No. But it should! Today I’m wearing a purple acid wash T ( as seen on the model on the right) that inspired nostalgia throughout the office for those crazy Genera Hypercolor tees (on the other 2 models) . I’m a sucka for anything neon or just straight up brightly colored. That’s why I think Genera should bring back the Hypercolor tees - AND shorts! - that were the rage during the mid 80’s. Supposedly almost all of the [2one5] office sported one at one point or another. These shirts had the magical ability to change colors when your body heat increased. Personally, I find this concept kind of gross. And I have a question: What do you do when it’s hot out? There’s no hiding in a shirt that changes colors based off of your body temp. Other issues brought to light by owners of these rad T’s: not a good date shirt… we’ll let you figure that one out… also, no fun in the cold. But those minor details aside… I WANT ONE!!! Please, please bring these back!
May 7th, 2008
You may see one of these tiles embedded in the street next time your cruisin’ round one of our countries major cities. Living in Philadelphia, the city with the largest population of these mysterious messages, stumblin upon one is like find $20 in the pocket of a jacket you haven’t worn in a long time. Well… maybe not that good… Anyway, every time I see one I think: wtf are these jauns? Alas, I feel this here blog is the perfect time and place to uncover said mystery. After a quick text to the good ol’ brother of mine, I find out that, because no one really knows who does them, they are commonly known as Toynbee Tiles.
Before I get into it, I’d like to say that I think someone is laughing their ass off at the joke they’ve played on us. HAHAHA. not funny.
Most tiles have about the same message that reads something like this:
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK’S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER
My personal theory #2: drugs. just drugs. No but really here it goes: Arnold J Toynbee was a famous historian. Kubrick’s 2001 refers to Stanly Kubrick’s movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Putting the pieces together, some people believe that the tiles refer to some mass conspiracy between the press, the United States Government, the USSR, and “the Jews.” Others believe these tiles are based off of a story written by Ray Bradbury entitled The Toynbee Convector which presents the message that, in order to survive, humankind must always rush to meet the future, believe in a better world, and must aim far beyond what is practically possible in order to reach something barely within reach…
Still feel like that doesn’t explain anything? HA me neither… I don’t think anyone has really solved any part of this mystery. Like who does them - although, they believe it might be someone from Philadelphia because of the large number located in our city - why they do them, and I still don’t think the story behind them makes that much sense. We do know how they are made thought! One of the tiles located in Pittsburgh has instructions on how to do them and encourages people to go out and make em.’ It says something along the lines of:
“lenoleum, asphalt glue (?) in several layers, then placing tar paper over it so that car wheels won’t mess it up, and the heat of the sun on the tar paper will bake it into the street.”
These cryptic political statements began showing up in the mid 80’s and, since then, there have been 250 known tiles. So next time you’re in the city, grab your buds, throw em in your Mystery Machine Van and go Scooby doo on these tiles asses. If you crack the mystery, hit us up and explain it in some way that makes more sense than how I just explained it…
May 7th, 2008
