Lana Del Rey

smoking Pall Mall Blues that share space — in a beat-up snakeskin bag — with an old Tennessee Williams paperback

You can't fault her commitment

Black and white The onetime philosophy major is philosophical about this Emporio Armani Underwear top, $44. Go to armani.com. Opening Ceremony skirt, $255. Go to openingceremony.us. Charlotte Olympia for Peter Som shoes, showpiece only. Go to petersom.com.

pretty sure i saw her eating a burrito today

That Pall Mall/snakeskin/Tennessee pile-up is the point where anybody who doesn't write for a style section might want to raise an eyebrow.

this is also good writing about LDR: http://theremixbaby.tumblr.com/post/17213964072/all-4-u

Of course, my current problem with Lana Del Rey is that I literally can no longer trust any [heterosexual??] man to give a reliable reading of the image she is portraying.

...The issue is not that they won’t like it. It’s that they won’t get it. Inevitably, they will miss the point.

....Being a girl in a patriarchal society means wanting things that are directly contrary to your own happiness and liberation, and that is something that I’m not sure privileged people can ever actually understand.

...We want these fucked up things that don’t even exist—the sublimation of pure devotion, beauty which can make us interesting, the very ideal of the “bad boy” itself. We want them because we have been told every day that they will make us happy and they are our natural desires.

...Let me reiterate how much I don’t expect male music writers to get it, especially as it manifests itself in Del Rey’s music.

great piece of analysis, except for the constant hammering of the "guys don't get it" slant. women will always, of course, be best able to parse the mechanics of female experience, selfhood and desire. that, however, doesn't make her arguments incomprehensible to me as a straight guy. i agree with everything she says about the way LDR embodies and describes the appeal of clearly toxic roles and desires. but the way that interacts with the actual experience of being female isn't really mine to articulate.

fwiw, i've thought a lot about exactly the argument she's making and have even addressed it ITT. i hinted at it when you, lex, accused me of viewing LDR exclusively through a het male lens simply because i spoke of the erotic "appeal" of her persona. i wasn't speaking only of her appeal to straight guys, but of the way that erotic personas appeal to people in general, both as objects of desire and as surrogate selves. this is v similar to what rmxbb is getting at.

The "Hey, is she your girlfriend? You a lucky guy" bit was cute.

My impression is that the whole "artist controlled completely by her management" is also part of the presentation.

This bit was what Malcolm McLaren and Bernie Rhodes couldn't pull off.

some of the armchair psychology in this thread might be otm but she is such a sweetheart to her obsessives that I was pretty won over tonight. missed her flight back to LA so she could xoxoxo fans for over 3 hours after the show. Also sang much better than on snl. and let me take photos w her where we pretended to box each other. thumbs up ldr.

Actually, the last act that was supposedly "controlled completely" as part of their, um, (schtic? There must be a better word. thing? anyway)..

was tATu

Tatu. tAtU. whatever...

she isn't completely controlled by her management

From stories I've heard her management is insanely, self-sabotagingly controlling of press access and so on, but that's not the same at all as her being controlled. Everything she says, every lyric she writes, reveals the same basket of influences and themes and when you consider current pop trends I just don't see any cynical manager or record exec thinking, "Yeah, Twin Peaks/retro diner trip hop - that's a banker."

It's her, it's her, it's all from her
She tells you all the time

I literally can no longer trust any [heterosexual??] man to give a reliable reading of the image she is portraying.

Why? Anyway good looking women are the rule in the music business not the exception, aren't they?

Not according to the bitch style rags, no.

Who writes those, heterosexual?? men?

Dunno, prob not.

maybe. Isn't it mainly heterosexual men that write pulp romance novels?

Have we talked about the SFJ article yet?

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/a-star-is-born-and-scorned/

cant believe ned linked to this hours ago and no one has mentioned that it is literally the most awful piece of writing to ever have existed and i would rather remove my brain through my nose with a clotheshanger than read it again

this thread can basically double as 'rolling worst music writing 2011/2012'

Rolling worst ILM thread 2011/2012

Wait, if you possess male genitals you should think twice about criticizing it because your opinion may be invalid.

