Being the angry person that I am, I see / hear things on a daily basis that really bother me. Most of the time I just forget about them because it’s not worth the time and energy sitting on things that don’t matter in the bigger picture. Today I saw something that really got to me and I can’t seem to get it out of my head so I might as well share. On my way home from work, when I arrived on the J train platform there was a kid there who was probably around my age standing there with an enormous TV on a wooden platform with wheels. My first reaction was how the hell did he get this on the train platform, down then up at least 3 flights of stairs...
He was at the back of the train, which is where I had to wait. This kid looked puzzled and as the platform started to fill up with people waiting for the train people started to ask him exactly what I was thinking - how did he manage to get that huge TV to the spot it was sitting, let alone by himself. It turns out that the TV was just sitting there and it didn’t belong to him, but since it was seemingly abandoned he was considering taking it but couldn’t figure out how to get it home. A few people told him that it’s not worth it because he doesn’t even know if it works.
The kid started wondering out loud if it was “ethical” to take a TV that didn’t belong to him that was left in the subway. Then he saw one of the onlookers was a Hassidic Jewish man. He turns to the Jewish man and says “Hey, maybe I should ask you for your ethical opinion on this one... is it ethical to take a TV that has been has been left in the subway but might belong to someone who is coming back for it?”
I immediately walked to the other side of the platform. Grrrrr! How naive of this kid to think that just because someone is religious that they should be consulted for their moral opinion on anything. How does this kid know the man isn’t on his way home after spending a few hours in a sleezy motel room in Times Square with his favorite whore? Should I ask him if sodomy is morally wrong? Maybe he would know if it’s wrong for a married man to sleep with a single woman? How about if it’s ethical to shake a woman’s hand?
In our society, morals and ethics are unfortunately tied to religion. Even more unfortunate is the common misconception is that those without god or religion in their lives can’t possibly be good or ethical people.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
pictures i love
purple and the gold, please!
diablo cody.
twins are creepy. miu miu.
i want this necklace. the woman is leonor scherrer.
heart shaped bruise (or hickey?).
i want to look like her!
i want her hair!
alexander wang.
Monday, April 5, 2010
manufactured monster
In elementary school it was TLC. In high school (and still) it was Pink. I fell in love with Gaga when I first saw her wearing one of her crazy outfits before I ever heard her music. I had heard of her in college (she was my year at NYU) because a friend was working with the same producer she was and swore to death that Gaga was sleeping with him (she was right). As I learned more about her I became enamored with her as a complete package. Although technically a musician, her music is just a small part of why I love her. She wears the hottest, pantsless, avant garde shit (I also hate wearing pants), she’s pretty-ugly (she’s ugly in a way that is actually pretty), she can dance, she has a powerful voice, she identifies as bi-sexual and I get this powerful feeling from her that she is unashamedly herself. She’s not afraid to be who she is...
Or so I thought. The downfall began with the media controversy of her “Telephone” video with Beyonce, the girl-on-girl kiss and the blurred out vagina on screen, the PRODUCT PLACEMENT. This video really stirred up the Internet and I read so many pretentious critiques presuming Gaga’s motive for every second of that video that it made me sick. I was certain that this video was a turning point (downfall) in her career for a few reasons. First, the collaboration with Beyonce is so forced and awkward that it is clearly a ploy for Gaga to appeal to Beyonce fans. Secondly, it just missed the mark from all of her other videos. Maybe because you can’t make a Tarantino film without Tarantino (I don’t care if you have his Pussy Wagon). And lastly, THE PRODUCT PLACEMENT is astounding. Warhol on steroids.
THEN there was “Growing Up Gaga” - a pretty crushing interview by Vanessa Grigoriadis in NY Magazine that caused my entire vision of her (hanging and covered in blood) to come tumbling down. I went through the article and picked out the particularly crushing parts of the story, but I must warn you DO NOT CONTINUE if you want to blindly love the Gaga.
