VH1 has a divalicious live concert in store for us on Thursday, wherein divas like Cyndi Lauper, ADELE and Miley Cyrus will perform as a fundraiser for Save the Music.  Also on the lineup: an impressive roster of American Idol alumni.  Paula Abdul is hosting the show, and we’ll see performances from Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Clarkson and Jordin Sparks.

In addition to the show, VH1 has launched a limited edition concert T-shirt to raise funds for Save the Music Foundation.

So if you’re not in NY but you want to support music education programs in style, you’re in luck.  Buy a T-shirt, save the music, feel like a diva.  See?  That was easy.

Joe Wilson might breathe a sigh of relief today, with Kanye West capturing the headlines in this week’s Inappropriate Outburst/Public Apology.

Kanye disrupted the VMA’s – and more specifically, Taylor Swift – by interrupting her acceptance speech for Best Female Video with the sole purpose of telling the world that Beyonce deserved to win.  *Wince*

Beyonce, for her part, looked openly shocked (indeed, her expression brought back memories of Mike Meyers’ reaction when Kanye went on a rant about George Bush and black people during a live Katrina fundraiser).  Beyonce later invited Taylor Swift onstage during her own award for Video of the Year.

With celebrites all a-twitter about the incident, it would seem that those publicly denouncing Kanye in 140 characters or less are almost as big a story as the outburst itself.  And yet, we wonder if the even more pithy canvas of a T-shirt would be somehow more effective in staunching the twitics than Kanye’s ongoing blog apologies.  (He DOES NOT HAVE A F#$%ING TWITTER, after all.)

And so we award a Fantasy T-Wearer Award to Kanye West today.  May he wear the “Apology Loading” T-shirt with introspection.

South Carolina politics has given unprecedented inspiration to T-shirt designers this summer, with Representative Joe Wilson taking up where Governor Mark Sanford left off.

Wilson’s abrupt outburst during the President’s congressional healthcare address has provided a new, pithy catch phrase for those who are frustrated by the healthcare reform debate – which is to say that “You lie!” is the new “Obamacare” in the T-shirt world.

It’s not the first time that an inappropriate political outburst has provided creative motivation for our community.  Dick Cheney’s famous Senate floor “Go f%!k yourself!” provided entertaining fodder for outraged liberals during the Bush administration; later, the infamous Iraqi shoe-thrower inspired some equally creative T-shirts on the matter.  Television interviews have also proven to be a fertile inspiration ground – Rick Perry’s long-ago “Adios, MoFo” and Jesse Jackson’s emphatic, emasculating wishes for Obama were both seized upon by designers within hours of the utterances.  Which is to say that the immortalization of such occasions tend to precede (and long outlast) the public apologies.  Perhaps part of the fascination with such events is that these incidents are simply so fundamentally human, and an unexpected departure from the scripted polish usually seen from American politicians.

This time around it would seem that Joe the Heckler is the new Joe the Plumber, in that he’s been elevated to a symbolic encapsulation of the Right’s concerns about the Obama administration.  With the 9/12 Tea Partyers getting ready for a weekend march on Capitol Hill, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not the “You Lie!” shows up as a crowd favorite in signs, stickers and T-shirts.  Time will tell…

As students clear the old cobwebs and hit the books again, high school seniors with an eye towards college have their calendars marked for the upcoming (gulp) SAT Tests.

For those not in the know, the “SAT Reasoning Test” is a standardized test used for college admission in the U.S. The nearly four-hour test helps colleges estimate how “ready” a student is for college – through scores in three test areas – math, critical reading, and writing. (Hopefully the math section has a story problem or two on counting all those dorm food calories?).

If you sleepwalk through Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader and think the test is a breeze, you might want to first checkout some basic algebra SAT practice questions.

Needless to say, there is some controversy over how effective the SAT is in gauging college preparedness. Not to mention, how fair the test is, given our vast divide of social, educational and economic factors from one student to another.

But you can always close that divide, with SAT preparation classes that run from $600 to $8,000.  Plus throw in a $22 T-shirt for the test day, and get ready for the Ivy League.

Unless you’re unemployed, or a poor & downtrodden Major League Baseball player (A-Rod, still reading this blog … you haven’t posted any comments this week?), Monday is your bonus day off. Congratulations. Enjoy. You earned it.

I suggest you follow the lead of millions of other gainfully-employed Americans and pack-up the family for a relaxing picnic at your local state park. Babbling brooks, fresh fruit … oh wait, they’re threatening to close many state parks because of budget deficits. Never mind.  Then maybe a nice family drive in the country, stopping to smell the roses and what not? Except the ol’ car’s not running so well now, is it? And that new engine part isn’t coming anytime soon, since the entire auto industry has come to a screeching halt. Hummm …

Truth be told, Labor Day is becoming harder and harder to joyfully “celebrate”. Especially with our country’s unemployment inching towards 10% (with pockets of the nation much higher – which means more folks with less-and-less in their pockets).

But I have to tip my cap to the many among the CafePress community who see the glass as half-full (and keep cranking out optimistic designs). Although I’m no leading economist, it seems that the light at the end of the tunnel is shinning brighter. Hopefully this time next year, as a nation, we’ll be hitting on all cylinders (including the auto industry).

