DUKE

What do you mean by that? I am recording it. Keep your fingers crossed that the connection won't fail meanwhile or something goes wrong...

Is anybody recording this?

Are they referring to one of the theatre shows she did in Australia this year?

To celebrate the release of "Paradise," I designed a t-shirt that I'll be wearing at the Hamburg show next year. What do you think? I can also upload the actual image file in case others want to use it... or I'll be shamelessly selling them on eBay! I never realized Lana had such manly arms...

Not that I am a paranoid Chart-obsessed fan but is it likely that the back shipped false pressings cause a backorder effecting the US chart positions?

Now the question is how accurate they were with their choice of words. Does that mean the one disc version a.k.a Paradise the EP will sell this much, or The Paradise Edition? I can hardly imagine the EP selling so well whereas the two disc set has been largely, if not exclusively advertised as a re-release to boost sales since double discs count double for the charts.

Looks a little unusual, I think. She kind of looks like a hooker with those bangs - but in a good way. All the curly hair always made her look kind of dreamy and innocent, but this is so much more fierce and self-assured. Like others said before, hopefully she shot a video for "Cola" with this look. I love how rigorous and straight the hair cut is.

Did I seriously just start a whole conversation with this?

I wasn't talking about the Pepsi Cola line, I have always lived under the impression (by listening) that Lana sings something with a blow job in "Boarding School" but she doesn't. Thank God I noticed now.

Oh my God! "Wut" was my exact reaction to your post but then I checked the lyrics of the song and noticed she actually sings 'While I'm blowing up as a singer' and not what I thought she does. Sorry, I edit my original post.

Oh my god.

No, I am not on drugs, I am just happy "Paradise" arrived on time in Germany from the US. Only God knows how this went so quickly. I don't know if we were supposed to send it via e-mail or if we should post it in here as I just did. In case you include names: I am Felix from Germany.

My US copy of "Paradise" arrived. Should I take pictures of it or does everybody know what it looks like?

I really have enough of Stan War meltdowns. Can't we just leave the meltdowns where they belong? Outside of this forum? I don't see why this forum should be spammed with the stupidity of others, leave alone anyone on here waisting energy on it.

"Cola" definitely is one of her best songs so far, I think. I love how polarizing the opening lyrics are. The media has attempted to draw this very superficial character of her and there seems to be a constant misconception about her personality. She is easily put off as a shallow, asexual and innocent Hollywood rehash which is totally uninteresting in real life. What I have found so fascinating about her from the beginning on was that she was far from being a one-sided character. In fact, she doesn't fit any particular stereotype of women, even if she portrays herself as such sometimes. Sexually explicit lyrics like "My pussy tastes like Pepsi Cola" and even her numerous ambiguous double-entendres on Born to Die smash any attempt made to reduce her to some homogenous cliché. Seeing, at least in the German media, how this is now categorized as a small controversy, I can only applaud her courage to stand by the sexually-charged lyrical imagery she creates, even though she was advised to drop it.

I'm hoping my copy of the EP will arrive on time this week...

But barbie dolls sadly are what the media lives from, so they create them. But still, somewhere between the media's attempt to deconstruct and demystify someone, this is exactly where they spread their object's magic and eventually, it is what Lana as an artist lives from in terms of people's fascination with her.

It would be great to see her change this drastically compared to her recent look which she kind of trademarked this year, hasn't she? I would love to see her as a blonde for a while sometime after "Paradise" as a project including tour and such is finished. Also, I am literally anticipating the media reaction with a humorous patience. I foresee articles and coverage stating she has sold her soul to the mainstream, has gone commercial, or her "marketing team" has once again re-shaped her in order to achieve commercial success which modestly held back with Born to Die. Allegedly.

While I see the logic of it, why should "Lolita" and "Without You" be exclusives to the Target Edition of Born to Die - The Paradise Edition? The Paradise Edition comes with those two tracks on the Born to Die disc internationally, doesn't it? I don't want to get my hopes up, but it would be great to have two new tracks including "Burning Desire." I am hoping Target releases the EP with it as a bonus track...

Oh, I didn't mean to imply that Gaga is behind the tweets of her staff. She is too buy to sit behind her make-up artist giggling and telling her what to tweet. And frankly, it isn't really Gaga responding to people on Twitter which bothers me. As you pointed out, it's focussed on others. It is how her fan base constantly overreacts and is ridiculously violating what Mother Monsters preaches because when the individual says they are accepting, loving and not here for negativity, it means being so without exception, but apparently there are multiple exceptions made in this case. I do also not understand why her staff needs to attack others on Twitter. Or why Gaga needs to respond to those people publicly on Twitter. I really don't mind her sorting things out privately with them which can be done just as easily as on Twitter, and probably in a less compressed way. Why does she need to handle it publicly? She has a point when she says she needs to stand up for herself, but not like this. In my opinion, she is sending out a completely wrong message, one she probably didn't really think about, to her fans which take confronting others as approved. This is where they get her justification for hating on others get from. If the Gaga does it on Twitter, we can, as well. And yes, none of this has anything to do with her as the brilliant musician and artist she is. I also would like to add, once again, that she is an incredible human being. But I am not so sure if she actually sees what happens with her fans. Because she does meet fans, and in front of her they are all sweet and nice (I have seen the opposite when Gaga is literally not looking anymore), and she also sees a very little part of the Tweets involving other people. And I know that if she saw the things we see on Twitter and fan pages all the time, she would be incredibly heart-broken because she did have sincere and good intentions. While I do cherish her deeply in my heart, and am more grateful than words can say for the short moment I got to spend with her, those things do kill the enjoyment at times.

