One On Me: Free Culture May Bankrupt Culture

Last night I had coffee with a friend and we casually tried to answer a question that millions of twenty-somethings are trying to answer: how do I get paid to do the things that I love, you know, the things that I'm really good at? As the conversation bounced around, my friend added an off-hand bit of news: Joanna Newsom's new album, "Have One On Me," sold only 7,000 copies in its debut week. Hearing this, I couldn't help feeling that we had accidentally arrived at an answer to our big question.

Drag City, Newsom's label, had spent months carefully building awareness for the release of "Have One On Me." They did everything right--from the enigmatic announcement in the form of a cartoon (Pitchfork ran the breathless headline "Joanna Newsom Album Confirmed!"), to a special album artwork debut, to premiering three new songs in the weeks before the release, to eventually streaming the album in its entirety. It was an adept digital striptease in which Drag City slowly built up intrigue through influential music blogs and their commenters' whirling speculation. Still, the album tanked in its first week of release.

There is a simple reason that "Have One On Me" didn't sell: it's not for lack of publicity, or lack of quality, or lack of instant availability, it's because people refused to buy it. It seems that the music lovers of my generation have become content with expressing their support for an artist by doing everything except buying the artist's album. Music blogs and streaming music sites have become go-to tabs on every twenty-something's browser and this massive amount of digital traffic has seemingly come to replace record store traffic. Somehow, my generation has gone from setting the record for first-week album sales with *NSYNC's "No Strings Attached" to actively loosing the album of any inherent value.

Here's some perspective: Pitchfork states that it receives an average of 2 million unique visitors per month. "Have One On Me" reportedly sold 7,000 copies last week. Since its hard to say what that figure actually reflects, let's pad it a little, just to be safe. In 2009, digital downloads accounted for roughly 40% of music purchases according to Nielsen SoundScan so let's say that Newsom's album sold 7,000 physical copies and then an additional 4,700 or so (~40%) digital copies. That generous combined figure is still less than 1% of the visitors that go to Pitchfork.com every month; it accounts for just over 2% of people that visited Pitchfork during the week "Have One On Me" debuted.

In the early days of mp3 music, file-sharing was a justifiable expression of music-lovers' frustration with established modes of record-selling. People wanted access to a grand collection of music and the ability to have it right when they wanted it. In the years since Napster, though, the music and tech industries have introduced myriad ways to access and purchase music instantly and cheaply. Yet it seems that, like a kid who has grown accustomed to his mom doing his laundry, we have all grown accustomed--too accustomed--to being able to have music right when we want it, for free.

My generation has the broadest, most convenient access to culture and entertainment that has ever existed. This total, unfettered access to EVERYTHING has empowered us to become prolific artists, savvy curators, and cool conversationalists but along the way we may be bankrupting our creative industries. In a basic sense, an economy is production and consumption. In order for an economy to work, there needs to be meaningful participation on both ends. Over the last decade, we have expanded what that meaningful participation means. We have endless ways to cheaply express ourselves and freely enjoy and promote the work of others. While this progressive system of culture and entertainment has afforded us the ability to enjoy a vast cosmos of creative works and clever communication, it has also caused us to lose sight of what, let's face it, fundamentally matters: $$$. Since Napster, we've been saying "fuck you" to The Music Industry but now we've gotten to the point where we're saying "fuck you" to the musicians. Sure concert attendance matters, and a glowing blog post is nice, but an album sale is still a vital way for fans to enable an artist to fully explore his/her talent. If we don't monetarily support the prodigiously talented, 28-year-old Joanna Newsom and others like her, then I fear that we're destined for a future in which art is the perpetual realm of underfunded hobbyists.

So here's a confession: I didn't buy "Have One On Me" last week (I know, I know...). I listened to the full stream on NPR and said, yeah, I'll buy it when I get around to it. After hearing the 7,000 stat, though, I purchased it on iTunes and I began to re-calibrate my content-wants-to-be-free, the-world's-evolving-blah-blah, thinking. The album's expensive ($17.99 on iTunes), which probably detracted some from purchasing it last week, and it was a punch to my wheezing bank account. In the end, though, it means one less round at the bar and more future chances for people to say, "Have one on me."

