Sunday, June 03, 2007

The Glarkware collection

Today's entry in The Clothing Project is my series of Glarkware t-shirts.

These shirts all come from the Internet store Glarkware.com, which I first heard about when I started reading TV show recaps at Television without Pity.com back in 2000. Glark is the husband of one of the writers/entrepreneurs that created TWOP. I perused the website from time to time and enjoyed the design styles of the shirts and the fact that many of them were TV related--as we'll get to as we break down each shirt.

(By the way, you can always access Glarkware from the red button link on the right side of my blog. I recommend you peruse not only to find yourself a nice bit of snarky fun, but also to enjoy the imaginative descriptions that go with each shirt.)

You can also say that the year 2000, Glarkware and TWOP marked my first honest embrace of the Internet and what sort of information I was able to access and identify with. It isn't surprising that this coincided with the first time I was ever sitting in front of a computer enabled with high speed Internet for the first time in my life. This was, of course, when I got my job, which demanded that I be in front of a computer all day long. So, this, in total, was a defining period in who I currently am right now.

My first shirt is the orange 70s sci fi tee:

I bought this one back in 2001 I think, because I've been a science fiction throughout my life. I liked the sarcastic reference to old sci fi TV shows such as "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" which featured interior decorating that consisted of honeycomb patterned walls made up of interlocking hexagons. But, what I really liked about this shirt was that you had to think about it to understand what it was saying. So, it's a test of your nerdy coolness.

I will also regret that I didn't purchase a T-shirt that simply said NOT A ROBOT, but did so in the seventies era BG font. It was a brown shirt with gold letters, reminiscent of the color palette of the Lorne Green sci fi saga. Since I watched the original as a kid and am a big fan of the new Sci Fi channel version, this was the perfect t-shirt for me, but it was discontinued before I convinced myself to buy it. Bring it back Glark!

My second shirt is one of the most interesting ones. The Rambaldi shirt:

This shirt is a shout out to ABC's "Alias", the J.J. Abrams show that I loved BEFORE I loved "LOST."

The text reads--The Rambaldis, Central Intelligence Agency. In very small type below the swoosh is U.S. Gov. Inter Agency Baseball League. On the back of this shirt is a player number which is (what else?) the number 47.

I love this shirt because, again, you have to be in on the joke to full get it. (I guess I'm a real TV snob, aren't I?) But, I have always been a big fan of "Alias" and faithfully watched each episode--good and bad. And the Rambaldi episodes and plots were always the most interesting and the most perplexing. I'm a great fan of J.J. Abrams and his TV shows--warts and all. Much of what happened in "Alias" is now happening in "Lost." Mysterious beginnings, multiple plots that sometimes don't get resolved happily (if at all). But I have to say that I love the journey and his shows engage my imagination in ways that typical shows simply do not. (Having said all of that, I really am intrigued with how Abrams is going to handle the upcoming Star Trek movie that he is working on. Sign me up!)

Speaking of Mr. Abrams and "Lost", my next T-SHIRT is simply that:

This one pays homage to Television without Pity AND "Lost" at the same time. Purchased during the Hatch-centric second season of "Lost," this shirt bears the TWOP mascot (Tubey) within the Dharma Initiative glyph that can be found in each of the Dharma stations. The white color and the generic T-SHIRT moniker refer to the Dharma-brand food that is occasionally dropped from hot air balloon onto Mystery Island. So, I generally like to eat "chocolate cream cookies" and Apollo candy bars while wearing this shirt and watching "Lost." This is what I call "Wild Wednesday Night."

Please don't call during Wild Wednesday Night. As you can see, this is when I cut LOOSE!

My last shirt and my most recent Glarkware purchase has nothing to do with television. I bought it on the strength of its visual alone:

Isn't that just cool? What's better than a nun (with sexy red lipstick) wielding nun chucks and preparing to battle for the Lord? Well, I made that last part up, I guess, but it is a pretty funny image. Elements of it remind me of Sally Field's Flying Nun outfit and if I were to be truly honest, I could imagine Sydney Bristow donning this habit to battle some Rambaldi artifact out of a convent in Rome. So, I guess there is more television connections to this than I thought . . . even if I am supplying those connections myself.

The first time I wore this shirt publically, it was to a Lenten bible study dinner at our current church. I admit it was somewhat intentional. I am too much of a clothing grandstander for my own good, I think. Lynda was vocally disapproving of my wearing it when we prepared to leave, but that didn't stop her from pulling me over to our priest as soon as we arrived to point me out. I don't know if she was hoping for an excommunications or what. (Fr. Rick is a former Catholic, thought you don't need to be Catholic to appreciate or disapprove of this shirt.)

Just to be clear. I have never attended Catholic schools--though my mom did. (Gotta get a mom reference into each Clothing Project post, I guess.) I am certain that none of the nuns in Kentucky ever wielded nun chucks to get my mom to learn her multiplication tables. They did, however, force her to eat bread pudding once.

Not having experienced the fabled nun treatment, I have always viewed that, very typical and familiar stereotype of the ruler-slapping nun to be a bit of a stereotype and have grown tired of it. And PLEASE don't ask me what I thought of the idea of Sister Act/Sister Act 2. Never seen them and never will.

But, I grew up a big fan of The Sound of Music and have been religious all of my life.

So, as usual, I'm full of contradictions and half truths.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

1) thanks for the return to life-affirming, fashion-forward blogging. sorry you had a bad Saturday, but hopefully Monday will be cool enough for a soul-refreshing sweater vest or something.
2) bread pudding is awesome. what gives, Mrs. M.?
3) thanks for the t-shirt recap. your closest competition is Raisinette, but you're still far in the lead. i gave my "he's not my president" t-shirt to Cordelia, so now i've got nuthin.
4) it'll be fun to wear the Rambaldi t-shirt in several years and see who gets it.
5) i know your blog header is fairly chic---if that's possible in an allcap serif kind of way---but you should really consider employing that 70s font up there. think about it!