Monday, January 09, 2012

The Spo-shirt arrives in France!

A little background: Ur-Spo is a blogger who lives in Phoenix, Arizona (USA). He writes Spo-Reflections, a blog I've been reading for some years now. He's a psychiatrist. A Jungian, I believe, although I have really no idea what that means. He's originally from Michigan and from a big family. He likes good tea (no rubbish), and enjoys a "jolly good time." He lives with Someone (his partner) and their dog Harper. He spends annual vacations in Palm Springs and Key West. And he makes shirts.

Yours truly posing at Chambord sporting the famous Spo Shirt of Shirts.

Dr. Spo (pour les intimes) likes to sew shirts using unusual tropical-style fabrics. He has made many, both for himself and for his friends. When he blogs about new shirts or new fabrics, his followers (which he lovingly calls Spo-Fans or Friends of Spo) love them. One of the Spo-Fans loved the shirts so much, he suggested that Dr. Spo send one of his shirts on an around-the-world tour. And so he did. Read about it here.

All this could be yours. If you're a French king from the 16th century.

Dr. Spo decided that for every person that wore the shirt and blogged about it, he would donate a certain sum to one of four charities, thus making the Spo Shirt Tour a worthy cause. The charities from which he will choose are: Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans frontières), the Humane Society, Test Positive Awareness, and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. All worthy, although as a dog lover, I'm partial to the Humane Society.

I give you Chambord!

I got the shirt from Peter in the Netherlands last November. Since then, I've been waiting for a good weather day to make photos of me wearing it at the Château de Chambord, a local historical site and one of the most famous of French castles. We had the holidays, we had the storms, and we had the colds that knocked us out. But last Friday, everything came together and Ken and I drove up to Chambord for a photo session.

"Le Making Of" as they say in France. Ken snapped a picture of me prepping for my shoot. It was damn cold.

I'm happy to have been able to participate in the Shirt of Shirts World Tour. When it was first announced, I hesitated because I didn't know if anyone would want to send the shirt to Europe. But when I found out that someone indeed did, I signed on.

So now I'm sending the shirt on to the United Kingdom. I don't know where it will go from there, but I have heard some rumblings that people in Australia are interested. Wow.

33 comments:

  1. What a fantastic idea! Good on Urspo - and they are all great charities.

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  2. It's a great shirt and what a great idea. Well done you and Dr Spo.

    Great photos of Chambord, too.

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  3. I did notice that you waited until no one was around before you put the shirt on before Ken took the photo!!!!!
    But a very good cause and should it come to Australia, I shall be very happy to ride my bike wearing it on Beach Road where 7000 cyclist ride on Saturday mornings.
    Leon

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  4. Just have to get on my soap box here for a second - Dear Dr Spo, please donate to your LOCAL Humane Society and not the Human Society of the United States. The HSUS is in no way affiliated with actual animal shelters, despite their commercials stating otherwise. They use images of poor little puppies & kittens to raise money to fund their hidden agenda, which is to make everyone vegan.

    We've all seen those ads - saying just $19 a month to save precious little animals. Well that adds up to $228 over a year, and only $1.03 of that $228 will ever be used to actually help animals. And for other cash donations, only one cent of every dollar is given to shelters.

    Instead, that money is being used to lobby & influence people into changing the so-called animal welfare laws, which really result in higher prices for the farmers and in turn higher prices for the consumers (and less people who can afford to eat meat). Their current focus is eggs, because hey - what's the cheapest meat protein out there?

    So please, if you really want to help the animals, always donate to your local shelter, not to a covert society with $162 million in assets.

    I'm really sorry to hijack your comments Walt, but this is really something that gets to me - this organization lies to consumers and plays on people's emotional reactions in order to advance their mission statement. It's just plain wrong!

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  5. Wow, that shirt really "gets around".
    Looking good Walt!
    m.

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  6. This is excellent :) It's a great "reveal" for us :))

    Ksam, thanks for that info -- I had no idea!

    Judith

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  7. yes i agree with Sam ...donate to local humane societies! love the traveling shirt idea....and re Bertie.....guess he was hungry for some sushi.....the other day my husband left the door cracked so cats could come & go & he heard crashing in the kitchen & found a blue jay flying all around.....it was hell to escort him out & resulted in a lot of bird poop on the dining chairs ...never knew if he came in on his own or one of the cats brought him (no sign of any wounds on him tho)

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  8. Great shirt and a wonderful idea. Well done Urspo. I hope the shirt has long and varied travels.

