T-shirt logo

I was wondering if anyone was going to comment on the current header to the blog, and in the previous post I sort of got one. Allen informs me his girlfriend works at the Downhome Shop and Gallery in St. John's and someone popped in over the weekend looking for a Townie Bastard t-shirt.

I admit, I laughed at this quite a bit. And not maliciously. People have suggested I make them before, but this is the first time I've heard of someone actually taking the time to wander around downtown looking for that kind of shirt. It's all kinds of cool to me.

The TB hat in the header is not, in fact, a new line of Townie Bastard clothing. It came about through a trip in a Wal-Mart in Florida. Cathy and I were wandering through the store, once again questioning the wisdom of making one of Wal-Mart's superstores our first stop out as they tend to be massively overwhelming.

Anyway, we're walking past men's clothing and Cathy notices a t-shirt with a stylized TB on it. And she says, "Oh look, Townie Bastard."

That causes me to do a double take. Because, of course, all I saw was the logo for the Tampa Bay Rays. To give you an idea, here's a pictures of the two of us that I like. It's on the beach, at sunset. I'm wearing a Rays shirt.



So yeah, just to go and prove that my wife is occasionally much more clever than I am, she noticed that and I never would have in a million years.

Except now we're rolling. A couple of days later we went to see the Rays vs. Orioles and naturally they have a store selling Rays stuff. I managed to only buy a hat and a toque. Cathy bought a pair of TB earrings. With some effort we put back the teddy bear. Although I've also acquired the above Rays shirt and also another plain t-shirt with TB on it.

So yes, I have my own, very unofficial line of Townie Bastard clothing, courtesy of the Tampa Bay Rays.

But now there's at least one person wandering around downtown St. John's looking for Townie Bastard clothing. And hey, I'd love to have a proper Townie Bastard shirt or whatever. But I don't think it's enough to just put the words on a shirt. I think there needs to be some kind of design work to go along with it. I like what Warren Ellis has been doing the last few months - having one of his friends design a t-shirt of the week based on some random saying of his. There are a lot of fun ones there that I'm deeply tempted to buy (Space Bastard, Science Gangster and Cocktail Recipe are the ones I'm tempted by).

So I think a design is kind of needed to go with the saying. Then I would probably put it up on Cafe Press and sell it for anyone who wanted one. Jennifer thoughtfully offered up the design she used for my Nunies mug, but I think as nice as a polar bear holding a laptop is, it doesn't really scream St. John's and bastardness, which is kind of what's needed here.

So if someone wants to design something, and I like it, we can work something out for the "profits" the sale of any such shirt would make. Which I suspect would be minimal. But hey, it would be nice to have my own t-shirt instead of borrowing from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Last Five
1. The bends - Radiohead*
2. The first time - U2
3. Low - Coldplay
4. Banquet - Bloc Party
5. Christmas Eve - Spirit of the West