seriously, fuck these guys

I know that Congress has a very busy schedule of doing nothing and talking to baseball players and kinda sorta passing laws…actually who am I kidding they do pretty much nothing all the time.  But this is one instance where they actually are investigating something worth looking into.  (Note: by “investigating” I mean they will talk about it for a day or two and then continue on doing absolutely nothing about it).

The CEOs and ex-CEOs of Countrywide Financial (largest mortgage lender that collectively fucked like a billion people with that sub-prime mortgage fiasco), Merrill Lynch, and Citigroup were brought before the House Committee on Government and Oversight Reform to defend the $460 MILLION dollars that the three of them collectively “earned” since 2002.

Are you shitting me, 460 million dollars between three people?!?! What the fuck is going on here.  This would be understandable if their companies did well and this was a salary demonstrative of their performance, but these guys’ companies have utterly shit the bed recently losing BILLIONS of dollars.  I’m definitely not an economist, I can barely count, but even I know that when your company does badly and stock prices plummet, you should not make more money than you ever have in your career.  Did these guys go to the Isaiah Thomas school of Business: Do your job worse, get paid more.  How do I get one of these gigs?

    Henry Waxman, the congressman who I’m pretty sure is obligated to be on every single committee that does nothing, stated “the obvious question is how can a few execs do so well when their companies are doing so poorly?”  He then added, “squeek squeek, I think I smell some cheese.”  But seriously, how pissed off would you be if you held stock in these companies.  Your share prices have completely tanked, you have lost thousands or millions of dollars and these jackasses just got paid enough to buy a third world country.  The CEOs attempted to defend their salaries but no one gave a shit and just wanted to punch them in the face.

“Ghosts” Frighten the Music Industry

In what is still news to many people, NIN’s Trent Reznor released a new 36-track instrumental album two days ago, entitled Ghosts. Why is this interesting or relevant you ask? Well, our friend Trent has taken Radiohead’s “I plan on releasing this album on my own” model a few steps further and given the consumer multiple different options for acquiring his music.

First, there is the option to download (for free) the first 9 tracks of the album; there is also a $5 option to download all 36. The next step up is a payment of $10, which gets you 2 audio CD’s and a digital booklet with artwork, etc. For $75, you would receive a fabric slipcase with both audio CD’s, a Data DVD containing all the multi-tracked recording sessions from EVERY song (meaning you are free to mess around with everything and create you own remixes [fellow DJ’s rejoice!]) as well as a Blu-ray disc containing hi-definition audio and an accompanying slideshow [potheads rejoice]. The most outrageous option (not only because of the cost but because it has already SOLD OUT OF ALL 2500 COPIES) carries a $300 price tag; you receive everything previously mentioned, along with:

• every track on 4 pieces of heavyweight vinyl
• a hard-bound book containing 48 pages of photographs of “visual aesthetic accompaniments to the music from the recording process and outside world”
• a second hard-bound book containing two exclusive, limited edition art prints of imagery from the music

…and, on the package, a hand written autograph from Trent.

Whether or not you think this is kind of overkill, understand that in selling out the deluxe packages alone (considering he is releasing this all by himself without the help of ANY record company/distributor), he has already made, in the past two days…..$750,000.00

This is both completely ridiculous and magnificent at the same time; Reznor truly is paving the way for a new revolution in the music industry. Though I do find this quite inspiring, as a Recording Engineer, this new DIY model pretty much scares the hell out of me. I make a living by working in a high budget studio, where the [remaining] big record labels pay gobs of money to churn out popular music. When the industry takes its final nose-dive, I might have to find a new career path. Scary.

Asante Samuel is a Liar

Just once I wish a professional athlete would say what the entire world knows is really on their mind. Asante Samuel, the pro bowl cornerback from the New England Patriots recently signed a new free agent deal with the Philadelphia Eagles. His new contract is reportedly for 6 years and worth $57 million dollars. Anyone who is not retarded can tell that is a lot of money. Anyone who likes football knows that his former team, the Patriots, simply do not pay that kind of money for anyone. So Samuel did what the majority of athletes would do in that situation, he went for the cash and sacrificed playing for a legitimate contender.

So why is he a liar you ask? Well when the question was posed to Mr. Samuel about why he just left the AFC Champs who were about a minute away from going 19-0 and winning the Super Bowl to play for the lowly 8-8 Eagles in a far tougher division, he responded, “I just want a chance to win and get back to the Super Bowl, that’s why I picked the Philadelphia Eagles.” Translation; “I’m lying through my teeth right now and I chose the Eagles because they offered to pay me way more than I am probably worth and I will take 20 million more dollars to play on a sub-par team for the next six years. I LIKE MONEY!”

Anyone with half of a brain knows that you don’t leave the Patriots if you want a better chance to win the super bowl, especially when your new team is going to pay you twice as much as the Patriots offer you. Spare us, the average fan, with this bull shit. We don’t care that you followed the money, because no one blames you. Just don’t insult people’s intelligence by making up some weak ass reason for why you took the new contract. I wish a reporter in that news conference would have called him out on that lame statement. Just tell us the truth. “Asante, why did you leave the Patriots?” “Straight Cash Homie.” That should have been his response. It would have been more respected that’s for sure.

“I will take one more Bentley cause I love money and don’t care about winning….er, I mean, I think me playing for the Eagles will make us #1, they really are poised to make that step from total mediocrity to Super Bowl contender.”