I'm probably late to the party on this-- her debut album was released in May-- but Santogold is one of the best new acts out there. She's a Brooklyn singer-MC (I KNOW, but it's actually good despite the visual stereotype you probably have when I say "Brooklyn MC" which probably makes you want to jump off a very tall building). She sounds a little like she could be M.I.A.'s evil twin sister (I KNOW, but I swear to God, she's not just a re-play of other acts). She has a sound all her own -- each track is a genre-blurring discovery. Like these:
*"Creator": a weird-ass fast-paced street jam with overmodulated beats. You think all of her songs will be like this and she's just an M.I.A. clone until...
*"Lights Out": this is like if the Pretenders and the Cars had a child, and the child married hip-hop. I don't even know how to describe it (obviously)
*"I'm a Lady": sounds a lot like one of my favorite bands, TV on the Radio
*"Shove It": the best hip-hop Jamaican dancehall kiss-off to any ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend that I've heard this year (or any year)
Seriously, download her songs. She shuffles styles as matter-of-factly as your IPod would, and you'll love it.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Eight Things We Need To Stop Doing as a Society
1. Twitter-ing: Twitter is like the Golden Era for self-absorbed baby boomers and the (more) self-absorbed children that they brought into the world. A sight simply devoted to telling people where you are at any given time? That's not necessary, no matter how important you rank in the power sweepstakes. Plus, don't we have Facebook to already solve this problem? I don't understand the appeal of Twitter at all.
2. Referring to your Rock Band and Guitar Hero skills to impress others: seriously, everyone has played these two games. It originally had an ironic appeal to it (dorks, including myself, rocking out to Allman Brothers classics), but now playing either game is basically as common as sending an e-mail. It's still fun to play, but the need to talk about it is over.
3. Describing the weekend you spent with friends as "crazy!": unless you ended up in a psych ward with a straitjacket, this is not necessary. In all likelihood, you had a few too many tequila shots and gave the tattooed bartender your number, all of which is not "crazy!" but something that could just as easily occur in Kansas City.
4. Grown women in groups of four desperately trying to re-create "Sex and the City": I'm sick of my favorite event of the week (Sunday Brunch) being ruined by loud, obnoxious women discussing the intimate details of their sex lives. Usually, the stories are boring and predictable. I've even been at tables where the table next to me includes women actually categorizing themselves as characters on the show (like, "I'm totally the Carrie, and you're slutty so you're obviously Samatha!" etc.) God knows I'm no prude, but I wish these generally intelligent women would switch up the conversation a bit.
5. Wearing Che Guevara shirts or putting Guevara posters up in your apartment/dorm: Actually studying the basics of history and discovering the fact that Che killed thousands of innocent people on his way to undeserved stardom makes you look incredibly stupid. Throw away your t-shirt and stop trying to be "revolutionary"
6. Talking about Sarah Palin: Palin is totally running for President in 2012. She has already started a political action committee to raise funds. She has made about 100,003 media gaffes even after the election in November. The press continues to cover her like she's the second coming of Evita. To the press and loyal Democrats: Just ignore her, and she will go away.
7. Reading Star Magazine or other Tabloids: This is a hard habit to break. I'm totally guilty of buying them. It's like they have a gravitational pull towards me every time I see an article about "Sad, sad Jennifer Aniston is alone, can't find a man, and will be childless forever." BUT: these magazines are dumbing down America, so I guess it's time to break the habit. Bonus points for not spending money on frivolous trash and saving it during the Recession.
8. Giving a loved one a Blackberry or IPhone for Christmas/Birthday/Any Holiday: It SEEMS like a good idea at the time. Who doesn't love to upgrade their phone? But giving a Blackberry or IPhone is like giving someone a new puppy: it comes with responsibility. The recipient is in charge of upgrading his or her plan, which gets confusing and annoying and potentially pricey.
2. Referring to your Rock Band and Guitar Hero skills to impress others: seriously, everyone has played these two games. It originally had an ironic appeal to it (dorks, including myself, rocking out to Allman Brothers classics), but now playing either game is basically as common as sending an e-mail. It's still fun to play, but the need to talk about it is over.
3. Describing the weekend you spent with friends as "crazy!": unless you ended up in a psych ward with a straitjacket, this is not necessary. In all likelihood, you had a few too many tequila shots and gave the tattooed bartender your number, all of which is not "crazy!" but something that could just as easily occur in Kansas City.