Your Grandpappy's Gin-Soaker

There's a place in southeast Minneapolis called Town Talk Diner and it was here that I was first introduced to pickled mustard eggs. On a summer evening (okay, afternoon) a few years ago I spotted a big glass jar at the back of the bar. Between sips of a gin fizz, I asked the bartender about the bulbous yellow contents of the mysterious container. His answer was simple: "Ya want one?" "Sure," I said. "They're pickled mustard eggs," he added eventually. "A classic gin-soaker."

My friend Jessica had a Prohibition-themed birthday party recently and I decided that it was a great reason (excuse) to try my hand at making this culinary oddity. They're delicious in the way that dry vermouth is--a stodgily effective way to temper the spirits.

Recipe for Pickled Mustard Eggs:

dozen hard-boiled eggs

100g jar of Colman's mustard (preferred)

2 medium yellow onions, chopped

1 bulb fennel, chopped

3c white vinegar

3c cold water

1c sugar

cupped palm of black peppercorns

cupped palm of salt

dozen whole cloves

1 tsp tumeric (optional, really)

1) Hard-boil the eggs: place the eggs in a big pot and cover them with water that reaches a couple of inches over their heads. Bring the covered pot to a boil. Once the water's got a nice bubble going, turn off the heat and let the eggs hang out in the covered pot for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, move the pot to the sink and let the cold faucet run over the eggs until they're cool to the touch. Peel the eggs.

2) Add all of the remaining ingredients, save the mustard, to a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce the hit a bit and let the mixture simmer until it stinks up your kitchen, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the mustard.

3) Let the pickling mixture cool for just a couple of minutes. Place the eggs in a tall plastic bin or giant glass jar (anything that has a lid or can be covered). Pour the pickling mixture over the eggs, cover, and place in the refrigerator.

4) Let the pickling brew stay in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours (but probably no more than 72 hours) before eating so the eggs are able to adequately soak up their surroundings.

5) Enjoy with a stiff cocktail and a few napkins.

Curationism: Creators Becoming Collectors

American Apparel, with its Skittle-colored leggings and lascivious ad campaigns, is a party that Red Wing Shoes surely never thought they'd be invited to. But that's exactly where the 105-year-old company, first known as the primary provider of boots to the US forces during World War I, currently finds itself. The influential men's fashion blog A Continuous Lean recently tweeted with surprise, "Red Wing boots are sold at American Apparel. Did you know this?" The awkward pairing is actually part of a larger trend in which popular American companies are extending their brands by acting more like curators than manufacturers.

On the landing page of J. Crew's online men's store right now, there is a feature by the company's lead men's designer Frank Muytjens titled "Design Heroes" in which he muses on five "tried-and-true" brands--Timex, Levi's, Alden, Belstaff, and Rogues Gallery--and what makes them "so darn cool." J.Crew, American Apparel, as well as Club Monaco, which currently promotes Levi's 501 jeans at its stores, are fixtures at shopping centers across the country and brands that have been carefully developed but they are all now piggybacking on established brands to fortify their vision of cool.

This trend of cultural curation extends well beyond mall fashions. Right now any chef worth his salt (Flor de Sal salt, mind you) infuses his menu with hat tips to various food purveyors. Alice Waters' local, seasonal approach to cooking has been fetishized to the extent that a chef's walk-in acts like a sneaker freak's closet. David Chang's menu at Momofuku Ssam Bar, for instance, includes not one, not two, but three country hams, all bearing the name of their respective farms, along with Bev Eggleston's pork shoulder steak and Creekstone Farm's Angus hanger steak. It isn't enough anymore for a chef to be a smart buyer, he must be a savvy curator.

