something secret

In which I post another Azealia Banks music video.  She does seem to be popping them out rather quickly these days no?  As usual I love. Do enjoy.

Back again. This time  to share  this comment thread  (and specifically the comment below) where I talk about Rashida Jones' comments about "women being whores" and how it relates to Rihanna (because Rihanna is the devil incarnate/Illuminati Queen/Bringer of all that is Evil in the world. Naturally), and the way in which the conversations about "pop stars being whores" always manages to find a BW scapegoat: I also think that it's  imperative  that we talk about racial disparities when we talk about this stuff because sexual expectations  are  just different  for WoC. For WW, virginal is the assumed natural state, and expressions of sexuality are seen as liberating (Madonna). For WoC, crass and oversexed is the assumed natural state, and self motivated expressions of sexuality are seen as a reinforcement of that stereotype. (Rihanna) If we push against it we're prudes, and  how dare we refuse a sexual advance with our ugly black ass selves?...

There are a lot of things I want to say about this video, so I plan to get back to it eventually, but for now, just know that I love it and Rihanna unconditionally. I will hear no blasphemy against her! :)

When Blurred Lines has been declared the Song of the Summer , and We Can't Stop is breaking records, you know it's been a hard few months in popular music. But never fear! The last few weeks have given us reprieve, and all is right in the world again. Here are three great albums to listen to immediately if you need a palate cleanse from the summer that failed music. They've been on repeat on my iTunes for days now and I'm obsessed. Love In The Future: John Legend Love In The Future is John Legend's fourth studio album, and in my personal opinion, a major improvement on his 2010 offering Evolver.  On Love In The Future , John Legend goes back to his R&B/Gospel roots and brings back that deep heartfelt voice and simply sweet piano ballads that made me fall in love with him back in 2004. There's an emotional heaviness to the album. This is the lyrical output of a man in love, heavily contrasted with the soulful moaning musicality on tracks like Made To Love  a...

It's the VMA'S TONIGHT! I'm irrationally excited and I can't explain why. There's so much buzz this year about who will and won't be there ( *NSYNC ), who may or may not be reuniting ( Danity Kane !), that I cannot contain myself! I have never fangirled so hard in my life!* Not to mention the list of performers for tonight's show. Lady Gaga will be opening the show with her new single Applause, and I can't WAIT to see how she'll translate the song's spectacular music video into a stage performance. Katy Perry will also be performing her new single Roar  and Miley Cyrus , Robin Thicke , Bruno Mars and Justin Timberlake will all be taking a turn on the Brooklyn stage. It is gonna be bananas! I can't wait to see who takes the Moonmen for Video of the Year and Song of The Summer. I'm rooting for Bruno Mars' Locked Out Of Heaven  and Daft Punk's Get Lucky respectively. But let's be real. I'm completely and totally watching ...

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; j...

via  fashion gone rogue There's something about Lily Collins that's just never appealed to me. She's a stunning woman, and she seems like a genuinely nice person, but she also strikes me as very... boring. She's almost bland in her beauty. There's just something about her that I can't shake. Gorgeous as she is, I can never invest anything in her as a personality because she seems so flavourless and unmemorable. I can only think of  one movie  she was in off the top of my head, which is odd since she's supposedly pretty famous. But these photos? These photos are spectacular. I remember her now. Her doe-eyed shtick no longer turns me off. Instead, I'm intrigued by the contrast between her big bedroom eyes and the fairly "good girl" styling. She looks less like someone who is constantly in deference to the people around her and more like the independent and successful young woman she is.  It's amazing the story you can tell with the right styl...

via fashion gone rogue Jessie J has been out of the limelight for a while, but I'm glad to see her back. She recently shaved her head in support of a friend with cancer, and it's growing back in beautifully. Very Anne Hathaway. Girl is giving so much face, and this is one of the first times I haven't hated how that dress has been photographed. I'm obviously going to have to track down a copy of this issue.

I want Lizzy Caplan to be my best friend. I bet you want her to be your best friend too. Tough shit though, 'cuz I called dibs. You know that feeling you get when you read about a celebrity enough, or see enough of their work that you think you have them figured out? "JLaw looks like she'd be down to hang!" you say. Or "Rebel Wilson would be awesome to party with." Yeah, that feeling. That, I-have-never-met-you-but-I-bet-you're-awesome-and-we-should-totally-be-besties-right-now feeling. Here are all the reasons I get the warm-snugglies about my girl Lizzy here. SHE'S A BADASS (AND WITTY AND SMART) Arguably best known as Janice Ian in Mean Girls, Lizzy Caplan isn't the girl you want to fuck with. If you do, she'll make your face smell like feet, and make you fat with Swedish health bars. SHE IS GORGEOUS ENOUGH THAT YOU'RE ALWAYS IN AWE OF HER, BUT NOT SO GORGEOUS THAT YOU'RE JEALOUS Well maybe this is just me, but I seriously think Liz...

via fashion gone rogue Christina Hendricks by Max Abadian Because you didn't already know, I wanted to demonstrate how impressively flawless Christina Hendrick's face is. There. Flawless.

via fashion gone rogue Sheila Marquez and Christopher Abbot by Guy Aroch Just yesterday I was telling a friend that I was thinking of delving back into photojournalism, because although I love fashion and fashion photography, there isn't that much opportunity for linear storytelling. Fashion simply is , and there is very little you can do to make it about any one thing in particular unless you are taking a dedicated approach to creating a specific story.  So what I love about the shots in this campaign is that they manage to do just that. The entire thing centres on the story of these two people in love, and how they interact with the fashion is simply an organic extension of that. It's a very refreshing take on a very old and played formula, and I could get used to it.  Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

There's something about this video. It might be an odd choice to talk about this video on Valentine's Day, but I've loved Rihanna for a long time, and I've felt deeply connected  to her very public story of abuse. The "woman in an abusive relationship" narrative always seems so simple: LEAVE. But it never  works that way in real life, because there are always mitigating factors involved. Rihanna's celebrity doesn't make her immune to the cycle of violence, and I think it was a brave choice for her to make herself so vulnerable for this video. That said, this video make me want to cry. I get that it's performance, but I agree with Refinery29's assessment ; because of the public nature of their breakup and reconciliation, it is impossible to consume this in a vacuum. There's no way you can watch this video and not think back to the last four years of their tumultuous relationship. It's interesting that the public at large seems to carry m...

via Entertainment Weekly Lena Dunham by Ruven Afanador Before we get to Beyoncé, (and we WILL get to Beyoné) can we take  minute to talk about how glamorous Lena Dunham looks on the latest issues of EW? All problematic things aside, and there are many, Lena is definitely having her moment, and this "saucy Twiggy" look is really working for her. I didn't love her new haircut at first, but obviously all she needs is a good stylist, because I'm loving it now. She looks amazing. There's a lot to take issue with when it comes to Lena and her craft, but I think in the end, she's doing more good than bad, so I can forgive the slip-ups, even if I have to keep an eye on them. Good going girl!

via fashion gone rogue Claire Danes by Chris Nicolls I think we can all agree that Claire looks radiant on this cover, so onto more important things: DID YOU SEE THE HOMELAND FINALE?!?!?!?!? I won't spoil it, but if you're a fan of the show an Danes'epic cry-face, you're in for a treat! And oh yea, gorgeous cover girl!

via tomandlorenzo Elle Fanning by Pierre Debusschere Another little fashion darling. I'm loving this spread a ridiculous amount. I have to admit that I'm partial to Dakota, but Elle is giving her sister a run for her money in the fashion department. I can't wait to see more from her. Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

via fashion gone rogue Gwen Stefani by Annie Leiibovitz It's hump day people. Let's get through it together by looking at pretty things! Everything about this cover is perfection. Gwen Stefani has long been a fashion darling, and she looks stunning in this St. Laurent look from Hedi Slimane's 2013 collection.  I'm always down for a good pussy bow.

via  Miss Vogue The internet spent a good portion of last weekend buzzing about these new shots of Kendall Jenner for Miss Vogue, and with good reason! These shots are amazing, and Kendall looks completely at home styled to the nines and posing like a total pro. Girl can give FACE! Say what you like about the Kardashian clan, but they are a genetically blessed bunch. Kendall gets the best of Kris and Bruce with that that gorgeous face and that leggy physique. She hits all the model checkpoints and I honestly think that she could have had an amazing high fashion career without the Kardashian name. Kendall is gorgeous, and I hope she pursues her modelling career. Can't wait to see more from her. Continue Reading My Brilliance! >>>

Here we are again! I actually had a thoughtfully written piece planned for today, but I'm lazy and I don't feel like finishing it. Really all I want to do is watch last night's episode of Dexter, but I digress. This installment of Misc. Music  stars resident witch in chief Kat Graham. If you're plugged in, you'll know that I'm not being rude. She plays badass, lady-witch Bonnie Bennett on the CW's Vampire Diaries. In any case, the dance-only video version for Kat's Put Your Graffiti On Me  single is pretty hot! Apparently Kat Graham is still pursuing a music career and this was her first single released back in March. Why she insists on doing the music thing is beyond me. She's a great dancer, as evidenced by the video, and she's STUNNING, but her singing is mediocre, and things are clearly not taking off for her. This is probably her fifth "first single". NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO YOU KAT... Especially since she seems determined to...

You might have noticed, but I haven't been around lately.... I've been ill, but more significantly, I've been suffering through my own personal version of hell, wherein I have had no access to the internet (or any kind of web enabled device) for days at a time. I feel like a brat for even complaining about it, ( is there a bigger first world problem in existence?) but in this day and age, not being online for extended periods of time is almost  like being forced to clap after you've had an arm cut off. Especially if you're young and broke like me, and trying to find a job.... In any case, I can't yet say when next I'll be online, or when I'll be posting regularly again, but I thought it was prudent to reassure the silent (and possibly non-existent) masses that I am not yet dead. Hopefully I'll have this problem sorted soon, but no promises. In the mean time, please enjoy this lovely little tune that Rihanna apparently released while I was in a tec...

Ugh, you're probably so sick of hearing me talk about how amazing Azealia Banks is, but she IS amazing and so I have to talk about her all the time, always.  Banks is on a roll these days, and this latest video installment is just another reason to get on her bus. The visuals as usual, are stunning. Banks has been slowly but surely creeping into the fashion world, but it's pretty clear that her image is refined. She knows what her look is, and she stays consistent. I love that. You'd be hard pressed to find a look in this video that wouldn't also fit into her Van Vogue video. She's rough but still refined. It's a difficult line to straddle. And she's pulling it off spectacularly, and sporting her new MAC  Yung Rapunxel lipstick to boot. via Karl is my Unkle In any case, do enjoy. What do you think of this video? Do you like Azealia Banks' look and/or her music? What if anything do you think she should be doing differently?