COLACNT

I think the repitition plays into the part of her 'character' in this particular song, like she's heroin addled and fame obsessed or something. it would explain the detachment in her voice as well. I get the feeling Lana does everything for one reason or another, or at least I like to think

i hope that i'm not stressing people out. it seems as if i like to talk about things people don't always seem to be comfortable talking about. the "underbelly" of humanity, i suppose you could say. its interesting, but can get a bit draining i realize. so please don't take what i'm saying too seriously -- these are merely my own observations and attempts at understanding her peculiar behavior, and why she lies and acts out in the way(s) she does. and its nice to generate discussion on lana in a more theoretical sense i guess =p 
 
i think we should revive @@Moniker's thread about whether or not she'd be as loved if she weren't so beautiful. because i also wonder -- would she be as crazy if she weren't so beautiful? so histrionic (re: lip licking)? so vain and narcissistic (re: lyrics)? so paranoid and pessimistic (~anti me)? i kind of feel like the root of her insecurities / neuroses / eccentricities stem from the seemingly vast disconnect between her outer appearance and her inner world -- and the resulting disconnect between the way people perceive her and the way she actually is. i think this interviewer puts it best: 
 
"she is capable of shifting swiftly from a kind of coltish innocence (*2) to vampish knowingness (*1). It’s a quality that is hard to pin down ... a kind of doubleness, a sense of duality and merging contradictions. She is a person into whom you can read a lot."
 
(1) -- at 2:20 ... after the guy 'woops' at her, notice that knowing little "ha" she does. it didn't require any thought, and it barely phased her. it was rapid, like a reflex. she knows what she does to people -- men in particular 
 

 
(2) on the other hand ... if you listen (to the interview below) from the beginning you sense that their interaction is full of sexual tension. not surprising since she's cooing more so than speaking. he's pretty forward at one point, asking if she ever takes people back to her room after shows or something (1:50) and lana like, yelps in surprise lmao. but then a few minutes later... he's like, oh, well i love the visuals and the palm trees on stage; so much so that i spent an entire song watching the screen instead of you (5:45). she's like ... oh, yea, yea, ok, blah, sonically, blah ... its good that they're there cause ... it... they... uh... [sad voice] you can look at them instead [/sad voice] 
 
http://www.novafm.com.au/video/tim-blackwell-interviews-lana-del-rey
 
so on the one hand she's a true fucking vixen, on the other she's like a fragile ceramic doll. she needs to be loved, admired, adored. at the very least, she wants your eyes to be on her, it seems. how do you reconcile those two characters (jessica rabbit vs. dolores haze) into one person? i mean, i honestly believe that those are both parts of her true personality, and not some character that she puts on. but like i said before -- how must people in her everyday life perceive her? how do you trust that person when you can't understand or process their fundamental energy? if you notice, some of her lyrics are narcissistic praises of her own beauty right before she tosses some acid in 
 
 
 
 
a large portion of her lyrics are heavily rooted in her beauty and how others perceive her beauty. it kind of shows how powerful / sickly pervasive that aspect must be in her life. on the one hand, its why some people are so drawn to her. on the other, its why some people are so repelled by her. its not like she has some obnoxious personality -- she's usually pulled back and rather reserved in her demeanor. so its like, how do you deal with that kind of hate? having a genuine ~anti me perspective? no wonder she seems bipolar -- adoring and grateful with fans when she's being admired vs. arrogant, elitist, and pessimistic when she's being criticized. on the one hand, she has to wonder: do people -love- me for my talent or my beauty? will they still love me...? or, do people -hate- me because of my beauty, in spite of my talents? (this has definitely been the case, especially in the beginning of her career)... she must wonder -- if they don't acknowledge my singing or songwriting, is it because they can't look past my face? or is because i don't even have talent? this might sound reductive, or shallow even, but i think there's a bit of truth along these lines. because like i said before, people seem to be ruled by their emotions and their emotions are rarely fueled or supplemented by logic. and nothing can surpass your brain and hit you in the stomach (or nads) faster than a beautiful person. and sadly, beauty tends to garner a disproportionate amount of interest (both positive and negative), and that happens to be a culturally / temporally transcendent fact
 
all i'm saying is, it must be stressful to draw such vitriol from people for no reason other than how you look. it must be painful and irritating to have your talents refuted for reasons other than an actual lack of talent. i feel like she has to downplay her focus on looks because people will automatically deem her to be superficial. there are lots of things she has to be careful about doing or saying -- because like the interviewer says; she's the type of person you can read a lot into. people are going to be quicker with their snap judgements. and if you're uninformed or unfamiliar with her or any of her work, you're likely to hold a very wrong opinion
 
TL;DR -- beauty spurs a wide range of emotions in people. can it play a negative role in a person's development? distort perceptions of themselves and the world around them? fragment your personality? am i stressing people out?

