This is a great T-shirt (I love that logo on the back and have often admired it when I’m driving behind a STLFD vehicle). Just got mine in the mail yesterday, so you might see me sporting it around town soon. Get one!

So this year, I thought I’d give it another go, and I was determined to not give in and shave it all off. I stopped shaving the second week of November and by Thanksgiving I had a pretty good, short beard going. By Christmas it had filled in even better. Then, in mid-January, I got a bit tired of the full beard look (and feel) and started thinking about how I wanted to trim it, but still retain some sort of beard. Watching a video on YouTube of my old TV horror host hero Ghoulardi (played by Ernie Anderson) was all I needed. That was it! A Van Dyck (also spelled “Van Dyke”)! Before I get into that, I want to try and clear the air on some common mistakes when it comes to beards. The following is a goatee:

Goatee

When you have a goatee that is connected to a mustache, it’s actually a “circle beard.” Some will even call this style a Van Dyck, but most beard experts will tell you that a true Van Dyck features a goatee that is disconnected from the mustache. Once they’re connected, it’s a circle beard (since it forms a circle around the mouth). A Van Dyck, then, is basically a goatee with a mustache. Got it? So now that we know what a Van Dyck is, let’s look at a few famous ones throughout history:

Buffalo Bill Cody and Sir Anthony Van Dyck

By the way, Anthony Van Dyck, a 17th-century Flemish painter (pictured above), is credited with popularizing this style of beard way back in the 17th century. Hence the name.

My inspiration:

Ernie "Ghoulardi" Anderson and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth

Some more famous Van Dycks:

Colonel Sanders and Viggo Mortensen

Heath Ledger

Johnny Depp

So, yeah, you probably see Van Dycks around more often than you realize, but definitely not as often as the goatee or circle beard. In fact, I was surprised to see a couple of my Facebook friends sporting Van Dycks recently:

Dave and Larry

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for (drum roll, please)… a couple shots of me with my new Van Dyck:

Kopper's Van Dyck (Feb. 2009)

By the way, speaking of the Mustache Madness thing, it’s happening again this year, and I do hope to make it to the party at The Royale on Saturday, April 4. You should, too. RSVP here.

I’ve always wanted a pair of ’60s-style Beatle boots but they were always so damned expensive, especially the REAL ones. So I decided to see what Zappos.com had to offer in that style since I had a $15 coupon code from them burning a hole in my virtual wallet that I needed to use sometime between now and the end of March. So I started searching their site and BINGO. I found these Giorgio Brutini ’60s-style Beatle boots that look GREAT. OK, maybe not quite as great as the Cavern Boots I’d been wanting to get, but they’re at least half the price of those, so I think I can handle the slight design downgrade. But I’m pretty excited… as excited as a guy can get over getting a new pair of boots, anyway. I’ve never owned a pair of these before… the closest I’ve had was a pair of Dr. Marten’s chelsea boots several years ago. Aside from those and the occasional heavy work boots I wore in the warehouse at CompUSA, I’ve rarely ever worn boots in my life. A pair of Harley Davidson motorcycle boots I bought a few years ago collects dust in my closet (they’re just not comfortable and only look right if I wear very baggy pants… which I have, um, ONE pair of). And I still have yet to even own a pair of regular lace-up Docs. True, I had the GI-style black leather combat boots when I was a slam-dancin’ young punk rocker, and at one time in my junior high school years I owned a pair of cowboy boots (“shit kickers”), but normally I’m a sneaker guy. Been wearing Chuck Taylors, PF Flyers or Vans since high school. But, shit, even a new pair of Vans will run you over $50 these days (the slip-ons are over $40 themselves), so I didn’t see the big deal in plunking down a little extra cash on a nice pair of boots, especially ones that come with such rave reviews as these. Yes, it sounds like the sole is pretty thin and I’ll probably end up taking these to a cobbler to have some protective rubber soles put on, but other than that I think they’ll be perfect, and I’m really looking forward to wearing them. They should be arriving tomorrow, thanks to Zappos’ free next-day shipping. I’ll try to keep you posted.

December 6-8, 2008
20% off all orders over $30.00, shipping costs do not apply

December 9-11, 2008
15% off all orders orders over $30.00, shipping costs do not apply

December 12-15, 2008
10% off all orders over $30.00, shipping costs do not apply

Coupon codes:
USD$: NOW1
CAD$: CADNOW1

Here are the links to the stores I have up and running:

GaragePunk Store
Trouble in River City (TIRC) Store
St. Louie Louie Store
South Side for Obama Store

Thanks!

