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Takeshita Street, in the Harajuku district of Tokyo, is the equivalent of Eighth Street in New York: it is a narrow commercial passageway, crammed with stores selling imported Levi's, baby-doll T-shirts, and platform boots that have all the charm of medical appliances. Such attributes naturally make it a favorite resort of Japanese teen-agers, who are the most avid consumers in a country where, since the end of the Second World War and in spite of a ten-year recession, consuming is a crucial part of the national identity. On the weekends, Takeshita Street is mobbed by thousands of fashion-conscious Japanese youths: boys who parade around in slouchy hip-hop clothes, and girls who wear thrift-store-style dresses layered over bluejeans, a look that really works only if you weigh less than ninety pounds, which most of them seem to.
It would be easy, while squeezing through the crowds on a Saturday afternoon, to miss a store called Brand Select Recycle, which is marked only by a blue sign pointing up a narrow staircase, painted with the names of designer labels—Under Cover, Bathing Ape, Gucci, Prada, and, spelled incorrectly, Martin Margaiela. The store is about six hundred and fifty feet square, its peeling paintwork illuminated by fluorescent light; it is crammed with rack upon rack of secondhand clothing, with hand-lettered, improbably high price tags pinned on. A black hooded sweatshirt bearing an image of Mickey Mouse holding a microphone and striking a rock-star pose, made by a company called Number Nine, sells for a hundred and twenty-eight thousand yen, which is close to a thousand dollars. A T-shirt with the same Mickey Mouse image goes for more than four hundred dollars. Even in a society as affluent as Japan, where there's no poverty to speak of, these prices are enough to make a visitor wonder whether the yen underwent a catastrophic devaluation in the time it took to climb the stairs.
A thousand-dollar secondhand sweatshirt is, however, just an expression of market forces. "Six months ago, Number Nine was not as expensive as it is now, and probably next year it will go down in price," the store's owner, Akihiko Takeuchi, explained to me when I visited in November. Takeuchi is thirty-nine years old, which, in the world of Japanese youth culture, is decidedly middle-aged. His thinning hair bears all the signs of having been barbered rather than styled; he wears loose plaid shirts and gray flannel trousers and black sneakers, and even though he gets his shirts and sneakers from Hermès and his pants from Comme des Garçons, he wears them with all the aplomb of a man who shops at Sears.
He doesn't set most of the prices at Brand Select Recycle, he explained to me; they are established by the individual consigners of the items, who pay him a commission. By watching the buying and selling practices of his customers, who are mostly high-school and college students, Takeuchi has an unrivalled perspective on the fluctuating indices of Tokyo street fashion: the week I visited, for example, he'd found that boys were seeking out items from Head Porter, a Japanese luggage brand whose nylon snakeskin-patterned wallet was selling for a hundred and fifty dollars—twice its original retail value. I found sixteen-year-old Koudai Matsuhita, who was wearing a school blazer and had shaved eyebrows, intently pawing through the Number Nine Mickey Mouse T-shirts; he explained that they had a "rock-and-roll feel" that he liked. Another hot label was Bathing Ape, a Japanese skatewear brand whose signature is a distinctive camouflage pattern; a Bathing Ape nylon blouson jacket was selling for ninety-eight thousand yen, or seven hundred and forty dollars.
But Takeuchi explained that his customers weren't simply slaves to a label: he showed me a Bathing Ape chunky knit cardigan, its wooden buttons carved with images of apes; the style hadn't taken off when it was first released to stores, and now Brand Select Recycle was offering it for just a hundred and ninety-four dollars, much less than its original cost. And a mainstream designer label like Comme des Garçons had little heat in the Brand Select Recycle marketplace; you could buy a secondhand Comme shirt for fifty-eight hundred yen, or forty-four dollars. Even after years of watching his clients' purchasing patterns, Takeuchi said that he was still unable to predict when one brand would surge in popularity while another fell out of favor. "It's kind of like the image of the capitalist economy—the more desired it is, the more expensive it is," he said. "It cannot be accounted for rationally."
What is known in Japan as the bubble economy—the economic boom of the nineteen-eighties—provoked massive speculation in the markets and in real estate, and Japan is still experiencing the prolonged, low-level hangover that has persisted since the bubble burst, in the early nineteen-nineties. But you wouldn't know that the country is in recession from the way young people spend money. Because of the recession and the inflation of real-estate prices, many young Japanese continue to live at home well into their twenties; buying clothes is one of the things that living rent-free in a small apartment with your parents permits you to do. One young Japanese curator, Koji Yoshida, explained to me that the phenomenon of the free-spending Japanese youth is a product of paternal guilt. "In Japanese families, the ascendance of the father is the usual phenomenon, but after the bubble burst fathers lost their rights and respect," he told me over coffee one afternoon. "Fathers had to appease their children by giving them lots of gifts and money." Whether or not you accept the idea that Japan's youth-oriented consumer culture is sustained by a kind of commercial Oedipal agon, the swarming shopping districts of Tokyo on weekends do resemble a world in which adults have been more or less dispensed with. It's as if the streets had been cleansed of anyone over the age of thirty.
The crucial element that is being sold at shops like Brand Select Recycle is scarcity. In spite of the parallels with the financial markets, Takeuchi's customers aren't buying four-hundred-dollar T-shirts as investments. They want to be seen wearing an item that hardly anyone else owns but that everyone will recognize as exclusive. Scarcity, of course, is an integral part of high fashion, but it often has a basis in the practical difficulties of supplying consumer demand: customers will wait months for a Birkin bag from Hermès not just because the company knows the marketing value of making a product hard to get but because the bags are painstakingly created by a small number of highly skilled craftsmen.
In Japan, however, all the skill goes into engineering the scarcity: designers produce only limited editions of T-shirts or jackets, items of the sort that can be easily mass-produced. This means that shopping in Tokyo feels a little like a bizarre parody of grocery shopping in Soviet Russia: you might want to buy a bunch of bananas, but the only thing for sale is pickled cabbage. At the Bathing Ape store just off Takeshita Street, where T-shirts are displayed like prints in an art gallery, sandwiched between sheets of clear plastic, half the display cases are empty, since the company might produce only five hundred of any particular T-shirt design. At certain popular stores, like Silas & Maria, a British skatewear brand, would-be shoppers are required to wait in orderly file in the street, as if they were on a bread line, before being permitted, twenty or so at a time, to rush in and scour the sparsely stocked shelves for any new merchandise. The next twenty customers aren't allowed in until the last of the previous group has left and meticulous sales assistants have restored the shelves and racks to their unmolested condition. The whole cycle can take half an hour or more. This is what Japanese teen-agers do for fun.
One of the striking things about spending any time among fashion-conscious Japanese kids is how utterly nerdy they can be in their pursuit of cool. In Europe and the United States fashion falls decisively into the category of the frivolous and playful; in Japan the right T-shirt or cap is sought with a kind of dogged intensity, and not just by a fringe group of fanatics. Japanese boys in particular seem to treat fashion in a manner appropriate to stamp collecting or train spotting. Entire magazines are dedicated to the subject of teen boys' haircuts. The look of the moment is to have it bleached to a coppery color, cut into spiky peaks on top, and left shaggy around the ears and neck. The style is called "the wolf," although the boys look less lupine than feline, as if they were chorus members from "Cats."
"What looks dishevelled is highly calculated," John Jay, a creative director of the Tokyo branch of Wieden & Kennedy, the advertising company, explained to me when I visited his company's penthouse office. Jay's main client is Nike. "There is a word here, otaku, which is about being focussed and almost obsessed with something you like," he said. Otaku originally referred to a category of young Japanese men who were fixated on _manga—_the distinctive cartoon art that is popular reading material for adults in Japan. The word is now used to describe someone with a fanatical in- terest in computers or fashion. One designer, Hiroaki Ohya, drew upon the Japanese obsession with technology to produce, in his spring collection, a sporty woman's blouse that was shaped like a computer, with a screen printed on the breast, a keyboard at the waist, and a curved panel on the back which bulged out, like an iMac.
In the past two decades, Japan's contribution to fashion has been twofold. In the early eighties, a trio of designers—Yohji Yamamoto, Issey Miyake, and Rei Kawakubo, of Comme des Garçons—started teaching Japanese and Westerners alike that wear- ing layers of oddly shaped black garments could be terrifically stylish. In the late eighties and into the nineties, it was Japanese consumers who drove an international mania for luxury brands that resulted in all kinds of musty old labels—the Burberry raincoat, the Louis Vuitton suitcase—being dragged out of mothballs and transformed, improbably, into trendy items. Those two phenomena continue: in 2001, the Japan market accounted for fifteen per cent of all sales for the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group, and the opening of a huge Louis Vuitton store in the Ginza district of Tokyo in late 2000 drew four thousand customers a day. No younger Japanese designers have challenged the creative dominance of the big three; new designers who have emerged, such as Junya Watanabe, have done so as protégés of the established designers, not as their revolutionary offspring.
