ev williams, the creator of Blogger today stepped down as head honcho, he announced on his blog this evening.

dashing brainiac best known for announcing his company’s sale to google via a two word blog-post hyperlinked to an online newspaper column while speaking on a panel being broadcast over the blogosphere

apparently has had enough of corporate life after being cooped up in the stuffy google offices for the last year and eight months

with nothing to do but rule the world.

“Necessarily, I must express that it’s been an amazing, thrilling, life-changing, difficult, rewarding, surprising, and lucky ride I’ve been on,” the thirtysomething san franciscan posted on his popular blog evhead.

“And ‘life-changing’ is such an understatement,” he continued. “As I said on Blogger’s fifth birthday, for doing the ‘same thing’ for five years, it’s amazing how drastically my life has changed. Not just my life, but me. I’m just a simple farm boy from Nebraska, after all.”

a simple farm boy who some might now call

the most eligible unemployed bachelor in america.

and a headhunters dream.

ev revolutionized the internet by creating one of the web’s first killer aps.

not only was it free, easy to use, and instantly popular,

but it created a global community where the billionares, the homeless, and average people inbetween could all have an equal voice

regardless of what they had to say.

today the president of the web based software company responsible for you reading this explained why he stepped down in a 1250 word light-hearted upbeat friendly post titled “Next?”

under the headline of “Are you pissed at Google and/or are they removing you?” ev wrote the following:

People often want to imagine a conflict. And, I guess if you consider how often acquisitions go horribly, it’s not entirely unreasonable to assume. Unfortunately — I mean fortunately — I can’t help fuel any “Google acquires company, kicks out founder” headlines. Google management pretty much let my team and I retain control of Blogger since we got there. For better or for worse, they trusted that we knew what we were doing and attempted to support it without screwing it up. There are always new issues to deal with when you trade your old ones in. But, all in all, they’ve been awesome. And leaving was entirely my decision. They even offered that I could start something else within the company, if I wanted.

The reason I’m leaving probably comes down to personality more than anything. I’ve just always been stubbornly independent-minded — even when it wasn’t necessarily in my best interest. I hated school. I dropped out of college (never believing I needed a degree because I wasn’t going to work for anyone anyway). I started two or three companies (depending on what you call a “company”) before starting Pyra. (Let’s just call them “great learning experiences.”) I only ever had one real job, and it lasted just a few months, though it was at another cool company (O’Reilly).

When I started at Google, I knew I was giving up my independence and knew I probably wouldn’t like that eventually. So I promised myself I’d stay at least a year. I stayed for a year and eight months and have had a fun, fascinating, and extremely educational time. I’m honored to have been a part of Google for such a historic period.

If I was going to work for anyone, I’d work for Google. It’s, basically, just not in my nature.

in totally unrelated news, google was up today $2.48+, closing at $135.06

when i first heard the news not long after it was posted, i looked on my buddy list to see if there were any blogger insiders online

there was one who was about to post his feelings about ev’s announcement, which he said they knew was coming any day.

me: holy crap!

him: yep

me: dude!

him: it’s all good though

me: shit

me: when i was at a dot com, they said, there are builders and there are maintainers

me: i guess ev is a builder, for reals

him: for reals

Blogger has been Google’s most newsworthy company lately.

Last week’s cover of the ny times magazine of two gray haired old media writers looking over the shoulder of sassy ana marie cox as she types up her blog wonkette on a laptop was just as symbolic as literal. blogs have even the playing field even among pro journalists.

The Bloggers On The Bus was a feature story about the inclusion of bloggers at both of the major political conventions this summer.

on the same day on the west coast, the Los Angeles Times ran a long op-ed from a successful political blogger who warned of the soon-to-be “commercialized senility” of that circle’s blogs.

indeed, if the la times has begun to count the days until youve sold out,

you’ve made it.

and when you’ve made it

you’re finally free.

congratulations, ev.

continually showing us how it’s done.

h/t metafilter who later was the place where now-former competitor mark kraft of live journal wrote this nice post

Ev and I locked horns on more than one occasion during the time I oversaw the business/strategic end of LiveJournal. The most divisive time was when Blogger was nominated for a Webby Award back in 2001, and LJ — the upstart not-quite-ready-for-prime-time weblog app and choice of angsty teens — challenged Blogger as a write-in candidate.

