a year and two days ago ev left Google.

he soon started up Odeo where my podcasts live. the following is from a year ago with some updates

< / e v >

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. [Ed. im told this line is false]

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 [Ed. it’s slightly higher today, a year later

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.

last night i did something that i havent done in a long time

twins? no.

i went to an LA Press Club event.

a mixer.

a social soiree.

an outing.

a panel discussion.

a place not frequented by barely legal young ladies.

and i loved it.

i went because in my upcoming new gig with Buzznet, part of my duties, so i believe, will be to go out into the world and help hype the product.

i also went because i have had very nice experiences at the LA Press club events and i like their mixture of libertarian politics, intellectual conversations, polite debate, and free booze.

last night was sponsored by my favorite blog the ScienceBlog.com, run by my bro Ben Sullivan, who was not in attendence because he was in south america with his magnifying glass, or something.

but his spirit was there.

one of matt welch‘s cohorts from Reason moderated a three-person panel who debated the importance of Federal support of Science, and its impact on the development of scientific breakthroughs. completely fascinating because i had never even thought of the influence of politics on science.

boy was i naive.

the two most debated examples were stem cell research and missle defense. one being pretty impossible to acheive (yet it is fully funded by the government) and one is far more likely to acheive (yet it is sparsley and reluctantly funded by this administration).

i sat comfortably between the ravishing Bonnie Bills and the always wonderful Mark Cridland. Bonnie whispered that she was afraid that i was being offended by the scientists’ criticsms of the american evangelicals who stifle science because it may destroy their faith, however i was worried that Crid might be offended because they were bashing Bush pretty hard.

i was not at all offended because when true Christians (and not these fake ones) finally take power, they will cease with this faux drug war and allow the natural herbs grow as the Lord intended and our elderly will be able to ingest medical mary jane as we californians voted that they should.

i had such a lovely time i promised that i would come back to another event sometime soon and i meant it.

as in certain situations like church or a baseball game, or a combonation: a springsteen concert, sometimes its just super cool to be surrounded by like minded intellegent people, in this case those who read books and remember what theyve read and write alot and are genuinely interested in the topic at hand – which last night was based in discoveries.

the woman panelist was asked why the LA Times, who she used to worked for doesnt put scientific breakthroughs on the front page any more, and everyone wondered allowed, yeah, why not.

and i thought, shit the busblog definately doesnt do that, even though sometimes thats the coolest news of the day.

so i promise to you that i will read ScienceBlog closer and more regularily so i can be better than my local rag and spread the good news of the day more freqently.

Update: Hear Matt Welch on the Radio in Calgary on The World Tonight with Rob Breakenridge on CHQR 770 AM, at 6:30 pm today, talking about Superdome fantasies and other Katrina-related stuff.

rove is about to fall on his sword + gray matters + gorilla mask + city rag

in the sloppy orgy of rock n roll

only the fool is king. ask puffy, ask korn, ask flava flav. the wind might howl, kicking up plastic grocery bags that once served mankind, but now only dance with the forgotten sports page in front of an east hollywood titty bar advertised to neighbors as Cherry’s but known to the undercover miscreant as home.

her name was lola, she was a show girl. see thru high heels up to there and blonde streaks all through her hair.

tony sat at the bar. alone.

normally the ladies’ favorite with a joke and a laugh and a welcoming lap, this afternoon he mindlessly stirred his rum punch with the tiny plastic flamingo and stared through his fake glasses and followed the trail of condensation down the dirty glass, down the curvy side, down into the puddle at the base slowly soaked up by the generic napkin that had the word “napkin” imprinted in cursive.

napkin tony thought to himself. napkin. what sort of name was that, what did it mean. where did it come from. latin?

lola lifted her g-string and released the hard earned dollar bills and counted them one by one. organizing them by denomination, lining them up neatly on the bar, folding them and rubberbanding them and placing them finally into the tiger print mini purse that hung close to her heel.

buy you a drink, stranger? she asked tony and winked at him.

he didnt even look up. just bit his bottom lip and traced his finger on the glass.

disco lights gave the illusion of motion on the ice that melted in the tumbler as kid rocks american badass blared in the nearly empty club. women’s pro beach volleyball, muted, gave color to the unwatched zenith big screens as the ceiling fans twirled lazily and rosalita slapped the first hand away from her cooch.

