Jersey City/Radiohead here we come.

It's official. We're going to see Radiohead and a bunch of other wonderful bands in Jersey City for the All Points West Festival. See you there.

Nike Waste

Nike really does have a lot going on. It's been over a decade since it took some deserved heat for inhuman labor practices over seas. It's something that still lingers with them and honestly kept me from purchasing any of their shoes until the past year. Possibly because their earlier scar of social irresponsibility, they've started Nike Considered, a set of standards with the goal of making Nike a better company. They have goals for improving labor conditions and also reducing their environmental impact. The Reuse-A-Shoe program takes all different kinds of used shoes and converts them into Nike Grind, a ground up version of the parts of the shoe that can be used to create the surfaces of playgrounds and courts.



I recently came across the Steve Nash (Pheonix Suns) Nike Trash Talk made from manufacturing waste. It meets the Nike Considered criteria in four parts:

The upper is pieced together from leather and synthetic leather waste from the factory floor using zig-zag stitching.
The mid-sole uses scrap-ground foam from factory production
The outsole uses environmentally-preferred rubber that reduces toxics and incorporates Nike Grind* material from footwear outsole manufacturing waste.
• The Phoenix Suns' colorways will have shoe laces and sockliners which use environmentally-preferred materials and will be packaged in a fully recycled cardboard shoe box.

I think it's pretty cool and if anyone can make an impact on the industry, it's Nike. TMT will be donating our old shoes to their Reuse-A-Shoe program. I'm hoping to see a little bit of them in the next round of their waste-made wonders.

Message from one editor: This editor had to use her executive privilege to delete AP's armpit image from the last post, as, and he should know this from living with me, and if not from living with me, then from my previous post on this very subject-- I HATE HAIR. Armpit hair is certainly no exception.

Chicken soup or B.O.

Every once in a while my office fills with a very potent smell and I have a hard time figuring out if it's the smell of soup someone just heated up or some really bad body odor. Today it was followed almost immediately by the smell of baby powder. I'm glad it didn't make me hungry. Anybody else run into this?

Chicken Dog

Found this in a google image search. Both terrifying and hilarious.

TMT Loves

Prefab homes

Cheese

Gigantic (world record winning) Produce

Jack White

The Road

Robert Courtney, worse than Hitler?

CNBC's salacious "American Greed" this week profiled Robert Courtney, who is impressively and completely without a soul. TMT isn't impressed by evil doers as a rule, but this man's actions are so mind-blowing, so awful that we think he'd beat out baby-eaters in a contest of bane.

What's his deal, you ask. Well get ready to have your minds blown.

Well-respected pharmacist and gentleman (also deacon of his church), Robert Courtney watered down the expensive chemotherapy drugs he sold to his ailing cancer patients. He made millions on the scheme. The patience, however, at first delighted that they were not seeing the usual side affects to chemo, that they were the one-in-a million that wouldn't get any, didn't do as well. Some got much worse, and some died. All were completely deceived by his faux generosity.

Liane Dillman, a 37-year-old new mother with breast cancer remarked on his kindness, that on bad days, the pharmacist would even drop her meds off at her house.

Over his nine-year diluting spree, Courtney would, "by law enforcement estimates, dilute 98,000 prescriptions for 4,200 patients, " a crime for which he was recently found guilty and is serving 30 years, paying millions in restitution and fines.

Minds officially blown.

We have a Wii

Finally! Thank you GameSpot on Rt.23.

How Old?

I have no idea what kids of certain ages are supposed to look like.

How old is this kid, 3? 8? I have no idea.

What's worse, this kid is me.

Happy Thursday. Let's Talk Human Hair.

Last night, Bravo, in its attempt to drag out the Project Runway finale, delaying and sustaining the final runway show like a Kama Sutra orgasm, aired the design-off between Chris March and Rami Kashou to decide who would join the two other finalists at NY Fashion Week. It was pretty dull, except Chris' collection showcased one special material: human hair. Tim Gunn put it best, "My gag reflex is kicking in." Mine too, Tim. Mine too.

Few things gross me out more than human hair (I specify human b/c frankly, if you've ever had a pet, you become accustomed to finding Rocko's mane everywhere. Just pick it out of your pasta and keep on). Human hair is different. Maybe because it's dead, or maybe b/c it is such a personal part of a person. When I find some foreign hair on my coat, a long yellow strand on my black lapel, I'm skeeved. Who is this blond lady, and why for the love of god was she so close to me that I am now carrying her along for my life-ride?

I know hair happens. Growing up, my sister had a monster mane that clogged our childhood shower. I know that hair falls out when you style it. My mom for instance, after a blowdry, her short dark curly hair scattered atop the bathroom counter did not look like head hair, people. And even I, with my short do, still leave stragglers deep in the drain, but AP tends to them because he loves me and because there's a very real possibility I would puke if not.

So, why would Chris March use hair? Because he wanted to lose. Good luck at the finals, Rami!

