Join TOMS 2012 One Day Without Shoes NYC Walk

Will the Real New York City Please Stand Up?

I hate to admit it, but I actually like "The Hills." So I was looking forward to Whitney Port's spinoff "The City," especially since I'm a New Yorker. So I watched the premiere episode this week on MTV. Ummm...and I didn't recognize New York City at all. Sure, the landmarks and hipster spots were there. But from watching "The City," you would think perhaps the most racially diverse city in the world had no people of color living in it. And the forced divide between "downtown hipsters" and "Uptown socialites" feels like a contrived story line cribbed from the pages of S.E. Hinton's "The Outsiders." You know, re-imagined as the Upper East Side Socs and the Lower East Side Greasers, without the grit and despair and all with interest earning savings accounts. Or perhaps it's just a lame Gen Y version of "Sex and the City," without the sex and the real city.

So, dear Whit, I cannot bear to watch "The City," because it reduces New York -- one of the realest, most multi-faceted cities in the world-- to a superficial playground for bratty trust fund babies and vapid fashionistas. I'd rather watch Lauren pout her way through expectedly fake L.A. on "The Hills." But maybe Cali folks feel the same way about that show.

Santogold at Central Park Summerstage

I've been writing about pop music for a long time, and not much inspires me these days. So when an artist as hype as Santi White aka Santogold comes along, I have to give her props. In fact Santi's music reminds me so much of some of my teen new wave favorites (Missing Persons, Blondie, Siouxsie and the Banshees), I might actually make it to a Central Park Summerstage concert.

Below read my music review for Barnes & Noble.com on White's solo debut:

As Santogold, Santi White, the scribe behind Res’ revelatory, alt-hip-hop-soul debut, How I Do, steps into the limelight -- or better yet, the streetlight, since much of her music is meant to be cranked decibels high ‘til the wee hours. This is not White’s first time rockin’ the mic -- she fronted the punk-y band Stiffed -- but as Santogold she’s, well, golden. The self-titled disc kicks off with the synthesized crescendo “L.E.S. Artistes,” on which she sounds like a ringer for Missing Persons singer Dale Bozzio. Throughout the disc, the Philly native winks at her influences without sounding derivative: Musical Youth on the rude girl, staccato protest “Unstoppable”; Siouxsie & the Banshees on the brooding “Anne”; Cocteau Twins on “I’m a Lady,” layered with bass and synths. Tellingly, the wailing, bhangra beat-laden “Creator” and a crushing, hiccupping remix of “You’ll Find a Way” will undoubtedly draw comparisons to M.I.A. White’s infectious blend of new wave sonics and contemporary beats (“Starstruck” hypnotically cross-pollinates ‘80s pop with new-millennium crunk) and witty lyrics (on “L.E.S. Artistes,” White describes herself as “an introverted excavator”), however, are worth their weight in gold. Tracy E. Hopkins, Barnes & Noble