lola leaned over and put her heavily made up face on the xbi agent’s shoulder and tried to see the world from her hero’s perspective. what fascinating mystery was buried in the alcoholic refreshment she wondered, what was visually more interesting than a dozen latinas, four asian cuties, three barely legal blondes, and the nastiest black girl and her micromini catholic girl skirt as they all waited for the whistle to blow and for the construction to stop and for the party to get started proper.

he thought about baseball. specifically the looming strike. motely crue’s girls girls girls signaled the end of the round of two-for-one lap dances and lola spun around in her stool and scouted out the gentlemen to see who she would choose to enjoy her dancing next.

tony sipped from the skinny straw and lola whispered that she had a line of crystal meth if he wanted it and he told his napkin no thanks.

body shot?

gracias, mi bella senorita. no.

and she tapped her feet to the disco beat and the ladies of the house said ho.

ho ho.

finally the sadness was broken up when the bubbly korean teen called lei gently pulled back tony’s tshirt collar and dragged her tongue stud across his exposed collar bone up the base of his neck around his ear lobe and behind his head sending shivers and awakening the giant within.

there was an unusual silence.

and then the familiar three swats of a high hat

of ac/dc’s back in black.

and indeed he was back.

just like that.

from my first blog book “Blook” (no longer in print), my third blook “Stiff” will be available on 10/13

raspil + deadly unicorn + krista + ciavarro

theres good news and bad news

in having canadas #1 rocker matthew good having your home number.

the good news is hes a great guy and totally into all the things im into: rock, blogging, web design, politics, computers, hanggliding, etc

the bad news is when he calls you a homosexual it’s not like you can call him one back on account of his super cool knockout wife. fucker.

last night i went out on a date but i was an hour early so i did some window shopping at the famous sunset strip guitar center because im seriously considering getting a guitar in the very near future.

while i was there i was pricing gibson sg’s, my favorite guitar on account of it is angus young’s guitar.

little did i know that there would be such a wide variety of prices for beautiful guitars.

as someone who knows very little about these musical instruments other than yeah thats a flying V or yeah thats a les paul and yeah thats a rickenbacher,

the knockoffs look pretty cool. unfortunately these are musical devices and not statues, so looks shouldnt matter so much.

one thing i didnt want was an Epiphone. i knew if i bought a cheapy korean-made guitar i probably wouldnt play it as much as if i had a full blown gibson sg staring at me from across the room.

seriously who can resist picking up a sweet ass american made axe when its sitting in a corner?

so the guitar dude at the guitar center saw me cheaping out and picking up the $200 knock-offs and he said, you know if you buy a $1,000 real guitar, in 5 years it will hold its value, and in 10 years it actually might be worth more money, which didnt make sense to me until i talked with mr. good who agreed.

in fact he took it one step further and suggested that i consider older guitars whose value was already on the upswing and whose tone would be even better than these newfangled doohickeys.

plus if i invested that much freaking money on a fiddle – more than i even spent on my car – i damn well would be inspired to learn how to play the frickin thing.

so now im thinking about getting two guitars. one that will tempt me from the shadows and will sound good and will increase in value as the sands slip through the hourglass, and one that i can put stickers on and shred on and ding on the corners of my apartment as i walk around noodling on it in the wee hours after drinking with college girls.

but what i truly need to do is call up my bro greg vaine who is an expert in these situations and who shares my love of ac/dc and therefore gibson sgs.

as for the date… eh.

i think 22 might be too old for me, we werent jibing.

or maybe matts right to assume that i heart penis. if he saw this chick he would have certainly called me elton john for not banging her.

maybe im just getting olderly.

science blog + jes and nick: newlydeads + how hot are matt’s archives

three years ago

today on the busblog

please hold for the president

tony pierce?

president?

tony, how are you, i dont think ive spoken with you for a while?

i’m doing pretty good, sir, i just got back from aruba.

aruba? where’s that, in the tropics?

yep.

sounds expensive.

it is. but the readers to my site all chipped in and got me out there.

wow.

yeah, then my brother in law flowed me with first class upgrades.

