We had a crazy time trying to find t-shirts to print our Pinky Show designs on. Everywhere we called only had t-shirts manufactured in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China, etc. After a lot of searching we finally decided to get our shirts from American Apparel, a Los Angeles company that makes all their clothes in Los Angeles. From what we could tell they seem to treat their workers more fairly than all the other companies we looked into. Their t-shirts costs us several times more than the stuff from Anvil, Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, etc., but hey. I still can’t believe how hard it is to find garment companies that don’t have all their stuff made in super poor countries. If anybody out there knows of any ethically-minded t-shirt companies out there, please let us know. Thank you.

~ pinky

Wheat paste anywhere. Or use as a bumper sticker for your car. Telephone number is the White House switchboard.

[ download ] (pdf, 144 kb)

Suggestions for use:
1) Download and print out a bunch of this pdf file.
2) Cut between web addresses at bottom. Easy tear-off for passers-by.
3) Post them ‘wherever’ - school, downtown… um, wherever. Use your imagination. Staple gun or packing tape works good.
4) Photograph and e-mail us the picture (lost@pinkyshow.org). Please be sure to tell us the location ok?

 
[ download ] (pdf, 121 kb)

location: unknown

 
location: unknown

 
location: unknown

 
location: unknown

 
location: Burley, Idaho

 
location: Petoskey, Michigan

 
location: Petoskey, Michigan

 
location: Rochester, New York

Front of card: Happy Holidays!

Inside of card: May the love of Jesus Christ Lord Over All Peoples - civilized faithful and degenerate heathens alike - deliver the blessings of charity and patriotism to all in your circle of family & friends.

—————————————————–

Bunny and I were looking at greeting cards at the drug store the other day and, to put it mildly, we were both shocked at how expensive they are. I mean, they’re only a folded piece of paper and a matching envelope but some of these things cost like $3 or $5 each! Amazing!

After talking it over a bit, we decided that with Christmas coming up soon, maybe people would appreciate it if we designed a downloadable Christmas card that they could download and print on their own printer. So that’s what we did - below is a PDF file that’s ready to print (standard 8.5 x 11 paper size) and fold into a card (just fold it in quarters, sign, stuff into an envelope, stamp and mail! Done!). The best part is each card should only cost a few cents each. And everybody who receives the card will probably say to you something like, “Wow, you are so thoughtful to have sent me a real homemade card! I love it much more than a non-cheap, store-bought card - Thank you!”

Anyway, rather than designing a boring, generic Christmas card, we decided to create something a little more exciting. So here it is, our very own guesstimated simulation of the exact same Christmas card you’d be receiving from the President of the United States if you were his personal friend, or at the very least, if you were important enough for the White House staff to consider acknowledging your existence during the holiday season beneficial to their long-term principal and/or marginal interests. Now you can give all you friends & family members the very same card the President of the United States of America (maybe) uses.

Enjoy! We hope you have a nice Christmas!

~ Pinky & Bunny

p.s. A helpful tip - this card looks nicer printed in color. Perhaps you have a color laser printer at work? Print away - that’s what it’s there for! Also, if your printer asks if you want the page scaled (a.k.a. ‘fit to margin’), just choose ‘none’. The design lines up/folds up better when printed without page scaling.

 
[ download ] (pdf, 343 kb)

hey pinky & co. now that consumer surrealism has come and gone now we seem to be back to the good old fashioned supermarket activism. meat is murder, i know we’ve heard it it a million times but maybe it’ll be the million+1 that does the trick. the sticker simply states the truth, it’s a fact no one can deny. please post this on your site if you believe in the reminder. dani in oakland, ca

Step 1.
If I see another Nike shirt on a teenager I think I’m going to barf. I’m not going to try to convince you that making your own shirts is better than buying name-brand shirts in stores - you probably already either think it’s a great idea or it’s stupid. So I’m just going to show you an easy way to do it and you can try it if you like. Of course there are lots more ways to make your own t-shirts, this is just the way that I do it (not that I actually wear clothes, but…).

