slang

She looks utterly ravishingly and sphinx-like in her Miss Daytona selfie. I really wonder what she's thinking. I think we should just express that we love her art and wonder why she's being inhibited, if in fact she is inhibited and not butting heads with some label execs over some kind of BS. The fact that she says "things were so different and yet not that different at all" [10 yrs ago], gives me some hope she'll revisit some of her weirder and/or older styles, or at least give those years a better archiving (formal releases, which she has suggested as a possibility). I guess we also know what our collective fan designation is: lil bs (little bitches, as in it's coming you little bitch, LOL).

At least the US Amazon has Sylvia Plath's collected poems at $3.99 as a digital Kindle book. You can go to Project Gutenberg and get Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass as a Kindle book (or html) for free. So I'm hoping she does the expensive physicals only for those who desire an expensive physicality of her thoughts (and whatever else is there, like her paintings or photos by Chuck, perhaps). Me, I like the kindle medium (and it solves the WW distribution problem rather niftily). Finally, if she sells a kindle version for a buck, and 10M purchases occur, even if she gets 50% of the profits.....

Fun fact: Yosemite comes from a Native American phrase meaning "those who kill", in reference to a badass tribe of Native American renegades, that lived in that valley. Maybe that gives LDR some kind of vague trepidation for releasing the song. www.yosemite.ca.us/library/origin_of_word_yosemite.html Even if she does have such, she should release the song on NFR, because Travis Scott did release a song named Yosemite and apparently got no flack for it (so LDR could claim gender discrimination if she does).

I think the issue is motivation. That is, she says it's finished, so what is her motivation for not giving a release date. Therefore, the pessimists think she's not confident about being finished and may want to change things up substantially, or (hyper-pessimistically) that she's completely lost interest in the core product. The optimist thinks she's adding more tracks to a finalized core product. An interesting seldom-considered possibility is that she wants to coordinate her release with somebody elses, not necessarily to hurt them (or herself), but to help them (e.g. Barry James O'neill has Psychedelic Soup coming out April or May, he's recently said). And if she doesn't release NFR March 29th, there are (at least) 3 other things she could release on that day to live up to her twitter bio a bit more, at least two of which would give me great joy (and the 3rd would probably be interesting). As to the 2nd question, if it were the case Rock and Alternative titles don't occur much in BB200 in general (i.e., not just BTD), it just means that Rock and Alternative sells comparatively worse than the other categories (Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, Country). Kind of curious to see whether the Claypool-Lennon Delirium release this Friday will chart any on BB200. I'm guessing it won't, given your observation about BTD.