aruba. do they still have those little grass umbrella huts inches from the water, where theres enough room for two young lovers, one who looks hauntingly similar to anna kournikova, the other who looks remarkably unworthy. where the waiter asks you if you’d like anything to drink and you say yes a mai tai for the lady and liter of coke and a bottle of rum for me. and the sandpipers peck at a coconut tree, and theres music coming from the resort and you wonder, how on earth do i deserve this?

yes, they still have those huts.

because that’s funny because someone told me that you were saying bad things about me, and i said, i thought pierce just got back from “aruba”. i wouldnt think a guy who just got back from there would be running his mouth so soon after being treated to such luxury.

sir, nothing in here is true.

you didnt just call me a liar yesterday?

calling the president a liar goes all the way back to calling the king a liar. and no offense, but picking on you, mr. bush, is like throwing water balloons at the traffic, punching a woman, robbing a grave. it’s too easy, and completely unrewarding. why would any one want to do it?

because i’m not a liar.

come on, everybody lies. especially people who have to be in front of cameras and reporters all the time. it becomes flourishes in a new language. it’s accepted. it’s okay.

seriously, ask me anything.

have you ever seen an adult movie?

of course.

can you name a porn star?

yes.

name one.

kelly o’dell.

is that really one?

yep.

did you know about 9/11?

nope.

do you know about 9/11 now?

nope.

that’s funny.

we’re a great team, tony. but you have to be nice for it to work.

okay.

nixon and sammy davis did a lot for each other. sammy told nixon to sign the farm bill.

food stamps? really?

of course. not everyone is as bad as they appear. and some arent as good. do you lie, tony?

no.

impossible.

no, always telling the truth has its disadvantages. girls cry. feelings can be hurt. things are much more complicated. but im too lazy to lie. i barely remember the truth. only reason i’d even make something up would be to make a cute girl in the corner smile when im trying to ask her to the fair.

i love fairs.

im sorry for the things i said, george bush.

do you have any idea how hard of a job i have?

you have all these smart people around you, though.

still, it’s like, hard.

hard? just say, pull me up the live feed of the spy satelitte north north west of kabul. and one in pakistan somewhere.

okay, first, youre talking out of your ass. second, dont you think channel k isnt on every monitor in the building. fuckers hiding. uv cameras, heat sensitive cams, one purple spot in a cave looks just like another. we might have blown him up on the first night of bombings and they took away his body. he could be anywhere. you dont think that frustrates me. dont you think i see the irony of once owning the texas rangers, who are also big time losers despite having money, a new stadium, the best catcher and the mvp in the league and still finishing last place. dont you think i know that im the sherrif in town and i have a wanted man who i cant find?

once again, im sorry sir.

dont you think when i look at the new york skyline, i dont feel completely responsible?

well, you shouldnt. you sorta should but not 100%. dont be so hard on yourself.

please just leave alone on this. i’ll give you money.

i cant take your money.

i’ll get you a pretty girlfriend.

im surrounded by pretty girls.

yeah, where do you think they came from?

heaven.

ehnnn, guess again.

i dont want any of those ill-gotten girls. im getting old. i think im ready for true love now, please.

well i cant help you there.

ok, help get tsar to play for my birthday then.

only if you promise not to start selling the “bush knew” tshirts.

deal!

well, actually the only person who i know who has pull with Tsar is you.

i know, its cool.

good cuz i think its suppertime now.

thats cool. ok bye president bush.

by tony pierce. the busblog is my favorite blog.

i know. i see your IP at all fucking hours.

you do?

dude whitehouse.gov is pretty obvious on my shit.

oh. oh.

kbye

lower east side stories + etienne + peter interviews smelly

i have a sleeping problem.

the problem is i dont really sleep.

thats not a problem if you always have projects to do and my latest current project was making the best book i ever made ever Stiff.

i also have a worthiness problem.

namely i dont think im worthy to produce the best book ive ever made and put it out there for people to buy and fawn over.

that problem is millions times more lame than the first problem but it feeds into another problem of mine, my procrastination problem.

often im called prolific and dedicated and lots of other generous terms in relation to my productivity, but the truth is for every half-hour that i spend blogging i waste five hours reading all of your blogs.

in many cases waste isnt the correct word, but in some cases its just.

jk.

the truth is, if i actually cut that ratio down by even a little i would be posting 4-5 times a day like a real blogger and i could probably just set up shop somewhere in the tropics and live a comfortable life solely as a blogger who drinks fruity cocktails and has his dick sucked twice a day by hula girls.

but that of course wouldnt jibe with my worthiness problem very well, which is probably why i sabotage pretty much everything im any good at.

which leads us back to Stiff.

