Las Vegas, Zefrank, Context, and The Tipping Point. aka Today’s Ramblings.

In September I am going to Las Vegas for the 2007 Video Music Awards. Even though I was born and raised in California, I have never been to Las Vegas. I don’t have any “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” stories. I don’t even know what that means, but I bet it’s dirty. When all my friends were piling into tiny cars like circus clowns to live it up in the desert sin bin, I was…. not. ^_^ What was supposed to be “next summer” or “next vacation” ended up never happening.

Because I am going to Vegas for work, I am sure there won’t be any time for that sort of sordid action anyway. So like with most places I know I am not going to be able to fully immerse myself in to the degree I would like to (Antarctica, Mars, Womens Prisons), I used the lovely internets to search for information about Las Vegas.

What I found was this hysterical video by Zefrank, who I have been vaguely “internet aware” of for a while, but never checked out any of his work. Sometimes I am suspicious of people who are universally loved.

When Ze Frank ended his year long online video project this past March, the Los Angeles Times offered this quote:

“Ze Frank’s online show was a grand-scale viewer-participation experiment.”

Why did he stop? Well, for one thing, last summer Sharon Sheinwold, a partner at United Talent Agency, arrived at zefrank.com from the Web log scobleizer.com and spent the next three days “getting lost” in the site. Soon after, she and U.T.A. owner Nick Stevens flew out to New York to meet Ze Frank in person. She described him like this:

“He’s a self-generating comedic force and magnet for talent à la Judd Apatow, Ben Stiller, Mitch Hurwitz, Imagine—albeit in his nascent state of bloggerdom,” said Ms. Sheinwold, who became his agent soon after that meeting. “He’s a guy who, when we connect him with the right people, will be able to do whatever he wants.”

I just finished reading The Tipping Point today, and I keep amusing myself with how much of Ze Frank’s creative life and the community that surrounds him illustrates the points made in the book.

New book on my radar ~ 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl

Book Description
Cross James Merrill, H. P. Lovecraft, and Carlos Castaneda -each imbued with a twenty-first-century aptitude for quantum theory and existential psychology-and you get the voice of Daniel Pinchbeck. And yet, nothing quite prepares us for the lucidity, rationale, and informed audacity of this seeker, skeptic, and cartographer of hidden realms.

As I mentioned yesterday, I read about two new books a week and would love to write reviews for myself (and you), if it meant I didn’t have to glue myself in front of a computer screen… I may start researching mobile devices after all this work, moving, and other assorted craziness evens out.

1 comment