MIA

yeah, the redhead thing was strange. i think i spotted mich hucknall among those rounded up.

o_O

it's by MIA and it's called 'born free' and the army dudes look as sinister as fuck

xpost

the average MIA fan in 2010 will have absolutely no frame of reference for that movie, right?

idk, over-educated cinephiles are probably a core part of her audience

you're right that since it's from m.i.a., i should have assumed something like what unfolded.

would think MIA fans in 2010 are more likely to have heard about or seen Punishment Park than even collegiate music fans in earlier eras, considering no studio would put it out and the film was released on dvd in 2005.

it's still pretty obscure, but probably less so now than ever

yeah I've never heard of Punishment Park before this thread (not that I am claiming myself as a typical MIA fan)

i mean i know what punishment is

and i know what a park is

yeah waht is it

lol sorry for bringing up something ppl might not have heard of

it's a boring movie about cops hunting hippies whose wikipedia page is linked to twice upthread

xpost

gotta say, I liked the song better in the video, when it got all dubby and then came back strong. that was cool.

Still wish I hadn't watched it though.

i can't imagine all the publicists now calling pfork and the like to get their shitty indie bands to take over their twitters

ayup, im intentionally not reading any of the twitter posts because i like the idea of MIA that exists in my mind and i want to keep it that way

be kind of awesome if this album was total Flowers Of Romance wtfery

yes and no; it would be awesome but I also like my sparkly politically-confused club trax

1000timesyes today @1000timesyes will be taken over by Fang Island! they will be using the hashtag #1000timesfangisland

be kind of awesome if this album was total Flowers Of Romance wtfery

even better if it was more like second edition, but yes

then again she completely tricked me with where she was going to go on Kala with "Bird Flu" so basically all we can say for sure is that there will be music and it will have messages in it that are equal parts cogent, indecipherable and reprehensible

true nuff

I'm not very keen on Born Free but the particularly pointed kind of schadenfreude you get on these threads whenever MIA releases something that's any less than storming is totally lame.

the particularly pointed kind of schadenfreude you get on these threads whenever MIA releases something that's any less than storming is totally lame.

otm

Also, as much as I like her music, the notion that she could have a twitter feed that wasn't completely obnoxious and ridiculous is kind of amusing.

real talk

I think there would be less schadenfreude if people weren't consistently told by her, lots of her fans and lots of the press that everything she did was revolutionary cutting edge life changing uber-music. Her schtick can be pretty annoying if it's not backed up by really good music.

She is a pop star. For better or for worse she is clearly trying to be very popular or effect popular culture in some way. I like that she prances around, making ridiculous statements, and courting attention. She wants as many people to hear her music as possible. Her music is better, more vital etc... than most of the other dross that is in or near to the charts.

oh my fucking god it's that old "pop stars must say stupid shit and look dumb at all times" chestnut again

Sorry. I find this model 'stupid shit look dumb' quite entertaining. Certainly makes these boards a whole lot more interesting if a little whiny and self important.

CNN story:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/04/27/mia.music.video/index.html?hpt=T2

The video's 'disturbing' but rather shallow, I thought.

"If you look at M.I.A.'s life, there is a history of political activism," Pasulka said. "She's the daughter of a revolutionary who fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka, so she is obviously trying to make a political statement."

...

"I would say she out-GaGaed Lady GaGa," Pasulka said. "This has the potential for even more coverage than all of the interest that surrounded 'Telephone.' "

love the song, dig the video conceptually but think the execution is weak

(lol, no pun intended)

M.I.A.: Out-GaGaing Lady GaGa in 2010.

Ga(lang)Ga(lang).

fuck's sake why are there people taking her "revolutionary" "activism" remotely seriously

i don't really mind that she's kind of stupid as long as she comes up with banging hooks like "bamboo banga" or hits upon an observational vein that works like "hussel" but this is ridic

Love how open that person is about exploiting her "politics."

maybe it's empty vaguely rebellious shtick, but she's squawky and it fits with her squawkiness

thought at first the video was gonna be like america was no longer merely in the green zone of a hypermegaglobalwar which woulda been a more interesting contention to me, but then the redheads thing feels gimmicky and yeah, shallow. too entrenched already as a facile metaphor for discrimination to have some other meaning here. i guess the state deriving its authority from coercive force is a meaning that remains: that's scary & acquiescing is in tension with being "born free".

m.i.a. is passé. pasulka needs to be more forward-thinking: who will out-gaga the woman who out-gaga'ed lady gaga?

although the fact that he was rounding up redheads is kind of quirky.

It reminds me of when grade school teachers try to show why the Jim Crow South was unjust by segregating the class into blue eyed and brown eyed students and treating them differently. It's meant to show the arbitrary or absurd nature of discrimination but to most people it's just lol u silly.

it's meant to show the arbitrary or absurd nature of discrimination

is it here tho? i don't see how it can when the obvious parallel to this vid is raids on households in asia & the middle east and wartime atrocities. could it be a comment of some kind on immigration or racial profiling (spheres where the state is a coercive actor)? or just a "quirky" non-idea.

I like the idea and the message behind the video, but the message probably would have gotten through better with a little less graphic violence. A lot of people will never see this because of exaggerated graphicness. And, oh, I guess the gratious nudity early on is alone enough to get it banned from most American channels.

racial profiling ethnic cleansing

I like the idea and the message behind the video, but the message probably would have gotten through better with a little less graphic violence.

geir..............otm?

http://stevehickey.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/70srapture.jpg

what was "banana skit" about?

bananas?

it's fun to say banana