Ben and I went to a “Clothing Exchange for Global Change” last night and, after paying $5 to get in, had our pick at tables upon tables of nice clothing. The event was a fundraiser for Unicef and supposed to bring attention to over-consumption - it was a cool gig.

On the topic of overconsumption I’d like to offer everyone out there a great $ saving / earth saving tip: put a brick in your toilet. Putting one in the tank of your toilet will mean that not only will less water be needed on each flush, but if you ever got trapped in your bathroom and needed to escape, you have a brick to use. It’s sheer brilliance.

I came upon this little gem today thought I should share it. According to a Harvard Business School study, written goals can translate into earnings of 10 times more than those who fail to establish goals or put their goals in writing. In the study, Harvard graduates were asked if they had goals and, if so, were they written down? Three percent (3%) had written their goals down, eleven percent (11%) had goals but had not written them down and eighty-six (86%) had not yet established goals.

Twenty years later, they polled the same group. The 11% who had goals (but not written down) were making twice as much as the 86% who had no goals. However, the 3% who had written down their goals were making 10 times more than the average of all the other graduates…and 98% of all the wealth resided with that same 3%! Snap.

Duncan

I would like to introduce you to Sol. I had the privilege of sitting down with this extraordinary man for a quick meeting…I ended up leaving 4 hours later.

Sol’s Story: Sol spent his younger years (he is still very young) in the music industry launching record labels and saw influential artists such as The Rascals and K’OS sign their first record deals.

Then one day, in the midst of his peaking career, he stopped dead in his tracks. He looked around and realized there was something missing… Meaning. Sol quit his record label and started searching.

It wasn’t long before he found it. Introducing 4Real, a television show molded around the concept of combining social change with social entertainment.

4Real is truly here to change the world, a philanthropic dream bent on appearing in the ‘prime-time’ spot between the Hills and America’s Next Top Model, and why not? Why shouldn’t “doing something good” be just as entertaining as the popular meaningless drab?

4Real brings celebrities to causes around the world and tells their stories raw and real. From Cameron Diaz and Mos Def to Joaquin Phoenix and the Red Hot Chilli peppers, 4real is connecting them to young leaders who, under extreme circumstances, are affecting change. Real stories, real change.

With stories like this, it was no surprise that TV networks quickly came-a-knocking. However, 4real refused to sign - Sol said the deals simply weren’t right. That was until CTV approached him and agreed to offer a very generous piece of the shows profits to the issues they were fighting to talk about.

Just like that, new precedents are set and conventional business agreements are thrown out the window.

It’s about time to change to world.

http://4real.com/
Keep fighting the good fight Sol, you’re an inspiration.

Duncan

As we had so much fun doing radio shows this tour and because people keep telling us we have faces for radio, what ever that means, we are currently exploring hosting a live radio show off our website. Users will be able to call in and comment, or listen silently to all our witty banter. Either way, stay tuned as it should be coming soon to a broadcast near you.

In other news: Two days ago Jonnie and Ben decided to stay up all night working on an important letter. The next day Jonnie woke up sick as a dog. Feeling sorry for the guy, I asked my mom what we could do for little Jonnie. She suggested getting him some soup. I thought this was a great idea and brought it to the rest of the gang, they too thought it was a great idea but reminded me that we were on a tight budget.

Still feeling sorry for little Jonnie, I decided that drawing a picture of us giving Jonnie soup was somehow just as meaningful. Get well soon little brother…

Duncan

We just got word that Tom Shoes just won the prestigious People’s National Design Award presented by Isaac Mizirahi in New York City. Way to go Toms!

The Buried Life toured the Toms headquarters last month and we were in awe of what this company is doing. For every shoe they sell, they match and give one shoe to a kid somewhere in the world that doesn’t have shoes. The owner, Blake Mycoksie came up with the idea 2 years ago when traveling around South America seeing how many kids were barefoot. His travels made him realize he wanted to start a company where for every item he sold, he gave back something simple to help make the world a better place. In just 18 months Toms Shoes has become a company to watch and a trend we hope every company thinks about in the future.

Watch the video for all details of the company and to see Blake win this award.

buried life meets MAXIM

The Digi-Life Conference in NYC was a blast. We got to meet a whole load of people and spread the word about the new TBL Social Network that we just launched. Palm gave us these sick new phones called Centro’s to take on the road and blog with and Dave met 3 of his breakdance heros. We dropped in on MAXIM Radio with Covino and Rich and spent a good half-hour chatting about some of the crazier things on the list. #36 “Throw the first pitch at a major league baseball game” and #26 “Tell a judge ‘You Want The Truth?! You Can’t Handle the Truth!” were their favorites and most exciting of all, they offered to play #20 “Get a song we’ve written on the radio” once we release it. We’re going to wait until the Kanye/50 hype settles before dropping our ‘rap’ track but with Dave’s history in NWA (member from 1992-94) and Duncan’s blossoming sax career, we’re bound to have a hit.

Covino and Rich were so stoked with the project they set three of their own goals. They even promised the millions listening that if they didn’t complete these 3 in a year they’d quit radio for good.

There list is:

1. Take batting practice in Shea Stadium

2. Get a show on VH1

3. Help their producer ‘Spot’ find a lady friend

After the show Dunc headed to a neighboring tent to try out for the Knicks cheerleading squad. He is know lead hoister.

thumbs way up

cannonballll!

Woke up this morning with a cool swim in the hotel pool. We’re not staying at the hotel, we’re just parked in their lot, but the pool is open and non-chlorinated and a wonderful change from the no-shower lifestyle we’ve been living for the last week. The four of us were up late late late last night applying some more decals to the bus. I’ll put up some photos when it’s all done - it looks great. With the help of Threesixty Boardshop in Victoria we printed off each list item and are placing them in the silver section of the bus so that eventually the entire list will be out for the world to see wherever we roam.

Ben preps the decals (pronounced ‘deck-alls‘ or ‘dee-cals’? discuss.)

placing the dee-cals/deck-als 

sticking the decals (dee-cals)

While we were working a man named Scottie stopped by (he’s the maintenance guy at the hotel). He told us that he was struck by the question and wanted to tell us a story. 40 minutes later we had learned that the man had escaped death on 4 separate occasions and had spent over a year and a half in the hospital after a chemical explosion at the plant he worked at in 1997. He was (and his truck) were thrown 240 meters in the air and somehow we survived. He spent four weeks in a coma, dropped from 210 lbs to 70 and lost his fiance. It was supposed to be his last day at work. When we asked him what advice he had for the world having come so close to death, Scottie’s said this: ‘enjoy life, celebrate being alive, because tomorrow you could get stolen away and lose everything you have. Enjoy every breath you have, they’re a blessing.’

Last thing is - Sorry for no video journal today, life on the road has made editing a much lengthier process and we just couldn’t pull it together in time. We’re going to roll with this blog consistently and will continue to share videos as much as we can, but keep your fingers crossed we can get back to a solid monday morning rotation.

Next stop Vegas and the MTV Music Video Awards!

Holy Crap Burning Man was incredible! - #77 is officially off the list.

the only gas station for 4 million miles

checking out the local digs

We pulled into Gerlach (pop. 200) and paid $70 to fill up on water and diesel. Ben wandered off and made friends with Tommy, a 60-something marauding prop vendor from California. He and his wife took us through their cluttered stock truck and pulled out two Chucky Cheese masks and a monster head. $10 later, they were ours. (more…)