Anyone feel strange after seeing Avatar? For days afterwards, I felt consumed by the idea of Pandora existing. I kept getting urges to attend non-existent screenings where I could sit in the cinema and watch 7-hour films that documented the Na’vi just going about their daily life
Just want to BE there, hang out with the tribe in the pink and purple electric forests, connect tails with people, ride giant dragons and such.
I really loved how they showed respect for the energy of all living things and how they treated animals- even when they had to kill them. It’s the wonderful, honest attitude towards all sources of life that hooks people in. Our world is greatly lacking in that.
All energy flows. It is never used or kept or owned; just borrowed!
Back to school, old fashioned letter writing, modern world rotting my brain, etc.
Transcript[]
Dear Diamonds!
From now on, I will be "writing" to you all via my new blog.
I don't want to give up blogging but I would like to write in a different way.
I have deleted all previous blog postsas I am writing from scratch again in the hope of creating something of quality and value one day. Just in case some of you thought my absence was some evil PR move to "censor" me (har har - it always is, isn't it)
I have been putting all my energy into Hollywood of late.
Thanks to everyone who is buying it!
This looks like it's been written by a 5 year old.
I am back and I am blogging. Can you believe it. I know you must have all missed me like a hole in the head and I have missed you too.
I JUST DONT KNOW WHERE TO START.
Well i have been fairly busy and marginally happier since my last excursion on the pensioners bus to bloggerville. I am working on 2 different projects in my -OH 2 MINUTES OF SPARE TIME- and they should be out around 2022 so look forward to them!
I have had a really interesting, amazing month.. I have taken the boat across to sweden, denmark, france, the netherlands, new york, LA, texas and tokyo. My body clock is quite confused but I am detached from body most of the time anyway so makes no difference. Have you ever had a strange moment when you are looking in the mirror at your face for a long time (not for reasons of vanity or dramatic effect, on this occasion) and suddenly don't feel attached to your body? i.e you are outside of the body and the body is not yours to own but just a carrier/ another person? I experienced this once when I was 6 or 7 and then again a few weeks ago.
I had 2 sold out shows in new york which may have been the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I also did 4 shows at SXSW in texas and a performed for MTV in a disused power plant. Half wanted homer simpson to jump out from behind the pylons with a cheeto stuck to his face and a DUff can in his paw. Where were you homer, WHERE WERE YOU.
oh very fun guys- Neon Gold being the precious supporters that they are.
A gem who made glasses in new york- you are so kind.
Fader party @ sxsw
MTV
After texas, (where they served heated cheeseburgers in plastic bags as "food" on the plane) I went to LA to do business and also... record some mini-videos for my new autumn live show. If there is any part of the diamond castle that is missing a brick is the live show. I can't deny my showgirl heart and I know that may not be cool in 'hip$$ter' world but I can't change that/ can't hide it. I love to perform and miss choreography very much. I am desperate for the production that will bring to life the vision I have in my mind and it is going to happen by the time the year is out. Mark my words.
Last week I went to Tokyo for 3 days of promo. I was, as expected, 100% blown away by the city and the culture of Japan. So proud and so full of respect and so wonderfully traditional. I received presents off of the interviewers (unHEARD of) and from my shining fans too. I was so happy to be there but may not eat rice again for another few weeks. Also, the toilets had seat warmers and 'in-house' showers. I bought a purse in the shape of a velvet hamburger. tasted a bit fluffy to be honest :-0
jogged in yoyogi park every morning.. keep your heart healthy, gems.
harajuku gals kickin back in the cherry blossoms..
On the last night, my manager took us to the bar on the top of the Park Hyatt hotel as a treat. It was mind blowing. It's where they filmed Lost in Translation (yet another movie i have seen but don't remember - quite literally- anything. So strange my brain just deletes books and films from my memory? Like it doesn't want me to appear intelligent and funny at dinner parties or something?????)
Am on the Scott Mills breakfast show tomorrow morning on radio 1, doing the live lounge in few weeks, have my first UK COVER (!!!) shoot tomorrow morning with Company magazine and did an 8 page feature coming up in Nylon today- it's my best shoot to date. Oh and am on Jools Holland next week! Oh and robot is out on 26th april with a new drum beat. It's a little harder hitting. I don't know which I prefer out of old and new.
Well, must go. Too soon to tell but may have quite enjoyed my past 23 minutes of writing this blog. I will be back soon. I quit twitter for quality interactions over quantity and to write in a place that I feel is secure. I am sure there will be people on here who may not be fans/ are looking for 'interesting' things but the people who look to twist words will always look to twist words and that's not my field. The only reason I am writing this is for the people that matter.
Every artist says they love their fans but you are a very different type of audience. I can see it in your eyes at gigs and l feel it every time I get the rare chance to meet one of you. I don't feel like the exchange between us is that of an artist- fan relationship really. I feel like a spectator of fame and living rather than a participant. I don't know. I am just interested in people and in finding out how to start 'living life' and what have you. Thank you all for being part of a community that I imagined up years ago when I first moved to london. I barely knew anyone for 2 years! I have a lot to do but it's going to happen. Whatever 'it' is. Forever waiting for 'it', right?
