When I'm into something, I'm into it wholeheartedly and not just half-heartedly...especially when they're really near and dear to me like music.
I've decided to craft this post because lately, I notice I'm into a lot of things fandom merchandise. Most of those I get lately are unofficial ones but I do have some official ones here and there somewhere. Prime example is that one shirt of Golden Child's Y I got from a local (to the Philippines) stay at home cup sleeves event I have yet to wear.
So you can already see where this post is going: band or music-related shirts. Yes, exactly.
Even at this time, I'm currently contemplating really biting the bullet on a light pink BtoB Eunkwang member and number shirt in large and the white version of it so I'd have something to wear on Wednesdays (the pink one) in support of my Presidential bet for 2022 Philippines' National Elections. Okay, that went political really fast and I didn't mean it to go that way. It just happens these days. lol. There are a lot of merch for the said political bet I have but I'll make a post on that one for another day. I think I at least owe myself and others that read this blog a look into how I think and feel about that one because it's an entirely quite complicated thing so yeah...let's talk about this in a future post. We'll focus on music, fandom, easy going t-shirts and just generally, good vibes on this post here.
I'm into music, yes. I'm also into unofficial and official music-related merch, yes. Now that we've established both of that, let's just segue quickly into how the series of lockdowns this still ongoing global pandemic has me looking into discographies of old prolific American pop and rock and roll iconic bands like the Beach Boys and the Monkees (they're made for TV but Daydream Believer made me a fan of theirs and I'm a Believer is a classic for me from them, too, considering how many times I've heard this, covered or in its original recording form, on TV, film and more). I've also looked into discographies of American punk rock and even pop punk rock bands like the All American Rejects, Eve6, Fountains of Wayne, Jimmy Eat World, and Bowling for Soup but true to my being a pop music fan since my dad got me listening to Kenny Rogers, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, John Denver at home and in long and short drives growing up, of course, I'm stuck on the Beach Boys and the Monkees (I also blame Nickelodeon's Big Time Rush way back 2010-ish for why I'm stuck on both rn.)
The Beatles, what? I'm not a huge fan of theirs, to be honest. I think the Beach Boys' music is more to my music palate plus I like Southern California a lot with tons of my family in the mother side residing there and my having visited and stayed with them at least 2 times in the span of the 34 years or so I've been in this world...I think you get where I'm going with this. Let's just say I like the California vibe a lot being someone from the Philippine islands. It can be in music (easy going beach-appropriate music has been an obsession or fixation of mine since some 3 to 4 years ago or so) or/and even in lifestyle.
So by saying going wholeheartedly into something I like, LOVE or am very passionate about like music and the official and unofficial clothes, t-shirts that come with it at times, I mean I would be the type to normally gravitate towards the merch of those I actually am into and am most familiar with. I've been hunting down a lot of merch in shopee, lazada and sometimes, even on ebay lately.
The BtoB Eunkwang member and number shirts aside I briefly mentioned contemplating getting a couple of in some paragraphs of this post back, these are some the Beach Boys shirts from Lazada I'm looking to get one day:
The Beach Boys may likely be more identifiable with Surfin' USA because THEY ARE the Beach Boys but as a true fan, although I got into them really late, my favorite really is Good Vibrations so the first two are definitely in my to-buy list at this point. My top the Beach Boys favorites I keep coming back to on the music stored on my phone are actually: Kokomo, Good Vibrations, In My Room (I swear this is pandemic lockdowns anthem. haha), and I Can Hear Music. All are in their the Sounds of Summer album compilation I have in digital form. I'm looking to own this in CD form and possibly the vinyl record form when I have enough and can actually also already get a decent vinyl record player from somewhere local here. There are some sold online in indie record stores mostly in the NCR up north but I'd need to really save up yet to get those. Okay, I'm kind of sad now. Anyway, this'll happen when it happens one day soon...that is...if I don't get too caught up into adulting 101 which seems to happen most of the time anyway.
Hmn...I do like Barbara Ann too. I mean, who can hate that one from Toy Story, really? The song is catchy as F---. Err...let's not go there. This is a g-rated space I intend on keeping that way. lol.
I think it'd be weird if you haven't ever heard of the Beach Boys when their music is like, EVERYWHERE. It's in the Big Time Rush beach, summer made for TV movie (Dance, Dance, Dance), it's in Toy Story (Barbara Ann and even in that iconic minions scene of said movie)...err...the Beach Boys and the Monkees, both. But should you live in a cave which should be good enough reason to have never heard of anything from these two very iconic bands back in the day and 'til now American rock and roll, pop rock bands, then...I don't think I can do anything about that one. lol.