This Just In

Canceled should be spelled with two l's.

TMT Hearts The Gates

Last night, HBO aired the documentary, "The Gates," profiling the 26-year-long struggle of artists, Christo and the fire-haired Jeanne-Claude, to complete their ambitious project in Central Park, NYC.

TMT missed it, but are certainly going to hit that shit up On Demand.

It's hard to believe that there was such controversy. But to get the thing done, Christo and Jeanne-Claude had to attend meetings and what amounted to community tribunals for over two decades. "The couple made 41 formal presentations to civic officials and community leaders in 1980 alone...endured feasibility reports, petitions, angry letters of protest, and a 251-page official refusal, issued 23 years ago."

We really loved The Gates (proper), had a memorable date-walk through the orange curtains as unmarrieds. We remember the saffron color was striking, and it, and the sunlight shinning through, around, between the posts were spectacular in contrast to the gray park.

Anyway, we're big fans of The Gates and don't know what the fuss was about. At least this installation didn't kill anybody.



Readers, did you see The Gates? Christo 4ever or what?

Pictures are deceiving.

CAUTION: A Pavlova is not, I repeat, not the same thing as an Angel Food Cake.

Last week we bought an AFC to enjoy strawberry shortcake and enjoy it we did. This week, we bought a Pavlova thinking it was the same thing essentially, both fat free, gluten free fluffy tuffies. WRONG.

Mouth full of curdled egg white. Mouth full of puke.

Meet Melinda

TMT loves philanthropy. Especially that of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, their support of education, global development and equality. And we have a pretty good idea of who Bill is, the Microsoft multi-billionaire, but what about the Lady Gates? She's been called, "the most powerful woman you know next to nothing about."

In a profile by the Christian Science Monitor (cool your jets, A.P, it's not only about religion), we find out the dirt.

Melinda French Gates is comfortable with the drug-addicted and the transgendered like a true "catholic school girl." It's not her style to show up at big events. She's a distance runner and kayaker with stage fright, who keeps her family away from the public eye. She was a Microsoft multimedia developer for ten years before marrying the boss. (No one at Microsoft would sit with her at lunch once she and Bill were engaged). Renowned for her arcane knowledge of diseases, Melinda is business savvy and specific.

She's also in a gang.

Southpaw

Did you know that both of the presidential front runners (McCain and Obama) are similarly "wrong" handed? Well they are not alone.

From Good: While only 10-15 percent of people write their way through life with the "wrong" hand, a disproportionate number of them end up in the Oval Office, including Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton

Also Gore (the president of the Earth) had two left hands (little known fact).

"Happy Humpday" says the even-toed ungulate.

Work it people!

Drawn and Quartered

TMT turns twenty-five in March, that is to say, both of your editors do.

So what does it mean to be a full quarter? Personally, I feel neither one way nor another about this so I googled, "25-year-olds" to see whether I should be happy or sad about my birthday, if I'm comparatively advanced, and if not, just how retarded am I for my age. Good news, readers.

The first couple of sites I found were about young, dead soldiers, people my age who still live with their parents or who don't vote, and who need to solicit free condoms. I win.

Yours, North Korea

Dear Eric,

Will you come here and play your sexy cocaine music?

Yours,
North Korea

GARFIELD!

I'm a fan of the Garfield comics but this is also pretty great. It's an entire blog dedicated to the comic, but with Garfield removed. It's mostly just Jon standing on one side of the frame yelling. Some have even gotten better. Surprisingly, Jon gets more pathetic when he is whining about his loneliness to himself than when he is whining about his loneliness to his cat.

NYPL Digital Gallery

It's really worth checking out the NYPL Digital Gallery. If you have the time you can really find some treasures. The search works really well. Let us know if you come across anything great. Here's the Brooklyn Bridge and a postcard for Pratt's Library. Those are near and dear to TMT.

Can we talk about the seed vault?

1. Just a Bigger, Badder version of Sandy's Go Boat?
2. Svalbard! Two years ago, I didn't know the island above Norway existed. Now I am keenly aware the Iorek Byrinson, the armored bear of His Dark Materials, along with all of the other armored bears, live there.
3. Seed. I once stuck birdseed into my mom's car ignition to see where it would come out. I broke her car. It didn't come out.

Look who's coming to NJ

Thanks to Gus/BrooklynVegan for the heads up.

Hey Big Ears

We want to fill one room of our house with oversized items so we feel really small when we go in there. This is where we'll start, with iPod Headphones that are 500 times larger than normal. They're also great for you giant ears people.

Pow Pow Power Wheels

At a recent get-together, the subject of Power Wheels provoked a very heated debate. The room seemed to immediately divide between those with PWs and those without. Names and accusations. "Rich Kids!" "SO WHAT?! I had a Power Wheel. Maybe if your parents loved you more you would've, too!"

Now your editors here at TMT are divided on this issue. I had the red Jeep Power Wheel. Only I didn't know this made me any sort of person other than a speed demon (before the battery died).