Over the last ten years, though, Tokyo has also witnessed a metastasis of street fashion: you see styles that originated in the West, often associated with a particular musical category such as punk, or rap, or hip-hop. Hip-hop style is as prevalent among Japanese boys as it is on the C train, although in the absence of an actual ghetto, where they might hone their look, Japanese boys turn to hip-hop life-style stores such as Real Mad Hectic, where they can not only buy work boots and triple-fat goose-down jackets of the sort favored by American rap fans but also watch a videotape of highlights from the N.B.A. on a flat-screen TV while nodding along to the Jay-Z album playing over the sound system.
Many of the most popular Japanese brands aren't available in Europe or the United States, because there's little economic incentive for the designers to undergo an expensive expansion into foreign markets when the domestic market is so strong and so easily accommodated. (Bathing Ape, for example, has only one store outside Japan, in Hong Kong. You need an appointment to get in.) Because the Japanese are fanatical about fashion in the way that the Brazilians are about soccer or the Germans are about cleanliness, walking around Tokyo can feel like being trapped in an endless Halloween party where everyone but you has come as a member of the Beastie Boys, the Cure, or TLC.
The past couple of years saw the flourishing of the yamamba, or "mountain witch" girls, who tanned their skin dark brown, teased their bleached hair into silver snarls, and wore pale pearlized lipstick of the sort not seen since Dusty Springfield; they appear mostly to have retreated back to the mountains, though there are still a substantial number of tanned-and-blonded girls to be seen who model themselves on the look of Ayumi Hamazaki, one of Japan's several Britney Spears derivatives. These girls can usually be found hanging around a store called Egoist, which for a time was so trendy that the salesgirls themselves became icons. They appeared in the company's catalogue, and some of them established their own Web sites to dispense advice to their followers. One of the Egoist girls, a twenty-three-year-old named Shizue Nohara, told me that she'd worked at Egoist for three years. "I like to be the leader and have other people follow me," she said. She was dressed in a gray rabbit-fur jacket and bluejeans, Egoist's theme for the season being "Rodeo Girl." The previous season had been "Sexy and Boyish."
Another recent trend was wearing boots with twenty-centimeter platform heels. There have been at least five reported shoe-related fatalities, one involving a twenty-five-year-old who died after tumbling off her own footwear, and another who lost control of her car's brake pedal and crashed into a pole, thereby killing her passenger. Among the teen fashion avant-garde, platforms are over: one day in the shopping dis- trict of Shibuya I met two fashion students from Bunka, Tokyo's equivalent of F.I.T., who were both wearing white lace dresses layered over pants, and crocheted shawls tied around their shoulders, granny style, and who assured me that "comfortable shoes" were now in vogue. Given that they were wearing gold-and-silver ballet slippers in heavy rain, though, "comfort" was clearly a relative term.
For a Westerner, distinguishing between clothes and costume can be difficult. Every weekend, on a bridge near the train station in the Harajuku district, dozens of suburban teen-age girls and a few boys stand around all day wearing gothic drag: black vinyl kimonos or full punk bondage gear, with whitened faces and blackened eyes. The kids on the bridge are misfits of a sort. There was one unusually fat girl with a white-painted face, wearing her school uniform: short skirt, thick cream-colored leg warmers rumpled around her ankles like the skin of an ancient elephant. (Many Japanese girls wear their school uniforms even when they're not in school. There is, not coincidentally, a Japanese word, rorikon, a loose transliteration of "Lolita complex," referring to the fondness among Japanese men for little girls.) "I come here to have a relationship with other people and to see my friends," she told me, and it was hard to imagine another fashion scene into which someone of her size would fit.
And yet their rebellion is a kind of performance which is grounded on a thriving commercial foundation: en- tire stores are devoted to selling the "gothic Lolita" outfits; and the inspiration for most of their looks comes from what are known as bijuaru-kei rokku bando, "visual-type rock bands": groups like Dir En Grey, five heavily made-up young Japanese men whose music is little more than an excuse for their often changing costumes, which can be ordered from special catalogues. Lately, those costumes have included white doctors' coats spattered with fake bloodstains, worn with bloodstained bandages wrapped around the wrist. As a result, the bridge at Harajuku looks like an emergency medical site staffed by the suicidal, bastard offspring of Boy George.
Given the influence of Western street style, Japanese boys have to work hard to create an identity that feels original. It's significant, in this regard, that the most admired figures in Japanese youth culture are not, as they might be in the United States, musicians or actors or athletes but d.j.s. John Jay, the Weiden & Kennedy ad man, told me, "D.j.s represent the ability to create something yourself. They're very international. Japanese have a place on the international d.j. circuit. They give Japanese youth a sense of self-confidence, and they represent something that doesn't have to apologize for the past."
A number of the most popular streetwear labels in Japan are created by former d.j.s, who produce their collections much as they produce records, by taking bits of inspiration from fashions that already exist, repackaging them, and then selling them in a limited edition. The most celebrated d.j.-turned-designer in Tokyo is a thirty-seven-year-old named Hiroshi Fujiwara, whose name is spoken with something like reverence by Japanese fashion sorts. I first heard of him from the owner of Brand Select Recycle, who told me that the designers of Bathing Ape and Number Nine were "disciples" of Fujiwara.
Fujiwara travelled to clubs like Heaven in London or Paradise Garage in New York in the eighties, and then introduced Japanese audiences not just to Western club music but to fashion labels like Stüssy. These days, he helps Nike out with marketing ideas (he prefers not to call himself a consultant, just a friend, but he is the kind of friend who has flown in the company's private jet) and writes a column of fashion recommendations for a magazine called Men's Non-No. Fujiwara recently held an Internet auction of his possessions, in which a nylon jacket with a fabric insert on one sleeve, a piece he had both designed and worn, sold for 1.1 million yen, nearly eight and a half thousand dollars.
"Ten years ago, nobody thought about making their own clothes," Fujiwara told me, when I visited him in his office above the Nike store. "But you don't need a fashion background to make T-shirts. I would work with designers and say, 'I want a zipper here,' and they would say, 'You can't have a zipper here,' and we would have big fights." He says that one of his favor- ite new brands is a label called Unsqueaky, which a former salesgirl from Ready Made, a store he used to run, has started. "We wanted to call it Squeaky," Fujiwara said, "but someone already had that name, so we called it Unsqueaky."
For Japanese girls, the main fashion choice is between being kawaii, or cute—which means you wear girl- ish pastel-colored clothes that might have pictures of furry animals on them, and sometimes you actually carry a toy furry animal with you—and bodikon, or body-conscious—which means you dress like a cross between Lil' Kim and a manga character. Japanese concepts of female sexiness are about as easy for an outsider to decipher as a Japanese newspaper, but they go something like this: men find kawaii girls sexy because they're pretty and decorative and unthreatening, but a girl can't be too committed to the kawaii aesthetic because men will think she's a freak. In some cases, the men will be right about this: at a store called Milk, which didn't seem to sell anything without pink pom-poms attached, I met a young woman who had her hair in two bunches high on her head, and was wearing a short, white fake-fur coat with teddy-bear faces appliquéd onto the pockets and matching teddy bears on a scarf around her neck, and who stood pigeon-toed with her belly sticking out, like a preschooler. She said that her boyfriend had been embarrassed to be seen with her at first, but he'd got used to it. She was thirty-one years old.
The cute look is said to signify an assertion of independence on the part of the young women who adopt it, since, rather than simply putting on an ensemble presented to them by a designer, they are creating their own whimsical outfits and giving their inventiveness free rein. There's a popular magazine in Japan called Cutie, which offers hints on how to make one's person and environment more cute: a recent feature suggests sticking red heart-shaped cutouts all over your toilet seat, and coating all but the screen of your television set with a layer of white, furry fabric.
Confusingly enough, the bodikon look, which is all skimpy skirts and plunging necklines and high-heeled boots and other signifiers of hooker wear, is also understood to be an assertion of female independence. "Body-consciousness" is associated in the Japanese imagination with black women; and black culture is, among Japanese youth, taken to represent a kind of strength and sexuality, in a manner that would make an American reach for the sensitivity-training manual. Thus you find stores like Shoop, a boutique in a department store called 109 Building, where, as well as buying fake dreadlocks, girls can purchase what are known as "B-style" clothes: form-fitting dresses with athletic stripes down the side seams, and jackets bearing the slogan, in English, "Strong Black Woman" or "Black For Life." One day I met Kaori Ohta, a nineteen-year-old high-school student who was shopping at Shoop. She wore a fitted denim jacket, a short denim skirt, and high heels, had bronzed skin, and wore a long auburn wig. She'd been black for about three months, she explained; prior to that she'd been kawaii, but had decided that the bodikon look was a more appropriate expression of her strength and sexiness. However, she explained, expressing her sexiness did not amount to being a sex object. "I don't have a boyfriend, but if I did he would have to appreciate me for who I am inside, for my soul," she told me, batting her eyelashes. Ohta hoped to become a psychologist when she finished school.
