Vertimus

So we already have new Lana music to look forward to, even though we don't yet know what her contribution will be. Maybe she'll just be humming in the background. I liked his first single release and look forward to the second.

I understand this completely. Some/most of OC sounds like it was made predominantly for Lana and her family. I was listening to ‘Cult Leader,’ ‘Dragon Slayer,’ ‘Unidentified Flying Bill,’ and ‘French Restaurant’ earlier today, and had to admit to myself that I enjoyed all of them more than than I enjoy all the OC tracks except ‘LTLI.’

Well, they do Stan her. Most are hardline feminists, and some are maniacal about her; they enshrine her, they fall just short of worshipping her. They see her as a potent, all-powerful symbol of the mistreatment and systemic abuse of women in the 20th century.

I accept it as it is, but would much prefer that the VB part only came after, if at all, the a second or third verse. Right when it really starts to heat up, it turns into a version of VB.

70+ years. Like I said earlier, there is, and has been for decades, Elizabeth Short 'stans' to fiercely protect her memory across the internet. There's an army of them and they're angry and partisan. They don't care for the facts any more than any other person or group. So Lana may come in for some emotional violence in the days or weeks ahead. ALSO, in 'A&W,' Lana wrote how if she were raped, she would be blamed for it, it would have "been her fault," so that should show the Shorties that Lana's perspective is very likely not that Elizabeth Short brought her own doom down upon her head by her behavior. The murder has become a part of American history and lore, and belongs to everyone and no one.

Exactly. There's no such thing. Everyone's taste is a fact in itself--it's a fact that we all have opinions that we call our 'taste,' there's no such thing as an objectively good movie, song, album, artist, painting, piece of architecture, decor, etc.

Agreed. We have to wait and see what results. I'm a little surprised she selected CN to make a video for, out of all the OB songs.

Yes, I referred to George Hodel, he was the doctor I mentioned whose own child suspected him and his friends, including Man Ray, of the murder, but there's been several books in which children come forward with the shocking news that they believe their father was the BD murderer, and none of the books are taken very seriously. That's becoming a sub-genre of the Short industry--claiming that your father was the Black Dahlia murderer. In the book about G. Hodel, the photo that the daughter claims is Short, and puts forward as 'evidence' that her father knew and killed Short, clearly isn't Short. It's just a pale, slightly Asian-appearing woman with an oval face and her hair done up in what looks almost like a geisha style.

Thank you--apparently I saw everything else on IG but that. As to why some may be mad about it, I've followed the case for years, read most of the books about the BD murder, and, from my online contacts, learned that there is a fairly massive number of people, mostly women, mostly feminists, who either identify with Short, or don't want to see her memory further sullied, or both. But you can read 15 books on the topic and get 15 completely different sets of 'facts' and interpretation of those 'facts' about Short, so at this point it's like reading about the Jack the Ripper murders: very few authors are objective, honest, and rely on the hard facts that are actually known. Political, social, and subjective views flood the interpretations; some feminists perceive male authors and investigators as slandering Short when they feel she should be treated like a saint due to her victimhood, while some authors feel that the hard facts about Short's life have to be brought to light. But no one can decide on what the facts are, short of the autopsy report.

Okay--if that's accurate, then Lord knows what we're in for. I don't know if we can assume it will be 'tasteful' or tactful, or respectful of Short's memory and 'all-over-the-place' reputation. As I mentioned yesterday, Short has a legion of devoted guardians, and they're quick to attack anyone who dares to sully, or further sully, her reputation. So I would expect they will come after Lana now, unless Lana approaches her as a victim of a male-dominated society. It seems as if everyone who knew Short had a completely different impression of her, and books have even been published by friends who knew her back in New England. That Short may have lied a great deal would be no surprise, that's often the case with young people trying to rise through society or an industry in a strange town, while simultaneously trying make ends meet.