Stiff is a collection of my Kurt Kobain stories about the time that i died and got judged and had to pay for my sins.

it was written years ago after i had been transferred from the closed captioning department at E! Networks to the Scheduling Dept.

symbolically i felt like i was going to hell because my boss’s boss told me that the Scheduling Dept was the hardest and busiest place in the whole network and no way would i survive it and no way would i ever have time to think let alone blog and frankly, he said, he didnt think i could hack it.

so i was scared.

within the week i took a walk across the street and i wept because it looked like he was right and it looked like a co-worker was right when he predicted that my new job would “wipe the smile” from my face.

when i was done crying i came back and killed myself in my blog.

and for the better part of that month every entry i made in the busblog was my journey in the afterlife.

i included parts of those stories in How To Blog but in researching that book i realized that i might be able to compile those stories into a little book that could stand on its own.

when i was released from my duties at E! this spring i considered putting out those stories as a way to earn money during my layoff. but a funny thing happened and ii didnt need to come out with the book because some small stock deals worked out in my favor and a particular adult magazine agreed to purchase a very short story under one of my many fake names. so my summer was set.

before i knew it i was employed again, so there was no reason to come out with Stiff since i originally only wanted to publish it for the money. but because i had talked about it people asked questions about it.

and now that i have had a cover contest and all, and because after making a copy to check out, i have fallen back in love with the stories.

however at only 120 pages i felt like it was too thin of a book to go forward with.

so instead of ruining it by tacking on additional stories, i beefed it up with a variety of the poems that i had written during my youthful days at uc santa barbara. these were poems that i also loved but were far too few to ever make it in a collection alone.

so the combo of my best novella and my favorite poems equals Stiff.

because i am constantly making things difficult for myself, last night i made SEVEN different versions of the book. seven different covers and different insides to denote on the title page the artist responsible for the cover art.

when i get the samples back from the printer (probably by the end of this week) i will put them on sale for you.

and yes there will be a limited number of autographed copies that you can order directly from me.

we’ll go into detail about that more next week, but i figured i owed you an update.

p.s. the secret goal is to sell 666 copies, so get ready

flagrant + just one bite + joe mael + eric case

top ten reasons why oj is not guilty

number ten: the columbian necktie.

it was no secret that over the last 6-8 months of her life, Nicole Brown Simpson spent a ton of time with friends like Faye Resnick and others who were involved in the typical LA nightlife scene.

Some of those “friends” included drug dealers and hookers. Those associations, OJ claims, was what led to the final 911 calls. He says he fought with Nicole because he didn’t want those type of people around his children.

Say what you will about Simpson, who would want their kids around drugs, drug dealers, and prostitutes?

Most of the stab wounds on both nicole brown and ron goldman were in and around the neck.

“Ms. Simpson’s head then was pulled back, perhaps by her blond hair, as the attacker slashed her throat from left to right. The neck position at the point of the cut can be determined by the fact that no blood flowed into her windpipe.

“The cut was vicious. The knife sliced through both carotid arteries – which provide blood to the brain – nearly cut through one jugular vein and left the second jugular vein dangling by a thread.

The cut was clean.” (USA Today, 10/18/96)

This is very similar to what the defense brought up to being the trademark fatal stab wound that is found on some victims of drug-related crimes. Specifically those where the victim owed money to a drug dealer.

The idea of the Columbian Necktie or Columbian Necklace came up several times in the OJ trial.

Mark Furhman was asked by F. Lee Bailey if he had ever heard of the Columbian Necktie

Q: NO. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A COLOMBIAN NECKLACE?

A: NO.

Q: YOU ARE HEARING THAT WORD FOR THE FIRST TIME TODAY?

A: NO. I KNOW WHAT A COLOMBIAN NECKTIE IS.

