Your regular buzzkiller is out today—he got sick from putting his nose too close to a moldy thesaurus—so I’ll be filling in for Mr. O’Neal’s daily dose of all things dire. I don’t follows the ins and outs of which Hollywood celebrities are getting (and giving) the ol’ in and out to each other, or who has a drug problem, so perhaps today’s tragic tale isn’t quite the buzzkill he might muster. For that, I apologize in advance.
But think about: Even if you were the relatively well-to-do owner of a well respected independent record label, it would ruin your fucking day if your house burned down. But that’s exactly what happened to Gerard Cosloy, co-owner of Matador Records, this morning. According to the Austin-American Statesman, Cosloy’s house is a total loss after an early-morning fire. Can you imagine the collector-boner items that probably went up in flames? Original artwork for Slanted & Enchanted? Gold albums by Interpol and Railroad Jerk?
Anyway, I don’t want to eulogize the guy (or his imaginary collection of cool stuff). He’s not dead, but his big-ass house is. When it happens to a guy with a reputation for great taste and general awesomeness—he helped bring The Frogs, Pavement, Belle & Sebastian, and lots of the early Homestead roster to the world—gets dealt a shitty card like this one, you’ve gotta sympathize. And you know who the first guy to say, “Hey, it’s not the end of the world” was? Cosloy himself. In the Statesman article, he’s quoted as saying, “There are a lot of people who have a lot less than I do who deal with a lot worse, but this is pretty bad.” Most rich guys would be figuring out how to bilk their insurance company out of extra dough, but he was already thinking of us, the little people. (Kidding, Gerard, kidding. Sorry about the house. That fucking sucks.) Sean O'Neal may or may not return tomorrow.