Just to keep it real, I'd like to point out that Hillsong is not mainstream Catholic (as I might have thought earlier) but closer to Pentacostal or a "charismatic Christian" church, just follow the link in the first sentence of its wikipedia page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsong_Church "Charismatic" churches inherit from Pentacostalism an interest in "baptism with the Holy spirit", which LDR has been artistically interested in (among other things) for the Tropico mv. That video concludes with a baptism and ascension of sorts. So LDR is not a hardcore Catholic, and ironically, this church may not even be the worst church she could possibly be in according to anti-gay dogma. I really don't know. I don't follow Christianity. I *only* follow certain artists, as well as LDR, that follow Christianity, which is how I think/learn/know about it. The Wikipedia page also has some controversy sections about Hillsong, but it seems like the normal kinds of sleazery you get with big churches. I need more info on super-sleazy stuff to form an opinion on how irate I should be that LDR attends this church (as opposed to any church). To Hillsong's "credit" they do have a public stance on the web from their senior pastor on homosexuality: they don't condone/affirm the lifestyle (e.g., recognize homosexual marriage religiously, but do so legally, as they have to), don't allow gay leadership within their church, but do allow and encourage gays to attend the church. https://hillsong.com/media-releases/hillsong-church-statement-by-senior-pastor-brian-houston/ and the following link on that page "Do I love gay people?" So you can theoretically still attend the church as a homosexual and wonder how it's relevant to you. This should involve thinking about how the concept of Christ is relevant to you, not how organized religion, which is against you to some extent, is relevant. Before you can wonder how Christ is relevant, you can investigate how the new testament views it. Here's a good intro link (I googled "new testament and homosexuality", first hit): https://www.bibleodyssey.org/en/passages/related-articles/homosexuality-in-the-new-testament The interesting observation, according to this scholar, is that Jesus never says anything about homosexuality; it's all this Paul guy. Who made Paul an authority on these issues? That's the thing that needs to be investigated/challenged. So now what would Jesus think? Nobody knows, but Anne Rice wrote two 1st-person narration (!!!) "novels" about the early life of Christ. Did she ever address the issue? I won't say I know all the relevant passages for this question (it's been awhile since I read the books), but in the beginning of the 2nd book, The road to Cana, Christ is about 30 at this time; there is a sudden stoning, without trial, of two young males for alleged homosexual acts. Christ witnesses this and is distraught by it and seeks to comfort the parents of one of the stonees. So here is Anne Rice, putting words in Jesus's mouth. I believe she's trying to be consistent with scripture and avoid Vatican and other scorn/notice, while still being true, and possibly very firm, about her own beliefs on the matter. Remember, the "I" in the passage is supposed to be Jesus, so she's really walking a highwire here in terms of church scrutiny. [pg. 24] I came close and put my arms on the two of them, and they looked to me suddenly like terrified children. "There was no trial, as you know," I said. "That means that no one will ever know what Yitra did or the Orphan did, or how it was, or when it was, or if nothing ever happened. No one will know. No one can know. Not even the little boys who accused them knew. Only heaven knows. Now you mustn't have a trial for the boys in your heart. There can't be one. And that means there should be none. And so you mourn for Yitra in your heart. And Yitra is forever innocent. He has to be. It can't be otherwise, not this side of heaven." I'll lapse into AP (advanced placement) English mode and interpret between the lines. If someone puts their arms on you, and you suddenly look like terrified children, it means you view that person as an authority and shit is about to come down, and I do believe Christ has a reputation in his local village for being weirdly powerful by this time in the Anne Rice canon. The other things: emphasis on "no trial", "no one will know", "no one can know", and the command not to mourn for Yitra, and most importantly the proclamation that Yitra is "forever innocent", "he has to be". All these things take on a dramatic turn in interpretation, imo, if the parents actually did know about Yitra's homosexuality. In that case, the trial Jesus alludes to is arguably not about whether the two youths engaged in homosexual acts, but whether homosexual acts, themselves, are sinful. I'm going to opine that His (well really her) last sentences bias the interpretation that homosexuality is not frowned on in heaven (if it exists). At any rate, if, as a homosexual, you decide to attend a Christian church, and they accuse you of sin for your sexual orientation, a possible response is to say "Jesus doesn't talk about homosexuality, only this Paul guy, and why should I believe him". The other thing you might say is "Where's my trial? Tell me how a homosexual lifestyle hurts me or others above and beyond what a heterosexual life style does. Is it Christian to condemn without a trial?"

Interesting how seeing the video made the song production pop out as being much more lush and lavish than I remembered. I like the song a lot now. Topically, the lyrics remind me of Lust for Life, specifically the Invictus poem paraphrase part. I mean if heaven is handmade, God is not interventionist. On the other hand God (or the starting infrastructure) is not irrelevant as you only handmake things out of available resources. Just to compare the two videos/songs further (wtf, I'm bored): red-riding hood vibe here matches LDR wearing red in LFL mv, and there's also the "blue birds[skies] forever" line. Obviously, there ae big differences in the social setting of the videos: LDR's prominent male role in both lyrics and video; whereas Marina is alone (and uneasy, according to the lyrics), but Marina also talks about friendship to get her through (the birds of a feather flying together stuff). So has Marina talked about the meaning of the song anywhere?

So I heard HH once on youtube. It seemed an extension of Froot-mode, but sort of a more intimate style (possibly paralleling LDR with NFR); however, this is only a first impression (gotta listen a bunch more times). The other thing I noticed from the youtube credits is that she seems to be with Lorde's ex now (producer that is, Joel Little).

Interesting artist (who reminds me of Joanna Newsom and Sufjan Stevens a bit) stanning LFL. She's battling thyroid cancer so lets all send her positive thoughts. https://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/thelma TMT asks what may have influenced her most recent album and she said: " ... I don’t know why, I just became obsessed with Lana Del Rey’s 2017 record Lust For Life. Just fucking obsessed. I just thought it was so funny. I think musically it’s incredible, and it’s just so sugary, but I find her lyrics to be fucking hilarious. They’re good, but she takes on this role — I mean, I don’t know how serious she is — to me, she’s like a caricature of something that one would want to critique, but I was just obsessed with that record, and I feel like somehow that record had an influence on this, which is really funny." So I'm shaking my head more than a bit at all this as I consider LFL her most mainstream commercial album, and I naturally wonder what she might have thought (lyrics wise) of any of LDR's previous albums, which are sometimes more extreme. Then the thought occurs to me that she might be trolling Tiny Mix Tapes a bit, as that nest of pseudo-intellectual critics gave BTD a zero out of 5, and then retroactively gave BTD a 5 out of 5 on the style tag words for Lorde' Pure Heroine review, and THEN had a nervous breakdown trying to review UV (which they never give a score to). Subsequent LDR-TMT reviews have been decent scores (for them).

