If you ignore the pretentious blather of the first few paragraphs, this summary of the disappointing James Brown auction at Christies will tell you all you need to know. DJ Shadow was there, as was Paul Shaffer. A lot of jumpsuits were sold, along with various awards and certificates and other pieces of ephemera, including a medical bracelet and a few scrawled letters. In one, Brown kisses off a girlfriend with a few kind words ("I hope our short Relationship got you on the Goodfoot"), and a present of $6,000, "so you won't have to go to work to guick [double sic]". In another (not sent, apparently), he complains about rappers ripping him off and record companies not paying him royalties, and ends with a threat to destroy the recipients' career. If Brown had seen the results of this auction, which was protested by some of his descendants and which brought in less than half of what was estimated, he'd have written another one.