gagablog 58: Who is Gaga? A SNLapshot

Yes, I finally listened to all of "Artpop" but I have so much to say about it I will have to put it mostly in a book- it is the "audio bible" that little monsters are calling it on the internet, it is to us anyway. So I could talk about it forever and will, plenty of time for that. Last night Gaga was the musical guest and host of SNL, for the first time. She had some fantastic performances on that show before but this was a special snapshot of Gaga, mostly because in addition to amazing performances she did all sorts of characters which were various "spoofs" on Gaga herself, or the Gaga "character". Gaga has said before that she is just really her, not turning a character on an off for the cameras, and she is very creative and complex and connects with every kind of style. Monsters believe and understand how this is really her, because we are creative and complex as well and relate to her, but other people have many sterotypes about Gaga, including that it is "all an act." Gaga did something genius, mystical, on this episode of SNL, and played up a series of the stereotypes in the skits she performed in such a way that it makes us realize some really deep things, about her, about ourselves, and about the society that perpetuates and fluxuates via sterotypes in the first place. Altogether Gaga's SNL performance can show us things about identity and consciousness itself. Here's how: Gaga says "my reigion is you" and this is the "secret" core of all religions, and how Gaga brings them all together into their final, complete version. Who is Gaga, and who is "you"? This identity question comes up in different ways in much of Gaga's art and it is answered by a transcendence of personal identity. Gaga has said that we should transform, or be reborn, every day - I forget which term she used. It reminds me of the Jesus idea of being reborn in Christ and becoming a new, free person because of it, living in the image of the divine instead of "mere man." It reminds me of the buddhist idea of interconnectedness, of no separate existance. My lover once asked the buddhist master, Claude Ansin Thomas, who visited my religion class "is identity just an illusion?" to which he replied "yes but it is a very persistent one." As I mentioned in my last edition, when Gaga said at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards that her greatest talent is knowing what people really need, she was describing a key development in the enlightenment of Buddha, that once he remembered his past lives he knew what everyone needed most from then on - not just the teaching that was medicine for all humanity, but in each circumstance with people he met. Gaga was describing this in herself, probably without realizing the connection to the buddha. She has referred to herself as Dorothy and on the Yellow Brick Road in various ways and might not know the full importance of Oz, but in both cases she is mystically connected to the ultimate truth and is showing us the way. The question that comes up in so much of Gaga's art I will have to explore it all in a book is basically "who are we?". Like the greatest love songs, this question serves to bring us into the universal identity - we identify with the one who is singing the song or we identify with the person the singer is serenading, or switch back and forth. It's one of the qualities of great art that it brings you in and makes you experience what is being represented, art is brought to life when "we", the audience, connect to the artist through it - or when we the artists connect to the audience through it. Art is alive when it connects us is the simple way to say it, or flipping that around, we are only really alive when we are connecting through art. This is why love is such a powerful subject for art, especially music, and why art is magical, because even if it is not a love song or love painting, it is "love" for bringing things togetherm the elements of the art, in a way that brings us together, the consciousness that experiences it. Seen this way it becomes very literal that Gaga lives for the Applause - that is how she lives, it is her most alive to create art and share it with us, but this is true for all of us - art, love, magic - these are our highest awarenesses and what we should always strive toward. We should always seek to refashion ourselves in a more divine light and the secret to this, to all religions, is "my religion is you." The basic problem with humanity is self-centerdness, ego, the religion of "me." All religions can have perverted devolutions that gravitate around "the religion of me" - it is just a very fundamental human tendency to focus first on oneself. Or at least we learn it really well in the current society. All religions are different approaches to counteracting this tendency, and "my religion is you" is the ultimate expression of this cure for what has been plaguing us, an antidote that solves our problem. "My religion is you" implies love - the first person you can imagine saying this to is a lover. But beyond eros, love applies to all people - everyone is a "you", whoever you can come in contact with or be aware of. When I hear Gaga say "my religion is you", of course I like to think she means me - that I could be her lover, or that I am someone, anyone, for whome she cares deeply, even if that is just ecause she cares for all people deeply. To be considered by her, to be the "you" she mentions, seems a royal honor. And yet this is not the way I hear that lyric, when I hear her say that I hear myself saying it to her - "Gaga, my religion is you." And I don't mean she is the only "you" I feel love for but for me she is the perfect example of Art and Love - the Goddess - to me. I had long anticipated this Goddess fully revealing herself in human form and feel so assured in everything Gaga has ever done that I know of (my fur questions aside) that I just believe more and more, which leads me to believing in more and more fantastic things for the whole world and also about myself. When I tink about how good Gaga has been to me through her art, I feel a duty to make my own art, but also to treat people as kindly as I can and try to help with what they really need. This is the basis of "my religion is you" - it's all about love but in addition to love for your lover, or Gaga, or her love for you, it is all about love for everyone. Gaga's message to everyone is to follow