HAPPY BIRTHDAY
BIG GREEN!!

But I effing love...

Afros

Weave Me Alone

It's Thursday afternoon, I am taking the day off tomorrow, so I am going to cut the bullshit. I hate synthetic hair. When I look at weaves, I get the willies. It's all fake and knotted in there. Or worse, it is someone else's hair. Just imagine, you are laying in bed with your lady and running your fingers through her...nope. Rat's comeover.

This is not a racial issue. I hate hair extensions, and though I know those who have used them, those little pieces women put into their up-dos to make them fuller, nasty. Possibly the worst are those elastics you can buy at the Big K for $1.50 that have a ring-o-hair attached. They should be illegal.

Big Time Political Nerd Out

If you are really, really into politics/Barack Obama, you can have your say on everyone in his administration. Well not really, but you can vote online and then see if other people agree. Check it out here and vote on everyone from his VP to his Secretary of Veteran Affairs.

tee hee.

Anybody watching HBO's John Adam's miniseries?

We've heard good things. It's got actors we love (Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti,Tom Wilkinson, and you know what we think of Danny Huston) and the subject matter is fascinating. But let's be honest, it looks ridoinkulous. We mean this literally, they look ridiculous in that getup.

I don't know why their costumes have me in stitches; I like to think I can suspend my disbelief and that I'm not completely immature. But I cannot take Paul Giamatti seriously in that headpiece.

Steve McQueen

Last Night, the husband and I watched Bullitt, Steve McQueen's 1968 car chase classic. I only just (within the past few years) became familiar with the "King of Cool" and I am a better person for it. McQueen is an anti-hero who says, in few lines and a series of facial expressions, what many of my generation's young actors can't get across in 5 or more movies. On film, he seems almost disdainful of the business, as if he was there to do a job and if the camera captures it, well whatever. Just don't get in his way. He's got bad guys to shoot or catch. And I haven't even begun to talk about his road skills.

I love muscle cars. My husband probably loves me just because I love muscle cars. Bullitt's 1968 Dodge Charger and Mustang GT were made famous by the chase scenes that tore through the streets of San Francisco at an honest-to-God 110 miles per hour.

There are other cool facts about McQueen worth checking out (like how he was carried Bruce Lee's coffin, how he was targeted by Manson, etc.), but we think the most noteworthy things about him were left on film.

Editor's note: TMT thinks our man, Daniel Craig, is the second coming.

Bad Company

Dear Sirius Satellite Radio channel Classic Vinyl,

You play way too much Bad Company. Particularly awful is the amount of times you play the song Bad Company by the band, Bad Company. Please stop. You are making us miss your incessant Steely Dan blocks. That's how bad it is.

Yours,
Too Much Teeth

USPS & Clover Technologies

from BusinessWeek, and USPS

Now you can finally recycle all your old cell phones, ink cartridges, and other crappy technology with a simple trip to the post office. In conjunction with Clover Technologies, the already more environmentally friendly USPS is making it simple to pick up an envelope and send your old junk out to be recycled. It's a pilot program right now so it's not available everywhere. The post office has listed Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles and San Diego as 4 of the 10 areas where it's happening. You can get more details from either of the links above. It seems like a win for everybody. You can get rid of your old crap guilt free (and for free), CT pays the post office to ship it , then refurbishes it and resells it for profit.

PULPHOPE

I often nerd out by checking up on PULPHOPE, artist Paul Pope's blog. He recently designed some clothes in connection with DKNY and that was a good enough excuse for me to blog about him. He also did some work with Deisel not so long ago. If you like what you see you can check out more at his flickr account, or go pick up Batman Year 100, which is well worth it.

Optimus Prime

Ok, I've been meaning to say this for some time. I am a really big fan of Michael Bay's Transformers.