With Momofuku, Chang has developed a sturdy brand that creates a line of people just with its presence etched on the front door. The crowds revere Chang's precise, sometimes cheeky cooking but it's clear that Chang sees himself not only as the creator of great food but also as the collector of great food. It is also clear that J. Crew's Muytjens has bought into a strategy that positions the 26-year-old brand as a compendium of fashion more than a mere fashion line. In a way J. Crew now has more in common with A Continuous Lean (J. Crew currently advertises on the ACL site) than with, say, Red Wing Shoes.

On The Gray Lady Becoming a Meter Maid

It was announced this week that The New York Times plans to do what the opportunistic bartender does: buy the customer a round of shots so that they'll get comfortable and stick around for a few more--paid--rounds. Speaking from personal experience (on both sides of the bar), this ploy usually works but I believe that, in this instance, The Times is at risk of disregarding what every bartender knows: the sober consumer is hard to retain and there's always another bar opening up down the block.

By instituting a pay model that essentially punishes heavy users, The Times is in danger of losing their significant place in the cultural discourse. The goal of any major media outfit nowadays, from Facebook to TMZ to CNN, is simple: become a tab on everyone's browser. In order to increase its revenue, The Times must increase the reasons for a user to stay on its website. A flat, uniform meter system is just one big, looming reason for users not to stay put.

There is an arrogance inherent in The Times' meter plan in that it presupposes that people will always want The Times' content. Reacting to the announcement, Times media columnist David Carr wrote, "Access can be gradually ramped up or down depending on macro trends in the market. Given the dynamic state of the advertising business and how quickly things change on the Web, not so dumb when you think about it." The Times seems to firmly believe that it can operate like a natural resource such as electricity--adjusting prices depending on a changing market. The problem with this is that eventually an audience squeeze will be created. As users go to the site less and less, The Times will have to decrease the amount of content they offer for free, further decreasing usage.

A flat meter system disregards the variable values of content. In order to skirt paying for Times content, readers will save up their allotted nytimes.com usage by going elsewhere for generic news such as sports scores, crime stories, and election results. This will rapidly decrease The Times' market share (or, one may say, "discourse share") as well as the amount of opportunities to entice users to pay. Not all Times content is created equal: movie reviews, business columns, runway photos, and infographics are just a few examples of Times content that has a uniqueness that makes their value obvious.

A slew of young companies, from Flickr to Skype, have been successful in offering users free basic packages and generating revenue from premium services that have obvious value. The Times must commit to establishing premium content and promoting it.

Every mainstream media company, from record labels to television networks, has seen their business decline in the past decade because the number of information and entertainment outlets has increased exponentially. A meter system will only further fracture the audience. With the mass consumer adoption of Twitter, RSS readers, and news aggregators, The Times' value as a compendium of news is diminishing. That said, they still generate a huge amount of traffic and their brand equity is among the best in the news business. The Times should focus now on optimizing their significant standing in the media landscape (while they still have it) and become an even more fundamental part of a user's content lifestyle.

The Times' meter plan misses the mark because it focuses on how the users will pay and disregards why the users will pay. The Times can succeed by creating unique content and platforms that users can't live without. By building out their blog interface, producing web-savvy video, inviting high-profile guest columnists, launching multiple unique mobile applications, and creating interactive environments such as sports pools or real-time event commentary, The Times can increase usage while also converting free users to paid users.

I first subscribed to The New York Times as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin and I have been a 7-days-a-week subscriber ever since. I plan on being an A.O. Scott-quoting, Brian Stelter-tweeting subscriber for the foreseeable future. I just hope that The Times will implement a payment system that's more in line with their history of quality and innovation, a payment system that I can raise a glass to.

Pixar: The Boise State of Filmmaking

If Pixar were to create a fictional college football team it would most certainly be modeled after the Boise State Broncos. The perennially underrated and overachieving Broncos play their home games on a bright blue turf field and the team's offense makes up for its lack of blue-chip talent by regularly employing funky backyard-style plays. Besides being perfect source material for the quirky animation studio, the Boise State Broncos are also a kindred spirit of sorts for Pixar. Never quite earning the respect they deserve despite being consistently excellent, the Boise State Broncos are the Pixar of college football. Or, rather, Pixar is the Boise State of filmmaking.