Enya famously released her most recent album the same day as Adele's 25; I doubt Enya expected to be number 1 on that day (although she was #8). With LDR / Eilish it would be a much closer call to be sure; however ... #fresh_outta_fucks_forever Also releasing on 3/29 (if LDR does it) could mean she's done stuff on the album that interscope didn't like (but I probably will), and so the label is punishing LDR for it (i.e., sales for both are probably going to be the same in the long run, anyway). Poor Billie is just caught in the middle (and probably still likes LDR). Fan fiction, ain't it great?

Jimmy Gnecco X Hallmark Jesus is how I would describe him. I was hoping he actually was Jimmy, but it can't be him (can it?), because otherwise people would have recognized him.

I'm not recommending this for anyone given the unpredictability of LDR (well maybe I would recommend it to Kanye West), but the way to question a *generic* Christian about their faith would be something like this (I imagine): "I have a spiritual void in my life and heard you go to Catholic church, what do you recommend about that faith that keeps you engaged in it". Christians are biased to want to convert (pardon the word) people to their religion, and at any rate, if they are *good* (i.e., the religion-independent sense of good), they should not lie in their answer. Assuming an answer is given, the asker could state they are homosexual and ask whether catholicism thinks that's a sin (it does, according to the head of Hillsong), at which point the *generic* Christian would have the opportunity to give their religion's views on the topic (obligatory given the question) and their own views (optionally). Their personal views, if given, could disagree with the church views. The way I constructively read your comment and its subsequent criticism is there's not enough dwelling on what the best-case or other-case scenarios are, just the worst-case one. The criticism that followed seemed to be about wanting details on other cases. I posted a best-case scenario in the NFR pre-release thread (bad choice of threads, sorry): http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/10278-norman-fucking-rockwell-pre-release-thread/?p=730247 Anne Rice is an example of a best-case scenario; that is, she is an artist that criticized and integrated her religious interests (Catholicism btw) into her art (only on occasion, though very, very prominently, imo). Also remember Martin Luther. He probably went to church but still ended up nailing his objections to church practices to its door and was excommunicated for his efforts. I'm not saying the worst-case scenarios won't happen (or aren't happening) with LDR, but give the other cases a chance. I would agree with everyone that it would be a real turn-off for her to financially support this church in any substantive and general way. And if people are worried about the church trying to use her celebrity as promo, that could be very risky for them given her art is still a free variable and can go contra their views (as I believe it already has, with the exception of National Anthem, the song, lol). There are also a lots of medium-case scenarios. Again from the other thread @kitchesque: http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/10278-norman-fucking-rockwell-pre-release-thread/?p=732460 If it's not a convenience thing (proximity) that motivates her, it may be a pragmatics thing, such as this church being set up to handle celebrities (which would be annoyingly disruptive in smaller-- less controversial -- churches). As for religion, in general, it's interesting to me why LDR is interested in it. I'm guessing it's because of her fear of death, a possible fear of fucking up her life (i.e., not doing the right thing with it, as may be expressed as a possibility, in the Coachella song), and (as you suggest) her wanting some kind of non-threatening social circle to occasionally schmooze in (e.g., booze/drug-free environment), but these are just speculations on my part. Also maybe her mom made her do it, as we know she was raised Catholic. also thanks for the info in this post: http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/10278-norman-fucking-rockwell-pre-release-thread/?p=732453 Hillsong also seem to have a tv station. ------------------------- Like many have stated, we don't know what it means her going to this church, even repeatedly, because it depends on what she does in the future wrt LGBT sorts of issues. A simple guilt by association is arguably too simple. LDR, to my knowledge, has NOT advocated the church's specific "extracurricular" activities. However, if those activities are what are discussed --objectively/journalistically-- here and elsewhere, maybe she'll leave the church, or better yet, go all Martin-Luther on their asses. And she doesn't need to work with a church door to do that these days.

