dear santogold:

from nymag:

. . . and though it’s very possible you might not even know her name, you may be familiar with her work. She’s written tracks for Ashlee Simpson; had her music piped over scenes in Grey’s Anatomy; and done commercials for Bud Light Lime and Converse (that one was with Julian Casablancas of the Strokes). And when she spoke to me, she said she might do a project with Ford (a deal her publicist later said never materialized). It’s the kind of market-savvy, Me-generation career trajectory that would likely make anyone who still frequents record stores recoil in disgust—and White couldn’t care less.

“It’s a little weird, but at the same time, let’s say I make a deal with Target—knowing how many people shop at Target? It’s not like I’m writing a song about Target. It’s more like—Target’s onboard to help me sell records? That’s great.”

And as she points out, it’s just the way the industry works these days. “Everybody wants you to sell a lot of records, but it’s not considered a failure if you don’t. The record labels know that most of the money nowadays is made in licensing. On MTV, their whole approach is to put your songs in their programming now—they’re even [looking into] some new technology, like TiVo, that will record the music played on a show and then give you the option to purchase it. So where before it might have been, ‘Oh, you’re gonna sell out?,’ now it’s how we make our money.”

hypothetically speaking, if i illegally downloaded music, i would feel zero guilt about downloading yours. zero. you've cleared my conscience. hypothetically speaking, of course; if i did that sort of thing. because, really, how much would my $9.99 through itunes mean to you when compared to that fat check you got from target or from nike or abc? yeah, not a lot whole lot.

just something to think about.

dear sarah larson:

hi.

i know (sort of) what you're going through. i, too, was once dumped. an ex literally wrote me a letter and handed it over and was like, "um, yeah, so it's been nice" and then, not even a week later, she and all her (and some of mine) stuff were gone. no idea that one was coming, but in hindsight, i should've seen it hurtling toward me. i know you're reeling and you're probably thinking he'll see the error of his ways, but i'm sorry to say, he probably won't. my ex was married within, like, six months of us breaking up and your situation involves george clooney and, well, what else needs to be said about that, right?

listen, his name is george. he's old. that's an old guy's name. your last name would've rhymed w/ "gooney"-- you don't want that. i know, i know-- the $$$. the fame. the sojourns to st. tropez. it's still doable. but not w/ him, he's old. wouldn't you rather have a young man? and really, he's not talented. truly, he's not. he plays himself in every role. that's not exciting! anyone can do that. take little old me, for example. i'm talented. and i'm young-- two years your junior. i have time yet to accrue resources and i will do it w/ my skills and my charm. you're a stunningly gorgeous woman and according to this infamous pictures of you, you're fun! i'm fun, too. and young and charming and talented and handsome. i'm no george clooney, but you have to be wary of guys like him. women throw themselves at him and you know that sooner or later he's going to yield. i wouldn't cheat on you. you're so cute-- how could i? unless you're really dumb, then, sorry, but that's a dealbreaker. you don't seem dumb to me, though. yeah, he's famous and a movie star, but clearly a loser. and i think we all know who george is really in love with.

useful idiot

so, some tool who works for hp posted a picture of himself cutting birthday cake w/ a macbook air he received as a gift (oh, i'm sorry, "gift"). i guess he wanted to show how ridiculous the macbook air is by being able to cut cake w/ it? that's what his intent was, i'm sure, and i'm sure he thinks he's majorly cool or something because of it. however, reality paints a different picture. what this really shows is that 1. apple did exactly what it set out to do in creating an extremely thin, lightweight notebook. it is so thin and lightweight, in fact, that it can be used to cut cake. and 2. this tool, rahul sood, is such a privileged, spoiled douche that he's able to waste a $1,800 notebook computer-- a computer that scores of people would love to have, but would take months of work to be able to acquire-- within minutes of receiving it.

nice. you're smooth, dude. a winner.

you sicken me w/ your geekery

the batman-on-film crowd is going to have a premiere party for the dark knight and i'm kind of bummed b/c it's going to be in a suburb of houston.  namely, tomball (what happens in tomball stays in tomball!  sorry, that's a lame inside joke), which is a nw suburb of houston.  i may or may not have mentioned that i lived in houston last year (came back to california in late july) and so it stings a little that i'm going to miss this.  the BOF crew has been in cahoots w/ warner's since batman begins, and probably before then, so there will most likely be cool merchandise to purchase at the party.  plus, it'd just be cool to see the movie w/ a bunch of die-hards.  but, i am going to see the dark knight w/ my brother and some friends premiere night in l.a., hopefully at grauman's chinese, so i can't exactly gripe about that, now can i?  we'll leave o.c. thursday afternoon, scope out the theatre and see what the sitch is.  i'm sort of concerned that there will be an extensive line at that point, but who knows?  then we'll see it at the premiere and then we're definitely going to see it again that friday and most likely again at some point over the weekend.  fucking stoked.

JOKER FTW

it just gets better

and by "better" i mean "laughably worse." some of the anti-psych folks over at furious seasons are casting a hairy eyeball toward, wait for it, meditation. that's right-- meditation.  click on the link and have a gander for yourself.  as always, the comments are where it's at.  

i mean, honestly.

swear to christ this isn't just another lame youtube vid

this is, instead, the video for lali puna's "faking the books," one of the coolest videos ever.

for the love of god, sign me up

oh noes, evil psychiatrists (redundant, right?) are running clandestine lab experiments on unsuspecting people to see if illegal drugs like mdma and lysergic acid diethylamide (known on the streets as "acid") can help w/ mental disorders. well, fuck me sideways. this is just another example of psychiatrists telling their clients that popping a pill will solve their problems. what will the anti-psych community think!? drugs are, like, sooooo bad for you! and these ones are illegal! they're toxic.  ALL drugs are toxic!  T-O-X-I-C.  nobody says they wanna be a junkie when they grow up.  besides, why use drugs when you can get high on life and, like, go for a run? running is so much funner and not to mention it's healthy and positive.  

all right, enough of that. even i can't maintain that level of sarcasm for too long.