Ummm pass. I’ll just watch you at the Super Bowl this year and call it good.

[Source]

photo cred | Karim Sadli

When Lana Del Rey took to the Saturday Night Live stage last week for her performance debut, the world had high hopes. Unfortunately, those hopes got shattered real quick. The performance was uncomfortable. The critics were ruthless. I felt so bad for the poor girl! I started giving her the benefit of the doubt though – because there weren’t too many people on her side after that. Maybe that’s just how she performs! She does he own thing, you know? I thought if I left it at that, then there would be no reason for any other explanation.

Well to address the criticism, Lana Del Rey hit back with comments that I wish she just wouldn’t.

• “I think like, the people who have been listening to my music for a little while know that I’m more of a writer and, like, a studio singer. So I think if you come to the show, you just come to hear the songs on the record that you might like.”
• “Sometimes I feel less nervous than other times. I don’t love live television. The only tip I have is just pray and just hope that things work out.”
• “You can’t expect too much from my show.”

This raises some concerns with me.

Don’t like live television? Why go on a show known for their live performances? I’m not even sure if I have ever heard a band or a musician say basically that they would rather be heard on a record and not known for being a performer. Bands and musicians LOVE performances. They live for it. It’s the performance that help bring that music from the record to life – it gives fans the opportunity to become a part of a unique one-of-a-kind experience.

Miss Lana Del Rey, your performance on Saturday Night Live is not something that I have an issue with, but I do have a problem with your statements. I read this morning that you will begin a new tour in 2012 that includes 15 cities and a venue capacity of 900. May I suggest to you that instead of actually performing at these venues, that you save yourself the trouble and bring out a big ‘ol record player out on stage with you to play your new record to those 900 people. I mean, you didn’t want them to expect much, right?

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I may have started my college career with passion, but I would like to end it with creation. To create something is extremely powerful to me. It’s the idea of creating something with my hands, with my work, and with myself. Everything I’ve ever done is leading up to this moment right here. While on my daily reads last night, I found two inspirational pieces revolving around this theme and I wanted to share it with all of you!

This post is very similar to the resolution one, but I promise this is my last post having to do with the end of the year and the start of the year.

[Creative Something]

I know that this is itty bitty, but you’ve got to check out this infographic on “How to Live a Creative Life.” Just click the image above for a larger version by Fast Company.

-Augusten Burrough

[Source]

“If you don’t surrender that list, I will kill every friend you have — Zake, Keelie, neighbors, even your boring teachers — and when I’m finished you will be responsible for the death of every friend you have on Facebook.” – the villain after Taylor Lautner’s character in Abduction

“This is aaahr time.” – Kenny Wormland’s character in the remake of Footloose

For a full listing of quotes, click here.

Don’t have a New Year’s resolution yet? Make this ENTIRE poster your New Year’s resolution. I’m sure you’ve heard all of these statements before, but if you’ve been looking for some sort of a sign to “Take a Chance,” this might be it. My favorite one is “Date someone totally wrong for you.” That’s just terrible advice, and could also end horribly. The only upside to following that is hopefully a good story to tell someone else.

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Happy Holidays!

cozy bedroom | the style files

[a cup of hot chocolate]

espresso revolution

shoe stomping

David Talley

rainy days and mondays

shoestomping

[Wool Brain]

Alex Belyaev Source

China’s deserted Disney Land

photo cred | Jeannine Tan

photo cred | esoule

photo cred | Jacob Barss-Bailey

photo cred: diane-catherine

Ribbon stairs by HSH Architects [Source]

“Baby, by the time you have kids and they’re in school, no one will care about you.”

– Kris Humphries, fighting like an old married couple with Kim Kardashian before the end of their 72-day marriage, on Kourtney and Kim Take New York

“It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up Magazine…” No, that didn’t really happen. I’d like to say that that during my surgery I had some crazy unique dream experience, but I didn’t. How cool would it be if I found myself in Biggie’s video for “Juicy?!” Pretty freakin’ cool. Up until the surgery, I thought that I was the last one out of my friends to be getting my wisdom teeth out, but it turns out there’s a lot of people that haven’t. I was a little anxious going into it so I asked all of my friends about their experience and each time, they gave me a different answer. My experience turned out to be nothing like theirs.

For one, I didn’t wake up during my surgery. I don’t remember when I actually went under, but maybe that’s cause I wasn’t using a counting system like Justin. The first day, I wasn’t swollen and today even though I’m somewhat swollen, I don’t have those chipmunk cheeks. I don’t have a problem eating and the medication is not giving me any funky effects.

I did, however, learn that it’s not ideal for me to eat bananas because of my stitches. This isn’t exactly a “rite of passage,” but I’m going to call it one and I have successfully survived it. Now I’m ready to heal so I can get back to my work!

- Kanye West

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