Where do you stand?

There Will Be More Blood When We're Through With You, The Academy.

Devout Radiohead fans that we are, TMT saw PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood in large part because our favorite band's lead guitarist, Johnny Greenwood, composed the score. After seeing the film, we got a hold of its music and have delighted in it. Like all memorable scores, this one complements the film, but more than that, we think it made There Will Be Blood better. So weren't we surprised, when watching the old stuffy lady that is the Academy Awards, Mr. Greenwood's work wasn't even nominated. Something stunk.

So it seems that Greenwood's score was disqualified on the basis of Rule 16 of the Academy's Special Rules for Music Awards "which excludes scores diluted by the use of tracked themes of other pre-existing music."

It seems small parts of the score came from earlier Greenwood composition, all of it correctly labeled on the score's cue sheet (which the Academy had since December). Trouble is, the final decision to eliminate the score from eligibility came on January 19, seven days after balloting had closed. So basically Johnny may have won.

As much as this annoys the hell out of TMT, we have the sneaking suspicion Greenwood isn't too dismayed. The Academy Awards seem to be more about the companies that make the films than the actual films. After all, maybe you've heard, but Radiohead is very anti-corporate these days.

Who's the Coug?

There's something about Cindy McCain. I can't tell if I'm completely turned off by her or if I'm just a sexually intimidated.

Reason #268 why its good to be married:

...legal representation
Today, AP will go to court to argue on my behalf in the case of Big Green versus the Son-of-a-Bitch parking garage policeman and his faulty ticket-giving (otherwise known as Me versus THE MAN).

I know we will win because husband wore a suit today. For, one can only infiltrate THE MAN from deep inside, but not in a gay way.

The Weather
feeling

Stalemate

Daniel Everett Photography

It's a snowy day and half the office didn't show up to work so how can I not slack off a little and look at some great photography to pass the time. Enjoy the work of Daniel Everett. I particularly like the series Departure.

Havanacity

I ran across this photoblog from Havana, Cuba. It's pretty amazing for a couple reasons. Some of the photos are beautiful. And, apparently it is incredibly hard to get an internet connection in Cuba unless you are a tourist staying in a hotel.

Rage-cusation

Who, Zack, me? No, you're wrong. I do hate THE MAN. My feet are just wet from commuting, so I am going to sit here for a little while until they dry.

I want my Chateau Mouton Rothschild

One Sunday Morning, the husband and I watched Sunday Morning, the delightfully geriatric CBS program. We enjoyed a feature on the Chateau Mouton Rothschild.

Cultivated and bottled at the famous wine estate in Bordeaux, the CMR is a red wine, regarded as one of the best. Now a wine that costs thousands of dollars would be interesting enough, but there is something else about the CMR that takes it from swanky to sensational.

Long ago, the honcho, Baron Philippe de Rothschild, decided that each year's label be designed by a famous artist of the day, and in 1946, made it so.

Since then, the labels of the CMR have been designed by the likes of Jean Cocteau (1947), Salvador Dali (1958), Marc Chagall (1970), Andy Warhol (1975), Keith Haring (1988), Francis Bacon (1990), etc.

In keeping with previous blog themes:
(a tradition of fuddy-duddism)

The '93 label by the French painter Balthus, a pencil drawing of a "nude reclining nymphet," wasn't allowed to be distributed in the US. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms found it to be indecent. So, in America, the label was left blank. Both versions are highly sought after by collectors.

(Prince Charles) did 2004. He painted something I think is a tree and is my least favorite. Also, not an artist.

See all labels here.

Madeline Ashton: Bottoms up! [Madeline drinks the potion] Lisle Von Rhoman: Now, a warning. Madeline Ashton: NOW a warning?

I love "Death Becomes Her. " If I were a movie, I would
want to be "Death Becomes Her."
Also "She Devil."

Prince Charles vs modern architecture.

VS.

I'm a little lazy today so I'm going to cut and paste from the Core77 Design Blog on this one. I actually think they did the same thing from another article. When I saw this it just made me laugh. I also like the way this is written, which is another reason why I'm not trying to rewrite it.

The heir to the throne has recently renewed his assault on modern architecture that he began in 1984 ago when he called a proposed extension to the National Gallery in London "a monstrous carbuncle".

Last month, he condemned the growing number of skyscrapers being erected in central London. The prince called them "not just one carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend, but a positive rash of them that will disfigure precious views and disinherit future generations of Londoners".

Shoes off, wet socks on the furnace, cuffs rolled up; All bets are off.

Blizzard of '78

Today is a bad weather free for all. My bosses are lucky I am at work and that my pants are still on.

The Dizzying Book Staircase

via Apartment Therapy


The pictures make me a little dizzy, but they are beautiful. Part of me thinks I would love this, just because it takes something which is usually visually boring and makes it really intersting. The other part of me thinks that it would be a pain in the ass to upkeep and I might get sick if I had to run up and down it a couple times.