Misc. Music: Applause by Lady Gaga (Directed by Inez & Vinoodh)

-

I don't think I realized how much I missed Lady Gaga until this video debuted.

Gaga has been out of the news cycle for so long that I stopped caring what she was up to, and I wasn't that concerned with what she'd been doing. But this video is clearly a return to form. It's a little bit of Born This Way, Alejandro and straight up art and fashion culture rolled into one. I'm obsessed.

The visuals are beautiful, due in no small part to fashion photographers Inez &Vinoodh, I'm sure. I have to say I'm very on board with this new trend of fashion photographers as music video directors. Madonna's Girl Gone Wild by Mert & Marcus is still one of my favourite videos of all time, and maybe Applause could be next on the list.

In the end, I have to say, I wasn't really here for Applause until the video debuted. I didn't dislike the song, but it seemed to me to be classic Gaga. But the visuals really brought it home for me. I'm a fickle fan; judge me. While it isn't bad, I had hoped for something more... innovative from the woman who brought us Bad Romance. So while, the song is a bit of a letdown, the video follows in classic Gaga tradition of incorporating disconnecting visual elements to create a compelling story. I am SO here for it. Check out a few stills of my favourite moments from the video after the jump.

Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

Popular posts from this blog

#Scandal: I Know That Olivia Pope Isn't Perfect; It's Part Of The Reason I Love Her

-
Image
It irks me that people (usually black men) keep saying that black women shouldn't love Olivia Pope because she is flawed. "Flawed" in this case usually equals "having an affair with a white guy". They don't realize it, but the concentrated hate that they hold for her is steeped in a very specific kind of racialized misogyny . Walter White was no hero, but somehow we managed to love him. Dexter was a serial killer  and yet, we lauded him too. What do they have in common? You guessed it. Men. White  men. Who also happened to be anti-hero characters whose virtues were valued alongside their flaws. But I'm going to set that aside for now. I'm a black woman and I LOVE Scandal. I am not blind to Olivia's flaws. I love her  because she has flaws.  Black women are so severely underrepresented in media that Kerry Washington's role has garnered a considerable amount of attention simply because she is a black woman in a lead role of a network televisi
Read more

Cover Wars: Nicki Minaj by Howard Huang for Paper Magazine

-
Image
via Paper Mag Nicki Minaj by Howard Huang Personally, I wish Nicki would do more looks like this. She's deep into her "costume" phase right now, and that's fine, but I think she's forgotten (and consequently so has everyone else) how GORGEOUS she looks when she goes glam. She has all the makings of a style icon in the traditional sense, but she seems to prefer the Gaga route. That's perfectly okay of course, but I'd love to see her do more easy beauty shoots like this one. She's a beautiful woman. 
Read more