I guess I was so naive to believe that the only motive to create this amazing Monster was to inspire the world to be who they really are. I realize now that who we see just another manufactured pop star BUSINESS, mixed with a hot Swedish stylist, that exists solely to sell records. To think, just a few years ago she was probably wearing Abercrombie and NOT sleeping with women (she told Barbara Walters that she has had sexual relationships with women).
1. And Gaga, of course, takes the credit herself. “I went through a great deal of creative and artistic revelation, learning, and marination to become who I am,” she explains. “Tiny little lie? I wanted to become the artist I am today, and it took years.” She studied what has gained attention with shock value and did exactly that to make people think she’s so unique.
2. Though she may not be bisexual herself—of the many friends of herself interviewed for this article, not one of them recalls her ever having a girlfriend or being sexually interested in any woman offstage—her politics are inclusive, and she wants to promote images of as many sexual combinations as are possible on this Earth. Gaga says she’s a girl who likes boys who look like girls, but she’s also a girl who likes to look like a boy herself—or, rather, a drag queen, a boy pretending to be a girl. There’s little that gives her more pleasure than the persistent rumor that she is a hermaphrodite, an Internet rumor based on scrutinizing a grainy video. That’s not Madonna. Madonna wouldn’t pretend she has a penis. All I have to say is that my friends certainly know who I sleep with.
3. Gaga also throws in our face something we’ve known all along but numbly decided to ignore: American celebrities have become very, very boring. (The fact that she has done this at the same time that much of the actual music she makes herself is somewhat boring is another feat.) One of her essential points is that celebrity should be the province of weirdos, like Grace Jones circa Jean-Paul Goude and her pet idol, eighties opera–meets–New Wave cult figure Klaus Nomi, who died of AIDS at 39. Note to self, dress as eccentrically as possible to get attention.
4. Jealous older girls stuck in the chorus began calling her “the Germ.” “They always talked behind her back, like, ‘Gross, she’s the Germ! She’s dirty!’ ” says a classmate. Gaga has often mentioned that she was an outcast in high school, but other than adolescent shenanigans like these, her friends from this Pudding-like crowd do not share this recollection. “She was always popular,” says Julia Lindenthal, Marymount ’04. “I don’t remember her experiencing any social problems or awkwardness.” Oh yea, include the social outcasts in high school by telling everyone you were picked on too.
5. I remember thinking, Wow, she is so over-the-top.” Gaga also had an odd habit of refusing to let cast members in plays call her by her real name backstage. “If you tried to say ‘Hey, Stefani’ to her, she’d put on the voice of her character, and say, ‘No, I’m Ginger!’ ” says a friend. “It was so bizarre, because we were kids.” She’s an actress constantly in character.
6. When Fusari first met Gaga, he didn’t see the private-school thing and thought she looked like “a Guidette, totally Jersey Shore.” HOW do you go from Jersey Shore to fucking Catherine Baba meets David Bowie... ever? Oh, someone tells you to.
7. Gaga began taking the bus from Port Authority to meet him at his New Jersey studio at 10 a.m., writing grungy songs with Zeppelin or Nirvana riffs on the piano and singing her quirky Jefferson Airplane lyrics over them. So if Gaga was truly making music she loved, it’d sound like “Stairway to Heaven”?
8. The two of them worked on rock songs for four months, but the reaction among their colleagues was negative; they also tried the singer-songwriter route, like Michelle Branch or Avril Lavigne, but those didn’t gel either. “With those kinds of records, people are looking at the source of that music, who it’s coming from,” says Starland. “Those artists are usually classically beautiful, very steady, and more tranquil, in a way.” Gaga can’t be a singer-songwriter because she’s not pretty enough.