I know it sounds like a non-sequitur, but someone needs to ask LDR if she likes (or is influenced by) Anne Rice. I bring AR up, because she is a good example of someone who is a Catholic by birth, and a secular humanist by choice. She also has a gay following and is a gay advocate. I also think she makes a point of being a humanist from within Christianity (at least she has two "novels" about the early life of Christ), so she can be like a progressive rebel for that religion. That is, she wants her religion to be better, but the only way it can be is for people that hold her views to be in it. Anyway, here's hoping LDR is cut from the same cloth (although maybe Hillsong is just the closest Catholic church from her house?). BTW, here's the wikipedia for Anne Rice (and it's instructive to search for the word "gay" on it): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Rice

NYT won't let me read their article, because apparently I've seen 3 others of theirs this month (boo hoo). The critical thing about your interpretation vis a vis how LDR could be referring to that place, is the timespan of the Gas Station's operation. If it were being used as a performance place around 2005, then she would have been around 20 and may have been referring to personal experiences there, otherwise if it were much earlier that it ceased to operate, she'd have to be writing about it historically. The "looking to score" line becomes the most ominous, in this context, I guess. "Gun metal" might have been a reference to bling (as the reference appears to be to a song avatar). Also, she does have Fordham Road (song), which if we take as autobiographical suggests (along with your interpretation) she knew of dangerous places, but in FR she made the life-preserving choice with respect to them. In reviewing Queen of the Gas Station, it's pretty clear that it is her "white trash" period (Utah love?), where gas stations (casinos, Indian reservations) are the most engaging places to be around. If autobiographical, she seems to have lived a lot (i.e., reverse dog years; one of hers is seven of mine).

If we're being critical about the response, the fact that it's to a fan and not given on her general social media outlets (or is it?), is an interesting feature, imo. It says to me that the issue is a no-brainer (in her mind, i.e., not worth clarifying, or even bringing to the attention of the GP, because it's obvious). I mean if fans don't give her the benefit of the doubt, when there's an obvious counter-interpretation, who will? So being peeved is warranted, imo. I agree that there's quite a lot of ethnicity and culture borrowed in her video work, and maybe even in song. Her saying she has "nothing to do with the majority of culture" is just a (poor) way of saying she is selective about her use of culture, imo. Also saying "deeply personal and introspective having nothing to do with anyone outside of my immediate circle of people i know personally." sort of suggests there *might* be other people outside herself that the song could be about. Marina? She's definitely o.k. with POC no matter how she actually comes off in her (personal?) response (i.e., Asap Rocky, and the Weeknd say hello). "American" is not a race though, and another allowable interpretation (of "skin so golden brown") is that she's talking about the continent, not specifically the U.S. For example, I hear (in Last Girl on Earth) she has a roller coaster named after her in Mexico, which she happens to own, btw; Mexico, that is, not just the roller coaster in it.

I would certainly describe HIADT as anti-pop or, as many have observed, more Leonard-Cohen-like (but, along with MAC, VB, and HTD, it's more like "full frontal" Leonard, lol). The cover art looks fine to me. I mean you can interpret it as lazy AF, if you like, or as the kind of photograph someone would pick of a loved one who had committed suicide (i.e., not looking sad). She seems to live for polarizing ambiguities like that (as with "the black narcissist" line, which is only a personal slur if you want it to be; the garden path interpretation is a reference to depression). With regard to "hope", there was an article in LFL era, which asks (something) about that: https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/lana-del-rey-cover-story "What makes you feel hopeful? —Gabriel [a fan] Really good music. Or meeting someone who I’m sure has zero ulterior motives. Being in the middle of a tour, too." So art is therapeutic, meeting someone with a positive number of ulterior motives (which I'm thinking is common for her) is depressing, and having successfully started a tour (as opposed to the dread of having to start it) is uplifting. Curiously, the question that follows in the article (also by a fan) may also be relevant to the song: "So much of your music is about love. What has it taught you? —Emily That it’s not what I thought. And that the best is yet to come." So, is the song mainly about failed love relationships and the "danger" of being depressive in that context? If so, it seems to follow topically songs like 13 Beaches and Cherry.