As the college football season ends tonight with the matchup between Texas and Alabama, sports fans everywhere will grumble over how the college football championship system is corrupt. While an undefeated Texas or Alabama is crowned the "BCS Champion," the Boise State Broncos will be at home, wondering how they could also finish a season undefeated but be shut out of a chance for the championship. The feeling must be similar to what Pixar filmmakers experience on Oscar night as their exceptional movies watch from the Best Animated Feature category as live-action films are awarded the Best Picture prize.

The Oscars, like big-time college football championships, really come down to tradition and pedigree. In college football, every champion for the last 20 years has come from a major, booster-rich conference, such as the Big 12 and SEC. Likewise, the vast majority of Best Picture winners have been produced by established Hollywood studios, such as Paramount and Warner Bros. In addition to this, an animated movie has never won the award and, in the 81 years of the ceremony, only one film, Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," has ever been nominated.

Pixar and Boise State are outsiders who, no matter how much they succeed, are relegated to a second tier. Which is a shame since, in the last five years, no other entity in their respective arenas has better represented excellence than Pixar and Boise State.

Animation requires the involvement of a vast team of artists yet Pixar has managed to foster a significant sense of auteurism among its filmmakers. Authorship, the film quality that influential film critic Andre Bazin declared to be what defines a movie as a work of art, and that has stood as the fundamental way in which serious filmmaking is judged internationally, is evident in every recent Pixar film. Brad Bird's Ayn Randian ideology is explored in his films "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille" while Andrew Stanton's environmental concerns and vibrant color palette fortify "WALL-E" and "Finding Nemo."

The Boise State Broncos, whose uniforms draw from a vibrant color palette, just capped an undefeated season with a thrilling 17-10 victory over the TCU Horned Frogs in the Fiesta Bowl. The Broncos have a .89 winning percentage for the past five seasons which is the same as Texas and better than both Alabama (.74) and the Florida Gators (.85)--last year's national "champion."

I would argue that a lot of this secondary status comes down to one thing that both Pixar and Boise State hold dear: fun. There is an unwritten rule in Hollywood that important films must act important. Even though "Up", "WALL-E," "Ratatouille," and "The Incredibles" effectively (and efficiently) examine profound adult themes, their fantastic settings and sense of humor pooch the bid for serious critical recognition.

Boise State's similar penchant for the fantastic also works against them in the big-business world of college football. The Broncos play with a free-wheeling offensive flair that is usually reserved for games played in sweatpants and autumn leaves. The team's identity is epitomized by their performance in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. Facing the Oklahoma Sooners--who have won seven national titles in their vaunted history--the Broncos used a mix of speed, grit, and luck to bring the Sooners to overtime. Down by one point, with a chance to tie and send the game to another overtime, Broncos coach Chris Petersen opted to go for a two-point conversion and the win. The Broncos lined up and ran the Statue of Liberty, a play revered by 12-year-olds everywhere. The trick play ended with running back Ian Johnson scampering into the end zone, untouched.



In the postgame melee that ensued, Johnson turned away from an interview with a Fox Sports reporter and proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend on national television. Down on one knee at the center of a roaring stadium, Johnson's proposal could be called a Pixar ending.

Hopefully such a moment, in the future, occurs at the end of a true national championship.

2009: The Year -in' Was In

2009 can (and will) be declared the year of many things: Twitter, health care reform, Lady Gaga, Barack Obama, celebrity deaths, and high-profile philandering all come to mind as reasonable options. Amidst all these, though, I would like to submit a new candidate: the gerund. Or, more specifically, -ing, or, even more specifically, -in' (as in "somethin' somethin'"). This year, from pop music to the oval office to newborn babies, -in' ruled.

