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evilentity

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  1. Fingertips liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    No, this doesn't come from "strength". Quite the opposite. It's symptomatic of a tendency to sometimes avoid even necessary confrontation. 
    Does he? Has he really? Didn't he live in the UK? Wasn't this show in DC or something? How much fucking money did he spend going to this show? How many people could he have paid back? 
    I think people are justified in judging your being publicly friendly with him.
  2. fishtails liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    Ok, so I just watched video he himself uploaded of the most recent concert in Brixton. 
     
    I don't mean this as an attack @@Elle, but this goes beyond being nice into doormat territory. If I had been ripped off and seen him I would've said, "What the fuck are you doing here? No, seriously, what the fuck are you doing inside here? Go outside and scalp your ticket and pay some people back. And then pay everyone else back first. And then pay me back last so that I know when you are done." And if he didn't go outside and do it right then I would have publicly shamed him to all the Lana fans within earshot and explained to them how he ripped off other Lana fans for thousands of dollars until he left.
     
    There's a lot of kids doing things of questionable legality at best within this fanbase. Normally I discourage people from getting authorities involved over stupid mistakes people make when they're young over dumb fan stuff that could affect the rest of their lives. (One of the more disgusting things I've seen happen is people report others for some minor illegal technicality like copyright violation when they mostly don't even care about that and are mostly just pissed about some petty personal bullshit or jealousy.) But this is different. This totals up to a substantial amount of money, stolen from other fans, many of whom are probably not that deep-pocketed. He has demonstrated that he is not making a serious priority of paying people back first. And this has dragged on for years. If he hasn't paid most of you back by now, I would strongly recommend someone affected take the initiative of gathering receipts from everyone still owed money and reporting this fraud to law enforcement in the jurisdiction where he lives with thorough documentation.
  3. Coloringbooks liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    If you go to the (surprisingly still live) Kickstarter page it's funny how the picture shows "trust no one" engraved on the back. Truth in advertising I suppose.
  4. PrettyPartyFav0r liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    tl;dr

    #FirstWorldProblems
     
    No, no, no. When you owe people money, you don't leave a shitty job unless and until you find another one.
     
    Stop. Talking. You're making it so much worse.
    The money you got was to produce the product and fulfill your obligations. AFTER doing that and ONLY THEN should you have spent any of the money on personal expenses.
     
    It's really not. I don't have Netflix or cable or anything even though I could easily afford it. It's definitely not essential when you can't. Especially when you owe people money. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in life, and this hardly even qualifies.
     
    As you should. Tons of other people have lost money on your book too. Boo hoo.

    As touching as your little family story is, unless it's a matter of life or death, it's just wrong to spend other people's money like that.
     
    Yup.
     
    As harsh as my tone may sound, I do understand what it's like to make dumb financial mistakes when you're young and the shame that goes with it. (I racked up so many parking tickets in college I got my car towed twice and wasted over a thousand dollars.) But you need to take ownership of them and the consequences. And hopefully learn from them.
     
    Make it stop. You're gonna wear out your shovel on this hole you keep digging.
     
    IT WASN'T YOUR MONEY TO SPEND ON GIFTS FOR PEOPLE.
     
    IT WAS YOUR CHOICE TO QUIT YOUR JOB.
     
    While I normally wouldn't recommend quitting school, this is the first faint hint of responsibility in your whole spiel.
     
    Ummm...  
     
    I (thankfully) didn't buy a book, and this should be up to the people who did, but if it were up to me, I think you should cut all expenses possible and just work your ass off to pay everyone back as soon as fucking possible. (I mean, even reprinting the lyrics might get you into trouble with copyright.) Chalk this up to a hard-earned life lesson. And then afterwards hopefully go back to school as soon as you're ready and able.

    #EvilFinancialTips
  5. Lavender Sunshine liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Sleuthing Tips & Tricks   
    In honor of LanaBoards' 1-year anniversary this week, I thought I would share some of my sleuthing tips and tricks. Please contribute your own sleuthing tips in this thread.
     