I am currently looking for my Golden Triangle wristband from the first Berlin show... I know that it's somewhere, but I really don't know where. Seeing Madonna so closely this year was an awesome experience. This was the third time for me seeing her live. I have seen the Re-Invention Tour and the Confessions Tour, safely on a seat far far away, but I got rewarded for that cancelled Hamburg show of the Sticky & Sweet Tout by winning access to the Golden Triangle. I still can't believe it. She is so beautiful.

I think I can share criticism on here without being ripped to shreds or declared a two-faced hater as I have on a very certain Gaga forum. Gaga's current attitude is totally annoying me. I love her, she has been tremendously influential in my life, but meeting her hasn't made me blind. In fact, it has made me even more see her as a human and keep a certain critical distance to what she does. The way she confronted Calvin Harris the other day on Twitter with first, making this highly ambiguous statement on how people like to abuse her name for publicly, and second personally confronting him making this utterly theatrical emancipated parole about not being taken seriously as a female making EDM music. She was perfectly right with the arguments has brought up, and even her explanation on LittleMonsters.com did shed some light on what was happening, but the way she chose to make her point clear does contradict her message of "not giving negativity any energy." Even more ironic is her 2010 uploaded video as the Queen of Twitter declaring one shall only share positivity on Twitter. I know she is having a hard time with hospitalization cases in her family and not being in so good health, but no matter which circumstances surround her, something like this does not stay the only situation. A while ago, she posted her "Telephone" performance from Music Station Japan from 2010 with the words saying 'Hahahahhahaha' after Little Monsters insulted Nicki Minaj for allegedly copying this look. She deleted her post a few minutes afterwords and composed a short apologetic message saying she didn't mean to insult anyone with this. The point is that her mind is not free of negative thinking towards other people, and artists. She may repress it, not give it energy - sometimes -, and ignore criticism, but it is little moments when she raises her eyebrow or makes ambiguous and short remarks about something, usually in moments the public does not see, that make clear she is very well having these thoughts. To me, it is our irony that Little Monsters have declared "Hating on Madonna" their new favorite hobby since she made a few really insignificant remarks and comments on Gaga which have been complementary, but also of critical nature sometimes. The infamous "reductive" headline has been blown so out of proportion and has been put in contexts which are totally untrue and made up. Madonna has never explicitly said that Gaga is reductive, if you pay attention to the way she answers the question, which we don't hear in the edited footage of the ABC interview, she starts with "IT feels..." One doesn't need to be a linguist to analyze this does not at all have something to do with the interpretations some really extra troubled and passive-thinking Gaga fans came up with. The most harmless and tongue-in-cheek-ish jokes Madonna has made, while always complementing her, are immediately interpreted as "shade" (fuck this word and the entire popularity of it) and some vicious vicious attack to destroy Gaga. Believe me, Madonna has more important things to do in her daily life than thinking about ways to get rid of concurrence. I don't even have to point out what. All of the sudden, Twitter and fan forum blow up with hateful comments about artists and those that pretend to be that have allegedly said something utterly destructive and cruel about Gaga. Opinions are expressed, paroles are composed and ridiculous attempts to diminish the other one was started - all of this basing on somebody's stupid and inaccurate, subjective and irrelevant coverage of an occurrence. It is just sad. But the saddest of all, which puts me so off of this fan base is how her fans are unable to see these exact same flaws about her when talking about others. She is human. Not a saint. Not God. She is as human as Madonna. And humans do, and should, think. Which involves commentary like this. While Madonna does speak out about things, Gaga has this conversation behind closed doors and allows her employees and coworkers, starting from her make-up artist, over to her hair dressed, continued with her body guard, and ending with the worst of them all - her producer DJWS - to make remarks about artists that mentioned Gaga in a critical and negative context. She rarely responds, and when she does, she finds the prettiest way to make a totally immature and unprofessional comment like a 12-year old on Facebook. But yet, her fans go "Goo GUUURL!!!" when she does this as if it makes her different to anybody else. As if this is justified. I don't see her as holy, because I am well-aware of that she is not. She is a wonderful person that breeds a lot of awareness, tolerance, positivity and acceptance in the world, but she is a human after all. Like Madonna. And like anyone else. Just needed to say this.

Born to Die: "Dark Paradise" A.K.A. Lizzy Grant: "Smarty" Sirens: "For K, Part 1" Unreleased: "Hundred Dollar Bill" Demo: "Blue Jeans" Collaboration: -

Even though it's not really film, but more of a mini-series, I've been enjoying "The Kingdom" by Lars von Trier. I ordered the box-set few days ago and watched the first episode with a friend. But I couldn't stop since then... back then in 1994 it was argued it was Denmark's response to Lynch's ( ) "Twin Peaks" and it sort of is. There is this generic narrative of a hospital telenovela laid over a truly disturbing and shocking subtext of anything dark which somehow creeps people out. I did laugh out loudly in some scenes, but just like that I was overly disgusted and paralyzed in other scenes. I am generally obsessed with anything which has this wide gulf between the dark and the light, and this show perfectly embodies this troubling but yet comforting sentiment. Quite contradictory, isn't it? But for me, there is no other way to say it. It's pretty obvious that it's not an American show because it is shot with quite basic camera angles and uses the Dogma 95-technique for both camera work and setting. I don't want to diminish cinematography produced in America, but sometimes I prefer a less artificial, which is also what I somehow obsess with, format for television. The series consist of eight to ten episodes, depending on the different cuts issued in various regions but the content is always the same. Those that like Lars von Trier's film work such as "Dancer In the Dark" (shout-out to Björk ) or the Europa Trilogy will love it! But those that know his recent work such as "Dogville" or "Antichrist" should prepare for a rather prosaic style compared to the extremely aesthetic optic he presented recently.

This is such an amazing idea! I will so be "attending."