Big Apple T-Shirt

June 26, 2008

Big Apple T-Shirt by Paul Baines

It’s funny how places can get nicknames, I checked out the origin of New York’s alter ego, and it seems the term was coined by NY jazz musicians of the 1930s and ‘40s, some say it’s to do with the depression and all the apple sellers on the streets, but I think the music scene would’ve been far more influential than a few fruit sellers. Besides there was some kind of crazy jazzy dance back then called the Big Apple too, so not surprisingly the name caught on.

There isn’t much to explain about the Big Apple T-Shirt except that it’s influenced by famous painting The Son of Man by René Magritte, a Belgian Surrealist with a knack for creating the iconic. You can probably recognise the influence straight away, there aren’t many images out there that obscure a portrait with a giant apple, then again, it could just be an average apple placed close to the viewer.

I have a strange kinship with New York, all it a long-distance relationship, okay yes, in a voyeuristic sense, I do love New York! I haven’t been there, I suppose I should go, my partner has and she enjoyed herself, but she wasn’t ecstatic, I knew why, we’ve been spoiled by a history of film, one tribute after another up until the 1980s when everything on location in New York was actually filmed in Vancouver and other less populated, less memorable cities. I suppose no where can live up to my expectations these days, it’s no one’s fault in particular, just the wealth of filmography that has used New York city as a backdrop to countless stories.

I’m sure plenty of New Yorkers will be rolling their eyes by now, it’s true, how can I tell what New York is like from across the Atlantic, well, I do know that every city I’ve lived in or visited has become busier, more crowded, more congested and more polluted than the last. It’s practical to create a megatropolis in the midst of an Industrial Revolution, even at the beginning of an Information Age, but soon, very soon people begin to realise they don’t need to commute, the oil crisis will speed up the process, and more and more lumbering behemoth corporations will experience a painful commuter burnout. Then we’ll see the rise of the local economy once more, a resurgence for convenience and practicality. Then New York, London and many other incredible cities can make some room, and all we’ll use them for is entertainment, the arts, cultural and historical experiences, trade, and shopping for luxury goods, it’s what they were built for in the first place. In times gone by the only people who lived in a city lived in squalor or owned a serious chunk of real estate. Funny how things always turn full circle if you wait long enough.

Big Apple T-Shirts from only $9.99!