Given the exaggerated femininity of girls' fashion in Japan, you might imagine that the country is being swept with a wave of ironic, post-feminist Girl Power. In Japan, though, feminism is still a new idea. It was only sixteen years ago that women were granted equal rights in the workplace, and young women who wish to have a serious career still find that acquiring a husband, not to mention having a child, can be a quick route to professional decline.
A popular figure among would- be unconventional Japanese girls is a twenty-seven-year-old photographer named Hiromix, who became famous for pioneering what is known as "girls' photography," images of herself and her friends hanging out. I visited Hiromix in her studio and listened to her views on Japanese gender relations, which were very bleak. "Almost all Japanese men suffer from a Lolita complex," she said. "Basically, Japanese guys feel they are threatened by these capable women, and would like them to be a little more stupid." Girls capitulated to boys by choosing cuteness over beauty, she said. "Beauty indicates a distance which is not reachable, whereas something cute is something that is accessible."
The Japanese tendency to detach style from content can be perplexing to an outsider: the kids hanging out on the Harajuku bridge might resemble the British punks who loitered on the King's Road twenty-five years ago, but rather than sniffing glue and snarling at passersby the Tokyo punks are polite and accommodating, happily posing for the tourists and doing nothing even as self-destructive as smoking a cigarette.
But local observers will explain that, although the semiotics are different from those of the West, Japanese youth fashion is not without meaning. Masanobu Sugatsuke, who is the editor of Composite, a fashion-and-culture magazine_,_ said he believes that the fact that Japan is essentially a classless society means that young people have no way to distinguish themselves from one another except by adopting Western-derived tribal identities—surfer, skater, biker, punk, raver—even if they've never been near a surfboard in their lives. These outfits are, however, an expression of an authentic Japanese experience: that of belonging to a society that until recently was extremely ordered and disciplined, but which, over the past decade, has grown more uncertain and unpredictable. Rather than becoming company workers like their fathers, young Japanese people are increasingly becoming what are known as furita, people who work part-time and without job security, either because they choose to remain independent or because companies aren't hiring permanent staff workers.
"Japanese people don't want to be growing up so quickly," Sugatsuke told me. "They would like to stay young mentally and socially." In Japan, living at home with your parents and going shopping every weekend is a form of rebellion. Outsiders have described this devotion to fashion as self-indulgent and amoral; Oliviero Toscani, the former creative director of Benetton, told the Asahi Shimbun a few years ago that the girls who gathered in Hara- juku every weekend in their oversized romper-room dresses and their silly shoes and their weird makeup were "tragic angels," living "the only existence in the world that is alien to the prob- lems of the contemporary world, such as poverty, war, class discrimination, or joblessness." Toscani's view of the flawed youth of Tokyo did not, however, prevent Benetton from using the Harajuku girls in a worldwide advertising campaign.
It's not quite true to say that Japanese fashion exists without any view of the wider world or a political consciousness; it's just that the consciousness expressed is peculiarly Japanese. A designer who goes by the name Nakagawa Sochi, whose brand is called 20471120, is known for clothes that explicitly respond to Tokyo's overwhelming consumer culture. I met Nakagawa late one evening in a bar—he showed up with his brother and a friend, and, over several beers, he explained the epiphany he had undergone when he moved to Tokyo from Osaka. "Tokyo is free, but you don't have freedom here," he said. He is thirty-four, has spiky hair, and was wearing a Yankees baseball shirt. "When I came here, I found I couldn't schedule my time properly. There were all these cable television channels, and so I would watch television all the time. Even when there was a program I wanted to watch, I would get distracted by the other channels and miss the program I intended to see. Of course it is capitalism: when there are demands there are supplies to meet them. But in Tokyo we have too many supplies." From this insight, Nakagawa created the Tokyo Recycle Project, in which he proposes that fashion followers, rather than buying a new item, bring him their old clothes, which he will recycle into a new garment. It's as much an art project as it is a commercial fashion enterprise, and his work has been showcased at P. S. 1 in New York. The recycled item that Nakagawa shows in his publicity material—a baseball jacket which has been turned into a pair of pants, its sleeves having become below-the-knee pantaloons and its front having been transformed into what looks like a very sturdy pair of felt underwear—seems hardly likely to take off on the high-street level, even in Tokyo.
Other Japanese designers address international affairs, including Kosuke Tsumura, the creator of a line called Final Home. For the past few years, a mainstay of the Final Home collection has been a long coat made from transparent nylon which looks like a quilted down coat with all the down removed. The coat is designed to serve as a final home in the case of a natural or man-made disaster, Tsumura explained to me when I went to his studio, in a far-flung commercial district of Tokyo. For warmth, you can stuff its many pockets with newspapers, or with the floppy nylon teddy bears which Final Home also sells.
"Each customer customizes the number of bears, according to the weather," Tsumura told me. "In my own coat, I wear maybe ten bears. And if you have children, they can also play with the bears and not be scared of the disaster." After the Kobe earthquake, Tsumura sent ten of his coats to the disaster-relief efforts. When I saw him in November he was contemplating making a coat-and-bear donation to the Afghan refugees. Another item available from the Final Home store is a peculiar toy machine gun, made from floppy stuffed nylon. "It is a criticism of war, because the gun is not usable," Tsumura told me. "It is an expression of a yearning for peace."
Pacifist appropriations of militaristic chic were everywhere in Tokyo this fall, as if fashion designers had anticipated what turned out to be a widespread Japanese unease with the American war in Afghanistan. At the stores of Under Cover, another of Tokyo's trendiest brands, customers could buy a brightly patterned umbrella with a machine-gun-shaped handle, and the centerpiece of Under Cover's fall collection for women was a dramatic ball gown made from camouflage material; on the bodice, hundreds of large, pink rhinestones had been appliquéd. "The message is antiwar," the label's designer, Jun Takahashi, told me. "Of course, if your clothes are covered with jewels you can't go to war."
Takahashi works in a recently-constructed studio, a hangarlike space with exposed-brick walls; there is a cozy arrangement of Eames chairs and other modern furniture, and, custom-built into the panels of three desks at which Takahashi and his colleagues sit, oversized lettering reading, in English, "Fuck the Design." Takahashi is thirty-two, and when I visited he was wearing a baggy gray-and-black sweater, messed-up combat pants, a denim worker's cap, and fabric sneakers covered with images of hamburgers with eyes. Of all the young designers currently working in Tokyo, Takahashi is the one thought most likely to succeed on the international stage, thanks to his ability to blend the energy of contemporary Tokyo street fashion with the conceptual high-fashion artistry of Comme des Garçons or Yohji Yamamoto. Takahashi is an acolyte of Rei Kawakubo's, who says of him, "I like his attitude, his politeness, his rebel spirit, and the fact that he is always looking for new and strong ways of doing things, like me." Kawakubo and Takahashi are collaborating for the first time on a line for a new store which will open in Tokyo later this month.
Takahashi's latest collection was entitled "The Illusion of Haze," and consisted of a series of ruffled and embroidered dresses and blouses in tulle and floral cotton prints, and carefully tailored jackets and pants in pastel colors; a layer of black gauze netting had been artfully sewn or stapled over each garment, so that the flounces beneath were interestingly squashed, the sunny innocence of their contours rendered slightly menacing. The collection, which was generally considered the highlight of last November's Tokyo fashion shows, was, Takahashi explained, a critique of "cute" style.
For his part, Takahashi professes not to understand what drives otaku fashion followers to pay four hundred dollars for his T-shirts and those of the other young designers. "It's a very Japanese phenomenon," he said, shaking his head. "Japanese people read magazines as their bibles, and when they see images in them they have to have them and will pay anything. Generally, Japanese people can't make up their own minds and have to have an example to follow." Takahashi will be offering something new for young consumers to become fanatical about, when he opens a new Under Cover store in which he intends to sell one-of-a-kind, hand-sewn items. "I want to communicate with the customers with a kind of warm feeling," he said. The prices these clothes will fetch if they ever make it to the racks of Brand Select Recycle just don't bear thinking about. ♦


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Pilot News: ABC Shows Beef Up Casts
May 30, 2008 3:57 PM EDT
Damon Wayans has gained a wife in ABC's comedy pilot Never Better. Nicole Ari Parker plays the better half of Wayans' character, a recovering alcoholic now trying to be a good husband and father. Meanwhile, Keith Robinson is on board ABC's pil… Read more

subset: commoncrawl


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A British classic, and a favourite of royal occasions, Dobell's morning suit collection combines timeless style with quality cuts and fabrics. A particular favourite of groomsmen on their wedding day, these morning coats promise to deliver the most regal of looks, at unbelievable value. Don't forget to complete your look with a pair of traditional gray striped morning suit trousers and browse our Wedding Suit Packages to dress yourself and the wedding party for a fraction of the usual cost.
There are no products matching the selection.
The morning suit is one of our favourite historic British imports. With its traditional tailcoat and striped formal trousers, the morning suit is the epitome of gentlemanly elegance.
This formal garment originated in 17th century England as a practical way to look stylish whilst riding a horse, with the coat tails draped conveniently over each side of the horse's back.
Today, morning suits are a popular choice for men's wedding attire teamed with a top hat, a stylish waistcoat and a coordinating tie or cravat.If you are currently planning your wedding, why not surprise your bride on the big day by turning up in traditional morning wear? This is by far the smartest and most formal outfit a groom can wear. We stock a range of morning suits in demure colors including black, navy blue and various shades of gray. You can also choose from a variety of fabrics, including luxury wool, mohair and a durable viscose blend.
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If you're short on time and in need of a morning suit quickly and affordably, take advantage of our incredible package deal, which includes a luxury black morning suit, pale gray vest, crisp white dress shirt and necktie, all for less than the price of renting.


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Dave Gray of Xplane has started a group on FLICKR. Cute, intriguing, fun.
"Pocket Universes are small, self-contained video clips that can be looped continuously. Like landscapes, they are tiny reflections of the world and objects for contemplation."
Related: Xplane
Update: 6,27
Dave has added a "Moleskine" version. Thanks!
© 2009 David W Gray. All Rights Reserved.


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Buffalo Radio Host: al Qaeda is Better than the US Government Because Guns
(Cross-post from Artvoice Daily)
On January 24th, during the 11am hour, Entercom's WBEN talk show host Tom Bauerle and his guest, Assemblyman David DiPietro (R-147), discussed what they consider to be constitutional jurisprudence, the supposed coming confiscation of all guns, how Obama has destroyed America, and the fact that armed citizens must be ready and willing to assault and murder law enforcement when they come to take your guns. All of this semi-informed nonsense culminated with Tom Bauerle exclaiming, "I regard the [US] government as a greater enemy than al Qaeda." Because? Because guns.
Tom Bauerle and al Qaeda: besties. This guy is a never-ending compendium of lowest-common denominator derp.
Here is the clip, within its context, with Assemblyman DiPietro's comments immediately preceding it:
And this wasn't some fluke:


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Whether or not you're thinking about buying life insurance, you've probably heard a myth or two about it. Below we debunk five common life insurance myths to help you understand how life insurance can protect you and your loved ones.
BUSTED: Many people haven't purchased life insurance because of the misconception that it costs too much. The 2018 Insurance Barometer study found consumers overestimated the cost of a $250,000 term life policy for a healthy 30 year old by three times its actual cost. If the cost of life insurance has been something on your radar as a point of concern, consider a term life insurance policy. It's generally less expensive than other types of coverage, and you'll have opportunities later on in life to update your level of protection.
BUSTED: Life insurance is a good idea at every stage of life. Certain permanent life insurance policies have benefits you may be able to use while you're still living. For example, whole and universal life policies not only provide a death benefit, they also offer you the opportunity to use the accumulated cash value to help buy a home or subsidize your retirement income. Looking for an immediate bonus? You can often get better rates at a younger age.
Check out: Choosing the Best Life Insurance Policy for Young Adults
BUSTED: Many employers provide a basic life insurance benefit, often equal to one to two times your base salary. That's certainly a great benefit to have, but depending on a variety of factors including age, salary, expenses, debts and future financial needs, you'll likely need more coverage. Generally, an employer provided life insurance policy is meant to help supplement your personally owned policy and may not be portable if you decide to change jobs.
BUSTED: Life insurance can be the foundation of financial security for your family or business. Proceeds from a life insurance policy can help cover outstanding debt, like a mortgage and credit cards, or fund financial objectives including retirement. Life insurance can also be used to cover funeral expenses.
BUSTED: Buying life insurance for children guarantees their insurability into the future and can be an affordable way to purchase additional coverage as they grow into adulthood. It's a great way for parents and grandparents to give the young people in their lives the gift of financial security.
Death can be tough to ponder, let alone plan for. So it should come as no surprise that although most Americans acknowledge that life insurance is a necessity, only about 60 percent actually have it.¹ Additionally, one in five who have life insurance say they do not have enough.¹ Use our simple life insurance calculator to estimate how much protection you might truly need. Then, connect with a Farm Bureau agent to find the coverage that's right for you.
¹ 2018 Insurance Barometer Study


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eduroam API - Changelog
The service registers uniform resource names (URNs) for European educational institutions and federations cooperating for delivery and sharing of internet resources. The registry is intended to facilitate single sign-on functions and ease of interaction for local networks of the GÉANT federation partner institutions. API methods support retrieval of registry listings, with URN and description for each supported resource within federation networks. Returned data can become part of authentication requests to fulfill resource sharing agreements.


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LOS ANGELES – Lawyers for San Francisco want a judge to order that any judgment Bryan Stow may obtain against the Dodgers for his 2011 beating outside Dodger Stadium also include a $1.2 million reimbursement for medical care at a hospital in the Northern California city.
Stow was treated at city-owned San Francisco General Hospital from May 16, 2011, to Oct. 11, 2011. Attorneys for the Tax Collector of the City and County of San Francisco have sent a notice of a hospital lien for services to lawyers for the Dodgers and attached a copy to court papers filed Monday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Abraham Khan.
"This lien is for emergency and/or hospital care services and does not include the charges of other health care services billed by the San Francisco Hospital Medical Group," San Francisco City and County Assistant Tax Collector Debra Lew states in her court papers.
Stow, a San Francisco Giants fan from Capitola, sued former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and 13 team entities in May 2011. Among the claims are assault, battery, negligence, premises liability, negligent hiring, assault and both intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Stow was beaten in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium shortly after the team's opening-day victory over the Giants on March 31, 2011. He was wearing Giants gear at the time.
On June 22, Louie Sanchez, 30, and Marvin Norwood, 31, both of Rialto, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court to one felony count each of mayhem, assault by means likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury in connection with the attack on Stow.
Sanchez also is accused of inflicting great bodily injury on the off- duty paramedic. He is further charged with a misdemeanor count of battery involving a run-in with a female Giants fan — who was sprayed with soda — and a misdemeanor battery count for allegedly swinging his fist at a young man in another group of Giants fans in the parking lot after the Dodgers-Giants game.
Stow, now 43, suffered a fracture that resulted in the loss of a portion of his skull as well as brain damage, according to a stipulation signed by attorneys from both sides and read in court during the preliminary hearing.


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About Us
THQ bringing in Crytek for next Homefront game
posted: 9/20/2011 7:25:00 AM
More On:
Homefront: The Revolution
In a slightly shocking move THQ announced today that they are bringing in Crytek to develop the next iteration of the
franchise. Crytek certainly has a strong pedigree with both
games being top sellers (and very pretty to look at) but it will be interesting to see how they handle an IP that was created by another company.
The original Home wasn't
but it is a bit shocking to see THQ pull the IP away from Kaos and give it to another company, especially one that THQ doesn't own but it does look like THQ is serious about making Homefront one of it's marquee franchises.
The new game doesn't have a name or a release date but I'm guessing we'll be getting a blitz of info about the game in the middle of next year.
Legendary FPS Developer Set To Take THQ's Successful Original IP
To New Heights
AGOURA HILLS, Calif., September 20, 2011 - THQ Inc., (NASDAQ: THQI) today announced that the next title in its Homefront® franchise will be developed by multi-award winning FPS veterans Crytek.
"Selecting Crytek to take Homefront forward underscores our strategy of working with the industry's best talent," said Danny Bilson, EVP Core Games, THQ. "Homefront's unique setting and storyline captivated gamers the world over. With Crytek's industry leading technology and legendary experience in the FPS genre, we're supremely confident that the next Homefront will deliver that AAA-quality experience that players demand."
"We see Homefront as a really strong universe that has a lot of potential and that has been expertly created and marketed by THQ," said Cevat Yerli, Founder, CEO and President of Crytek. "We believe that bringing our level of quality, creativity and production values to the next Homefront title creates an opportunity for both THQ and Crytek to deliver a truly blockbuster game. It's really important to us that THQ has the faith in giving us a lot of creative freedom over one of its most important properties to allow us to bring the Homefront world to life in a new and innovative way."
The first Homefront title was released in March 2011, and proved to be a commercial success for THQ. The yet-to-be-named sequel is scheduled for release in THQ's fiscal year 2014 on console and PC platforms.
About Homefront
The year is 2027. The world as we know it is unraveling after fifteen years of economic meltdown and widespread global conflict over dwindling natural resources.
A once proud America has fallen, her infrastructure shattered and military in disarray. Crippled by a devastating EMP strike the USA is powerless to resist the ever expanding occupation of a savage, nuclear armed Greater Korean Republic.
Abandoned by her former allies, the United States is a bleak landscape of walled towns and abandoned suburbs. This is a police state where high school stadiums have become detention centers, and shopping malls shelter armored attack vehicles. A once-free people are now prisoners ... or collaborators ... or revolutionaries.
Meanwhile, the splintered nations of Europe struggle to maintain peace at home, as the global economy continues its downward spiral, and civil order disintegrates. The world is teetering on the brink of ruin ...
About Crytek GmbH
Crytek GmbH ("Crytek") is one of the world's leading independent development studios for interactive entertainment. It is based in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) and has additional studios in Kiev (Ukraine), Budapest (Hungary), Sofia (Bulgaria), Seoul (South Korea) and Nottingham (UK). Crytek is dedicated to creating exceptionally high-quality video games for next-generation consoles and PC, powered by their proprietary cutting-edge 3D-Game-Technology, CryENGINE®.
Since its foundation in 1999, Crytek has created the multi-award winning PC titles Far Cry®, Crysis® (awarded best PC Game of E3 2007 and Best Technology at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards), Crysis Warhead® (awarded Best Graphics Technology at IGN Best of 2008 Awards) and Crysis® 2 (awarded Best Shooter of E3 2010 and Gamescom 2010).
Crytek, Crysis and CryENGINE are registered trademarks or trademarks of Crytek GmbH in the USA, Germany and/or other countries.
About THQ
THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. The company develops its products for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices and the internet. Headquartered in Los Angeles County, California, THQ sells product through its global network of offices located throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. More information about THQ and its products may be found at www.thq.com. THQ, Homefront, Kaos Studios and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc.
Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, the Xbox logos, and the Xbox LIVE logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
"PlayStation" is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Creative Artists Agency, which represents Crytek, brokered the deal.
The statements contained in this press release that are not historical facts may be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about the business of THQ Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively referred to as "THQ"), including, but not limited to, expectations and projections related to the release of Homefront, and are based upon management's current beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, business, competitive, economic, legal, political and technological factors affecting our industry, operations, markets, products or pricing. Readers should carefully review the risk factors and the information that could materially affect THQ's financial results, described in other documents that THQ files from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal period ended March 31, 2011, and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and particularly the discussion of trends and risk factors set forth therein. Unless otherwise required by law, THQ disclaims any obligation to update its view on any such risks or uncertainties or to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.


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How to Block Bidders and Cancel eBay Auctions
If you're running an eBay auction, eBay's bidder-management tools let you block buyers and cancel auctions. Remember, you don't have to accept bids from just anyone. Part of running an eBay business is keeping an eye on your bidders. With bidder-management tools, you can save yourself a good deal of grief.
Canceling bids
You could have any number of reasons for wanting to cancel someone's bid. Perhaps an international bidder has bid on an auction in which you clearly state you don't ship overseas. Here are a few more legitimate reasons for canceling a bid:
The bidder contacts you to back out of the bid; choosing to be a nice guy, you let him or her out of the deal.
Your bidder has received several negative feedback notes and hasn't gone through with other transactions that he or she has won.
You're unable to verify the bidder's identity through e-mail or the phone.
You need to cancel the auction.
Canceling an auction is bad business. People rely on your auctions being up for the stated amount of time. They may be planning to bid at the last minute, or they may just want to watch the action for a while. You may lose potential buyers by ending your listing early. But if you have to . . .
For whatever reason you're canceling someone's bid, you should first e-mail that person and clearly explain why you're doing so. Your bid cancellation appears in the auction's bidding history and becomes part of the auction's official record. To protect your reputation, leave a concise, unemotional, one-line explanation on the cancellation form as to why you've cancelled the bid.
Ending your listing early
You may decide to end a listing early for any number of reasons. If anyone has bid on your auction before you end it, you'll be duty-bound to sell to the highest bidder. So before ending an auction early, it's polite to e-mail everyone in your bidder list, explaining why you're canceling bids and closing the auction. If an egregious error in the item's description is forcing you to take this action, let your bidders know whether you're planning to relist the item with the correct information.
Only after canceling all bids should you go ahead and close your auction. To end your listing, use the drop-down menu next to the item in your Selling area. Click the End Item link.
Following are some legitimate reasons for closing your auction:
You no longer want to sell the item: Your account may be subject to a "Non-Selling Seller" warning unless you have a really good reason.
An error occurred in the minimum bid or the reserve amount: Perhaps your wife said that she really loves that lamp and you'd better get some good money for it, but you started the auction at $1 with no reserve. (Oops.)
The listing has a major error in it: Maybe you misspelled a critical keyword in the title.
The item was somehow lost or broken: Your dog ate it? A meteorite fell on it?
Blocking individual buyers
If you don't want certain buyers bidding on your auctions, you can remove their capability to do so. Setting up a list of bidders that you don't want to do business with is legal on eBay. If someone you've blocked tries to bid on your auction, the bid won't go through. A message will be displayed notifying the person that he or she is not able to bid on the listing and to contact the seller for more information.
You can block as many as one thousand users from bidding on your auctions. However, you should use this option only when absolutely necessary.
Click the Add an eBay User to My Blocked Bidder/Buyer List link. On the resulting page, you can add the bidder's user ID to the Blocked list.


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Bill Shadrach necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 195 diseños de 42 diseñadores freelance.
Popp Enterprises
Popp Enterprises is a flooring business that provides a variety of flooring solutions for clients throughout North America. The company is a great example of American entrepreneurship as it began with one man and has grown to become a large, national company.
To our clients, Popp Enterprises represents a trusted, loyal, reliable and conservative supplier of high quality products and services at fair prices.
Construction industry, including Architects, Construction Contractors and Sub-Contractors, Building Managers and Purchasing Agents, Government Housing Agencies and individuals looking for an affordable, yet durable and beautiful flooring solution.
The owners see Popp Enterprises as a leading professional supplier of quality flooring. Brand management of Popp Enterprises sees a logo containing elements of being sturdy, conservative, loyal, and trustworthy however, they also want to convey that this is an entrepreneurial company.
The owners see the brand name Popp Enterprises, being used in conjunction with an icon to support the meaning or understanding of the brand. The icon should represent the sturdy, conservative, loyal, and trustworthy aspect of doing business with Popp Enterprises.
Please explore both positive and negative space. Color choices may be strong or muted or even rely on some combination of color and texture.
We would like to explore multiple aspect ratios from roughly 2:1 (two widths to one height) to a 1:1 (one width to one height).
At the end of the contest, we will require the winner to provide the following files in the handover phase:
1. unlocked vector file
2. unlocked .eps file
3. unlocked .ai file
4. large .jpeg file
5. Font names and file location(s)
6. Jpeg Color palette showing all colors used in the logo and their corresponding PMS, CMYK, RGB and HEX #'s.
7. We will check the colors and layers of all of the handover files to ensure that they match the winning design. Please be prepared to handover matching files.
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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As if having a name like Scoot isn't adorable enough, actor Scoot McNairy has the looks to match the name — and the talent, too.
He was born and raised in Texas, and started his acting career in the early '00s with small roles in films like 'Wonderland' and 'Art School Confidential.' After guest-starring on episodes of 'Bones' and 'The Shield,' Scoot broke out with the lead role in the 2010 indie sci-fi film 'Monsters,' in which he co-starred with his wife, Whitney Able, and showed off his tramp stamp. (A dude with a tramp stamp has to be totally confident in his masculinity, so we support it.)
Ever since then, Scoot's career has been taking off — he's starred with Brad Pitt in 'Killing Them Softly,' with Ben Affleck in 'Argo' (which Affleck also directed), and in 'Promised Land' with Matt Damon. Those are some heavy-hitting, swoon-worthy gentlemen to work with right there.
Scoot can be seen next in the films '12 Years a Slave' and 'Touchy Feely.'
Авторский пост


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More Military Contracts For RaytheonPosted: Updated:
October Celebrates Indiana's Vibrant Manufacturing Industry
Indiana is the most manufacturing intensive state in the country and more than a third of the state's GDP comes from the industry. The health and wellness of Indiana's economy is dependent on the state's manufacturing industry. But Hoosiers face a challenge: it is expected that nearly a quarter of the current manufacturing workforce will be of retirement age in the next 10 years and we lack the generational workforce to make up that gap.
Most Popular Stories
U.S. Steel Updates Layoff Notice to State
Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) has updated the State of Indiana regarding its previously announced layoffs at the East Chicago Tin Mill. The company says 314, rather than 307, workers will be displaced when the mill is idled this fall.
Valpo Bearings Plant to Close, Eliminating 160+ Jobs
Wisconsin-based Regal Beloit Corp. and the union representing workers have reached an agreement about the closing of a helicopter bearing factory in Valparaiso. According to our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana, the decision will cost between 160 to 170 workers their jobs.
AM General, FCA Collaborate on New Military Grade Jeep
Nearly 80 years since the first jeep rolled off the assembly line, and helped support American soldiers throughout World War II, it appears the trusted four-wheel-drive machine may be making a comeback in the U.S. military. South Bend-based AM General LLC has teamed up with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to build military-grade versions of the 2020 Jeep Gladiator pickup truck.
Larwill Medical Device Maker to Expand, Add Jobs
A Whitley County-based medical device maker has announced plans to expand its facility in Larwill which should mean new jobs. Red Star Contract Manufacturing Inc. says it will invest $1.6 million in real estate improvements and additional equipment and will create 18 new jobs by 2022.
Vincennes Professor Wins Prestigious Award
The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants has honored Vincennes University faculty member Jaci Lederman with the Academic Instructor Circle of Excellence award. She is chair and associate professor of the Information Technology Department. Lederman won the distinction due to her commitment to cybersecurity education.


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25 years ago today, the Challenger shuttle exploded on takeoff, 73 seconds into flight, killing all seven crew. 25 years ago today, Francis "Dick" Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, and Gregory Jarvis were killed in this tragic accident. I was just a kid when the Challenger accident happened, and I have no real memories of what occurred, unlike the Columbia disaster of 2003. The Challenger flight, STS-51-L would have marked the beginning of the Teacher in Space Project, as Christa McAuliffe was to teach lessons from space.
This project was to inspire students, and the public at large. It was hoped to increase public interest in the space program. Sadly, the loss of the Challenger crew meant the eventual cancellation of the project.
From each of the three major disasters leading to loss of life in NASA history: The Apollo 1 fire on 27 January 1967, the Challenger break up on 28 January 1986, and the Columbia breakup on 1 February 2003, all led to significant changes in safety procedures.
Today, we remember not only those who died on the Challenger, but the three men who died in the Apollo 1 command capsule: Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee. We also remember the crew of the Columbia on it's final flight: Rick D. Husband, William C. McCool, David M. Brown, Kaplana Chawla, Michael P. Anderson, Laurel B. Clark, and Ilan Ramon.
The risks of space exploration are immense. The costs can be greater still. The spirit of exploration lives on today. We should continue to reach for the stars, to strive for excellence. We should not forget those who have paid the price for past successes. Just as the voices from World War 1 have fallen silent one by one, we must not forget the sacrifices of the past. There are astronauts today who were born after the last moon landing, yet they have not forgotten the lessons learned from the past.
The hope is for the future, for advances not yet known. When humanity takes the next giant leap by taking the first steps on Mars, we will do so in memory of those who have given their lives towards this noble quest for knowledge.
NASA's memorial site for Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia can be found here.


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Chipotle does not have a gluten free menu but instead has a list of gluten-containing ingredients to avoid. Cross-contamination is a concern, however, so let the person taking your order know that you are gluten free and if you need them to take the proper precautions. From their website: "If you avoid gluten, don't eat our flour tortillas. If you are highly sensitive to gluten and would like us to change our gloves, just let us know at the start of your order. You should be aware items containing corn, including corn tortillas (chips, soft corn, and crispy corn tortillas) and corn salsa, may have a small amount of gluten from potentially co-mingling with gluten-containing grains in the field."
No reviews have been written for this business.
Server washed hands and added new gloves but still got sick with a burrito bowl, so likely CC issues. :(
I love their food but have gotten sick too many times to eat there anymore, Their toppings for the most part are safe. They do not like getting a new spoon for each ingredient that you want though. They're too busy.
Every time I eat here I ens getting sick. The staff is great and changes their gloves, but I still get sick. It must be something they are doing while preparing the food. Definitely not safe for celiacs!
I always find gluten free at chipotle for a decent price.
I came in, asked the guy behind the counter to change his gloves for my daughter's meal. He immediately washed his hands thoroughly, changed his gloves and prepared my daughter's entire bowl from beginning to end.
The staff are very knowledgeable. They wash their hands. They change their gloves and spoons. Toppings and they put tinfoil on their soft corn tortillas on tortilla Press. They wipe down the surface :) I love chipotle so much :)
Everything is gluten free exept for the tortilla.
Fast easy clean food that is tasty!
The staff took the time to veal off the prep area, re-wash there hands, put on fresh gloves and used clean spoons to prepare my meal. Fantastic job!!
Grabbed a quick lunch. Only one staff person knew what gluten was but ended up ok. No symptoms after.
Been here many times, staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. Strongly recommend
Great place to go if you're celiac! Every time I have gone as soon as I say I'm celiac they wash their hands, change their gloves, and get new utensils to serve the food with. I have never gotten sick and have been here a lot. Highly recommend!
I had looked online at the GF possibilities, but when I asked to confirm what items are GF, none of the 4 people knew a single thing about what was GF, and no one seemed to care. I was very disappointed.
Upon arriving, I talked to the manager about getting my food from fresh bins not put out on the line due to preventing cross contamination. She was very accommodating even though they were really busy. She put my plate together for me. The food was really good. Chipotle is one of my favorites! So glad they didn't disappoint! No tummy issues either.
Everything is gluten free except flour tortillas
The lady who made my bowl changed gloves immediately when I told her I was celiac.
Unfortunately, chips or tortillas are no longer considered gluten free anymore according to the staff. While they used to say the corn chips and tortillas were gluten free, the web site confirms they may all be contaminated with wheat.
Many menu options are naturally GF. Some room for cross-contamination. Staff will probably be willing to work with you
Our go-to place for safe, healthy eating. This one is the best we've been to in Columbia for getting it roght and safe food handling. We can eat gluten free and dairy free, in addition to vegan and healthy! Folks at the Chipotle on the West side of Columbia aren't yet trained well on safe allergy practices, but they are usually willing to adjust when asked.
This is a great location and the staff is super knowledgeable with food allergy handling! I have celiac which is treated as a gluten allergy and the staff immediately asked if I needed them to wash their hands, and did that and changed gloves. Another employee removed the spoons from items I wanted and the one helping me used new spoons for all items and fresh cheese & lettuce. The food was fresh and I was very impressed with their attention to detail.
Very accommodating and helpful. Have eaten at this location twice and they know exactly what to do and have not gotten sick.
Not celiac friendly!!! I got very sick from eating a bowel.
They had no idea about gluten allergies and had to be told to change out spoons and gloves.
The staff is well trained. The only place where the staff immediately changes their gloves when they hear "gluten-free"! Never been sick by gluten from eating there. Love this place!
I love grabbing a bowl to go for lunch from here cuz it's never busy when I go but the bowls are so yummy
The options here are burritos (wheat), bowls (on rice), salads (on lettuce), or tacos (likely corn tortillas but didn't ask). All the ingredients are gluten free except for the wheat tortillas. There was a knowledgeable staff member we talked to who offered to get ingredients from the back that hadn't been put out and to use fresh gloves and utensils. The only problem was that they didn't have any proteins (meat, beans, or tofu) that hadn't been put out yet. Another reviewer said that just changing gloves and spoons worked for them but the spoons do touch the wheat tortillas and then go back into the ingredients so there is almost certainly some cross contamination occurring (I aim for the FDA standard of less than 20 ppm gluten). Therefore I decided not to eat here and went to the CoreLife restaurant next door (great!) and brought my food back to chipotle to eat with my family. I don't rate this as celiac friendly because they're not really set up to serve celiacs, but they were better than places who are clueless. They did say the tortilla chips are gf (not fried in oil that has gluten). I think this would be a great place for a gf person who's not celiac/highly sensitive.
Flour tortillas are the only menu item that has gluten. I ordered a burrito bowl. They had one employee dedicated to my order to prevent confusion, changed gloves and wiped down the line before preparing my food. For cheese and lettuce where they normally reach into the container, they used fresh containers to prevent cross contamination. (You May need to ask for this) Staff was friendly, food was great, and most importantly: I did not get sick.
They really had no clue. The gentleman washed his hands and then instead of changing spoons, he started putting the rice in the bowl. We stopped him and asked if he was going to change spoons and he said that it never happened before. He was very reluctant and agitated that he had to change spoons.
So here is the thing. When I was standing in line, I saw them scoop rice from the bowl and repeatedly touch the spoon against a wheat tortilla then put it back in the rice bowl. This continued for the meats and the beans. So when I was up to order, I asked that they take my food from new containers in the kitchen. They said that their allergy protocol was to change gloves, wipe the counter down and bring new containers of cheese and lettuce. I let them know that the rice, meat, and beans were all contaminated because the spoon kept touching wheat. They still said no. I talked to a manager who finally relented. I emailed Chipotle and they apologized and said that the restaurant should have honored my request. I think Chipotle is safe for Celiacs if food is taken from new containers. If not, it is not safe
This place is very celiac friendly :)
There are no GF items marked & and internet says that ALL Chipotle locations are celiac free. I fell safe and Chipotle should be intentional about publishing a GF menu to get a higher rating.
The only gluten containing ingredients are the tortillas. Corn products may be cross contaminated in the fields, but are otherwise considered gluten free. Staff will change gloves if you tell them you have an allergy and need it. Easy way to eat gluten free and perfect for Celiac.
always great food. eat there with celiac disease
Had a sofritos bowl at the Yorkdale location last night. The staff told me everything was GFree except for the hot sauce which i didn't have My stomach did not agree. I would be careful to ask more questions
Celiac friendly! Change gloves and take food all down the line
My son and wife are gluten free (intolerant not allergic) and this is their favorite go to for a chipotle bowl that won't make them sick!
I started my order saying I had celiac. The server immediately changed his gloves and called for fresh lettuce & cheese( as they reach in those containers with their gloved hands.) Without my needing to ask. I had no cross contamination issues. I will be back!
This location is really good about changing gloves, spoons, and anything else you need. You just have to ask. I'm very sensitive and so far have not had any trouble. It is still fast food-y so I'm not sure I can put 100% celiac friendly but so far so good for me
I come here very often!! The servers are always so friendly. As soon as you tell them you have an allergy they wash their hands, change their gloves, and take out new containers of food to avoid contamination. I have never gotten sick here and the food is delicious!
Staff used unopened containers and changed gloves for me. She also went out of her way to double-check that sofritas were gluten-free!
The staff all switched gloves and took brand new food under the counter to prevent cross contamination!
The daytime team is exceptional for their food handling skills. Plus they know their customers, most team members are already changing their gloves when I walk through the door. Out of 50+ visits in the last couple years, I had cross contamination once.
Everything is safe here except the flour tortillas according to their website. I order their bowls all the time and I have never been sick.
BEWARE!!! Their tortilla chips are flour NOT CORN!
The staff was insanely great! All I said was gluten free and they changed gloves and used different spoons to scoop. Best experience I've ever had eating out!
I always get sick eating here or any other chipotle...They dont understand when I ask them to change their gloves and get fresh food from the back that hasn't been cross contaminated. They dont listen and dont want to change from their usual routine...I always get sick at this chipotle, will never go back!!!
Have been frequenting this place for a while, without issue but unfortunately in our last take out, got cross contaminated.
The staff is knowledgeable about gluten free & offers great, friendly service! Basically everything there is gluten free except for the soft tortillas. So if you need gluten free, I highly recommend! I eat there regular with no issues.
Been here a few times and have no problems. Your normal Chipotle chain.
The staff at this location were amazing. I told the girl I had a gluten allergy (it's easier than explaining celiac sometimes) and she immediately changed her gloves. I ask if the hard shell corn tacos were gluten free and she confirmed with the cook that they are. I requested 'fresh toppings' from the back (because I wasn't sure about cross contact with the spoons) and she had no issues with doing that. The cook also cut fresh chicken that hadn't been touched for mine. It was delicious and safe and I really appreciated the extra efforts they made!


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Barack Obama's insistence that the IRS scandal of targeting conservative political groups contained "not even a smidgen" of corruption may get tested this week, as new information comes out about why Lois Lerner may have taken the Fifth in a Congressional hearing. According to a memo released by the House Ways and Means Committee, Lerner worked secretly with Treasury to create new 501(c)(4) rules that would have made such targeting even easier — without letting the public know about it. Fox News reported this morning that the committee plans to take this matter up pronto, while the panel's Democrats object to the line of inquiry:
The Daily Caller had the story late yesterday:
The Obama administration's Treasury Department and former IRS official Lois Lerner conspired to draft new 501(c)(4) regulations to restrict the activity of conservative groups in a way that would not be disclosed publicly, according to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
The Treasury Department and Lerner started devising the new rules "off-plan," meaning that their plans would not be published on the public schedule. They planned the new rules in 2012, while the IRS targeting of conservative groups was in full swing, and not after the scandal broke in order to clarify regulations as the administration has suggested. …
The rules place would place much more stringent controls on what would be considered political activity by the IRS, effectively limiting the standard practices of a wide array of non-profit groups.
"Don't know who in your organizations is keeping tabs on c4s, but since we mentioned potentially addressing them (off -plan) in 2013, I've got my radar up and this seemed interesting…," Treasury official Ruth Madrigal wrote in a June 14, 2012 email to Lerner and others obtained by Ways and Means and provided to The Daily Caller.
The Wall Street Journal has more, and notes that the IRS and Treasury hadn't tried changing the 501(c)(4) rules in more than 50 years before Lerner tried doing it secretly (via Rick Moran at the American Thinker):
House committees are still digging into the IRS political targeting scandal, and based on a hearing Wednesday there's more to learn. The day produced more evidence blowing apart President Obama's claims that there was "not even a smidgen of corruption" or political motivation in the IRS handling of groups applying for tax-exempt status. …
The email cites a blog post about the political activity of tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups and reads: "Don't know who in your organizations [sic] is keeping tabs on c4s, but since we mentioned potentially addressing them (off-plan) in 2013, I've got my radar up and this seemed interesting."
Interesting for sure. The IRS typically puts out a public schedule of coming regulations, and Mr. Camp noted that in this case "off-plan" appears to mean "hidden from the public." He added that committee interviews with IRS officials have found that the new 2013 rules were in the works as early as 2011, meaning the Administration has "fabricated the rationale" for this new regulation.
Mr. Camp added that everything his committee has discovered contradicts the White House argument that the IRS scandal was caused by legal "confusion." The current rules governing 501(c)(4)s have existed, unchanged, since 1959. Prior to 2010 the IRS processed and approved tax-exempt applications in fewer than three months with no apparent befuddlement.
Why the sudden interest in changing a regulation that had been in place for more than 50 years? Better yet, why the need to do so in secret?
Fox News had more on these smidgens last night, too:
This goes way beyond "boneheaded decisions" by a few low-level employees.


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This article discusses the benefits of facing our painful memories, challenging our beliefs about the traumatic experience, self care and breathing exercises.
Nov. 27, 2012 Sciencedaily.com— Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a form of learning that begins at the moment of the exposure to extremely stressful situations and that grows in impact as trauma-related memories are rehearsed and strengthened repeatedly. This somewhat oversimplified view of PTSD yields a powerful prediction: if one could disrupt the rehearsal and strengthening of traumatic memories, a process called reconsolidation of memories, then one might reduce PTSD risk or PTSD severity after potentially traumatic events.
To be certain, it is tricky to attempt to alter traumatic memory reconsolidation. In fact, some early strategies for "trauma debriefing" turned out to strengthen rather than diminish posttraumatic learning.
Despite these challenges, a new study by Dr. Barbara Rothbaum and colleagues reports that a behavioral intervention delivered to patients immediately post-trauma is effective at reducing posttraumatic stress reactions.
"PTSD is a major public health concern," said Rothbaum, professor in Emory's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "In so many people, what happens immediately after a traumatic event can make things worse or better. Right now, there are no accepted interventions delivered in the immediate aftermath of trauma."
To conduct the study, the researchers approached patients who presented to the local emergency room due to a traumatic event, including rape, car accident, or physical assault. Half of those who agreed to participate received the behavioral intervention, which was started immediately, while the other half did not. All patients were repeatedly assessed for symptoms of depression and stress over a twelve-week period.
The intervention is a modified form of exposure therapy in which a survivor confronts anxiety about a traumatic event by recounting it. Administered over the course of 3 1-hour sessions, the goal is to alter the person's thoughts and feelings about the traumatic event. Trained therapists asked the participants to describe the trauma they just experienced and recorded the description. The patients were instructed to listen to their recordings every day. The therapists also helped the patients look at obtrusive thoughts of guilt or responsibility, and taught them a brief breathing relaxation technique and self care.
They found that the intervention was safe, feasible, and successful at reducing posttraumatic stress reactions, compared to those who were assigned to the assessment-only condition, at 4 and 12 weeks post-injury.
"This study provides an elegant and clinically important test of the trauma reconsolidation hypothesis," commented Dr. John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry.
The implications of this study are immense, Rothbaum explained. "If we know what to do, then we can train emergency workers to intervene with patients on a large scale. In addition to being implemented in the emergency room, it can help on the battlefield, in natural disasters, or after criminal assaults."
She concluded, "More research is needed, but this prevention model could have significant public health implications. A long-standing hope of mental health research is to prevent the development of psychopathology in those at risk instead of being limited to symptom treatment after disease onset."
Elsevier (2012, November 27). Preventing posttraumatic stress disorder by facing trauma memories. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 10, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2012/11/121127094102.htm


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In the course of business, there would always be instances when you may not be able to personally meet the person whom you intend to do business with. Initial correspondence may simply be done through mails and other sorts of formalities. When this happens, it is with utmost importance that you make sure you give the right impression. And how will you be able to do this? You can do this by making sure that you make use of the right stationery.
You must be familiar with the old saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words." This is so true in the world of business, especially whenever you would be sending out a "representative" from your office. Any form of correspondence would be acting on behalf of you. So do not regard a simple letter as a mere piece of paper, because it is actually you whom that paper embodies. Because of this, you have to be sure that the paper that you send succinctly defines you and your office.
Your business stationery should exemplify your qualities as a professional. It must strike an image of reliability and trustworthiness. The letterhead should be clean, with letters clearly printed, or better yet engraved for a more sophisticated and classy look. If you would be sending your business card as well, you also have to make sure that the card looks stunning. It must be crafted in a manner, wherein all it would take is one look, and the card itself could convince the recipient that the name it bears means business. The recipient must feel that he could trust and rely on the person that the card represents.
If you are sending out correspondence on behalf of your office, then you have to bear in mind that the image that would be reflected by the stationery would be that of your office. As a firm, you need to present reliability and trustworthiness in all of the correspondences that you make. Letterheads, envelopes and folders should likewise present an image of dependability.
While you may think that you could as well print your letterheads using your inkjet office printer, it is always best to have professionals make them, along with your other stationeries. The extensive experience of professional printers and engravers when it comes to creating the most excellent-looking business stationery will surely be reflected on their products. Using professionally created stationery, you would be able to reach the audience that you want. In turn, you and your business will gain the benefits.


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For your Special Internet price, call at 805-497-9404 or email us at email@example.com
Neftin Westlake Car Company has made every effort to ensure accuracy in the information provided. Specifications, equipment, technical data, photographs and illustrations are based on information available at time of posting and are subject to change without notice. To receive or verify current product information, call 805-497-9404. Any prices listed on this site do not include tax, title and license fees. All units are subject to prior sale. Neftin Westlake Car Company is not responsible for typographical errors in price or errors in description of condition of this vehicle's listed equipment, accessories, price or warranties. Any and all differences must be addressed prior to the sale of this vehicle.