T-Shirt of the Day - Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular

The Christmas Spectacular has been a Radio City Tradition since 1933, featuring the Rockettes in full Santa garb (among many other acts). While I like to limit myself to a good viewing of "The Christmas Story" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" each year (and maybe "It's A Wonderful Life") those of us outside of New York City can always display some brazen hard core holiday spirit by venturing to this show that boasts one million plus attendees per year (though not in a single showing, of course).

This t-shirt is an early nineties special, with a "Oneita" tag.

Click here for a full rundown on the Christmas Spectacular.

Tribute To John Lennon

Though nothing to celebrate, this evening marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's untimely passing. When you add this to the loss of John Bonham one might say that (in terms of rock & roll) 1980 was the worst year ever. Not to mention the fact that an entire generation still has beef with "Catcher in the Rye" for reasons beyond required high school reading.

The recent addition of the Beatles' catalog to iTunes may have angered a few, but I for one believe that if a whole new generation is introduced to the "marijuana" of classic rock maybe they will go all the way -- and crazy uncle Ted's record collection will see the light of day for another 20 years. One can only hope - and listen.

The shirt above is from our current selection. Copyrighted "1980" it was probably manufactured sometime earlier in the year. Great old school graphic design and style on a crisp red shirt.

Vintage T-Shirt of the Day and Why You Should Be Wearing a Helmet

Perhaps you remember or at least have been told about the Chicago Bears' best season ever, one in which Ditka reigned supreme and the Bears turned in a 15-1 regular season record. The bare task (yes, a pun) was so monumental that there arose the distinct and specific need for a song to be written. So the world has hidden copies of the "Super Bowl Shuffle" on LP, sealed in plastic and residing in the corners of basements throughout the mid-west, patiently awaiting their week on eBay in hopes of netting their soon to be former owners a sum upon which the working man might modestly retire.

I am going to cheat on this entry, simply because these two shirts go together entirely too well. Sometime before the actual game was played, the 1985 New England Patriots flirted with the notion the they might indeed be the champions of Super Bowl XX. This idea carried its way into a run of T-shirts that were probably promptly disposed of sometime during the evening of January 26, 1986. This one, however, has survived in fantastic condition with an incredible 50/50 soft feel. Lucky for you, both of these items are in our shop at the time of this posting.

Why You Should Be Wearing A (Football) Helmet
Football season is upon us - which essentially means the safety of proper helmet wear can never be underestimated. Helmets protect their users form head damage and injury of all sorts and kinds. They also happen to look fantastic on an old t-shirt, reminding us of seasons long since past and heroes that we wish had never retired. I think the "football helmet" on a super soft 50/50 blend is probably in the "archetypal vintage t-shirt" top ten, which I shall save for a later post.

Game on, my friends, game on.

Bob Hughes Strikes Again - Or Why We We Love Drugstore Cowboy.

To shed a little light on our namesake, we present "Drugstore Cowboy" a 1989 film by Gus Van Sant, in which Bob Hughes (Matt Dillon) lives to steal pharmaceuticals for the purposes of resale and personal use. Though we generally pay for our stock, and prefer high quality vintage threads over hospital grade pain killers (no, really) the rest of the story is generally the same.

We shall spare you the usual plot synopsis, which can be easily constructed by watching the film or by clicking here. Set in Portland, Oregon during the seventies (and mostly filmed on location), Drugstore Cowboy is a delicious avocado green spectacular (complete with browns, rust oranges and ocher golds). The wardrobe selection is fantastic, full of stripes, floral patterns and general polyester goodness. Many of the set pieces resemble various items that have populated a multitude of my own apartment living spaces at one time or another. As a bonus, William S. Burroughs has a fantastic cameo with several minutes of screen time (including speaking parts) which always makes me wish That Gus Van Sant had done "Naked Lunch" rather than David Cronenberg.

The most recent DVD edition of Drugstore Cowboy includes commentary by Van Sant and Dillon, albeit ten years after the actual film was made. The track fills in viewers/listeners on some unanswered questions as well as the Popsicle, Scotch tape, glue and string adventure that is independent film making.

A good viewing of Drugstore Cowboy probably isn't going to change your life - but it will give you something to do besides watching "Deer Hunter" on a rainy Sunday.*

* For those of you that don't know, watching "Deer Hunter" on a rainy Sunday is NOT RECOMMENDED and should only be attempted at your own risk - as a final and very last resort - when the seeking of (any) other means of entertainment has failed (completely).

Vintage T-Shirts on Etsy.com

A recent search for "vintage tshirt" (in the clothing and accessories category) on eBay returned 130,561 results. Not only would this take about a day and a half to sift through, the quantity to quality ratio is very poor. Many "retro" or "distressed" items are included in eBay's results as well as "vintage style" and "replica" items. I consider myself a patient person, but by page 15 things can get a bit discouraging.

 The same search on Etsy.com returns 4,336 results (as of this posting) and by page 4, I have already spotted 4 items that I wouldn't mind making my own - if the house payment weren't due on Tuesday.

Here are a few of my personal favorites: