Goo Goo

Ok, I have something to admit. I like Lady Gaga. I think she's good for pop music. And on Saturday I cleaned the upstairs bathroom for an hour, fueled by her infectious pop rhythms.

Up until a few months ago she was a very tiny blip on my radar. To the best of my knowledge I hadn't even heard the entirety of one of her songs (which is what happens when you don't spend much time with top 20 radio). But then, while engaging in one of my favourite activities - reading in the bathroom, she got up in the face of my cultural radar. Through one 3 page spread in Macleans I came to respect her and what she is doing with her art. Yup, I called it art. Lianne George of Macleans says in the spread, "Instead of engaging the idea of 'realness,' she's created an absurdist alternate reality - identifying David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Warhol as her inspirations - where music, fashion, performance art and sex collide to create a commercial art supernova."

Gaga is bringing pop back. She says in interviews that you won't catch her blogging about her feelings or pumping gas in a t-shirt and flip flops. She's living her art and I feel like I need to applaud her for it. In my mind she's leading a renaissance to the days of true performers. Pop performers don't get to be human, nor do I think we want them to be. In this time of recession and transition, I don't want to know about pop star's regular everyday problems. I want to be transported, distracted and entertained. Lady Gaga is training hard in this trade

On Sunday night I happened to catch her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. I have to say that I was actually moved by the intensity of her performance. Thus far I haven't located a posting of it that I can embed here. But, you can you find it on MTV's site here (chose the 15th clip) or this lesser quality youtube post here.

Uh, concluding sentence...shake ure kitty.