The Inexhaustible Genius of Lady Gaga

I struggle to put into words just how revolutionary, inspired, and original I find Lady Gaga. Her performance at the VMA's was the first time I was completely floored by her ingenuity and beauty and she has somehow outdone herself with her new video for Bad Romance. Not only is her music, at its core, incredibly gorgeous, original, and versatile, but her aesthetic with respect to her clothing and music videos is absolutely breathtaking.

Many people "don't get" Lady Gaga. Many reactions to her visceral VMA's performance I've heard have been along the lines of "that was really weird", or "i don't get her. why all the blood...?". My first response to comments like these are "it's not weird, it's genius, and you don't get it because for some tragic reason you are oblivious to the depth of the immediacy of abstract art and humanity she reaches on a daily basis".

Most people's initial reaction to the Lady is that she must be on tons of drugs. While I'm not quite naive enough to completely exonerate her from dabbling, I do think it's completely possible that she's not on any mood or reality-altering illegal substances. Why does someone have to be on drugs to come up with some of the things she does in terms of fashion and performance aesthetic? Could these thoughts not dawn on her when she's dead sober? Perhaps when the rest of the world was growing up and figuring out how to fit in, she was figuring out how to look more like Boy George and David Bowie. At least, that's what I like to think. Is everyone supposed to be Taylor Swift? I hope not.

I think Lady Gaga's music, lyrics, fashion, and general art aesthetic speak to the darkest and most twisted complications of human emotions that is all at once astounding, abstract, and accessible. Some find her aesthetic alienating, I find it freeing from every kind of suffocating convention of modern conceptions of music, fame, and fashion.

namesake

I create this blog in anticipation of next semester which will feature me cavorting about Europe. This has yet to really sink in and I go around saying "i'm going to florence next semester" in the same way that most people say "i think i'll have a nap". having never been to Europe, it still seems unreal. Ironically, I recently realized that by the end of this semester I will have earned a European Studies certificate. My college education has become so passive that I am literally unknowingly attaining minors in addition to my focus in English (which I also tend to forget about sometimes).

will someone explain to me the appeal of bangs that are between 1/2 and 2 inches long? Why? Among others, these thoughts plague me. Attached is the namesake of this blog, an excerpt from a really great American Indian narrative novel written by Minnesota's own Louise Erdrich.


" 'You lie,' she said. 'You're cold. There is a wicked ice forming in your blood. You don't have a shred of devotion for God. Only wild cold dark lust. I know it. I know how you feel. I see the beast... the beast watches me out of your eyes sometimes. Cold.' " -Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich