When a museum calls itself “disturbingly informative” you know it’s got to be great. The Mutter Museum, part of the College of Physician’s of Philadelphia, is chock full of bones, preserved guts floating in jars and other creepy stuff from the bodily world. They are perhaps best known for having a replica of Siamese twins Chang & Eng, who had a conjoined liver (hey, if you can’t share your liver with your own brother, who can you share it with?) that is preserved and on display at Mutter. This place is the original Body Worlds. Best of all, this emporium of body parts will soon carry I Heart Guts plushies, stickers and buttons, so if you’re in the Philly area and you just can’t wait, get your guts there.
Posts Tagged ‘guts’
Muttering About
Posted: Wednesday, September 24th, 2008Gutsy Glamour
Posted: Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
These gorgeous guts, made from leather and found objects, are the work of Kelly Steinauer, and you should check out her guts. One of our fabulous customers turned us on to her, and we becamne instantly entranced by the clever melancholy of her stomachs, spleens and other innards. We especially love the intestine, which looks — appropriately enough — like some seriously crazy plumbing, seen here at left. The super-cool uterus, pictured at right, caught our eye with her tough looks. She looks about ready to gun up a badass motorcycle and zoom off into the sunset.
The future of tissue (no, no, not Kleenex)
Posted: Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
For anyone who has ever wished they could trade in their broken pancreas for a new one, here’s some good news: Canadian scientists are getting closer to making replacement organs. The researchers encouraged stem cells to make the building blocks for what could turn into lungs, livers and pancreases, reported the journal Stem Cell. It will likely be decades before you’ll be able to order up a new set of lungs along with a pack of Marlboros at your local 7-11, but it’s still really cool science.
New deals and Gutsy coupon!
Posted: Sunday, August 17th, 2008
Just loaded up a bunch of new slightly damaged gutsy goods to the Steals + Deals section of our site, including a $9 plush heart that has a sort of blemish to his face. But he’s still gutsy. And lovable. He won’t last long around here at that price, so won’t you take him home? Gone! I’d also like to extend a special coupon to anyone insane enough to read this blog: plug in GUTS2008 at checkout and get 10% off your order. Good through the end of September. Photo from the Courtesy Coffee Shop in Blythe, CA.
Guts on the road
Posted: Saturday, August 16th, 2008
Heart and kidney visited the esteemed Mayo Clinic a few days ago, on a special road trip. The I Heart Guts team (that would be my wonderful husband, our 9-month-old baby and me) hit the highway to investigate a rare affliction that’s troubling my man (more on that later), so we had some fun driving through the desert. While we were there, we checked out the gift shop to see if they needed any guts, but I think the answer has got to be no way, stocked as it was with purple boa-clad bears that, when a paw was pressed, sang Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to have Fun.” I won’t tell you about the singing chihuahua. On the bright side, the Mayo Scottsdale has a great medical library for patients, so if you’re in Phoenix, check it out! There’s tons of books, scientific journals, a giant glob of fake fat, a skeleton, and a really nice librarian. We wanted to stop by Red Hot Robot, an awesome vinyl toy shop in Phoenix, but we ran out of time. Pooper.
We Heart Bust
Posted: Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
We have loved Bust since its days as a tiny indie lady zine and are thrilled it’s still thriving as a real honest-to-goodness magazine. So we are especially honored to have our plush uterus shouted out on a “Page O’ Sh*t” about menstrual goodies (including a revolver-shaped heating pad! Gotta have it.). This is what they said: ” A friendly stuffed uterus? Awesome! This plush could moonlight as the mascot for the National Bowlers Association!” At first, we didn’t really get the bowling reference until we really looked, and yes, our uterus does indeed look primed for a double strike. I’ve always kinda envisioned her as a female Karate Kid, ready to pounce, after my pal Noel told me his high school biology teacher (thanks, Mr. Zlatnick!) described the uterine anatomy that way.
Renegade Rocks
Posted: Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
San Francisco’s first Renegade Craft Fair was quite fabulous, we had a good ol’ time meeting people and sending them away with guts galore. My favorite thing about these shows is meeting the amazing people who buy our stuff — folks who wander up to the booth with a giant smile on their face and a twinkle in their eye and say, “I had a liver transplant! Check out my awesome scar!” and whip up their shirt to show it off, or, “Hey, I have diabetes!” as if it was the greatest thing on earth rather than a truly devastating affliction. These people inspire us to no end with a positive attitude in the face of disease, and for that we’d like to say — you guys rock. More than just our guts were on the scene, we saw some cute stitched anatomically correct hearts from Art School Dropout, body part passport holders, and some ventricle-laced felt hearts stitched upon a sweatshirt. We really loved everything by Brookadelphia, but especially their “sick” necklace. Great stuff everywhere, we had a great time and the baby miraculously slept, even during the punk rock marching band.
Show Us Your Guts
Posted: Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
Being as we are total t-shirt geeks and total anatomy geeks and total music geeks to boot, we of course love the triple threat of Justice’s D.A.N.C.E. video, which cycles through a zillion amazing animated designs that screen over a pair of t-shirts, including our fave, pictured at left. We would love to see a limited-edition version of that one, but in the meantime, here’s some of the others. In the meantime, see what you think of the remix.
We Heart This Bar
Posted: Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
How incredible is Bar Rectum? Although it looks like a giant stomach, the project actually represents the entire digestive system, from tongue to anus, with an expanded large intestine serving as the main swillery. If you’re ever in the Netherlands, be sure to go throw back a cocktail or three.
You Can’t Pick Your Brain
Posted: Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
As the saying goes, you can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose…Here’s something new to add to that laundry list of dos and don’ts — don’t pick at your brain. A recent New Yorker article about itching details the case of a woman whose head itched so much that she picked right through her skull and into her brain. Eggghhhh. Even when they severed the nerve to that part of her head, the need to itch continued. Pretty fascinating stuff. And gross, too.
