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Ill-Advised Self Portraits

Another day, another t-shirt

It’s Day 2 of T-shirt week. Thus far I’ve celebrated by discovering that after 2 ½ months and five interviews, I didn’t get a job that seemed rather promising. Awesome. Ah well, let’s get to it, shall we?
Axe

I might wear this shirt when Rock Band is on the agenda.
I might make a point of wearing this shirt when Rock Band is on the agenda.

 
What it is: Well, that’s a bearded dwarf (as if there’s any other kind) playing an electric guitar. Obviously. Just as obviously (to a certain sort of person), the dwarf in question is Gimli. It must be Gimli, son of Gloin, because “And my axe!” is a line from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. As some relatively small percentage of the population at large (but a much larger percentage of my friends) knows, when Frodo Baggins declares that he will take the One Ring to Mount Doom and will destroy it by throwing it into the fires of Mount Doom, he is met at first with some disbelief. But then several of the story’s other heroes step up, and we have the following exchange:

Aragorn: If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. You have my sword:

Legolas: And you have my bow.

Gimli: And my axe!

So, um…there you have it. It’s a reference to a three word line from the first fifth of an epic fantasy story. It’s also one of my favorite shirts, as implied by the (thankfully small) stain from what I assure you was some kind of very healthy food. Some kale, or something, I suspect. It definitely was not potato chip grease.
 
Why it’s awesome: Okay, so we have a number of things going on here. Let’s see…

  1. Well, it’s a great Rock Band t-shirt. I have played a somewhat ridiculous amount of Rock Band over the last few years, and while I don’t exactly dress up for the occasion, Rocking while rocking the Gimli shirt makes me giggle.
  2. Gimli is one of my favorite characters in Lord of the Rings (particularly in the book – in the movie, he was turned into more of a comic-relief character than I liked. I can see why Jackson made those decisions and I don’t begrudge them, but I didn’t like how it took away from his character. I have, it should be noted, spent too much time thinking about this.), so a random Gimli sighting is always enjoyable. This is actually pretty consistent for me – my favorite characters from stories are usually not the main heroes of the tale. In Lord of the Rings, my favorites are Gimli, Boromir and Eomir. In the Fionavar Tapestry, Diarmuid and Paul are hands down my favorites. In Butcher’s Codex Alera series, I really love Tavi, but Max and Ehren are even more my speed. Why is this relevant to the t-shirt? No reason whatsoever.
  3. This is a shirt that you either get, or you don’t. While I generally surround myself with people who are inclined to get it (I have a type, after all), when I wear it in public it provides one of those wonderful opportunities to make eye contact with My People. I really love that moment where someone sees the shirt and either giggles or gives me an approving nod, even if (maybe even particularly if) we don’t actually talk about it. There’s something very cool about those random moments.

Anyway. Tune in tomorrow for another thrilling installment. Since these are running a day behind, I can give you a little hint…tomorrow’s t-shirt is black. You certainly won’t want to miss that amazing development.

4 replies on “Another day, another t-shirt”

I know I have definitely used my Spinal Tap concert t-shirt to find “my people”. I even brought it to an orientation where we were all asked to bring a cultural artifact that we identified with. So I grok some.
I am afraid that I can’t help but hear “And my axe” in John Rhys Davies’ voice now, though. I hope that doesn’t lessen your opinion of me.

Dude, awesome tshirt and not the first time I’ve seen it actually. Have been searching for it for some time now, where did you get yours?

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