T shirts have always had their own power - enabling its wearer to express themselves in a particular way.

Over recent years, t shirts have allowed people to portray their thoughts and beliefs (or lack of) without use of verbal communication. Allowing for some, an automatic connection with others - purely based on whether or not they like your t shirt.

A true icon of the eighties was the Frankie say relax t shirt and another t shirt which has stood the test of time is the Che Guevara t shirt – which is often seen at music festivals, your local shopping centre, or out in the newest bars and trendiest clubs in town.

Recently, the impact of t shirts with youth today has grown even more powerful.
Today, youths can quite easily create their own t shirts (professional looking or not) plus have access to a wider variety through the internet.


T shirts are either created by hand – literally by writing the desired slogan on the t shirt with paint or by popping down to your local Supre or Dotti – where you can always pick up a shirt with the latest slogan printed on it - such as free hugs (the result of a you tube video)

There are also designated websites on the internet such as www.luckythreadz.com and www.threadless.com.



Threadless enables their users to create their own design, get their t shirts printed and then made available to all those accessing the site – essentially making users clothes designers.

On Lucky Threadz, users can pick up t shirts which carry clever phrases or their favourite lines from movies – one which is currently available is Mandy Patinkin’s infamous line from the Princess Bride –

“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”.

Now some may consider this movie and line a classic – and the people who choose to wear this t shirt will automatically have an “in” joke and share the same appreciation with other lovers of the movie.

So whether the t shirt you wear says I’m a princess or More cowbell –

it says something about you.

MySpace - what it offers

“MySpace is like a tree –

you branch out and look at other spaces.
You don’t know how you got there… you just do.”

MySpace the latest trend in pop culture – a way to stay in the know and keep in touch with all things social. It is an evolution from the telephone, email as well as MSN. It is also considered by a few to be the Google of blog sites.

“EVERYONE” uses MySpace

but predominantly, it is younger people as well as musicians and their promoters.

By young people, it refers to teenagers, school students and university students. Although MySpace does have minimum age requirement of 14, some tweens do fudge the system and lie about their age to set up their own space.

For some, they believe the people who do use MySpace, have only done so to conform to the latest fad –

“like mobile phones, all kids have them.”

Musicians and promoters using the site do so to promote bands and recording artists. By doing this, musicians can try and make a name for themselves. It allows unknowns to have their music readily accessible – their music can be heard on a mass level. They can target their audience without the support of a record company.

On the other hand, established bands and artists can keep close relationships with their fans by keeping them up to date through their own space

The majority feel MySpace is all about TALKING TO PEOPLE – communication through the use of the comment feature.

Users are able to:

• Make new friends and keep in contact with old friends
  
• Inform people about important events such as parties, holidays and festivals. “It’s just convenient to write something about yourself and all your friends are updated.”


• Reach anyone in the world
  
• See what others are up to


• Cement friendships – by taking it to another level. Through MySpace users can show and see different sides of personalities




• Approach friendships in an easier manner – a pre bonding session which makes meeting each other the next time round that little bit easier
  
• Organise outings or events

A slight entertainment element too is involved:

• Keeping up to date with new music and gigs
  


• Looking at other people’s spaces and seeing what they are up to. Public spaces are very open, allowing anyone to have a look

“the fact that they don’t know I’m looking at their site makes it even better!”

Though it is overkill for some? Yes it is a site that enables users to express themselves, but how they do it can be an issue for some.

For those, MySpace is:

“used by young, egotistical, narcissistic, self indulgent people who have way too much time on their hands and an inflated level of self importance.”

Perhaps it is because “you can choose the best photos, what you write, who you write to – and then you can select the people you want to see it by making it private.”

A lot feel that MySpace is about the user making themselves a star. “Users can become celebrities in their own minds…they are part of something much bigger than themselves. Anyone, anywhere in the world can discover what Joe Bloggs had for lunch last Tuesday…if it’s in his blog…”

It is also perceived by a few that for some, MySpace is a medium to make users feel popular – by having a large number of friends (contacts) on their space

MySpace is considered by a few to have taken off quite quickly – resulting in a pop activity. Some lead adopters have now moved on to other blog sites – which aren’t so “teeny” yet still enables the networking aspect, such as Facebook. The teeny aspect for some means MySpace is becoming a bit lame.

MySpace is the latest fad – so “if you want to be socially accepted, you get a MySpace.”

Kylie somatics

Kylie is back and in November prior to her concert to our Australia’s competitive magazine culture featured the pop princess. Both Marie Claire and Vogue featured Kylie front page but there were two Kylies.

For the keen observer many things show our pop princess has undergone a change and this is reflected in the different faces of Kylie in both Vogue and Marie Claire covers. Marie Claire shows the Bubbling Brook© Kylie using INSIDE STORY’s Marketing Somatic Identity framework (Water People©). As a Bubbling Brook© she is bright, literally sparkling on the cover and shining in pink.

Kylie looks decidedly out of sorts on the cover of Vogue in her black lace dress and her black eye makeup – looking quite out of sorts and much more like a Still Waters© goth than a princess. For those who have experienced deep feelings of loss, near loss or grief it is hard to resist the dark side.

Her latest album Body Language video also reflects a shift. This time a more towards the Flowing Stream© identity is emerging. The colour and glamour is still there but no dancing queen now. She lies on the towel languidly, seductively going through the moves fluidly to the music among a mass of bodies and no longer up there as the single bright star.

We all wish you the best Kylie as you work through your inner transformations.