I think I get on better with old people more than I do young. I feel about 80. Old people seem safer, more interesting and less judgmental. Along with upcoming 'Bin Bag 2k10' Tour am thinking of doing a nursing home tour.
I wonder why it is that in certain cultures that old people are disregarded as annoying or stupid? There are so many cases of abuse at the moment in the news, it's tragic. Maybe I am biased but I feel like in countries such as greece, spain, india etc, where family is so central to everyday life, it is a given that the elderly are looked after with respect. But here we just forget about them? Everyone is becoming so agist, attempting to look like 14 year olds when they're really 50. Strange that no one sees getting older as a good thing like in tribes. I wonder how many billions of $$ eye-wrinkle cream companies have made off people's insecurities in their constant advertising. Oh of course it would be THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD to look like a 45 year old wouldn't it!!! I just want to pour coca cola into these peoples mouths for 3 days until their teeth rot and fall out like sweetcorn.
I have always been secretly fantasising about becoming old. Went through a minor period at 20 when I was constantly just wanting to be 75 yrs old & living in a sunny flat in brighton. I really wanted to be left alone to eat a whole pack of biscuits for breakfast if I wanted and live on tea and watch GMTV til my eyeballs fell out. No responsibility, people judging or being mean and also meant I could wolf down spaghetti hoops w/ plastic cheese on toast everyday as a part of my 'main meal'. Bur now when I try to imagine being old I can't really imagine it. Dont want to be morbid, as death is death, but I worry that maybe i wont get there?? But then everyone thinks that, I think. That you will die in 50s/ asis hard to imagine yourself as part of the oldfolk-mobile. Who knows. Real life feels not that good or real anyway. Do you ever feel like you're not really living life and you cannot really 'connect' with it or live in the moment? Everything has less meaning and is kind of fluffy-fied. I feel like it was better when we had less choice and higher quality. People took more care. Joy is in the simple things and I find this hard to experience fully.
I think is hard to surrender to experiencing something in the moment/ for what it is when everything is now associated with your image/ status / online personas. " Oh I am having an AMAZING time'!!11! If you're having such a mindblowing time with @XYZ why are you even thinking about fiddling on your phone & going on twitter and telling everyone about it? I just don't get it , even after a year of being on it, so that's why I quit. At least I gave it a go. Even at gigs, I see many people do not surrender themselves to the experience 100% by viewing it through the camera screen of a mobile phone. Everything feels a bit transient and temporary. I feel weird and lost at times, like I am not sure what I meant to 'enjoy' and if I am not enjoying the things they tell me to 'enjoy' then am I dead inside? We rarely 'hold' music or photos anymore which I think is a really important loss- how many of us actually print our digital photos? (I am rubbish at this). All these seemingly minor things add up to a big picture eventually though. Stuff like the encouragement of over-ambition from a very young age, the dissolve of the nuclear family, social networking, greed (which results in millions more products than we need) etc all result in an emotionally vacant and discontent society which, ironically, 'has' more than it has ever had before. So you have to ask the question... what is the point in working all the hours in the day and aiming towards when studies prove (New Yorker magazine*) that people were happier 50 yrs ago when they had less?? What are we all aiming for?
* Said article quoted that we are all relativists. It's not owning something that really matters, it's owning more than everybody else around you. e.g. If Mr X and Mr Y both blow their Christmas bonuses on Maseratis, neither are better off and nobody wins. Is it the product that you want or the status that the product holds/ will put you at on a public level?
I feel like the era of 'ego' and obsession with self-improvement/ self-gratification is coming to an end. And, for me personally, that goes for fame too. 'The Family Jewels' album was a realization that my definition of success had changed wildly from the early days. Oh No! paints the picture of the stereotypical driven, modern-day alpha female. I don't want to be the cold, ruthless, perfect sex object- and though you are all probably like "yawn, duh, we know", it's actually quite hard to find a female who is a good example of a woman being *allowed* to be a natural woman. I feel like a lust for fame that is akin to the early days of Madonna is over, kind of dated and though this is harsh to say, shows a lack of emotional maturity. Love & nurturing has been lost somewhere in the world along the way between the iphones and the divorces which fuels a fresh craving in a generation for acknowledgment and attention- and voila, the society where anybody can become famous. And that is the beauty of progression. Is it time to move on yet?
Anyway, the original point of the blog was this gem..! The sing-a-long night at The Duke of Kendal in Bayswater. All the OAPS go every sunday eve and sing along to classics such as 'WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE KIDDING MR HITLER' and "DONALD PUT YIR TROUSERS ON". Amazing. Anyone want to come? I am desperate to go.The lady on the piano is 84!! Makes me feel like cryin'.
