New Music Tuesday

Some music as we eagerly await The Blueprint 3 to be legally released and Beatles Rock Band next week...

Albums

Phish - "Joy" is their first new material from everybody's favorite jam band since 2004, much like my thoughts on many TV shows if you are into it enjoy

PitBull - "Rebelution" is everybody's favorite dancehall reggae artist is back with more and more of the same but I'm loving the first single "Room Service" for now

Whitney Houston -"I Look To You" is her comeback album but I don't think the market has a place for her in the single/club music oriented world we live in today but hey she owned the 80's

Songs

"I Want You To" - Weezer
Classic Weezer song that a great summer driving song with a catchy beat and chorus

"Drop It Low" - Ester Dean F. Chris Brown
First song from Chris Brown since he one bad night with Rihanna that sounds like a Lil' Jon song but has him on the chorus to save the song from purely bad Southern rap

"Forever" - Drake F. Eminem, Kanye, and Lil' Wayne
Coming all over the radio to you very soon as the hottest new rapper out gets with 3 of the best rappers of all-time, you'll hear it soon and often

"Check My Brain" - Alice in Chains
Still pumping out new music 15 years later and a shout-out to California makes this a surefire KROQ hit

"Cowboy Casanova" - Carrie Underwood
This song was supposed to come out in a month but thanks to leak it'll be on country radio this week and should get onto top 40 really soon as well for a song that reminds me of "baseball bat" song

"Imma Star" - Jerimih
Guy's not there yet as a star but this song will him get there slowly as its radio-friendly beat should keep it out for a bit

"Stronger" - Mary J Blige
Song from Lebron's new movie soundtrack (that's not a typo) that is too slow for me

"Need You Now" - Lady Antebellum
Country song about those accidental late night break-ups that is just kinda there

"Ramping Shop" - Vybz Cartel
Reggae song set to the same beat as Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent" so the song is in court but it's sure to get some club play is its an easy loop for DJ's across the country

And finally some upcoming shows:

9/9 and 9/10 DMB @ The Greek
9/15 Arctic Monkeys @ The Palladium
9/16 Phoenix @ The Greek
9/16 The Killers @ The Hollywood Bowl
9/16 & 9/16 Colbie Caillat @ HOB - Anaheim
9/17 and 9/18 Blink 182 @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
9/22 Miley Cyrus @ Staples Center
9/23 Britney @ Staples Center
9/25 PitBull @ Club Nokia
9/26 Mickey Avalon @ Galaxy Theatre
9/26 Common @ The Palladium
9/30 Alice in Chains @ Avalon
9/30 and 10/1 and 10/6-7 Pearl Jam & Ben Harper @ Gibson
10/1 Paramore @ The Palladium
10/10 Jason Mraz @ The Hollywood Bowl
10/16 Jamie Foxx @ Nokia Theatre
10/25 U2 @ The Rose Bowl
10/27-28 Howie Day & Colbie Caillat @ HOB-Sunset Strip
11/5 The Bravery @ The Wiltern
11/10 The Used @ The Wiltern

A September to Forget?

Many national beat writers have been writing obituaries for the 2009 MLB season and a quick look at the standings shows only the Wild Cards to be even remotely interesting standings-wise. Reminder, I picked the Giants and Red Sox a month ago so we'll see. Here are a few things I'm watching and you should be too:

The Pomeranz-Ranulado sweepstakes - Catching phenom Bryce Harper (another Boras client) will go #1 to the Nationals in 2010, but who will get the #2 pick for the chance to take the top pitcher the Royals or Pirates, as of this writing the Royals are "up" 2 games on the Pirates who just celebrated their 17th consecutive losing season in the "curse of Barry Bonds" who's free agency started their streak

Penny's Revenge? - Brad Penny recently signed with the Giants after his old team (Dodgers) and old manager (Rockies) refused to allow their team to sign him instead opting for Garland and Contreras, he faces the Dodgers twice next week but even if he wins his team still faces an uphill climb against the Rockies

Operation Shutdown - Sizemore, Soriano, Latos went down last week which begs the question will hurting players like Braun, Chipper, Hanley be next as their teams fall out of contention which is sure to put a wrench in many fantasy teams head to head playoff races

