El Tigre - Image of a tiger

Well, well, well, golf Icon, celebrity, possibly the so called greatest athlete ever gets busted.... Why did I find myself almost joyful when I heard this news? I will tell you why. Tiger makes millions off his super star "image" through media, endorsements, etc... yes he is a winner, a father and now a scumbag.... Does he even realize how much people are second guessing him? It makes me believe he won't go in front of a camera because Elin has been beating the crap out of him and he has a black eye or something. This whole situation is wrong on so many levels. If it was you or me crashing into shit, hitting my neighbors tree at 2:25am and ending up bloody in the street then I guarantee a breathalyzer would have been used. It took this incident and now people are digging into his past finding what ever they can to use and portray him as a villian. If your going to be in the lime light and thrive than expect when you fuck up to be torched. Charles Barkley was never a role model. Tiger is, and he reaps the benefits... It really makes me start to appreciate athletes and characters like Drew Brees and Peyton Manning. They are consintantally putting up superstar numbers bet yet prefer to stay out of the publics eye and ear for the most part. Tiger will rebound on the course soon I think, but most likely will get no ass at home for quite some time. Hope that NY hostess was worth it

Pats Short Circuit Against Indy

In a night that needed no help with hyperbole most Pats fans found themselves at a loss for words by this games final act. After watching New England control the game for 3 quarters it all came down to 1 play with just over 2 minutes in the game. It was one of the game’s greatest coaches and one of the game’s greatest players having to execute when the game mattered most. And they did, and they lost. In the post game press conference Tom Brady kept referring to this being “a game of inches” and as Kevin Faulk bobbled the ball, collected it and was hit those inches needed evaporated into thick air. Was Belichick wrong for going for it on 4^th and 2, up by 6? If you think about what most coaches would do you would have to assume that it was the wrong call. You punt the ball, pin them in their territory and put it on your defense to try to stop Peyton Manning. But what if you had one of the game’s greatest quarterback with two of the league’s best wide receivers and one of the most reliable backs in franchise history? What if you knew you could get 2 feet at any time in the game and when you needed it most you only got 1 and a half? Would your choice be considered wrong? Probably. I haven’t listened to sports radio today or read the newspaper (Every time my team loses or the Yankee’s win I avoid the media for a day or 2) so I don’t know what the masses are saying. I’m sure our colorful New England constituents have quite a bit to say on this matter. Last night on Channel 7 I watched Steve Burton conduct an interview with TE Ben Watson right after the game. He started with a question about “how do you lose this game?” and as he continued to contextually describe his question it became a rant in which Ben Watson prompted him as Burton paused to breath, “go on”. I knew the feeling he was going through. It was one where an answer wasn’t going to really answer anything and the only real relief was to ask “why” this tragedy had happened. Yet that pain from past disappointments didn’t seem to equal the utter shock experienced by this finish. It was the ultimate loss yet it happened in the middle of a season that still looks fraught with opportunity. They had beaten the Colts for 58 minutes with an array of weapons and from great play from the offensive line. They were on the road and were within an inch of pulling off an incredible win in a hostile environment. I for one would rather see my team lose a game with a chance to seal the victory on their own then put it in the hands of the other guy and hope you just hold on. If you had Michael Jordan on your team and the other team had Lebron James and there were 7 seconds left in the game, would you: A) Want to be up by 1 with your opponent and Lebron having the last chance to shoot. Or B) Have possession, be down by 1 but have MJ taking the final shot. Now if there is a difference for you in regards to MJ of King James, switch it so that the better of the two is on your team. For me it’s MJ taking that last shot because it is a better decision then trying to stop Lebron. This is what Belichick had to have been thinking (though probably without the NBA analogy). So while the Patriots may have short circuited and let this one get away, knowing this is a game of inches I’ll take my guys every day of the week and twice on Sunday.

1/4 Of My Household Income 2nd Installment

This 2nd installment (1st installment) on how to make some extra money on the side. We will cover buying and selling product. By product I mean anything that you are knowledgeable about, in my case its art, music memorabilia and other odds and ends that some people might just throw out or give away. But product can be anything from car parts to dolls (not my forte).

Lets start with art. In art the less there are of the product the better so if there is only 1 that is the best and if there are 400 that is still good, 2,000 is ok if it is a high demand artist or print but over 5,000 you are usually only buying the art because you really like it, not to make money down the road. I buy art because I like it and to make money. There are a few new artists that are affordable and their resale go up right away. Shepard Fairey (Obey Giant) is the 1st one I will mention and one of favorite artists. If you can score one of his limited prints from his web sight when they go on sale, your print will double in price immediately. They usually range from $50-$100. Make sure its a screen print and not a lithograph. Most of his limited edition screen prints sell out in under 1min so like buying tickets timing is everything. Your best resale margin is after 3-5 years so look at it as an investment. I have sold many right away because I needed the money so only hang on to them if you can.

The 2nd artist I will mention is Emek . He is not as famous as Obey but his art still sells at a good margin and I would hang it on my wall (Not all but some). Both Obey and Emek do a lot of work for musicians and that is how I have come to know them.

