I don't know how well known she is, but after having seen her first video on perez a couple weeks ago I've been obsessed with the woman behind Marina and the Diamonds. Her name is Marina Diamandis, and she's a London-based singer/songwriter/diva extraordinaire. She's half Greek and half Welsh, which is officially the ethnic cocktail jackpot because she's gorgeous. The song of hers I first heard was the much more mass appealing pop song on her record dropping in February of 2010, The Family Jewels. It's called Hollywood, and it's a very tongue-in-cheek parody of the ridiculous and campy nature of American popular culture.
After further research, I realized her musical style gets way cooler. Marina reminds me of a kind of marriage between Lady Gaga's fashion aesthetic, Imogen Heap's deep voice, Shakira's kind of bipolar voice, and some other vocal quality making her completely unique. You can tell immediately how distinctive her voice is- it's almost a Tracey Chapman moment in which you are like "wait is this a tranny?". Marina also does weird pops in her singing voice reminiscent of Michael Jackson's trademark hiccup noise thing with a cool Welsh twist on it. And just when you are lulled into the velvety, sumptuous deepness of her voice Marina will surprise you by taking her vocals to a truly impressive and almost unbelievable soprano register.
Accompanying her awesome vocals are fresh composition and innovative, non-cliched lyrics. She has the ever-impressive ability to compact really big ideas into delectably concise statements, such as the apt "Hollywood" lyric, "I'm obsessed with the mess that's America". My clear favorite so far is her song called Obsessions (really cool song that strikes me as a comment on the insincerity of some relationships, relationships solely based on the indulgence of obsessions versus real mutual love, compatibility, etc, using a cool metaphor about crackers), but the close second is the delicious American campiness and 4th of July porn of the video for Hollywood. Also, her song I Am Not A Robot is pretty great. I clearly cannot get enough of her. Also clear at this point is the fact that I've just learned how to post a link in this blog. One small step for man!
Marina Diamandis is really kind of the full package- I find it hard these days to find solo female artists that don't piss me off in some way. I look forward to seeing her continue to make music and grow as an artist (I sound like a proud parent).
Moving on to more pressing issues- I've been bombarded by deep, conflicted, and philosophically revealing conversations concerning Tiger Woods. Obviously when I say I'm being bombarded I mean I'm purposely bringing it up with anyone in the three foot vicinity. I've been called out a couple of times on my point of view concerning Woods being horribly sexist (I'm okay with that). I do think, however, that Wood's indiscretions are an obnoxious flowering of the irrepressible seed of man's God Syndrome. Guys like Tiger, despite how humble their beginning are, after reaching a certain height of fame and wealth, are not satisfied with absolutely anything.
Really, nothing will do.
World: Oh Tiger, how about being arguably the most famous and highest paid contemporary athlete? Do you want to make $90 million a year from endorsements? Here's a Swedish supermodel!
Tiger: Sure! Thanks! I will take all that, while simultaneously covertly contradicting my humble, down to earth public image of a devoted family man by letting the power go straight to my head and refusing to deny myself any sort of instant gratification despite the latter urge involving horribly unsavory women and rampant terrible decision-making. Also, I will bank on the public never finding out to preserve said image/endorsements. Bye!
*three years, one wife, two kids, 89 billion dollars, and 90 million mistresses later*
Tiger: Fuck.
I'm counting down the days until he comes up with the perennial excuse that somehow for reasons that are beyond me garners sympathy from the public, that of "sex addiction". Last time I checked, Eric Benet/David Duchovny/Colin Farrell/Jude Law, that is called the "asshole disease", involving not a pathological need for intimacy resulting in unbridled promiscuity, but an inflated ego and inexhaustible ability to sleep with almost anything. I'm sure there is a legion of psychological professionals that disagree with me, and god knows they are way more informed and reliable than I am, but really, stop being a pansy and own up to the fact that you're kind of a douche bag. I think I'd respect that a lot more than a celebrity going to extremes to justify his behavior when everyone knows at least eight other guys who play that same game without needing try to excuse it. For instance, Charlie Sheen just plays it real and does him. Maybe it's my love of Two and a Half Men , but because he doesn't give a shit I can still stomach him. Also, Denise Richards is an undeniable psycho hose beast. Step one for guys would be just try not to make an ass out of yourself to begin with, but if you can't deny your inherent, insatiable desires, don't try to cry your way out of it.
I'm not trying to say that women at the top don't do anything immoral (re: Angelina Jolie's stealing of Brad Pitt, umireallycantthinkofanyoneelse,weird) but I really think men are like 84x more likely to do some stupid shit, just because they are bored enough to the point where nothing impresses or satisfies them and think they can get away with absolutely anything.
Oh Ali, you are so terribly sexist/biased/jaded/......................correct.
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