We were smaller than Blogger, but got the People’s Choice award because of our community features which gave us an advantage on word-of-mouth. Ev and I met briefly at the Webbies. It was a big to-do in San Francisco’s opera house back then, with Sam Donaldson and Alan Cumming as emcees… but it was also the dying days of the dotcom exuberance. Dotcom kids dressed up, schmoozing, with comp’ed champaigne, because someone with a lot more money was willing to pay for it all. Larry and Sergei from Google came in for their award on roller skates and flapping cloaks.

There would be no grand opera house in the coming years, as the dotcom era dried up, and unfortunately there were few kind words shared at the time. So, yeah, there was a rivalry, and even some hard feelings… but only because we all cared about what we were doing.

That said, look at the results of competition. You can get a weblog/journal for free nowadays from dozens of different sources, with software that is easy to interface with, that you can interface with numerous third-party applications, with code which is either open or highly modifiable more often than not, and syndication which is standard.

What started out as a bunch of kids competing over meaningless baubles as a matter of pride turned into a growing, interconnected, user-friendly, generous marketplace of ideas.

So, in the end, no single weblog application won the war. We all did.

Nicely played, Ev. (We should all do it again someday!)

and if i might be able to add my two cents…

ev’s creation has given me the ability to reach thousands of people a day, and a few times ive reached millions.

through blogger i have met amazing people and received remarkable gifts.

as someone who once thought he didnt need a blog since he had a perfectly good website, let me say that FrontPage never got me laid.

and for that i have always been grateful of ev and his team.

a few of whom wrote a few things themselves.

or did she realize that he was no longer her one true thing?

either way white stripes frontman jack white and perky renée zellweger might still be down with love, just not with each other – or anyone else for that matter the actress told The Sun.

however if you see a flirty look from the bridget jones brunette in first class on your next united airlines flight, you might want to smile back.

“I’m just not interested (in anyone) at the moment,” zellweger told the british paper. “(But) you know, I’m always on a set or on a plane… we’ll see.”

+ + + +

Janet Leigh, the stunning blonde favorite of Hitchcock’s classic film “psycho” passed away in her Beverly Hills home yesterday.

Married four times, most famously to Tony Curtis. Mother of Kelly and Jamie Lee Curtis. Leigh was 77.

+ + + +

John Woo obviously getting tips from George Lucas regarding liscensing and merchandising royalties announced that he will be directing and producing the film He-Man, variety is reporting.

Woo who held such promise when he crossed over from directing chinese films to hollywood blockbusters with hits like broken arrow, hard target, face/off, and mission impossible II has officially decided to sell out, it appears.

earlier this year the director announced that he will be teaming up with The Rock to direct and produce a film based on the cheesy video game Spy Hunter.

h/t wes & beth

rolling stone has been little more than a newsletter for mtv when theyre not shilling the latest blockbuster movie or 90210 tv series.

but this week they went back to their roots of fucking up the program.

using the clout that theyve been blessed with they asked dozens of musicians about their problems with the current administration.

from their cover story come these quotes:

The polarization caused by this election is not good for anyone. I played “Pink Houses” at an Indianapolis Colts game recently, and people booed. This is in Indiana! I’ve never been booed there in my life. Kerry-Edwards offers us a fresh start. It is a ticket of hope.

During the Vietnam War, you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing an image that made you sick. Guys with legs blown off, guys just lying there dead. It made our nation say, “Fuck this! Even if we win, we lose.” If the media showed that stuff now, people would have a whole different take on Iraq.

I’m afraid they’re going to reinstitute the draft. I have daughters who are nineteen, twenty-two and thirty. If Bush gets re-elected, those Mellencamps are all going to be in the Army. So might you. – John Mellencamp

Ralph Nader is the most arrogant and narcissistic guy I’ve ever met. I had a meeting with him in the early Nineties. I was jazzed going into the meeting, and I was disgusted leaving. I don’t think I’ve ever met a bigger asshole. If he hadn’t run in the last election, we wouldn’t be in Iraq and thousands of people wouldn’t have died needlessly. And still he’s well pleased to go in and be the spoiler again! – Bob Weir

The real axis of evil is Bush and Cheney. They have detached America from the rest of the planet by invading Iraq. Whenever people start saying God anointed them to do something, it’s a turnoff, because I don’t think anyone has God’s beeper number. – Chuck D.

I don’t understand the George Bush argument. If you wanna argue Republican or Democrat, that’s one thing, but Bush – I haven’t seen the argument as to why this guy should get four more years. I don’t see why he should be running a baseball team, let alone be president. At one of the Democratic debates, Al Sharpton said, “I can guarantee that any one of us on the stage right now in his sleep would make a better president than George Bush.” – Ad Rock

When people ask why this election is so close, I can’t explain it. It’s like trying to figure out how Billy Ray Cyrus sold 10 million records. The Republicans have done an extremely good job of appropriating populist themes. They somehow make it seem as though they’re a party of the people, even though their policies hurt some of their most ardent supporters.

Bush’s hypocrisy is simply staggering. He argues that stem-cell research is not justified because of the sanctity of unborn life – yet he insists that dropping bombs on innocent people will lead to a better world. – Jeff Tweedy

We are engaged in a war with fundamentalist Islam that we can’t win. But we have a president who has become a fundamentalist himself, and he thinks he can win it. The administration is fond of saying that the terrorists hate us because we’re free. That’s not true – they hate us because we support the House of Saud and Israel. Until we’re willing to talk about those two things, we’re going to be in big trouble. – Steve Earle

h/t random frost

little spanish eddie + zulieka has a new layout + aaron clemens

rude vile pigs didnt get him enough attention,

the real queen of england, elton john, while receiving a songwriting award today aimed his vitrol at the material girl who had been nominated for Best Live Act.

“Madonna, best fucking live act? Fuck off,” sir elton proclaimed.

cat fight anyone?

“Anyone who lip-synchs in public on stage when you pay 75 pounds ($134) to see them should be shot,” he said in London.

“Since when has lip-synching been live?” he asked. “That’s me off her fucking Christmas card list but do I give a toss? No.”

certainly to his approval, hot new band Muse won the award for Best Live Act beating out, Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Bowie, The Darkness, The Pixies, and maddy.

Madonna, who usually has the last laugh, through her spokeswoman got the last jab in saying that Elton has not lost favor in the perfomer’s eyes.

“Elton John remains on her Christmas card list whether he is nice … or naughty,” Liz Rosenberg said, adding that Mrs. Richie does not lip synch in concert. “Madonna does not lip-synch nor does she spend her time trashing other artists. She sang every note on her Reinvention tour live and is not ashamed that she was well paid for her hard work.”

opera dork + mad mathias + psynorm

A Night at the Hip-Hopera

“One of the the best mashup remixes I’ve ever heard, a fluid blend of classic and modern hip hop with Queen’s epic catalog,” waxy.org raves. “Please don’t miss the last track, Question.mp3. It’s like a plunderphonic call to arms against bad copyright law.”

taking a cue for the popular dj danger mouse who mixed the beatles white album with jay-z’s black album creating mouse’s gray album, “mash-ups” have become increasingly popular as they join the familiar with the new.

the kleptones’ beautiful melding of classic rock and hip hop is spot on, czech dj dougie gyro says, as it brings him back to the early nineties, a more creative time in rap.

“For my money, it reminds me of Daisy Age everything-including-the-kitchen-sink samplefests like PE’s “Nation of Millions” or De La Soul’s “Three Feet High and Rising.” doug said.

the kids of waxy love the mash-up so much that they mirrored all the tracks on their site (you can also find other mirrors here)

if you do download all the tracks, dont be suprised if you hear some of these samples among others:

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, “The Message”

Kelis, “Milkshake”

Justin Timberlake, “Like I Love You”

Ol’ Dirty Bastard “Got Your Money”

Iggy Pop w/Peaches, “Rock Show”

Eminem, “Slim Shady”

Beastie Boys, “Shake Your Rump”

Beastie Boys, “Body Movin'”