In the meantime, perhaps on this Labor Day it’s best to go with plan “B”: Baseball. Just walk (or take public transit, since these workers don’t get the day off) to a Major League Baseball game. Let’s all support the A-Rods and Manny Ramirezes and Miguel Tejadas out there, who are struggling like us all to keep food on the family table.

As Autumn approaches, fire season kicks into full gear for much of the nation. Major blazes are now raging from Texas and Colorado to Arizona and Hawai’i. And as the national news is quick to confirm, California is once again being hit particularly hard (ditto for Greece, if you’re tracking hotspots outside of the U.S.).

Needless to say, the fires are a topic on many people’s lips these days (particularly folks in Southern California). Naturally our designers are doing a great job of bringing fresh ideas to the forefront — keeping our attention on the great job firefighters are doing.

If you want to read more about fires (although from a more intellectual point of view), the Golden Eagles Hotshots in the San Diego area host a website with stories and poems about fire – many from a native Indian perspective. Check it out, and be sure to honk and wave when you pass a firefighter.

The Mojave Memorial Cross has stood proudly as a tribute to fallen soldiers since 1934, when WWI veterans erected the cross to honor their fallen brothers.  At the moment, however, the cross is boarded up (at left) courtesy of the ACLU, which wants to tear it down due to it being religious iconography on public lands.

The cross sits in the 1.6 million acre Mojave National Preserve and has been the subject of numerous court challenges since a National Park Services employee and the ACLU filed a 2001 lawsuit, claiming that the monument violates the Establishment Clause.

Both the District Court and the 9th Circuit of Appeals court have determined the cross to be unconstitutional.  The cross has staunch supporters, though – the nonprofit Liberty Legal Institute has taken up the cause, and the matter has been escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is due to hear the case come fall.  Liberty Legal also set up a website for its supporters; Don’tTearMeDown.com has up-to-date information, background history, petitions and – of course – an online shop.

Liberty Legal was kind enough to send us some photos of some soldier supporters in Iraq, before and after their shop was set up.  See if you can spot the difference…

Before

After

These army men return from the front lines soon, and – armed with 6 other soldiers and an armful of T-shirts, stickers and buttons – they plan to make their way across the United States to the memorial to raise awareness and support for the cause.  They will be accompanied by American Legion and Freedom Riders, and when they arrive at the memorial they plan to hang a wreath on it (perhaps everyone can agree that this is less of an eyesore than a plywood box) and read the name of their fallen comrades.

The underlying concern behind the fight for the Mojave Memorial Cross to remain standing isn’t just for this particular monument, but rather for all military monuments containing religious iconography.  Arlington National Cemetery has more crosses than any other, begging the question as to how it, too, might be affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling.

I’m going on vacation as of… now!  But don’t worry: Diamond D will take care of your blog fix.  Talk to you soon.

September is National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and the folks at CureSearch have added a bunch of new designs to help raise awareness and funds toward the fight to end cancer.  The merchandise was designed by the kids they help via their Young Artist Program, and all money will go to fund childhood cancer research.

Says CureSearch, “12,500 families will hear the words ‘your child has cancer’ each year.  September, National Childhood Cancer Awareness month is an opportunity to grow our community – to let people know that they can help us find a cure.”

Team Unite also has some great new designs up for the month, including a specialized series that honors those kids who have gone above and beyond to raise awareness about childhood cancer.

From the gal behind the Team Unite store:

My daughter, Jessica, passed away on June 9, 2007 after a year-long battle with brain cancer. It was 3 days after her 17th birthday. Through her journey, I met soooo many families dealing with childhood cancer. I made a special connection with Michelle Tucker, Henry Tucker’s mother. Henry passed away from Leukemia just 5 days after Jessica, on June 14, 2007. He was only 6 years old.

Michelle’s dear friend, Dianne Killian began putting together and authoring various “strategies” that we would post on our Caringbridge pages … ideas on raising awareness, ways to contact our congressman, etc. (at the time we were trying to get a huge bill passed for research funding). More and more people started sharing these strategies and we realized it was a great opportunity to try and get people to team up and become a united force. Thus, Team Unite was formed.

I started a CafePress store back in 2003 (in fact, I just noticed I had my 6 year anniversary the other day! lol) … But I signed up initially to make a special tote bag for Jessica. She had incredibly eclectic tastes and was an amazing artist, so we found your site and it was just perfect. I didn’t do much with it for a number of years, but after Jessica passed away I wanted to make some items in her memory and honor. So I made a bunch of different pins and things for her. I have a store just for her stuff, and I also have a 3rd store for Pediatric Brain Tumor Awareness.

Then I started making pins and shirts for other kids, which I found I really enjoyed and it made me feel like I was helping in a small way.

I designed the first Team Unite calendar last year and it was a huge success. This year our September gear has been really popular, and our families absolutely LOVE being able to have items with their child’s picture on it.

Team Unite also sent this great pic of Calla, a cancer survivor, wearing one of their buttons.

National Childhood Cancer Awareness Day is September 12th.  So if you’re wondering what you can do to help out in the battle against childhood cancer, the answer’s as easy as getting dressed.