My last in a "trilogy-of-terrible" for this thread, commemorating the leaving of the LFL era. I think the era was just fine, btw. Although this post is the most WTF of the three, as often said in movie trailers, it is based on a true story. I recently finished Lust for Life (Irving Stone, 1934), the famous Van Gogh bio-novel, which LDR's last album-title prompted me to read. I was surprised by the amount of similarity I could notice between the lives of Vincent Van Gogh and LDR, that is: both coming from a well-to-do family, having a strong supportive sibling relationship, interest in doing significant social work, penchant for doomed love relationships, and Paul Gauguin as Lady Gaga. However, I hope that the mental-illness and untimely demise elements remain forever unshared. Also near the end of the book, Vincent is painting a landscape in Arles and meets a mysterious woman, Maya, who apparently has been spying on him, extensively and covertly, all the while he's been learning to become a painter. From the description, I highly suspect a time-travelling mental incarnate (aka hallucination) of May Jailer. Shortly thereafter (and near the end of Vincent's life), Dr. Felix Rey (heh, heh, heh "happy Lana") treats Van Gogh for mental instability, but unlike Maya, this dude existed (I found him in Wikipedia). So it seems LDR can be trans-gender, as well as corporeally and mentally time-travel. The mind boggles at her powers.

You don't have to like her MAC photo, of course. I like it (a lot) because it's rather Sphinx-like (and pissed off?). It's also cool that her twitter profile pic (which has long hair) seems to mimic the flat-line lips and neck tilt in the MAC cover art (on the display banner for her twitter). So while you think it's like an awkward pic, she seems to be making some kind of a statement of a new aesthetic.

LFL is an interesting album for me from the point of view of getting me into other people. Elsewhere (i.e., the lyrics thread for Get Free) I mentioned Neil Young; however, Sean Lennon has also become an artist to watch. His second solo album Friendly Fire (2006) reminds me a lot of LDR's leaks/unreleased (the dreamy, wistful, introspective, lovelorn side of it). The only thing his songs lack relative to hers is that incomparable singing voice, which he didn't have, of course, but I gotta say I'm happy he produced those songs. He's also done a lot of interesting stuff since then. Ghost of a Saber-Tooth Tiger (aka GOASTT), with his multi-instrumentalist, co-singer/writer, and hot-model girlfriend (hope that's still going on), small-budget movie soundtracks, and an ongoing collaboration with Les Claypool (of Primus, another interesting band, LDR's collab with Sean indirectly lead me to). In the Claypool Lennon Delirium, Sean seems much more of a guitar badass than his father was. Finally Sean's youtube interviews are also space-ily metaphysical. In short, I don't think he's a token feature by any stretch but much more of an influence like Jewel or Joan Baez is sometimes thought to be. As for the song Tomorrow Never Came: contradictory comments from LDR interviews suggest a certain coyness about it, ranging from "That [song] was the only one I thought was not ‘my’ song or not for myself. I wasn’t really thinking about anyone in particular when I wrote it"-- TheSun.UK to "I had listened to his [sean's] records over the years and I did think it was his vibe ... it felt very meant-to-be [commenting on the final version of the song, imo]. Because that whole concept of peace and love really is in his veins and in his family."-- Dazed interview. Finally, in the Die Ganze Woche interview, she even explicitly says the song is about an "ideal" relationship *like* John's and Yoko's, which is ironic AF (in the Alanis Morissette sense of ironic) as some random crazy asshole (more and more common these days) ended it. Anyway, here's a link to that last interview: http://lanaboards.com/index.php?/topic/9388-interview-with-die-ganze-woche-072017/?p=544219

I bought Ani Difranco's and Depeche Mode's latest at the time I bought LFL, and while I thought LFL did just fine by comparison to those, it's not a competition (i.e. different artists, different strengths and weaknesses, and all that). And speaking of Ani Difranco… Just what kind of positivity was LDR tapping into for LFL and how should she have promoted activism (which I guess includes feminism) in her artistic work and in LFL specifically? I don't know, but Ani Difranco made some very general comments about positivity and activism, in connection with her recommendable release, Binary (June 9th, 2017). What I like about it is that I could easily imagine LDR saying words like these about positivity and activism (or at least agreeing with them). There's also a couple places where Ani seems to resonate specifically with LFL lyrics (e.g., nobody can make me feel lonely, people are powerful things, if we hold on to hope, we'll have a happy ending, words turning to birds). Sure Ani is likely a better activist and writes better specific songs about activism (e.g. Binary has songs on abortion and teaching pacifism, but it also songs about spiders and sasquatches!). But my point is the two artists overlap on *positivism* a goodly amount. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va7-Y3n3gtU

Had the interviewer (was it Zane?) asked just one innocuous question ("how many poems have you written?"), we might have gauged the seriousness of her intent. I'd say anything over 25 poems is serious for poetry, but that's just a guess (a WAG, in fact).

