Comic Con 2009

Our good friends over at Slashfilm.com produced some amazing coverage of this year's Comic Con in San Diego. Just to give all of us who couldn't be there a taste of how fanatical things can get David Chen filmed this short segment highlighting the length of the queue just to get in to the Futurama hall. Incidentally David was wearing our I Heart NNY Futurama tribute tee as he bravely waded his way through a veritable sea of nerds...except for the hot blonde who appears at 0.59, who apparently left the prerequisite Star Trek costume at home.

Check Out Movie Overdose

We just received this picture of the guys over at Movie Overdose who were kind enough to wear a couple of our Wire tribute t-shirts. Sam Unsted, John Doree and Tom Green review the latest cinematic releases and debate the finer points of being a film fan on their excellent weekly podcast. If by now you don't believe that radio is dead and buried then you haven't listened to podcasts like the Movie Overdose. Like films? Then listening to Sam, John and Tom is a no-brainer.

You can also follow the guys over at their Twitter page HERE

Trailers From Hell Is A Friend Of The S.D.F.C.

A while ago American comedian/writer/actor Patton Oswalt sent us a couple of pics of him wearing our Charley Varrick and Cutty's Boxing Gym t-shirts. To describe our reaction at the time as excited would have been a huge understatement, so imagine our delight only a few weeks ago when we received an e-mail from Josh Olsen, a long time friend of Mr Oswalt's, who is also a regular contributor to the excellent website Trailers From Hell. Josh kindly informed us that he loved the shirts we had sent Patton and so he ordered some for himself, explaining that he planned to wear them whilst filming a segment for the website. One of the tees he picked was our Gremlins tribute shirt Dorry's Tavern, which he loved and wanted to wear as an in-joke for the director of the movie Joe Dante who actually helps to run Trailers From Hell. A double whammy for us, a fan of our shirts wearing one whilst filming a segment for a website we frequent, which is also run by one of our all time favourite movie directors.

Fast forward a couple of months and Josh has now filmed the segment, which you can watch below, and as promised he wore the t-shirt, but what is even more mind blowing, for us at least, is the video he shot was for the Kentucky Fried Movie trailer, a film which we took inspiration from to set up The State Dept Of Fashion Corrections and the name of our fictional Warden In Chief - Big Jim Slade.
We're not sure if Josh is aware of this coincidence but it tickled us pink to make the connection. Be sure to check out the rest of the excellent website Trailers From Hell, which any self-respecting movie fan will adore.

N.B. The reason Dorry's Tavern shows up as being blue is because of the green screen behind Josh.

Patton Oswalt Is A Friend For Life

This pic is amazing for two simple reasons: 1) It features one of our favourite comedians and actors today and 2) he is wearing our Charley Varrick tribute tee. Hollywood comedian, writer and actor Patton Oswalt was gracious enough to send us this pic after we sent him out a couple of shirts knowing full well the man was a huge fan of the Walter Matthau cult classic Charley Varrick.

If for some inexplicable reason you're not familiar with Patton's work he was the voice of Remy in Ratatouille, has appeared in Reno 911, Starsky And Hutch The Movie, Blade: Trinity and is set to appear alongside Matt Damon in The Informer. Also be sure to check out his excellent stand-up albums Werewolves And Lollipops, Feelin' Kinda Patton and 222. Here's a taster of the man at work,(NSFW language).

Patton Oswalt: Stella Dora Breakfast Treats

Back To The Grind

After a brief time away researching new products, (Ahem, on holiday), the S.D.F.C. is now back to full working order and it's full steam ahead towards Spring. Full of optimism and inspiration we've just recently uploaded six new t-shirts to the website, click on the corresponding pictures below to teleport you to their product pages. We have no idea how long our new positive approach will last, but we hope that we can...oh for f**k's sake look at that, it's raining.

We Want Your Pictures

We're going to make this very simple. We want you to send us your pictures and in return we'll send you out some prizes.
The rules are as follows: Send the S.D.F.C. a picture of you, or your friends, wearing our t-shirts or hoodies and the funniest or most inventive two entries will win a prize. First place gets a t-shirt of their choice and second place gets a gift of our choice.

This month we have a copy of the brilliant Cormac McCarthy book The Road, which is soon to be a movie starring Viggo Mortensen up for a second place prize.
Send your t-shirt pics to info@bonaroo.co.uk and we'll announce the two winners in four weeks time. All of the pics we receive, (including non-winning entries) will be uploaded to our exclusive gallery at the S.D.F.C. Get clicking.

Hoddies Now £19.99

We've just added a couple of new hoodies to the S.D.F.C. and on top of the new products we've decided to slash the price from £24.99 to £19.99. We've been threatening to upgrade our hoodie range for some time and although we've only managed to throw up a few new products there are many more on the way. Please keep checking back regularly as we are determined to upload a rash of designs as soon as possible.

The Teen Wolf Hoodie is basically just a cross over from our Teen Wolf T-Shirt only it comes without the "Howard 42" backprint. The other new edition is the Farmington Barn Hoodie, (a tribute to the excellent cop show The Shield), which is also a direct crossover from our Farmington Barn T-Shirt, and is only currently available in grey, but rest assured more colour options will be added soon.

The February Freeze

This is the current view outside the S.D.F.C. right now. Gorgeous isn't it? There's something about a heavy snowfall which stirs the imagination and teleports you back to simpler less stressful times. The snow has been threatening to fall for some time now and after a week of just slightly cold weather the temperature dropped and the the white stuff came down. Apparently in Aviemore it plummeted to -18 on Sunday evening.

However, no matter how cold it is outside things have been heating up nicely inside, as we've been hard at work getting new designs printed and uploaded onto the website. You can view them below:

Lone Pine Mall - Back To The Future

V8 Interceptor Wanted - Mad Max 2

Jaws Cast List - Jaws

Last Of The Independents - Charley Varrick

That is all.

A Wonderful Evening Of Bleakness

I've been working my way through Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic book The Road over the past couple of days and last night, (with only 40 pages left), I managed to finish it. The basic premise centres around a father and his son struggling to survive as they travel down a single road, cutting through America which has been ravaged by fire and is now covered in a blanket of ash. Needless to say it isn't the feelgood book of the year but a total page turner nonetheless and possibly one of the best books I've ever read.

Feeling a little jaded and somewhat depressed after finishing the book I then watched the movie The Escapist starring Brian Cox. This is a British prison flick and to even briefly describe the plot would be giving too much away, just trust me and rent this movie. It has all the great elements of a prison escape story plus a lot more. There you go folks, read The Road and watch The Escapist...unless of course you are looking for a laugh.

Apologies

We realise that the radio silence on here has been deafening but that was mainly due to a hectic festive period in terms of work and socialising, but now with all of that over we can focus on keeping you guys updated on the latest developments at the S.D.F.C. We've released two new tees this week, (click on the pics for more info), one is a tribute to the 80s Sci-Fi classic Back To The Future and the other references Mad Max, (in a classified advert style). There is a reason for the basic design of the Lone Pine Mall tee as it's based on the original sign which you see in the film. Yes, we could have added a more detailed pine tree, made it look more artistic and pleasing to the eye, but as a fan of the movie and a friend of the S.D.F.C. pointed out, we would be doing the hardcore fans a disservice. The tee also subtly references an in-movie gag about the name of the mall, if you don't know it then we suggest you watch the movie again.
We have more designs on the way and around 20 current designs to be transferred onto our hoodie section so keep checking back for more regular updates. Enjoy.

Big Thanks

Since we launched our website back in 2006 this time of year has always been our busiest, but over the last six weeks we have been locked away pressing shirts at the S.D.F.C. like our lives depended on it. Not that we are complaining, far from it, especially in the current financial climate.
We have only now managed to surface for some much needed air and sustenance after our busiest pre-christmas period yet and we would like to thank all of our customers, new and returning, for purchasing our t-shirts. We are ecstatic that so many of you get pleasure from wearing our tees, which is really the only reason we ever started up The State Dept Of Fashion Corrections two years ago. We hope 2009 will be yet another exciting year for us and for you, we have a brand new website which we intend to tinker with in the coming 12 months and a few ideas up our sleeves which we hope will give you a few pleasant surprises. Until then friendo have yourself a disgracefully good Christmas.

Buy 2 Get a 3rd Free

With the world's economy in freefall and the doomsday merchants on the news 24/7 literally praying that we enter the greatest recession in 60 years, we thought we should offer you a little pre-xmas cheer in an otherwise thoroughly depressing time. If you go to the site between now and the 24th of Dec and order yourself, (or someone else), two t-shirts you'll get a third absolutely free. If you click on Christmas Steve above you can read all the details on how to go about getting three t-shirts for the price of two. Happy shopping.

