The Tees Have It: Final Edition (Star Wars!)

I expect this will be my final blog of the year, as Spacefreighters Lounge traditionally goes dark for the last couple of weeks in December so we can all focus on the holidays. Those of us who aren't already on break will post the last of our 2018 blogs later this week.

In case you missed my two prior t-shirt installments, here they are again:

The Tees Have It: Wearable Statements of Sci-Fi Fandom

The Tees Have It: Take Two (including Star Trek!)

I did a pop surprise t-shirt award on each of the last two blogs, and my winners of the "I'm Running Away to See the Universe" t-shirts were Donna and Lea, as the only commenters on each of those blogs. Congrats, guys!

(Apologies, but I won't be offering a prize this time. Sorry if you missed out.)

Here's the final edition (for now) of my sci-fi t-shirt collection, featuring the rest of my Star Wars tees.

The first is my stealth Star Wars tee. Anyone seeing it may not even realize it's a product of the franchise, unless they take the time to actually read the words in fancy bold font, namely "Mos Eisley Cantina" and in smaller letters below, a variation of the line made famous by Luke's Uglies Unlimited attackers:

"Where our friends don't like you
& we don't like you either"

After all, what Star Wars collection would be complete without a tee of the iconic space port populated by "a wretched hive of scum and villainy," according to Obi Wan Kenobi.

And he should know. Tattoine has been his home for at least a couple of decades.



It's my tribute to Luke Skywalker's roots, and the alliance between Luke and Ben Kenobi that started the whole crazy sequence of events that led to Luke becoming a Jedi master. Besides, Mos Eisley Cantina is undoubtedly the most famous dusty little watering hole in sci-fi lore.

Tee two is one I get a lot of comments on, because what starship is more beloved than the Millenium Falcon? (Well, other than possibly, the Enterpirse, as per my commentary on last week's blog.)

This tshirt was produced before we actually learned the details of the infamous Kessel run, which the Falcon completed in under fourteen parsecs. (Insert Han's disgruntled correction here: "Twelve!")

Since it makes reference to the 35th anniversary, my guess is this design was probably created around 2012 or thereabouts, so before the debut of The Force Awakens by about three years.

The Star Wars franchise prequel Solo depicted the actual Kessel run (and I'm sorry to say that, for this fan anyway, it didn't really live up to the prior three decades of legendary hype).

All that aside, this is still one of my fave--and probably most worn--t-shirts because I love the image of the Falcon so much. The most beloved hunk of junk in the galaxy, indeed!

Tee #3 is one of my absolute faves.

I don't wear it often--would rather frame it, to be honest--but our last joint outing was for a baseball game to watch our local pro ball team, the Isotopes (yes, named for the team in The Simpsons)(and sadly, they lost) for their annual Star Wars Night. I felt right at home among the local Star Wars lookalikes of Luke, Leia, Han, stormtroopers, Jedi masters and such.

I love me the colors and design on this one, and how if you just glance at it, might think it's just another college jersey.

I actually had an internal debate between wearing this one and my final tee (below) to Star Wars Night, but decided to tote the Jedi University instead of broadcasting how many long yearrrrrrrs I'd been a fan.

Here is the other referenced tee and my most recent addition.

It uses the Star Wars style box to deliver the message:

"Still in love
After all these years"

And the content:

"May 25th 1977
40 YEARS
May 25th 2017"

Yep. True.

I was in attendance at the original Star Wars movie that took the whole world by storm. In fact, I was there on opening weekend. Star Wars was a summer sleeper and nobody saw its tremendous success coming--not even George Lucas or the now mega-famous cast.

No one, that is, except the sci-fi fans.

Although the film had a tiny advertising budget, all it took was a few glimpses of a blaster battles, ominous white-clad stormtroopers and starships zooming around in space to dazzle us and send us dashing off to buy tickets.

Those commercials were actually completely cheesy by today's standards...but we'd never seen anything like them before. Want a look back? Here's a fan video of a collection of some of those original spots (even a few that touted a "romance" between Luke and Leia. *cough, cough*)

And the rest, as we now know, is history. More than four decades of it.

I'm very proud of the fact I was a Star Wars fan from the beginning. Even before the beginning, since the commercials themselves completely hooked me. I gobbled up the original trilogy, even driving 40 miles to see The Empire Strikes Back in Flint, Michigan when all of the local theaters made the monumental mistake of not offering it on opening weekend.

I saw all the prequels, too, though I was much less impressed. I was a youngster then. I had to wait until just a few months before my retirement to see the first of what would finally be the last trilogy. Something that George Lucas had originally intended to wrap before the year 2000. Before things went astray...

The debut of The Force Awakens captured a bit of the same magic of the original, and this time, I was in line on opening night to catch the return of my lifelong love.

I think this tee sums this all up in just a few words.

I won't say Star Wars was the reason I became a SFR author but it certainly clicked on the hyperdrive of my imagination. Even so, it would be 38 years after viewing the original Star Wars (and yes, it was simply called "Star Wars" back then; it didn't gain the episode title "A New Hope" for many years) before I published my first space opera novel, in 2015.

And here we are in December 2018, and now I'm looking forward with great expectation to the final film of the last trilogy of Star Wars. What a tall order of expectations this next one is going to have to deliver!

I'll do an update blog later this winter with a few new additions to my tee collection that I'm in the process of acquiring. (Seems writing these blogs got me inspired again, and I've found a few more way cool tee designs.)

So, signing off 'til January. I wish you a wonderful holiday season with lots of fun, laughter, surprises, feasts and festivities. May all your holiday dreams come true.

And may the force be with you, always.

Have a great few weeks!

The Tees Have It: Take Two (including Star Trek!)

Happy December 2018! Can you believe it? Last month of a short, whirlwind year. And with it comes snow. Posole. Christmas cookies. Shopping. Wrapping. Parties. Holiday cards. Family get-togethers. Craziness. The holiday season and all that jazz.

BTW, did you happen to catch one of my latest tweets? 'Tis the season (for stress and hair pulling), and I'm offering some relief -- well, temporarily, at least!

I don't have a holiday story out this year, but what I can offer readers is 90 minutes of escapism. https://t.co/tQGT69g2Mp pic.twitter.com/dYUnijDhKl

— Laurie A. Green (@SFRLaurie) November 29, 2018

Continuing my Sci-Fi T-shirt collection blog from last week (which you can see by clicking here: The Tees Have It: Wearable Statements of Sci-Fi Fandom ), this week I'm featuring a few more including ~ta da~ a couple of Star Trek tees.

Yes, sadly, I have a limited number of tees and a sweatshirt that fall into the Star Trek Wear category, but they're monumental in my eyes. I'm very selective about the t-shirts I buy, so I've only found a few over the years that inspired me to start the purchase sequence. I'm still looking for my Captain Janeway t-shirt...and I may have recently found one. In fact, I've found several to add to my overall collection, so I'll do a t-shirt update blog at some point in the future.

So, yes, Star Trek. Make it so!

Of course my collection has to include a shirt that portrays the iconic opening phrases from TOS and TNG series. This one features the classic as Captain Picard would have articulated it: "...where no one has gone before."

You see, I'm really picky about that. I've actually passed on t-shirts that said "where no man has gone before" because, hey, we're a species that has (at least) two sexes and both are part of our current space program, why should anyone be exempted from the equation in the future?

(I know, I know. TOS was a product of the sixties, and I do give it a lot of credit for expanding the idea that the future of space didn't belong to only one gender and only one race. We know better now.)

So, readers, may I present my Iconic Star Trek Opening Narrative (Revised Version) T-shirt. Can't you just hear Picard enunciating that? :)

The next in my collection is one with a lot of emotion attached to it. (I will hug it and squeeze it and pet it and call it George.) First of all, the graphic of the Enterprise in space is absolutely gorgeous, but the quote is one of my series favorites:

"Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise."

(If you want to see the clip where Picard says this from season three, episode 15 on YouTube, click here.)

I find this phrase inspiring. The Enterprise represents what science fiction can aspire to be--something that people remember, something that stays with them for a lifetime. Something that's embedded into our culture and our history, and even non-fans of the industry know the name.

The Enterprise has become an institution in our culture.

Name a great racehorse. Secretariat.

Name a great sci-fi starship. The Enterprise.

Even this huge Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, The Expanse (etc.) fan has to acknowledge that the Enterprise was her very first starship heartthrob, the vessel that's been with us the longest in her many incarnations...more than 50 years now. And look where her inspiration has taken us.

Science Fiction dares us to dream, and to reach, and to strive for things that may seem impossible at present but if we work at it hard enough, we know we can make it happen. We've seen it happen over the course of the last five decades. [ 12 Star Trek Gadgets that now Exist ]

Yes. Let no one forget the name.

My last t-shirt isn't actually a tee, it's one of my favorite hoodies. (Close enough!) Though it at first appears a bit generic sci-fi, the iconic Star Trek emblem on the upper left places it squarely in the Star Trek inspired group.

I wear this one a lot. :)

Though I don't think the series' female CO, Captain Janeway, ever uttered the words, she certainly could have. And I loved Janeway! What an inspiration she was as the first starring female starship captain of the franchise. The perfect blend of toughness and compassion, and always in pursuit of that perfect "Coffee. Black."

In my mind, she's the flagship of the thousands of female starship captains depicted in sci-fi and SFR. 

But I also love this hoodie because one of my characters utters a similar sentiment in Inherit the Stars. When Captain Drea Mennelsohn is confronted on the bridge of her prototype ship by an enemy military officer who declares, "If we ever meet again, I'll put you in your place!" She replies defiantly, "I am in my place."

For my last offering today, I'm going to segue into my Star Wars collection with the very first Star Wars t-shirt I ever owned.

This baby is ancient--probably well over 40 years--as the slightly worn material and the stretching of the neck may show.

Hey, it looks great for its age! And it has been much-loved over the past few decades.