The thing about her poetry book that interests me most (other than whether she'll do it) is whether she's going to have it widely considered by a possible reading public (e.g., kindle pub between .99 and 9.99, where she can get 70% of the royalties), as opposed to just an expensive (physical) collectible that mainly ardent fans would pursue. Of course, both options can happen (they're not mutually exclusive). I also wonder if Chuck is going to be involved photographically.

@slang ing me doesn't seem to notify me, boo hoo. Anyway... Is it [streams?] free though? It kind of depends on the artist. So this anonymous artist reported their spotify royalties: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/05/26/band-1-million-spotify-streams-royalties/ LDR is probably approaching 1B streams, which is a 1000x these guys. Do the math. I mean even if she gets a tenth of what these guys get per stream (and why should she be different from they?), she'd be doing pretty good given the expenditure required for her to get 1B streams. Yeah she needed the talent and needed to develop it, but once that's there/been done, and the initial effort recording things occurred, streams were effortless. At the end of the day, I'd just like a comparison of artist benefit from streams vs. artist benefit from physical album sales (hard physicals and digitals). Rather than a simple declining trend for album sales, which is not really clear as an indication of expenditure on music, or how much artists are being ripped off. I don't think the fact that there is a preference for track consumption via streaming (on demand) means anything with regards to an artist's inclination to create an "album". If they actually have the inclination to do so, they will take advantage of the two distribution methods as they co-exist fine, although not every artist will bother creating hard physicals, given production costs and the fact CDs and Vynils from record companies (but not downloaded digital copies) are legal to sell used (with neither artist nor record company benefiting). Yet they still make hard physicals for some reason, which is surprising, but also speaks to the staying power of that medium. Finally, streaming doesn't preclude the idea of buying an album (either physical or digital) from an artist, just to be a patron of the arts wrt that artist and/or have more convenient access to the artist. I do that all the time, but because I can stream an artist that might be interesting (or impulse buy a used cd), I'm a lot more selective about who I buy new albums from.

I followed the link (in OP), but I don't know if I read the whole article. As usual, a confusing article from RS. All I see is that fixed collections of songs, termed albums, is going down from year to year, indicating that people are electing to stream more on demand (on the assumption the interest in music hasn't waned). The article's one figure should have had a third column to reflect pure streaming revenue to show this, but RS or RIAA just can't be bothered with thoughtfulness when it comes to clarifying their position. Also, if artists who sell the most "albums" (e.g. Drake) do decide to become track oriented instead of album oriented, album sales (fixed collection of song sales) must go down, even while not affecting album-oriented artists (e.g. LDR). We all know that LDR can do both kinds of orientation (and I wish she would, given her unreleased catalog). Finally the album concept, even if it's not a "concept" album per se (or some other kind of large-timescale work), is just the idea that you're buying a collection of songs from the same recording session (or composing period) for less than what you would pay for the tracks individually, which is something, I as a consumer, would not like to go away. I suspect artists are going to appreciate this, or they will appreciate that whether or not they do the "album thing" is going to be another facet that determines which people (and how many) buy their stuff.

LFL is aging just fine for me and is a fine addition to her discography. It is one for the fans, but not necessarily her fans. I mean she's got all those features with people she admires, and she shows up as a fan (or at least has a fan character) in many songs (Groupie Love, Coachella, TNC, Get Free, White Mustang). There even some songs with anti-fan sentiments (13 Beaches, In My Feelings, Heroin). Her voice is quite addicting and capable of forcing coherences out of the diverse material.

Well if civilization is the brawn, then politics is supposed to be the brain. If the quoted part of your post is in fact how you could view evil politics vs. less evil (i.e., less evil politics are those that works against what you're describing), then Clinton and Trump can be assessed in those terms. I won't argue it, but I think people could argue that Hilary was your man in terms of closing the rich/poor gap. As far as weighting her particular transgressions go, that's up to you, but what you described did not terrifically offend me. In fact, it made her seem more like she was the typical political man, at least with regard to lawyering and deposing govt-labeled "tyrants". She could have been a better candidate if she ran with Saunders, but if the country is too scared to elect a woman, a woman and a socialist doesn't seem very likely, imo (although many do hypothesize she would have won with Bernie as VP).