bookofjoe

postsecret.com + 'Dirty Little Secret' = mashup extraordinaire

The PostSecret Project is by now no secret.

Tyson Ritter, singer and bassist for the Oklahoma–based band All–American Rejects,

wrote a song entitled "Dirty Little Secret" long before postsecret.com began in January of this year.

The music video director Marcos Siega suggested the band check out the website.

Long story short: Frank Warren, the founder of postsecret.com,

agreed to let the band use images from his website on its video in turn for a $2,000 donation to a suicide prevention hot line.

The video is now among the most requested on Fuse and MTV2.

You can watch it here.

[via Melena Z. Ryzik and the New York Times]

Smart Sheets — Interactive bedding is here

From WestPoint Home comes the next thing in bedroom style — washable bedding with conductive threads woven into the warp and weft of your favorite silky sheets and comforter that communicate — wirelessly — with your lights and appliances.

This is not April 1 and this is not The Onion.

Andrew Ferber, co–chairman of T–ink, the New York company with a patent on the technology, told Deborah Baldwin in a story in today's New York Times, "The printing is 'wires' going through the comforter, but it's integrated into the design and it's invisible and washable."

WestPoint says it is devising security codes to prevent your rolling over and inadvertently turning on the lights and starting up the coffeepot at 3 a.m.

The company is also developing bathroom capabilities, including tissue boxes that tune in FM radio and shower curtains that light up and emit sounds.

Ferber told Baldwin, "'The goal is to load intelligence in the room' so that its furnishings can be trained, say, to warm up or cool down in response to ambient temperatures."

Huh.

Why am I not more excited than I am about all this news?

Maybe you are.

If so, great news: an interactive Cinderella–theme comforter (above) "that lights up like Broadway and makes the sound of a fairy godmother's wand sweeping through the air" is headed for Sears, Mervyns and Wal–Mart as you read this.

Baldwin wrote, "J.C. Penney's website expects to have one for $60 in mid–November."

'FedEx is ready when you are' — and sometimes even when you're not

Above, a FedEx plane being removed yesterday from the roof of Cynthia Vogt's house in Georgetown, Texas (about 20 miles north of Austin), where it crashed shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday night after losing power at an altitude of 7,000 feet.

The pilot, 61–year–old Michael McKenna, wasn't seriously injured nor was anyone on the ground.

Vogt told a 911 dispatcher that she thought a car had crashed into her house.

She had been sleeping in a back bedroom when the plane hit.

She went outside and found a Cessna 208 FedEx delivery plane upside down on her roof.

Steve Mason of Baron Aviation Services, which operates the plane under contract with FedEx, told Katie Humphrey of the Austin American–Stateman, "At night, even with a full moon, it's difficult at best to pick out what is a good place to land and what is a bad place to land."

Q.E.D.

Humphrey wrote, in a story in today's paper, "The plane struck a telephone pole, broke through a wooden fence and skidded across the front yard before cartwheeling onto the house."

She continued, "Part of the landing gear was embedded in the lawn, and other pieces of the plane were strewn about Wednesday afternoon as emergency crews used a crane to lift the plane off the house."

Huh — wonder if they might've seen the picture I posted earlier today of the Concorde being hauled into the air by cranes?

But I digress.

According to a spokesperson from the Texas Department of Public Safety, "McKenna attempted to glide into Georgetown Airport for a safe landing, but he lost altitude too quickly."

Understatement of the day.

Reading in bed — the ultimate solution?

It came in this morning from Steve Mallory.

Of course, it requires somewhat of a reconfiguration of one's bed

space

and an equivalent redefinition of the word "cozy" but hey, I'm down wit dat.

¥19,000 ($165) here.

Sleep in Mick Jagger's bed

No joke — Mick would be delighted to let you live in his furnished four–bedroom beachfront villa on Mustique in the West Indies.

As long as you can pony up the $13,000 a week he charges.

But hey, it's not such a bad deal — he throws in use of his Jeep and a staff of six.

The house has a pool and a croquet lawn in case you're the water or mallet type.

A property agent handles the nuts and bolts for Mick while he's out and about performing but Ellin Stein, writing in the current issue of V Life magazine, noted that "he vets potential renters himself by reviewing a questionnaire."

His rental agent told Stein, "He is mostly concerned with the number of occupants and their professions... and tends to shy away from people in rock and roll."

So I guess my homie Kid Rock is out of luck vis–a–vis Mick's place.

Oh, well.

Yo, Mick — love the shirt.

Concorde takes to the air one last time

Alas, not under its own power.

Above, one of the retired supersonic jets is lifted at the Roissy–en–France airport outside Paris, headed to its final destination in front of a Hilton hotel for display.

MorphWorld: Ever Carradine into Uma Thurman

Monday evening I was watching "Commander in Chief" with the sound off and was startled to see Uma Thurman playing a part.

What's she doing on a prime-time TV series, I wondered.

Then I looked more closely and saw that it wasn't Uma but an actress who could easily impersonate her if she so chose.

The crack research team got on it and reports back that the actress in question was/is Ever Carradine (above), niece of David and Keith and granddaughter of John of the acting Carradines.

She plays Katheryn on the show.

You could've

fooled me.

Rachel Whiteread Bone China Sugar Cube Holder

You be the judge.

Above, the sugar cube holder.

It measures 8 cm x 8 cm and holds 9 sugar cubes.

Below, the artist with her new installation, "Embankment", at Tate Modern Turbine Hall in London.

£17 ($30) here.

That's for the sugar cube holder, booboo — not Whiteread's sculpture.

[via AW]