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Van Halen+David Lee Roth: Rock On!!!

by FRANCES MARTEL
August 13th, 2007

According to CNN, anyway.

Between this, 50 Cent’s announcement that he may possibly retire, and a Duran Duran/Justin Timberlake duet, August has been too good to be true. All we need is a new Petros single and a drive-by to take care of the Black-Eyed Peas and the music industry will be saved!


The Heroes in Action

Today is Duran Duran Appreciation Day

by FRANCES MARTEL
August 10th, 2007

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxm_cY5jqmo]

Take a few minutes of your day to relive your favorite classics (mine is “Save a Prayer”) or discover hidden gems you never even knew existed (like obscure album track “Midnight Sun”).

Or you can celebrate by checking out the Fab Five’s new single “Night Runner”, featuring Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. Verdict still isn’t out in this one, but if it makes you feel like giving up forever on the Fab Five, just remember that they’ve come out safe and sound from worse disasters.

But is Raffaella a Proletarian?

by FRANCES MARTEL
June 24th, 2007

For those of you who don’t know Italian pop star Tiziano Ferro from his infamous Mexican moustache comment, few Italian pop hipsters know the wrath of the Latin American market like Tiziano does (just ask the myriad paparazzi that made millions selling photoshopped pictures of Tiziano with a moustache to Univisión).

In an effort to avoid the controversy, however, Tiziano might be treading dangerously close to riling up the protest-prone Cuban exile community in the US.

In his new single, “E Raffaela é Mia” (”And Raffaella is Mine”), Ferro croons, “Ho girato il Latin America: Cuba, Messico, Argentina”- “I have traveled all Latin America: Cuba, Mexico, Argentina”. An Italian visa, of course, could get you onto the starved island with no problem, unlike the blue passports in most of our pockets. But this ease in tanning on the shores of the world’s best beaches translates smoothly into support for the deaths of thousands of political prisoners under Castro’s yoke- especially from the perspective of most of the population of Miami.

Tiziano apparently knows this, as, in the Spanish version, he adapts his itenerary: “He viajado todo el mundo: España, Mexico, Argentina” (”I have traveled all the world: Spain, Mexico, Argentina”).

Hmm, trying to hide something, Tiziano? Between this and naming your debut album “Relative Red” (”Rosso Relativo”), something smells fishy.

Petros Live In Front of the Holyoke Center- a Life-Changing Experience

by FRANCES MARTEL
May 10th, 2007

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHcGXfkt5v8]

I have several confessions to make (some more obvious than others):

For one, I’m a sucker for anything Greek, from Demosthenes to Despina Vandi, Thucydides to Tzatziki. I’m convinced that part of the reason why the Spanish monarchy is so awesome is that Queen Sofia is Greek- and, therefore, so is HRH Prince Felipe (I have another confession to make on the side: I’ve always wanted to refer to someone in an article as HRH). It’s the reason I’m currently finishing up my second year of Modern Greek here at Harvard.

I also can’t resist catchy Euro pop trash- Duran Duran is my favorite band, and it only goes downhill from there. I will listen to almost anything if you tell me that it comes from across the proverbial pond. And, along with this taste, I also have a heightened ability to learn song lyrics, to make up for my abysmal acting skills.

Of course, when I found out that seemingly introverted I met in Annenberg one day was not only Greek, but an aspiring Greek pop star, I was hooked. Petros managed, within the four minutes of his now well-known music video, to diminish my maturity back to about age 12. I was singing, dancing, and forcing my friends to watch “Afroditi” within hours of having seen it for the first time myself.

So I guess my ultimate confession is that I know all the lyrics to “Afroditi” by heart, and, because I speak the language, I understand them, too. “Love is not a sin,” indeed.

Seeing Petros live, however, was something a bit out of this world. I never really associated Peter Shields that dude that lives in Kirkland with international sex symbol Petros, but this performance kind of forced me to. And I like it. You will, too, I promise. It’s like Justin Timberlake, but slightly more Harvard and in a foreign language.

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