This is Vlade Divac.
I am notoriously bad (at least in my opinion) at coming up with good Halloween costume ideas. In the last few years - I have been a cheerleader, a woman, a mascot (of sorts), and the 1994 version of Dracula (the latter two costumes can be viewed on myspace).

This year I hoped I could finally break free of the terrible costume monotony but, a lack of money coupled with a newfound apathy for the holiday didn't leave me with much. So in a pathetic attempt I dressed as everyone's favorite Serbian basketball sensation - Vlade Divac.



Happy Halloween!

This was my Tuesday.

This is my desk at work. I don't have a wife or any kids so I am really at a loss for what the appropriate desk decor should be. So far I have a trucker hat from the movie Phat Girlz, Wu-Tang trading cards, a Sipowicz bobblehead, a pumpkin, and some thing from BJ's Pizza (no relation to my pizza).

We humans ask millions of questions each day to attempt to understand our confusing world. Questions like: What is the meaning of life? How were The Great Pyramids built? and Where could one find Bahamian music greats The Baha Men's triple platinum award for their tremendous break-out hit Who Let The Dogs Out?

Well folks... Ponder no longer - for I hold the answer to one of man kinds greatest queries. No, not that one. The Baha Men one...



Now that's the smell of success!

As I posted back on the 23rd of this month, I am a member of a facebook group called "1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T. Colbert". On the morning of October 26th (right before 3:00 AM) the group hit its goal (in only 8 days) of one million members (and it still grew - as of this posting it is nearly 1.2 million members).

It was weird to be part of a forum where each time you refreshed - every single comment from the second before had vanished behind hundreds of new ones. It was even weirder to be able to follow along with some conversations (and a lot of arguments) despite the great speed at which each comment came.

It is so strange to think about these (pointless virtual) arguments and conversations and how so many of them have produced some of the most recognizable names and events on the internet (such as: Dramatic Look and The Skateboarding Dog). Creating a weird imprint on pop culture, transforming from a random moment into a cultural meme. I am not sure if you are familiar with the concept of memes (if not, you should totally read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins) but I wonder... Will Katie Brazil become a meme?

Who is Katie Brazil? I don't know either - but for some reason she became the talk of the town (well just the talk of the message board) during the countdown to the 1,000,000 roll over. In fact, for almost a good 15 minutes hardly anyone mentioned anything else.

Here are some random screen shots cut together of some of the times she was mentioned.


You can see I even chimed in with "Colbert/Brazil '08"



Someone created a facebook group dedicated to her (which was later taken down).


Becoming "internet famous" is such a weird thing to think about. Most of the people who have become "famous" on the internet (The Star Wards Kid, Angry German Kid, and Leroy Jenkins clearly didn't intend on becoming famous for these events (and clearly didn't deserve becoming famous for them either). However, regardless of their intent - they have. Each one garnering millions of views on the internet (in each case - they have also spawned multitudes of parodies and even been included in pop culture - Star Wars Kid is hidden in a secret area in one of the Tony Hawk games). Will Katie Brazil share the same fate as the aforementioned YouTube celebs? (I suppose Stephen Colbert holds Katie's fate in his hands - I wonder if he'll mention anything about her on his show?) How many people do you suppose have become "internet famous" for literally 15 minutes? How many people have somehow caught the attention of hundreds of people on the internet only to be forgotten minutes later? It seems to me that "internet fame" is easily the worst kind of fame. But, when the internet eventually dominates all forms of media - will it be a good thing then? Will people like Chris Crocker and The Notorious B.U.M. be regarded as legends of the medium (like Charlie Chaplin with film or Clayton Moore with television)? I suppose we'll have to wait to find out.

I attempted to document the group hitting 1,000,000 but it didn't come out so well, but you can see how quickly people were joining by refreshing every second. (You can see a few Katie Brazil references in the video as well).




Can you imagine having someone come up to you and ask - "Hey, wait a minute, are you the Star Wars Kid?"

These are the sights and sounds along the way to my work.

I was perusing an old blog of mine from 2004 and I stumbled upon a gem (a stupid AIM conversation) that is exactly 3 years old to this day.

Girl: do you remember up until 30 minutes ago i 'hated' you
Me: its a thin line between love and hate lady
Me: i figure you meant something on the other side
Girl: what are you getting at?
Me: well, halloween is coming up, and i am looking for treats.
Girl: mhm
Girl: well good luck using that line
Me: well that's exactly it, it is all about lines
Me: but if you mean phrases to pick up women, you misunderstood me
Girl: i see
Girl: proceed...
Me: because i meant lines around the block for a little kiss on these lips
Me: but i'll let you cut if you want.
Girl: what are you even talking about
Girl: are you rapping still?
Me: girl, i'm planning to wrap up the deal with you.
Girl: ok
Girl: start wrapping

This is my new room in Los Angeles, as you can see I don't have a bed or any hangers for my clothes (among other essentials) but I'm doing just fine with out them.... for now.

This is Tom Peterson

To many - YouTube is a great way to share your videos with the masses (To most - YouTube is a great way to waste time). However, YouTube does more - it allows you to find treasured things from the past that may have been easily forgotten (some more than others resonate on that heart-felt tip). I found this video (below) and was pretty amazed that someone, somehow, saved this and eventually decided to put it on YouTube.

For those who didn't grow up in (the bad part) of Portland - you most likely don't know who Tom Peterson is. But if you are me (which I am - so I totally know where I am coming from dude) than you remember his store on 82nd Avenue (which is now called The City Of Roses Blvd in hopes to blur collective memories - it didn't work). I still remember being a kid - before starting school - before my parents had a car and walking down to Tom Peterson's to rent VHS - it was a hell of a walk (as in having my eyes covered so I wouldn't look at the prostitutes) but those were some good days.

I also remember being really stoned one night in high school and walking by Tom Peterson's huge glowing face outside the store and wanting it for a lamp.

Jason and I always wanted to put a giant word bubble with something really racist (or equally offensive) written in it and stick it up by his aforementioned glowing head.



Who would have thought that this simple (and terribly made) television commercial could flood my head with these memories (and many more).

On a side note - Tom Peterson played a few bit parts in some Portland movies. Tom Peterson on IMDB

A few weeks back my co-worker (Brandon) and I had to drive up to the Hollywood Hills to film Rachel Nichols so we could attempt to make some sort of "viral video" to promote the film P2. At first I thought it was going to fail horribly but, after only being up on MySpace for a day it became one of the featured videos.



Which is cool - sort of. It is amazing to imagine the massive scale this video I made is reaching but, at the same time I wish it was for something better (more personal, more creative).

So I joined a facebook group called 1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T. Colbert and it is growing by an alarming rate.

---------------------------
Edit 10/25/2007

So the group is already at like 986,882 members - it will probably hit 1,000,000 around midnight tonight - that's crazy!

What sort of message does this send out to politicians? We would rather trust an intellectual comedian (who has no experience) over the consistently untrustworthy people who are officially running. It seems like we would be better off picking a candidate who isn't corrupted by (big business and) politics. It seems like it would be very difficult for everyone in the country to know about someone who 'should' be President without our current party system (though Colbert seems to be proving that point wrong, having almost 1,000,000 "votes" in less than 11 days). And actually (granted I am getting these facts from like the Jay Leno show) it seems like most Americans don't even know their various elected officials in the first place.

There are a lot of people complaining about how many underage (under the voting age to be specific) kids are in the 1,000,000 Strong For Stephen T. Colbert. Is it good that so many 'kids' are actually getting interested in voting? Or is this simply fuel for the (Future of America's) apathetic fire?

The Washington Post has more to say on this facebook group.

This is my cat. I love him. I miss him.

I'll miss Portland, its parks, and its people - especially these kids.