Landscaping

A little while back, you couldn’t mention the words 'T-shirt' and 'Scotland' in the same sentence without stirring that whole horrible business about the anti-English World Cup clothing line. Well, I’m happy to report that that is all water under a duck’s bridge now, as word of a new T-shirt extravaganza has swept the highlands.

Creative community twohundredby200 based in Scotland have published a news item about my challenge, which you can read here.

As any jigsaw enthusiast will tell you, the optimum approach to completing the picture is to start with the corners and work your way into the middle. I appear to be applying the same tact to press coverage of my challenge, having the South East and London regions on a steady press simmer, and now a slow heat developing way up north.

With any luck, I’ll be in the newsstands of the Midlands by March, and renovating their current T-shirt landscape of racist taco vendors, Nazi dictators and disgruntled policemen.

Day 21

Ever wondered what four patchwork bumblebees bearing crazy grins and flaunting long tentacle-style appendages looks like?
Well thanks to the artwork produced for Mindless Self Indulgence’s “If” album merchandise and my THREEHUNDREDANDSIXTEEFIVE challenge, you can find out today!

Before the wonderful Astoria venue was levelled to make way for London’s Crossrail project, I was fortunate enough to see the band (and many others for that matter) play a headline set here back in 2008. They did not disappoint, delivering a high standard of capers and atrocities in equal measure – a combination that spills over beautifully into the artwork that adorns their merchandise.

I picked this tee up from the merchandise stall at the back of the venue as the artwork on it stood out from the others. It’s a reprint of some of the album inlay artwork designed by Jhonen Vasquez and as I mentioned, it features a cartoon depiction of all four band members riding over-sized patchwork bees – something that we’ve all imagined ourselves doing at one point or another.

And if Jimmy, Lyn-Z, Steve and Kitty are reading this, a tee donation from the merchandise of your fourth coming album would be greatly appreciated...