dolls, I added the "and company" as other animals and/or dolls would guest star along with the core group of five, such as the Camel with the Wrinkly Knees or Evinrude the Dragon. The core group of five consisted of Benji, the dog; Baby Dreams, who was sort of modeled on Miss Piggy; Paddington Bear; Snoopy; and Scooby Doo. I created many stories for my sister by acting out detailed and involved narratives during our trips and keeping her entertained, especially on long car rides. I typed out some of these stories and even illustrated others in a comic book format with my sister, as we would alternate doing the art work for the pages.

I hope she thinks fondly of these stories and these times. I know I do.

We could all use the Protectors Five and Company in our lives, and, really, that's the whole point I am trying to make today about stuffed animals and teddy bears.

Protectors, all.

Check out these relevant videos from Free to Be You and Me and one more: "Love is the Answer."

Free To Be...You And Me

Free To Be You and Me - William Wants A Doll

Love is the Answer

- chris tower - 1309.03 - 8:54

T-shirt #165: Sectionals 2002

T-shirt #165: Sectionals 2002

This is a shirt I designed, with the aid of Kent Elliott, for the Michigan Sectionals Tournament in 2002.

For some unknown reason, foolishly, I became Sectionals Coordinator for a few years.

It should come as no surprise that I always made it a priority to make T-shirts to sell as I was not the only one who liked souvenirs of special events like Ultimate tournaments.

I am continuing a run of shorter blog posts and easy posts, cribbing highlights from some Internet searching, in order to save time and allow me the lead time I need to create some more involved and longer posts. Though looking at my closet, I am concerned that I may be a bit more than halfway through my T-shirts even before I am halfway through the year by date. The half way point is coming up between shirts #182 and #183. This leaves me about 20 short if I am halfway or a bit past now. And there's still shirts in boxes and a trickling in of new shirts, so I might make it. And my estimation may be off. Just in case, you needed this update. :-)

I showed off one of my other creations in T-shirt #141 with a shirt from Centrals 2002.

The disc I am holding displays the UPA "rule" called "The Spirit of the Game," though now the organization is called "USA Ultimate," and I am less impressed with this name.

"Spirit of the Game" is one of the reasons I love playing Ultimate.

Excerpts from the Official Rules of Ultimate: 11th Edition

From the Preface: "The integrity of Ultimate depends on each player's responsibility to uphold the Spirit of the Game, and this responsibility should remain paramount."

From Section 1. Introduction, item B. "Spirit of the Game. Ultimate relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play. Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate unsportsmanlike conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting opposing players, dangerous aggression, belligerent intimidation, intentional infractions, or other 'win-at-all-costs' behavior are contrary to the Spirit of the Game and must be avoided by all players."

Spirit of the Game sets Ultimate apart from other competitive team sports. For over 30 years, Ultimate has flourished, reaching a highly competitive level, without the use of referees. In Ultimate, the honor system works. Sure, human nature rears its ugly head from time to time - just as in any sport, just as in life. Yet, one of the many beauties of Ultimate is how, even amid the most difficult of situations, utmost graciousness is allowed to meet that challenge head on. Through this balance, Ultimate players are free to demonstrate the most honorable and the most joyous sides of human nature in sport.

Most Ultimate players care deeply about Spirit of the Game. The organizational challenge for USA Ultimate is to foster an environment where the challenge does not become,"to see what I can get away with". Rather than dictate what Spirit of the Game is or should be, it is up to each player to do so for him or herself within the context of the teams he or she plays with and against.

BENDIS! TUMBLR - "Food for Thought"

Forgotten masterpiece from EC Comics writer Jack Oleck (writer) and Al Williamson (artist).
Originally published in EC Comics' November 1955 issue of Incredible Science Fiction #32 under the title "Food for Thought."

Just as a point of order, Jack Oleck is a hero of mine for writing the Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror novelizations that accompanied the 1970s films. And Al Williamson is, well, he's AL WILLIAMSON. Google his images. Damn good stuff.

Al Williamson died in 2010. Mark Evanier on Al Williamson's life.

Al Williamson Tribute. (This is a very cool blog of weekly "Pulp" drawings by renowned artist Francesco Francavilla: chck it out!)

This story has nothing to do with Ultimate but how many EC Comics shirts do I own?

I think I need a closing Al Williamson image to drive home how awesome he was.

- chris tower - 1309.02 - 9:01

T-shirt #164: Felix the Cat

T-shirt #164: Felix the Cat and random nonesuch

 Hello and happy Sunday. Welcome to September.

Here's an odd thing.

Today's shirt was a gift from my step-daughter's boyfriend, Mr. Adam Kemp, a young man whom I hold in high regard and think is "da bomb." In other words, I think he's an amazing person, and I am proud to be associated with him. I also think that his relationship with Piper shows what high quality people they both are.

Anyway, Adam gave me this shirt as a gift for a Christmas or birthday, not sure which, knowing I liked comics and cartoons and suspecting that a Felix the Cat shirt would be a good gift. He was right. What he did not know is that I am not really a very devoted Felix the Cat fan. I know Felix the Cat, and I have some experience with the character. But I am not really a big fan. AND YET, I own a Felix the Cat toy (as seen in the photos). Adam could not have known that owned this toy as it was cleverly hidden in my parents house. And yet he bought me the shirt.

Is Adam Kemp psychic?

Okay, there's the thought of the day.

I am restricting myself to brevity in an attempt to get ahead and work out some longer future entries.

So, this is all the text I have for you today, and I will conclude with something I spotted on Tumblr last night while growing ever sleepier reading comics and watching the TIGERS crush the Indians (Yay!!).

ENJOY.

HAPPY SUNDAY.

FROM DILAUDID TUMBLR:
Via Fledgling Phoenix

That's all and that's enough.
Isn't that awesome?
Bye.

- chris tower - 1309.01 - 11:31