Yes, it's tacky (or kitsch?)... and I like it

I'm not sure if the word "hortera" can be easily translated as tacky but that's what the dictionary says. Also I guess that even if it was the same word the concept changes depending on the country.

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Alaska (Spanish singer, although born in Mexico) can be described as tacky. It's not all about the insight showed through the mask, it's the mask itself what attracts me. (I know it was the word magic before and now the word mask which I'm overusing... ). She is known to be well read and cultured apparently and she makes us think she's just enjoying the way she's found to be herself (I'm talking about the artist, don't know about the real person).

This is one of her most popular songs "A quién le importa" (maybe I could translate it as "who cares?" meaning "mind your business" where she sings she knows she's different but she doesn't care what people say about her, that she has no owner and she's proud)



Another very popular song is "Ni tu ni nadie" ("Not you nor anybody" will make her change... like a love song but very powerful)




She appeared in the eighties, she took part in La Movida in Madrid, she has changed but not really. She's a gay icon. She appears in an Almódovar film. I'm saying all this things so you get an idea about her. She was for a long time orange haired and now again dark black haired.

As a curious note I'll say she got married in Las Vegas, she dressed like Dolly Parton and her husband like Elvis. There's now a tv show about her life in Mtv ala Ozzy Osbourne.

This is a song called "Hagamos algo superficial y vulgar" ("Let's do something superficial and vulgar")




I like this next one especially. Lyrics are "I want to be a Colón box (Colón is a famous detergent brand), and to be advertised in television" "how satisfying to be a Colón box and to be advertised in television". But music says it all.



And from her later work (with Fangoria) I especially like this nostalgic song "Miro la vida pasar" ("I look at life passing by")



Hope to not have give you the wrong idea about her.

It is undoubtedly a sign. There's a need for impossibility when we face up to what we love. You love Alaska, you still don't consciously know it but you will, then need will come.

Here's a song about murder just for you (it seems a bit different from wanting to kill the strange noise man besides you but still inspiring):
It is called "Perlas ensangrentadas", "Bloodstained pearls" (Alaska just sings the backing vocals)

I have never heard of her, but I liked "Let's do something superficial and vulgar", what a great title

She is rather busty isn't she?

Yes, she is. And these humorists noticed it to make a parody

I've just found the word in the "Would you feel differently about classical Greek statues if you knew they were originally painted?" thread.
The word is kitsch.

asdf wrote:And from her later work (with Fangoria) I especially like this nostalgic song "Miro la vida pasar" ("I look at life passing by")

Original/ my attempt at translating it

Miro la vida pasar/ I look at life passing by

Mi indiferencia natural/ My natural indifference
Curtida en mil batallas contra la pereza/ hardened with a thousand battles against laziness
Borra del mapa todo amor/ erases all love from the map
Porque en mi vida todo acaba como empieza/ because in my life everything ends like it started

Y en plan travesti radical/ And in a transvestite radical way
Le doy la espalda a cualquier muestra de tristeza/ I turn my back on any sign of sadness
¿Melancolía o decepción?/ Melancholy or dissapointment?
¿Felicidad o tentación?/ Happiness or temptation?
Todo podría ir a peor.../ Everything could get worse

[Estribillo]/ Chorus
Mientras tanto miro la vida pasar/ Meanwhile I look at life passing by
Y no sabes cuanto me cuesta aceptar que no volverás/ and you don't know how hard is accepting you won't be back
Por el momento miro la vida pasar/ So far, I look at life passing by
Sin venir a cuento alguien te vuelve a nombrar/ Out of the blue someone names you again

Pasado el tiempo sigo igual/ Time passes, I stay the same
A veces pienso que he perdido la cabeza/ Sometimes I think I lost my head
Y algunos días sin razón/ and some days for no reason
Ya ni me late el corazón/ my heart doesn't even beat
En esta cárcel de rencor/ in this rancor prison

[Estribillo]/ Chorus

Siempre he sido fuerte/ I've always been strong
Aunque a veces he dudado/ But sometimes I doubt
Si la suerte no se ha reído de mí... / if luck didn't laugh at me...

[Estribillo]/ Chorus


This only proves that English is an uglier language, that I'm not good at translating texts from Spanish to English or that translations suck.

From Wiki:

U.S. intellectual Camille Paglia, upon being alerted to Fangoria's music video "El Cementerio De Mis Sueños" ("the cemetery of my dreams") by a reader of her column on www.salon.com, had the following to say about Alaska in her column dated January 10, 2008:

"Alaska, surrounded by Pete Best-style drag queens, is certainly a formidable character. Yards of bosom and assertive orange hair. She doesn't try to hide her age, the way American women actors and performers do. She's mature and flaunts it. No misty, baby-faced, shallow nymphet look for her! There are no parallels to Alaska in current American entertainment -- a mark of our cultural poverty and punitive gender norms."

But Camille Plagia is an asshole, right?

This is the music video she was refering to:

Alaska at home:





Ain't she cute here: