Hakeem the Dream was an NBA player with the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors, from 1984-2002. Born in Nigeria, he became a naturalized American citizen in 1993. Olajuwon played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. During Michael Jordan’s retirement, he led the Rockets to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995.
Note: This is 8-bit character #9 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Trent Reznor is an American singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. Reznor has led the industrial rock project Nine Inch Nails as vocalist and multi-instrumentalist since 1988. In 2010, he and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, formed the post-industrial band How to Destroy Angels alongside fellow composer Atticus Ross, with whom Reznor has scored two films. Reznor was on born on this day in 1965.
David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released solo recordings and worked with various media including film and photography. He was born on this day in 1952.
Note: The inspiration for this 8-bit character is Stop Making Sense, a 1984 concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. The movie is notable for Byrne’s “big suit,” an absurdly oversized business suit he dons late in the concert for the song “Girlfriend is Better.”
Eddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered an icon of alternative rock and Seattle grunge. Vedder was originally invited to Seattle in 1990 by former Mother Love Bone members to audition for the Temple of the Dog tribute project and their new band Mookie Blaylock (renamed Pearl Jam in 1991).
Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), he is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the internationally recognized print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s. Hokusai died on this day in 1849.
Mr. Clutch is a former NBA player with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1960-1974. He played the guard position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. West’s silhouette serves as the current NBA logo.
Note: This is 8-bit character #8 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
The Big O is a former NBA player with the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks, from 1960-1974. He played the shooting guard/point guard position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. He is the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season.
Note: This is 8-bit character #7 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Wilt Chamberlain is a former NBA player with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers. He played the center position from 1959-1973 and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Chamberlain is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season.
Note: This is 8-bit character #6 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (born Lew Alcindor) is a former NBA player with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, from 1969-1989. Known for his legendary skyhook, he played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, with 38,387 points.
Note: This is 8-bit character #5 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Bill Russell is a former NBA player with the Boston Celtics from 1956-1969. He played the center position and is one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won 11 NBA Championships during his 13-year career.
Note: This is 8-bit character #4 of the 13 greatest NBA players of all time.
Today I am celebrating 404 days of pixel art (and, of course, the HTTP 404 error message that lets you know what you’re looking for was not found). Instead of yet another genocidal dictator, religious icon or superhero, today’s character is my girlfriend. Heidi is a native Oregonian who lives in Corvallis with Ian Cavalier, Eli, Tanuki and The King. She is likely to be found with her teacup, camera and bicycle. Attempting to locate other items she owns will usually result in a 404 error (and much digging through heaps of clothes, sketches and books).
P.S. Heidi calls my 8-bit characters “the tinies.” Now she is a “tiny” herself.
Update: Heidi and I were married on 11/11/12, so now her last name is Cavalier.
The 37th President of the United States and the only president to resign the office, due to the Watergate scandal. Although Nixon initially escalated the war in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970, he subsequently ended U.S. involvement in 1973. He was responsible for the deaths of 70,000 Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians during the Vietnam War. He died on April 22, 1994.
Note: This is 8-bit U.S. president #12 of 43.
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.” His surviving works include about 38 plays and 154 sonnets. He wrote many tragedies, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello and Macbeth. He died on this day in 1616.
Vladimir Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years (1917-1924), as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a socialist economic system. He was born on April 22, 1870.
Note: Happy Earth Day on Sunday! In Soviet Russia, Earth Day celebrates you.
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that evolution resulted from a process called natural selection. Darwin published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species. He died on this day in 1882.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is an American astrophysicist and science communicator. He currently directs the Hayden Planetarium and is a research associate in the department of astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Since 2006 he has hosted the educational science television show NOVA scienceNOW on PBS. In 2013, Tyson will host a sequel to Carl Sagan’s Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) television series.
Tyson has become one of my personal heroes, and is doing an honorable job of filling Carl Sagan’s shoes. Have we stopped dreaming?
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist and author. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Sagan is known for his popular science books and for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. His books include Cosmos, Billions and Billions and the novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.
Carl Sagan and Kurt Vonnegut were my greatest living heroes during my adolescent years in the 1990s.
Kurt Vonnegut was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat’s Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. Vonnegut was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association. He also was a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He died on this day in 2007. So it goes.
Kurt Vonnegut and Carl Sagan were my greatest living heroes during my adolescent years in the 1990s. “Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.” – Kurt Vonnegut
Jack Kerouac was an American novelist, poet and face of the 1950s Beat Generation, with William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic spirituality, jazz, promiscuity, Buddhism, drugs, poverty and travel. His autobiographical novels include On the Road and Big Sur.
Hồ Chí Minh – No. 421
Hồ Chí Minh was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945-1955) and president (1945-1969) of the communist-governed Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the People’s Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. He was born on this day in 1890.
“Ho Chi Minh” is a phrase my dad and his brothers use as an exclamation of fatigue or surprise (or after a particularly violent sneeze). The phrase “L.A.” (which is derived from “Lord Almighty,” I believe) has a similar connotation in their vernacular.