4. Grown women in groups of four desperately trying to re-create "Sex and the City": I'm sick of my favorite event of the week (Sunday Brunch) being ruined by loud, obnoxious women discussing the intimate details of their sex lives. Usually, the stories are boring and predictable. I've even been at tables where the table next to me includes women actually categorizing themselves as characters on the show (like, "I'm totally the Carrie, and you're slutty so you're obviously Samatha!" etc.) God knows I'm no prude, but I wish these generally intelligent women would switch up the conversation a bit.
5. Wearing Che Guevara shirts or putting Guevara posters up in your apartment/dorm: Actually studying the basics of history and discovering the fact that Che killed thousands of innocent people on his way to undeserved stardom makes you look incredibly stupid. Throw away your t-shirt and stop trying to be "revolutionary"
6. Talking about Sarah Palin: Palin is totally running for President in 2012. She has already started a political action committee to raise funds. She has made about 100,003 media gaffes even after the election in November. The press continues to cover her like she's the second coming of Evita. To the press and loyal Democrats: Just ignore her, and she will go away.
7. Reading Star Magazine or other Tabloids: This is a hard habit to break. I'm totally guilty of buying them. It's like they have a gravitational pull towards me every time I see an article about "Sad, sad Jennifer Aniston is alone, can't find a man, and will be childless forever." BUT: these magazines are dumbing down America, so I guess it's time to break the habit. Bonus points for not spending money on frivolous trash and saving it during the Recession.
8. Giving a loved one a Blackberry or IPhone for Christmas/Birthday/Any Holiday: It SEEMS like a good idea at the time. Who doesn't love to upgrade their phone? But giving a Blackberry or IPhone is like giving someone a new puppy: it comes with responsibility. The recipient is in charge of upgrading his or her plan, which gets confusing and annoying and potentially pricey.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Meg Whitman: Former CEO, Candidate for California Governor, and Homophobe
So...Meg Whitman (former CEO of Ebay) is running for governor of California in 2010. Arnold Schwarzenegger can't run, since he faces state-imposed term limits, so the race is fairly wide open. Whitman has the potential to raise a great deal of money from Republicans in the state, who view her as a valued businesswoman and a potentially capable leader, so she's a formidable candidate.
Unlike most Silicon Valley Republicans, however, Whitman has focused her positions less on lower taxes and more on hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage. In fact, of all the Republicans seen as potential 2010 candidates, Whitman is the only one who publicly (and repeatedly) proclaimed her support for Proposition 8, which denied California gay and lesbians the right to marry.
This is not a smart move for Whitman. Many Ebay employees feel betrayed by her shift to the far right on social issues. In particular, her support for Proposition 8 has led Ebay sellers to organize a boycott against the website. Even Whitman's longtime executive assistant, Anita Gaeta, is an out lesbian who lives with her partner in San Jose. I wonder how SHE feels about Whitman's Prop. 8 support. Oh, and several current and former Ebay executives, including founder Pierre Omidyar, lent their support to opposition of Proposition 8 in a newspaper advertisement before last November's election. Will they support her candidacy or contribute to its fundraising now? Not likely.
California prefers its political leaders to be centrists. Schwarzenegger (who opposed Prop. 8, although not in a very public manner) is an example of this trend, along with Whitman's two top contenders, former Representative Tom Campbell and Steve Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner, who repeatedly opposed Proposition 8 before the election.
Let's hope that Whitman's loud support for Proposition 8 will lead to major problems for her campaign. Repealing Proposition 8 is a major goal for politically active gays and lesbians, and the idea of a governor who supports blatant discrimination is a nauseating thought.
Unlike most Silicon Valley Republicans, however, Whitman has focused her positions less on lower taxes and more on hot-button social issues like abortion and gay marriage. In fact, of all the Republicans seen as potential 2010 candidates, Whitman is the only one who publicly (and repeatedly) proclaimed her support for Proposition 8, which denied California gay and lesbians the right to marry.