The popular music charts in 2009 were really embodied by the notorious Kanye West-Taylor Swift microphone shakedown at the VMAs--it was rap and urban electro meeting, not so gracefully, with country and poppy americana. As Kings of Leon mingled with Jay-Z and T-Pain bought Miley Cyrus a drank, these disparate parties could find common ground in their fondness for the abridged gerund, -in' sound. Arguably the most popular song of the year, with 20 weeks in Billboard's Hot 100 top ten, was "I Gotta Feeling" by Black Eyed Peas. The song's bouncy refrain has will.i.am digitally tonguing the utility of the -in' in "feeling." (Curiously, the song's title preserves the proper spelling of "feeling" but muddies the meaning of "gotta"... isn't it "got to"?)

Recent Nobel Prize winner, and 2009 cover boy, President Barack Obama is also fond of the gerund. During his inauguration ceremony in January, Obama started his address by saying that the Presidential oath is often "taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms." In Oslo this month, Obama concluded his Nobel acceptance speech with the image of "a mother facing punishing poverty."

The most significant evidence that -in' took America by storm in 2009 is the year's list of most popular baby names. While Gawker summed up the 2009 trends in baby-naming as "America: dumb people, fancy names," the top names, collectively, are more noteworthy for the way they sound as opposed to how fancy they are. Overwhelmingly, the most popular baby names in 2009 ended in an -in' sound. Aiden and Madeline (and their alternate spellings) were the most popular boys' and girls' names of 2009, respectively. The second most popular girls' name was Madison while six of the boys' top ten were -in' names (Owen, Ethan, Jackson, Evan, Braden, plus Aiden). Also, Reuters points out that this sound extends beyond the top ten. "Variations on the name Aiden," the newswire reported, are "dominating both boys and girls names, such as Jayden, Brayden and Hayden."

In a world of blogging, Googling, texting, and sexting, it only makes sense that our tongues would drift to our hard palettes in an -in' sound. Still, it all makes one pause and wonder, as Twitter did, "What are you doing?"

MySpace: Leading Resource for Mistress Photos

With the recent acquisitions of music-centric platforms Imeem and iLike, it's clear that MySpace is betting on music and entertainment to be its salvation. New MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, formerly a top executive at Facebook, emphasized this focus in an October interview with The Financial Times, saying, “Facebook is not our competition. We’re very focused on a different space.” As MySpace shifts its business model, it should not overlook another potential revenue stream: serving as the go-to resource for news outlets seeking mistress photos.

While the Tiger Woods scandal turned from an affair into a harem this week, MySpace provided key photos of Woods' alleged lovers. The rapid revelations that Woods had been involved with a fourth, fifth, six, and seventh woman were manifested by images downloaded from the women's MySpace pages. Model Jamie Jungers, Manhattan clubgoer Cori Rist, and Perkins manager Mindy Lawton (or as The Daily News put it, "two more blonds and a brunette"), as well as porn star Holly Sampson, were brought to life in the media by smiling MySpace photos.

MySpace has also served as a key resource for other recent high-profile affairs. In March of 2008, as the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal unfolded, the MySpace page of Spitzer's call girl Ashley Dupre (who was originally identified as "Kristen") received 9 million page views in the matter of a week and the page's photos became the focal point of the ongoing saga. Dupre actually used this traffic hit to her advantage, promoting a single on her page as she tried to transition into a pop music career.

The fall from grace of ESPN baseball analyst, and former New York Mets GM, Steve Phillips was also fueled by the MySpace page of his mistress. Brooke Hundley, the 22-year-old production assistant who slept with Phillips and then wrote a taunting letter to his wife, was introduced to the world through MySpace images of her posing with Star Wars impersonators and her dressed in a sexy bunny get-up, blowing a kiss.

Kidding aside, there may be a business in here somewhere--a Getty for well-lit photos of nobodies who may one day unexpectedly find themselves at the center of a major news story, whether it be as a celebrity mistress or as a lotto winner. Then again, MySpace photos are just so much fun.