rolling stone

First things first – if you’re a Jason Aldean fan (and really, the only folks who aren’t are the ones who’ve never heard him sing Why), he announced exclusively with Rolling Stone earlier today new dates for what I’m assuming is the second leg of his Burn it Down tour. This kicks off February 12^th in Greenville, SC. Luckily for us even further south, he’s hitting some venues a bit closer. And when I say closer, I mean Tupelo, MS and even a Louisiana date if you don’t mind hitting Bossier City. He hits Montana, Ohio and Illinois as well before swinging back through south Texas, up the east coast again with a West Virginia stop and ending it in Pennsylvania. Tickets are on sale. And by the way, Old Boots, New Dirt landed at the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart the day it was released. Not bad for a Georgia boy, right?

Nothing’s Gone Platinum?

Speaking of number one albums, did you know not a single album in any genre has gone platinum this year? Not even that little girl who’s failing miserably at being a grown up – and yes, I’m talking about the twerkin Miley Cyrus. Beyoncé? Nope. The Frozen soundtrack? Nah. Ah, but if anyone’s coming close, it’s…wait for it….Eric Church. Another country crooner – who knew?!

There are two likely reasons for this: – we’re buying singles from Amazon, iTunes and Spotify these days or we’re buying subscriptions to services like Spotify. Go figure.

Sunday Showtime

So this post began as a review of The Affair. I’m trying, I really am, to like this show. Here’s the thing – when it comes to TV, I pay good money to be lazy. That includes good money for a subscription to Showtime.

Sunday nights on Showtime are amazing – whether it’s Shameless, Ray Donovan or House of Lies. And by the way, I’ve adored Don Cheadle since I saw him in Talk to Me, which, by the way, won 8 film awards. And the music? James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Otis Redding’s “I Can’t Turn You Loose” and one of my all-time favorites, The Spinners “I’ll be Around” – and that’s a just a few of those incredible classics that still take us back – even if they were before our time.

But The Affair? Eh, it’s a very slow dance. I’ve said it before, I love a good waltz as much as anyone, but it’s just too distracting. We go into it not knowing the actors – or their characters. There are a lot of flashbacks and because the viewer is relying on the memory of the two leads, it’s hard to discern who’s telling the truth. And yes, I know that’s the point. When you have a new show, the first thing you want to do is balance the characters’ good qualities with the bad and so far, we’ve seen nothing out of these two leads; except for the fact that if they ever make it to the stand, the jury’s going to be as lost as we are with their respective recollections.

By the way – women want their men strong, especially if they’re having an affair. None of this tortured soul nonsense, even if Noah is a writer. Show us some testosterone! Get mad. Punch the father in law, stand up to your wife, walk away…do SOMETHING! Instead, he’s a scared puppy being questioned by an investigator for a crime we have no idea who committed. Hell, we’re not really sure what the crime is.

And all of these peripheral characters? They’re just adding to the distraction. Much as I love Mare Winningham, is she playing a drug dealer? I mean, she did offer the daughter in law a supply of Valium, right? For now, The Affair is still on the DVR, but the typical American consumer’s attention span is short – especially when we know House of Lies and Shameless are next up on the Sunday night Showtime roster.

So, here’s Aldean’s new video, Burnin’ it Down (and hey – he’s talking about drinking cold whiskey out of the bottle – life, my friends, simply does not get any better than that) and The Spinners’ I’ll be Around. That song just never gets old with me. Oh – and you can’t call yourself a fan unless you’ve seen the group dance to this song. I swear, come hell or high water, I’m going to bring polyester back. Like…the polyester John Travolta wore in Saturday Night Fever. And the polyester worn by The Spinners in this video.

For the most part, the past few years have meant contracts with several financial-based clients who require my attention to be focused on Wall Street, Jamie Dimon and the rise and fall of the American credit card. While I’m no financial whiz, nothing gives me greater pleasure than knocking Jamie Dimon down a notch or two when his narcissistic declarations get in the way of the big picture. And his narcissism is what I hope ultimately brings him down – but that’s for another post.

The next week is my “calm before the storm”. April 15 is creeping up on us and there are several big reports everyone’s waiting on from the government. That, along with the upcoming presidential elections and the highly anticipated ruling from the Supreme Court on Obamacare, is sure to make this summer quite interesting. For now, though, or at least, for the next week, it’s all about catching up on Rolling Stone, Cosmo and all those episodes of the Brady Bunch I’ve been careful to not delete from the DVR. And don’t judge me.

I couldn’t wait to read Janet Reitman’s piece in Rolling Stone, “Confessions of an Ivy League Frat Boy: Inside Dartmouth’s Hazing Abuses“. This, of course, has to do with Andrew Lohse, a former Dartmouth frat boy who was also the editor of the student paper, The Dartmouth. He decided to open the doors to those secretive hazing episodes that has resulted in the deaths of several kids across the country. I’m always amazed that a group of college kids can keep the lid on their secret lives in the fraternity while the U.S. government can’t figure out how to keep Julian Assange quiet. Again, though, that’s for another post.

As Reitman tells the story, images of rather disgusting behaviors begin to surface. The things these kids are willing to do is disturbing and begs the question “Why?” I understand the obligatory answers: to belong, to be part of something greater, to be a “bro” – I get all of that; but seriously? As Lohse describes in his editorial, “I was a member of a fraternity that asked pledges, in order to become a brother, to swim in a kiddie pool of vomit, urine, fecal matter, semen and rotten food products; eat omelets made of vomit; chug cups of vinegar, which in one case caused a pledge to vomit blood; drink beer poured down fellow pledges’ ass cracks… among other abuses,” Who in God’s name would want to be a part of that brotherhood when the family you come from has the resources to send you to Dartmouth?

Here’s where I was able to link the incredulous story told by Reitman and Lohse. Earlier this week, the government released its own alarming report. In one of my recent posts for a client, here’s how I broke it down:

Did you know there is more than one trillion dollars owed in student loans? And did you know that figure continues to grow to the tune of almost $60 billion each month? It’s true. It’s also true that the delinquency rate is rapidly approaching the 30% mark. Of course, there are a lot of dynamics at play. The job market continues to struggle and college graduates are coming out of college with their degrees and no jobs to go into.

The icing on the cake is the realization that today’s college graduates are entering a job market where only 46% of the nation’s 18-24 year olds are employed. It hasn’t been this low since 1948, when the government began keeping up with the numbers. An ivy league degree isn’t really giving these young people an advantage. Unless you’re in New York or DC, or are willing to move out of the country, my guess is that noble Harvard or Dartmouth degree, while impressive, won’t amount to much, especially considering employers who see these educations on a resume will immediately dismiss the candidate because he knows his company can’t afford the applicant.

So, basically, we have a lot of frat boys who went to great lengths to “belong” to their brotherhood while gaining their ivy leave educations. Unfortunately, they’re going to struggle once those glory days are behind them and they realize that big bank or law firm that Daddy once ran is now in jeopardy. In hindsight, I wonder if it will occur to them that not only did all those vomit omelets do little more than place them in a so-called family that would allow that to happen, but that they’re also competing with people they never thought they would have to battle for a job. You know – the ones who took a bit more realistic approach to their futures and “settled” for a state university.