The Return of Pedro (that we remember) - A guy everybody seems to root for like Manny, he dominated SF last time out against Lincecum and pitches against the Nationals tonight, if he keeps it up the other 29 GM's have to feel dumb about not signing him for mere million dollars for the 2nd half

The Phillies and Cards bullpens - The two front runners for the NL pennant of late have had some trouble in the back of their bullpens of late as Ryan Franklin is off for a few days and Brad Lidge has 10 blown saves so just remember in October that the Dodgers have the best bullpen in baseball and the best closer in the NL

Is MLB an oligopoly? - 7 out of top 9 payrolls (Sorry Mets and Cubs fans) are going to the playoffs and with the NL wild card being the 14th and 15th highest payrolls (SF/COL) no team in the upper echelon of spending will make the playoffs which will lead to alot of talk about revenue sharing and the draft as the current CBA is due to run out in 2011 so this story will only grow next year when negociations begin

Sophomore slumps - Will players in their first truly full MLB season like Geovany Soto, Jay Bruce, Evan Longoria, Jair Jurrjens, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Joba run out of gas as they hit the last month after 6 months of real baseball?

Who's #3? - Every GM is thinking about this as there roster is set for the postseason now but who gets the ball in game 3 of the first round? There will be some tough decisions around baseball in every postseason town such as STL (Pineiro/Smoltz), LA (Kuroda/Kershaw), Philly (Pedro/Blanton), NYY (Burnett/Joba), DET (Jackson/Porcello), and ANA (Santana/Saunders)

The 7th and 8th inning muscle - The setup guys is one of my favorite players on every team, he never gets alot of credit and is always secretly hoping the closer gets hurt I saw Neftali Feliz pitch a few weeks ago and wow is all I can say plus keep an eye on guys like Matt Thornton, Matt Lindstrom, Phil Hughes, George Sherill, and Ryan Madson to continue their recent dominance

September callups - as rosters expand to 40 men in September it's always a good time to take a look at hot prospects like Buster Posey (C-SF), Neil Walker (3B - PIT), Carlos Carrasco (P-CLE), Michael Brantley (OF-CLE), and Tyler Flowers (C-CWS)

The Attendance Battle - Yankees (45,793 after 65 games) vs. Dodgers (45,756 after 72 games) lead their leagues in attendance with a month to go and a quick check shows that the Yankees max out at 47 even when they play the Sox so I'm picking the Dodgers as the favorite here to come out on top with their 56,000 person stadium and a season ending weekend series against the Rockies

The sale of the Rangers - Tom Hicks is selling and apparently 3-6 people are buying, he doesn't have the stadium too (it's leased) so look for this to draw out as he asks for top dollar, whoever buys the team is definitely in an enviable position in the long run with the best farm system in baseball, Josh Hamilton to sell tickets, and a smaller division to compete within

(Fantasy) Football Is Back

With Thursday's kickoff, everybody's favorite office game is back. I swear fantasy football is the worst thing to happen to office productivity in awhile. It's why the NFL kicks MLB's butt. The girls in the office who don't like particularly like sports can now know who Greg Olsen is like it's the name of Jennifer Aniston's new boyfriend. It's amazing how gambling and fantasy football combined with ridiculous PR at a league level have turned the NFL into's America's sport. I'll run through a few notes and my teams this year. I considered doing a start/sit but leagues now have so many different rules kinks that those are basically worthless. Moving forward, this post will be waiver wire Mondays until 2010 when it's back to baseball.

Brandon Marshall (UCF) - unsuspended yet still crazy and will be a Jet soon if you believe Kerry Rhodes Twitter page who says a "big announcement" is coming from the Jets which would be huge for Eddie Royal and Mark Sanchez

Carnell "Cadillac" Williams - starting RB in TB based on their new depth charts, hope you read my draft update and stayed away from this situation completely, poor Derick Ward

Matt Cassel - full practice for the injured QB but I think he'll play against Baltimore because there seems to be an urge from the team to get him out there (don't start him anyways its the Ravens defense) as he's their new face of the franchise

Matt Stafford - starting in DET, beat UCF alum Duante Culpepper if thats an accomplishment