This is not a smart move for Whitman. Many Ebay employees feel betrayed by her shift to the far right on social issues. In particular, her support for Proposition 8 has led Ebay sellers to organize a boycott against the website. Even Whitman's longtime executive assistant, Anita Gaeta, is an out lesbian who lives with her partner in San Jose. I wonder how SHE feels about Whitman's Prop. 8 support. Oh, and several current and former Ebay executives, including founder Pierre Omidyar, lent their support to opposition of Proposition 8 in a newspaper advertisement before last November's election. Will they support her candidacy or contribute to its fundraising now? Not likely.
California prefers its political leaders to be centrists. Schwarzenegger (who opposed Prop. 8, although not in a very public manner) is an example of this trend, along with Whitman's two top contenders, former Representative Tom Campbell and Steve Poizner, the state's insurance commissioner, who repeatedly opposed Proposition 8 before the election.
Let's hope that Whitman's loud support for Proposition 8 will lead to major problems for her campaign. Repealing Proposition 8 is a major goal for politically active gays and lesbians, and the idea of a governor who supports blatant discrimination is a nauseating thought.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Thomas Friedman Opinion Piece
I can't decide if this opinion post from Thomas Friedman makes a great deal of sense, or something he wrote after too many single-malt scotches. I'm on the fence. However, I guess it's worth reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/opinion/11friedman.html?em
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/opinion/11friedman.html?em
Monday, February 9, 2009
Unbelievable Corporate Malfeasance
One of the biggest questions in the past several weeks among the financial community is this: How did the Bank of America merger with Merrill Lynch collapse in such a short period of time?
In cases like this, there is always enough blame to go around. But the primary culprit of this disastrous marriage is John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch. Thain seemed like a great choice to take over as CEO in 2006 -- he had previously risen through the ranks at Goldman Sachs, and had led the New York Stock Exchange. He was seen as slightly aloof by some coworkers, but his number-crunching mindset was categorized as brilliant at the time.
That was then. When Thain joined Merrill Lynch, he made several mistakes that would come back to haunt him, and lead to the collapse of his company. First, he brought in an entire group of New York Stock Exchange management employees to lead major divisions of Merrill -- thereby alienating long-time leaders of the company. The NYSE board members brought in to help did nothing of the sort, and expanded Merrill into mortgage areas that the company was ill-equipped to handle at the time. According to one source within the company, when Thain realized that his plans were not working and his second-quarter losses came in, he uncharacteristically threw a chair against the wall. Maybe that was a symbol of what was yet to come.
After the collapse of Lehman Brothers in October, the government was in a panic. Merrill Lynch could (and probably would) collapse, too, without outside intervention. Enter Bank of America, a bank who had expanded rapidly, with a strong cash flow (despite recently acquiring Countrywide Mortgages this summer, a risky move). Ken Lewis, BAC's CEO, agreed to acquire Merrill. At the time, Lewis was lauded as a hero: saving Wall Street from complete and utter chaos, and in the process, acquiring a well-known entity that would, in the long run, help his bank to expand.
Oops. Lewis had only 48 hours over the weekend in October after Lehman Brothers collapsed to fully examine Merrill's books. No one anticipated that Merrill would have enormous fourth-quarter losses, or that it retained "bad debt" of over $100 billion.
Thain was not forthcoming. In fact, his main objective? Immediately asking BAC for a $40 million bonus for himself, for putting together the merger that would eventually come to be seen as a financial disaster. As it became increasingly clear that Merrill was not in good shape, Thain lessened his demands for a bonus to $10 million. Finally, Ken Lewis made the wise decision to fire him from any board position at BAC. Thain also, incidentally, asked for a $3.2 billion bonus in total for his company's major management team for the year 2008. All while Thain was in the process of re-decorating his office for a price of $1.2 million. Are you getting the picture?
Thain very well knew that Merrill was in serious financial straits, and yet he didn't come forward and announce it to BAC. When BAC and Ken Lewis finally realized the extent of Merrill's losses in December, BAC made a frantic plea to the government to back out of the merger. However, the government and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson denied this request, fearing a serious amount of economic chaos that would echo the Lehman Brothers collapse in October and further destroy the stock market. Lewis has some blame to take in this matter: he has always been too quick to expand his bank, although most expansions have resulted in positive results. Perhaps if he had looked more closely at Merrill's books in October, he wouldn't have made the merger. But 48 hours is not enough time to properly examine a company the size of Merrill, and severe government pressure to make the merger happen influenced Lewis' haste.