Speaking of the Monkees, here are some lazada finds I'd like to own one day soonish:
Since we segued to how popular the Beach Boys were...are on tv and film, mostly those from North America or the USA in particular, I'd be just as horrified if one only knew of the Monkees lately from WandaVision. I'd come across people on Twitter and others all over the web saying it's the first they've heard of the Monkees on WandaVision and I don't even watch that one because 1, Disney+ is expensive (it's already here in the Philippines, afaik) and 2, I'm not really that into Marvel on tv and film forms except maybe some the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and Spiderman here and there. I'm a DC Comics fan---mostly the Batman fam because the first movie my dad took me to as a kid was Michael Keaton's Batman. Plus Young Justice seasons 1 and 2 in animated form is just...ugh. *Chef's kiss* We're going off tangent again. Okay, so what I mean to say is, the Monkees' I'm a Believer or Smashing Pumpkins' cover of it happened for Shrek way back 2001 and the 2010 Nickelodeon sitcom, Big Time Rush (also the same name as the featuring band of the show) is totally based on the show that also gave us the Monkees some decade or so before this one happened on Nick. (I also like, rather, prefer old Nickelodeon more than I do Disney so...yeah.)
The Beach Boys and the Monkees ARE pop, pop rock, rock and roll icons, yes, and I'd love merch from both because I'm that DEEP into their discography, especially the Beach Boys' that's eclipsed the Beatles for me. I honestly just can't really care for the Beatles anymore since getting into the Beach Boys sometime middle to the near end of last year despite the many iconic songs from the Beatles. When you find a band and their discography that you can fully identify with, it just goes...it clicks, when it clicks, I guess. This is definitely me with a lot of the Beach Boys' music right now.
I don't think I can ever see the Beach Boys and the Monkees live nowadays and even post-COVID 19...if or when we should ever get rid of it eventually...because most of their members have passed or are on the way to passing due to old age, sickness etc. but American media made me a fan of theirs, the boredom of movement being highly restricted by the intermittent lockdowns due to the global pandemic made me a fan of theirs, their discography and themselves as a band and music maker/s, composers. (I'm not even in America to begin with but one day kind of hope to move there...one day. It's either the US or Australia for me because...yeah.)
Anyway, am I alone in this or has anyone else reached a period of musical eureeka this way like I did during the covid 19 pandemic series of lockdowns? One of my closest friends since my LiveJournal days to my early (til now) blue bird app days also took the ton of time given us by the global pandemic to look into old and new music like I did so I'm totally NOT alone here, at least in my locale, the Philippines.
I have yet to decide if I'd like to make a shrine in my bedroom for the musicians, bands, pop groups I like but I guess I've been building that for a while now with every CD I purchases from South Korea, Japan and the US...or those that are locally printed and distributed here though this has been happening less because there are really only indie record stores left with huge chains of them here closing down with every passing year. We've actually lost Odyssey, Astrovision and SM record bar Philippines in the span of some 5-10 years they were serving music lovers, audiophiles and the likes like yours truly here so they're pretty much, very sadly, all gone now.
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I mentioned earlier that it's definitely not just band, music-related shirts I'm looking to stock up on. I'm kind of interested in other things like politics or socio-politics too although I'm not fond of anything too in your face or things that show how much I support or stan a politician because it's something I really don't like being seen as: a fanatic of a politician or a specific political party. Politics or socio-politics, in my opinion, has to be aligned more with what one wishes their nation and people would be like so it's not really about the candidate but more about whether your chosen candidates, whether they're in a party or not, would be able to improve the state of the nation from the way it is now.
Aside from that, I'm definitely very much into other things like Sanrio's Gudetama, Takeuchi Naoko's Sailormoon, tv shows like Teen Wolf, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, CSI and even films or movies like Christopher Nolan's the Dark Knight Trilogy to name one...Batman and the Batfam from DC Comics, mostly. Other than that, since I also own a cat, I'm into anything cats like pillows, plushies and figures. Mermaids, unicorns, fairies, pixies are a few things I'm into, too and everything that has to do with Halloween: witches, ghosts, the supernatural in general and more. You can really only imagine what my room is like and I'm lucky that with the abundance of clothes and such aside, at least I have some massive floor space and suhc left to plug in everything else I acquire over time. I'm going to eventually let go of them by selling or donating the ones I hardly use one of these days or even throwing away some that really can't ever be fixed anymore but until then, as a clothes, merch and all lover, I'd make good use of them until they serve their full use or life.
These things are those I'm wholeheartedly into so I'm definitely bound to keep them with me as long as I can because I know I love the people and body of work like music they are attached with and that I'm sure I will not really tire of them for say, some 3-5 years or even longer or so.
I actually find that owning these things is fun because not only do their existence mean I can get them out and wear them either on specific occasions or casually but that I would have more things to play with stylistically and I definitely like to play with a lot of things in my wardrobe, my shoe rack, by bag rack and accessories stash to liven daily outfits out on every random, casual days in and out of the home, too!
These merch...they're not just there because I love the artists and such they reference or represent, they're there because they can be customized (should I get bored of wearing them the same few ways over and over and over) and styled differently with basics in the wardrobe so not only are they cool to have but they're fun to have, too!
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