Beastie Boys, “Alive”

h/t dougie gyro

futurballa + just a girl + xtracyx + mike

shredded the john travolta firefighter flick this weekend, helping Shark Tales collect nearly $50 mil at the box office.

the animated flick that also includes a bumpin’ r&b soundtrack (Missy Elliott & Christina Aguilera doing a remake of “Car Wash”, Ludacris, D12, Justin Timberlake, Sean Paul, and The Pussycat Dolls) set a dreamworks opening record for a film debuting in october.

another animated hit, shrek 2, holds the dreamworks opening boxoffice record at $104 million, which it brought in this spring.

heres your weekend rundown

1. Shark Tale $49,130,000

2. Ladder 49 $22,785,000

3. The Forgotten $12,000,000

4. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow $3,380,000

5. Mr. 3000 $2,600,000

6. Resident Evil: Apocalypse $2,300,000

7. First Daughter $2,150,000

8. Cellular $2,020,000

gas grass ass + umar + flagrant

some of them last years. some a few days. some last for months.

the new experiment we will do will last one week.

for this week the busblog will turn into an Entertainment blog.

music, film, television, and celebrity will be blogged about on this page.

this is how it will be different:

you, the reader, will help with the process by posting links in the comments to entertainment news that you think is interesting.

in return, i will give a hat tip (h/t) to your blog or website.

we’ll try this for a week. and see how many links we can get in a day. instapundit can do 30 a day but he doesnt fly an xbi helicopter around from 9-6.

i promise you that i will try to post as many interesting entertainment links on here as possible, and will find a bunch myself.

heres to science!

i answer cuz i want her too. life isn’t that easy though. life is all about these stupid little corners that we paint ourselves into.

life is all about worrying more about how things look if we do something as opposed to doing the things that we want and being honest with the people around us.

i remember a long long time ago, the first time i ever pitched the idea of a blog to a major company.

this particular company had heard of me, and when i sent them my proposal they invited me into a big room. it was just two people and me. and they told me that they couldn’t do a blog because their technical experts were against it. and i thought to myself, who runs your site, you or the IT department?

i didn’t say it because life is also about being polite.

i remember thinking that day that if the egyptians had asked the builders of the pyramids and the sphinxes if they thought it was possible, they would have said no fucking way dude and gone back to making hieroglyphics and figuring out ways to make themselves irrelevant in modern times.

no offense to my friends in the IT departments around the world. my true love is the director of an IT department of one of the last dot coms standing. in fact at the xbi i am good friends with many of the geniuses in our IT department.

but when was the last time that the IT department went up to their own website and said, lets try this, it will improve userbility. lets do this, its the wave of the future. how about this, it will double your hits in a month. and even if there are a few proactive IT deptartments, is that really their jobs?

again, no offense to the bright minds of the IT departments everywhere, but if the construction workers had a vote in what the architect had to say, very few cool buildings would ever get put up.

if i ran a web site, other than this one, and the secret girls-only one, and I had an IT department who either wouldn’t let me do something technically so simple that a homeless guy could do it, because they couldn’t do it or were too proud to accept help, id probably fire them and i don’t know, hire people who could make me a website in the waning days of 2004 that could have something as basic as a blog.

but then again we have a country who has a retard in office and we’re reluctant to fire that guy too.

rumsfeld didn’t get fired over the iraqi prison abuse, nobody got fired over 9/11, nobody got fired over the florida ballot debacle.

you know who gets fired today?

phil jackson got fired. winningest coach in the nba.

shaquille o’neal got fired. most dominating center in basketball.

both are gone because a selfish adulterer has no vision and thinks he can do it all himself.

nobody can do it by themselves.

we all need help.

usually someone thinks up a crazy idea, someone funds it or makes it happen, it gets done, and everyone celebrates.

or the opposite happens: minutiae, stagnation, deterioration, obsolescence, and then ultimately defeat.

don’t let this happen to your company

don’t let this happen to your country

and hot chicks, don’t let this happen to your lust life.

she calls me cuz she wants me but she’s painted herself into a corner.

get out of that corner, hot chick.

theres a reason youre calling me.

and theres a reason that one day i wont call you back.

land of ghosts + the perils of 3d + nickerblog takes the bus + new yorkish