sundries

[rm]

Patty has a cold. :(

Also, Buffy and Angel? Not here yet.

Finished my WIAD story.

Can we talk about Lady Gaga's new video? Because I could. All day. Not only is it a response to a certain era of Madonna, but it also goes to a lot of strange, strange uncomfortable places, the fascist references in its physical language being close to the top of the list. It's incredibly cool, smart stuff. There needs to be a Gaga Studies Journal, that's all I'm saying.

From all of my friendslist to all of yours: liljacks_corner is a community that has been set up for fan creators to make G-rated stuff for an eight-year-old boy named Jack who has just lost his legs; one of the only things that cheers him up right now is Doctor Who. He's only seen the first two seasons of the New series. What's being requested is a story about a little boy, much like the one it's for, going on an adventure with the Doctor and Rose. Details at the community.

Ready to start hollering? Daring to discuss women in science.

The Century Athletic Club.

New York now has an AllStaints Spitalfields.

Does anyone know more about this: is Judy Shepard's book homophobic? Accusations vague, scenario murky. Bwah? Anyone read it?

Didn't know this: Stephanie Flores, the Peruvian woman van der Sloot has reportedly confessed to killing, was a lesbian.

Comments

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

If either of you has a Netflix account, you can watch all Fox shows available on DVD on streaming. It's how I've been watching.

[dr-is-in.livejournal.com]

Lady Gaga is a smart woman, and shes extremely artistic. But this last video made me really uncomfortable. I guess good art does that. I went looking up discussion about what the song is about, and on the forum on her official site, their is a thread about what each song on the album means. Each song is supposed to be about a fear she has. "Alejandro" is supposedly about her fear of sex/relationships.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It _really_ uncomfortable. To the point where I feel like an asshole even mentioning the video without time to write three or four pages on it.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

RE: Gaga - IDK, one minute it's uncomfortable and wonderful and the next there breast guns. Which just made me laugh. Where does the pushing at boundaries stop and the parody begin?

[dr-is-in.livejournal.com]

When (and if) you get time, I'd love to read your analysis of it.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Where does the pushing at boundaries stop and the parody begin?

Why does there have to be a line there? Parody historically does a lot of pushing boundaries.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

New York now has an All Saints Spitalfields.

I saw that on Broadway last Friday, walking up from the office. The aesthetic of the decor looked interesting enough, but the wares looked little different from those being sold in the stores to either side of it, tbh.

Good wishes to Patty!

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Writing something about Lady Gaga's video could take a week. I think the religious references were the most interesting - the sacred heart, the rosary, the Crusader-inspired white gown. *cough* yup, Madonna *cough*

And then there were hot guys with patent leather pumps and she was riding one of them. Yeah.

Oddly, I found it semi-squicky when she wasn't on top. Hmm.

[firefly124.livejournal.com]

I hope Patty's feeling better soon. Summer colds suck.

Thank you for boosting the signal on liljacks_corner.

I haven't read Judy Shepard's book, but a young friend who is a gay male did, and he found it moving. He also had not known who Matthew Shepard was before reading it, which is mostly unrelated to this specific issue but surprised the hell out of me.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

Okay. I agree. But the costuming at that point tore me out of the vid and into near helpless laughter. Was it planned as a catharsis or is my "that it too ridiculous" line set in a different place than most viewers?

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I watched it an it was before I'd seen anything else she'd done and I also grew up through the early madonna years. I was like ... oooh, so *all* kinky Catholics grow up to be like this.

I didn't see it so much as about gay men or whatever the discussion is now, but I thought it was about kink -- particularly kink about costume, clothing, and ... ritual, visually at least. I didn't get the story the vid was tryign to show, but I loved the sense that there was a story. Like you the most I got from it was facism and in particular, the romaticizing/idealizing of facism. (I'm almost entirely talking bout the visuals here).

Then I watched as many of her other vids as I could find easily and sexual violence, power dynamics, and costume fetish all seem to be the predominant themes in her visual style. It's like Lady Gaga is her own personal kink_bingo!

now I want to write a story about how Lady Gaga is a futuristic sex robot gone rogue and Torchwood has to track her down

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

I LOVED the sacred heart. Thinking about it outside the experience of watching it I do find it odd that I didn't start laughing until the breast guns showed up.

[dremiel.livejournal.com]

You should make a Lady GaGa Bingo Card!

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

She has a lot of sexual violence and sexulaized violence in several of her vids -- sometimes she's the victim, sometimes she's the perp. Often the same 'character' is both.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched the whole thing yet, but that marching bit at the beginning? Cybermen.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

YES, I did laugh at that.

And I thought the male dancers' bowl cuts were vaguely Moe-on-the-Three-Stooges... :D

NOBODY looks good in a bowl cut!

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yes, to all of this. I also saw the whole "gay men and the military" discussion only after I'd seen the video, and I'm like "really? but can we talk about the fascism and the theater some more?"

Also, yes please.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

Wow, it would fill up quick.

[xtricks.livejournal.com]

I think, because there were men in heels/fishnets, they were supposed to be gay or about gay men. OTOH -- whithin facism there is also often a fetishizing of masculinity and modern visuals about facism often seem to conflate facism with leathermen (old guard style). The intro with the silloutted men marching along was pretty much a leather man dance routine (more please!).

I wasn't nearly as bothered by the imagery here (hell, the bad romance vid and the paparazzi one seemed much more controversial) as some, mostly because it seems so 'fantasy' to me. It probably helps that it catered to several of my fantasy images.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my first response was "hello uniform fetish" and I could go on and on about the silhouette of Axis vs. Allied uniforms and the different male shapes the video highlights, but that would just be showing my issues waaaaaaaaaay too much.

It's interesting to me that you find the imagery here more fantasy than some of the other videos. I don't, and I'm trying to figure out why now (Paparazzi has the most realism, but it also tells us it's a film, so that's sort of a weird toss up), and I think to a certain extent it's probably just a sense of conditioning I feel to question/take military imagery seriously and also a sort of innate suspicion when it comes to anything that might smell like "the Nazis had the best uniforms" (which is probably in the top 10 wank dramas of Harry Potter fandom).

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Yes, and she's been chucked off a balcony.

Contrast it with a scenario where there are multiple men "pedestaling" the central woman.

(Have you ever noticed the bondage chandelier women in this?) LOL 1953.

[weirdodragoncat.livejournal.com]

huh...now that you mention it...you're right. The marching *does* remind me of the Cybermen. Creepy.

[vashtan.livejournal.com]

That video blew me away for pretty much the same reasons.

Also, regarding GaGa as a sex robot - there IS a s blog out there that pushes the theory that GaGa is a brainwashed Illuminati Slave. (She and Beyonce, actually). That guy "decodes" her symbols as Illuminati cyphers and does some kind of job on her lyrics.

What fascinates me most is the claim that GaGa = intersex. We're back to the deviant sexual body of the Powerful Woman. I want to write a book on her.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Dude, Gaga Stigmata is there for you.

[rm.livejournal.com]

AWESOME.