"my celluloid seems
to be torn at the seams"
 
that would be incredibly scathing and self aware, so i dunno lmao 
 
EDIT: actually, its both incredibly scathing and self rewarding; tearing off whats unreal and shedding an old skin; only to then reveal a
~*~ lust for life ~*~ 
 
bitch !       

i think big eyes is brilliant with the simple yet sort of strange storytelling / scene setting aspect of the lyrics 
 
and the mariachi trumpets are A+++ 
 

she need to get off that dick and get on the promo 
 
 
 

I think the repitition plays into the part of her 'character' in this particular song, like she's heroin addled and fame obsessed or something. it would explain the detachment in her voice as well. I get the feeling Lana does everything for one reason or another, or at least I like to think

"oh cool so what does the M stand for?" 
 
"its the first initial of my favorite singer's grandmother" 
 

This is a perfect mix of bts and professional shots 

love the video but needed something more formal 

love the video but needed something more formal 

'my momma' is kinda disturbing
 
"My momma she would love you like I love you
If she ever met you, if she ever knew
My momma sure would fall right on top of you
If she’d ever saw you, she’d be smitten too
I’ll never take you home, I want you all for my own
Don’t let my momma hear your pretty song"
 
makes it seem like she got some legit daddy issues if she feels competitive with her own mother. maybe she doesn't sing about her often because theres something a bit 'too' dark there. or nothing at all, who knows 
 
i always thought it was: "is it wrong mom that i think its kinda fun when i hit you in the back of the head with a gun?" but i guess i misheard? lmao 
 
 

when i said interesting, i was kind of referring to the entire discussion (its a forum, not a blog); theres praise but its tempered w/ valid criticisms 
 
well, i hope they end up discussing tropico .. its a different perspective, maybe a bit cringey but lana makes me cringe all the time lmao 
 
I’ve watched plenty of interviews with Lana and from my own (yes, subjective obvously) perception, she isn’t a complex character. Her music has this surface. "I’m a bad rich girl with a rich daddy and I was an alcoholic and I like living in America and I like bad men, I’m co-dependent and I like ‘leather on my waisties’. That may be performance. But surely isn’t Nicki Minaj exactly the same? ’I’m a rich bad bitch who likes pink wigs and I use my body as a weapon and am ridiculously feminine in music videos and my father was an alcoholic’. Nobody would create a forum thread for Minaj on MUBI but because Lana Del Rey’s music is sad she is a ‘auteur’? Come on, let’s face it. There really isn’t much difference between Lana’s music and other artists like Rihanna. Lana’s is sadder and more interesting. But where do I see a thread for “RIHANNA: AUTEUR” on here? But any of those artists could be argued to be auteurs if Lana could too.
 
the fact that there are so many britney / gaga / katy stans here too (myself included) made me wonder if theres a bit of truth to this? are they really comparable in the pop world? i don't really think so… but then i put hit & run on blast and push myself back to square one 
 
Glimmering darling
White bikini off with my red nail polish
Watch me in the swimming pool
Bright blue ripples, you
Sitting sipping on your black Cristal, yeah”
That is not assigning some kind of creative look at superficiality in pop music.
 
i think it is exactly that. notice how relentlessly she describes herself as something that is passively watched and presumably desired, and who herself desires nothing but the gaze of desire. (**ow**) i’m not a lana del rey fan. i don’t like most of the music nor do i care much about the persona, but i find her play with identity, desire and consumption fascinating. she takes the women in david lynch’s films as a clear inspiration, and like them, assumes an abject sort of helplessness that is both traditionally “alluring” and profoundly creepy. everything about her art supports this: the imagery, the styling, the delivery, the nostalgic arrangements and reverb-drenched production. she makes a feminst point ironically, by exaggerating her helplessness, girlishness and object-hood."
  i think its also interesting that on that forum, the fans are the ones throwing shade and the ones that aren't even fans are the ones supporting her? kind of backwards and unusual   maybe i could have posted parts of it in the feminism thread or started a new thread w/ all the good bits. i dunno, forum was kind of dead yesterday.. thought this would be an interesting discussion to bring over but i guess i was alone in that so brb gonna cut myself lol 

that 4 minute, non-stop drag, a "misunderstanding"? 
 
              

real or imaginary? i say real

she cited him as an inspiration at one point i think !!?

she's hilarious 
 

reminds me of this
 

 
although i think it would be interesting if we had a thread discussing lana's (current and continual) influences on the music industry. i read in an article somewhere about how the current state of pop has become more melancholic, or "inward" and immediately thought of her potential (unspoken) impact 
 
also, as a bit of an aside, is just me or do people use the word sonic like all the fucking time these days? outside of this forum, and without irony! seems like its become such a blog-worthy adjective in the recent year or so. i swear before 2011 i never saw that word being used unless it was followed by 'the hedgehog' 
 
(unless i just never paid the proper attention)

reminds me of this
 

 
although i think it would be interesting if we had a thread discussing lana's (current and continual) influences on the music industry. i read in an article somewhere about how the current state of pop has become more melancholic, or "inward" and immediately thought of her potential (unspoken) impact 
 
also, as a bit of an aside, is just me or do people use the word sonic like all the fucking time these days? outside of this forum, and without irony! seems like its become such a blog-worthy adjective in the recent year or so. i swear before 2011 i never saw that word being used unless it was followed by 'the hedgehog' 
 
(unless i just never paid the proper attention)

what the fuck is "white comp"

i always hear white cum but then again i'm a gay

i think the only times she's mentioned food, she's mentioned eating lots of junk food, spaghetti, and chocolate cake 
 
not surprised that her palette is rather ~american 

TROPICO IS SUCH AN OVERWHELMING EXPERIENCE. these are my notes after sitting down and watching it alone for the first time, so i was actually able to think clearly. i'll try and expand on it all later but i wanted to contribute my bare boned analysis for now. i need to watch it a few more times to formulate a solid opinion. although i do feel as if i like it a bit better each time 
_____________________________________
  john wayne is god —> submission to masculinity and americana lana & shaun watching in awe (curious, impressionable) voices overlapping  radio waves (i.e electronic medium)  who do we listen to? parents? friends? media?  what is free will    marilyn says sex is a part of nature but she screams when lana bites the apple madonna / whore (?) —> modern feminist conflict    radio frequencies (~different wavelengths)  blowing bubbles vs. stripping  basic internal conflicts  past vs. present  space vs. earth   i was an angel (at home, drinking coke), living in the garden of evil  "screwed up, scared, doing anything that i needed"   her decision to eat the apple her decision to strip  is she really an angel?  or damaged by the way the world just is  or people are just inherently 'sinful'    lolita in the hood —> dia de los muertos (ritualistic, gang initiation) —> stripper (i'm not 100% sure about this, but i think it represents the loss of innocence)    "i'm gonna teach you how to be cowboys" shaun w/ the toy (?) gun and the cowboy hat —> emulating his ‘god’ (like a child)  his definition of what it meant to be a cowboy —> rough, tough, masculine thief  shaun bit the apple, he loses his innocence too    "its not always going to be this way" "i’ll always be here for you" (god doesn't judge)  comet being shot towards earth  —> the pivotal point (?)  then the bachelor party (radio frequencies start up again)    thematic continuations; the importance of money (money —> satisfaction/redemption?)  the importance / potency of female sexuality  her appreciation / obsession with the male gaze  sex / money —> our culture, our religion   los angeles —> purgatory (then reality is purgatory?)  tossing the pearls —> discarding her feminine ~wiles (although lana would never actually do this, of course)  baptizing/purifying herself for ~redemption redemption —> leaving this planet (lana thinks of earth as the true hell?)   glitches during bel air — visual confirmation of differing wavelengths (‘contact’)  the otherworld = final destination. the destination all along? somewhat similar to dying, like in all the other videos. born to die? am i reaching  various roles throughout; stages of development:   eve (~mystical, innocent)  housewife hoodrat  stripper             accomplice  alien (~mystical, enlightened)    full circle, kind of; movement from the garden of eden (paradise) to the garden of evil (earth) to the other world (paradise lost) _____________________________________________   a small part of me also thinks that lana just used tropico as a vehicle to portray herself simultaneously as both an ~artist and a ~sex symbol, in full force. like the whole point of it all was just for her to dance around with tassels on her tits, knowing fully well that men around the world would be cumming on their computer screens before the 27 minute mark. and the purpose of the poetry was just to confuse audiences and lend the film some bits of credibility and generate discussion    but thats if i'm being 110% cynical. maybe i'm just irritated by the fact that she didn't write any of the monologues or dialogue herself    although this is lana we're talking about. she probably had a million different motivations, 97% of which we'll never be able to figure out completely 

if i could pull my head away from the rest of my body i would be extremely excited 
 
i mean i am excited but i'm also like ok lana u fucking crackhead 

right ? it could be a song about how she fucked her way up a mountain