the district

By this point in the game, there are a lot of Obama shirts out there, which in my mind is a net-positive despite relatively few noteworthy designs.  However, the fact that the Democratic nominee is inspiring people to want to make t-shirts at all should be taken as a pretty good indicator of the left’s interest in this election.  Frankly, this time in 2004 I don’t really recall any street-wear label’s rolling out their line of John Kerry T’s (and thank god for that).  Anyway, Thriving Ink, the East Bay “artist collaborative” is the latest to join Obama T-shirt mania with their “Hope Is Dope” collection, which donates an unnamed percentage to fight hunger in the Philippines. While these things are obviously subjective, I can’t say I am blown away by any of the designs, but they are definitely not bad just not tremendously original. For example, what the fuck is with the giant printing of EVERYTHING?  Now as previously stated on this site, I am a big Obama fan, but why the fuck would I want a giant Obama face t-shirt?  Now I recognize that this is popular right now, so I am not faulting Thriving Ink, but I still just don’t get it.  On that note, what’s with the resurgence of cassette tapes on t-shirts and tattoos? I may only be 28, but I remember with clarity that cassettes were not exactly the ideal media for listening to music, yet hipsters iconify the damned things as if they were the coolest shit since 8-tracks.  Forgive the off-topic rant, but to me this exemplifies the hollowness of hipster culture in general. Its as if some hipster czar randomly assign status to the most arbitrary items and they become cool despite their lack of any real intrinsic worth, just because some douche bag in Williamsburg thought “wouldn’t it be irreverant of me to put a cassette tape on a t-shirt?” Fuck cassette tape shirts.   You can check out the Obama shirts here.