Q: COLOMBIAN NECKTIE. WHAT IS A COLOMBIAN NECKTIE, DETECTIVE FUHRMAN?

A: CUTTING SOMEBODY’S THROAT.

Q: DID YOU EVER HEAR IT CALLED A NECKLACE?

A: NO.

Q: THAT INCLUDES CUTTING THE THROAT SO SEVERELY THAT BOTH THE CAROTID ARTERIES ARE SEVERED, CORRECT?

A: I DON’T KNOW ABOUT THAT, BUT I JUST HEARD THE TERM.

Q: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY ARE SEVERED? DO YOU KNOW FROM YOUR TRAINING?

A: WELL, THE PERSON WILL BLEED PROFUSELY AND DIE.

Q: THE BLOOD PRESSURE DROPS TO ZERO AND DEATH OCCURS ALMOST IMMEDIATELY; ISN’T THAT SO?

A: I WOULD ASSUME SO.

Q: IF YOUR THROAT IS CUT THAT SEVERELY WHILE YOU ARE STANDING AND SOMEBODY IS HOLDING YOUR HEAD, YOU WOULD BE DEAD BEFORE YOU HIT THE GROUND, WOULDN’T YOU?

A: (NO AUDIBLE RESPONSE.)

Q: IF YOU KNOW?

A: I WOULD HAVE TO SPECULATE. I COULDN’T TELL YOU THAT, SIR.

Q: YOU NEVER HAD THAT TRAINING?

A: IT WOULD BE QUICKLY.

Q: OKAY. DID YOU CONCERN YOURSELF, BEFORE YOU WERE OFF THE CASE, AS TO FROM THE EVIDENCE THAT YOU COULD SEE, WHICH VICTIM DIED FIRST?

A: I COULDN’T TELL ANY OF THAT FROM THE SCENE.

Q: DID YOU MAKE ANY OBSERVATIONS?

A: I MADE NO DETAILED OBSERVATIONS THAT WOULD GIVE THAT INFORMATION.

Q: DID YOU DEDUCE, DETECTIVE FUHRMAN, FROM THE QUANTITY OF THE BLOOD SURROUNDING THE BODY OF THE FEMALE VICTIM, THAT SHE HAD BLED VERY PROFUSELY?

A: YES. I WOULD CONCLUDE THAT.

Q: AND COULD WELL HAVE SUFFERED A MASSIVE INJURY TO THE CAROTID ARTERIES IN THE NECK?

A: I COULDN’T ASSUME THAT.

Q: YOU COULDN’T?

A: NO.

Q: DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE ALL THAT BLOOD CAME FROM?

A: SOMEWHERE IN THE HEAD AREA, BUT I COULDN’T SEE HER FACE.

Q: BUT A MASSIVE INJURY OF SOME SORT?

A: YES, SIR.

Q: ONE THAT PROBABLY PRODUCED DEATH VERY QUICKLY, CORRECT?

A: YES.

Q: AND PROBABLY SHE HAD NEVER MOVED FROM THE POINT AT WHICH SHE FELL, FROM THE EVIDENCE THAT YOU SAW? A FAIR DEDUCTION?

A: YES. (5/13/94)

Detective Tom Lange was asked by Johnnie Cochran about the Columbian necktie as well:

 

Q: NOW, IN THIS — YOU DESCRIBED FOR US THAT BEFORE LUNCH ABOUT THESE DRUG KILLINGS AND YOU — I ASKED YOU SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS COLOMBIAN NECKLACE AND REMEMBER WE TALKED ABOUT THAT?

A: YES.

Q: DO YOU KNOW WHAT A COLOMBIAN NECKTIE IS?

A: YES, I’VE HEARD STORIES OF COLOMBIAN NECKTIES.

Q: WHAT IS A COLOMBIAN NECKTIE?

A: MY INFORMATION IS THAT IT IS A TIRE THAT WOULD BE PUT OVER SOMEONE’S NECK AND SET AFIRE.

Q: THAT IS A COLOMBIAN NECKTIE?

A: THAT IS WHAT I’VE HEARD. I HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED THAT.

Q: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A COLOMBIAN NECKTIE BEING A SITUATION WHERE IN A DRUG —

MS. CLARK: ASSUMES FACTS NOT IN EVIDENCE.

