Posted on October 31, 2007
RESUCITAR MORTO
Sometime in the early to mid-1980’s the Toynbee tiler made a trip to Brazil, Argentia and Chile, laying tiles in Rio, Buenos Aires and Santiago. These were the tiles that made a lot of people stop and take the mystery seriously. There’s something about an international mystery that’s a lot more intriguing than one restricted to the northern and eastern United States.
The fact that the Santiago tile contained a Philadelphia address… the only clue known of their origins for years, only made the mystery that much more interesting.
A couple days ago, these pictures and videos appeared from sunny Buenos Aires. It’s great to see that at least a couple of the tiles are still around.
Posted on October 23, 2007
This is just awesome
House of Hades tiles in Buffalo, NY:
click here for many, many more.
Posted on October 21, 2007
Toynbee in Edison
For months I’ve heard about the amazing Indian food in Edison, NJ and for months I’ve wanted to go. But a trip to north Jersey for a single meal? The idea sat in the back of my mind never making it to the top of the list of things to do.
Then a few weeks ago, this post appeared on the Toynbee tile myspace page. (Yes the tiles have a myspace page)
there is an ‘original’ style tile located on a u-turn for the menlo park mall. rt. 1 edison nj. i havent seen this on any lists. i have been sleeping on getting a good photo of it. just throwing it out there.
With 2 solid reasons to go to Edison, the trip was on. Armed only with these scant few lines, a google map and the promise of the best Indian food in North America, we set off for New Jersey.
I assumed that the tile was somewhere in one of those left turn from the right lane New Jersey style ramps. At the Menlo Park mall, there were 2 of them. Frustratingly, the first and most obvious ramp was in the middle of a tile destroying repaving project. The first ramp came and went with no tile.
Then the second ramp passed without a sighting. I was disappointed, but my tile sense remained active. At the Molly Pitcher rest area on the Jersey Turnpike I once spotted a tile fragment by sheer will. I had the inexplicable feeling that something was at that rest stop and using this sense, I found it.
With the second turnaround falling behind, a flash of yellow caught my eye at the intersection of Parsonage and Lafayette. There it was! We pulled over and I took some photos.
What we have is a classic original style Toynbee tile in excellent condition. The tile is actually identical to the Molly Pitcher tile in size and coloration and was probably part of the same run. Here are the photos:
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And for comparison, here’s the tile at the Molly Pitcher Rest Area. Notice the identical color pattern. The hand is Justin Duerr’s:
And finally, the Indian food was as good as promised. Did you know that Edison has huge south Asian population? They do and the food is great. Go with someone that can order and/or explain the menu to you and the trip is well worth it. That’s all for now.
Posted on October 14, 2007
Street Preachings
What do Charles, Darwin, Carl Sagan, L. Ron Hubbard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the 9-11 terrorists all have in common? Not much, but all are targets of a Reading Terminal area street prophet:
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Posted on October 9, 2007
Penny Suit Man
A couple weeks ago I finally saw Penny Suit Man.
Penny Suit Man is one of Philly’s more elusive street characters. Like the Toynbee tiler, Mister James the El-Prophet*, the elderly lady at 12th and Market that dresses like a school girl and smears lipstick across her face, Sign Guy**, Jesus is White guy, the Zulu Warrior and many others, Penny Suit man is one small piece of what makes this city so beautifully fucked up.
For some reason, most of these characters are generally hemmed in by 8th and Broad, Sansom and Arch. Spotted at one of those mosaic benches near 12th and Filbert, Penny Suit Man fit the mold.
But what is Penny Suit Man?
Very simply, he wears an armored suit made of pennies. It looks like a normal fabric suit, with thousands and thousands of coins glued to it. His shoes are enormous, with a 3 or 4 inches of armor attached. They must weigh 10 pounds each.
While passing by, I was filled with glee. I’d heard of him but had never actually seen him. He sat alone, shimmering in the streetlights like some southern gentleman wearing a suit made out of pennies. I tried to catch his eye and send some kind of non-verbal acknowledgment to all his hard work, but he was too busy staring at my girlfriend with a disquieting focus of sexual rage. Penny Suit Man might have a cool suit, but he’s also a little weird… and kind of frightening.
notes:
*Mister James sticks religious notes in schedule holders on the Market Frankford line. Double-sided and written in magic marker, the notes include notable quotes like: “Some rich + educated Humans are partakers with Satans own who goes around stealing killing poor folks that sleep walk in these filthy, nasty, smelly, dirty, fowl, gross, diseased, germed filled, cursed, lousy, unjust, uncooth, odd, weird, grotesk, repugnant, devil infested streets.” Here’s a scan of one of Mister James’s notes, scanned by Justin Duerr:
**Sign Guy stays West of Broad, generally in the vicinity of 17th and Chestnut. I saw him last week at 20th and Market as he worked a large sign into his cap. Here’s a photo of sign guy taken by Albert Yee:
Posted on September 17, 2007
Copycat Hard at Work
Today’s tile news comes from a small town just outside of Indianapolis, Noblesville, Indiana. Since at least last December, a copycat Toynbee tiler has been hard at work making and gluing tiles all over town. Here’s to you, copycat tiler. Way to keep the movement going:
Toynbee tile Fishers Indiana
38th & Illinois
Location Unknown
Posted on August 29, 2007
playing to the crowd
I’m thinking of switching to an all Toynbee tile format. Actually I’m not, but it might be a good idea. Tile posts have the most comments are the most googled and have the most external links. Clearly this is what the people want.
Today’s tile news is actually last week’s tile Daily News (haha). If you happened to pick up a Philadelphia DN last Monday, you would have seen a Phables Toynbee tile comic by Brad Guigar. In case you missed it, here it is:
For a version you can actually read, visit the Phables website here.
That’s all for now.
Posted on August 28, 2007
taking a step into the virtual world
Encyclopedia Britannica describes Second Life as… actually there’s no entry for it on Britannica and even if there was, it’s a subscriber site and I don’t feel like paying for information.
Wikipedia defines Second Life as:
Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based virtual world launched in 2003, developed by Linden Research, Inc (commonly referred to as Linden Lab), which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007.[4][5] A downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called “Residents”, to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, create and trade items (virtual property) and services from one another.
If interested, the entry continues on for a few thousand more words.
I have no real understanding of SL, but was happy to see that my unqualified comparison of it to Neal Stephenson’s, SnowCrash was actually reflected in the second paragraph of the super-official Wikipedia entry. While I might not have my own avatar, at least I know what sci-fi novel to compare it to.
But why am I writing about any of this? Earlier this week I got an email from Second Lifer (is that the right terminology?) Jenn D. Jenn has placed a Toynbee tile on a bridge in the SL town of Celerio Sim. Here’s some more information that was forwarded about that tile:
Since I can’t put these tiles on public property or private property that isn’t my own (they either won’t get rezzed, or they’ll pop back to me after a few hours), I’m working on setting it up so people who click it get their own copies, which they can spread around. 🙂 The coordinates are “Celerio 92, 236, 68.” Until I get it automated, anyone who wants a tile can just IM Carrie Talaj for one.
There is a second one somewhere in Second Life. But I ain’t saying where
it is. 😉
It’s good to know that after war, famine, disease and total environmental collapse force the last, struggling vestiges of humanity to live in nutrient rich, environmentally controlled pods that allow them to experience life through a BCI reality, at least there will still be tiles around! Here are some pics:
Posted on August 23, 2007
best toynbee tile unveiling photoessay in the world
Yes I’m still talking about the damn tiles. Today, a photoessay of yesterday’s great unveiling. This includes all known new tiles, except 15th and Race… which was found earlier today. The person pictured is Resurrect Dead documentary collaborator Colin Smith. During the whole unveiling we were approached by 2 bus drivers, 1 woman from Illinois, 1 Action News reporter and several anonymous passers-by.
13th and Market:
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12th and Market:
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12th and Filbert:
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13th and Filbert:
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15th and Arch:
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15th and Chestnut:
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16th and Chestnut:
