Journalist and brand content writer.
Warning: These t-shirts contain scenes of violence. Wearer discretion is advised. A dead hooker in a bathtub, an arm with a knife behind your back, Jack the Ripper, someone getting choked to death, blood splatter patterns and the shower scene from Psycho. Diagnosis: murder.
Princess Diana, Marvin Gaye, JFK, and Malcolm X are not only famous celebrities and political figures who died tragically, they are also the inspiration for Vancouver’s controversial t-shirt line, Merder Tees.
Once a year, one particular street in the sleepy town of Buñol, Spain becomes a red, ankle-deep tomato juice river, flowing with flip-flops, t-shirts, beer cans, and the occasional Afro wig.
Bunol, which is a one-hour train ride from Valencia, has been hosting La Tomatina since 1945. There are various theories about how it began. Some say a couple of friends got into an argument at a local restaurant, which eventually turned into a food fight. Others believe it began as an anti-Franco protest. And still, another explanation is that the tomato war began between two opposing groups of youths: Think the Socs and the Greasers from the book “The Outsiders.”
Regardless, what began as the flinging of a few tomatoes in a quiet and unassuming town, has grown into an annual festival on the last Wednesday of every August, to which nearly 20,000 white-shirt-wearing warriors flock.
It’s 5 p.m. in Manarola, Italy and a few locals are sitting outside their closed shops gossiping. A lady with glittery braided hair who owns the pottery store has a red flower in her hair and is chatting with her friends – they may have lived in Cinque Terre their whole lives. They are from…
Amber Turnau | Storyteller 