GaragePunk Store
Trouble in River City (TIRC) Store
South Side for Obama Store

Thanks!

Click above to be taken to the new store!

Well, we’re getting down to the wire now and I’ve officially run out of my screenprinted South Side for Obama tees. I’ve been so busy selling these the past week or so at The Royale that I haven’t even had a chance to post an update lately on how well they’ve been selling (sorry ’bout that). Anyway, there is a silver lining to this cloud, and that is you can now purchase a shirt with the above design through a new online store that I just set up at Spreadshirt.com, and there are even more shirt styles to choose from (including girlie tees)!

The best news about all of this is that I was able to raise over $1,600 for the Obama campaign from this little experiment! Thanks to everyone that bought one!!

UPDATE: Spreadshirt is offering free shipping on orders of $30 or more now through Nov. 24. Just use this coupon code when you place the order:

WINTER58

Oh, and by the way, I updated the design slightly to include the Obama “O” logo and went with a navy blue screen on nice white/navy ringer tees. The first 128 were the Carolina blue Hanes shirts, and the other 92 were the white/navy Anvil ringers that look something like this:

Here’s the design:

And here’s a Photoshopped mockup of what it looks like on a shirt:

Note: If you pay via PayPal, you’ll need to get the shirt directly from me. If you want to pick one up at The Royale, just pay your server there.

Thanks!

So recently I used that photo to design a new, updated version of the shirt, complete with a Pipeline Radio Fanzine logo on the back! I added the shirt to the TIRC T-shirt shop on SpreadShirt.com and you can order one for yourself here. Here’s what it looks like:

The shirt is $16.99 plus shipping and features Spreadshirt’s awesome, durable “flock printing process” which gives the designs “a velvety feel, like a thin layer of plush.” Much nicer than any screen-printed shirt I have ever seen! I really made the shirt so that I could buy one myself and wear it, but I thought it might be a good idea to leave it up online in case anyone else would want one, too. If you’d like one of these WITHOUT the Pipeline logo on the back, you can have that, too, for just $15.99.

I was happy to leave the redirect up for that site for a while, hopefully giving all of the former members a chance to catch onto the idea that The Circuit was THEE place to be, so that they could update their bookmarks and get accustomed to checking his site instead of mine. In the meantime, I thought it would be cool to come up with a few eye-catching St. Louis-themed designs that could be put onto T-shirts, kinda like STL-STyLe, but different. Having always been a fan of the St. Louis city flag, my first couple of designs are based on that flag’s art, only slightly modified (look closely at the fleur de lis, which I customized a little to look more like the one the St. Louis Browns used in the 1940s but still retaining much of the design of the classic city flag). So I set up a shop at Spreadshirt.com to sell some of these, and will probably be trying to come up with more designs in the future to add to it. If you have any ideas for more, please let me know!

By the way, in doing a Web search for common (or uncommon) St. Louis phrases, I was directed to a thread on StLouisGasPrices.com’s message board. As I was reading through it, I found a post in which someone had written a complaint about being tired of the phrase “Ask a doctor if _________ is right for you.” I thought that was pretty funny, and funnier still if you put “St. Louis” in the blank! So that’s where the idea for that shirt came from…

The other design on there right now came to me after I kept seeing all of these St. Louis Cardinals T-shirts with “Established 1892″ on them. There were a lot like that! But to the best of my knowledge, I’d never seen a shirt that said anything about St. Louis’ establishment date. That’s when I threw this one together!

There are lots of different shirt styles to choose from, for men, women, and even kids. And I can’t say enough about the great quality of these shirts from Spreadshirt… they really are nicer than screen printed tees. Please check ‘em out and buy one, or two, or three…

Please consider this a personal invitation to participate in the second annual St. Louis chapter of March Moustache Madness. This organized homage to the badly maligned mustache originated in Baltimore, where it has become increasingly popular each year, exalting and embracing that little lip warmer to a status beyond mere hipster irony. If you are interested in participating, all necessary information follows.

Feel free to spread the word to your friends. Eventually, they’ll thank you.

