kik

That looks like us waiting in line all night long before her concert, chain smoking and sleeping on the concrete while cars were passing by. Replace the puffy red coat for mom's old yellow mustard sleeping bag from the 70s and you get the picture.
 
Lana, how does it feels to lay on the concrete? Not so bad heh? Well, you didn't wait 20 hours at 50°F at night and 90°F at noon.
 
Still, it was worth it

That looks like us waiting in line all night long before her concert, chain smoking and sleeping on the concrete while cars were passing by. Replace the puffy red coat for mom's old yellow mustard sleeping bag from the 70s and you get the picture.
 
Lana, how does it feels to lay on the concrete? Not so bad heh? Well, you didn't wait 20 hours at 50°F at night and 90°F at noon.
 
Still, it was worth it

Absolutely. She doesn't need more controversy from idiots who actually don't understand cultural appropriation and its nuances.
 
Now excuse me, I have to go burn my kimono-inspired silk robe.

That looks like us waiting in line all night long before her concert, chain smoking and sleeping on the concrete while cars were passing by. Replace the puffy red coat for mom's old yellow mustard sleeping bag from the 70s and you get the picture.
 
Lana, how does it feels to lay on the concrete? Not so bad heh? Well, you didn't wait 20 hours at 50°F at night and 90°F at noon.
 
Still, it was worth it

That looks like us waiting in line all night long before her concert, chain smoking and sleeping on the concrete while cars were passing by. Replace the puffy red coat for mom's old yellow mustard sleeping bag from the 70s and you get the picture.
 
Lana, how does it feels to lay on the concrete? Not so bad heh? Well, you didn't wait 20 hours at 50°F at night and 90°F at noon.
 
Still, it was worth it

slaaaaaaaaaaay

Apparently this is from the issue?
 

Don't know if this "unpopular," but it is a series of opinions.

 

I remember reading a piece that spearheaded Lana’s importance: holding up the lonely torch of the female depressive in pop culture as a voice that deserves to be heard.

 

I agree with this. It's so easy to see her disaffected nature as a defect, but it's at the core of who she is and why she makes art to begin with. It's what gives her introspection, but also brings forth isolation.

 

Lana's perspective, from a 'marketability' and thematic angle, is one that would have made more sense in the mid 1990s. She would have kindred spirits in Garbage, Tori, Fiona, even Alanis. But in some ways, her perspective is even more needed now, because there is SUCH a lack of diversity in the females we hear from in pop culture, and the kinds of stories they tell. Shirley Manson of Garbage has pointed this out, fittingly enough. We need to hear from the miserable girl, the loser, the ones who don’t want to play nice, and maybe don’t even get out of bed some days. There’s always been a place for that girl in other media: literature, film, art. Music, especially pop music, doesn’t know what to do with this personality type. If it’s Kurt Cobain or Leonard Cohen (or any number of current male indie mini-gods), it’s tortured genius. If it’s a woman doing it, it’s pathetic, INDULGENT solipsism. How dare you be so lazy, inwardly focused and torpid when there are SOCIAL ISSUES to examine and crusade. That's the attitude Lana faces.

 

 We live in the age of the Totally Transparent, Fervently Disciplined, and Manicured Go-Getter. Taylor. Katy. Demi. Even Rihanna. They are corporate workhorses, THIRSTY for the fame, and more than ready to play and stay in the game. The personality type this workload requires is not for the delicate, sensitive, ambivalent type. They don’t look inward. They are fixated on the crowd. You see these same types in offices all over the world. Type A middle managers. They get shit done, might seem like “team players” (dictators in disguise), but they aren’t interesting and don’t offer a lot of innovation or insight into life, creativity, or much else. I’m sure the economic collapse of the past 10 years and the wreckage of the music industry has a lot to do with why this middle manager pop star archetype has prevailed. It’s sheer survivalism. 

