The headlines read that two satellites collided in space Tuesday. In the future, debris could be an issue. Check out one article from The Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123445538732677987.html

You may ask yourself, what’s that got to do with “Making Up America“? Well, the Founders of the Internet feature, in which I did makeup  for Vanity Fair  (www.vanityfair.com) , involved one of the key founders, Vint Cerf. His next project and challenge is working on the internet being available in space via satellite. Cerfing the galaxy is due out in 2012. Aha! The connection is there. Satellites and space colliding with surfing the net and NASA. I had the opportunity to work with the most educated man in America, Michael Griffin, head of NASA. He has 7 degrees of higher education.

Back to “surfing the net”, which may have been coined to give credit to the Internet creator, Vint Cerf, but at the photoshoot he modestly denied his namesake tie to the phrase that changed the world. The refined, disciplined and yet quick-witted Mr. Cerf contrasted with his partner. While Cerf engaged in interesting conversation about internet access in space, the other man pushed back on the necessity of having “makeup” for the photo shoot. He wondered why they couldn’t fix him after the photo was taken. I responded that my job, as makeup artist, is more than putting on makeup. I said, “I help people feel better by getting them comfortable with process of photography before they have to sit in front of the camera.” To which he replied, “I don’t mind getting my picture taken.” In my experience, almost everyone (about 95 % of people) dislikes having their intimacy invaded by the photographer’s lens. I assured him, “You, along with Larry King, are about 5 % of the population that don’t mind having their picture taken.” In addition, most people are extremely critical of the results. I figure that most of you out there can relate. How many pictures do you like of yourself? Some subjects have literally asked the photographer to stop. Others have compared getting their portrait taken to visiting the dentist. While the worst was when someone dropped an expletive word the photographer’s way. The shortest lived photo shoot ever (other than one that didn’t take place because the photographer did not take into consideration that the top Business Executive’s image did not fit with wind blown hair in the middle of nowhere from a remote outdoor location), was 8 shots, which took only a few minutes. I was grateful to have 15 minutes of that person’s busy schedule.

In the history of America, Postmaster General, Ben Franklin may have been the first to bring the American Colonies together and the one credited with faster Postal service. However, Vint Cerf, along with others made it possible for someone halfway across the world to communicate immediately with someone right here in America. The world is one. What made the Internet possible? Persistence and patience was the virtue that Vint Cerf had and still maintains today. He mentioned that they had the idea for the Internet in 1983, but it wasn’t until almost 10 years later that it came to fruition. Mr. Cerf hopes to “have the right genes (to make it long enough for these projects to come to existence).” Next up, as I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, is the availability of the Internet in space via satellites. Let’s hope for good traffic patterns in space, so we don’t catch the debris from colliding satellites.