All the insurgents look to their siblings for inspiration and guidance.  Whether it is willowy sexiness, teaching us how to stretch before a rousing game of hermeneutics, or yelling and spilling snacks till all hearts in the living room vicinity expand threefold, our brothers and sisters surprise and support us. 

    Amongst these rambunctious rare birds is my brother Andy Wixon.  Andy is the father and lurking stepfather of The Gentle Pony.  I do not know how to explain the Gentle Pony to you, but any explanation would surely have to begin with a story my brother wrote at a tender age.  This story was called the Lost Eyeball and he rehashes it somewhere at The Lost Eyeball.  I'm not going to try to give you a synopsis because I don't have the fortitude or fey charm of the creator, but this gives you an idea of how far into bizzare we are. 

    I think it is this determined peculiarity that defines my brother's shirts.  He doesnt just tickle conventions, he snakes his way inside them and plays their intestines like a banjo-master giving the last performance before the winter.  But he is never vile or defiant, Andy would rather seduce the Minotaur than slay it.  I dare not offer a shirt by shirt exegesis of my brother's shirts, but I will remind you of something that Milton said in Paradise Lost : "Thence from the ramparts, I saw his scabrous, scorpioned armies assembled.  Admiration, fear, and another paler flower twined in my breast." (Milton in fact said no such thing.)

    My brothers shirts at their worst indulge his prurient Jean-Claude Van Damme fantasies and at best acheive the complexity of a koan.  Where others might shuffle you forward on the duh-conveyor-belt of syllogisms and puns, he invites you to play asphyxiation games with the shimmering scarf of paradox and a gigantic chicken.  The Gentle Pony site has a kind of ascetic bare-bones look to it and I'm sure he would appreciate any feed back you have.  Whether you like it as it is or if you want him to tart it up with some pyrotechnic features.

    I expect we will use this blog to further thank those people, siblings and friends who helped us get to where we are today (wherever that might be).  From the friends who were our only customers for those desolate first few months to the patience of our photographers who have had to endure our endless pouting and extravagant vanity, we thank you all.  As for Andy, who acted as our Tinkerbell, offering luminescent advice and giggles to us as we entered the dark marsh of E-commerce, we thank you as well.  Please take his Gentle Pony on little trot and see if you can't scare up a troll.