The last two or three weeks might have been nothing but depression for me, but I was fortunate enough to get tickets into a private Janelle Monae event in promotion of her new album "The Electric Lady". If you've been following me for a while, you'd know how I feel about Janelle's music and her artistic spirit. When I got this opportunity my mood instantly lifted up.

First off-- let me talk about her album. She let VH1 embed a stream of her whole album a week before it's release on their website, and when I tell you everyone and their mother was on it? My whole facebook friendslist was enchanted by every song. I liked the ArchAndroid and Metropolis as well, but there was something about this album that just made it the best so far. Every song flowed into the next... and it makes me nostaglic of all the old school tunes from back in the day. The entire album was just fluid and your ears would just melt into the next song. It's very hard to even choose favorites because it all seems like one (hour and change-long) track. Seriously. But the ones I keep replaying over and over again would be "It's Code" (very Jackson 5), "Ghetto Woman" (a song for her mother), Dorothy Dandridge Eyes, Can't Live Without Your Love, and Primetime.

...You already see I practically listed more than half the album. Yyyyeahhhhh. Yeah.



Event photos and story under the cut!

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So back to the event. I found out about the event when friends directed me to the event page ElectricPirateRadio.com. There were two ways of getting tickets-- one was by random drawing via e-mail, the other by running into her CoverGirl Electric Lady 'clones' (they were all in Janelle's signature look with pompadour and all) in random spots in Manhattan, where they were also giving out makeup apparently. I luckily got the e-mail drawing so I didn't have to deal with the 'treasure hunt'. I actually managed to get two tickets through two of my emails, so I brought my bff Laura with me.




As usual for every Janelle event, I wore some sort of lolita outfit. This time since it was September and it was a bit cool, I went for a school-girlish look.






The event space wasn't revealed until that afternoon~ it was on the West end near Times Square, right next to the Intrepid. As I was getting ready I was listening to the radio stream which not only played Janelle's music from past CDs, but also music from other people under her label Wondaland, like Deep Cotton and St. Beauty, all with different sounds but share an eclectic and unique feel.





When we got to the actual event, there was only a little bit of people. I'd say maybe 300, 400 people max. The crowd was really small and it seemed a good portion of them were VIP (I'm assuming press and other stars~).




Covergirl had their own little space promoting their Clean(tm) Whipped Creme foundation and their LipPerfection lipstick in #305 "Hot Passion". The foundation they only had one fairskinned color, and then the darkest shade #365 "Tawny". There was very limited dark toned foundations so I managed to get one for myself (a review definitely coming soon!) and then later on two fair-skinned ones. They're REALLY good, I'm definitely giving these away in future giveaways because people need to try them = u=



They encouraged everyone to put the lipstick on, kiss a sticker they provided and then stick it onto their big wall and write stuff if we wanted to. So me and Laura did just that... I don't have pictures but I'm sure Laura does on her phone somewhere xD

(I felt so bad for the white girls though. You can tell how heavily teased their hair was to be able to do the pompadour.. I wouldn't want to brush that out at the end of the night xD)




Sonos also had their little thing where they showed off their stereos.. had some twitter activity thing going on with song requests with 105.1 or something, didn't pay enough attention to it~

There was also an open bar which no doubt everyone was excited about. Laura and myself started off with some red wine, then went on with some sort of pineapple cocktail with pineapple slices in it, then off to different other drinks...

Soon enough the little concert began to start, and first LaLa Anthony got on stage, then Diddy (P. Diddy? Puff Daddy? Don't know what he goes by at the moment?) went on and introduced Janelle Monae who then began to sing different songs from both her last album and this new one. Dance Apocalyptic, Cold War, Tightrope, Q.U.E.E.N., Want You Back, Electric Lady, and then Come Alive at the very end, from what I remember. Since there was barely any crowd we were able to get a good view from the side of the stage, and a lot of good footage. The bass from the speakers blasted out most of the music in my videos though...


























After everything was done and over with, immediately a lot of the people left, but a lot of press and people were still there, taking photos and whatnot. I ran into Kellindo twice, taking this picture with him the second time around. Before meeting him at Afropunk Festival last year with my friend Olivia, he seemed a bit intimidating from afar with his shades on, he looks like a total badass in them. But when you catch him without them on, he has the softest kindest looking eyes ;  ; and extremely friendly. I saw him with his mom who had came and they were super adorable together.

I also saw famous albino model Shaun Ross and I took a picture with him as well! He was also very sweet and friendly in person. It was very nice to meet him for a brief minute. We didn't get a chance to see, but a friend of ours (who apparently managed to sneak on the VIP-only Electric Lady boat) took photos with Janelle, and also saw Miguel and Erykah Badu. No fair ; ;



Laura and myself followed and watched Janelle as she was taking photos for the press before she retreated back to her ship. Like pretty much everyone else, we took advantage of the open bar after the concert ended and a lot of people were very... 'well off'. We were flirted on by some maturer men and people and I was complimented on my outfit, and talked with a guy or two about the industry they work in and our interests, etc. We continued to chill there until they were shutting down and booted us and we took our silly drunken selves to Gyukaku for grub before we went to my house. Overall it was a very good night! I definitely hope to do it again, and hopefully I'll have myself together as far as business ventures and whatnot.. I need to stop being lazy.