The Smiths in Portuguese

Nearly three years ago, I dabbled around with one of those friends sites called "Orkut". Orkut is a site sponsored by Google which is much like MySpace. The only difference is that its the only Google product that isn't wildly popular in the United States. I mean, everybody has a MySpace page in the states, even disgraced Republican Congressmen accuse of improper contact with Congressional pages. But Orkut, not so much.

So Orkut allows you to create and join different communities for people to belong to. I created a few communities just as a joke, like "White Trash" and "Cheap Ass Rides" --- C.A.R., get it? But one community that I created that wasn't a joke was a community dedicated to the legendary 1980's British band The Smiths. Over the course of three years, the community has exploded. The community currently has more than 30,000 members. And for some reason, nearly all of the members of the community live in Brazil. It's a bit perplexing. I get all sorts of lauditory emails directed to me from Brazilians --- at least I think they're lauditory, as they're written in Portuguese and I don't speak a solitary word of that language. In fact, a Brazilian member of that community posted comment in the blog below about The Smiths (I'm not sure how that person found me, but I hope he enjoyed my photos of Oak Cliff crack houses.)

My friend Will says Orkut became popular in Brazil because people there are extrodinarly close to their families and use the site as a way to keep in touch.

So a shout out to all Poruguese speaking people. Let's be (smooshing my cheeks together like Lane Meyer in 'Better Off Dead') frieeeeeeends.