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Sadly, this Free Iran T-shirt by Ashkahn is a call to action…not a descriptive statement. I carry some guilt in being able to blog about tees comfortably from my home or office or local coffee shop while people in Iran (and elsewhere) are fighting for basic human rights. I’ll leave any further politicking to the pundits…and don’t need to tell you that this T-shirt is a powerful one; the fact that someone had to make this is unfortunate, but I’m glad someone did. Free Iran.

California Love is another gem by Ashkahn — the same artist that created Holiday Matinee’s I Love U T-shirt featured a few days back. It’s charm is quite obvious; California throwing up a “W” is just adorable…or at least Ashkahn made it so. This particular T-shirt is a special edition printed in a Los Angeles Lakers colorway. If you’re a Lakers fan living in California, you need this California Love T-shirt. There’s no way around that. In the interest of full disclosure: I haven’t really been a hardcore fan of professional basketball ever since the New York Knicks broke my heart in 1995. I still love watching games. I just don’t follow teams or players as closely as I did in the past. So I’m not a Lakers fan by definition…but I’m not NOT a Lakers fan, either, if that makes sense. But I’m as big of a fan of California as I am of New York. (That’s big.)

The Holiday Matinee Artist Series brings us this little ditty by Ashkahn. It says “I Love U,” which is great…but there’s also a bit of a juxtaposition with the cracks, cobwebs and what I can only assume to be bird crap. Irony? Hardly. The implication is that love needs to be tended to. Saying you love someone and then following through on that love is a journey many are too lazy to make. A good deal of people don’t go much further than saying it. If we were to treat words and thoughts as tangible things (which I believe we should) then these words would often look just as they do on this tee…a grand gesture, left unattended…only to fall into decay. Such is life, I suppose. I’m not sure if I picked this T-shirt to write about today because I was feeling philosophical or vice versa. In any case Holiday Matinee donates 100% of the proceeds from every tee purchased to plant, maintain and protect trees. And did I mention that all shirts are tag-free and 100% organic? It’s hard not to love the I Love U T-shirt with that in mind.