John Thain is an egomaniacal liar, and I hope that he's subject to a federal investigation into his complete lack of corporate ethics. He has singlehandedly taken one of the strongest banks in America (BAC) and, while not destroying it, put it into serious financial trouble due to the aforementioned $118 billion in "bad debt" that Merrill carried with it. He failed to work with Merrill's long-time management team (who, incidentally, had made Merrill a great success prior to Thain's entrance as CEO and his installation of a new team of former NYSE friends).
John Thain should be burned at the stake. Bank of America's shareholders now have to pay for Thain's corporate malfeasance. Shareholders have lost their annual dividends, which was a major attraction to buying BAC stock in the first place. Thain: what a bastard.
In cases like this, there is always enough blame to go around. But the primary culprit of this disastrous marriage is John Thain, former CEO of Merrill Lynch. Thain seemed like a great choice to take over as CEO in 2006 -- he had previously risen through the ranks at Goldman Sachs, and had led the New York Stock Exchange. He was seen as slightly aloof by some coworkers, but his number-crunching mindset was categorized as brilliant at the time.
That was then. When Thain joined Merrill Lynch, he made several mistakes that would come back to haunt him, and lead to the collapse of his company. First, he brought in an entire group of New York Stock Exchange management employees to lead major divisions of Merrill -- thereby alienating long-time leaders of the company. The NYSE board members brought in to help did nothing of the sort, and expanded Merrill into mortgage areas that the company was ill-equipped to handle at the time. According to one source within the company, when Thain realized that his plans were not working and his second-quarter losses came in, he uncharacteristically threw a chair against the wall. Maybe that was a symbol of what was yet to come.
After the collapse of Lehman Brothers in October, the government was in a panic. Merrill Lynch could (and probably would) collapse, too, without outside intervention. Enter Bank of America, a bank who had expanded rapidly, with a strong cash flow (despite recently acquiring Countrywide Mortgages this summer, a risky move). Ken Lewis, BAC's CEO, agreed to acquire Merrill. At the time, Lewis was lauded as a hero: saving Wall Street from complete and utter chaos, and in the process, acquiring a well-known entity that would, in the long run, help his bank to expand.
Oops. Lewis had only 48 hours over the weekend in October after Lehman Brothers collapsed to fully examine Merrill's books. No one anticipated that Merrill would have enormous fourth-quarter losses, or that it retained "bad debt" of over $100 billion.
Thain was not forthcoming. In fact, his main objective? Immediately asking BAC for a $40 million bonus for himself, for putting together the merger that would eventually come to be seen as a financial disaster. As it became increasingly clear that Merrill was not in good shape, Thain lessened his demands for a bonus to $10 million. Finally, Ken Lewis made the wise decision to fire him from any board position at BAC. Thain also, incidentally, asked for a $3.2 billion bonus in total for his company's major management team for the year 2008. All while Thain was in the process of re-decorating his office for a price of $1.2 million. Are you getting the picture?
Thain very well knew that Merrill was in serious financial straits, and yet he didn't come forward and announce it to BAC. When BAC and Ken Lewis finally realized the extent of Merrill's losses in December, BAC made a frantic plea to the government to back out of the merger. However, the government and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson denied this request, fearing a serious amount of economic chaos that would echo the Lehman Brothers collapse in October and further destroy the stock market. Lewis has some blame to take in this matter: he has always been too quick to expand his bank, although most expansions have resulted in positive results. Perhaps if he had looked more closely at Merrill's books in October, he wouldn't have made the merger. But 48 hours is not enough time to properly examine a company the size of Merrill, and severe government pressure to make the merger happen influenced Lewis' haste.
John Thain is an egomaniacal liar, and I hope that he's subject to a federal investigation into his complete lack of corporate ethics. He has singlehandedly taken one of the strongest banks in America (BAC) and, while not destroying it, put it into serious financial trouble due to the aforementioned $118 billion in "bad debt" that Merrill carried with it. He failed to work with Merrill's long-time management team (who, incidentally, had made Merrill a great success prior to Thain's entrance as CEO and his installation of a new team of former NYSE friends).
John Thain should be burned at the stake. Bank of America's shareholders now have to pay for Thain's corporate malfeasance. Shareholders have lost their annual dividends, which was a major attraction to buying BAC stock in the first place. Thain: what a bastard.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
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