Not going to pretend. I didn't really want to put this up originally. It was filmed on a whim in one take in the last 4 minutes of a 12 hour day. I was in LA and was filming 3 other mini flims in Hollywood for upcoming tour.
This is NOT a new video. Just a taster of new live show footage. I don't know. Hate putting anything out that I feel is sub par. But did not want to chuck footage in bin. For all those entering my competition (check news), it's an example of what you can do with about 2p of a budget. Videos don't have to cost a million bucks. Or even a grand at that. The old video is the original and official, as it always was. Yawn.
Marina x
ps i am in Berlin and this is officially turning into the lez-get-fat-promo tour. It is just constant "schade, schade, schokolade'.
1. Pimp My Sweets website. Amazing discovery to mankind. People all over the world are creating giant everythings as we speak. Massive gummy bears, wagon wheels, kit kats etc.
Terrified of this creme egg. Looks like it's gonna come and chase me and eat my head. :-O
Total ergh but i would totally eat this.
I want this for my house so I can lie on it and sleep and have sweet dreams.. Ha ha. Get it? SWEET dreams? HahahaHA!! i am just getting too hilarious for my own good.
2. LAURA MACKNESS. Her designs are all pastels and pop art. Wearing some of the collection over next week; A courier has just delivered some of her dresses and i am DYING. Joy+ Hallelujah = Thanks, God.
3. "LAURA'S IDEA" VEGAN FOOD.
Addicted to the calzones. Want Laura to become my mother and come and live in my house and cook me to purity. And then I can become high and mighty and all self-righteous and talk all-day-every-day about how amazing and full of energy I am since becoming a vegan and how I can't believe how other people live on junk and how stuffed everyone else's veins must be by cow sinew etc.
4. HOT JOURNOS. i <3 germany.
5. YANG DU. My new obsession.
6. FEMINIST BOOKS. Still trying to figure out the difference between a painting/ sculpture of a naked woman in a gallery and a picture of naked woman in Playboy. Thoughts?
Feel horrific. Could be the 10 violet and rose martinis I drank last night. Dunno. Have been feeling really angry and regretful for deleting my old blogs. Angry at myself. Feel like they were worth something.
Contrary to belief, I deleted the blog out of respect to an individual and not because of 'big-bad-major-label!!1!!'. I have been left to feel like I cannot speak my mind, that i am being watched and, essentially, am not allowed to be myself. This makes me feels horrible.
Perhaps I do not always phrase things correctly/ shouldn't tell people I bleach my moustache (it will alter my *star* image). One could say I shouldn't share my opinions on topics I am 'clueless' about (of course I know nothing about subjects like female sexuality- being a 24 year old female in pop music) but I dont think it's important if your opinions arent perfect and fully formed. Im still young and figuring out what I believe- people shouldn't take it too seriously. Hate that I am having to walk and talk and do interviews like some personality-less doll incase I say something that 'embarrasses' someone. Oh, how 'embarrassing' that I have worked alone for 5 years to build my own career from scratch! How embarrassing that I wear clothes that do not consist of a black, conservative sack (instead, I am ZOOOO inspired by Gaga), how EMBARRASSING that I am going to tour the world and meet fans who are the most intelligent, genuine and kind people. 100% shame.
I know there will always be people who will have opinions on what one should/ shouldnt do but everybody communicates differently. I have always communicated with people through blogging and I will continue to do so. If hadn't had this, I would never have been able to talk with diamonds from brazil and mexico, poland and portugal. I have relationships with fans I may never get to meet in the real world.
Rickyorr, Jack kenny, Shoe, Giorgos, Nick jumanji, Diamond in the rough and all of the other people who's usernames slip my mind -I remember your comments and I miss you dearly!
Ugh. Slept three hrs and up at the crack of jack for BBC Breakfast. The new version of 'I Am Not A Robot' is now avail to buy (or rip).
The remix package is the strongest we've ever had. You can finally listen to the incredible Clock Opera remix here. It's honestly almost better than the actual song.
Craving cigarettes all the time. Must not smoke. Must not smoke.
Can't wait for release week to be over. 3 hrs sleep a night plus non stop promo = joy to the world (i actually enjoy promo in a perverse way usually but this week has taken it to a whole new level).
Sometimes i think "Why do we all get so stressed about things? It's only fluffy pop world. Not saving the actual world. (Unless in a freak moment of 'bon chance' your song DOES actually save the world).
New blogs coming up soon...
"Afghaniscam", "Gaga and the Girls" & "The Faux Neo-Feminism".
I'm sure will only take me about 8 months to write them so not long to wait.
UK Diamonds, I'd like to announce my chosen support for my May tour- she is called Spark and I hope you all show her your love and support. She is wonderful and hasn't even done her A levels yet.. Check out 'Revolving' demo at myspace.com/sparkthemusic.
Promise to stop doing lame short blogs and get onto a proper one soon.. but time is short this week.
