OMG, who is that garbed in the newest addition to the FIC t-shirt stable? Why, it’s none other than the reigning prince of the mash-up, Greg Gillis. Better known by his nom de plume Girl Talk, Gillis is a twenty-something Pittsburgh-based beat blender who has released three mix-tapes — downloads, really — in recent years, two of which rocket through the better part of 40 years of pop music history much in the same way that Michael Phelps cuts through water. 2006’s Night Ripper and this year’s Feed the Animals are staggering in their complexity, splicing short bits of hip-hop, alternative rock, metal, indie and dance faves (amongst many other genres) into larger compositions. To get pretentious about it, these albums are, to paraphrase the author/social critic Mike Davis, nothing less than “flagship titles in an emergent genre.”

After his recent sold-out concert in Portland this past July, the frenetic soundscaper was cooling his heels backstage after a particularly inspired set. Gracious and modest, Gillis was kind enough to model the “Death Before Disco” tee just long enough for us to snap these cool pics. Girl Talk may not be a household name (yet), but no less a music authority than The New York Times just recently took stock of his growing celebrity here.

FYI ladies, he’s garnered a well-deserved rep for getting all sweaty onstage and disrobing as he sees fit:

Once more with feeling:

Many, many thanks to local Portlander VJ Dantronix (the facilitator), ninjasinmypants.com (the photog), and the artist himself.

We posted a blog entry last week about the impending Summer Olympics (the Opening Ceremony is actually scheduled for today, August 8th, fyi) and German athletes outfitted with t-shirts designed to spotlight China’s woeful record on human rights (and by extension, its uneasy relationship with Tibet). A secondary controversy, however, about the quality of Beijing’s notoriously polluted air has been bubbling up in the background for the last 8-to-12 months — as detailed by The New York Times in this informative piece — and it now threatens to push all other issues, including one of government-imposed media censorship, to the backburner.

Upon their arrival in China this week, four members of the U.S. track cycling team drew intense media scrutiny with their curious decision to wear specially designed, United State Olympic Committee-approved masks after they deplaned and in the airport. (More details can be found here, but I’ve posted pics of the aforementioned face filters below.) As you might imagine, representatives of the host country and the Olympic establishment were less than pleased with the spectacle, though official response was somewhat muted, if not outright dismissive.

One official explained away the appearance of smog as yeah, you guessed it, simple fog stemming from the region’s severe humidity. Intense backroom diplomacy between Chinese officials and members of the U.S. delegation eventually yielded a face-saving compromise as the athletes in question quickly backpedaled (pun most certainly intended) away from their actions with a formal apology.

What’s ironic, and what most people are forgetting, is that this is hardly a unique or novel situation. In 1984, when Los Angeles played host to the Summer Games, similar concerns about smog and its effect on performance arose, and in great American fashion, and iconic t-shirt making light of the issue was born.

Not only that, this fine shirt was worn in not one, but two ’80s cult flicks produced in the wake of those games: 1984’s Repo Man and 1985’s Real Genius. We sell this very shirt here at the site (a shameless plug, I admit), which you may or may not know about.

Inform us, dear readers? What should we make of this controversy? Do you even care? And, more importantly, should we remake the tee (as one customer has suggested in a spot-on e-mail) to reflect these new times? Would you buy one if we donated a portion of the proceeds to an organization like Amnesty International?

EPILOGUE: More than 3 weeks after the Olympics concluded, the U.S.O.C. has e-mailed an official apology to the (somewhat understandably miffed) athletes in question.

Maybe you’ve heard about a little film entitled The Dark Knight? Apparently, it came out last month. In less than three weeks, it has raked in more than $400 million dollars at the domestic box office, according to a report this week from the Reuters News Service.

Naturally enough, a blockbuster like this has been accompanied by an avalanche of product tie-ins. Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, is pumping out all of the usual suspects at its web store: belt buckles, lunch boxes, watches, jackets, and so forth. What really caught my eye, though, was a list compiled by the smart folks behind the movie blog slashfilm.com. They’ve collected their favorite Heath Ledger-inspired Joker t-shirts here.

Just how hot is this franchise? Take a look at this eBay auction featuring a vintage Joker tee from the late ’80s. The seller, someone with the dubious screen name glassfixer3uav, has started the bidding at a cool $500. To date, there have been lots of lookers but no takers. Yet…

Why so serious, indeed?

FOLLOW UP: The eBay auction ended today without a bidder. It has since been relisted, at the same price. Dude’s nuts.

A cult classic without peer, the 1996 movie adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas exceeds expectations on almost all fronts: the fantastic visuals, the side-splitting dialogue, and the stellar performances turned in by Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. The ringleader responsible for this circus of the absurd is Terry Gilliam, an auteur with an impeccable rep who is known to sweat the small stuff.

On this topic, peep out Tobey Maguire’s so-called Hitchhiker character in the clip below. More specifically, check out his one-of-a-kind t-shirt (blink and you’ll miss it), adorned with the grotesque illustrations of one Ralph Steadman — Thompson’s official cartoonist for his seminal works in the late ’60s and early ’70s — and produced specifically for the movie by the wardrobe department (according to the director’s commentary on the deluxe edition of the DVD).

Would you buy one, if it was available?