    Google Is Your Friend
    You can force Google's search engine to return only results that include or exclude specific phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks and prepending a plus or minus sign respectively. For example, if you wanted to search for information on the song "Paradise" you might use something like the following search in an attempt to weed out results talking about Paradise Edition or "Dark Paradise": 
    +"lana del rey" +"paradise" -"paradise edition" -"dark paradise" You can restrict your search to a particular site by including site:URL in your search query where URL is the URL of the particular site to search. For example, if you wanted to find every mention of Lana Del Rey on Hipster Runoff you might try this search:
    site:hipsterrunoff.com +"lana del rey" You can also restrict your search to particular types of files by including filetype:EXT in your search query where EXT is the file extension type to search for. In fact, in trying to come up with a good example for this post, I stumbled across a PDF scan of a 2008 article on Lizzy Grant that appeared in the Lake Placid News using the following search: 
    filetype:pdf +"lizzy grant" Probably the most powerful and necessary Google search feature for Lana sleuths is the ability to do custom date range searches. If you're looking for information from before her rise to fame, it is absolutely essential. I'll often date restrict searches to results before January 1, 2011 or something like that. You'll still get more recent results from pages that were created before that date, but have now changed or pull current data into sidebars, etc., but you'll still weed out a lot of results you don't care about by doing this. After performing a search, you can date restrict the results by clicking on 'Search tools' and selecting 'Custom range...' in the 'Any time' dropdown menu. You can leave either the 'From' or 'To' fields blank if you wish. Reverse image searching is another incredibly powerful feature Google provides. Enter the URL of an image you wish too search for and click 'search by image' and Google will find similar images. You can often find a higher resolution version of an image or find where the image originally came from this way. Try searching on variants of her name (i.e. lizzy grant, lizzie grant, lana del rey, lana del ray, etc.) appropriate to the era you're investigating. CalendarGirl originally found the live video of the rock version of "Yayo" here searching on "lizzie grant" instead of "lizzy grant" after I mentioned this to her. (Note: you may want to include -"entourage" in your search query if searching on "lizzie grant".) If you don't know what to look for, try looking for something known. If I recall correctly, I believe I originally found the Nefarious Bovine Radio podcasts with a search query that included +"pawn shop blues" and +"mp3" in the hopes that matching results might also include Lana songs I didn't already know about. Sometimes you get lucky.  
    Archive.org Is Your Friend
    The Wayback Machine at archive.org is an archive of snapshots taken of many web pages in the past. This is an incredibly useful tool since many sources of information about Lizzy's early career are not on the live web anymore for one reason or another, but can still be found on archive.org. There's a lot of information we wouldn't have without it. Familiarize yourself with it. It's indispensable. In addition to using archive.org to look at particular web sites, you can also see all the files ever archived under a particular web directory by appending an asterisk at the end. This is how I was able to find the performance photos taken by NBR that Television Heaven posted before he even said where they came from. Since I recognized the NBR logo, I went to archive.org and typed nbr.rathpa.net/* into the Wayback Machine and filtered the results by jpg to look for images. Since many of the files were named by date, it was easy to find them since I already knew the dates of the performances. The asterisk trick can also be very helpful in exploring the current site architecture of a page on the live web if it has been recently archived. Checking if a page has been archived often appears to trigger the Wayback Machine to archive unarchived pages, so if you stumble across something interesting, it's wise to check if the page is archived in the hopes that the Wayback Machine will archive it if it hasn't already so that it doesn't disappear forever. (BTW, I'm unaware of any way to keyword search Wayback Machine archives. If anyone knows of a way, please let me know.)


    Screenshots.com Is Your Friend
    When archive.org doesn't have any snapshots of a site from the time period you'd like, sometimes screenshots.com will help you out. Unlike archive.org, screenshots.com does not archive the files making up the web site, but merely takes a screenshot image of it. Sometimes this is desirable since it avoids the common problem of missing image files when viewing archive.org snapshots. But screenshots.com only takes full screen screenshots, not full page screenshots. Another severe limitation is that it only captures second-level domain names. In other words, home pages but nothing under them. For example, screenshots.com has screenshots of myspace.com, but not myspace.com/lizzygrant. Thankfully, it does capture redirects from second-level domains. We still have a lot of snapshots of Lizzy's MySpace page because she owned several domain names that redirected to it.