 

The truth is the Lana of Born To Die, and that album itself, is an anomaly. It’s a character study in what it would be like to be a famous pop star. In philosophy, there’s an idea that to create a character, you have to lack what that character has for it to work (Homer vs Achilles is a classic example.) Lana was never a natural star by any means, but she’s clearly seen it as a way to transcend herself or try to another skin on. (“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth.” - Oscar Wilde.) To parallel her to Britney, Lana never has had a pre-Blackout glory era. This is where I think some LDR fans get it wrong. BTD was not her Baby One More Time or Oops! or whatever. Even on BTD, she was a propped-up simulacrum of what a pop icon might be like. She represented the IDEA. It was NEVER natural. She was the weirdo philosophy major playing dress up as the cool girl, singing into her mirror. The fact that she found an audience is a small miracle, but her intuitive habitat is still dancing around, alone, with her headphones on, wondering what it would be like to be onstage. The actual stage is foreign to her, and almost besides the point. I bet when she’s up there, she imagines being alone.

 

Look at ALL her work before, and after, BTD. The work of an outsider dreaming her life away, imagining that fame could transform her, fulfill her, then finding nothing there. Even before she became famous, the lyrics suggest she already was aware of its empty promise (probably due to her study of doomed cult icons). If anything, what she’s doing now is getting back to her roots: turning her LACK of fulfillment into art, trying to make something tangible of a void within. It’s hard work, and clearly she’s not always up to making it a complete vision. To create and share art is an attempt to tell your story in the hopes of CONNECTING with people. But that’s where it stops for Lana. In solitude, she records her vision then hits “send.” Then she disengages, unable to sustain the ideal in real-time. Unable to fulfill the pop duties. Unable to deliver the big pay off, for herself, or for her fans. It’s like a surrealist film that cuts off in the ‘wrong’ moment, just to leave you on edge. How many times can you get away with it? We’ll be finding out.

 

And that’s another thing. I think Lana’s “failure” to rise the occasion affects certain fans personally. Not just because they want her to get a Top 10 and compete with the ‘normal’  pop stars. But because maybe they, too, are depressed and know too well what it means to not deliver, to not function optimally, to disappoint people. When you’re depressed, being able to complete ANYTHING can feel like an insurmountable challenge. If you’re blessed with the strange mix of being both ambitious AND prone to depression, you are constantly at war with yourself, which Lana seems to be. Sometimes she has the energy to fight through it and deliver us true magic. These are her little victories. Other times, she drowns in her own ennui and forgets everyone but herself. Some fed up fans say she doesn’t care, but I don’t believe this is true. I’m sure she’s in a state of frequent frustration, with the “world,” but more often, with herself.

 

Part of what drew me — and many others, I’m sure — to Lana’s work and persona was that she seemed malcontented, if not quite tormented. Life is too much, and not enough, for her. I remember that little-known Gwen Stefani lyric (“I sip on dreams and choke on real things.”) To me, that’s Lana constant M.O. She wants desperately to escape, to isolate, and to never work another day again (the ultimate sin of today’s life-hack-driven, entrepreneurial, “optimize yourself!” digital nomad climate). She never makes it clear what it IS, exactly, that would make her happy, because what she’s asking for is impossible. A LOT of people empathize with this ambivalence, despite the fact that this passive, me vs. the world view of reality is literally censored out of modern day music. You’re not supposed to complain! Things will get better if you live, laugh, and love! LDR will never live, laugh and love first-hand, but she’ll always wonder what that might feel like. And pine for it like its her to mourn.

 

Female depressives can sustain a career. It doesn’t have to end in a Sylvia Plath/Amy Winehouse tragedy. Shirley Manson and Fiona Apple are still going strong 20 years down the line, and in some ways, seem more connected and ‘healthy’ than ever, while still finding a way to channel their grievances through their art. They’ve evolved their artistry to a level that is undeniably iconic. They will never top the charts again, but that was never the point. They have huge cult followings that will always follow their next move. It’s a family. I’d love for Lana to have this in her 40s, too, but I believe at some point she’ll have to start making art as part of a conversation, not just a soliloquy, for this to happen. 

the only time she smiles on a magazine cover is when she's literally lying on top of 4 dicks 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waix99DEuyk

so, a lot of people feel like the girls in the water don't have much to do with anything.. but i feel like they're almost like sirens "beautiful creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island." 
 