Anyone selling anything on the internet now has a store page , make sure to bookmark this page. Subscribe to their e-mail list. Emek will always send an e-mail before a print goes on sale and there will always be a set time. Obey on the other hand will hardly ever send out an e-mail and only give a date of the sale not a time. I check Obey's web sight once a day to see if any new items will go on sale soon. There is a program that costs $50 called UpdatePatrol that allows you to save a web page and whenever that web page makes a change it lets you know...so if Obey is selling a new print and UpdatePatrol is running it will let you know when the print is up for sale. Otherwise you sit there and refresh your page for 6 hours.

Here is a print I just got bought as I was typing ($55) and here is how much it is going for now. I will keep mine for awhile. Saving this art also makes great presents, if you are tight on cash, just bust out a print.

Another artist that sells like mad is Jack White. He is always releasing limited stuff. The most limited stuff he only release at his Nashville store so I thought to myself how would I get these...and then it came to me. Post an add on CraigsList in Nashville for someone to pick them up for me and I will pay them $20 an hour for their time (PayPal makes this easy). I now have 3 people picking me up items in Nashville and sending them to me. I completed the 1st round of the Tri-colored set and just sold it for $2,600. I paid $600 total. Not bad considering.

Overall limited art and memorabilia sells the best for me but it could be anything just do your research 1st. Things like comics and baseball cards are past their glory days so I stay away from those.

Stay tuned for the 3rd installment if you like free trips and TVs.

one more thing...

I almost forgot. YANKEES SUCK!!!!

The Digital Music Era

Hello all. Since my name is on the letterhead, I felt it's time I should actually contribute my thoughts for once to our community blog. I've thought long and hard about a topic that is somewhat relevant to the times, and when I sat down to type this, I changed my mind about a topic at the last minute, as do most bloggers, I suppose.

I, like most people of my generation, am in love with music. Whether it's past or present, rock or opera, I can't think of a better way to spend time than to have a personal soundtrack for your thoughts handy. I remember as a young kid, listening to Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" on my first Sony, a hand held tape player with mono sound and a 4" speaker built in. I lugged it every where. Today I never leave the house without an Ipod. So much for Sony tape player walk-mans, or entertainment centers with the Hi-fidelity player (8-track) built into the craftsmanship. I remember the television I grew up with. A 27" RCA with speakers built into the side and it swiveled on a base, making the entire unit weigh near 400 lbs. Today's televisions are 3" thick at the center, and come with Ipod adapters built in to accommodate your musical needs.

Nowadays, tapes are non-existent, unless you live your weekends at yard sales and flea markets, searching for the rarest of bootlegs or live recordings. And I assume, if you find such a feat, that the recording is muffled or weathered, disappointing and leaving you feel molested. And music can be purchased by the song as well as by entire album, allowing the buyer to cherry picking their favorite songs, rather than enduring the albums of one-hit wonders. I am one of those types of buyers. I gave up on driving down to the local record store, and purchasing the almost extinct compact disc of the new album release of a favorite band.

When Napster came out, music began an aggressive change that turned the record industry into (insert favorite cliche' here). Gone are the "rare" recordings and live bootlegs. No more hard to get European recordings or half-way-across-the-globe festivals. Even U2 did a live show feed on YouTube the other night. It seems to me it's easier to find a rare track on the Internet, even if the recording is crummy, than it is to find Led Zeppelin 1 on vinyl in a popular record store, or Pink Floyd's Animals on CD. Log in to Itunes or Amazon, and the world's entire music catalog is available at your finger tips. And I love it!! I love the availability to new releases of my favorite bands while I'm at work. The ability to have a song in my head, and to log-in and purchase it a minute later is such a great feeling. I can take it home, never once dealing with tearing the plastic off the album, or driving to the record store to find it sold out. It's heart warming.

I can remember being in high school, listening to Soundgarden's "Superunknown" in my car for my entire senior year, not because I loved it, as I still do, but because it was in the tape player all the time, the others lost amid a mess of garbage and clothing. Not to mention friends with sticky hands. It's amazing how times changed. When I was in school (oh shit, I'm having one of those moments...) there were maybe 25 personal computers in the entire school. I took a typing class and we did it on the program BASIC. Now my computer at work is 240 Gig with 4 gig of RAM. I have 40 gig of music stored and that can play for over 24 days, without once repeating a song. Can you imagine lugging around that much music in records or tapes or Cd's? FUCK!

Now, because music is digital, it's not only easy to buy, it's easy to share. The kids who invented Napster, the music share community, it became a way for everyone to compare recordings and open up your senses to new music, such that you never would have heard before, thanks to the people who program radio stations. I haven't listened to the radio in ears out of choice. I just log on. And a lot of bands protest against these music sharing communities, but my man Trent Reznor says "People aren't stealing music to make money. They steal because they love music." Ain't that the truth.

I guess the point of all this is to give a little acknowledgment to what we as humans have been able to accomplish. We've come a long way since sticks and animal pelts. I think that electronic music, in the variety of options that are available for download, will have a better effect on our environment in the long run, and the feasability of avaiability makes music much more enjoyable in my opinion. I think I'll go get something new to add to my music arsenol for my way home. My life soundtrack.