    Various Exploits
    Pay attention to the URLs for images. If the filename ends with a number that could be a pixel dimension, it may have been sized down. Try the URL without the pixel dimension number at the end. Sometimes this will yield the original image in its original dimensions. Otherwise, if the filename ends with a number, try adjacent numbers (especially if there are multiples photos close in number but with numbers skipped). You may find additional photos that have been uploaded to the server but not displayed on the page. Flickr allows users to disable downloading of photos. However, you can get around this easily by viewing the page source and looking for the image's URL in the HTML. (You can also get around this using any tool that shows your network traffic like Chrome Developer Tools as described below.) Occasionally a Flash slideshow will read an XML file containing the URLs of the images it plays. It may be worth extracting the URL of the SWF file by viewing the page source and examining the results of running it through a free online Flash decompiler like showmycode.com in order to discover details like this. If it's a Javascript slideshow, the URLs can probably found directly in the page source code. (In both situations, you can also likely using any tool that shows your network traffic like Chrome Developer Tools as described below.) As a Lana fan, it can be a common occurrence to find yourself frustrated by privatized YouTube videos. Although I know of no way to view a privatized video, it is possible to obtain several stills from one using the following URLs where VIDEO_ID is the YouTube ID of the video:
    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/0.jpg http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/1.jpg http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/2.jpg http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VIDEO_ID/3.jpgFor example, consider the YouTube video at the following URL:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPBUp9xZr_EThe following URLs display stills from this YouTube video:
    http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rPBUp9xZr_E/0.jpg http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rPBUp9xZr_E/1.jpg http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rPBUp9xZr_E/2.jpg http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rPBUp9xZr_E/3.jpg You can also use the Google YouTube API to get information about a privatized video by entering the following URL:
    http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/VIDEO_ID?version=1For example, using the same video as before, entering the following URL tells us the title is "Lana Del Rey! Pin Up Galore" and that the length is 1:06:
    http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/rPBUp9xZr_E?version=1You can try different versions of the API in case they display more information. The current version of the API is 3. Google's Chrome web browser has an incredibly powerful and flexible built-in feature (the Network tab in the Developer Tools window) that you can harness to download the actual audio or video files that stream from many sites including Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and Reverbnation just to name a few. (In fact, no one should ever have to ask anyone on this forum for a rip of a Soundcloud file ever again since I teach you here how to download the file directly from Soundcloud yourself. One exception: I discovered this method after the Soundcloud account I found "Prom Song (Gone Wrong)" on was taken down so if anyone downloaded it using this method I'd appreciate it if you would send a link my way.) Select the tab in which the page with streaming content is loaded. In Chrome's menu, click Tools -> Developer tools. The Developer Tools window should appear. Click the Network tab at the top of the Developer Tools window. Begin playback of the audio or video. The Network tab should populate with filenames of the files your browser is downloading. Hopefully the audio or video file streamed will be among them. It is easier to pick out if you sort by Type or Size. If the streaming file began loading before the Developer Tools window was opened, you may have to refresh the page and restart the audio or video. Once you have identified the filename, right click and open the link in a new tab. In the new tab, you should be able to right click and select "Save as...". This method does not work on sites like MySpace that do not directly stream a file and use Flash or some other technology to deliver content more securely. However, some such sites (unfortunately not MySpace) will directly stream files if Flash is disabled. To disable Flash in Chrome, open another tab and enter chrome colon slash slash plugins in the address bar (for some reason it won't display here if I type out the colon and slashes). One of the plugins listed should be Adobe Flash Player. Click the "Disable" link. (Remember to enable it later.) Now reload the page and restart the streaming media in the other tab. Some sites will also only directly stream files if you are using a device known to not support Flash such as an iPhone or iPad. Chrome also provides a way to fool web sites into thinking you are on such a device. Click on the gear icon in the bottom right hand corner of the Developer Tools window to bring up a Settings page for the Developer Tools window. Under settings, click Overrides. In the Overrides settings check the User Agent box and select "iPad — iOS5" in the dropdown. (Remember to change it back to the original setting later.) Now reload the page and restart the streaming media in the other tab.  
    Keep an Eye on the "Industry Players"
    Many of Lana's songs, including several found by me, surfaced because they were publicly posted-- intentionally or not-- by Lana's producers or management:
    "Prom Song (Gone Wrong)" was posted on a now (probably inadvertently) public Soundcloud account for Three Six Zero Productions (account now defunct) on which the "National Anthem (Nexus demo)" and "Driving In Cars With Boys" had also been posted. (Was this the original source of those songs? I don't know.) "Stoplight De-lite" and the studio version of "Motel 6" were intentionally posted by Jeff Peretz on his website. (A little over a month earlier, I discovered he had produced Lizzy Grant doing a Google search.) Though it has not been removed, the alternate version of "Hit & Run" was posted on Soundcloud by producer Tommy Tysper. (I followed clues from a screenshot of an old post on Lizzy's personal Facebook by another producer he often works with that mentioned "Tommy".) The "Ride" string arrangement was posted on Soundcloud by Daniel Heath. And of course, the Y&B demo, JFK, "Starry-Eyed", "Hollywood", IDWG, "Black Beauty" & AFFA were all infamously posted by Rick Nowels in inadvertently public directories his website. (I discovered those directories back in April looking at the URLs of the files streaming on his site using the Chrome Developer Tools trick.) And those are just the ones I found on producers' websites or Soundcloud accounts. "Dangerous Girl" was also posted on Soundcloud by Daft Dog, Blockhead posted "Heavy Hitter" on his blog, Princess Superstar posted alternate versions of "Maha Maha" & "Golden Grill", and Ben Mawson himself posted demos of TIWMUG, BTD, NA & "Lolita" on his (probably inadvertently) public Soundcloud account. And there have probably been other songs that originally surfaced in a similar manner.