9. “We weren’t going to get past A&R with a female rock record, and dance is so much easier,” says Fusari. Gaga freaked out—you don’t believe in me, she told him—but, from that day onward, they started working with a drum machine. They also began an affair, which made their artistic collaboration tumultuous... Gaga wasn’t into fashion at this point: She liked leggings and sweatshirts, maybe with a shoulder out. “A couple times, she came to the studio in sweatpants, and I said, ‘Really, Stef?’ ” says Fusari. “ ‘What if I had Clive Davis in here today? I should call the session right now. Prince doesn’t pick up ice cream at the 7-Eleven looking like Chris Rock. You’re an artist now. You can’t turn this on and off.’ ” Being true to yourself means you totally change your sound to ‘get past A&R’ and listen to when people tell you to change your clothes.
10. It was at this point that she began her serious study. Gaga picked up a biography of Prince, started shopping at American Apparel, and became entranced by aughties New Age bible The Secret, according to friends. As a Catholic-school girl, she interpreted Fusari’s remarks as a signal to cut her skirts shorter and make them tighter, until one day they totally disappeared: All that was left were undies, sometimes with tights underneath. And so she began her serious study of how to get attention.
11. Bursting with confidence, Gaga was ready to be transformed. Need I say more?
12. Herbert even spent his own money to send her to Lollapalooza over the summer, and he started to think that her look was wrong—someone in the audience shouted out “Amy Winehouse,” and that made him nervous. “I told her that she needed to dye her hair blonde, and she did it right away,” says Herbert. “God bless that girl, she really does listen.” Dye your hair blonde because someone with money tells you to.
13. “I’m getting a nose job,” she said. “I’m going to get a new nose, and I’m moving to L.A., and I’m going to be huge.” Being true to yourself means getting cosmetic surgery to change your face so you can fit society’s mold of beauty.
14. She began wearing her crazy disco outfits everywhere. “She was never out of uniform, if you will,” says Kierszenbaum. Again, she is an actress always in character.
15. The newly liberated Gaga didn’t feel like she needed to express her sexuality in a typically feminine way, either, and she became obsessed with androgyny, with the look of Liza Minnelli. She loved the free expression of drag queens—she wanted to wear the same clothes as those guys, cover herself with glitter, wear a wig. Though she wasn’t from gay club culture, management began sending her to small clubs around the country. I've never seen one picture of Gaga that was androgynous? Exploit gay culture for more money, really, it’s okay.
16. Like Warhol at the Factory, when Gaga likes someone, he works; when she’s done with him creatively, the door is closed. Use people to further your career, then throw them away.
17. “I developed an artist to grow with that artist,” says Fusari, his voice pained. She’s changed her cell number, and most of her old friends can’t reach her anymore. Forget your friends once you become famous.
18. She spent a lot to get here—her tour has been losing about $3 million, according to music-industry sources, because she refuses to compromise on any aspect of the stage show. “I spent my entire publishing advance on my first tour,” she told me. “I’ve had grand pianos that are more expensive than, like, a year’s worth of rent.” Spend so much money on pianos that your tour is losing money when there are people dying of hunger and disease all over the world. Fucking sick.
19. With her 360 deal, Lady Gaga doesn’t own as much of Lady Gaga as one would think. Essentially, this is a joint venture among Iovine, Universal Music CEO Doug Morris, and Sony/ATV publishing head Marty Bandier. Sell yourself. Do it.
The article appropriately closes with “It’s an unlikely rise, and an unlikely name, and a totally unreal image. But what’s reality?”
Or so I thought. The downfall began with the media controversy of her “Telephone” video with Beyonce, the girl-on-girl kiss and the blurred out vagina on screen, the PRODUCT PLACEMENT. This video really stirred up the Internet and I read so many pretentious critiques presuming Gaga’s motive for every second of that video that it made me sick. I was certain that this video was a turning point (downfall) in her career for a few reasons. First, the collaboration with Beyonce is so forced and awkward that it is clearly a ploy for Gaga to appeal to Beyonce fans. Secondly, it just missed the mark from all of her other videos. Maybe because you can’t make a Tarantino film without Tarantino (I don’t care if you have his Pussy Wagon). And lastly, THE PRODUCT PLACEMENT is astounding. Warhol on steroids.
