I’m sure that everyone has seen lists before like this.  I’ve never found one that was useful, or in any way represented my opinions. 

Today, however, I found a list that at least interested my inner numbers geek.  Yahoo! music has a post on what they think are the 20 best albums of all time based on sales numbers, critical reviews and a "staying power" variable that measures long term popularity to hit records.  In other words, Hootie and Blowfish might have had a huge album, but you would be willing to part with it today for a dollar, whereas no one is going to pry your Dark Side of the Moon album out of your hands. (This goes especially true if your initials are BF).

I don’t want to steal Yahoo’s! thunder, so click to see the list.  I will tell you that you are stoked if you are receiving royalties from Led Zeppelin.  These aren’t my favorite 20 albums, but I do respect the attempt at trying to arrive at it mathematically while still having some quality control in the mix. 

Many of you may know this, but I co-author Ask The VC with my partner Brad.  Normally, I don’t cross post content, but this one just frustrated me in a way that I haven’t felt in a while. 

Q:  My company is backed by VC firm to whom we also pay a $2k/month "consulting fee." We have raised approximately $2MM from them in a Series A. Is that type of consulting payment typical in an early stage venture?

A:  (Jason)  I want to vomit again.  We received this question just a  few short days after posting that entrepreneurs should NOT pay their lawyers for introductions to VCs and how scummy of a practice that was.

Now today, we get this question.  This is even worse.  The answer is NO.  Companies should never pay their VCs consulting fees, board attendance fees, or any type of fees related to their involvement in their company.  I’ve never worked with a reputable VC firm that charges their companies to help them succeed.

As a venture capitalist, we are paid a management fee by our investors that is our "salary" and we receive a percentage of the profits (called "carry") on our fund.  We don’t get paid to sit on boards and certainly it is not appropriate for them to "round trip" your investment capital by paying themselves part of it. I would wager to guess if their investors knew they were doing this that the investors would revolt.

I’m sorry to report, but not only is this not typical, it’s unheard of in the venture world when dealing with reputable folks.

(Note, private equity is a totally different matter and fees are commonplace, but it’s a totally different model)

Yesterday, we announced our latest investment at Foundry Group.  EmSense, based in San Francisco, has created the first scalable physiological and brainwave measurement technology platform, which provides accurate and objective moment-by-moment analysis of how a large audience responds emotionally and cognitively to media messaging.

When Ryan and I met the company for our initial meeting CSO Mike Lee gave part of the presentation wearing the Emsense brain reader.  It was highly entertaining to watch his cognitive activity change as we asked him questions.  It was about all I could do not to "spontaneously" yell at him to see what would happen.  I suppressed my childish desire and was instead very impressed with what they have developed.

Check our our full blog post here.

So, the blogosphere was helpful explaining to the me the necessity of Hell having a guard dog, so maybe y’all can help me with this one:

Why do elevators have a "door close" button?  While I’ve been pretty satisfied with the performances of door open buttons on most elevators that I’ve ridden in, it occurred to me today that most, if not all, door close buttons simply don’t work.  What gives?  What can we save on elevators if we forgo this useless button? 

I just read a great paper called "Are We Selling Results Or Resumes?" by Professor William Henderson.  In a nutshell, the paper argues that law firms place too high a premium on hiring junior attorneys from top schools and this in turn causes costs for clients that cannot be maintained (the "Cravath" model).  In fact, the paper claims that the theory of top rated law school producing top lawyers is false.

I don’t know if this is true or not, but the paper is persuasive.  There are also some in depth analyses regarding lawyer salaries and ability to move between firms.  One very interesting proposition is that Professor Henderson argues that legal ethics rules should be changed to allow non-lawyers to own equity stakes in law firms.  His hypothesis is that professional managers and business owners will be able to streamline and more effectively change the old law firm regime to a more current and efficient one.  

It’s a long, but great read and I think backs up much of what I’ve been writing about in my Law Firm 2.0 Series.

A special thanks goes to Ryan Howell for turning me onto the article.  Ryan and I have been emailing a bit on the Law Firm 2.0 Series and Ryan definitely has a clue about the issues that I’m writing about.  Thanks Ryan.