————————————————-

Step 1. Use the month of February to cultivate a nice growth of facial hair. Full beards are a warm, cozy option for this harsh winter month.

Step 2. On the morning of the first day of March, shave off all excess facial hair to let your mustache shine as a beacon of masculinity and style above your upper lip.

Step 3. Wear your mustache with pride. For the entire month of March.

Step 4. During the last weekend of March, there will be a top secret mustache party. You must have a mustache to get in (this applies to the ladies, too). There will be mustache dances, mustache music, and other assorted mustache-related activities. Prizes will be awarded, libations will be consumed, general rowdiness will ensue.

Step 5. Convince a friend to do it next year.

Digg This!

Well, I’m happy to say that the Show-Me Blowout seemed to be a nice success. The bands were all fantastic and there were really very few complaints or problems, especially on Saturday night when some of the timing issues were corrected from the previous night. Unfortunately, the attendance for the two nights combined didn’t even reach 200 people, with the second night falling far short of expectations. This despite good press both in print and online and plenty of promotion. Still, a fun show, and Craig Moore really ripped it up on stage with The Nevermores and The Geargrinders on their covers of two classic ’60s garage punkers, “Doin’ Me In” and “Blackout of Gretely,” respectively. The Saturday afternoon BBQ Bash at Apop Records also went off without a hitch, and all four bands were great there as well. Lots of people enjoyed a keg of Schlafly Winter ESB (they were already out of the Oktoberfest), damned fine burgers and some of the largest, juiciest hot dogs the world has ever seen, all prepared perfectly on the grill by Bill Streeter of Lo-Fi Saint Louis. Were you there? Then please post your thoughts on how the whole thing shook down on the TIRC-STL google group.

That said, because of the lackluster turnout, I have a huge overstock of Blowout T-shirts available that I’m “blowing out” for just $8 plus postage. This basically means I’m making just over a buck on each shirt. Hopefully I’ll sell enough of these to break even, but somehow I doubt it. Oh, and I don’t care if you were there or not. I’ll sell a T-shirt to anybody, anywhere, anytime. Just send your money in via PayPal using the button below (and don’t forget to indicate your shirt size and include your snailmail address). Thanks!

Share your photos of the event here!

Ever since Nike bought Converse and started making Chuck Taylors I’d been searching for the perfect, comfy sneaker to wear (sorry, I’m just not a big fan of Nike). Plus, I’d always had problems with Chucks just being too flat… I used to buy these little green arch supports at Walgreens that Dr. Scholl’s made. They fit the shoes perfectly and made a world of difference. But then Dr. Scholl’s got fancy and changed the design of their arch supports. The new ones were thicker and bulkier and did not fit inside the shoes very well at all. In fact, they made them way too tight. Crap. So I started experimenting with other shoes, went through a couple pairs of Sketchers that kinda looked like black bowling shoes, then Sketchers stopped making those. Started looking again…

Late last summer a friend of mine recommended PF Flyers. He’s got a pair that he’s been wearing for years. *YEARS*. I was a bit incredulous about that, but I looked into them, anyway. I thought, what the hell, I’ll give ‘em a shot. So I went online and bought a pair of PF Flyers hi-tops that I found on some store on the Web thru Froogle.com. They look very similar to Chucks, and even have stripes on the back. Cool. The first pair I got were too small for my feet, and they were the right size. So I had to return them and get a 1/2 size larger (11 1/2 instead of 11). But these were PERFECT. I mean, I could not believe how much better they fit than Chucks. And they had better arch supports in them so I didn’t need to worry about inserts. I’ve had these shoes for 8 months now, and wear them every day. They still look and feel great and haven’t even started to fall apart yet. Some of the fabric on the inside has worn down and the rubber has started cracking at the bend of the foot, but other than that, and a little fading, they’re still in great shape. The sole also appears to be made of a stronger rubber than Chucks, because there’s only minimal wear there, too. So I now believe my friend (thanks, Johnny!). These shoes definitely can last for years, even if you wear them a lot. I’ve never had a pair of Chucks last longer than six months without falling apart on me.

I’m getting ready to buy a new pair (the sandlot ones pictured above), but I’ll still wear these as spares. I just wanted to pass along the tip that if any of you are looking for a good alternative to Chuck Taylors, to try ‘em out. You won’t be disappointed.

(Yeah, they’re more expensive than Chucks, but totally worth it.)