Richard Seymour - traded from Raiders to Patriots a week before the season starts, wow talk about bad luck, at least he's a free agent after this year and the Pats got a #1 pick out of it

Team #1: 12 team PPR League with huge QB bonus and 12 man rosters (no TE)
QB: Tony Romo (Matt Cassel)
RB: Ladainian Tomlinson
RB: Ahmad Bradshaw/Leon Washington
WR: Calvin Johnson
WR: TO/Eddie Royal
DEF: Vikings/Dolphins
K: Prater (UCF!) / K. Brown
Note: This league is an odd one as you are capped by position in the draft, so week 1 waiver wire should be a fun one

Team #2: 8 team PPR League with Return Yards start 3 RB and WR plus Flex
QB: Donovan McNabb/Matt Schaub
RB: Steve Slaton
RB: Ray Rice
RB: Ryan Grant
WR: Larry Fitzgerald
WR: Calvin Johnson (on both teams congrats)
WR: Greg Jennings
TE: Jeremy Shockey
Flex: Lance Moore/Eddie Royal/Kevin Walter/ D Brown
DEF: Bears
K: Carney

Make sure you get your lineups in by Thursday morning as many will lock as soon as kickoff hits on Thursday night.

New TV, New TV, New TV & Football!!!

Sorry summer TV has been a bummer outside of Entourage and Mad Men. It's now September which means pools close in Maryland and no more big budget movies. NFL is back on Thursday!!! (Fantasy post later today) Also, it's time for the major networks to roll out there new shows. CW is this week, NBC is next week, and ABC/CBS the following week. FOX tiered their premieres but you can do that when you have 12 hours of week to program and very little of it is new stuff. I'll break down TV into 3 categories moving month:
DVR it - put it on or tape it if you can't see it
For you, maybe - some shows I just don't particularly like (CSI) but I know some people love it
Why? - who paid for this show to be on TV

DVR it
Melrose Place Tuesday at 9 on CW
It's back after going on hiatus since I was in high school, the drama-fights-scandal return to the CW and I'll be watching as they've had the best advertisements of any new shows so let's see if the product can back it up

Glee Wednesday at 9 on Fox
You probably remember this is the show that came on after Idol in the spring, the dramedy based on a real life "High School Musical" is here now for good as one of the best ideas to come along in awhile, so we'll have a TV show that can sell songs, albums, go on tour, and get ratings must be those people at FOX again

Jay Leno Show 9/14 and every night at 10 on NBC
The late night man himself is back and all of Hollywood is rooting against him because he chewed up 5 hours of what could be scripted TV on NBC, his first show features Seinfeld and Kanye so you can bet I'll be watching, if this works watch ABC who hasn't made good TV in awhile go after Oprah for their 10 PM slot next fall

Gossip Girl 9/14, next Monday, at 9 on CW
The girls are all grown up and are heading to college, can I just say that Josh Schwartz is a genius (Chuck, OC, Gossip Girl) although we shall see how the producers deal with not having all the main characters at the same school and we all know that this could be the last season for Leighton and Chace as their careers have taken off because of this show

Vampie Diaries Thursday 8 on CW
The best new show on CW follows vampire in high school so it's sure to be a hit with the Twilight and True Blood crowds but like many quality CW shows before viewers will be a challenge on Thursday night going against Bones and Survivor

For you-maybe
So You Think You Can Dance Wednesday 8 on FOX - going up against Barack's health care speech this week, but for Idol fans when there is no Idol
90210 Tuesday 8 on CW - ridiculously hot girls make this one bearable
Sons of Anarchy Tuesday 9 on FX - no clue, but its back on the air so somebody is watching it
America's Next Top Model Wednesday 9 on CW - Tyra Banks makes fun of skinny girls
Supernatural Thursday 9 on CW - Superman the TV show
America's Most Wanted Saturday 9 on FOX - I'm all for catching bad guys

Why?
Cops Saturday 8 on FOX - Don't we have YouTube for this now

Interesting Ways To Play The Recession

I know I said I'd pick stocks out today, but I'll grab a few extras next week instead. The best way to get instantly rich in the market is playing the IPO game, but how many times have you sat down to buy a company that you read or heard about only to find that a stock is private? For those wealthier people you can make a few calls thru your broker and buy-in sometimes but for average Joes like myself we are shut out of the pre-IPO stocks. Sharespost has come out recently giving you the opportunity to buy shares of privately held companies such as Facebook, Tesla, Twitter, eHarmony, and more. I recommend you check out the link to see if this investment strategy is right for you. Tread lightly as the are few shares out there so the demand is inherently higher and that big what if of going bankrupt is there to as you have no idea what the companies books look like because they aren't publicly traded.