their dreams and believe in their best visions of themselves. She directs this message at kids often because they are the ones who are at risk of being taught otherwise by "real life", but really we can all live up to this at any age. Gaga's audience, first and foremost, the little monsters, are the artists and weirdos of the world and we are often outcasts. In this way Gaga is like the kingdom of Heaven that Jesus described, the good sheperd who goes after the lost sheep, leaving the herd to get every last one: it is following the Holy Spirit, the goodness in all of us that seeks goodness in every other one, with no one left out. Gaga's art reaches out first to the outsiders, those of us currently left out - and in many ways proudly so, left out of bigoted and petty society - and invites us into paradise where we can really be ourselves. ANd everyone is invited, it is not just a freakfest, but we understand it first and seek it out as soon as we can, while the rest of the world hears Gaga's message more gradually. And maybe it only effects many people subconsciously, but thinking about it can really reveal some incredible things about identity. I have so much to say about it relating to her music and interviews and other ways she makes statements, but looking at the SNL performance with the question of identity in mind really reveals a lot about us. Gaga introduced the show looking really hot in a golden, frilly dress. She heightened our awareness from the first lines she spoke, instantly shaking our sense of identity and putting us into a psychadelic, mystical state. Most every time she did this it was hilarious, and most people might just say it is "humor" and I'm not trying to spoil the funniness of it by explaining it, but rather to show how these humorous moments are so powerful and connecting to us, such fantastic art, because they bring us beyond the limits of identity until we are united - with Gaga, with each other, with ourselves, with us. IN the simplest tems, Gaga is "making fun of herself", and since the "mainstream" society feels a little threatened and wary of Gaga, and many make fun of her because of this, she is connecting with all of the audience in that basic way then in deeper and deeper ones, depending on how you look. Because she is making fun of everything, not in a bad way but making everything fun, making fun of us. From the very beginning she starts by saying she is from NYC and that is why this means so much - I'm sure we, the monsters anyway and much of America, were expecting that opener. But then when she got applause for mentioning NY, then called attention to two types of applause, applause for art and applause for pandering, well, that's when the trip really began. As an artist, I heard Gaga making fun of people who blindly clap for pandering instead of responding to substance. On the one hand, had she taken this artistic high road, art-snobbery, it would have offended many in the audience, like saying "ya'll clapped because you are nervous, not because I did anything great - you have no taste." It would have been like a big joke on the non-artists. But she didn't say that, she said that she likes both kinds. This did two magical things - to people like me, artsy snobs, I was surprised and pleased, but taught a lesson by Gaga that it's more than I expect out of my "pay attention to me, an unrealized artist" mentality. I, well rather, my ego, wanted her to say applause for art was better than applause for pandering because that contained the idea that we artists, and those who love and relate to art, are better than the people who "don't get it." The studio audience did not seem to be full of little monsters or it would have sounded crazier, I think it was more of a slice of the general population. But Gaga did something magical to them, too - by setting up the idea that there are two kinds of applause, and most of the audience is "guilty" of the petty one, she could be casting judgement on them as an artist and I'm sure the audience felt that way, just slightly, in the moment before she said she liked both kinds. But that is where the magic happens: It heightens your awareness to feel embarassed, especially to feel like this hot, superstar celerity girl, to whom you are in close physical proximity and therefore the envy of millions, might be laughing at you as a yokel. That makes you stand up in your body a little bit, more alert. And the mind says "this artsy girl thinks she is so artsy and can look down on me, I look down on her for that." But then she twists it all around, because I think anyone would expect her to imply that the "lesser" applause was, well, less. But when she says she likes them both, it makes us monsters who wanted her to be special to us, one of us, secret artists club, realize that we should all be thinking about being one of everybody. And for non-monsters, who might have woken up a little in feeling judged, then to feel accepted - well, first that relieves any embarassment for having been called out for clapping at the mention of NYC and secondly it takes away the desire to judge her back, in revenge for the judgement they thought they felt, and after calling up the more judgemental nature Gaga diffuses it by being "forgiving" and the audience forgive her. While a moment before they might have said "I don't need her approval, she's a weirdo!" they would now be saying "I have her approval, and I like it!" - maybe not as excited as that, but I do believe that on some deep level, no matter how opposed to Gaga, or their idea of Gaga, someone is, to experience her and connect with her, to get beyond stereotype, expectation, and judgement, you can't help but be impressed, feel good about it, to feel the love. It was so funny how Gaga kept calling out different classic things to get applause, and how she changed the lyrics so this version was "your cheap applause." But of course the best thing she did was the funniest, when she had the Pervert stand up. I think she said he should be ashamed, but when he turned it around and said what made it art for her to do it on stage and perversion for himi to do it on a bus and she apologized, that did a number of things: it called in double-standards about what we call art and life, about men and women, about sexuality and nudity and privacy and performance. It had a similar quality of laughing at the audience for their cheap applause then forgiving them, except that most