Lady Gaga’s Dazzling Second Act

I will not try to pretend that I am not a huge fan of Lady Gaga.  While I liked some of her early hits, I became a die hard fan at the National Equality March in the fall of 2009 when she spoke to the gathered crowd of well over 250,000 attendees (see the photo above).  Thanks to my press credentials for The Bilerico Project, the husband and I got to hear her speak from about 20 feet away. And that was hardly the first or last of her efforts on behalf of the LGBT community.  But I digress.  Now, Gaga, who some labeled as a "has been" has silenced her critics and risen like a phoenix and shown her talents to a far wider audience.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the phenomenon.   Here are excerpts:

Lady Gaga might be pop culture’s most surprising phoenix.  It wasn’t even a year ago that we had ruled her career dead. Her high-concept, haute-pretentious album, ARTPOP, was a commercial and critical disaster. (Albeit one I predict will be deemed “underrated” in the years to come—“Gypsy” is a legitimately excellent song.) Pop music’s most reliable hitmaker had fallen prey to her own artistic ambition and exhausting pop art persona. Consumers had rendered their verdict: over it.

But from the ashes of ARTPOP, Gaga is rising amid a string of shrewd, unexpected career decisions. The result? Culture’s craziest kook has reinvented herself as a bit of a classic entertainer. First was a Grammy-winning album of standards with Tony Bennett. Then a ferociously delivered tribute to The Sound of Music at the Oscars. And now, the news that she’s been cast as the lead in the next season of American Horror Story.

If you’ve seen any of Lady Gaga’s epic music videos—especially the monologue opener to “Marry the Night”—you already know that Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, the NYU-trained theater nerd who would become Lady Gaga, is a seriously talented actress.

From revelatory turns by Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, and Kathy Bates to theater of the absurd moments that have become the series’ calling card, American Horror Story is a home for go-for-broke performances, fearless characterization, and deranged storytelling that makes the casting of Lady Gaga on its next season both obvious and inspired. She is going to be so freaking good on this show.

More, the exuberant reaction the casting has already sparked reveals just how slick and successful Lady Gaga’s transformation over this past year has been. In many ways, between her embracing of Hollywood glamour and almost schmaltzy promotion of old Hollywood standards, Lady Gaga has become the modern-day Bette Midler.

Smartly, after being bruised by the ARTPOP failure, Gaga is focusing the conversation on one essential thing: her irrefutable talent. 

Hers is an excellent voice on Cheek to Cheek, her album with Tony Bennett. Crooning classics like “The Lady Is a Tramp” and “Anything Goes” showcase that voice in ways that her heavily—and often brilliantly—produced pop songs often mask. They illuminate something that the effortlessness of Gaga’s talents often make you forget: that in order to make the perfect pop song—and “Bad Romance,” “Poker Face,” and a handful of others are perfect pop songs—you need to have crazy-impressive vocal chops. Gaga is an incredible singer.

And should you have doubted that latter point at all, her performance at the Oscars was more than enough to change your mind. In just 10 minutes, Gaga changed the way the world saw her, all while staying true to the singular directive that has driven all of her career success: take goddamned risks. 

She absolutely nailed it. Immediately, and continuing on in the days since, her performance was ruled as the highlight of the Oscars. People couldn’t stop talking about her voice, and how unbelievably talented she was. Gaga was back, but she was different. She wasn’t just a pop star. She was a talent.

I for one wish Gaga the best of luck and hope she continues to confound her past critics.  I also hope she continues her dedication to LGBT equality.

Madonna and Lady Gaga Accused of Breaking Russian Visa Rules

One has to wonder how one successfully prosecutes someone for a visa rule violation long after they have left your country.  One also has to wonder if anti-gay politicians in Russia have lost their minds in attacking international figures like Madonna and Lady Gaga in the context of the already raging controversy over Russia's state sanctioned persecution of gays prior to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.  The bellicose behavior may play well with lunatics of the Russian Orthodox Church, but it sure isn't going to calm the nerves of the spineless International Olympic Committee.  The Guardian has details on the ongoing insanity and anti-anti-gay jihad in Russia.  Here are details:

Russian officials are considering prosecution against Lady Gaga and Madonna after discovering they entered the country under incorrect paperwork.

The office of Russia's prosecutor general has issued a statement confirming that neither singer obtained an appropriate visa prior to performing there last year. Madonna, who played in August 2012, and Gaga, who appeared in December, travelled under cultural-exchange visas. These documents "do not grant their bearers the right to engage in any commercial activity," authorities said. According to the Russian legal information agency, prosecutors are now considering asking Russia's foreign ministry or federal migration service to press charges.

As any foreigner who has visited Moscow will know, Russian immigration can be extremely complicated. But Gaga and Madonna's mistakes weren't just discovered by accident: prosecutors launched their investigation only after being contacted by one of the singers' most outspoken enemies.

The man in question was Vitaly Milonov, who serves in St Petersburg's municipal legislature and authored St Petersburg's law banning gay "propaganda" – a model for recent legislation passed by the Duma. After Gaga and Madonna spoke in support of LGBT issues at their 2012 concerts, Milonov tried to pursue them in court for "promoting sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transgenderism among minors". These claims were unsuccessful.

Russian entertainment promoters worry that the prosecutors' announcement could have a chilling effect on future tours by western performers, as well as tourism for this winter's Sochi Games. "Not one artist, circus or exhibition will come here if the prosecutor's office fines someone now," Yevgeny Finkelstein, a promoter in St Petersburg, told RIA Novosti.

