Ramblings From Justin Penney

Plain black T-Shirts. Plain black, manly, tough, man shaped T-shirts. I don't want them stretchy. I don't want them ribbed. I don't want a V-neck. I don't want them to be extra long. I don't want them roomy. I awnt a plain old american T-Shirt... in black please.

I used to buy the Fruit of the Loom pocket T's at Wal-Mart. I don't shop at Wal-Mart anymore but the last package I bought they had changed. They were now extra long (to stay tucked in), the fabric was different and the cut was roomier. All of this is garment industry speak for suck. All my "classic" T's are wearing out. And they are slowly disappearing, which is a euphanism for my wife throwing them away on laundry day because they have big assed holes in the armpits.

I bought one shirt from the Gap a long time ago (4 years or so). The fit was awesome. The dye sucked. It had a dark line where my seatbelt sat. From the small amount of time in the car the rest of the shirt had gotten bleached out to dingy "off black" around the seat belt. It looked like it had a weird built in sash.

Tonight I tried: Old Navy, Target, Gap, Sears (about three different brands), Abercrombie and Fitch (I never knew whether I was in a store or not, they actually looked closed because of the low lighting), and The Jones Store (Hanes, Jockey and Calvin Klein). The small in Calvin Klein was the closest but I'm not in the right kind of shape for a shirt that tight. The medium was an extra long tent.

What's up with the size inflation anyway? I've been a medium all of my adult life (which means 7th grade). I can, and do, still wear the leather motorcycle jacket I got when I was 13. I haven't been changing size that much but now I'm down to smalls... even though I've gained weight in the last 13 years and they are slowly becoming tents on me. Does it really injure a persons self esteem so much if they have to buy a large? If you're bigger, you're bigger. If you're a fat ass, you're a fat ass. If you're a twig, eat a sammich!

Lily was with me and was exceptionally good. And she wanted to go to this Club Libby Lu store. It's chock full of pastel, glittery, fuzzy, frilly girly stuff. The girl working came up and said, "Hi." to me and then turned to Lily and said something to the effect of, "Hey girlfriend, do you want to make a fairy wish, I'll sprinkle you with fairy dust." At which point she took this poofy thing out of her apron and drizzled glitter on to Lily. Then Lily had to turn around, tuch her nose and slap high five.

Oh yeah... the rock and roll revival is dead. Sorry, I'm as sad as you are. Every store was overflowing with shirts emblazoned with AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. Rock is having it's 15 minutes of irony and the shirts are selling like crazy.

The Gap was playing a song off the new Decemberists record. In the latest Spin there's a quote from Ben Gibbard:

You find a band you like, and then the kid down the street who beat you up and took your lunch money also likes that band. To all of a sudden become that band for some people is an interesting position.

# posted by Justin @ 10:17 PM