    Contacting People
    Sometimes in the course of sleuthing you may find it necessary to contact someone. I recommend following these suggestions:
    Think twice before contacting anyone. Always keep in mind that you may be imposing on people by asking them questions about Lana. Be polite. People are doing you a favor just by entertaining your questions, let alone if they answer any of them. Return the favor by being polite. Use flattery. People are more receptive to you if you show an interest in them or their work. However, try to be genuine. Whenever I contact another artist about Lana I make a point of reading or listening to their work until I find something I genuinely like that I can compliment them on. Sometimes following these tips can yield unexpected results. Respect people's privacy. You shouldn't pry into anything personal. Let them decide if they want to volunteer anything. Avoid contacting romantic interests. Respect people's privacy, especially if they are not a public figure like Lana. If you do find the need to contact someone you know or even suspect might have been involved with Lana, avoid asking questions about their relationship.  
    Pay Attention
    I've had my share of luck as well, but a lot of sleuthing comes down to noticing details, making connections, and following up on things.

    Good luck and happy sleuthing!
  6. LilacNailPolish liked a post in a topic by evilentity in What would you do if you had Rob Grant's phone number?   
    Unless I was a tropical shirt salesman, I would respect his privacy.
  7. The Siren liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Lana Del Rey for Keds - Video & Photoshoot Recreation   
    Beyoncé got here first
     

  8. Veinsineon liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Abu Dhabi, UAE @ F1 After Race Concert - November 30th, 2019   
    As with the Israel show, Lana might want to reconsider. The UAE and Abu Dhabi specifically have a really bad human rights record and homosexual acts are illegal. 
    Somebody tell her registered Republican Fox News-appearing Okie TV cop boyfriend she's performing someplace that practices sharia law.
     
    Whether she drops the concert or he drops her it's a win in my book.
     

    While the UAE has a bad record of funding terrorism, incidents of terrorism occurring in Abu Dhabi are actually really rare. This can only be interpreted as a racist statement.
  9. RebeccaJuno liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Florida Kilos   
    We could get high in Miami, ooh, dance the night away People never die in Miami, ooh, that's what they all say
     

  10. Salem Prose liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    If you go to the (surprisingly still live) Kickstarter page it's funny how the picture shows "trust no one" engraved on the back. Truth in advertising I suppose.
  11. PrettyPartyFav0r liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    JFC. I strongly encourage anyone scammed by @ to report him to the police, particularly if you live in the UK. I pray to Baphomet that the statute of limitations hasn't passed.
  12. Salem Prose liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    I sincerely hope you are sincere about this and will follow through expeditiously. I'm skeptical though. But now that you're here, let me direct these questions to you: 

    I'll also just note that the above post I quote of yours was posted from a UK IP address.
     

    Not sure you're doing @@Elle any favors by saying this. That is precisely her problem. She's too nice sometimes. 
     

    Who is Vic and why do they have a veto over forum threads?  
     

    Go on...
  13. ImenaOphelia liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    No, this doesn't come from "strength". Quite the opposite. It's symptomatic of a tendency to sometimes avoid even necessary confrontation. 
    Does he? Has he really? Didn't he live in the UK? Wasn't this show in DC or something? How much fucking money did he spend going to this show? How many people could he have paid back? 
    I think people are justified in judging your being publicly friendly with him.
  14. eyelovelefteye liked a post in a topic by evilentity in [Pre-order] Lana Del Rey Lyrics Anthology BOOK   
    tl;dr

    #FirstWorldProblems
     
    No, no, no. When you owe people money, you don't leave a shitty job unless and until you find another one.
     
