Poison Ivy

15. We know what the boys want and we're not gonna play

I watch the video about 3 times a day.

Humbert, perhaps?

Was she using symbolism in Ride? I guess all we have is the dubious screenshot from twitter of her explanation, so maybe we can't comment on any of this yet with certainty. However, even if that was legitimately a response from her, i think the symbolism is hard to pick up in the video (maybe that's my own shortcoming though). There's also the fact that it happens in conjunction with her brandishing a gun and drinking in the desert, while saying she's fucking crazy, which, needless to say, doesn't paint a good picture. In Ride, she's a white girl, she's basically herself, and then suddenly she's in the desert with the headdress. In Summertime Sadness, there's nothing about her and her character that couldn't make her a lesbian. Anyone can be a lesbian. It's used in the video as a vehicle to tell a love story, something that is as universal as anything can be. It's not as if she was in blackface in SS or donning a kimono in an attempt to be a Japanese character. She wasn't stereotyping gay women. There was no symbol or badge of gayness that was used in the video to either make a point or simply look pretty. She wasn't taking something recognizable and in the process representing an entire group of people.

I can relate to this. Both of my parents are Cuban, i am ethnically 100% Cuban. Though i was born in America, i was raised in a Cuban household, learned Spanish before English, was immersed in a specific Cuban community, but i really haven't felt any connection with Cuban culture since i was very, very young. I have essentially had an American experience, that is, i am culturally American. And i have certainly gone through times when i didn't necessarily feel American either.
 
When it comes to identity, for me personally, the truth is that, as a white, middle class, heterosexual, cisgender male, it hasn't been important, it's not really an issue. Of course that's because it's not a necessity to me, being that i belong to the demographic that holds the most influence and power around the globe. I am of the dominant, privileged group. It's often an uncomfortable thing to negotiate and reconcile with myself. Fortunately, i don't feel the need to blame myself for these things that i was born into, and i'm still figuring out the different ways in which to think about my position in society, in the world.
 
It would be insane to believe that the world is only what i see and experience. Despite the amount of time i spend on it, i really, really, REALLY dislike the internet. It depresses me, it overwhelms me, it makes me feel hopeless, etc. One of the biggest factors in my feeling this way is seeing how homogenous things have gotten and keep getting, and the way that it all becomes so oversaturated, and so rapidly. Sometimes it seems that everything is melting into one, that the same things reach everyone, that everyone thinks the same, that everyone is the same person. Then i remind myself that there are always specific things--ideas, places, people, etc. that i gravitate toward, which are contributing to and shaping my limited reality. I am only exposed to a very small facet of culture and life. Most of us are. Humanity is so diverse, the human experience so varied, that it makes my head spin.
 
What's the point of all this? To all of us: get the fuck off of tumblr.

NOTE: Please respect the privacy of people mentioned in this post who are not public figures.

Here's something "juicy"...

Some time ago I was reading this interview and wondered if the teacher she mentions was a teacher at her boarding school.
 
If you do a little digging, using archive.org you can find that there was a Mr. Campbell that was an English teacher at her boarding school when she attended there, though he doesn't teach there now, and that they follow/friend each other on various social media platforms.

I subsequently discovered "Prom Song (Gone Wrong)" which is a love song in a high school setting, which notably has the following lyrics: "You played me Biggie Smalls and then my first Nirvana song."

More recently, in preparing for the covers-themed LanaDelReydio show I'm working on, I was looking up interviews where she mentions Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, or "Heart-shaped Box" and noticed this in one of the interviews I found:
 
I nearly did a spit take. But then I found something really weird. In another interview published just a couple days later, she changes the story:
 
Suddenly, Mr. Campbell turns into a she. WTF is that about? Is she trying to hide something?
 
Now I'm not necessarily saying I think she fucked her teacher. But I think she at least fantasized about it. (Perhaps the fact that it's her teacher is what "Gone Wrong" refers to.) And I think "Lolita" is about him too. Consider that in Nabokov's novel, Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged literature professor.

All of which just makes this serendipitous:

But I'm a good girl officer, the house was already on fire I swear I'm not a liar
 

Don't get why I have school November 13th, it's a national lanaday.

I take such an issue with someone posting messages meant to be private for the world to see. Not only is it tacky, but it makes me question the girl's intentions.
 
Edit: Skimming through her tumblr, she doesn't even seem to understand why she should be upset, other than: "Hm, this looks offensive."

When I first saw the close-ups of her heels I thought there was going to be a Go-Go Dancer-themed scene thrown in but no luck

I'm in!

Entry #2
 
Because I'm in on a saturday night... and because i totally would.
 

I'll still love her when she's no longer young and beautiful.
 

Hello, I am litewave, of the old forum, which I'm happy to see has been resurrected and growing again. Now that Lana has released Ride and an impressive but controversial video I want to repeat my view that what she tends to represent in her art is not a balanced personality but rather a part of a personality. It is therefore necessarily exaggerated and imbalanced. This part, which I called the soul, has a holistic, open, inclusive, intuitive and ambiguous nature and has been traditionally identified with femininity, because it has been expressed, for both biological and social reasons, more by women than by men. Nevertheless, in all people it is only a part of the personality, and is complementary to the other part, which I called the ego. The ego, for its part, has been identified with masculinity, due to its analytic, focused, selective, separatist, firm and confident nature.

Because of its fragility, the soul has been suppressed and degraded in the Western culture and also in the world in general. In the process, mankind has built amazing structures of economy, science and technology, laying the groundwork for its escape from the forces of nature. But this separation from nature has also separated man from something vital within himself. This imbalance, the domination by the ego, needs to be corrected. The correction does not mean the negation of the ego or its achievements but their consummation in the reunion of the ego and the soul. As Richard Tarnas has observed, this change is already underway:


 

Richard Tarnas: The Passion of the Western Mind (epilogue)

Lana reflects this new social and psychological trend in her art. She embodies the broken soul of America, and of the world, that is now returning.

http://vimeo.com/31309318

(my first post from the old forum can be found on my blog here)

I think the whole point of it was that she found comfort in those greasy guys most people consider 'trash' and she found freedom in that messy lifestyle. It's all romanticized and whatnot, but I find it really inspiring and it just made me think a lot...

"lol horse u so funny"

I think the whole point of it was that she found comfort in those greasy guys most people consider 'trash' and she found freedom in that messy lifestyle. It's all romanticized and whatnot, but I find it really inspiring and it just made me think a lot...

I think the whole point of it was that she found comfort in those greasy guys most people consider 'trash' and she found freedom in that messy lifestyle. It's all romanticized and whatnot, but I find it really inspiring and it just made me think a lot...

aw that's not true. some of the ugliest people have the most beautiful souls and vice versa

Controversy
 
Aw, you guys don't like the ugly guys? It kinda gives me a giggle. I like that she just fucking went for it.