I've decided I would like a husband, without the marriage part
I have also decided I am the worst kind of artist. I think I am like a half-pop star. Too pop for indie & too indie for pop. Half way house, hellish doom. I suppose the people decide who an artist is.
It also makes me think more about what a 'star' even is/ constitutes these days. I feel less like a star the more well-known I become which I am not sure is meant to happen. I also don't like the term. In current society, it reinforces the idea of hierarchy and of certain people having more 'value' than others which is, to put it lightly, totally gross. Most of the 'faymous' people I meet are alright but a lot lack a spark and are just like you and me.
I know it will all be fine in 8 years but for now I am stuck in deep grey, doubtsville depression that is illogical but nonetheless can't get out of. Wish could just be barbie, focus on hair dye and sing about barbie world. Or be Juliana Hatfield and rage out on liquor and neon sweets. Also just want to be able to write prolifically again like the good old days when I quit uni, lived off Ebay shop money/ student loan and had loads of time to wander around house every day, 'thinking'.
Preparing the next 2 albums. You are my glittering army. I hope you never leave.
Busy in production for my new tour. A sneak peak of what is to come next week..
We take the show on the road in 6 days and I have never been this excited. And the Oct tour is going to be even BIGGER. I have dreamed of building a live show full of drama-queen beauty, neon and film for so many years and it looks like it's finally beginning. A lot of work to be done from now on.
I also have a double bedroom built into my tour bus which is funny. It feels wrong -YET SO RIGHT - to be trading places with p diddy and lil wayne right now. My bus looks exacty like theirs but without the sizzurp and hot chicks.
welkommen to die mini bar und lounge
Gonna high five as many diamonds as I can after the shows each eve. You energise me and filll me with magic. <3
Very underwhelmed by American pop music right now. Same producers, same lyrics, same chords, same images, same video treatments. Is everyone lapping it up without a thought? I refuse to believe this is what people are genuinely 'lovin' with all their hearts? So sad for me and bizarre. Do artists do that because they are told it will sell or because few have a strong artistic vision?
There is plenty of good music out there but judging from what i hear on commercial stations in LA etc, it is the same auto-tuned songs revamped time and time again. Trying not to be cynical but it is kind of impossible at times.
Am by no means insinuating this happens exclusively in the US, it's everywhere and that's life, blah blah blah. In Greece, for example, you get the worst kind of watered down commercial stuff from the states/ uk/ europe and that's the only foreign music that gets played.
At the end of the day, people eventually end up liking/ remembering what they are 'bombarded' with. And of course, that could include my music too. Am sure all the auto-tune 'Im in the club drinking whatever-alcohol-du-jour, hangin with ma ladiez etc etc' artists probably don't like me much either.
Something else bizarre that I've noticed is that american 'pop' artists who write 100% of their own songs don't seem to exist. Most of the acts marketed to you as bands and singer-songwriters do not write their material or co-write it. 99% of acts co-write, which is fine, but it's disappointing and weird that I cant think of any big female pop artists in history who wrote albums alone. I feel perhaps labels think you're work is not good enough if you do it alone and that it has to have a name attached to it to be deemed 'good'. I suppose hooking artists up with esteemed pop writers lessens the risk 'etc' even if the end product sucks. Even Madonna (<3 you, Madonna) co-wrote or, like many artists, got songs given to her. Contrary to belief, I was never influenced by Kate Bush but she is a relevant subject here- among pop artists, she has set an incredible example.
How do you listen to and find music? Send me some of your favourite new artists..!.
Eerie like Kurt Weill one moment, uplifting like Abba the next, Marina Diamandis’s pop-artful debut album, The Family Jewels (Chop Shop/Atlantic Records, to be released May 25), documents the 24-year-old Greek-Welsh Londoner’s relentless pursuit of fame with savagely self-aware wit. “I was pulling out my hair / The day I cut the deal / Chemically calm,” Diamandis sings on the album’s opener, “Are You Satisfied?,” her theatrically supernatural vocals front and center. Diamandis, who performs under the moniker Marina And The Diamonds, embarked on her unabashed quest for stardom when she was in her late teens; she scoured Madonna biographies for tips and even auditioned in drag for a boy band. “I don’t want to say I was delusional, but I was fearless,” Diamandis explains. “For so long, the essence of my existence was my obsession with making it. I cringe when I say that, but I can’t lie. Then I figured out I didn’t want to be Britney Spears—I wanted to challenge people.” Indeed, in songs like “Hollywood” and “I Am Not a Robot,” arch musings informed by feminism, psychology, and an outsider’s fascination with American mythology are arranged around radio-ready hooks. “The currency of provocation right now is all about being sexy, but I’m just bored with it,” she says. “I want to provoke people with thoughts, not by taking my clothes off. It’s time to move on from Stripperville.”
Photo: Marina Diamandis in New York, March 2010. Coat: Christian Dior. Bracelet: Aandra. Cuff: Alexis Bittar. Cosmetics: Clé de peau Beauté, including Intensifying Cream Eyeliner in #101. Fragrance: Midnight Poison by Dior. Styling: Sarah Ellison/Streeters. Hair: Franco Gobbi for Redken/Art Department. Makeup: Osvaldo Salvatierra/Streeters.