I should say outright that I didn't play with Transformers as a child because I was a girl and girls played with girl toys unless they had brothers which I didn't. The closest I ever came to playing with Transformers was when I once went to a Secret Santa gift swop for kids at my great grandmother's nursing home and was erroneously given a "boy toy." It was one of those plastic claws that you moved by pulling a handle. It was very robot-esque and I cried when I got it. I was upset and embarrassed that I didn't get a doll or something more befitting my genitalia. I had so much to learn. But back to Transformers and why my life would have been better had I played with them...

The movie is kick-ass. The Transformers move in excellent ways, and those in charge of the visual effects have my appreciation. I like the sound they make as they transform, and I like their alien-robot mobility. As far as the acting goes, I think Shia LaBouf is great and that while Megan Fox (the babe) had good acting ability, I was distracted by her body shine. Seriously, her toned body had so much grease on it, and the effect was like watching a dorky (though endearing) high school boy tussle with a pretty faced stripper or pin up. I got nothing against guys getting their rocks off, but lady needed to be blotted now and again.

Overall, big thumbs up to all the Autobots and Decepticons and I will eagerly await the sequel.

Budget Schmudget

Good Magazine turned us on to Jess Bachman's impressive info design. It's the 2008 U.S. budget gone graphic. Take a look at the whole thing here.

After this morning's 3 hour commute (should have taken half that), your editor is particularly interested in Transportation finance. It seems that our gov't spent over 12 Billion on aviation and a measly 1 billion on the railroads. WTF, Government. I understand that our mountainous terrain out west may not be conducive to the kind of rail system that exists between European cities, but lets think more locally.

An Amtrak Acela train from New York Penn to Providence RI to say hi to my folks can cost as much as $140 one way. Highway robbery! Train robbery in fact.

The world's biggest show and tell

Sometimes I wish I did more DIY stuff. You can make some really great things and usually on the cheap. The flip side to it is that it normally takes a lot more time then just going out and buying something. I also am pretty much ready to give up at the first snag. Instructables is pretty great because it's a plan. It makes building your own desktop speakers more like baking a cake. Just knowing that someone else has already tried the ridiculous thing I am about to do (and it worked) makes me a lot more likely to follow through with it. Above is the Pringles can wind turbine i plan on making to power my cd case desktop speakers.

Gotham

In preparation for The Dark Night, some NYC masterminds want to make the city's moniker "Gotham" official. Some Big Apple food for thought:

In 1907, the term "Gotham" was first used to reference Manhattan by hometown hero/writer, Washington Irving in the Salmagundi Papers.

From Gotham Center:
"The word itself is English in origin and dates from the Middle Ages. Gotham, or "Gotam," was the name of a real and often-ridiculed town in England, whose residents had a reputation for madness.

A variant on this story was that Gothamites were not truly mad but simply "wise enough to play the fool" -- in a variety of ways they merely acted silly to gain their ends."

TMT totally digs that. We often feign insanity to get what we want: sandwiches.

For a full list of one-time NYC nicknames, check this out. We like "The Port of Many Ports" or "The Money Town." What's your fav?

Speaking of NYC mass transit

Could they big bigger rat bastards?

Calisthenics

There is a man at my train station who, every morning, does calisthenics while we await our transport.

Our station is small, so I often have to move out of the way to make room for his stretches, which make me smile and laugh because they are so irregular. I look around at my other commuters but they have no reaction. They stare forward. Some days the guy does presses on the wall, others he grapevines across the floor at high speed, all the while breathing very deeply. How nobody else thinks this brazen disregard for general social etiquette is noteworthy surprises me. But I guess NYC train riders build a silent wall to keep out the crazies, perverts, panhandlers, and Chinese battery salesladies.

Still, the day that I don't chuckle at a dude who does squats in tight business pants one foot from my person is the day I die.

Where does it come out?

When I was a child left alone in my mother's car, I stuck birdseed in her car ignition. The seed was in a bag on the floor. I picked up a couple and jammed them into the small opening to see where they would come out. They didn't; I broke my mom's car.

Where things come out, moreover the interconnectedness of things, has long been a fascination of mine. And just recently, I have found a product that lets me explore my own piping, whilst clearing up congestion. I give you the Nedi Pot.