    Stop. Talking. You're making it so much worse.
    The money you got was to produce the product and fulfill your obligations. AFTER doing that and ONLY THEN should you have spent any of the money on personal expenses.
     
    It's really not. I don't have Netflix or cable or anything even though I could easily afford it. It's definitely not essential when you can't. Especially when you owe people money. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices in life, and this hardly even qualifies.
     
    As you should. Tons of other people have lost money on your book too. Boo hoo.

    As touching as your little family story is, unless it's a matter of life or death, it's just wrong to spend other people's money like that.
     
    Yup.
     
    As harsh as my tone may sound, I do understand what it's like to make dumb financial mistakes when you're young and the shame that goes with it. (I racked up so many parking tickets in college I got my car towed twice and wasted over a thousand dollars.) But you need to take ownership of them and the consequences. And hopefully learn from them.
     
    Make it stop. You're gonna wear out your shovel on this hole you keep digging.
     
    IT WASN'T YOUR MONEY TO SPEND ON GIFTS FOR PEOPLE.
     
    IT WAS YOUR CHOICE TO QUIT YOUR JOB.
     
    While I normally wouldn't recommend quitting school, this is the first faint hint of responsibility in your whole spiel.
     
    Ummm...  
     
    I (thankfully) didn't buy a book, and this should be up to the people who did, but if it were up to me, I think you should cut all expenses possible and just work your ass off to pay everyone back as soon as fucking possible. (I mean, even reprinting the lyrics might get you into trouble with copyright.) Chalk this up to a hard-earned life lesson. And then afterwards hopefully go back to school as soon as you're ready and able.

    #EvilFinancialTips
  15. GeminiLanaFan liked a post in a topic by evilentity in “Play With Me” [Unknown song w/ Jesse Rutherford]   
    Snippet teasers are the worst
  16. godsmonster liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Gogo Dancer   
    She did not lay an egg with this song.
  17. godsmonster liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Prom Song (Gone Wrong)   
    Anyone else notice the melody (not to mention lyrical content) for the lines "You are by far the brightest star" sounds similar to the melody in the lines "Under the stars we are, we are" in "Paris"?
  18. Fingertips liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Is "Beyoncé" just a big rip-off of Lana Del Rey?   
    PARTITION
    In "Partition", the camera takes us inside a palatial estate that almost looks like it could have been the setting for the "Born to Die" video. See the exterior and interior below:

     
    In the first of several scenes curiously similar to ones out of "National Anthem", we find Mrs. Carter seated at an immaculately set table, barely noticed by her rapper husband peering over his newspaper:

     
    In her mind, she embarks on a sexual fantasy. Again she channels Rosalita:

     
    Her rapper husband feels up her leg in a vehicle:

     
    She puts on a show for him, donning a sequined flapper headdress like Lizzy wears in this photo:

     
    Silhouette techniques like something out of "Summertime Sadness" are employed:

     
    Beyoncé pole dances like Lana in Tropico over a sexy French spoken interlude like in "Carmen":

     
    Like A$AP Rocky in "National Anthem", her rapper husband watches her performance voyeuristically, smoking a cigar:

     
     
    JEALOUS
    Beyoncé is a jealous, jealous, jealous gurrrrrl. This video begins in the same estate reminiscent of "Born to Die" as in "Partition". In one scene, the former Miss Knowles is draped over a pinball machine like Lana in "Ride":

     
    In another we see a "tunnel lined with yellow lights":

     
     
    ROCKET
    Like "Blue Jeans", "Rocket" opens on a black & white close-up of a reflection of the artist's face in a ripple of water:

     
    Later in each video we watch the artist submerge her face in water in slow motion:

     
     
    MINE
    Like Lana in the poster for Tropico, we find Beyoncé re-enacting Mary in the Pieta:

     
    Also, is that another Shaun Ross cameo?
     