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  9. The shirt of shirts photo was worth the wait! I had a lot of anticipation when I opened your blog today. Next anticipation of the day...who will be the BCS champ, LSU or Bama?

    Thanks for sharing this photo with us.

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  10. Thank you very much for being part of this. I am honored so! Your photos are fabulous. It has been an amazing experience watching this shirt go around the world.
    PS - that opening paragraph, can I use it? It summarizes me to a T! Royalties are negotiable I hope.

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  11. Jung was a psychiatrist who is just as famous as Freud. Most psychiatrists practice either Jungian or Freudian psychology. I noticed Ur-spo didn't mention Ksam's comment. How curious.

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  12. Yay, Walt! Yay, Dr. Spo! Yay, Chambord! Great stuff. I support all those charities, so I don't think you can go wrong.

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  13. P.S.--I know what a Jungian therapist is. Been to one myself. Not that there's anything wrong with that... LOL

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  14. Well done, Walt. But don't forget this isn't the first time you've seen this shirt. I brought it with me in Oct. 2009 when I stayed in your newly-done loft. I have a photo of me wearing the shirt up in your loft (but I'll be damned if I can figure out how to add a link of it to this comment). I hope the shirt is holding up well with all this traveling.

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  15. This is a terrific idea! You are brave to wear the shirt with the dignity that you afford it.

    Thanks for all the great posts & excellent phots in 2011. Your little spot on the Internet remains a favorite.

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  16. That was fun! And what a good idea.

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  17. anne marie in philly09 January, 2012 17:53

    YOU LOOK FABULOUS! and in front of that magnificent castle too...

    chambord...oooooh, I LOVES me some chambord liqueur (sp?)!

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  18. Oops, I screwed up the year. I meant Oct. 2010. Did you know I'm temporally challenged?

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  19. Thumps UP !
    great pics and what a fabulous idea !
    This shirt will look terrific in my white outdoor surroundings

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  20. Handsome all the way around -- model, shirt, backdrop, causes.

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  21. It would be great Walt, if you would let us know where the shirt is once in a while. Excellent idea!

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  22. You're great in this terrific shirt :-)
    The fact it "travels" makes me think of the "nain de jardin"/garden gnome in the film titled "Amélie Poulain" :-)
    Bises
    Mary

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  23. Very colorful shirt and for good causes, too. I guess when it travels in the USA is will help support the Post Office as well - hehehe.

    Mary in Oregon

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  24. Stephen reminds me that I have been remiss in not thanking you and Ken for a 2011 filled with great photos and interesting posts!

    Love the shirt. Love the story. Love the model!

    VW: regaze -- what I am doing to the photos of you @ Chambord.

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  25. François Premier est sûrement fier de toi...

    ou bien il se retourne dans sa tombe en ce moment! ;)

    Hugs
    Jon

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  26. It looks good on you Walt. And on it goes to the next receiver! Liverpool maybe???

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  27. Looking good Walt, looking good! That is the very same shirt that I wore here on the east coast of Delaware. And I might say it looks might good on you Walt, you cutie.

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  28. "MIGHTY" good Walt (you handsome devil.)

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  29. Great cause, great shirt and great model (not to mention the 'decor'). When do you start your modelling career on the catwalks of Paris or Milan? I bet Jean-Paul Gauthier would be interested in as having you as a model! ;)

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  30. Thanks to everyone for your comments and support! You'll forgive me if I don't answer you all individually this time. But here are a few specific replies:

    michael, of course!

    peter, it's going to West Sussex.

    martine, I am neither tall enough nor skinny enough to elicit JPG's attention.

    ksam, thanks for the info. I didn't know, either.

    cubby, yes, I do remember!

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  31. I don't know how you were able to part with it! Great pics!

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  32. Ksam couldn't be more wrong:

    http://www.humanewatch.info/blog/myths/myth-agriculture/

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  33. I don't want to start a flame war on Walt's blog, but I'm am writing this as someone who works within the industry. The website that Tom S refers to is website run by HSUS supporters - they bought it after Humanewatch.org started publicizing the US Human Society's real goals.

    Notice how they kept the same name and just added a .info instead of a .org. It's actually a very smart tactic and a great way to confuse consumers. They definitely have some great PR people on their team...

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