MR. COCHRAN: I ASK THIS QUESTION, YOUR HONOR, AS AN EXPERT.

THE COURT: OVERRULED.

Q: BY MR. COCHRAN: HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF A COLOMBIAN NECKTIE BEING A SITUATION WHERE IN A DRUG KILLING A PERSON’S THROAT IS SLASHED AND THEIR TONGUE IS PULLED DOWN THROUGH WHERE THEIR — THROUGH THE NECK AREA? HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF THAT?

A: NO.

Q: ALL RIGHT. WHAT YOU TALKED ABOUT WAS A NECKTIE USED IN SOUTH AFRICA WHERE TIRES WERE PUT OVER —

A: I THOUGHT THAT IS WHAT YOU WERE REFERRING TO.

Q: WE ARE TALKING ABOUT COLOMBIA, NOT SOUTH AFRICA.

A: I DON’T KNOW WHERE THESE THINGS OCCUR. THE ONLY NECKTIE REFERENCE I’VE HEARD IS WITH A TIRE.

Q: YOU WERE THE DETECTIVE ON THE WONDERLAND CASE; IS THAT CORRECT?

A: THAT’S CORRECT.

Q: WAS THAT A DRUG CASE?

A: YES.(3/18/94)

the reason that the Columbian Necktie is important is it lends reasonable doubt that OJ might not have killed Nicole and Ron, that someone who actually had practice in killing people probably committed these murders. someone who knew how to kill someone within a minute’s time.

if we are to believe that OJ killed Nicole over a fit of rage, odds are he would have screamed out and slashed all over her body, not just at and around the neck.

also, the Columbian Necktie lends creedence to the theory that the Bronco Chase was a slow chase in order for OJ to hide from the killers by finding an creative way to surround himself with police.

the theory is that OJ knew that the killers wanted money from Nicole, and perhaps contacted him, and after he refused to pay they tried to get the money a final time from Nicole and ultimately killed her. and that’s why he always seems guilty. because in a way he sorta is. if he had only paid off her debt, she’d still be alive.

it also explains why he says he’s still mad at her.

Katie Couric: “Are you suggesting that Nicole was hanging out with the wrong crowd, and somehow someone in that crowd is responsible for her murder?”

OJ Simpson: “I’ve always said that. I made it as clear… that somewhere in Faye [Resnick’s] life, it’s happened before in Faye’s life. Same situation happened before in her life, and it happened again. Now you guys make it like, ‘OJ’s been hinting this, and hinting that.’ I don’t think anybody could be any clearer than me about the judgment, about paying the judgment. About why I think, and who I think was involved with her death, is this group of, I think, just horrible type people that she was hanging around with. People that not only did I not like, people her mother didn’t like. We talked about it often back then before her death. That we didn’t like this group of people that she was hanging around with.” (NBC, 6/6/04)

danielle k + how appealing + jack walraven’s simpson trial transcripts + someone wiki’ed this

today is gwen stefani’s birthday

she was born in 1969.

me and gwen go way back.

most people dont know this, but no doubt struggled for the better part of their early career.

while i was the Arts editor at the daily nexus i got a lot of requests for bands who wanted to be mentioned in our paper.

while i was there bands like toad the wet sprocket got no love because they were on a major label and i was trying to keep it real by only stoking the indie acts. so the dudes from toad came into the office – all of them – and said tony we know, but still, we love you and the nexus, just talk to us for a few minutes and you’ll see…

so i interviewd them and whattya know, they were cool kids. super cool. i told them that i wasnt really into their music and they were all, yeah we understand. at the time i was listening to a lot of janes addiction and nwa. toad didnt really fit into my rotation.

because they were bros we broed them and they got in the paper.

huge mistake.

my phone started ringing off the hook cuz the word was out: tonys a softie.

the good news was i was getting shipments of cds like crazy which i distributed among the writers, but i kept a few for myself and the leftovers made their way to Morninglory Records who were more than happy to give me $4 a disc which they would sell to the students for $7.99. the circle of life was all good.

but the bad news was i had to start answering the phone, “fuck off.” which my momma didnt appreciate no matter how many times i told her the story of toad the wet sprocket.