Apparently, the video Lana is producing for 'Candy Necklace,' or has already produced, features her in 1940s style, in terms of hair and dress, and she has a large purple or purplish flower in her hair, which was the social trademark of Elizabeth Short, a young woman who came to Hollywood seeking fame, may or may not have gotten into a lot of trouble with the wrong people, and ended up murdered by party or parties still unknown, her remains tossed in a field in Hollywood, completely severed at the waist and with her mouth slit from ear to ear. As you can imagine, it shocked the late 1940s genteel America, which was starting to enjoy the post-war boom. Everything is available on google, though I don't know if the gruesomest photos still are. Beware. Endless books have been written about Short, making all kinds of wild statements and conjectures--that she fell into prostitution, that she was never a prostitute, that she had no vaginal canal or uterus (this is not mentioned in the autopsy, so I think it can be ruled out), that she was pregnant at the time of her death, that she used people relentlessly to survive (for example, once she slept on your sofa once and you fed her, you could never get her to leave), that she was the nicest person imaginable, that she was lazy and preferred to live off people and go from person to person, that her teeth were in terrible shape (that's putting it mildly), that she affected white facial powder and dyed her hair black, that she was publicly promiscuous (she would go down on men in bars, it was reported), etc. Numerous people, all men to my knowledge, including doctors, policemen, underworld figures (Bugsy Siegel), and famous people have been suspected and investigated as being her murderer. It's one of the most high-profile unsolved cases of the 20th century. Whether Lana is actually using Short and her murder as a theme for the 'CN' video, I don't know. I could certainly see it, as 'CN' is doom-laden. When Lana released the footage on IG over the last 48 hours, the internet erupted with the idea that she's drawing on the Black Dahlia murder for the video. Whether there's any hard evidence of that, I don't know. Does anyone? Has she or Ben said anything to that effect? She mentions suicide on the album more than once, on more than one song.

Full agree.

Yeah, that’s something that no doubt struck Lana whenever she first heard about that terrible, unsolved crime, for which everyone from Orion Welles and Man Ray to Woody Guthrie has been suspected.

I can’t understand why anyone would be put out by Lana referencing the Black Dahlia murder—which is over 75 years old—except the Elizabeth Short cultists, who, in my experience, tend to be feminists. And they don’t own the case, the crime, the myth, or the memory of ES. So many books, movies, television episodes, songs, etc have taken inspiration from that case—and except for the ES cultists, who seem half out of their minds, no one cares. On the contrary, there’s usually a great deal of positive public interest in anything to do with the case or inspired by it. Short of Lana showing a mock up of herself severed at the waist and facially mutilated, I can’t think of anything she could do that could offend a reasonable person or be in ‘bad taste.’

Definitely.

I agree. I love the album for the most part (all but two track), but I find myself wishing there were one more really powerful track with the energy going outward instead of inward, as it does on so many of these songs. While I disliked what she did with 'Lust for Life' as a track, and don't care for 'Love' much more, I would have loved to have found something like 'Serene Queen' on OC, though with a production that matches the rest of the album, something like that, something sort of dark and powerful.

'Margaret' and 'Let the Light in' belong with 'Tomorrow Never Came' thematically, and, to think it, 'TNC' sort of had that 'Disney' factor too. I like 'Margaret,' and don't mind Jack's singing, but I would have preferred it without Lana's spoken contributions towards the end, "join the party," etc., as, with Jack's singing, these sort of break up the song and make it less cohesive. I also think that 'American' and 'Violets For Roses' are related, with VFR being 'American's big sister.

'Sweet,' because of that 'Disney' factor, is like second cousin to 'Arcadia.'

So much of Lana's music is cathartic, I think that's the whole point of so much of it and why we love it...it brings us in touch with our sorrow, pain, anger, frustration, disappointment, loneliness, and all kinds of ambiguous emotions which we have no name for. And that's a healthy process, not a morbid one. I have an entire playlist called 'Darkness Makes It Easy' on my phone which only features such songs, and it's helpful--and relieving--to listen to when I find myself in one of those states of mind.

Hilarious. Glad you enjoyed it. Have a good orgasm.

I've been saying that for weeks about the vocals. They're much clearer now in high res, but still not clear, clear. Can it be that she wanted them that way, and not the way they are are the COCC title track, 'Arcadia,' and 'IFLDWM'?

'Margaret', and, to a lesser extent, 'Let The Light In,' thematically, have a lot in common with the vintage classic rock song 'Lonely People' by America.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/lana-del-rey-did-know-214710824.html "Lana Del Rey’s ‘Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ Is Her Most Soul-Searching Album Yet" "What she has done since NFR! — including Chemtrails Over the Country Club and Blue Banisters — has proven to be a remarkable expansion on the artistic vision she laid out on that album, one that puts her in a creative class all her own. In preaching to herself, she has unlocked the type of art her listeners will hold dear for a lifetime."

Wow--in high resolution, 'Candy Necklace' is another song all together. I love the piano and the spooky background vocals and overall 'heavy' quality of the song--it does sound like 'French Restaurant,' as someone mentioned last week. And 'Fingertips' sounds much better too, and does 'Fishtail.' Now I hear the clear vocals and production I was craving. The melody of 'Grandfather' is just magnificent. I'm sure I was one of thousands of fans in the United States, Canada, and Mexico who sat up after 1:00 a.m. listening to it all over again, as if for the time.

A new caste for an old ceremony.