Photographer: Sebastian Kim for Interview Magazine
I'm finally allowed to sell my own range of pink and orange glowing lip paint. Each pot comes with a brush and lasts for ages. They're super brite and you 100% cannot compare it with any lipstick- you won't find a traditional lipstick that glows. Here's is a pic of how they work in UV... Amazing.
i'm also adding face and lip gems a la the lip and eyes of the Robot vid.
Gentlemen- what would you like as merchandise? We have baseball jackets coming, which are really good, but I want to come up with something else...
So... I can now reveal that my next single release will be "Oh No!". I have been vigorously planning the video all month and am extremely excited about it. I haven't made a video since last December- excluding the "one take" Robot one. (Quickest. Made. Video. Ever..) It will be released this Summer on the 26th July.
Also, I'm giving away my cover of "Starstrukk". It's taken on a life of it's own on the latest tour. I hope you like it. We recorded it live in Norwich last week. Click *here* to download.
The competition for making your own video for I Am Not A Robot closed yesterday. There have been some amazing entries, and I'll be looking through them this week and announcing the winner soon.
Well, that will be all. I have had 4 hrs sleep and 3 gigs in 2 days. Zzzzz...
Without you diamonds, everything can become nothing . And with you, nothing has become everything.
I speak with honesty, not false flattery, when I say that my fans are some of the most intellectual people. I read your letters and talk to you and I feel so full of life at the fact that I can meet people who I actually have things in common with. Through writing music. I never tailor-wrote songs for the 'masses' and I never will. You must ask yourself, do you want to be 'popular' for the sake of being popular but to essentially cause no change.. "What is it to be popular" if it does not create a positive influence? Meeting you all recently has empowered me and reinforced my thinking. I'd prefer to have 10,000 intelligent, questioning, fans full of life than 10 million unthinking, colourless ones.
Much of pop music has no meaning because that is what media outlets think will embed and sell more quickly. It is insulting to us as a public to assume that our 'simple brains' cannot "HACK" music which isn't about budweiser and clubs. That is why the true artists, the visionaries who have creative control over everything, who live and breathe and die for it, quite literally, have died- or perhaps are never heard? Or are not born anymore because popular culture is made up of such empty, dishonest substance?
I will be here for a long time and the game will be a long one. If I contribute anything at all to music, it will be to bring back true meaning to pop. Not everything has to be auto-tuned garbage about being in "Up in Da Club" to qualify as listenable and get on the radio. Yes- we need light music to be carefree and dance to; But eventually, one becomes what one is fed. And you can't eat Cheetos forever. Truth
I want to be a part of peoples lives and I want the same people to be a part of mine. If you cannot make an impact, then what is the point in anything that you do at all?
I created the name "Marina and the Diamonds" 5 years ago and I never envisaged a character, pop project, band or solo artist. I saw a simple group made up of many people who had the same hearts. A space for people with similar ideals who could not fit in to life's pre-made mold. I was terribly awkward for a long time! I really craved to be part of one thing because I never felt too connected to anybody and now I feel I have that all around me.
I have talked about pop and illusion and stardom before and though it may be far easier to be driven by such rewards, I cannot be. And that is sometimes very confusing for me. At least I am being honest.
I'm afraid i will not give people the 'glamorous' image. I am not exactly a rep for stardom or perfection and I do not want to be. I want to contribute to helping people confront what they are when masks are stripped away. Not only physical masks but psychological ones; the ones imprinted on us by media and so on. What is 'the perfect' life, how to 'be happy', what should 'make you happy', what is good, what is bad, what is twisted, what is normal, what is 'beautiful' and what is ugly.
I suppose it is time to get fat, start wearing no make up and bin bags again (jOKING- Kinda). I feel like I have regressed in to typical popville with all the TVs and things I have to get made up for. It's not good to wear a lot of make-up. Where did natural beauty go. Confidence and self acceptance are achieved when you are on your own, without your crutches and your guise. One of life's common battles of man is self-acceptance and aforementioned 'masks' seem to contradict and slow that process down a little.. Now the diamonds exist.. they aren't imaginary anymore. And I am a very fortunate person. It scares me sometimes to think of what I would have become if I hadn't made it, as this.
I am planning an American tour and a also new European one for later in the year (Greece, I'm coming to you if it's the last thing I do!!). And... the video for "Oh No!"... is coming soon...
No matter how big and powerful an ego one may have, be it a politician, artist, pop star or activist.. it is the truth that you cannot change the world. It is too big and people do not care enough to make a change, en masse. But you can change your own world.
I have read here and there that I will be 'apparently' releasing an extended version of 'The Family Jewels' at some point, with 'new songs'. This is bull. Over, closed & moved on from. I am not enamored by the idea of rehashing current works or adding songs to some 'deluxe' package or whatever. I am working on a new, seperate work which you will hear in 2011. I don't know if it will be in a traditional album format or as something else.
