The nice thing about a shirt like this? You can wear it two days in a row.

Frank Sinatra. Elvis Presley. David Bowie. Miles Davis. No matter how much their career looked like ashes, these men and others hauled themselves up and started again, in a similar but not exactly sort of way. And they all gained a special kind of magic from it.

The story of the Phoenix isn’t about finding the strength to keep going. That’s Rocky. Good story, but totally different idea. The story of the Phoenix is about not having a choice but to keep going. Doesn’t matter if it owed a loan shark money. Doesn’t matter if it just broke up with its girlfriend. Doesn’t matter if it played the new Judas Priest album backwards. As soon as it’s dead, it’s alive again.

About the fifth time that bird came back from being lit on fire, it probably started thinking that it never wanted to go through that again. Fire hurts, you know. Even if you’re coming right back, it’s still got to be a royal pain in the tailfeathers. But here it is, flapping back to life, ready for another go. Not so much reborn as redefined. Maybe this time it’ll try something new, or maybe go in a way that will be popular with fans, or maybe please the critics of a future generation. There’s nothing it can do but try again, because it simply can’t lay down and die.

What a stupid, stupid bird.

Wear this shirt: right after some creepy guy named Jason introduces you to all his rich friends at this nice old club where everyone dresses weird.

Don’t wear this shirt: when you’re on trial for eating the star near where the bird people live. Poor bird people.

Incidentally, if you enjoyed those two references, you might like to know that missmonster will be at the San Diego Comic Con (Table F-03, aisle 800) and promises to hi-five anyone who visits her while wearing this shirt. That’s right, geeks, one single purchase will give you a 100% chance of actually touching a girl’s hand, in front of hundreds of witnesses. Buy now, because we’re gonna sell out fast!

This shirt tells the world: “By the time you get to me, she’ll be risin’. She’ll find the note you left hangin’ on her door.”

We call this color: Cranberry Me Not

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