THEN there was “Growing Up Gaga” - a pretty crushing interview by Vanessa Grigoriadis in NY Magazine that caused my entire vision of her (hanging and covered in blood) to come tumbling down. I went through the article and picked out the particularly crushing parts of the story, but I must warn you DO NOT CONTINUE if you want to blindly love the Gaga.
I guess I was so naive to believe that the only motive to create this amazing Monster was to inspire the world to be who they really are. I realize now that who we see just another manufactured pop star BUSINESS, mixed with a hot Swedish stylist, that exists solely to sell records. To think, just a few years ago she was probably wearing Abercrombie and NOT sleeping with women (she told Barbara Walters that she has had sexual relationships with women).
1. And Gaga, of course, takes the credit herself. “I went through a great deal of creative and artistic revelation, learning, and marination to become who I am,” she explains. “Tiny little lie? I wanted to become the artist I am today, and it took years.” She studied what has gained attention with shock value and did exactly that to make people think she’s so unique.
2. Though she may not be bisexual herself—of the many friends of herself interviewed for this article, not one of them recalls her ever having a girlfriend or being sexually interested in any woman offstage—her politics are inclusive, and she wants to promote images of as many sexual combinations as are possible on this Earth. Gaga says she’s a girl who likes boys who look like girls, but she’s also a girl who likes to look like a boy herself—or, rather, a drag queen, a boy pretending to be a girl. There’s little that gives her more pleasure than the persistent rumor that she is a hermaphrodite, an Internet rumor based on scrutinizing a grainy video. That’s not Madonna. Madonna wouldn’t pretend she has a penis. All I have to say is that my friends certainly know who I sleep with.
3. Gaga also throws in our face something we’ve known all along but numbly decided to ignore: American celebrities have become very, very boring. (The fact that she has done this at the same time that much of the actual music she makes herself is somewhat boring is another feat.) One of her essential points is that celebrity should be the province of weirdos, like Grace Jones circa Jean-Paul Goude and her pet idol, eighties opera–meets–New Wave cult figure Klaus Nomi, who died of AIDS at 39. Note to self, dress as eccentrically as possible to get attention.
4. Jealous older girls stuck in the chorus began calling her “the Germ.” “They always talked behind her back, like, ‘Gross, she’s the Germ! She’s dirty!’ ” says a classmate. Gaga has often mentioned that she was an outcast in high school, but other than adolescent shenanigans like these, her friends from this Pudding-like crowd do not share this recollection. “She was always popular,” says Julia Lindenthal, Marymount ’04. “I don’t remember her experiencing any social problems or awkwardness.” Oh yea, include the social outcasts in high school by telling everyone you were picked on too.
5. I remember thinking, Wow, she is so over-the-top.” Gaga also had an odd habit of refusing to let cast members in plays call her by her real name backstage. “If you tried to say ‘Hey, Stefani’ to her, she’d put on the voice of her character, and say, ‘No, I’m Ginger!’ ” says a friend. “It was so bizarre, because we were kids.” She’s an actress constantly in character.
6. When Fusari first met Gaga, he didn’t see the private-school thing and thought she looked like “a Guidette, totally Jersey Shore.” HOW do you go from Jersey Shore to fucking Catherine Baba meets David Bowie... ever? Oh, someone tells you to.
7. Gaga began taking the bus from Port Authority to meet him at his New Jersey studio at 10 a.m., writing grungy songs with Zeppelin or Nirvana riffs on the piano and singing her quirky Jefferson Airplane lyrics over them. So if Gaga was truly making music she loved, it’d sound like “Stairway to Heaven”?
8. The two of them worked on rock songs for four months, but the reaction among their colleagues was negative; they also tried the singer-songwriter route, like Michelle Branch or Avril Lavigne, but those didn’t gel either. “With those kinds of records, people are looking at the source of that music, who it’s coming from,” says Starland. “Those artists are usually classically beautiful, very steady, and more tranquil, in a way.” Gaga can’t be a singer-songwriter because she’s not pretty enough.
9. “We weren’t going to get past A&R with a female rock record, and dance is so much easier,” says Fusari. Gaga freaked out—you don’t believe in me, she told him—but, from that day onward, they started working with a drum machine. They also began an affair, which made their artistic collaboration tumultuous... Gaga wasn’t into fashion at this point: She liked leggings and sweatshirts, maybe with a shoulder out. “A couple times, she came to the studio in sweatpants, and I said, ‘Really, Stef?’ ” says Fusari. “ ‘What if I had Clive Davis in here today? I should call the session right now. Prince doesn’t pick up ice cream at the 7-Eleven looking like Chris Rock. You’re an artist now. You can’t turn this on and off.’ ” Being true to yourself means you totally change your sound to ‘get past A&R’ and listen to when people tell you to change your clothes.
10. It was at this point that she began her serious study. Gaga picked up a biography of Prince, started shopping at American Apparel, and became entranced by aughties New Age bible The Secret, according to friends. As a Catholic-school girl, she interpreted Fusari’s remarks as a signal to cut her skirts shorter and make them tighter, until one day they totally disappeared: All that was left were undies, sometimes with tights underneath. And so she began her serious study of how to get attention.
11. Bursting with confidence, Gaga was ready to be transformed. Need I say more?
12. Herbert even spent his own money to send her to Lollapalooza over the summer, and he started to think that her look was wrong—someone in the audience shouted out “Amy Winehouse,” and that made him nervous. “I told her that she needed to dye her hair blonde, and she did it right away,” says Herbert. “God bless that girl, she really does listen.” Dye your hair blonde because someone with money tells you to.
13. “I’m getting a nose job,” she said. “I’m going to get a new nose, and I’m moving to L.A., and I’m going to be huge.” Being true to yourself means getting cosmetic surgery to change your face so you can fit society’s mold of beauty.
14. She began wearing her crazy disco outfits everywhere. “She was never out of uniform, if you will,” says Kierszenbaum. Again, she is an actress always in character.
15. The newly liberated Gaga didn’t feel like she needed to express her sexuality in a typically feminine way, either, and she became obsessed with androgyny, with the look of Liza Minnelli. She loved the free expression of drag queens—she wanted to wear the same clothes as those guys, cover herself with glitter, wear a wig. Though she wasn’t from gay club culture, management began sending her to small clubs around the country. I've never seen one picture of Gaga that was androgynous? Exploit gay culture for more money, really, it’s okay.
16. Like Warhol at the Factory, when Gaga likes someone, he works; when she’s done with him creatively, the door is closed. Use people to further your career, then throw them away.
17. “I developed an artist to grow with that artist,” says Fusari, his voice pained. She’s changed her cell number, and most of her old friends can’t reach her anymore. Forget your friends once you become famous.
18. She spent a lot to get here—her tour has been losing about $3 million, according to music-industry sources, because she refuses to compromise on any aspect of the stage show. “I spent my entire publishing advance on my first tour,” she told me. “I’ve had grand pianos that are more expensive than, like, a year’s worth of rent.” Spend so much money on pianos that your tour is losing money when there are people dying of hunger and disease all over the world. Fucking sick.
19. With her 360 deal, Lady Gaga doesn’t own as much of Lady Gaga as one would think. Essentially, this is a joint venture among Iovine, Universal Music CEO Doug Morris, and Sony/ATV publishing head Marty Bandier. Sell yourself. Do it.
The article appropriately closes with “It’s an unlikely rise, and an unlikely name, and a totally unreal image. But what’s reality?”
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