How could I be in the middle of Times Square yet feel like I’m prepping for a trip to South America? I sauntered into Hotel QT around 9:30 p.m. and was greeted with a caipirinha. With a nod to the bartender, I made my way to the pool. Brazilian beats hummed inside the pool area, but I wanted to contain my movements until I could flow like the water below. On the last Thursday of every month, when DJ Miller Cruz spins Música Popular Brasileira, including samba, samba rock, forró and more, it’s like a minivacation for mind, body and groove.

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If I was able to pluck a rock star out of the ether and call him my own, Chris Cornell would be the one. I loved him in Soundgarden. I loved him in Temple of the Dog. I loved him in Audioslave. I loved him in those incredibly hot John Varvatos ads last year.

My co-worker (who went to the show with me) and I consider “Rusty Cage” the theme song of our shared office. Cornell’s voice is astounding and, if you haven’t caught on already, I find him exceptionally attractive. So when I had the chance to go to his sold out solo show at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza last week, I was beside myself.
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In the past month, it feels like I have seen more musical performances then a Rolling Stone journalist. Surprisingly, not only were they all fantastic performances, but they were an eclectic mix from different genres, venues, and attitudes.

Ludacris and DJ Sway,
Photo Courtesy of Brad Barket,
Getty Images North America

Ludacris brings new meaning to ’shake your money maker’ with the recent release of one of hip-hop magazine XXL’s “Most Anticipated Records of the Year,” Release Therapy. As an in-the-know, ahead-of-the-curve New Yorker, I couldn’t wait any longer to hear the new album and see the man of the hour during the album release party at Lower East Side club Element.

I was schedule to take in Jet concert, promoting their new album Shine On, which Fuse TV’s 7th Avenue Drop recorded on Thursday Sept 29. A friend of mine is the casting director who regularly sneaks me into these events, past events have included The Strokes and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

When I arrived at the flashy Fuse studio on 34th Street and Seventh Avenue, I spied a line of excited mini-hipsters wrapping around the corner as they waited to pile into the studio and stand within sweat-slinging distance of the rock gods as they performed. Since I don’t like lines (or hipsters), I walked past it all and slipped into the Fuse building. That’s when chaos began.

It’s no secret within my circle that I love heavy metal music. (I’ll spare you the particulars, but I’ve never met a flying V guitar I didn’t love.) So I’m happy to say that my recent discovery - headbangernyc.com - is a special little something that makes my mosh-pit-lovin’ self very happy. The site itself is basically just a concert calendar and info on local bands (the MySpace page has more), but it’s the weekly-ish e-mails that you can sign up for on the site that I love. Full-on concert listings, tidbits on the scene, and musings on all things metal. Short and sweet, few bells and whistles, but really, can you beat hearing that, say, Goat Horn is disbanding or that members of Mudvayne, Nothing Face, Danzig, and Pantera are forming a band or that System of a Down is on the rocks? I think not.