I am forever fueled by what I see around me! So many thoughts to be though. I never really stopped writing after the first record. I feel like the life of 'artists' can be too defined by freedom. I believe that discipline is key. Even over talent. I would prefer to miss 10 years of parties for the prize of one new record. Hermit.
It is interesting to see how new songs are taking shape.. I am inspired and dreaming again.
ps- I am loving seeing the online communities of diamonds popping up everywhere. The way you work together is quite amazing. There seems to be a lot of kindness & support there.
Shine hard, be honest, own your ambition and imagine the world hates you! That way, you will always do your best. x
Just played to about 60 people at an amazing old bar in New jersey ... So hot & sweaty but so good. Keep rockin out asburrrry Park, We love you. Real, open hearted people. Goh bless America.
Though we may not have met, I love you all so much. I hope I never let you down as an artist and that you never interpret/ place my words in the typical "i love my fans" box. You are magic and I have really loved meeting the fans across America. I think I met over a thousand in the past 2 weeks.
I hate it when people think Marina And The Diamonds is something cute. For the public and by the public and one day you will do something great.
With the super talented Hannah Marshall & Erin O' Connor, above. They are gorgeous!
Me... secretly DYING inside to be Eddie from Absolutely Fabulous.
Fashion week was so fun! I never get to go as am usually touring. Caught Ashish (WOW), Mark Fast (WOW++) and saw Hannah Marshall streamed online (DIME BAR WOAH).
Jet lagged to oblivion. Just got back from German promotion & gigs. One night in London .. then I'm going on my first radio tour of the UK. Up first: INVERNESS.!
Ugh... Just read above back. What a standard crapola sentence. Cannot believe just lowered self to such forms of bland, generic, pop artist normality.
"Hiyeerr everyone...... just 'avin cup o tea. combin' hair. watchin' telly. ".
The greatest opportunity I have been given is to work with really talented people. A pretty picture in pop is rarely painted by a solitary hand!
A favourite shoot of mine. Thank you to Roger Rich, the photographer and to Jason Leung, Paul Percival & Ashley Ward for maintaining the illusion of beauty (whilst I, in the mean time, masterfully tear it down- what else am I here for?)
Available in ZOO Magazine (the trendy, art driven one from Germany, not the gross, cheap press, vom-fest one available in the UK).
The greatest opportunity I have been given is to work with really talented people. A pretty picture in pop is rarely painted by a solitary hand!
A favourite shoot of mine. Thank you to Roger Rich, the photographer and to Jason Leung, Paul Percival & Ashley Ward for maintaining the illusion of beauty (whilst I, in the mean time, masterfully tear it down- what else am I here for?)
Available in ZOO Magazine (the trendy, art driven one from Germany, not the gross, cheap press, vom-fest one available in the UK).
famous loners + anti-socialites to make me feel happy.
Why is being a loner characterised as a 'social disorder'? It makes me never want to speak to anyone again. It makes me annoyed to be labelled as 'antisocial'/ socially anxious. I am in fact very comfortable in social situations, i just have a truthful and realistic view of the meaning of friendship and relationship-That you cannot get on 'really well' with everyone, you cannot even really 'like' everyone (though most people pretend to). In reality, each individual probably finds they don't have a real 'connection'/ chemistry with no more than 5 real people at any one time in their lives.
I feel like if you don't get on really well with someone, there is little point in spending time socialising with them. Most events are full of people talking about nothing and this makes me feel even worse than staying at home, alone. Or perhaps I am just jealous of the people talking about nothing and cant step out of this godforesaken bubble that makes me want to never go out again.
Some people need time alone to process thoughts/ events and some people don't. I will probably always be this way. Every boyfriend I have ever had has been a loner. I wish people wouldn't make introversion into a personality flaw.
This industry= one, long, fake cringe fest. I cannot play the game, I am shit at lying, I am not interested in maintaining an illusion and essentially, feel like diving into a k-hole of cheetos and beer. I feel like an impostor/ try-hard & awkwardly out of place in the world of pop. Seriously, it'd be less of a struggle to be in a hair metal band right now. i wish I was back in my room in 2007 making cds in peace, not having people say 'oh you're not very successful- can't believe that YOU, a leftfield artist, are not played on the radio non-stop and dont have 17 million no.1 singles".
Pop culture is better to watch than to be. Feel like recording a whole fucking album of banjo hits.
EDIT: To the person who commented: "You are posing. Don't be sore at the people who are more successful than you by donning the cloak of pseudo-profundity and wrapping it around a notion of deep-and-meaningful when it is quite clearly shallow-and-meaningless"..
What would you prefer me to do? Lie for the sake of a pretty blog and say that I am 'like totes happy!!1!'. I am allowed to feel pissed off unsatisfied. It would be slightly unrealistic if I were flowing with graciousness 100% of the time. If you don't get angry about anything, you probably don't care about it and nothing will ever change. The only difference between myself and other artists is that they may think the same thoughts but never write them down.
Feel like every girl should dye her hair at least one colour of the neapolitan ice-cream tub once in her life. Pink even looks great when you're 60+.
Because of vintage photos of Kate Moss + friends (see beautiful Lizzy from Neon Gold below), I'm crushing on ice-cream coloured hair 24/7 these days. Ice blue, mint green, peach..
The only snag:
1. Waking up and realizing that you are a ball of candy floss
2. You are now ready to join the circus.
3. You're wrecking your hair. AND NATURE.
4. Having an ice cream for a head may make future boyfriend's Mum hate you .
Amazing points:
1. Get to pick candy floss out of your hairbrush in the morning.
2. Wont be able to tell which hairs are yours and which are your barbie doll's.
Was on Radio 4 yest for Women's Hour show. They actually have a STOVE in the studio. Amazing. Wonder if there's much fun in 'listening' to a cooking show though? Isn't it all just a bunch of "Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, steam steam" Etc? (No, Marina, no...).
Really I'm just posting this to show off the amazing jumpsuit I swiped from Adidas. It's a collaborative piece between Adidas + Fafi. Shame you can't see the naked rollergirls print on it. I didn't realise they were naked until I got to the BBC. Not v feminist. But very kawaiiii. .
Ok, WHO AM I KIDDING. This never happens. Hasan Hejazi is naming one of his dresses from the SS11 collection "The Marina". Very honoured..
I've been an admirer for a long time, wearing his suffocating pieces (Nylon, NME Awards) from the last collection whenever I could hold my fat in tight enough. Was fascinating to see parts of the creative process and understand how a design comes to be.
A few photos of the initial sketches, fabric swatches and our first fitting with his seamstresses below.
The first rough version (Soon to be in pink)
Rest of the collection....
I look like a horrendous rabbit here but I will SWALLOW MY VANITY and post this for Hasan's pleasure. #whatsupdoc
Not that I claim to know a lot about fashion in a professional sense but this work is seriously, seriously good for someone's second collection (His first collection was incredible and got picked up by Harrods at his MA Fashion student show). (Below.) Everything he designs has a real finesse and femininity to it, without being old fashioned.
The dress will be included in the "Burger Queen" autumn tour wardrobe. Coming to a stage near you soon...
Commences in 5 days. I've never been so nervous and excited for a tour.
It is the first of my tours that qualifies as a "production". The vision comes alive, an entity, an experience, a black Hollywood tale.
I feel relief to have grown to be in a position where I will no longer be judged for being theatrical. (HEY, it's hard being flamboyant in toilet venues when you're "told" you "belong" to ra-ra-jazz-hands-mcgee club if you do anything outside looking sullenly at the ground for whole performance. ) I can't help it. Drama is in my blood. And now.. in these beautiful theatres, I am finally given free reign and am where I should be. We have made it thus far, diamonds. The Burger. Trusty symbol of mass culture and consumerism; of instant gratification and our western world ills.
Pop will eat itself.
The Burger Queen Tour is coming to the following cities:
Diamonds, YOU DID IT.. We won best UK act for EMA MTV Awards !!! A wonderful day for Marina and The Diamonds. We have triumphed. We are small- but strong.
You are so selfless to give away all of your time to help such a dream come true.
I'm now going head to head with 20 other European acts for Best European Act. We need to keep voting.. WE CAN DO THIS !!!
" The English do not see.. the English do not feel... the English are not voluptuaries... In their art, as in their literature, the argument goes, the English are first and foremost moralisers, forever wanting to preach a sermon or to point a lesson. The unexamined assumption behind this accusation being that morality and the sensuous must always be at odds."
Diamonds, I can see how freaking hard you are voting for the EMA MTV Award right now.
WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER. I dont want your fingers to suffer but I just wanted to speak up and show my utmost respect and appreciation for your dedication. You are such kind hearted people and I feel pain for you. I sing it out every night for you, on stage, for every fan, in every city and country, on their computer voting away right now. I hope it is worth it, for all of us.
If you are a diamond reading this and haven't voted for the EMA MTV award that WE (yes, WE) are up for, please join the family. We need as strong a troupe as possible as we are up against stiff competition from 20 other acts. But none of them have fans like I do. I could bet my whole entire life on that.
Sweet. Mary. It has been a tough few weeks. Well into the 51 days of Burger Queen tour . I have a giant pink bus and a truck with my name on it. Drivers names = Zippy and Igor. (my tour manager is called George.. We are just waiting for Bungle). Could it get any better.
(NO).
Spent 4 days in Ireland, touring The Burger Queen and did my first Eire TV. If I never sing Shampain live again, it will be too soon. I hate it. I hate it. So. Much. Outside of my live shows, I just want to sing everything acoustically. I also met Richard & Judy.
Noticed the Irish go MENTAL for Halloween. Their approach to it is similar to the Americans. You can dress- Quite literally- As anything. Banana? ..Yeah, fine. A box? Yeah, alright. Pool table? Yeah. Fine. Human tampon? YEAH. ALRIGHT. Etc.
Something bad also happened... I think it is RIP time for my ex-beloved drink, Jameson. I think 8 doubles may be pushing it. Dry heaving fluoro bile into a sink 2 hours before a flight = "This relationship isn't working".
Left Ireland after PukesGate for my Halloween "The Murder Queen" show in Manchester. Funny it was called "The Ritz" because it genuinely smelled like poo and vomit. Changed my name to Marina & the Demons. Claimed that everything "totally RIP right now". Fitted "The Family Ghouls" into every conversation I could to show seasonal wit and intelligence.
Corpse face courtesy of Danni at MAC in Manchester.
Nothing else has happened except I've planned a whole new world & fallen into the touring pattern of "I eat cuz I'm sad and I'm sad cuz I eat". I just... I just LOVE how my clothes don't fit anymore and how it feels like my face is getting shitter every day.
I have now outgrown the Family Jewels era. It's good to be touring it for one last time but the next era has just begun. I started writing the previously mentioned blog on "Female Sexuality and the Politics of Image" around a month ago. It turned into something so mammoth and unmanageable that I am unable to post it as one blog. So I decided to do something else.
The article will now be released in 3 separate parts over a month. The first entitled as above, the second and third on "Pornography" and "Beauty". There are a few things I've been waiting a while to say. And the time is almost nigh!
I feel incredibly strongly about where the next year leads and these articles will serve as a pre-cursor to the next chapter. It has a name..
HIT MAKER MCGEE: "Dear Marina. Here's how to make a worldwide hit"
First put some kinda "woah, woah" in chorus. Add generic male football cheer + blatant auto-tune- even if you're a good singer. /i> Add ref to Being in da club + getting drunk. Comment on your swag + how all the lowly people in the club looking on at you in pure awe as they dream of being as cool as you and possibly how you are in vip list + they are not. This = Look, Mum. I. am. on. the telly.
The Burger Queen Tour leaves for Europe tomorrow...... 24 hrs at home. Help. I want to leave. thinking of covering the walls and windows in white blankets and then rolling self in one. What do normal-routine people do again? I think I will go to the cinema. (Translate: I'm going to die alone).
We go to my beloved Germany tomorrow. Tickets almost sold out! Already planning how I am going to decorate my bedroom on my tour bus for christmas. Hope everyone is gonna be OK with a massive tree in the back lounge.
Drive-thrus:
COLOGNE, BERLIN, HAMBURG, STOCKHOLM, GOTHENBURG, HELSINKI, AMSTERDAM, GHENT, PARIS, LAUSANNE, BERNE, VIENNA, HANOVER (MYSPACE FAN SHOW).
"I’ve had my whole life planned out since I was a little kid. I knew when I was going to wind up in a gutter and when I was going to be in Carnegie Hall".
"Well, I love you more than everything. But I can’t be in that city. Everything’s an illusion; that’s the whole thing about it- illusion, imitation, a mirage. Pagodas and palaces and skies, blondes and stars. It makes me too sad. It’s like having a good dream. You know you are going to wake up."
An interesting remark from a well-meaning interviewer yesterday:
"You sing about isolation and about being an outsider. Isn't that, like... totally hypocritical when you have a 'nice' face ?"
Er...
A) You don't choose the face you are born with.
B) DUH. Silly me.. The whole world knows that if you are considered alright looking, you haven't got the right to feel any of the emotions of a true/ "ugly" outsider. Must look ugly to feel ugly and look beautiful to feel beautiful... !
Not of my interest to talk about beauty levels one here but it is interesting,obvious and yet totally shallow that we (inc myself) assume that because someone looks good they must feel good. (So nineties). For all the interviewer knows, I could have lived in a neck-brace until I was 14 and been severely overweight. Both ostracising experiences.
It is very trendy to be an outsider right now. Freaky = conventional + conventional = freaky. Which is good, I think. Especially if it decreases bullying in any shape or form and makes society more accepting of personal/ physical differences. I am pretty sure isolation comes from within though and not through your face. Just interesting... We all have this perception that the way that one looks governs the way in which people think one has lived, lives and will live. Just like with money. Artists love pulling the 'poverty' card because it is cooler to be perceived as some hard-done-by poor artist than be one from a rich background. I always wanted to be a starving artist but I just liked food too much.
I know it's mega easy to judge and we have our right to. Natural human trait. But come on! conforming to a physical ideal doesn't necessarily = feeling ideal. Imagine all the models and skinny, hot women and men in the world. They must all be happy, 24/7, riiight? And that is my issue with cosmetic (note: "cosmetic", not reconstructive) surgery. A blog for another day..
"I asked a Burmese man why women, after centuries of following their men, now walk ahead. He said there were many unexploded land mines since the war" ~ Robert Mueller