one day miss gwen stefani came bopping into the office all flatchested and shit asking who was the entertainment editor cuz she had a ska band that we would love.

without even getting up i said

fuck ska.

she was all, excuse me mister?

i went, fuck ska and fuck white people playing ska.

her hair turned red right there in front of us.

she was all but

and i was all look the police ripped off reggae but how many sting/stewart copeland/andy summers’s are there in the world?

she was like, none. popping her gum sadly.

i said, good now leave and dont come back until you play some rock music.

but gwen was all what about madness what about general public what about

i was all i’ll give you madness but gp and all the rest have black people in their bands but still its white stealing from blacks its a horrible cycle that will end in misery for everyone. if you can sing, sing. but quit ripping off the brothas. play rock music like bad brains play rock music like the boredoms play rock music so that the Lord above will look down from the heavens and elbow an angel and say see thats what im talking about.

and she got it and she left and i never heard from her again.

until, true story, until tsar was discovered by gwens best friend

i think her name was debra.

and debra knew some people and they got tsar signed to hollywood records and when i got to meet debra she said that she was a fashion designer who had dressed marilyn manson and no doubt and i was all how did you get with gwen and she was all we jog together and i told her the story and she was all omg ive heard that story!

and fortunately gwen had totally ignored everything that i had said to her because she seems to be doing ok without my brilliant advice.

but because the Lord has a funny sense of humor he tossed ashley into my world, pretty much the number one nd + gwen stefani fan in the universe so not only did i have to eat my words with gwens success, but i had to listen to those records constantly and watch her dress up like the girl who i threw out of the nexus way back when.

which only goes to show you: interview everyone, keep your mouth shut, keep the tape rolling, and when youre in college take pictures of everyone who crosses your path.

coop + amy + jmo + dont link this + delay could get life

im not sure i could be in a better mood.

lets forget the fact that a nice young lady came over last night to make me feel better about the cubs losing and squirmed around with the moonlight shining all over her making me wonder how on earth i get such top ranked models who end up feeling so comfortable around me that they dare me to do anything i want with their amazing bodies.

lets forget that the cubs are going to play at wrigley field tomorrow evening with a very good chance of going up two games to one in the first round of the national league playoffs, with the fourth game taking place at the corner of clark and addison.

lets even forget that my favorite band tsar has a new cd ready to come out, with tracks already leaked to the busblog, and these are some of the hardest hitting, punk rock glam pop ive ever heard.

ok, lets not forget those things. even though its hard to when the biggest plum of them all, the mouthpeice of the republican national party, the fattest, grossest, most high-fallutin, unapologetic racist lying sack of righteous shit gets outted for his prejudiced ways on wednesday which lead to his near instant resignation from espn – a job he shouldnt have had in the first place.

and then the national enquirer of all places, exposes him for having a Serious drug problem involving getting his maid of all people to get him tens of thousands of OxyContin pills over the last four years.

pardon me while i gloat.

this is the same Rush Limbaugh who would be going crazy right now if a big time liberal talk show host got busted being a drug abuser, and a liar, and for getting his maid to do his dirty work for him, and for meeting at a dennys parking lot to trade cigar boxes (he passes her the cigar box of cash, she passes him the cigar box full of his dirty pills) instead of doing the deals at his mansion.

this is the same Rush Limbaugh who… is RUSH LIMBAUGH!

anointed posterboy of the right who, when they cant hide behind allegedly knowing something about the economy, or foreign affairs, pretend that they are the moral party and that the dems are not.

how fucked up must it be for clear headed conservatives to look at the budget crisis, to look at the mess in iraq, and then look at the cia bungle; and then be forced to look at rush on the same day that their golden hope of a recall in california, arnold, the son of a nazi police chief, admits that he did grope “some” of the women who are claiming that he inappropriately touched.

all of this makes the clinton era truly look like camelot.

since it was, after all.

so im thinking if they threw tommy chong in the slam for a year for selling the plastic to use the “drugs”, rush should get at least a year for buying tens of thousands of real drugs.

but thats just me. chief justice pierce.

[Ed: and when people show you stats of whites and Blacks in prison, remember this day because Rush will never go to prison, but any Black man would]

two years ago today + two years ago today part two + steph does south beach