This makes sense with the lyrics "Live to love you..It's all a game to me anyway"  and even "putting on my music while I'm watching the boys" like she's using the music to lure them in.. and  "i was sent to destroy" idk i jus think the girls make sense 
 

This is not Tinder, people, this is LB, a place of highly intellectual discussion and of... Oh wait ! 

this is gorgeous wow

Ultraviolence is much stronger, intense, deeper, versatile, it quivers in fury, sadness, ecstasy, despair, longing and every other emotion from the spectrum. It has spikes, thorns, explosions and fire, but also ocean, blood, tears, honey, and stars. It is built from contradictions and numerous contrasts and layers. And I adore its rawness and shamelesness. An album with heart and soul, but also with balls and guts.
Honeymoon is very lovely, but it is all bathed in the same molasses of restrained, smooth, distant heartbeats, like the echoes of sedated siren.
But who knows, maybe I change my mind, I always need some time to fall in deeper love. With Ultraviolence I had both, bombastic infatuation and everlasting romance.

Yeah, boohoohoo, $97 more in my pockets to see other (better) artists.

It really reminds me of a vintage solo porn omg. I feel bad for never being satisfied but I wish only the boys part would have been in B&W.

I think this song is about me in some ways

The real problem with cultural appropriation isn't that some white girl uses a bindi or twerks. Those are actually separate issues about how some traditionally "ethnic" things are considered okay if done by white people but trashy or gross if done by the people who created it. This doesn't really have a name, and it is something that should be discussed, but people call it cultural appropriation and it's not the best use of the term.
 
The issue with cultural appropriation is taking something from its cultural context, especially without permission. That's why war bonnets are a touchy symbol. They're the equivalent of earning a medal in a war. By wearing it to look "cute" or because you "feel free", you degrade it from an actual symbol of heroic bravery into a hipster trash accessory on par with flower crowns. The symbol stops meaning anything significant, and that's part of the culture that eroded away.
 
Intention doesn't really mean anything when it comes to this. All that matters is that you're using something that has special meaning, especially something sacred, and using it outside that intended context, and that by itself causes the object to become associated with the mundane as opposed to the sacred. Even if that wasn't your intention, that is the end result, and it's still harmful to the cultures in question.
 
It's a shame the discussion about cultural appropriation has degenerated into BS like "can white people use things from non-white cultures?" because that just encourages cultural segregation while missing the core of what makes appropriation harmful. Sharing is great. But sharing requires someone to offer you something. Sacred symbols are never offered to other cultures (precisely because they are sacred). There are plenty of Native American decorative items one can choose to use that are sold by Natives and have no special value. Use those. There's no need to go for the one that has an important meaning.
 
I normally try to stay away from political discussions here, but I can't stand to see discussion about appropriation be turned to "twerking! bindis!" because all that does is make people reject the concept wholesale. It is an issue. But not for the reasons most people think. Lana did appropriate the culture by using a war bonnet outside of its intended context. She probably had no intention of doing so. But actions have consequences beyond their intentions (also the 60s and 70s were full of cultural appropriation of sacred things by hippies, so don't be surprised).

I should have bought the ticket and avoid following her on twitter. My mistake. I knew if I'd keep following her, I would lose interest because of her attitude and the way she chooses to express herself, which I found often very rude and disrespectful, even though she's also interesting and super funny. She has pertinent things to say about racism, subtleties that I never noticed before and I'm glad she got me interested in knowing more about what was the situation right now, compared to the hell I lived in elementary school being the only black. Somehow, I wanted to avoid the question (racism) to forget a difficult past.
 
I don't hate her, I don't have hard feelings against her and I honestly wish her the best. It's not because someone that I like is rude with me that I'm gonna start crying or hate this person. It was the accumulation of her negativity that got me uninterested. Her career won't be over because of me reselling my ticket, I'm not gonna cry because I'm not interested in an artist anymore when there are zillions other great ones and the girl who bought my ticket was so happy to be able to go, so no drama here.

I'm just glad I got to enjoy seeing her live before I knew what she thought about me 

Custom agent: Where are you going?
Me: New York
Custom agent: For how long?
Me: Until tomorrow
Custom agent: Where are you gonna stay?
Me: Outside
Custom agent: I mean, where are you gonna sleep, are you going to a hotel or residence?
Me: On the streets...
Custom agent: ?!?! What's the purpose of your trip
Me: Dreaming?

Yeah, boohoohoo, $97 more in my pockets to see other (better) artists.

Yeah, boohoohoo, $97 more in my pockets to see other (better) artists.

May Jailer should come back for another acoustic album