Keep Rocking

-Johnny

Binging on Chuck Klosterman

If you are unfamiliar with the author Chuck Klosterman, get acquainted. I was in Seattle at the beginning of October and found myself roaming the isles of Barnes and Nobles in the basement of the Pacific Place while my mother returned a clothing item. I had heard of his most well known book "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" which is available at any college bookstore in the country but was unable to find it in the Pop Culture section here. What I did find was his book "IV" which is a collection of the articles and interviews he did while employed by Esquire and Spin magazine. I wasn't ready to invest the $14 since it wasn't really what I had been looking for but I decided to read the Brittany Spears interview at the beginning of the book while I waited. It was an amazing interview especially since it had been conducted before Brittany's disastrous Challenger-like failings shortly there after. It almost seemed to predict the person we would all come to know. A country girl who was completely sheltered from the world and is either clueless (probably) or shrewd (probably not) as they come. Needless to say I purchased it and was immersed in a world of Bono, Billy Joel, Gilbert Arenes, Val Kilmer and many other bizarrely fascinating famous people. Since I found this book to be so rewarding I went to the Boston University bookstore when I returned to Boston and bought S,D and CP. After being spun around by this collection of essay's including why he hates soccer as a professional sport and the story of him going on the road with a Guns N' Roses cover band I couldn't wait for his newest book (Eating the Dinosaur)to be released. Well that day came last Tuesday and I am only a chapter in (I have been binging on Mad Men too!) but this book provides the promise of the best collection yet. There is nothing better than getting new work from any artist that displays them honing their skill even more than their last work (progress is good in the arts). So if you are like me and like slightly crazy, consciously clever and always entertaining books about everything (and nothing at the same time) you are sure to like Chuck Klosterman.

1/4 Of My Household Income

comes from the turn and burn, buy & sell, get what you want, eBay & Craiglist super markets of the modern digital uprising. I will not give up all my secrets but if done right I could make easily 75% of what my salary is now. I choose to carry a real job because it does pay more and it is directly related to what I love to do (Design).

There are 3 main areas that work for me because my knowledge in those areas allow me to make good buying decisions. I will outline each area individually in separate entries so each can be absorbed equally.

First is the event ticket market, specifically music and comedy. Going to concerts & shows is something I have been doing for a long time now and at some point learned that if you are inline or online first when tickets go on sale you can get the best seats in the house. As everyone probably knows great seats sell often for as much as 3x what you pay, so I started buying extra tickets to the shows I wanted to go see and selling the extras to pay for my tickets to the show. After doing this for about 3 years I knew what bands sold out, what venues were the most popular and most importantly where I can sell my tickets (eBay & CL). Rap concerts never sell as good unless its Jay-Z, Snoop, Dre, all the big names do fine but they still do not sell out nearly as fast as rock shows. Seattle is one of many states (38) that ticket brokering is legal as long as you are not reselling the tickets on the venue property (Door scalping) and you must also pay your taxes.

Rather then talk about the ethics of this market I want to focus on feeding my family while enjoying life. To do that I will focus on the details to make it possible. You need the following, high speed internet, not an iPhone or DSL, you need Cable or above. I don't even use my wireless network at home because you will loose the necessary band width needed. Stay wired. I even pay the extra $10 a month to get the juice boost from Comcast. Next you need to know the pre-sale password. You will always get the best seats through fan club pre-sales or other pre-sales like it. This password, 9 times out of 10, gets sent by email after you sign up for the artist fan club, promoting companies or venues. I have a few favorite venues and promoting companies that do me right every time. And the final ingredients are, be signed up to and logged into whoever is selling the tickets. For example get a Ticket Master account and be logged into that account. Also have a credit card on file to use. When its says tickets go on sale at 10am start refreshing your screen at 9:59:50 (Make sure your clock is right). Then type like hell and navigate your way to the pay screen. Speed counts. If you follow all these things correctly you will get good seats.

Once you have good seats do your research and find the market value. I do not like to sit on tickets so I undercut market value by 5% so they sell quick. You might have to adjust that number a few times until the market finds a balance. The best place to sell your tickets is Craigslist because there are no fees involved but that off sets itself by people being unreliable. Sometimes its just easier to pay eBay and Paypal to make things go smoothly. I once met a girl on CL that showed up with a check written to half of the amount. She claimed it was her only check. She was attractive so maybe she was thinking I would give them to her for half price. HELL NO BITCH I'm married and I need the money. I wanted to go getto on that ho and scratch her eyes out (click here),but kept my composure and had her cross out and rewrite the check. "Initials please" is what I said before she handed to me. The check looked like my 2 year old went to town on it. I took a risk and the check was good so I did not have to cancel the tickets (An option if you tell the seller you lost them). I did give her $10 off just because I did not want her to drive away. Anyways lesson learned, always go over the price with the buyer on the phone and in an e-mail so its clear.

This quick overview is not the end all be all of ticket brokering but it is a good place to start. My next entry will go over buying and selling products for profit.