band tees

On 6music tonight Steve Lamacq was endorsing the idea of band t-shirt day; a day when all of us who spent our teenage years collecting band t-shirts unite to dig one out and wear it to work. I think the point of this was probably that those of us old enough to remember The Inspiral Carpets would have long grown out of this habit, which isn't strictly true in my case; in recent years I've picked up several band tees, inspired not so much by showing off my allegiances but rather the fact that they seem to be so well designed these days. And I'm afraid I still wear them to work, so band t-shirt day might not be such an event for me. Nevertheless, it did make me think about some of the band t-shirts I've bought over the years.

- Aged about 14 or so I went to see The House of Love at Middlesex University, escorted, I'm afraid to say, by my father. They were wonderful, as you might expect, but my strongest memory of the evening is of leafing through a pile of bootleg tees laid out on the grass outside the venue. The ones I fixed on were two old, faded, but wonderfully exotic and eccentric Cure t-shirts; riotous colours against, of course, black. I remember making my dad buy me them, and the misty, musty smell of them, cold to the touch and still a little damp from the wet grass.
- At Mile End, watching Blur in 1995, I missed the entire Cardiacs set (I know!) so that I could queue up for a pint of beer and a t-shirt; the beer I quickly spilt, weaving my way back through the crowd, and the t-shirt (dark blue with the band logo across the front) I lost long before the end of the gig. Ah well.
- At a different Blur gig someone offered to swap me their Bluetones t-shirt for my vintage Nike t-shirt. Of course I refused, glowing in the knowledge that I possessed an enviable tee. In retrospect, I think it was one of my mum's old t-shirts which I liberated from her drawer.
- Much more recently, I bought a really nice Midlake t-shirt at a gig in Brighton; I was very pleased with it indeed. At the end of the show I handed it to Anne-Sophie for a moment so that I could nip to the loo. When I returned it was covered with marker pen doodles, as AS had thoughtfully asked each member of the band to draw an animal on it for me. This was good. But as a consequence I've never worn the t-shirt. Bah.

new shoes

My new shoes are inching past the hurting-my-feet stage, thankfully, so I am beginning to have affectionate feelings towards them. I just sat in front of the television drawing one of them, so absorbed that I didn't even get round to getting up and turning Casualty off, which is absorbed indeed.And here they really are, on the end of my legs.

handmade dresses

Thought I'd post a photo of these nice dresses, which my mum made for my girlfriend this week; they're simple but very lovely and there's something really great about knowing that they are handmade and one-offs - no-one else in the world has them. Great.

gemma correll

Really in love with the drawings on this blog; they're incredibly cute and appealing. The author, Gemma Correll, is an illustator based in Norwich. According to her profile, her interests are "mexico, circus freaks, screen prints, cats, kittens, kitsch, language, flamenco dancers and vintage adverts".

Here's one of her drawings, please do go and have a look at some of her others, they're really ace:

And you can buy a t-shirt she's designed here. I'm going to order one.

bird t-shirt

Here's another bit of lomo photography, this one on slide film and cross-processed. What you can't see, sadly, is that my t-shirt is a fetching shade of pastel pink. On the occasions when I have worn it to work, people have laughed. But I hold my head high.

fashion and race

This is Hadley Freeman in today's Guardian:

"A disturbing problem has appeared on the catwalks this season. It is one that suggests the fashion industry has not just a warped but a fully offensive mentality when it comes to judging how women should look. It is a problem that has been simmering for some time, but because talking about it might offend the designers and scare off lucrative advertising accounts, hardly anyone has spoken out - and things have only got worse. We now have a situation that could lead to serious problems not only for some models, but for the public as a whole, making millions of women feel ugly, undesirable and simply wrong. And no, this is not about weight - it's about race."

Read more here.

links clearout continued

Just a few verrrry quick links:

Dave's blog has had a nice re-design which is worth a look - it's all in aid of Guy and Dyson. If you wanna know who they are, click on the link.

Everytime I see Anne-Sophie she shouts "you've got a new t-shirt!", which is, shamefully, often true - but it's got to the point where I really can't justify buying any more. It's lucky, then, that most of the t-shirts which really caught my eye over at Threadless are sold out in my size! Very lucky indeed. Still - you can go and buy some t-shirts; Al over at Gromblog has been.

There's a sale on t-shirts at Kill Rock Stars, too.

I was a slow starter with the White Stripes - I didn't see the big deal at all for years, and then saw them play a revelatory live set (on the TV, not in the flesh) which was just astonishing and which converted me completely. Except the next day I forgot about it and haven't thought of them since. It's funny that they don't appeal to me, cause they're the kind of band I like. But no, nothing. Anyway, their new album is out soon, and here's a link to evidence of Jack White behaving like a dick.

Lastly, he's not that fashionable I guess, but I like Ben Kweller. Elsewhere I note with only the slightest interest that the Smashing Pumpkins (who were very briefly brilliant around the time of Gish) are back together, touring and recording once more. No high hopes for their comeback, nor fond memories of their major label career. But I did listen to their 'Today' a lot many years ago, so the cover version of that song being streamed over at Ben Kweller's myspace page is probably worth a listen. (via)

That's it for now. My bookmarks folder is looking a bit more managable now, thank god.