Article from Vancouver Courier - July 18/08...We love Jon & Danny too :)

Kudos & Kvetches
Vancouver Courier
Published: Friday, July 18, 2008
An open letter to Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood of New Kids on the Block


Dear Jonathan and Danny,
We saw your new video yesterday. Congratulations. "Summertime" is the perfect vehicle to mount your band's long awaited comeback. It's breezy and happy and features lots of women in bikinis bumping and grinding with your band mates at what looks like a pretty happening beach party outfitted by Club Monaco. That store sure makes breezy clothes great for those times when women in bikinis rub up against you. The thing is, we hardly saw either of you in the video. We were stoked when the video starts and Donnie receives a text message saying "It's on," and then he hops in a helicopter. Then Joey gets the same text message while standing shirtless on his yacht. At least we think it's his yacht. Wait a second, of course it is! But Danny, when you get the message, you're shown running through the woods... exercising. We realize it's meant to imply that you are one fit dude with toned biceps and that it takes a lot of work to be a hard-body like yourself, but we thought it was a bit of a snub. Are they trying to say you can't you afford your own yacht or helicopter? We're sure the cross trainers you're wearing are top of the line--you wouldn't settle for anything less--but come on, you deserve better than that.

And Jonathan, we were more than a little dismayed to see Donnie, Joey and Jordan hogging all the singing duties. Jordan's your brother, for goodness sake. Couldn't he have thrown you a bone. Instead, you get to sing the lyric "...and all the good times we had, baby" from the 1:12 mark to the 1:14 mark of the song. That's two seconds, which is somehow shorter than your part in "Step by Step," where you get to sing "Don't you know that the time is right." You were so good in that song. Why couldn't you have sung something like that?
Sadly, Danny, you don't fare much better. Right after Jonathan's anemic bit, you get to sing "It's been a few years, and I can't deny" from 1:15 to 1:16 of the song. One second of singing. You can't buy very many cross trainers if you're getting paid by the word.

But probably the biggest insult is the appalling lack of face time both of you get in the video. While scantily clad women--are there any other kind?--frolic on the sand and press their glistening mounds of flesh against your band mates, both of you are barely even there. Granted, Jonathan, you did go into real estate after New Kids on the Block first broke up and Danny your post-NKOTB music career was nothing to write home about, but you guys are getting treated like second-class citizens in your own band. Nowhere is this more apparent than at the end of the video when you all dress in white and perform your dance routine that's a not-so-subtle nod to your dance routines of the past. Where are you guys? Are you those shadowy figures in the background, because the only faces we're seeing is Joey, Jordan and Donnie. Sure, Jonathan you're known as the shy one and Danny you're the muscular one, but that doesn't mean you're less than the others. You're New Kids on the Block, not New Kids on the Block and A Couple of their Buddies who Nobody Really Likes. Show some respect for yourselves and, most importantly, hang tough.
Sincerely,
Kudos and Kvetches.