So Yesterday Was Pretty Crazy

We had our first Friday Speaker series, now called "Culture Crash," which makes me think more of a bunch of different races battling to the death on the VCU Quad than of a lecture.

Fortunately this was not what happened.

I’ll spare you the details of what the panel spoke and argued about, but I will say that it was extremely interesting and well-done. We got to see some amazing reels of some amazing industry professionals, including the Executive Creative Director who worked on R/GA’s Nike+ account, which just won every major interactive award in the entire f-ing universe. Needless to say, the guy knew what he was talking about.

But he was a distant second to one of the other panel members who was there. I’ll let this image say it all.

That’s right ladies and gentlemen. I got to meet the one and only UPS whiteboard man.

Turns out he’s Andy Azula, one of the creative directors at The Martin Agency, the recent winner of the coveted WalMart account, and a stone's throw away from the Adcenter. You haven’t seen cool until you’ve seen this guy in the flesh.

After telling him that my mother was a huge fan of his, naturally my first question was how the hell did he end up on that commercial. “I’m good at drawing,” he said simply. Yeah. No shit. But you forgot to say 'I also have the sweetest hair. Ever.'

That night, my roommate Jordan, our buddy Ramein and I took a grueling 2 hour drive 5 miles outside of town to the NASCAR Chevy Rock & Roll 400 amidst a jam of pickup trucks and Confederate bumper stickers. Not knowing we were actually going to a Nascar Race, Ramein decided to jump in the car in a crisp white dress shirt covered with a blinding yellow sweater vest. As if his olive Iranian skin tone didn't make him distinct enough. Let's just say we got a few double-takes.

An old girlfriend of Jordan's happened to work for Speed TV, covering all the Nascar races around the country. She and her friend picked us up in a go-cart (we had a need for Speed... God, that was awful), and we got the VIP treatment as they drove us around the grounds outside the track, weaving their way through mullet-wielding, coozie-covered-Bud-heavy-drinking white trash with tight jeans, cutoff tees, and more facial hair than a Magnum P.I. marathon.

As someone who would rather eat broken glass than devote 3 hours of my life to watching rednecks speed around in circles, it was interesting to be exposed to this world that I had never paid any attention to.

I didn’t believe it when told that Nascar was indeed bigger than the NFL, but I have changed my view. This thing is huge. Thousands upon thousands of people going crazy for cars and the people who drive them, complete with more ads, brands and logos than Times Square.

After a failed attempt to pass Ramein off as a visiting dignitary in order to get into the race for free, we drove up to the Speed headquarters, met some people, got a tour, and watched them film a hick, Nascar version of College Gameday, complete with an appearance by the one and only Kyle Petty. The fans went wild.

Who the hell is Kyle Petty?

dubs. out.