This tee was produced not long after the original movies hit the screen by a company that created the Rebel Wear label. It doesn't feature some of the splashy, colorful graphics of later tees, but it was clearly part of the brand.

Almost everyone who saw it immediately knew what "Rebel Wear" was all about and what it referred to.

This t-shirt is also one of very few from my collection that features front and back graphics. Though the Rebel Wear brand may not be that familiar to you, I'm sure you've seen the image portrayed on the back many, many times over the years.

So that's it for today.

Next time, I'll blog about the balance of my Star Wars t-shirt collection, which account for the lion's share of my SF inspired tees.

Do you have any favorite SF t-shirts you haven't seen here? Tell me about them. (There just might be a bonus for one lucky commenter.)

Have a great week!

The Tees Have It: Wearable Statements of Sci-Fi Fandom

Good Monday Morning, all!

I hope you had a wonderful holiday, even if you OD'd a bit on turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings. Hey, 'tis the season! We had our dinner at a local restaurant this year, which is great for not having to clean up but not-so-great for being deprived of a plethora of yummy leftovers. So I'm cooking a turkey breast today just so we aren't cheated out of those lingering goodies. Plus, there's nothing like the aroma of a turkey cooking to fill the house...Mmmmm.

As a SF/R fan -- not to mention author -- anything Sci-Fi usually catches my interest. I thought it might be fun to show off part of my Sci-Fi t-shirt collection. Since it includes dozens of tees, I'll start with just a few of the generic ones today and save the "t-shirts on a theme" for future posts.

I enlisted my Stormtrooper buddy to help me model them, but discovered his head was too big for him to properly display the shirts (without horribly stretching the necks...nooo, my precious!), so I had to improvise. Fortunately, his ample shoulder made a nice place to hang the hangers. :)

This first one is one of my favorites and it seems to compliment my SFR series theme of Escape to the Stars, to boot.

"I'm Running Away to See the Universe" set in a block of starry, starry sky. It's a simple design that doesn't use color, just white on black (I think it was also available in blue, etc. but black is usually my go-to color, as you'll see), but it certainly works for me to convey the message.

As a reader, it also speaks volumes. SF/R has always been my brand of escapism, so what better way to announce it to the world galaxy!

As a writer, it also reflects where I spend a good chunk of my mental time...off among those distant stars.

I love this second t-shirt for its spirit. I think many of my fellow SFR authors, writers and readers will might agree with the sentiments.

I never dreamed of being a princess when I was young--in my head I always dreamed of hyperjumping off to distant worlds and engaging in galactic adventures I read about in books from the Science Fiction Book Club.

After all, who wants to be a pampered princess when you can command a swashbuckling starship!

To my way of thinking, "Starship Captain" was always much more glamorous and exciting than being something as mundane as a princess.

One of the things I especially like about this design is the use of the pink and the script font to "pop" the "Princess?" with the decidedly Trek-esque block lettering for "I'd rather be a Starship Captain!"

Nicely done!

T-shirt number three is probably one of the most loved phrases I've ever swiped from a popular sci-fi series. It is, of course, a phrase from the famous theme song of the icon of television sci-fi, Firefly.

In case you're not an afficianado of the short-lived but much loved series, here's a link to the 53-second YouTube video of the main theme. (And why yes, that's a starship spooking wild horses, which so encapsulates the space western feel of this fabulous show.) Firefly Main Theme

As an author, no matter how hard the going gets, and how difficult the industry becomes, for me, this phrase portrays a core truth: No matter what happens, no one can take away my imagination.

As a reader, it makes a statement about what sort of books and media really interests me.

But as a person in general, it takes on a deeper meaning. For most of my life (yes, right up to the present), other people have asked me why I'm interested in sci-fi and space exploration and astronomy, rather than the things that society says most females should find important--like the latest fashions or makeup or designer purses (*yawn*). Why am I so different? Well, I've always embraced my "differentness" even long before the "This Is Me" movement came along and instilled itself as a part of our pop culture. This is Me isn't just about having an appearance that's unusual, it's also about having a mindset that's not the norm for my particular peg hole. You Can't Take the Sky from Me, indeed.

And finally, I wanted to show off Donna's excellent creation--a t-shirt for her Interstellar Rescue series. I think she did a phenomenal job with the design, which looks every bit as professional as the "store bought" tees, which is why I love to include it as part of my collection. I love how Donna framed the theme of her series in a subtle but very effective way.

This design is also responsible for Sharon and I meeting Donna at the 2009 RWA Nationals in Washington, DC. We noticed this decidedly spacey design that Donna had imprinted on her tote bag and commented on it, discovering that she, too, wrote SFR.

Donna's Interstellar Rescue series tee is one of the few I have that carries the theme to the back of shirt, where her series log line is printed. (Donna also had a t-shirt done for the first novel in her series, Unchained Memory, with a similar design and the book's individual log line on the back.)

So there are a few of the more random examples in my collection. I'll be back with later blogs featuring my Star Trek and (more extensive) Star Wars tees.

Do you have any favorite science fiction themed t-shirts? Tell me about them in comments.

Have a great week.