Oh wait, it was written by a male, continue on.

- "emblematic"
- "the Twitter generation"
- "pretty in a dress"

- the bit where he compares adele being not skinny to amy winehouse being an addict
- the part where he attributes the "psychosexual content" of lana del rey's songs to her large family
- the part where he compares party in the USA and a lana del rey song because you could "gyrate" to both at an "illegal warehouse rave"
- all the parts

are there people here - or do you know people - uh, straight male people - who are really drooling over LDR? like, who think she is the hottest thing in pants? i haven't met anyone yet. but then i haven't met anyone other than my wife in real life who has ever talked about her. so i wouldn't know. and i can't recall anyone here posting that they felt that way about her. i wouldn't have even thought about the sex symbol thing without reading it. just based on album and single covers and snl and listening to her music.

At the pizza place she orders a large coffee with no sugar, lots of milk. The server spots the old Tennessee Williams paperback in her purse, which sparks a conversation about 1950s movies and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra.

Then he asks, “Are you two a couple?” and looks at me and says: “Today is your lucky day. I wish I was lucky like you.”

The presumption doesn’t stop him from flirting with Del Rey. “Big cup for you,” he says, handing her her coffee. “Just a little kiss for me.”

Del Rey laughs and hits him right back with: “Sure. Just a little kiss. Where do you want it?”

There was no kiss, but the subject of Del Rey’s mouth is an irresistible one.

- people think i might be LDR's bf
- nah we're just friends, it's cool
- she flirted with another guy in front of me but i didn't mind, we're just friends, guys can have hot female friends and it's no big deal
- but those lips...

Its sad that the server couldn't close the deal.

She grows quiet, looks at her watch. It’s getting late. She admits that she doesn’t have an important industry meeting, as her publicist told me, but has to baby-sit for a friend.

Before she goes, I ask her where she lives. She’s looking to buy a place, but for now is in Williamsburg. “Staying with my ex-boyfriend,” she says nonchalantly, then bursts into nervous laughter and admits, “I live on his couch.”

I give her a look like, You just told me all that about falling in love and breaking up and you’re on the dude’s couch?

i hate the sorts of profile pieces in which a male writer spends time w/a female performer and in his mind they have a cozy evening w/honest conversation but hey we're just friends and i'm playing it cool.

no i'm serious, i saw her eating a burrito on haight street yesterday.

Then he asks, “Are you two a couple?” and looks at me and says: “Today is your lucky day. I wish I was lucky like you.”

http://jacobmbrown.com/JacobPortrait.jpg

wkiw LDR

no i'm serious, i saw her eating a burrito on haight street yesterday.

She opened it and said you were suckers.

LOL @Ned Raggett!!!!

peter g.

Big Pete Grasswich

She remembers as a kid asking herself cheesy meaning-of-life questions and thinking she was really special for doing so. Then, in high school, she took a philosophy class and realized she was like everyone else.

Cool story bro

Maura's takedown: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/02/sexism_women_in_rock_female_musicians.php

.gif of orson welles clapping but in a more sincere fashion than that one from citizen kane

i mean damn

Wow, that's fab

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC6ilDfH_GM

total bro.

Great Maura piece.

Internet psychology rock

- the part where he compares party in the USA and a lana del rey song because you could "gyrate" to both at an "illegal warehouse rave"

lol

\m/ Maura's takedown.

I just heard this person's music and holy jesus do I hate her

crüt, welcome. here's a menu. you can sit over here; there'll be a bit of a wait, but we'll get you a table as soon as one becomes available. would you like to order a cocktail as you wait?

are there people here - or do you know people - uh, straight male people - who are really drooling over LDR? like, who think she is the hottest thing in pants?

I will step up and own this opinion. I would like to have coffee with her and stare at her weird lip and I think her vulnerable-glam persona is very conducive to the fantasy that what she really needs is someone like *me* to genuinely listen to her and we can set aside all the haters and the lies of her management and truly connect with each other in the unmediated way that we both so clearly want, at least for a few hours.

(I do not write for the NY Times Magazine.)