Well, believe it or not, this Lady Gaga character is growing on me. Actually, I read about her a couple of years ago, before I had heard any of her music, and thought she might be kind of cool. Then the world became so saturated with Just Dance and Pokerface that even as a non-video, non-radio person, I was a little sick of her. Then there was the whole pantslessness bashing free-for-all.
But here's the thing: despite all the facts, she doesn't bother me. I rather like her. I imagine her as a Liza Minelli/Isabella Blow hybrid. I like her wonky face. My strict bedtime and policy of not sacrificing sleep for television means that I didn't watch the Barbara Walters show, but I did see the interview with Lady Gaga on Youtube, and she was kind of cute and not obnoxious. Though obviously one would go out of one's way not to come off like an asshole to Barbara Walters. She says that she's a performance artist and that she's passionate about art. I'd like to believe her.
Doesn't the world need more people to wear ridiculous couture? I think so. And bizarre makeup and towering shoes? Yes. It raises the bar for everyone. If Lady Gaga can wear these incredibly intricate and immobilizing getups, can't some of us make a little more of an effort, even some of the time? Heck yeah. And I know people say that she just does it for attention or as a gimmick, but so what? No one else is doing it to that extreme, and it's kind of cool that the greater world is being exposed to some seriously genius fashion, instead of just fashion geeks who troll the internet for pictures of the bejewelled Alexander McQueen armadillo platforms.
Her music is decent too. It seems like she can actually sing. I don't notice an overload of auto-tune (hello Rhianna), and I can tell her songs apart, and she's not a jailbait pre-teen singing about sex. She's a complete character and she's always in character. You don't read about her private life much, you don't see pictures of her in Uggs at the 7-11 in tabloids. Let's keep it that way. And I like that she's not "pretty". I think she's pretty, but it obvious that she didn't sell herself as the next Britney to get a record deal. I like to think that she might even be kind of smart.
OK, that almost verged on gushing, but it wasn't. Just a few observations about something I don't hate and something that doesn't annoy me. These things are few and far between in pop culture! And now that I've stated my approval publicly, she will turn around tomorrow and do something so idiotic/shameful/cheezy that I will have to eat my words. Just like when I told my boss that I though Jon and Kate Plus 8 was a cute show and that they were a genuinely nice family about a week before they got shamed.
We had our first pretty little snowfall yesterday so I was sufficiently motivated to do some Christmas-y stuff. We got a tree, a real one for the smell, and decorated it, listening to Christmas music. If you need some new Christmas tunes, check out Ultimate Motown Christmas. It's pretty cool. Today I did most of my gift shopping; just a couple more things to check off the list. I always start out thinking I'm only going to buy the barest minimum of gift, but then I get overcome with generosity and the desire to see lots of packages piled up under the tree, all wrapped in the beautiful Scandinavian-looking paper we got at Ikea. Maybe I'll just find some empty boxes to wrap.