Actually, I use the Sinus Rinse with the Standard 8oz bottle.

Here's how it goes: I boil water. Let it cool slightly. Pour it and a saline packet into the bottle, shake gently (while holding the hole at top closed with my thumb) and am ready to go. If you are eating or are just a pussy, maybe stop here.

For you brave scientists who wish to know more...I squirt in one nostril and it flows through my sinus cavity and out the other nostril. Sometimes it comes out my mouth. Gross, you say? I say freaking amazing. The human head is made of magic tunnels. Now where's that birdseed.

This post is for the dogs

As someone who works in the financial district of NYC, I can tell you that I have become accustomed to seeing military personnel in full battle array (equipped with big guns and “don’t fuck with us” looks on their faces). However, as of late, I’ve seen less of these guys. I’m not sure if it just dawned on the city, but if the area is attacked, it’s probably not going to be breached by a renegade armed militia. Instead, they’ve brought in the dogs. Bomb sniffing dogs that is.

BSDs have bravely sniffed our city post-911, but in my view, never as much as now, and I couldn’t be happier. Labs and German Shepherds mostly, these puppers are happy and fit and are obviously loved by their cops/handlers (I smile when I see the usually all-business cops pet their little buddies’ bellies).

So in short, I would like to dedicate today’s blog posts to our friendly K9 protectors. May they have rich lives, never be blown up, nor want for kibble.

That is one great locker find.

For more dog lovin, check out BDLR's coverage of Nubs.

Paper Machines - Walter Ruffler

How can you not love this?

Color Vine

Look at the skin color mingling that's going on here.
Reason #2 why grapes are better than people.

#1, the taste (raisins are more yummy than the elderly)

PS. What's with Globe Grapes? They are bulbous juicies that scare me.

Go buy yourself something nice... Nerd!

It's No Name. If you're going to throw down over 6 grand for a ring, people should know it's Pt and not Ag.

From No Breads to No Beds

In college, I took a road trip with the girls from BDLR to Quebec. It was a frigid March, and we drove through the snow. After a whiteout in Mexico, New York, our little car actually died, but was brought back to life by a random Marine with car smarts. Anyway the trip was marked by a number of wonders (fondue and crepes) and disasters (blood clot in my eye), but also by a French Canadian television show that we watched every night.

The gist of the show: A lively silver haired host with animated eyebrows shouts feverishly in French at the screen while a large graphic would blink. The graphic, from what I can remember was a picture of a bed with a red strikethrough, as in “No Beds.” We laughed and laughed. No effing Beds.

That guy hated beds. TMT will give our undying admiration to anyone who can find out info on the No Beds show.

SXSW and Rachael Ray Unite

Two things I can't seem to avoid have joined forces against me. SXSW doesn't really bother me, I just feel like I've been hearing about it for three months already and I need a break. Rachael Ray, on the other hand, makes me a little nervous. She loves indie rock and she just threw a party at SXSW (combined forces). I really don't even have to blog about it because too much has already been written about it. But to sum it up, Pedro from Napolean Dynamite was there as a DJ, the dude from ZZTop, and a bunch of bands like the Ravonettes and the Stills. RR really just confuses me. A good example is the ultra weird picture below (I think from FHM) which makes me feel really uncomfortable. I was scared to open it at work. I thought moms and dads were supposed to like her 30 minute meals but now she's half naked and airbrushed and at SXSW.

BACK without the crust.

Phew. That was a much needed blog break.
But we’re BACK.

Many things have happened since last we hung out, readers. TMT has decided to move from Jersey to Montana (this summer), AP’s toenail has fallen off (gross), and today begins my month without bread. You read right, no bread.

Not even just bread. I will not eat pasta, cereal, rice, or potatoes for one month. Why would a vegetarian whose diet consists of over 50% bread, give up her grainy staple? Because I am at that critical moment in a girl’s life when she needs to lose weight and fast. I’ve not really been concerned with my general plumping until now because 1) have to be in a bathing suit in a month 2) my pants.

