Ever see those "American Idol" auditions where the confident young performer warbles so off-key for the judges
that you wonder how their parents and friends could ever have let them make such asses of themselves? "You will never be a singer, darling," Simon Cowell would deadpan, to their utter, absolute surprise...
That's what it was like watching Black Eyed Peas at the Super Bowl halftime show Sunday—like a gargantuan version of "The Emperor's New Clothes." These fools sell millions of records? Fergie has a Grammy? Kids sing along to this crap?
Really?
I never in my life thought I would
rather see Tom Petty on that stage.
It's hard to say who was the bigger embarrassment, will.i.am, with his weary overwrought auto-tune "vocals," or Fergie, with her
audacious off-key screeching and lack of anything resembling moving to the beat. I swear, at one point, I could see Depends peaking through her leather mini-skirt. I suspect Betty White would have been more convincing as an ingenue than the awkwardly rhyme-and-rhythm-less Fergie.
Usher delivered more convincing artistry in his one minute of tightly choreographed dance moves and adept singing of his "OMG" than Black Eyed Peas did in its 12 minutes of robotic, seemingly unrehearsed uh, performance art. The dissonance between the two performers was like watching Chopin playing a piano recital beside your 8-year-old niece.
"I Gotta Feeling" that the Peas proved what many have known all along: The quartet is strictly a studio act, whose gimmick-ridden sing-song nursery rhyme hits like "Boom Boom Pow," "Pump It," "Let's Get It Started" and the gruesome "Dirty Dancing"-raped "The Time" are nothing more than electronically
enhanced loops pieced together until they add up to 3 and a half minutes of radio-ready goop.
The media has focused on the fact that Christina Aguilera flubbed the lyric to the National Anthem. But she sang the shit out of the song—a capella—and proved that she is an
artist, albeit one with a poor memory. Likewise for "Glee" star Lea Michele, who delivered a glorious, proud version of "America the Beautiful."
will.i.am, Fergie, apl.de.ap and Taboo are anything but music
artists. At best, they are cartoon images that prove when it's not Memorex, the Peas are poop soup.
This afternoon, a full-on team including photographer Devin Delano, videographer Christopher Holmes, 2C Studios intern Colin Bryson, producer/songwriter Ayhan Sahin and meese as liner notes writer gathered in the 
East Village to shoot the artwork for Tinatin's upcoming "Wild" EP, due for release on Young Pals Music in March 2011.
Ayhan + meese + Bob + Tim x 40 = 160 songs. We started the madness after noon and finished around 7 p.m., in time to catch most of the Super Bowl.
bland spectacle (sorry, I liken football to watching a pot of water boil) was the commercials... which were shockingly ordinary in how the punch lines flailed time after time.
Meanwhile, Bobby & Timmy's Steely McBeam had a grand day in the nabe.
The boys met the critters Abby & Spencer for the first time! Warms temps made for a lovely, albeit soggy walk through Brooklyn Heights.
Who scored? Who cares?
We are blessed that Rodiney Santiago, The Smoking Nun's Sexiest Man Alive for 2010, always has the camera lens in close proximity.
that you wonder how their parents and friends could ever have let them make such asses of themselves? "You will never be a singer, darling," Simon Cowell would deadpan, to their utter, absolute surprise...
audacious off-key screeching and lack of anything resembling moving to the beat. I swear, at one point, I could see Depends peaking through her leather mini-skirt. I suspect Betty White would have been more convincing as an ingenue than the awkwardly rhyme-and-rhythm-less Fergie.
enhanced loops pieced together until they add up to 3 and a half minutes of radio-ready goop.
artist, albeit one with a poor memory. Likewise for "Glee" star Lea Michele, who delivered a glorious, proud version of "America the Beautiful."
Natalie Cole has won nine Grammy awards and scored four No. 1 R&B hits over the span of her long-lived career, which began back in 1975 with the delightful disco-tinged "This Will Be," into the 1980s with "Miss You Like Crazy" and 1990s with "Unforgettable," her duo with daddy. The singer turned 61 Sunday.
away from its owner on a Boston subway car a month ago has been found in an adjoining car. 
country. The Pittsburgh Steelworkers Union is playing against another team somewhere from the midwest. The two opponents will run in opposite directions down the court trying to reach the finish line and score goals, I'm told.
celebrities, just because they throw a leather ball and know which direction to run in. Their mamers must be very proud of them; they never had any smarts or talent, but they got dirt rich anyway. Damn, ain't that America?
On Dec. 30, the New York subway made the most radical increase in its history, upping a 30-day unlimited card from $89 to $104, a 17% increase, while a weekly pass escalated from $29 to $37. Single rides roared from $2.25 to $2.50.
"Frida's Sonnet," a song composed and produced by Ayhan Sahin and lyrics written by Selcen Pamuk, which Karine Hannah recorded for her second self-titled album, is getting a breath of new life. Yesterday, the pair, with videographer Chris Holmes, lensed a music video for the track, here at 2C Studios in Brooklyn.
The production took place all over the apartment—and up on our rooftop—where it was cold enough to freeze one's sonnet off.
I've missed the last couple happy hours with my pepes, so celebrated the new year with a select handful of those willing to brave another nasty night of wintry torment. The destination: the lusciously divey Bar On Avenue A. $3 happy hour well drinks made it pure pauper's delight.
Ingenue and pal Tinatin came to 2C Studios this week for a dinner date and listening session for her upcoming EP "Wild," which will be released in March on Young Pals Music.
1948... Better, but still no day at the races, as this snazzy taxi stuck on an icy street shows. Inset: December 2010.
Equally appetizing: lots & lots of fish parts at the famous Mariners Restaurant Fishboil, served Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in July and August. (Once) located conveniently on Hwy 44 near Fort Bay, Ohio. "You will surely say, it is the best in Fort Bay!" (If not the only...)
(Photos from the delectable Vintage Chrome Postcards)