Another to do well in this recession is to play inverses. I know I know it's betting against the market and the stimulus plan. Two companies are legally doing this are based locally here in Maryland: Rydex SGI and ProShares. Each company sells mutual funds that run counter to the market. In a recession it's a different way to view the market. It's just as hard to bet a company to drop in price as it is to go up. Both companies have been around for a few years so you won't get caught up in any legality issues. Happy Trading!

Labor Day Movies For The Weekend x2

Gamer - so the plotline is that gamers take over real people's body and fight, I think a ton of people will see this because it's the only newer action flick on a holiday weekend but I won't be
Also how did Gerard Butler pull Jenifer Aniston?

Extract - bad reviews but who cares Mila Kunis is in this movie and so is Jason Bateman plus it was made by Mr. Office Space himself Mike Judge, I'm in

Carriers - OutBreak meets Roadtrip with Chris Pine, no go

Amreeka - single mother whos an immigrant and her son grow up in Illinois, so only if your wife takes you to see it, sorry I'm not that mature just yet

All About Steve - Mr. Hangover (Bradley Cooper) is a newsman being chased by an avid crossword puzzler Sandra Bullock so that makes it the date night movie of the week

Layovers from last week:

Final Destination 3D - I'm all for these IMAX and 3D movies just not when the object is to scare the crap out of you

Halloween 2 - It's August and a Halloween movie is coming out, doesn't anybody else see why this could be a problem? Why not have Christmas movies in October too?

Taking Woodstock - Can we just have a 40 year anniversary concert like Bonnaroo in New York instead of all these movies and documentaries? OK, it's not for me

Twitter+Google = Your New Stock Broker?

I my downtime I stumbled upon a site called: StockTwits. Ths site is an aggregate site for Twitter. Anytime there is a tweet/post about stocks it grabs it. I really like the idea of an open area to discuss stocks. Good work by the founders of this company. Stock trading is one space that works well for Twitter because to you can "tweet" and trade in real time. On the flipside, I feel like it's an area that is open to fraud like those penny stock e-mails we've all received over the years. I am going to give it a try next week.

Alos, I found on Google Finance they have a domestic trends category which allows to you use their search data to see what stocks you'd like to play with by sector only. You can graph Google searches vs the stocks. You have to do your own work on this one though. I think Google is onto something here especially with Russell and pre-IPO stocks if they ever get that far. If I could track little companies most searched for in Google, I'd be a millionaire already. I'm suprised Google doesn't haven't their own hedge fund for this exact purpose. Information continues to be the most valuable commodity out there and Google is leading the new as the "information leader" of the the 21st century.

PS Stock picks coming tommorow too don't worry

StubHub+Recession = Death of Season Tickets

Over the past few years sports teams have faced a challenging landscape in selling season tickets. Season tickets are the single biggest economic indicator for any team in any sport. The more you have the better. The best teams in baseball have well over 20,000, over 60k in the NFL in most stadiums, and over 14k in NBA is a solid number. As the years pass it's become harder to sell them for a few reasons:

1. Cost
As the economy has slowly collapsed it's hit people and business hard and the 2-15k thousand that people spend on seats isn't there anymore. I think it's hit the middle and lower-class the most as I think the wealthy are still well off but the middle and lower income are somewhat jobless and getting screwed by their ARM loans left and right. Large big purchases like vacations and sports tickets are one of thing the first things cut.

2. Time
Now let's say that you have the money to buy season tickets. Can you commit yourself to 41 nights of basketball, 81 nights of baseball, or even 11 nights of football? The answer is probably not. People work no more than ever and why pay for something upfront when you can now "figure it out later". Many people have partners in their seats but it leads to issues over playoff tickets and big games.

3. StubHub
Now you have the time and the money, would you purchase a product that is readily available at a lower price the second you buy it? Secondary brokers have a role in the changing landscape but they have done more for the fan and nothing to sports teams. You need a ticket to a soldout event or don't want to pay any PSL or licensing fees on your seats they have that. Many people requested seats from me all over the country this year and I send them straight here. The devalued cost of sports seats on the site is amazing and a huge problem down the line for the NBA and MLB due to the number of the games they play.

The team that best allocates, inventories, and price their tickets in the future and takes care of their customers will be the best business and teams in the future. Miniplans and allocations will be just as important as scouting in the next 5 years. Why the MBA's and finance majors are working in the scouting departments is beyond me. If it's my team I'm sending them straight to the head of tickets to maximize ticket revenues. Fortunately for me this area is something I know very well so if I end up back in sports I'm your man for the job.

A Look At August Retail Sales Figures

As a retail veteran of 7 years (Nordstrom+Dodgers) , I've always liked taking a peek at same-store figures once in awhile. I find them even more interesting during the recession to see who is doing well. A recession usually helps companies that sell everyday items such as groceries, gas, and fast-food. Meanwhile it kills the high-end goods and think you'd like to buy but don't need like a mattress company. Let's run through a few companies with their sales figures and comments.

Abercrombie (-29%) - getting crushed by the economy, always thought they had a problem in attracting management talent because their pipeline of people who want to work their our high school and college kids, now my thoughts are proving to be right
Aeropostale (9%) - good work, nice that their medium exposure to the economy to due to low numbers of stores and price-point is paying off
Gap (-3%) - Wow!, I'm very impressed with this company, they always ace the marketing aspect of their product and know who their customer and what they want to buy
Hot Topic (-8.1%) - a LA based company that stock I still up a ton this year, should continue to do well to low pricepoints as parents continue to cut kids off or just say no to high-end

JC Penney (-7.9%)
Macy (-8.1%)
Nieman's (-16.6%)
Nordstrom (-7.6%)
Sak's (-19.6%)
The more luxury you are of a brand the more you are getting crushed by the economy, it's no suprise to me that Nordstrom is "beating" everybody because in times like these you are looking for value added and their service is better than any store which continues to make it "the most valuable name in retail" additionally I know their margins do well because of the increasing number of in-house and off-brands carried in every department which lower they're overhead and get their sell-thru up during these tough times

Costco (0%)
Target (-2.9%)
Back to school is always a boon to these stores and this year it no different as school is back in session this week in most parts of the country, if you are looking for Walmart sales figures they've decided earlier this year to not release month figures but thanks to their amazing control over their distributors even in a bad economy their cash flows will be more than fine

Ross (6%)
Kohl's (0.2%)
TJ Maxx (5%)
More discounts and more sales increases coming from 3 of America's lower-end stores, I'd expect this trend to continue in the fourth quarter

Are Green Jobs > Greenovation?

I'm reading the NY Times this weekend and I stumble across an article from Annie Milkern over at Greenwire. (which a great green aggregate site for daily reading) The article refers to the growing number of lobbyists helping green startups chase federal funds. As somebody who was considering the process, I'm officially out before I'm in. The papers are 400+ pages and basically require hiring a lobbyist. Each company must demonstrate an ability to "meet policy objectives related to climate change and energy independence such as lowering greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs, driving economic development, and spurring investment in new energy technologies.

As a follow-up to last week's article this sector is going to boom just not yet. This is where all next Microsoftsand Googles will come from. My worry is that even though $50 billion is going to green companies and tons have already gone that the economy will be used as a clutch to create jobs rather than give the funds to the best ideas. Entrepreneurship, my college major, has always fascinated me. I've always wondered when I see a success story how people got there. Whether it's a the timing, great product/idea, or great management I've never heard a new "it" company say we wanted to "hire the most people possible" or "open up new research center immediately" when we started which is why the green grant money system is a bit worrisome.

Best of luck to all the startups applying for these funds, I can see myself joining your team soon in the right situation. I hope none of these companies lose sight of their cash flows by increasing the overhead in order to appease their VC that being the government. The green revolution is going to be awhile. Thanks to Barack for putting it on the fast track but the "job rule" put it on a bit slower track.