So yesterday MC Hammer was at work. I think he was speaking about The Jesus or something. I'm not sure; I didn't really get close enough. A few guys got pictures with him, though.
I also grabbed a copy of the new cookbook from Boulevard Restaurant. The recipes sound tasty, but they're, ah, "overly French". I have no clue where to get white truffle sauce, and I'm not sure if I really need Bosc pears as opposed to the hoi polloi variety. I might try their steak though. I had it at lunch. The sauce was tasty, and looks relatively easy to make.
Oh yeah, I also saw the other guy from Wham. Nobody could figure out what his name was. How sad would it be going through life as the least-famous half of a really bad 80's pop band whose members are known more for public restroom hijinks than their music? Better to have rocked and lost then to never have rocked at all, I guess.
There's a company called Retrobikes which makes a new version of the Honda Trail 70. It's nearly authentic, too. Except they give it electronic ignition, 12 volt electrics and a better clutch. That has got to be hellaciously fun.
Man, that's just the coolest thing I've seen in a long, long time. I think I've got to get my old, rusty 1971 Trail 70 back from my brother and see if I can get it running again.
The answer is: Not very damn much. Check out this Rolling Stone article which does a breakdown of where the money goes when you spend $15.99 for a CD:
$0.17 Musicians' unions
$0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
$0.82 Publishing royalties
$0.80 Retail profit
$0.90 Distribution
$1.60 Artists' royalties
$1.70 Label profit
$2.40 Marketing/promotion
$2.91 Label overhead
$3.89 Retail overhead
Of the $1.60 the artist is making from the sale of their CD, they have to pay out for recording studio fees, and other miscellaneous costs, so they basically wind up with little to nothing.
The next time anyone gives you crap about legally importing music from Russia, and taking advantage of good exchange rates rather than line the pockets of the RIAA, show them the numbers above. Then tell them that if they really want to "support the artists" they should go see a live show and buy a t-shirt on the way out, because the artists aren't making shit off that CD you bought.
I'm really curious to see what the breakdown is for iTunes Music Store. It costs about the same amount of money to download every song on a CD from them as it does to buy the actual disc, so I assume that the breakdown is the same.