One can only assume that Russian politicians want to return Russia to the status of a destination to be avoided as in the bad old days of the Soviet Union.  When it comes to spinning PR and the news media, I'd put my money on Madonna and Lady Gaga rather than fat homophobes in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Lady Gaga's US Tour Will Combat Anti-Gay Bullying

Showing herself again to be an amazing LGBT ally - and nightmare to the Christofascists - Lady Gaga has announced that as part of her upcoming concert tour across the United States she will be engaged in a "Born Brave Bus Tour" that seeks to combat homophobia and anti-gay bullying.  The effort will also contain an educational component for LGBT youth and young adults.  Here are highlights via Towleroad:

Lady Gaga's upcoming sojourn across the United States will include a "Born Brave Bus Tour" to combat anti-gay and other forms of bullying.  The AP explains:

The singer announced Thursday that the Born Brave Bus Tour will tailgate outside her upcoming U.S. concerts and provide a space for 13- to 25-year-olds to learn more about local resources on anti-bullying, suicide prevention and mental health services. Her foundation focuses on youth empowerment and self-confidence. Organizations like The

Trevor Project, Campus Pride and the National Association of School Psychologists will assist on the bus. Participants will not need a ticket to the show to partake. The Born Brave Bus will be open a few hours before each show in the tour, which kicks off on January 14 in Tacoma, Washington.

Needless to say, Gaga's much needed work will not be welcomed by Christofascist who seek to bully and denigrate LGBT youth and adults without restriction.

Quote of the Day: Lady Gaga on Pope Benedict XVI

As the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy becomes increasingly reactionary and the younger generations are leaving organized religion in ever increasing numbers the long term prospect of the Church appear moribund outside of ignorant and uneducated parts of the world (Africa is principal growth area for the Church) what the Pope believes and tries to dictate through pronouncements holds less and less sway.  Especially among thinking individuals.  Benedict XVI still foolishly believes that the world as a whole cares what he and his fellow child rapist enablers/protectors think about gays and homosexuality.  Those days are fading fast.  Lady Gaga summed it up well during an interview on French radio:

On Friday Pope Benedict XVI told French bishops: “Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself.”

But the Catholic singer, a long-time defender of gay rights, hit back at his comments on French radio.  She said: “I think that gay marriage is going to happen. It must. We are not actually equal—humanity—if we are not allowed to freely love one another.

“What the Pope thinks of being gay does not matter to the world. It matters to the people who like the Pope and follow the Pope. It is not a reflection of all religious people.” 

Truth be told, Benedict and a significant number of bishops and cardinals belong behind bars - just like Monsignor Lynn of the Philadelphia archdiocese.  Thankfully, more and more Catholics seem to be grasping that reality and ignoring the Vatican's dictates at will.   Better yet, in the USA, Catholic Church membership is in decline.  Only the influx of Hispanic Catholics from other countries has temporarily masked what is actually occurring to the original core Church membership.  With Hispanic immigration down significantly, the real situation may soon become readily apparent.

Nutcase Linda Harvey Accuses Lady Gaga of "Turning Kids Gay"

Linda Harvey and I first crossed swords a number of years ago when she was - as always seems to be the case with her - pontificating on sexual orientation and sociological issues.   I challenged her as to what her credentials were that qualified her as an authority on such matters.  Surprisingly, she responded by e-mail and set out her background credentials: marketing.  No psychological or mental health background or anything else that remotely made her remotely qualified was offered up.  Yet the woman continues to run her mouth and peddle anti-gay hate as part of her cottage industry hate group that seeks to malign and stigmatize LGBT individuals.  Apparently, she failed in her chosen career path and decided to peddle lies and snake oil instead.  Now, she has attacked Lady Gaga and accused her of "turning kids gay."   Gay Star News has details.  Here are excerpts:

Pop icon Lady Gaga is being accused of turning kids gay again after a US pundit ranted on her radio show.  Right Wing Watch reports Mission America’s Linda Harvey said the entertainer’s Born This Way Foundation is leading children to a ‘self-destructive path’ by ‘embracing homosexuality’ as part of its anti-bullying efforts.

Harvey began by attacking the 2011 song Born This Way, calling the video’s alien birth scenes as a ‘complete and utter perversion and really a demonic caricature, frankly, of God’s creation.’

She said: ‘Of course she has the usual distortion, including that homosexuality and gender confusion that they’re similar to race or ethnicity, and that’s another big lie, the thing is just full of lies.’   Harvey described Gaga’s anti-bullying campaign, which aims to build a ‘kinder, braver world that celebrates individuality and empowers young people’, as depraved.

She said: ‘That’s part of this whole incredible anti-bullying campaign that the homosexual community is putting out there, trying to make it seem as if traditional values leads people to harm kids who are behaving homosexually or gender confused and so on and that traditional values causes this, it doesn’t. Traditional values is a help and not a harm.

If anyone is depraved (and insane, in my opinion), it is Ms. Harvey shown at right and her fellow hate merchants.   She distorts the Bible and clings to ignorance even as more and more scientific evidence demonstrates that sexual orientation is not a "choice" or "behavior" but an inherent characteristic.  Harvey strikes me as someone unhappy and bitter in her own life who wants everyone else - gays in particular - to be as miserable as she is.  She's pathetic yet dangerous because of the lies she disseminates daily.