MIA

i could see this piece subconsciously affecting our lesser critics to not try so hard to find MIA to be a genius, esp if the new album is difficult/crap. none of it is really news, but the rising sentiment of MIA ISN'T ALL THAT is being dignified by the grey lady here.

basically this piece is not for us, it's more like a heads-up for anyone who wasn't just enjoying her music but also taking her seriously.

ILM most certainly takes MIA seriously -- much more so than the fans, say, who've picked up on "Paper Planes" on the radio, or found out about her from that Slumdog song, or her Grammy performance.

Whereas, on ILM we trade off discussions in a 1,000+ post thread about MIA.

I'm mia

hope all that truffle oil is consolation for ur artistic bankruptcy

galang galang

OK, I am just catching up with this thread and responding to stuff from three weeks ago, but whatever: The first time I heard "Paper Planes" back in '07, I immediately noticed the "Rump Shaker" reference. It's pretty obvious! Never heard "Straight to Hell" before, so I didn't realize there was a Clash sample until months later.

(.)(.)

fwiw Hirschberg's Courtney piece really holds up (and I say that as an acknowledged Courtney stan)

don't think I ever read that... was that the one where she was smoking while pregnant or something

Though if you guys like "Straight to Hell" interpolations, here ya go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9hXexd6A-Q

(Comes in at 2:10.)

xpost smoking and snorting and all sorts of whatnot. but going back now it's a really sort of extraordinary snapshot and eerily predictive -- not just of Krut's martyrdom, which was inevitable, but of, like, Courtney's Twitter account and Celebrity Skin.

Court's rap on the Minneapolis scene circa 1987 is lulz: "I just couldn't take it anywhere else [than LA]," she explains. "Minneapolis was so fucking un-pretentious. Everyone has a flannel collection and is in a band named after a welding instrument."

^^^Court skipped Mpls because she promoted a fake Butthole Surfers concert and left town with all the cash the day before it was supposed to happen.

I'm wondering if Maya recorded the conversation she had with Lynn Hirschberg (something an interview subject will do to be all like 'you better not misquote' sometimes). But Hirschberg missed the opportunity to point out that Maya's lived off the largesse of rich hipsters for YEARS, which every third person in London could tell you.

Fuck gold, she's a platinum digger

Who else has Hirschberg eaten fries with?
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/05/who_else_has_lynn_hirschberg_t.html

lololol

xxxpost suzy afaik that's one story.

Meaning? Am sure there are many, many more - and my sources for this particular story are unimpeachable BTW.

shakey otm throughout thread. i'm halfway through the hirschberg piece and, whatever nyt smugness she drips aside, "her child-of-Godard mix of politics, paranoia and pop" is a pretty good argument for why mia is at least as interesting as any other pop star out there now. blaming her in any way for the general low level of understanding of things like the sri lanka conflict is a bit naive, isn't it? and she has openly set the record straight on her father for a while now, iirc.

has gaga responded to any of these jabs? would love to see the beef escalate.

suzy <3 you forever but your sources are for one story and your experience however varied is still only one person's experience ok

I know it's good for lolz to discuss her life but I still don't know what makes her any more a liar and scamp than any other ambitious rock artiste.

the olive bread.

dude, stop: I haven't had dinner.

has gaga responded to any of these jabs? would love to see the beef escalate.

Disagree. I hope Gaga has more class than that.

does she take her fries with truffle oil then?

my god i really want to try that now

Disagree. I hope Gaga has more class than that.

lol more like Gaga's probably smart enough to know that not responding will make her look like the bigger star/better person and increase her cachet

your move, gaga. your move.

Gaga won't bite, she's had MONTHS and hasn't responded to Grace Jones beef, so...

JD, not my experience as such - I was away at college when it happened - but anyone who'd fuck over Lori B is a creep for realz.

move gaga move

assuming gagalang jokes have been made already

i would think that the fact that she actually sells some records would be the thing that makes gaga the bigger star but what do i know

lol @CourtneyLoveUK is now all "got ur back sister" on the Twitters

how mean is the actual nyt piece?

i was trying to make some kinda jethro tull gagalung joke then i was all wtf am i doing w.my life

how mean is the actual nyt piece?

it's really kind of subtly mean - Joan Didion would have written the definitive dismissal around the same issues I think but this one isn't so confident

she just kinda sits back and waits for maya to contradict herself. it is mean, no doubt.

Didion is subtler about balancing disdain and admiration.

I don't know if this NYT piece is quite in control of its effects.

to the extent that we can even conceive of an ink-stained wretch as "mean" to a billionaire-by-marriage international pop star, i suppose the piece has done its job

MIA would never call a 13 year old on the ellen show and tell him to follow his dreams... mores the pity...

she has all this press to actually get across a legimate pov of tamil and just come up looking like hipster lolzzz and i have met 20 something girls with fringes who consider her their RATM.

+ that pic up there of the fries etc is how her new tracks makes me feel.

xpost like, "meanness" requires a certain power imbalance to be perceived as such

she has all this press to actually get across a legimate pov of tamil

is this her obligation? Serious question. I guess we're entering much-trod terrain here: how coherently do we expect artists to discuss politics when most of them just exploit?

if the objective of the piece is to signal to the world outside of ILX that This Is Not A Serious Person, i'd take ILX discussion of "meanness" as an index of its effectiveness in that project

i just re-read the courtney love piece, and this seems meaner than that.

except that had accusations of actual harmful shit

Didion is subtler about balancing disdain and admiration.

I would sub "awe" for admiration, but yeah - Didion gives respect to those qualities which she could not begin to imagine in herself; it is one of her most towering strengths as a writer; a monster, for her, is that which she understands but is only willing to judge with reservations most of the time

and yeah obv as a stylist there is nobody living within a hundred yards of Didion

aerosmith, I miss you.

^^^real talk re: Didion

bringing up Didion is sorta not fair to other writers