12 May 2008

T- Shirts: An appreciation

I was musing to myself last night about what next to blog about. So many people can blog on lots of subjects under the sun at a moment's notice and I am mighty envious of them - I am only able to write when I am inspired to. I was quite busy over the weekend doing work for Amnesty International and before I left the house, in the morning on Saturday, I was greatly saddened by the news of the death of one of Ireland's finest souls and a damned good writer, I refer,of course, to Nuala O Faolain. I'd like to dedicate the following blog to her memory - Nuala I never met you but I always respected your writing, something many people (including myself) will struggle to emulate. RIP.

Anyway we shouldn't dwell on sad events. It is sunny outside and I think it is quite appropriate to talk about T - Shirts. I bought my first T-Shirt in Dunnes in 1988 when Ireland beat England in the European Championships in Stuttgart. It was a T- Shirt with a picture of Ray Houghton's famous goal being scored and with IRELAND 1 ENGLAND 0 underneath the photo. Later that summer I was in London filing records (LP's, 7' and 12' singles as well as Picture discs) and I dared not bring the holy shirt with me, mindful of Anglo - Irish relations at the time ( the chuckle bros were a duo of sourpusses at that time in our history!)

Following that famous T- Shirt, I continued to spend above my budget getting varied shirts such as: Malcolm X (a picture with Malcolm holding an assault rifle whilst looking out the window of his living room) I loved that one but it ended up fading away after a few washes - I was gutted. Other T- Shirts I owned over the years included: Sonic Youth (the goo era one), Nirvana, Leatherface, Man - or? Astro-man?, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, The Delgados to name just a few. A great way of remembering a good concert or band is to buy a T- Shirt and, of course, teenagers are only too happy to change into one as soon as they extricate themselves from college or school at the end of the day. Someone is licking their lips and whistling all the way to the bank from selling T- Shirts to the nation's youth. They'll probably never go out of fashion.

Probably my most expensive T-Shirt was a White Stripes one I got at a gig in 2004 and it cost me E12. One of the things that annoys me about these fashion item's is the price and I am determined only to buy ones that cost less than around E15. No need to go to River Island and spend E40 on an average one when you can get a decent one for about a quarter of the price in Dunnes or Penneys.

Hiding flab is another brilliant reason for wearing such an item. My uncle (I'm trying to be kind here) often passed on T-Shirts to me - mostly because they were too small for him but ended up being to large for me. Whenever I tried them on I would look like a teenager wearing a dress. Don't get me wrong they are brilliant - but, people, getting the right size is important. I would love to be able to say that I have a svelte figure but it really wouldn't be true. However a large size can work wonders to hide that portruding belly. In my case it's the tight T- Shirts that I have to avoid.

Damaged T's can be hell. With me frayed necks are the most common problems but also some become fodder for moths making holes appear in the fabric. I can remember reading an interview in the Independent (UK edition) with John Peel where he spoke about his wretched Diabetes and the fact he had to inject himself everyday with insulin to keep the condition at bay. Where did he inject? through his T-shirt of course. Very discreet but the t-shirt would be full of holes (even if they were minute holes),not to mention the stains of blood.

Most of my T-Shirts are round necks but I do have a few v necks and I like the fact that you can move between the two different styles and they still look quite good. As a bloke most of my T-Shirts are dark colours but I don't mind lighter colours, including a Pink one (I usually make sure I'm not near a football fan as that is not a particularly manly colour).

I should say at this point that I own in the region of about 50 such shirts at the moment - more than is healthy for a man my age. I have seen other men of my age wearing said shirts with quite rude slogans emblazoned on them. Try: "Get your tits out for the lads" or "I want a BJ....". Ladies on the other hand are generally more discreet: with a "Hello boys" strategically mounted on their bra area, seems to be their motto of choice.Different subjects occupy T- Shirts: from Ramones (someone I knew once asked me what my favorite band was, when I told her they were the Ramones she asked me questions about them even though she was wearing one of the band's T-Shirts at the time!), to our favorite football teams to Che Guevara. The new leader of our country, Brian Cowen even had a T-Shirt made for him replacing the rugged look of Guevara with a rather pudgy looking revolutionary from Offaly.

Finally let me say that T- Shirts have been around as long as I have lived and I think there is no reason that they should disappear unless the human race loses limbs in the future at an alarming rate or, more realistically, fabric becomes rare. In an Irish context the weather is the main reason why our "cool dudes" may cease to wear them, although when the summer comes I am never out of them. Currently with global warming, I think everyone, regardless of age, will have at least one in their locker. T-Shirt wearers of the world unite...........
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