     
    XO
    In "XO", Beyoncé orchestrates perhaps the largest NYC land grab since Dutch settlers bought Manhattan Island from Native Americans for 24 bucks, stealing the famed amusement destination from the Queen of Coney Island herself:

     

     

     

     
     
    ***FLAWLESS & SUPERPOWER
    Since I can't find any Lana plagiarism in either of these videos, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume they must be borrowed from the "Dark Paradise" and "Cola" videos that never materialized. @@Ultraviolence Watch these. One of them may be the closest thing you'll ever get to your precious "Cola" video.
     
     
    HEAVEN
    Here we have the biggest plot heist since Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds ripped off Gremlins. In "Heaven", Beyoncé portrays a woman mourning her deceased female bff in a series of flashbacks. Sound familiar? Of course it does. It's the plot of Lana's "Summertime Sadness" video. Not content to copycat one Lana video, "Heaven" filches from a few. A shot in a church mirrors the chapel in "Born to Die":

     
    In a flashback, Beyoncé's girlfriend sprays alcohol at a campfire party echoing scenes in "Ride":

     
    And we see her and her gal pal riding in a car like Lana & Jaime King:

     
    She only barely tries to disguise her copying Lana's recitation of the Lord's Prayer in Tropico by saying it in Spanish. Oh, and speaking of Spanish, here's Rosalita yet again:

     
     
    BLUE
    Sure, there's another "tunnel lined with yellow lights":

     
    The sequined bra is back:

     
    And she evokes Lizzy's showgirl style:

     
    But most saliently, this song is about Beyoncé's, uh, baby Blue love, the black baby daughter she had with a rapper. What a blatant "National Anthem" ripoff!

     
     
    GROWN WOMAN
    Last but not least, the video for "Grown Woman" consists of home footage of Beyoncé's childhood performances, a clear homage to Lana's DIY videos.
     
     
     
  19. Fingertips liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Is "Beyoncé" just a big rip-off of Lana Del Rey?   
    Beyoncé is certainly no stranger to accusations of plagiarism in her videos. Considering the large number of videos comprising her eponymous visual album, it would not be surprising if some of them were less than original. Did she copy Lana Del Rey?
     
    Compare the album cover design and font to a Paradise box set booklet:

    With Tropico, the "Ride" video, the "Blue Velvet" promo for H&M, and the "Song of Myself" promo for L'Officiel set to the intro to "Cola", Lana released some sort of video for almost every song on Paradise. One could argue that even the idea of releasing videos for the entire album is derivative. Now let's look at those videos.
     
     
    PRETTY HURTS
    Much like the opening bars of "Ride", the opening bars begin with the image of Beyoncé singing into a slender microphone, wearing a mostly white dress against sparkly blue stage curtains:

     
    The song's themes—eating disorders and the dark side of being a beauty queen—are straight out of "Boarding School", "Brite Lites", and "Pin-Up Galore". Indeed, here we see Mrs. Carter in Ms. Grant's short-cut meth-haired beauty queen style complete with sash accessory:

     
    Beyoncé also replicates Lana's arched back & cupped hand underwater poses from the "Blue Jeans" video:

     
    She not only borrows Tropico co-star Shaun Ross, but doubles down on the African albinism by casting Diandra Forrest. To top it off, Beyoncé even has the audacity to lift Lizzy's iconic trademark sequined bra:

     
     
    GHOST
    In "Ghost", Sasha Fierce is not herself, assuming the identity of Lana's Rosalita alter ego from her "Song of Myself" video for L'Officiel:

     
     
    HAUNTED
    The "Countdown" singer's video for "Haunted" begins with a hauntingly familiar countdown straight outta one of Lizzy's DIY "Gramma" videos:

     
    Then in true diva style, Beyoncé makes her male servant light her cigarette for her like a little bitch like Barrie at a Lana show:

     
    The whole video imitates the imitated Lynchian style of Lana's "Blue Velvet" promo for H&M complete with the requisite Doppelgangers:

     
    Yet it borrows scenes from "National Anthem" & Tropico. Black guys gambling? Check.

     
    Strippers giving lapdances to white businessmen? Check.

     
    People in whiteface? Check.

     
    Bubbles? Check.

     
    Originality? ...Anyone? Bueller?
     
