This is a first. I’m telling you about a shirt that I don’t have yet. But it’s fitting, and it’s timely. Yesterday Michael Jackson died. Say what you will about his weird physical appearance or his questionable/erratic behavior in the last few years, but Michael Jackson was an undeniable creative genius.
A few hours after his death was announced, TeeFury has came out with a tribute shirt to Michael Jackson. Subtle, but a definite nod to The King of Pop. It depicts their logo, the TeeFury bird, wearing MJ’s trademark hat, moonwalking, yet shedding a tear.
The write up is this:
Regardless of whether you liked him or not, he is, was, and will be an enduring world wide icon, a Legend. Those of us who grew up with his life in our peripheral vision through the power of mass media will no doubt recognize that his passing will leave some impact on us, even if it is only for a short time until the next big news.
But I think the best and most poignant statement I could summarize came from my cousin Baron, who tweeted:
Timeless music is exactly that, fan or not everybody knows the words. A piece of my childhood died today.
I talked with Baron last night, and I remembered taking the middle leaf out of the kitchen table, to use it to practice moonwalking on a slick surface. Ha! Michael Jackson definitely inspired many.
Living in the Midwest, we may not have the mountains or the beaches of other parts of the country, but we also don’t have many of the headaches and dangers that come with those areas. We don’t have to put up with the constant rain of the Northwest. We don’t have to fear the earthquakes of the west coast (at least not too often). And the hurricanes of the south and east coast simply don’t affect us much at all.
HOWEVER….uncommon as it might seem, and not too widely spoken about, is the Prairie Squid.
Now, before you say “Oh, Brent! Those aren’t real!” Take a look at the shirt of the day. You can see how real they are, and how serious the danger could be. At least if you’re an unsuspecting farmer from Kansas, Oklahoma, or Nebraska. Driving a steam-powered tractor.
As I have said before, I like shirts that have an absurd feel or scene to it. Like the complete juxtaposition of a giant sea creature in the middle of our country, living in land-locked prairie. Prairie Squid is a scene of an old-time farmer and his antiquated tractor being mauled by this mythical creature. The line work and detail is wonderful, and the coloring on the shirt is very well done. The golden brown is shaded just right to give a dusty, dirty feel to the prairie squid.
I get lots of comments when I wear this, and I love to keep a straight face and speak of the danger that the prairie squid represents. Like “Oh, you don’t know? You’ve never heard of those???”
There’s really only one word to describe it: Badass. I love black shirts, and I love the Sci Fi genre. Combine them into this great design by Steven Tu. This design actually has 5 different references to it. Wanna try and find them all? I think a couple are obvious, like Darth Vader and Terminator, but let me know if you see the other three…
This is a very new shirt to me, but it’s already one of my favorites. As a matter of fact- as of this writing, I got this shirt in the mail yesterday, and I’m wearing it right now.
Completely and utterly epic.
As a matter of fact, while looking at this shirt, you need to be listening to this:
I said Tentacle Tiger. Whaddya mean they don’t exist?!!!
Um, yeah they do – check it out.
Today’s shirt of the day is named Tentacle Tiger. It’s a beastly design I picked up from TeeFury a while ago. The designer is Melita Curphy, but prefers MissMonster, and – as her name suggests, specializes in designing quite other-worldly creatures. This creature seems to be an amalgamation of a tiger, octopus, snake, and possibly chameleon. Just a cute little fellow that’ll eat ya for dinner.
This one works so well because of the colors. I love the dark navy blue, with the dark green on it, and the small bits of orangey-yellow just pop off the shirt. Plus, as I’ve said before, I am a huge fan of varying placements, and the over-the-shoulder placement on this just completely kicks. Like the tiger is caught mid-jump.
If you want this design you’re out of luck, as TeeFury has their designs up for only 24 hours. Maybe I’ll let you wear mine if you promise not to drop any mustard on it, or snag it on barbed wire during your escape…
Out of all the shirts I have (the number shall remain unknown), I own only one white shirt. This is it. Just as a general rule, I do not like white shirts. For many reasons, really, but I just don’t own any. Except this one. Today’s Shirt of the Day is titled Underwater Flight 2. Not sure about the “2″, as I don’t think was a second-generation, or a newer version of Underwater Flight 1. Maybe it just makes it sound cool. The designer is A.J. Dimarucot, also known as collisiontheory. Besides having a cool pseudonym, collisiontheory designs some of the baddest shirts around. Besides those, he also designed ManBat, previously reviewed here.
Anyway, I broke part of my own personal code when I bought this white shirt because it is just really cool. I love the largeness of the print, and gives the feel that the jellyfish are stretching and reaching far away. I also love the visual treatment, giving the feel of the jellyfish, almost a haunting flight under water. Just floating along, whispy, tentacled, and will almost put you in a dreamlike state if you watch for very long. Just be careful, they’ll zap ya good.
I just remembered I have a bloggable website to put stuff on! Sorry it’s been so long, I’ll post much more frequently. As part of my lameness, here are my best excuses for not posting in over a week:
* A bear ate my laptop.
* I had joined the French Foreign Legion, and they didn’t have wireless.
* I contracted swine flu, bird flu, and the flu flu
* I lost several fingers due to a freak accident with the paper shredder at work.
* I am loving the chubby little dancing kid that I wanted it to be the top post forever.
