Katy Perry’s 15 Seconds of Fame


Photo Credit: Andrew Bosworth

One of the amusing perks of working at Facebook are the not-infreguent celebrity sightings.  Once a month or so some noteratti will stroll through the offices, getting “the tour”.  For example a couple months back I was sitting at my desk when I heard a palpable buzz among my coworkers, and noticed them starting to stand up and gawk over towards where Zuck and a tall brunette could be seen strolling towards our area of the office. This sort of excitement was a bit unusual – Bill Gates and Al Gore barely got a reaction when they were paraded thru – so I assumed it was someone pretty special.  Upon asking my nearest coworker who it was, I got an excited, “That’s Katy Perry!”

“Oh, wow, that’s awesome! I didn’t recognize her from this far away,” said I.

I then quietly sat down and hit up Wikipedia to figure out who the hell this “Katy Perry” person was. I had no fucking clue.  ‘Never heard of her before.  And, yes, I’m well aware of how firmly this cements my “old guy” status, but you’re getting off topic, and quit interrupting me when I’m talkin’!

Suffice it to say, I’ve since figured out who she is and, actually, I’ve turned into a bit of a fan.  It’s hard not to when your 2-year-old son insists on watching her Sesame Street video with Elmo a couple dozen times a day.

So anyway this was all a few months back.  She was at Facebook.  I was clueless.  And neither the twain did meet.  Which I guarantee you everyone involved is perfectly happy about.  So why bring all this up?

Well, the picture above is one taken by my boss, Boz, who delights in his role as Facebook’s on-staff paparazzi.  It shows up pretty regularly on my Facebook page (under “Photos of Group Memebers”).  It’s also been used in articlese on sites like the NY Post, Gawker, and couple b-list blogs (including my personal favorite, HipsterRunnoff.com).  I.e. quite a few people have seen this same picture.  But it wasn’t until today that I realized, “Hey, that’s my bike!!!”

Yup, that’s right. That right there, my friends, right next to the hottest singer in Hollywood and Time Magazine’s Man of the Year, is the sweet little fixed-gear bike that I ride to work every day.  Photo-documentaited proof that these two glitterattis will, one day, be able to point at and say to their grandkids, “Look, see! We used to be cool! We once almost met the guy who made that bike!”


3 responses to “Katy Perry’s 15 Seconds of Fame”

  1. Google is like that too. Not just celebrities though. Literally busloads of visitors wander the hallways with guides pointing out this and that.

    I was always puzzled what these “tech tourists” really expect to see.

    “Hey, went to to see the Google (Facebook/Twitter/etc) offices yesterday”.
    “Cool, what did you see ?”
    “Ahh. People sitting on their desks, staring at computers and typing.”
    “Okay.”

  2. Cool bike, but I looked that the photo album posted on Facebook. Most of the shots were from the behind and not that impressive. While I don’t mind looking at K.P.’s derrière for a couple of photos, it seemed as if the photographer was not really part of the event, just someone with too much technology in his smartphone and not enough smarts to know what is a good photo.

    Hope you are enjoying the new gig at FB.

  3. Admit it dude – you were really just taking a picture of your bike…