You have probably stepped on Toynbee Tile a hundred times – maybe a thousand times – and never took notice. The little cryptic messages are embedded in streets in about 30 cities in the United States and South America. You can find them all over Center City Philadelphia. The Toynbee Tiles mystery intrigued Jon Foy, a West Philly resident, so much that he taught himself filmmaking and cleaned houses to pay for a documentary he shot and produced called “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.”
His efforts were recently noticed. Big time. Foy has won the U.S. Documentary Competition Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
“I had no idea that such things were possible in life. Just a few weeks ago I was a housecleaner,” Foy said. “This is for all the artists working in obscurity out there.” “Never give up, because if you do, you know what will happen. If you don’t give up, you don’t know what will happen.”
Here is an impromptu interview with Foy soon after he received his award. Needless to say, if John cleans your house you may want to start looking for someone else.
Temporary power lines supplying electricity to University Mews at 45th and Spruce, one of several buildings along Spruce Street that was without power on Thursday.
PECO crews worked into Friday night to finally restore full power to about 800 residents along Spruce Street between 43rd and 45th Streets. The outage began early Thursday morning when a Philadelphia Gas Works crew reportedly looking for a leak accidentally severed a power line that powered several buildings along Spruce Street. Power remained out to most residents through late Thursday.
Residents of University Mews at 45th and Spruce got full power back late on Friday thanks to two large generators placed along 45th Street near Spruce. The switch from generators to full power was completed at 9:06 on Friday.
In case you missed this …West Philly’s very own local bakery, Four Worlds Bakery (4634 Woodland Ave.), was featured on NBC10 earlier this week. This place takes the cake, as it were. We picked up three baguettes here the other day for a fondu shindig and they were very, very good. Enjoy.
While many of us were slogging through the snow a lot of folks were over at Clark Park having fun. If you know people in the pictures, leave a comment below. We’re trying to put names to faces. Send us your storm photos and we’ll try to get them up on the site – editor – at – westphillylocal.com .
Here is some potentially good news for victims of the fire at Windermere Court Apartments.
Governor Tom Corbett has called upon the Small Business Administration to declare Philadelphia a disaster area so that low-interest loans can be made available to victims.
“The apartment building was home to students, families and retirees who now have nothing left. In order to help these victims recover from this disaster, I have asked the federal Small Business Administration to make low-interest disaster loans available to help replace lost and damaged property,” Corbett said in a statement issued yesterday. “I urge the SBA to take prompt action on this request.”
If Corbett’s request is granted, the SBA would make low interest, long-term loans available of up to $40,000 to replace personal property. The loans are based on each applicant’s financial qualifications.
The question that will likely arise for many made homeless by the fire is their status on the lease. We had heard that some residents were not listed on leases and we are still trying to figure out how that would affect their eligibility for a loan or other aid.
Journalists Anjali Kamat and Petra Bartosiewicz tell the stories of Muslim communities in New York and New Jersey grappling with increased law enforcement scrutiny chalked up to the “War on Terror.” Specifically, they detail three cases, including the “Newburgh Four,” four men accused of bombing a community center in Newburgh, New York. The cases question the FBI’s use of paid informants in conducting the investigations of “homegrown terror.”
You have probably stepped on Toynbee Tile a hundred times – maybe a thousand times – and never took notice. The little cryptic messages are embedded in streets in about 30 cities in the United States and South America. You can find them all over Center City Philadelphia. The Toynbee Tiles mystery intrigued Jon Foy, a West Philly resident, so much that he taught himself filmmaking and cleaned houses to pay for a documentary he shot and produced called “Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.”
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