"Clothes make the Man...."

….which is why naked people are never taken seriously.” (Mark Twain)

I bought a long-sleeve shirt the other day……from the Gap. It looks something like this: 

I’m a little ashamed to admit I bought this, but I can’t quite put my finger on why.

• Am I worried about that shopping at The Gap makes me conformist?
• Am I worried that this is a sign I’m becoming more & more superficial?
• Or am I worried that I’m trying to be something that I’m not?

 (Probably all of the above)

Shopping at places like the Gap / Urban Outfitters / some thrift store comes with certain stigmas of being a preppie / poser / hipster type. I used to worry about this in college (not high school though; I just wore whatever my mom picked out for me back then) and stayed away from those places so that I wouldn’t be “labeled.” Instead, I bought all my shirts from online stores and various places that sold ‘specially made shirts’ in hopes of being thought of as ‘an individual.’ I noticed that these were the kinds of clothes that had designs on them which made me stand out, whereas “designer” clothing did not that made other people blend in with the crowd. (Weird, rite?)

So I think these are (for the most part) valid concerns because my appearance” is a very important part of I am; it’s the part that people see the most and, consequently, rely on to get an accurate judge of who the rest of “me” is. And since my wardrobe is one of the two things about my appearance I can actually control, (the other being ‘my hair.’) I think buying clothes from The Gap says the wrong thing about me (that I’m rich, vain, etc.)

But on the other hand, there’s really nothing wrong with buying shirts from the Gap. A lot of perfectly normal (& awesome) people do it too. True, people are going to make certain assumptions about me for shopping there, but aren’t I a little old to be worrying about what clique I fall under these days? And shouldn’t I *want* people to realize that I can now afford to shop at nice stores instead of where I used to go? (Target)

And for that matter, aren’t I a little old to be wearing shirts with funny designs on them? (Maybe)

……

………

………..

…………… this is an awful lot of thought to come out of me buying a shirt, isn’t it?

Sorry that this was another odd / boring(?) post. I just had to get this all out “on paper” and thought it would make a good blogpost at the time.   

THIS SHIRT

WHERE CAN I FIND IT??? 

I've got a small collection of 'awesome' shirts like this.  A bunch of them are from Amorphia Apparel, but I find similar ones every once in a while on the merchandise pages of the webcomic sites I read. 

I saw this one the other day at the 826LA Time Travel Mart (in Echo Park); but they only had it in a kid's / girl's medium. 

So I tried looking up the text online ("All my friends are dead") and found the design on Etsy - but here's where the trail ends & the drama begins: 

Apparently, the shirt design (or something similar) was being sold by rival t-shirt companies and a huge debate arose over who ripped off who. 

So now, maybe it doesn't exist anymore???  That would suck. 

DOES ANYONE OWN THIS SHIRT / KNOW WHERE I CAN GET IT?? 

**EDIT 8/19/10**
So if you read the comments, you'll see that the designer of the (above) shirt found this blog & told me how I could buy it!  I had to put a little work into "tracking it down" (i.e. calling a store in S.F. called Little Otsu that carried it) but I think it was worth it. 

Many Thanks to the people at Little Otsu Publishing & Avery Monsen of Big Stone Head! 

My weekend - the Good

My schedule this past weekend was pretty jam-packed, so I’m gonna post this in sections:

PART I - THE GOOD
(mostly pics)

The weekend started off with a few evening festivities: my friend, Ryan, was having a birthday party that started off with dinner at Agra Café. The food was pretty tasty (and soft, which was very nice for me and my new braces) and surprisingly filling for what didn’t seem like a whole lot when we ordered it. I also got him this shirt since he shares my love of “cool t-shirts” (we all should, amIrite?). I originally thought about getting him a new sleeping bag (he’s really into camping right now and mentioned his current sleeping bag sucks) but good thing I asked (leading me to go with the shirt) because the ones he’s been looking at cost over $100!


Unfortunately, Carol & I had to leave the birthday festivities early because our old college buddy, Warren, was hosting a goodbye party at Mccabe’s that same night. We got there in time to celebrate the memory of Warren’s life in L.A., but unfortunately forgot our cameras to commemorate the event. (Although Warren’s facebook status the next day “Warren regained consciousness in a bathtub. Fortunately it was not filled with ice and I have all my kidneys," should give you an idea of how drunk everyone got)

The next day (Saturday) I hung out with Dario at Unique L.A. It was pretty interesting – here’s some pictures to help you see what I mean:






Bought a shirt, too!

From

Popcasualty

Afterwards, I decided to finish my Saturday night off at the Pasadena Ballroom to see Stompy Jones play. (Always a good time! No pix, though – too busy dancing)

Finally, I woke up early on Sunday to attend the L.A. Times Festival of Books panels – there was one on Publishing (Editors Speak Out) & another on adapting books to movies (Page & Screen) that I attended.

The Publishing panel was pretty interesting – they talked a lot about how technology and a writer’s ability to “self-publish” has affected the Editing & Publishing industries and answered a lot of questions from the crowd.

Not mine, though (ran out of time). I think it would’ve been a good question, though: I wanted to ask what they thought of writers posting their work on their blogs: good idea? Bad idea? Does it matter?

Oh well. Here’s some pictures of a few things that went on at the Festival: