Hard Rock Cafe - Shanghai

I got this shirt from my dad as a souvenir.
He got it from the Hard Rock Cafe gift shop in Shanghai when he went to China with his painting group. He was there for a couple weeks and got some amazing photos and did some spectacular paintings.
I clearly can't get enough of these shirts. They have become a lifestyle to me and I hope I never lose them. And by that I mean like grow out of liking them or am in a position where I can't be wearing them whenever I want. Not like physically losing them; there are way to many to lose. And seriously, what crazy tragedy would have to occur to loose a bunch of specific t-shirts. I'm gonna stop discussing losing these because, as Bobby told me, "Saying something out loud makes the chances of it happening increase by 80%," [or something like that].
Even though this Was bought in China I am confident that it is real. I'm not dissing the country as a whole... I'm just sayin' that on the whole they're good at what they do [read: making counterfeits]. If this is your first Hard Rock Cafe post that you have read let's get down to the basics. The shirt consists of two elements. One is the main Hard Rock Cafe logo. It has been the same for a long time and there are subtle variations depending on how old the shirt is. The super old ones have a slightly flatter design but this one is more recent and has a few more text treatments. Honestly, this feels like someone just took the flat logo, brought it into Photoshop and hit bevel & emboss, drop shadow, offset path, and was like, "I'm a genius! This is way better than before!" This works if you aren't used to seeing these effects like every day. If you see the old and the new next to each other you want to *facepalm* at how rudimentary the change is. The other element of this design has not changed -as far as I know-. It is just the city of origin, today's reads, "Shanghai". The word changes from location to location but the hue and font stay consistent.
Rarely do I need a shirt to send a Shanghai message. I don't even know what a Hard Rock Shanghai feeling is. Let's think. The first thing that comes to my mind is communism. But this is rock and roll right? So it's like bitchin' electric guitars and pyrotechnics communism. Just how Mao would have wanted it. Having a western establishment like the Hard Rock Cafe in China's largest city does have a powerful message of peace and cooperation. China has adopted a new mantra in the new millennium, "To get rich is glorious" I feel like this shirt can exemplify that thought.

Receiving these shirts is always a treat. If someone is going somewhere and says, "Do you want me to bring you back something?" it is always this awkward dance between guessing expectations and trying to think of something funny. So that they don't have to get you anything because it's weird to ask for a gift from a friend. These shirts are my reflex gift request and most people are cool with the low price point and unique, locale specific, souvenir. Plus, the Hard Rock Cafe is usually really easy to find if you're an American tourist traveling abroad. And if you've never been, then of course I want you to check it out! You don't know what little slice of America you happen to be missing out on.