America Is Restoring - Please Wait

Following the election of Barack Obama, making him the first black president in America's history and signifying the end of the Bush administration and eight miserable years of Republican rule, the post-election mood flooding the country and the rest of the world has been one of hope. Our America Is Restoring t-shirt pretty much sums up the post-election mood. Who knows, maybe like every other politician before him Obama may end up an ultimate disappointment, but until that happens here's to hopeful and happier times.

Win Yourself A T-Shirt For Only £1

We've just launched our special Secret Santa Giveaway offer on our main website. The rules couldn't be simpler, just purchase an entry ticket costing only £1 and you could be one of three lucky winners to pick a t-shirt of your choice come December 15th. Read about the offer and the details HERE

Worst Photo Shoot Ever!

We have no idea who Heidi Montag or Spencer Pratt are and nor do we have any burning ambition to find out. We are guessing they are a pair of vapid reality TV stars who have modelled their entire lives around the Barbie and Ken dolls. 

So why, we here you ask, write a blog post about them? Well as you'll see from the pictures in the link below they have appeared in what could only be described as the most ridiculous and unintentionally hilarious photo shoot ever. 

Apparently these two "stars" are rabid supporters of the McCain and Palin campaign and as you will see from their t-shirts, (especially Ken's...sorry Spencer's),they have embraced the right-wing republican way of thinking, with all the might their little cleanly shaven and well moisturised bodies could muster.

PHOTO SHOOT HERE  

Facebook Steve Says: Buy 2 Get 3rd Free

So after being kicked off of Facebook, (for reasons read below), the S.D.F.C. has re-established itself on the popular social network site and to celebrate we are now running a special offer, just for our facebook friends.

To qualify all you have to do is add yourself on as a friend HERE and then click on our Buy Two Get Three link on our Events box. There you will find out the special code which you can use to buy two t-shirts and get a third free from our glorious new website.

NB. You have to be a facebook friend to qualify for this deal. So we will be watching!

New Website Is Live

After a very lengthy lay off from blogging we have returned. The reason we took a hiatus was mainly due to the construction of our brand new website, which is now up and running, (at the same domain: http://www.bonaroo.co.uk/). There are a few changes which you will notice, as we are now selling hoodies and polar bear friendly tote bags, (for all you ecologically aware), and we have a gallery feature and a mini blog on our homepage. All in all the site is looking great and is now a lot easier for our customers to use and more importantly, now the hard work is more or less over, we can get back to blogging.

The Boys Are Back!

We recently found ourselves kicking chairs and throwing papers around the office of the S.D.F.C. in anger over the discovery that we had been kicked off of Facebook. Our exclusion from the popular social networking site came as a huge surprise and then as a monumental disappointment as we realised all of our work and contacts we had gathered over the last year and a half were gone forever.

Turns out the reason we got booted was due to the fact that we hadn't created a proper fan page for the business. Apparently we had used the website's name rather than our own names when we first created our Faceebook pages and that's why they pressed the ejector button. The good news is we are back up and running and if you were a friend or a fan before, then please re-add yourselves HERE.

Lessons Learnt This Weekend # 1

1. Never buy fancy food at music festivals, no matter how strong the temptation. (one portion of chinese noodles = £7.50)

2. Drunk people are hilarious.

3. Drunk people are annoying.

4. Kasabian are probably the best live band in Britain right now.

Plagiarist Express

There is nothing more annoying in life than having your hard work stolen and some other cretin take the glory for the time and energy you invested.

As t-shirt designers we know how common a problem plagiarism can be, but when a movie director claims the limelight for a product he quite clearly ripped off, action must be taken.

Here's a guy who we imagine would be, like every other film director, overly protective of his own creative work but David Gordon Green, director of the new Seth Rogen comedy Pineapple Express, doesn't quite see it that way when it comes to other people's intellectual property.
In the movie James Franco's character wears a t-shirt with the print of a great white shark devouring a kitten, a design which was first released in 2005 by WOWCH. But in a recent interview Franco states that David Green designed the t-shirt and after WOWCH chatted with the movie's lawyers it appears they don't have any hope of recieving even an apology. This is mainly because the design has been reversed and darkened slightly!!!

There is no other word for this kind of behaviour, it's theft. The guys over at WOWCH worked hard to come up with an original design and now the t-shirt which they created is about to be part of what looks like a popular cult movie, only the director is claiming it as his own. That's low in anyone's books. What's even worse is WOWCH only now want some free passes to see Pineapple Express and some popcorn when they get there and that looks doubtful too.

You can read about the whole affair HERE.