The other night I went to Frasca with the Foodzie folks from TechStars.  On the way to dinner, I snapped these two pictures of the most incredible rainbow that I’ve ever seen. 

Waiting at the end of the rainbow, was indeed a pot of gold, in the form of a wonderful dining experience.  I’ve been to Frasca many times, but they were completely on their game, even in the absence of Bobby.

Three items that really shined were the Guinea Hen Tortelloni, the House made Russett Gnocchi and the Shaved Long Family Farm Pork Leg, which was the best pork that I’ve ever eaten.  I’m a "swine is fine" guy, so I have a lot experience here.

Bravo, Frasca.  Bravo, Rainbow.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending The Police concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater last night.  Elvis Costello opened.

Let’s just get this out of the way:  the show rocked.  Incredible.  This was easily a top five show of all time for me. 

Elvis brought his whole band with him.  I’ve never seen him with a band, as the two times I saw him before were solo acoustic affairs.  Elvis really played hard and his band was very tight.  The highlight was Alison where Sting came out and sang backup.  It was a grittier version of the classic than I had heard in the past.  Well done, Elvis.  If Elvis had been the headliner, it would have been a great show. 

As for The Police, what a difference a few months make.  Ryan and I had seen them play at the Pepsi Center last year at the beginning of their tour.  Their energy level was high, but they definitely had some moments where they all looked at each other in mild panic as a few missed chords passed by.  That being said, it was still great to see them, as it was a dream come true for me.

This time Sting, Andy and Stewart came to show that they were still one of the best bands in the world.  Mission Accomplished.  Sting sounds as good as ever and I think his bass playing is better than ever.  Andy shredded solos in a manner that I wasn’t sure that he could even do.  Stewart punished his drums all night with wicked snaps from his wrist and still had his trademark hi-hat stylings that only he can do. 

The band was incredibly tight this time with no semblance of missed chords or uncertainty.  So Lonely and Next to You were standout songs along with Driven to Tears.  That being said, their entire catalog still holds as great compositions today. 

This was The Police, 20 years removed and still in their prime.  Somewhat unbelievable.  I’m a happy guy today.

I’ve gone back and forth on whether cover versions of songs are evil.  Early on in my musical career, I was self-righteous and a self-proclaimed music snob and thought that any band that did a cover sucked and sold out.

However, later in life, I’ve really come to enjoy well done covers.  Great compositions redone by great musicians really can be additive.  Some things that I’m really digging right now:

1.  Coverville: This is a great podcast that Brad turned me onto.  I’ve really enjoyed the quality that Brian Ibbott has put together here.

2.  The Wrecking:  These guys have an awesome version of Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes.  I might even like it better than the original.

3.  Richard Cheese:  If you haven’t listened to Richard and his Lounge Against the Machine cover band, it’s absolutely hilarious.  Home page has a great cover of Baby got Back among others.

So, I was on a good "cover mojo" feeling and then two things happened in the last 24 hours that have tweaked my world view.  First, I heard the worst cover of Stevie Wonder’s Superstition by a band on the Pearl Street mall here in Boulder.  I’ve covered this song in the past and while I am no S. Wonder, I think we pulled it off admirably.  This sound like a Bar Mitzvah band.

Then today, my friend Julie Penner sends me an article about  Jay-Z covering Oasis’ Wonderland.  Kill me.  Kill me now.  Video below.

There is a new posting on the Foundry Group blog entitled: The University of Colorado and Entrepreneurship.  All five of the Foundry folks are actively involved with our adopted university and are all better off for it.

I’d encourage other local folks to check out what they are up to.  On a number of fronts, they are really moving the needle.

This from my new friend Alfred Levitt…

He was watching CNBC today and noticed that they elected to carry Bernanke’s remarks to the Senate Banking Committee rather than President Bush, who was addressing the nation about the economy. 

While a obvious choice in some respects, I believe it says something very important about what the country is thinking, not merely CNBC or its editorial choices.

I think it says that most people see the current economic situation as much more grave than previous economic downturns.  It’s starting to make the Internet bust look pretty tame in comparison. 

Dollar cratering, inflation at 27 year highs, credit markets decimated…. what next?

This one is getting scary folks.  Hang onto your life jackets.