The Sabbatical T-Shirt Project

The. Last. T-shirt. Another souvenir from the May/June Europe trip, this one from Natural History Museum in Berlin. Yes, they have THAT fossil. In kind of a shrine. Listening to Bluesiana Triangle.

Spent part of the afternoon at the Toronto Maker Festival. An enjoyable and educational experience to be sure. Listening to The Ornette Coleman Trio at the “Golden Circle” Stockholm. One more t-shirt left to go, BTW.

A souvenir from Paris, of course. My wife bought it for me at a little custom t-shirt shop near our favourite local market, the Marché d'Aligre. “Les gars, lisez” translates to “guys, read” which is of course quite appropriate for a librarian t-shirt. Our purview extends far beyond books into other kinds of scholarly and popular materials, but the book is a nice image for the t-shirt to be sure. Listening to Imprint by the Julia Hülsmann Trio. I guess it would have been more appropriate to be listening to some French jazz, but I’ve so rarely coordinated my listening and wearing that why should I start now.

This one’s from the recent Beaches Jazz Festival here in Toronto. A small festival with all free shows. We saw Larry McCray, one of my all-time favourite blues singers and guitarists. It was an amazing show.  Currently listening to my favourite version of Soul Shine by Larry, of course. 

Another souvenir from Paris. This t-shirt is from the Sunside Sunset jazz club in Paris where I saw Olivier Bogé in a very fine solo piano concert. Currently listening to Larry McCray’s self-titled album. We’re going to see him tonight at the Beaches Jazz Festival. I’m very excited -- McCray is one of my favourite bluesmen!

One of the happy accidents of the month in Paris was the completely unplanned coinciding of our trip with the Festival Jazz à Saint-Germain-des-Prés Paris. We were able to attend a few concerts, both ticketed and free. The Vijay Iyer Trio was the non-French act we saw while the locals included the Airelle Besson/Nelson Veras duo as the other ticketed show. We also went to a Women in Jazz free concert and saw two amazing performances, Leila Olivesi and her band as well as the Agathe Jazz Quartet. Getting better as coordinating so listening to Breaking Stuff by the Vijay Iyer Trio.

Here’s a t-shirt from the Field Museum in Chicago, featuring the most famous resident of that fine institution. Sue the T-Rex, of course! Listening to Shadows and Light by Joni Mitchell, the live album from her jazz era.

Re-starting the #SabbaticalTShirtProject for the last month of my sabbatical and what better shirt to feature than my just-arrived That Other Shirt!  Started as a kind of antidote to the sexist That Shirt worn by an ESA scientist during the Philae mission, I’m happy to display my shirt today. And I’m sure it’ll come in handy for a bunch of other occasions too! Appropriately -- as I usually don’t manage to match the music I’m listening to to the theme of the t-shirt post -- I’m listening to Habitat by the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra. Of course, listening to jazz by a woman while posting this image celebrating women in science wasn’t actually explicitly planned, just a happy accident.

You might notice a slight change of location...yes, we’re in Paris now, on a trip that’s lasting through May and into June with stops in Amsterdam and Berlin. This shirt is from the Gov’t Mule concert we attended a few nights ago at La Cigale. Gov’t Mule were awesome. Listening to TSF Jazz, a French jazz station.

A souvenir from the Eric Clapton/Jeff Beck concert tour a few years ago. Listening not to Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck, of course, but rather to There Will Be Light by Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama.

Taken a little later in the afternoon, with no light in the room....for a slightly different effect. This shirt is a souvenir of The Who’s 2002 concert tour, purchased at their Toronto show. As usual, not co-ordinating what I’m listening to with what I’m wearing, I've got the new Charles Lloyd playing, Wild Man Dance.

A shirt from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, where I've done a couple of cont ed courses. So yeah, not a Harvard grad. Though McGill. Harvard of the North, right, right?! Listening to Hold the Line by the Steve Grossman Quartet.

A t-shirt from the Montreal Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (MonSSFA) from back in the day, probably the early 1990s. Only few more t-shirts left in the collection....Listening to Gathering of Spirits by the Saxophone Summit (Michael Brecker/Joe Lovano/Dave Liebman).

Another oldie-but-goodie from my con-going days. This one is from the Winnipeg WorldCon I attended way back in 1992. Listening to Double Booked by Robert Glasper.

The next few t-shirts will be some of the very old shirts I have from various science fiction fandom activities. I haven’t really been that active in fandom for a bunch of years and even then I preferred to spend my con dealer room budget on books rather than t-shirts. This one’s from back in the day when I was helping organize Con*Cept in Montreal. Listening to Jazz.fm

A souvenir from the American Museum of Natural History, one of my favourite places in the whole world. Listening to Roll Call by Hank Mobley.

Never been to Hawaii myself, so this one is a travel souvenir from my better half who’s been there a few times for work. Listening to Road Rockets by Rita Chiarelli.