This design takes its inspiration from the old ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ slogo (yes I’ve just invented a new word… logo + slogan = slogo). Essentially it comments on the lack of love in the modern world. I’ve been with my partner for years and as yet neither of us has run off or tried to kill the other. Yet when you take a look at current divorce rates you’d be hard pressed to find a marriage that lasts as long as fifteen years, by the way we didn’t get married. Maybe that’s the trick. Al that legal mumbo jumbo probably puts a dampener on most marriages to be, plus there’s the cost, the heightened expectation, and the final realization that married life sucks.

I believe most peopled get married out of boredom, exhaustion, and even just to escape the dating scene, which from over here seems to be more nightmarish than ever. Sure you can do loads more people, but none of them give a damn about you, what goes round… It’s been commercialized - dating is a scene - an act, a long drawn out and badly written play. Almost everyone under thirty is on stage and performing, and a lot of older divorcees  are starting to do the same.

A guy has to get on a bit before he realizes there’s more to it than sex, a lot of women are following suit now, in fact one day I doubt there will be anything other than f*ck buddies and lifelong partners,  I can’t see marriage lasting in the West. Sure you have your strongholds,  religion plays a big part in it.  Catholics  will always give it a go, for most religions  believe there’s no way getting around it. Their whole society is based on the foundation of marriage. I’ve noticed a lack of that reverance in UK politics ever since Blair left… phew. Society isn’t based on marriage, my parents hated each other. Society should be based on mutual respect. But what do I know?

Heartbreaker as with all my tees is available in over 30 styles and shades. Sweats, Tees, Hoodies, come and see the whole collection at www.retrogod.com

I heard in a documentary about ‘Whirling Dervishes’ that mysticism is far older than religion, I wouldn’t argue with that, but to be honest, loose or rigid, it’s all still religion to me. I know we all have to believe in something, ourselves, the future, in good government, whatever you like. But to me belief, hope, infact anything in that general area is simply blind and over-optimistic at best.

Most people can’t deal with the terrible truth, the human race is a virus running riot. It isn’t an individual life at stake anymore, it’s a whole race. We’ve only managed to carve a slither of history out of this old planet, and what have we achieved, apart from an awful mess that some poor sods will have to clean up one day, and that’s if they are lucky.

We’ve screwed up, we have, and just about everyone who came before us, but mainly us, the people empowered with language, technology, information, knowledge. We can organize anything, we can communicate instantly, feeding the world a new idea, within minutes, literally. But are we going to save the world? Are we potentially a generation of heroes, or will we simply keep watching the TV in vain hope that someone else does it?

Back to my point (if I have one), belief is unfounded, it simply means ‘I don’t know’ or rather ‘I don’t know everything’. You can believe you are going to be rich for instance. You just bought a lotto ticket and you believe you can win. There, that’s what I call almost religious belief, sure it’s money and not life everlasting, but with the way Hollywood peddles its superstar lifestyles, the difference has blurred. Now what if you’d set up your own highly successful software company and it was about to be floated on the stockmarket and you believe it will make you at least a million pounds in personal fortune. You see that’s not belief, that’s just an estimate, however rough.

All I’m saying is if it sounds too far-fetched, just as with advertising, I tend to ignore it. Buddhism used to escape the glare of my growing objectivity, perhaps a fondness for the whole ‘let’s make reglion more Marxist’ approach. There’s no hierachy as such, you just have to be very good for a very long time, then you win or something. Ok so then you get to meet Kurt Cobain. Sorry. Of all the people out there, I don’t want to knock Buddhists, lovely people I’m sure, best out of a bad lot I’d say, but still, I’m feeling irreligious today.

I once worked as a temporary dustman when I was struggling with college fees and got to work a whole day with a very devout Jehovah’s Witness. He was a nice chap, bit beardy, but very relaxed and friendly. But soon I realized why the council could only get temps to work with him. He was working his mojo, he was actually trying to convert me.

I spent the next hour ‘de-converting’ him, making him deconstruct all his beliefs in a logical progression of deduction and conclusion. By the end his head was in his hands and he was bawling his eyes out. Why? Well, his wife, kids, parents, siblings, friends, everyone in his life were Jehovah’s witnesses. I then spent the next hour reassuring him and joking about my foolishness, explaining I was simply testing his faith, not denouncing it.

Some people need a divine purpose, some don’t. Religion has always exploited that belief. But there are incongruencies in all faiths, contradictions that pull apart any resemblance of logical structure and reasoning. The last religion to let me down was Buddhism. If they believe in reincarnation, then how comes the Dalai Llama is continually reborn? If anyone should set them a good example, it’s him.

Monkfish - a t-shirt and philosophy - all rolled into one!

Retro God is an experiment, a collision of fashion and art, a font of originality, a source for style, a politcal forum, a new and unique way of re-inventing street iconography, surrealism, social characture in to a clothing brand for those seeking a real alternative to ‘I’m With Stupid’ and ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ t-shirts.

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