BLACK†MAGDALENE

ok this is “earring magic ken” who was introduced in 1992 (and discontinued shortly thereafter)

basically mattel had done a survey and discovered that girls didn’t think ken was “cool” enough

SO someone had the bright idea to research coolness by sending people to raves which, at the time, were mostly hosted & attended by gay men. so they went to these raves and took notes on what the fashions were and finally landed on this outfit, mesh shirt & all 

Lady Gaga, “Till It Happens To You” 

Gaga on the front and back covers of the new CR Fashion Book. Shot by legendary photographer Bruce Weber and styled by Carine Roitfeld, the images were published completely unretouched.

“I wanted to show her completely natural, all herself,” CR Fashion Book’s founder Carine Roitfeld told Style.com. “During the shoot, she gave me her diamond engagement ring to keep safe. I wore it the whole day next to my own diamond ring that my grandmother gave me. I felt like it was a big sign of trust between the two of us—and quite an expensive moment!”

As many of you know I’ve struggled with my eating disorder all my life, this moment for me was a moment of not allowing my skin to define me. Many of you used to follow me on my old blog ‘’myfleshdress’’ with that said and understanding that gaga did so to make a political social justice statement for equality I took another point of view on this as well. A more personal side to it.

if you do some research in regards to a flesh dress or meat dress as you say you may stumble along, Vanitas: Flesh Dress for an Albino Anorectic. . The work was composed of 50 pounds of raw flank steaks sewn together, and hung on a hanger. According to the artist, the work is a contrast between vanity and bodily decomposition

As suggested by the title, the work is considered within the genre of “vanitas”, a category of art showing death and decay.

this is another key part as well in regards to ‘’vanitas’’

Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit, which symbolizes decay; bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of death; smoke, watches, and hourglasses, which symbolize the brevity of life; and musical instruments, which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of life. Fruit, flowers and butterflies can be interpreted in the same way, and a peeled lemon, as well as accompanying seafood was, like life, attractive to look at, but bitter to taste. 

This performance art piece alone and gaga taking part in it and putting her own spin on it was rattling to my core it in a way made me face my fears and my own disordered thoughts because gaga was fearless enough to step out there in ROTTING FLESH that fucking stunk that was literally ripping apart through the night and still went on national television to fulfill how much the piece meant to her. That to me is fearless and as a vegetarian if I were given the opportunity to do something so brave, I too would do so. Gaga’s dress was not custom she did not go pick a cow from a field and say ‘’yes, that one right there will be my VMA gown’’ the meat was bought from a deli and already ready for sale, I am not a vegetarian that will sit here and bash meat eaters because it is everyone’s life choice, that doesn’t mean I’m going to enforce my beliefs onto others because mine are personal and they are my own.

With that said gaga’s meat dress will forever be one of my favorite moments in her artistry and in her career as a whole, I respect it and I still seek ultimate inspiration, I strive to be as fearless as that moment where she posed in diamonds and rotting flesh as if she smelt like gold and was polished for the gods because the art mattered that fucking much her beliefs mattered more than one anyone could ever say 

Okay. Lemme answer this in depth so that I have something to return to when I’m asked it again in the future. Apologies for the extremely long and self-indulgent answer to follow, but I think I have some good points. 

Fans are inexplicably BAD at contextualizing opinions like this. I won’t get into all the details now, but I’ll just reinforce the FACT that The Fame Monster’s success (often attributed to or alongside RedOne’s production) is severely warped and idealized. It often surprises fans when you point out that TFM literally had not a single #1 song on the Hot 100, and that The Edge of Glory was almost as much of a chart success as Bad Romance. Am I saying that this is very important and speaks to an album’s worth? Of course not, I hate chart politics deeply. I just enjoy pop music. 

Moving along, there’s the question of Red’s value in Gaga’s career. Yeah, I agree with what you said about them making good work together, and actually I’d even amend your point by saying that a couple of their collabs DO fall into the more interesting category. I always liked RedOne, and I continue to appreciate those collabs for what (and when) they were made. But, if there’s one thing Gaga is good at, it’s knowing when a collaboration with another musician isn’t going to continue to benefit her any longer. 

Look closely at RedOne’s style [points begrudgingly at JLo and Pitbull’s discographies], it’s extremely predictable and formulaic. Now look at Porcelain Black, his tragedy of a passion project that he swept up and single-handedly took under his wing and produced an entire album for (which still isn’t released.) ‘Judas’ itself, while a really, really good song, is testament to the clarity of how formulaic and repetitive he can be. To deny that Judas was an attempt to recreate Bad Romance’s success by adding a little twisted biblical edge to it is foolish, it couldn’t have been more obvious. The byproduct is an awesome pop song, but that doubles as a clear warning sign that Red was running out of material to offer Gaga. Then you have Scheiße and Hair, also very good songs, but they still reek of the Red formula beginning to clash with Gaga’s desire to break free of that kind of philosophy. 

With all of that said, look at the music that’s popular today. I’m not suggesting that she should buy into the trends that are selling and conform, but they are pretty indicative of the fact that Eurodance/Techno/Dancepop bangers that Red can pump out like crazy are just not really ‘in’ right now. What’s selling is the easy-to-swallow, commercialized hipster music. Lorde, Lana, Hozier, Twigs, Banks, Taylor Swift’s new direction even falling under those styles. The experimental electronic vibes being blended with hip hop beats, returning to more organic sounding instrumentals, a revival of an angsty teen spirit being injected in downtown-bar stringy beats are all more appealing than the sex-dripping, filthy club banging blonde popstar thing right now. 

And the pop songs that don’t really fall into that category that manage to spawn some one hit wonders are really quit uninteresting anomalies that will always exist in music, they don’t show hope of a certain style being revived. I think RedOne contributed amazingly to her career at a time when everything meshed well with them. Now, she needs to continue to explore new avenues and really settle into herself as an evolving artist. I have a lot of hope for her, but I’m taking a backseat on waiting for what’s next from her. 

I think the jazz era is a bit of a bandaid right now, but when she’s ready to go back to her own solo releases, I do hope it contributes to some new and alternative approaches for her. I mean we already know she’s been writing with great songwriters like Nile Rodgers and Diane Warren. 

My fear, however, (and forgive me for taking this opportunity to go on a little bit of a tangent), is that she’s getting very comfortable in the traditionally rooted rock and jazz scenes and is realizing that she fits really well in there. What that means is that I’m worried she’s gonna start losing her creative and experimental edge. It’ll probably never be gone entirely, but she may just start to be less inclined to indulge it. She IS getting older and more mature, of course, but I really do feel like if anyone has the capacity to reinvent and redirect pop and electronic music, I think it’s her. Maybe she’ll find some wildly captivating way to blend jazz and rock ideologies and styles with some really cool new production and electronic approaches. 

In her interview with Howard Stern she talked about Imogen Heap’s use of autotune (if you haven’t listened to the interview or the Imogen Heap music she was talking about, both are very worthwhile listens), and THAT’s the kind of stuff I need to see Gaga aspiring to do. Don’t write off electronic experimenting because Tony has got you hooked on the classics and quality. There is quality in new frontiers and she has a responsibility and capability to explore them. 

Part one of Gaga’s Vevo Certified series: The Award Presentation

Part two: Lady Gaga and Her Fans

Part three: Lady Gaga on Music Videos

Part four: Lady Gaga on ARTPOP

Part five: Bad Romance (Commentary)