     
    DRUNK IN LOVE
    In addition to lyrics that sound like a first draft of "Brite Lites" ("Flashing lights, flashing lights, you got me faded, faded, faded"), this intoxicating concoction's potency is poured from "National Anthem", where Lana grinds on another snifter-wielding rapper, A$AP Rocky:

     
     
    BLOW
    The cotton candy confection of the music masks Lana-like lyrics ("Every time I close my eyes", "I'ma let you be the boss of me", "Give me that daddy long stroke" and an interlude in French) in a video easily summarized as "pin-up girls at the roller derby". We also see a close-up of a disco ball a la her DIY "Yayo" video:

     
    And Beyoncé perched on the hood of a car in a fuck-me pose like Lana in the "Born to Die" video:

     
    In this case, we're lucky that "Blow" doesn't Soileau. Bradley sucks.
     
     
    NO ANGEL
    In an inversion of Lana's "angels forever" refrain, the "Halo" songstress proclaims, "You're no angel either, baby." She asks, "Tell me do you want to ride?" Like Lana in "Ride", Beyoncé is Queen of the Gas Station, knocking off Lana's hot long curly hair and cut-off jeans look. Unlike Lana, at least she's responsible enough to only be figuratively smokin' at the pump.

     
    We see chicks on the back of motorcycles:

     
    Tacky word bling:

     
    And pole dancers making it rain:

     
     
    YONCÉ
    In "Yoncé", she continues the ghetto theme, banging around with her gang of ghetto girls like Lana in Tropico:

     
    Who does Beyoncé think she is to appropriate all these signifiers of ghetto culture from gangsta Nancy Sinatra? Rather uppity if you ask me.
     
     
    CONTINUED...
  20. Fernanda liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Lana's alleged sect/cult past   
    In addition to metaphysics in the Aristotelian philosophical sense, Lana also seems to be interested in the metaphysical in the sort of New Age, spiritual, eastern mysticism sense. (Note her field trip to a psychic with her Rolling Stone interviewer.) During her early career in NYC, a number of people around her seem to have been into these types of things as well. On his blogger profile, Tags from Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena lists things like qi and energy healing under his interests, and David Nichtern, founder of 5 Points Records, is a prominent Buddhist teacher. In fact, he founded a sister label, Dharma Moon, dedicated to producing music for meditation and yoga. His son Ethan is also a prominent Buddhist teacher and author.
     
    In light of that, I thought these Facebook posts of hers were interesting:
     

     

     

  21. rockcandy liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Lana covers Galore Magazine   
    ...CONTINUED
     
    The tinsel, streamers, and assorted DIY video decorations. The infamous fishtank. The trailer. The sparkle jumprope. This is like candy for fans for whom her early years are like the stuff of legend.

    inb4 she had a persona called Golden Compact Mirror Princess. Checking MySpace archives now.
     
    Jesus. Namedropping Steven Mertens yet again. This feels more personal than half of Lanalysis. Speaking of which, I get the feeling that unless K is a real person, Mertens is the real guy she has in mind most in her songs. She certainly has had him in mind most in her interviews.
     
    Oh, I bet he gave you the fuzz.
     
    It really runs in the family, doesn't it?
     
    Wait... are they watching TV while driving?
  22. rockcandy liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Lana covers Galore Magazine   
    Didn't another interviewer just debunk this?
     
    Say what?
     

     
    Put The Radio On.mp3
     
    Oh, I bet you took the D train a lot.
    BTW InfoSec Taylor Swift would tell you sharing even former addresses is bad opsec.
     
    TO BE CONTINUED... (fucking quote limits)
  23. LilyBrik liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Is "Beyoncé" just a big rip-off of Lana Del Rey?   
    inb4 Mrs. Carter releases a follow-up album called Ultrabeyoncé. Begging for a @@Trash Magic mashup tbh.
  24. LilyBrik liked a post in a topic by evilentity in Is "Beyoncé" just a big rip-off of Lana Del Rey?   
    Obviously I was just being facetious with this whole thing, and didn't notice a lot of the similarities until I went looking for them, but some of them struck me watching "Beyoncé" the first time through: The general theme of the dark side of beauty queens in "Pretty Hurts", the faux-Lynchian style of "Haunted", and the plot of "Heaven", though not any specific images from those videos. Some specific images that I did notice the first time through were Beyoncé at the gas station in "No Angel", Jay-Z smoking and the sequined flapper headdress thing in "Partition", and some of the Rosalita-esque scenes. But the black & white close-up underwater face shots in "Rocket", the Pieta pose in "Mine", and the Coney Island setting of "XO"-- strong Lana parallels in three consecutive videos-- started feeling downright eerie. 
    Anyway, go watch all these videos if you haven't. They're really good. I highly recommend them.
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