Let me tell you about my pants. I have only one pair. I try to wash them regularly, but there is only so much washing you can do when you have only one pair of pants. And anyway, I have to wear pjs when I wash my pants or else I would have to be in my underwear. That’s how serious I am about having only one pair.

My work is starting to get wise to my one pair of pants. In an effort to be “in on the joke,” I finally broke down and jokingly told my coworkers that these jeans are it, and they didn’t seem surprised. I have a fear that I am going to be asked to buy another pair which will be really embarrassing.

The reason I have not bought another pair of pants: I don’t want to go up a size. I figured I would wear these until the time finally came, and I knew it would, when I had to lose the weight in order to keep my job or avoid public mockery. The time has come.

The time for no bread has come.

Back with a vengeance

We're back this week. Well I hope we are.

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Every wife had seven sacks,
Every sack had seven cats,
Every cat had seven kittens.
Kittens, cats, sacks, wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?

Running on Empty

Hi Dudes. Got nothing for the next day or so.
I am out straight. Check back soon.

What do you think? (the speach not the photo)

Obama on Race

For the Record, Italian Grandma style.

I should also say that Noni would be pissed about the God post. On Holy Week no less. She already said she was going to light candles for me, which I have no problem with. I like candles just as much as I like covering my bases.

Yum

TMT's Noni wanted to remind everybody that Wednesday is Saint Joseph's Day and that the fried Zeppoles are the only way to go.

God is everywhere.

Oh, it's you. Why are you here? Don't you think this is an invasion of privacy? I mean I am mid stream. Please turn around and leave the stall, leave the bathroom, and leave me be.

from Wooster Collective

I have to agree with Wooster Collective, this is street art at it's best.

TMT loves NY

Mike and Eli

TMT loves the Rolling Stones

Today, like many others, I find myself really wishing that the Stones were my contemporaries, that I was around to discover the young band and hear, for the first time, every amazing new song as it was released. I would have rocked so hard. I would have worn really tight pants.

Color Chart - MOMA

Thanks to MOMA for a little color art history.

Official Billy-Bob Teeth web site. Gnarly fake teeth from $9.99.

This was one of the ads at the top of my gmail.

Friday Photography

Check out the photographs of Anthony Kurtz.

I'm voting for the Irish dude.

Pimps up, Hos Down(town Providence) or Hookers at the (Rocky) Point.

Our friends over at BDLR alerted us to the fact that in Rhode Island, the state that birthed me, Prostitution is basically legal.

From the Projo:

“A lot of people don’t realize that prostitution is legal in Rhode Island if you do it indoors,” State Police Inspector Stephen Bannon testified. Under current RI law, “persons are free to solicit sex for money in newspapers and/or over the Internet as long as the conduct that is agreed upon takes place in private.”

I immediately called my father, a RI attorney with a wealth of useless knowledge. "Dad, we got legal hookers in Lil Rhody?"

He informed me of the indoor loophole, but said that haters have been aggressively trying to get rid of it for the last three years.

"Fascinating, Dad, really. Legal Hookers."

He countered, "Big Green, we are a very progressive state."

"Progressive enough to still celebrate VJ Day?"

He laughed. "Well let's make a deal. We'll give up VJ, so long as we get to keep the hookers."

Agree. Shake. Deal. Hookers.

Dad Movies

My father is not the best movie date. He breaths heavily, eats popcorn loudly, and almost always falls asleep a few minutes in, tuckered out from the labored breathing and full stomach. He's like a giant dad baby. Still there are a few movies that have kept him quiet and alert. Get a load of this list:

1. The Godfather trilogy (obv.)

2. The Adams Family

3. The Bridge on the River Kwai

4. The Wizard

5. The Fugitive

6. Sister Act

What do your dads (or burly moms) like to watch?

Hookers.

AP and I got in a fight over hookers last night.

Which only goes to show--even when they are not on the job, hookers come between husbands and wives.

Where do you all stand on the hooker debate?