Where I chronicle the multitudinous array of t-shirts of various pictorials and witty sayings. Also posts of wonderment!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Son of A Warm, Stiff Upper Lip
"Sonouvabitch, another mustache-themed shirt site again?" you bemoan. "Is he retarded? Does he have some sort of facial hair fetish?"
Look. My sexual predilection aside, chalk this one up to mere serendipity. After the e-mail from Mustache and Friends, an e-mail from Fuzzy Ink settled into my in-box and their designs were too good to pass up like a Rhett Butler lookalike shaving.
They even have a coupon code that you have to answer a mustache-related trivia question on to get a discount. That's right, schoozners. You gotta work for your money.
I want to abstain from cracking wise about mustaches and free rides (snigger) so, instead, I'll post about Mustache and Friends doing the unthinkable by verving from their mustache-themed lineup by having 80s Eddie, designed by Derek Deal, for a presale.
Man, was the eighties as horrible as I imagined it to be?
I'm pretty psyched that season 3 of The Venture Bros. returns June 1 but I'm even more psyched that there's even an official shirt club, which has a new episode-specific shirt for each of the 13 weeks of the third season. So once that week is gone, so is that week's shirt.
Shirts cost US$22 per pop (domestic shipping is included) but if you subscribe for the long haul (13 shirts for US$250, you do the math), you also get a free Brock Samson Kodokan Blood Judo t-shirt.
Subscription offer lasts until June 7, 11:59PM (EST). Shirts are printed on AA.
Welcome back from you Memorial Day Long Weekend. I spent mine listening to Old Man Willard telling me tales from his days in the Korean War.
Then I found out that he was actually fighting with the Koreans against the Yanks.
It was an awkward family dinner ever.
In other news, Wooshka has a one dollar sale on their items. Catch is, you need to sign up to be a member in order to qualify for the sale. Still, it's a small price to pay for a small price.
Monies: US$1!!!
Update: actually, you're only allowed one $1 purchase per individual order.
Man, you know what I would geek out over for? Mythbusters. That show is the shit. I would murder a small person just so I can intern for them and test out urban legends and blow stuff up. Alas, that is not to be.
14 Letters, Artists Whose Art is Inspired by the Crosswords
I may not look like it but I dabble in the NYT crosswords whenever I can. I can only finish the puzzles for Monday and Tuesdays. Wednesday is an impasse for me. Thursday beats my brains to the ground. Friday... I give up on Friday.
Not only is Emily Jo Cureton a crossword freak or that she attended this year's American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, she also has a blog that chronicles her art inspired by the daily NYT puzzles by incorporating answers for her art. For example, last Sunday's puzzle begets this...
And this being a t-shirt blog, I would be remiss if I didn't report that you can get some of the designs on shirts Cureton has for sale (see below).
I like art and whenever I see a piece, I like to know the artist's identity. This allows me to keep track of more work coming from the artist. So along came a package from Artcotic, a t-shirt website that gathered well-known artists like Frank Kozik and Todd Slater, you know you'll be getting some primo shirt design.
But first, I like to thank the delivery man, who thought it best to toss my package onto my balcony that I never venture out into because it's covered with leaves and a copious amount of bird crap. Not only did I not immediately find the package (is it that much of an effort not to leave it with the leasing office?) but when I finally did find it, it's already two weeks!
Behold the package.
Behold the contents.
One of these now graces my Macbook.
This is the promo card for Steve Niles' comic book The Sinner. He's also designed a t-shirt on Artcotic. Yeah. I didn't know he draws too.
Bill Sienkiewicz illustrates it and all is right with the world.
Here's the crux of the review - the shirt. I guess, I got this shirt because I lived in Austin and the designer, Christian Helms of The Decoder Ring is situated in Austin.
I like the design, which is really reminiscent of what The Decoder Ring usually do. I'm not entirely sure if the words surrounding the inkwell are lyrics to a What Made Milwaukee Famous song.
Another thing about this shirt is the material of it and how Artcotic choose to make it.
Artcotic shirts tend to run slightly larger than your average AA, so make sure you look at sizing chart. There are also prominent stitchings on the shirt...
... running down the sides...
... around the armpit, at the end of the sleeves...
... near the bottom of the hem. You get the idea. This is an interesting aesthetic choice of the shirt. Too often, I see shirts that are just shirts but Artcotic chose to add some zest in their material. It's not much but it does work.
And Artcotic has a menagerie of artists that does their designs. I've mentioned Christian Helms, Kozik, Niles but that's just scratching the surface. You have David Slade, director of Hard Candy and Liz McGrath and others... these people are no slouches.
There are comments from people, who signed up with Artcotic about the artists' work (though I wish the artists would also comment back) and it goes to show how committed Artcotic is in the "making art for art's sake" mentality.
I was flipping through the telly when I came across this news piece about a bar owner selling a t-shirt with the image of Curious George and the words "Obama '08." While the protesters said the shirt is racist, the bar owner retorted that it's not racist but likens the similarity of the democratic candidate's features to that of the cartoon monkey.
While I see the point of the bar owner, there's also the glaring side of the protesters. Gentle readers, what do you make of this brouhaha? Is this racists or just an unfortunate coincidence?
Our good friend over at Fantastic Bonanza have new shirts for pre-sale and this batch looks better than the last. I like the new direction their art is going - communism and condiments.
Take this gem of a shirt. Mustard is a inherent evil, the scourge of humanity, the blight on the revolution.
If you're not convince, let Rake Yohn of Bam Magera's posse tell you.
With a name like Mediocore Clothing, you think you already have a handle on the lineup but you be surprised.
Jon Kruse, designer and creator of Mediocore (he's also a Lothario that steals your hearts in the night) came up with the missing turtle shirt, which I think is being witty without being pretentious. In fact, the rest of this shirts, Shark Week and Complimentary Colors, are starting to read like Gary Larson's Far Side, which is great, because who doesn't like one-paneled witticism? Nazis, that's who.
Type the coupon code SHIRTONME at the checkout counter for a 10% discount. Currently, all items are pre-ordered but wait on it while Kruse chokes the printing guy for the delay.
PS: The Ryde has chosen their winner for their breast cancer charitee competition. Go buy one so you can make like a Wonderbra and support breasts cancer research.
PSS: On the topic of cancer, this dude Eric Smith was diagnosed with it. He decided to concentrate his efforts to create a line of posters for sale. Proceeds will be given to the Live Strong Foundation. These are not shirts but The Jaunty Scamp likes to support a good cause. Like a Wonderbra.
I've been busy. I originally planned to have a whole week of one word type t-shirts but that has been scuttled. I apologize for people trying to get in touch with me but I've been busy of late. Juggling world domination and chlamydia is never easy (ladies, I kid about the chlamydia).
I like to write, albeit poorly. I'm also do this great trick at parties as a human blockhead. This blog chronicles t-shirts, which I think are cool. I want to spread the word out on these shirts. Spread them... spread them about like super herpes.