Blog Posts by John Kordosh

If you really think about it, Skid Row was one of the most exciting bands of the era in which heavy metal dominated our thoughts and dreams. The original quintet were bats out of hell in the early '90s, scoring platinum successes with their Skid Row and Slave To The Grind LPs. And, for awhile there, they seemed poised to conquer the world and make it a better, fairer world.

But, just then, something happened. Call it what you will… greed, fate, Sebastian Bach's unslakable thirst… whatever. Something. And that "something" spelled the end of one of the greatest eras music has ever known.

Oh, yeah, it was Nirvana.

But enough of that. Let's all enjoy Skid Row at their finest, with the video of "18 And Life" off their first album. This great, great video--and probably Row's greatest song--tells the tale of what can happen when seemingly-innocent gunplay turns ugly. It's a cautionary tale, to be sure, but one we can all learn from.

1 — Prison is a good

Are they the next big thing or a mere flash-in-the-pan? We don't know, so we've decided to hedge our bets by featuring "Cute Is What We Aim For" in this week's blog. Good for us!

CiWWAF hail from Buffalo, NY, and have just released their second LP, Rotation. This week's video "Practice Makes Perfect," is from the new album, and it tells the story of a guy--lead singer Shaant Hacikyan--who ends up making time with a hot babe at a party. Unexpectedly, his girlfriend walks in on the whole sordid scene, at which point time goes backwards… just like music itself has done!... and he gets another crack at doing the right thing. To his credit, the guy behaves himself in the replay, and all ends well.

Needless to say, this week we're really curious what our esteemed readers think. Is this the most preposterous video ever? Or not? Is the song itself a laughable mess, or is it the greatest tune in the history of popular culture? Or is it somewhere in between?

See you next week!

1 — "Let's

Few pop stars have had the impact of Ashanti Douglas. Recognized as "The Princess of Hip-Hop and R&B," the talented songstress has won a Grammy and a slew of other honors, including three American Music Awards, eight Billboard Music Awards, two ASCAP Music Awards, and two Teen Choice Awards. She's also a songwriter, a published poet, a dancer, a model, and a fashion designer.

This week's video is "The Way That I Love You", hot off of her new album, The Declaration. We must confess that it's somewhat disturbing, as it deals with Ashanti's murder of her faithless lover in fairly gory detail. That it turns out to be (astonishingly) a mere fantasy, and not an actual documentary, as we first hoped, mitigates its impact only slightly. Moms and dads may want to impose an age limit on our younger Framed readers.

As is our sacred oath, we really want to know what you think, so please let us know. Has Ashanti gone too far? Or, in fact, has she not gone far enough? Should girls emulate her and

It's always pretty exciting when a film or TV star decides that they'd also make a pretty good music star. Here at Framed we remember everyone from Bobby Sherman to Keanu Reeves and Russell Crowe. And they were all, without exception, great beyond words.

Which brings us to this week's featured star, Scarlett Johansson. Scarlett is about as well-established a film babe as you can be--she's appeared in movies as diverse as The Horse Whisperer, Lost In Translation and The Island. Bonus points: she's also appeared in Home Alone 3 and Eight Legged Freaks.

So, yes, her resume is stunning. But what about her credentials as a rocker? What attracts this quite beautiful woman to the now-dying world of pop music? Frankly, we have no idea in hell. And yet, at the same time, we're pretty happy to have her back in our blog. The last time we saw Scarlett was in the very first Framed, when she co-starred with Justin Timberlake in that video he made whose name we forgot.

Scarlett's released an album

Matchbox Twenty--MBT for the rest of this blog--came to us from Florida, much like Creed, the greatest rock band of all time, according to something we wrote a few weeks ago.

There must be something in the water there. Oddly enough, people from Florida who write about rock music are widely known to be the worst at their trade. Go figure!

But back to MBT. They've sold over 40 million albums and have electrified crowds for well over a decade now. This week's video, "How Far We've Come"--which talks about the death of all humanity--is MBT at their best. Conjuring images from both today and the era that was previous to today, MBT paint a stark, unsettling picture of our fate here on Earth.

It's all pretty chilling. But is it accurate?  We leave that to you, our esteemed readers. As always, we welcome your informed comments.

1 - "But how can we fake a moon landing with that stupid rock band in the control room?"

2 - "That's one small step for man, one big... um... script!"

3 -

Reality TV star Heidi Montag is now an aspiring musician...something like the Eagles, we suppose...and, frankly, we at Framed couldn't be happier. Heidi, who is something of a looker, shot the video for her first single, "Higher," on the beach, and you know what that means.

That's right. A stunning commentary on global warming and rising sea levels. And may we be even more candid? Move over, Al Gore; it's all pretty darned exciting.

It's true that Heidi has been roundly and scurrilously attacked on the internet. "The world's worst song," enthused FHM.com, for example. We wonder if FHM liked Heidi's cover shoot for Maxim.

You remember Maxim. They're the ones that are still publishing.

Well, we're not too judgmental here at Framed. We welcome all types of music, even Heidi's. You know, just to poke fun at in our joshing, lighthearted, nonjudgmental way. In a world where Adam Ant was once a professional singer, could we do any less?

So have fun, and please post your comments--tell us what

Being born in Miami and raised in Jamaica, Sean Kingston makes music that is an intriguing blend of reggae, rap and R&B. The 18-year-old Kingston did credibly well last year with his eponymous debut album, but the big single off the album, "Beautiful Girls," was a monster. It moved over seven million ringtones.

With a new album pending, Sean has promised us a special treat this week, so--without further ado--we'll turn it over to him! See you again next week!

1 - "Hi, readers! Welcome to 'A video shoot with Sean!' Please let me take you through the video for my big hit song, 'Beautiful Girls.'"

2 - "Here are some of the hot girls they hired for my video. They were beautiful, but certainly not way too beautiful. Bad casting."

3 - "The magic of video allowed us to go back to 1957, yet still remember everything that would happen later! Don't vote for Nixon!"

4 - "Here I am pointing out to my director that, contrary to the song's lyrics, I'm not actually suicidal, and hence have no

Good news, readers! This week makes it four out of our last six blogs that we've featured someone from American Idol in Framed! They say that only God is perfect, but--to be perfectly blunt--we're starting to wonder.

Ahem.

Even better, our featured star is our personal favorite Idol performer of all time--none other than Kellie Pickler, the Flower of the South. When Kellie was an Idol contestant, Framed was riveted by her performance of that one Queen song, the one where she was wearing that tight leather outfit. By which we mean, she sang it very, very well. That Kellie only came in sixth place that year was probably the greatest injustice in American pop culture since George W. Bush was denied a popular vote victory back in '00.

Now, of course, Kellie is a big star, and we couldn't be happier. Kellie has proven--proven, we say!--that any ol' "small town girl" (get it?) from North Carolina can become a great and acclaimed singer and not have to be a waitress. That's the lesson. This