Just saw Kanye play Nokia Theater in Times Square. Some AMEX corporate event. Jesus fucking walks. Best show of the year. Even better than when I saw him play Cipriani Wall Street, this totally insane ballroom filled with models in gala dress, where Arye and I could go up to the very front because NO ONE cared. Guest stars were better then--NAS with John Legend singing "If I Ruled the World." I almost died. And then Kanye declared un-ironically that A-Ha's "Take On Me" is his favorite track of all time and did the world's cutest bar mitzvah dance. I swooned appropriately. He's such a dork, and I mean that in the very best way.

This time it was John Legend singing his usual schmaltz, and Common, who was better but not by much, and Pharrell, who's new album SUCKS. The concert took a total nosedive when he debuted his new stuff. It was great to see Kanye kick all their asses on his night--wearing khaki pants, a black button down (drenched in sweat) and the biggest, yellowest gold chain I've ever seen. A little much, but he worked it well. He has a six or seven-piece string section (Asian girls, of course) with a band of red face paint over their eyes, and two back-up singers. He dances like someone who's spent a lot of his life rocking out to cheesy '80s tunes in his basement--his moves are joyous, involuntary. There's not an ouce of trying to look cool or hump the air. Very endearing. And he's clearly having the time of his life onstage. He killed on all the songs you love, but the best part was his improv skills. DJ A-TRAK (aka Chromeo's brother) would spin whatever Kanye shouted out, and he gave us this fascinating audio tour through the beats he sold on his way to becoming a rapper, including Ludacris's "Stand Up," which he got sued over tons of times, until he had to testify that he had written the first few lines. "Tell the court exactly which lines you wrote." "'How you ain't gonna FUCK? Bitch, I'm me!' Your honor." I don't care what anyone says about his raging ego. He's earned it.