Posted on August 22, 2007
new Toynbee tiles are old school tiles
This afternoon I discovered that summer rains softened the glue and tar paper on the 13th and Market tile. With the pile of tar paper still lying next to it, I found the uncovered tile within minutes of its terran debut. I can’t express how bizarrely and somewhat disturbingly excited I was to discover that the tile underneath was classic “old school.”
I called Colin from the Resurrect Dead documentary, who happened to be in the neighborhood. Together we visited all 7 tiles, uncovering each one. I have photos and will put them up here when I have a little more time, but for now, please enjoy a short animated series of the unveiling of a tile at 12th and Market Streets.
For all of you out there that scratch you heads and wonder why I’m so damn obsessed with these things, check out this new series. The return to the artistic skill and mysterious beauty of the original style Toynbee tiles injects fresh life into the movement. Visit these tiles after dark when the streets are quiet. Read the message and know that its creator is completely serious. These tiles aren’t a joke or an exercise in culture jamming. They’re a sincere plea to our species’ highest potential. Unlike most contemporary artists, the tilest doesn’t want to be known. He seeks no personal fame or fortune. He’s not going for an angle or a niche. He creates for the sake of creation. His purpose reaches for the highest ideals of the human spirit.
Posted on August 17, 2007
Apophenia
Word of the day: Apophenia or: (as taken from Wikipedia)
Apophenia is the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined in 1958 by Klaus Conrad, who defined it as the “unmotivated seeing of connections” accompanied by a “specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness”.
In statistics, apophenia would be classed as a Type I error (false positive, false alarm, caused by an excess in sensitivity). Apophenia is often used as an explanation of some paranormal and religious claims. It has been suggested that apophenia is a link between psychosis and creativity.
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And as an example of the word, the rest of the wikipedia entry delves into the principles of Discordianism, which I was trying both successfully and unsuccessfully to explain to a non-adherent just the other day.
Posted on August 15, 2007
strange tile news / huge tile news
So at 6:30 this evening I’m acting slightly obsessive, leaning over the hot pavement at 15th and Arch snapping detail photos at a glob of wood glue and tar paper under which a Toynbee tile is adhering to the asphalt, when a young guy stops me and says something completely unexpected.
“That’s the guy who [redacted].”
What he said to me was not the identity of the tiler, but it was an important piece of information known only to a handful of tile researchers associated with the upcoming Resurrect Dead documentary. Apparently I was wrong about who knows what. Stunned that this stranger stopped me and told me a bit of super-secret tile knowledge, I asked him how he came across the information. Peter (his name) told me he heard it from Dave, who heard it from someone associated with the documentary. Amazing how information spreads.
The bit of information that’s leaked is actually an incredibly cool fact about how the tiles were originally spread. Since it doesn’t reveal the identity of the tiler, or hint as to who it is, I actually have told a couple of people about it. It’s the kind of fact that won’t ruin the documentary, but is still better left under wraps until the whole story can be shown on screen. I’m sure the other few who know this fact have spread it around a little too. Still though, it’s never been posted on the internet and has spread slowly in the old fashioned person to person contact.
That someone saw me in the 10-second window that I was standing in the street snapping photos and not only knew what I was photographing, but knew a piece of tile lore known only to a privileged few is just mind-blowing.
BUT ANYWAY
The tile news is even more mind-blowing. While the main message of the new, large tiles has yet to appear, a silhouette has begun to emerge at 15th and Arch. I am absolutely, positively, THRILLED that the message is clearly carved in the old school, original font.
What this means is that the 7 new tiles that have appeared in Philadelphia in the past couple of months are quite possibly the work of the original Toynbee tiler. If this is true, then the other, now crystal clear implication of this, is that there never was a copycat tiler. There has always only ever been 1. It’s too early to make that claim, but its evidence is starting to become very strong. That’s all for now! Thank you and goodbye!
Look at the “R” in that. That dark blob is the biggest tile news in half a decade.
Posted on August 8, 2007
As Summer Sun Melts…
Today is a day that I’m glad I don’t still work in an animal emergency room. Heat stroke abounds and it’s always a brutal, ugly thing. If you, or your dog’s body temperature goes over 107, your internal organs begin to melt.
On that cheery note and because I have nothing else to write about this horribly oppressive Wednesday afternoon, here’s an update on the Toynbee tiles.
The new tiles that I reported a few weeks back are still covered. Whatever lies beneath the tar paper and wood glue has yet to be revealed. The first post about these new, large tiles included sightings at 15th and 16th at Chestnut. Since then, new large tiles from the same run have been spotted at 15th and Arch, 13th and Filbert, 12th and Filbert, 13th and Market and 12th and Market. In case you’re mentally retarded and can’t count, that’s a total of 7 new, large tiles in center city Philadelphia.
To paraphrase a long-gone Pittsburgh tile, as heat of summer sun melts tar paper, the new tile will be revealed. Hopefully several layers of tar paper will keep car wheels from messing them up.
In other news, the robot men that you’ve probably been seeing all over the fucking place are the work of a street artist named stickman. Head over to 12th and Filbert to see a new large tile, an old, small tile and a robot man all at the same intersection. As the medium takes hold, I hope to see more styles and varieties of asphalt mosaics.
Along with Reading Terminal and Chinatown, robot men run a stretch of the Parkway from 17th to the art museum, all over Penn Campus and eastern West Philly, 2nd street in Northern Liberties and even on Delaware Ave. Good work stickman!
Posted on July 28, 2007
Shortwave
These messages were posted to this site and to the Resurrect Dead message board in the early hours of the morning. They came from Mt. Laurel, NJ. If you have the ability, listen:
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george herbert walker bush is cheif hellion now aND his SOViET PAls IN s&b killed JFK
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YOU! YOU MUST LISTEN TO 6250kHz!!!transmitter 6250 kHz Astrakhan Russian Federation 46’55N 47’42E 500KW OUTPUT/1605HRS/utc.
YOU! yOU MUST BROADCAST!YOU!!!
—
Aghfanistan KABUL Wazir Akbar Khan Street n.º 13, Lane 4, n.º 274.—Kabul.
Tels: 70 27 70 13 and 70 27 82 69.
Posted on July 10, 2007
Fucking Awesome
Is what I thought the other evening when I saw that the street tile medium is alive, well and spreading. Look at this page and these non-Jupiter related asphalt mosaics from NYC.
Really Fucking Awesome
Is what I thought when I spotted a completely original street tile in the middle of the intersection at 19th and the Parkway across from Eakins Oval earlier this evening. I snapped a camera-phone pic for immediate public consumption.
Posted on June 26, 2007
Toynbee Tile News and history 101
In late 2001/early 2002 artist, musician and Toynbee tile lover Justin Duerr discovered the last original tile ever glued, just minutes after it was put to the street. He wrote to Toynbee.net:
I left my house on a mission to my lacal convinience (sic) store
for a late Sunday night snack (about 4:00 A.M.,so perhaps “early morning snack would be more appropriate wording.) On my way back to the house I noticed a black mound in the street which had made it’s appearance there sometime in the 10 minute period that I was in the store. Upon closer inspection I discovered it to be a mound of tar paper, intermingled with what appeared to be wood glue. Being the inquisitive soul that I am, I lifted the top layer to see what may lay underneath—-a “TOYNBEE IDEA” TILE!!!!!( This was discovered at 12th. & Race ST. in Philadelphia, if you want to add it to your sightings list.) Needless to say, I examined the tile for quite a while, my heart racing all the while, knowing that I had missed catching the “mad tiler” by only a matter of minutes.
In the next 48 hours, heavy rains washed the tile away. It never adhered to the asphalt. In the past 5 years, no old school tiles have appeared in Philadelphia or anywhere else.
BUT…
Starting in 2002 new-school tiles began appearing. They have a different font and orientation. Most of them are small and placed close to the curb. Nearly 200 of them have appeared in Philadelphia and surrounding highways since 2002. Only 1 has been reported outside of the Philadelphia area. Tile experts are split on whether these new tiles are the work of the original tiler or a copycat. But that’s not the point of this post.
Since early 2002 every single tile glued to a street in center city Philadelphia has been small, crude and aesthetically boring. But in the past week at least 3 old-school size mystery tiles have appeared.
These tiles are large and mysterious. Not yet exposed (still covered in layers of glue and tar paper) these tiles could be anything. No matter what lies beneath, the tiles are an exciting development in the Jupiter resurrection movement. Over the next few weeks, large, bright mosaics will again decorate center city Philadelphia streets. Keep your eyes on 15th/16th and Chestnut and 15th and Arch. In the meantime, here are some early photos from Chestnut Street:
I couldn’t keep myself from messing with this one:
slightly vaginal looking detail crop:
Posted on June 21, 2007
great! amazing! stupendous!
I’ve never really given much thought about what I want done with my body once I’m done with it. I guess that I figured that I’d be cremated. It’s better for the environment, cheaper and generally more appealing in some way. No embalming, rotting or worms. I may have just changed my mind though. If I’m cremated, how can I have this on my gravestone?
The carver may be Weird PA (of the Weird NJ franchise of magazines and books) author Matt Lake. I’ve put an email to Mr. Lake to confirm this. I know he’s a tile fan and the flickr page with this image was tagged with his name. Whoever created it, good work man! The message lives.
Postscript: I’ve decided that I want the dead molecules of my body resurrected on the gigantic planet of Jupiter! That’s all for now.
Posted on June 11, 2007
Resurrect Dead: the preview
I’ve finally been given the ok to post the preview for “Resurrect Dead” the Toynbee tile documentary. I’ve been sitting on it for months, with Jon Foy, the film’s director wishing to keep it under wraps.
“I kind of cringed at it, because I know it’s going to be a much better movie.” was his reasoning for the secrecy. So keep that in mind while you watch it. Personally I like the preview.
Posted on April 19, 2007
Strangest moment of the day
Today I was at a meeting full of people from cultural institutions across Philadelphia. It was a meeting about geocaching, otherwise known as scavenger hunts for techies. My place of employment will have a cache in an upcoming promotion put together by GPTMC.
Towards the end of the meeting, the guy from the Independence Visitor Center – completely unsolicited – leans over to me and says, “have you ever seen the Toynbee letters?”
This was the strangest moment of my day. My answer was probably the strangest moment of his. By the end of our conversation, he was headed straight for 4th and South (to see the last Philly original tile) and looking forward to the documentary.