First, go gather the following:

• a shirt.
• a can of spray paint.
• sticker letters (the peel-off vinyl kind work good).
• a ruler, pencil, and masking tape.
• a couple pieces of scrap cardboard (ideally at least one of the pieces should be a little bigger than the shirt, but you can also use a smaller piece if you’re careful).

By the way, you don’t have to buy a new shirt in order to do this. You can use any shirt you already have but don’t like the design on it. Just flip it inside out - I think it’s okay to wear shirts inside out :)

Step 2.
Think of something that you’d like to have written on a t-shirt. After you’ve thought of something, go ahead and use the little sticky letters to write it out on the shirt. If you’re the anal retentive type, use the pencil & ruler as a guide. Wow, that was easy.

Step 3.
Now get the piece of cardboard and cut a hole in it that’s somewhat larger than the words you put on your shirt. This cardboard is going to protect the rest of the shirt from getting all messy with spray paint, so the bigger the cardboard is, the easier it’ll be to spray paint your shirt. I couldn’t find a big piece of cardboard, but oh well.

Step 4.
I guess you could say this step is optional. Take the masking tape and tape the cardboard down to the shirt around your words. This will help create a nice, sharp outside edge to the block of color around the words. If you skip this step, the box will probably have a softer, feathered look to it. Not a bad look, but I prefer the cleaner look of using the tape.

Step 5.
Paint your shirt. Take a few minutes to read the instructions on the paint can. Then take another extra minute or two to make a couple test sprays on some other scrap piece of cardboard. It comes out better if you spray two or three thin layers of paint rather than trying to cover all your letters with a heavy layer of paint all at once. Too much paint tends to run and creep under the letters and/or masking tape, so please take your time. Just do one thin layer, then let it dry completely, then do it again (and again) until you’re happy with the coverage of the paint on your shirt. Don’t forget to clean the nozzle on your can of spray paint when you’re done, otherwise next time you want to make another shirt, your spray paint isn’t going to work! And try to resist touching and poking at the wet paint too - that also tends to make things come out weird. Again, be patient - read a book or something.

Step 6.
Okay, is all the paint totally dry? If it is, carefully peel off all the tape and sticker-letters. That’s it - you may now admire your new, one-of-a-kind t-shirt! Yay! I like to hand-wash hand-painted t-shirts - most spray paints aren’t actually made to last forever on fabric, and besides, hand-washing stuff doesn’t waste as much water as washing machines.

If you make any cool t-shirts, please send pictures! Take care! Pinky

Hi Pinky, I took this picture in the bathroom of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I think this sticker should be on every paper towel dispenser in the world. Take care, J.K.

hello cats. i altered a shirt in a way that you might find interesting. use iron-on #1 (thin) stencil lettering on any shirt. mine says “suspect” in large letters right across the front. hey it’s a post-911 world. planning to wear this shirt next time i take the photo at the DMV, passport, etc. a.h. from los angeles, california

Greetings Pinky!

Here’s a performance piece that’s very easy to prepare. Basically just print some words on some blank shopping bags (the kind you get from boutique stores) and then carry these bags around while “shopping” in the pricey shopping districts. I guarantee they’ll arouse a wide variety of responses, I get everything from confused blank stares to outright hostility. For example, my current favorite bag is one I made that says “Some of my best friends aren’t white”. I have others that read “I used to go out with a black guy”, “Really comfortable around ethnic stuff”, “All cultures are equally awesome”, etc.

I wanted to do something that forces people to think more about their own personal relationship to race in this country. In particular I’m interested in how white people create racialized personal narratives, the most revealing ones to me being those that help ourselves “feel better” about the conflict and inequity that still exists between white and non-white people.

Please write me back if you have time. Best wishes to all you kitties! Love, Adrie

Hey Pinky, I have a couple of questions for you. Are you against vandalism that is trying to stop something far more evil than vandalism? Do you think the protection of private property from tape, staples, and spray paint outweigh the value of dissent in a time of war, especially when all of the so-called “legitimate” channels of communication are under war-hungry corporate media control? Just curious what you think about that. Sarah

[Pinky's note: Short answer, I'll go with "no" to both, although I personally think there are conditions that should be met, and, as a matter of tactics, options to consider.]