people felt fine being cheap applausers and still felt fine judging the Pervert. But when Gaga no longer judged the pervert, and on the grounds that they were kind of the same, it did something magical - not because it really is the same, I think most people agree that nudity on stage is better than the bus because there is more agreement between the audience that they want to see it, going to a stage, then just having to be on a bus. But when our whole country just had a fit over Miley twerking, I think it proves some important points: if we say it is okay, acceptable, for Gaga to be exposed on stage because she has a fucking incredible body, but not okay for an ugly dude on a Subway - if we can all agree, or most of us, that those are different and Gaga is more okay, then doesn't that mean we are weird for judging Miley? She was on stage, right? Doesn't that make it okay, by normal social standards? So why wasn't it, why does the hypocricy creep in? I won't refer back to Miley any more, though I did notice some twerking refrences. So we applaud the first responders, etc, because we respect them, then we relate to Gaga judging the pervert - that's gross, we all agree. But when Gaga comes to see his point and spologize to him, we relate to the new, more accepting Gaga, and become more accepting ourselves in the process. It is not like Gaga has taken us down the road to pants-dropping ont he subway, but she connected with us by judging him, then improved herself by seeing him as a person who still deserves respect even if he is a pervert, and in this way she improves us, too. Someone might view Gaga as vulgar for being so sexy, and they surely would think the flasher was vulgar - but in doing so, they at first are agreeing with Gaga that the flasher is vulgar, or if they want to say it is the same thing, on stage or on a bus, then they are agreeing with the pervert who makes that point. By communicating and learning from each other, and reconciling, Gaga makes a show of how to get beyond conflict of different opinions. She has already got the crowd clapping and cheering along when she makes those moments, and it is a really good joke because it is not really "on" them, nor are they really "in on it" because it is like they can't help but respond to the cues with cheap audience applause. But it works perfectly, and they cheer for reconciliation, or the way two sides can come together. It's a basic form of love to try and see past differences and find common ground. In this case, it is just returning to respecting someone at a basic level regardless of what you find objectionable - not letting an objection you have to someone allow you to demonize him. The Cheap Applause song was a masterful way of bringing the audience over to Gaga's side but also of reminding all of us not to judge each other. Yes, mainstream society might see Gaga as a pervert herself, and seek to judge her to differentite from her. But we monsters see the mentality that wants to put Gaga down as perverted. The point is, even if we are right and they are wrong, either way we can't let our perspective be an excuse to demonize the "other" - especially when the big truth is there is no "other" we are all coming together. Gaga showed her ass on the way off stage and it was scrumdiddlyumptious. Gaga's first "non-Gaga" (ha ha, is there such a thing?) character was the nerd from the Apple genius bar, appearing as a guest on Waking Up with Kimye. Some monsters I'm connected to on facebook are already using her picture for their profile picture, as soon as it aired apparently. These people relate to this nerd image of Gaga, as nerds themselves possibly. I imagine people who are less familiar with Gaga saw this outfit and thought it was supposed to be ironic or possibly anti-Gaga, ie "normal", but this is just another look for Gaga. She says in "Bad Kids" "I'm a nerd" and I have the feeling there are many other nerd little monsters like myself who relate to that. Seeing Gaga as a nerd, it made me think she might have been or felt somewhat like that in school, or that she really relates to people who feel that way and empowers them by being like them in the skit. I think she was a strong character even with a meekish style but the real joke wasn't just the irony of Gaga in a geek work uniform or preference for jellies. There was the whole theme about being called a genius an what makes someone a genius. Gaga has been called a genius by many but some disagree like there can be some global warming style debeate if they spew enough bs to the contrary. The point is that genius is revealed in what someone does, and there are 4 examples of genius in the skit: Kanye degrades the Apple genius bar as fake, only called genius for advertising. He praises Kim as real genius though we all "agree" that she is not and they have examples. But she is really hot, I have always thought that girl was the hottest ever on SNL and makes me wonder, with Gaga on set - "Ooooooooo-weee, What's up with that? What's up wih that?". One kind of fake genius is advertising and the other is to make the person feel good. When we think of criticism of Gaga, the idea that she is not a genius probably appeals to people who think she is just a product of the music industry and can't believe she is the artist behind the songs, etc. - the idea that saying she is genius is just advertising. In her own worst doubts, or to some people who just love her and use the word, she might think people say she is a genius because they want to make her feel good, but don't really mean it, like Kanye. In the skit,Kanye is presented as the authentic genius, he mentions his awards, but sharing them with Kim, supposedly to contrast his more deerved fame and genius title to her "less-deserved", according to social opinions. The irony, the humor, is in the real, "secret" fame. This sets up a theme that is echoed at the end of the episode: "He doesn't know who Lady Gaga is?" Kanye is the actual genius in the room and Gaga is playing a charater - and doing a great job acting as always. But as real as she makes the character, we still know in our heads that it is Gaga and that she has the same or greater status as Kanye. She is the secret genius in the room, and we, the audience, don't relate to Kanye because he is being abrasive, and don't relate to Kim because she is being airheaded and out-of-touch, in addition to various social biases against both of these fine people. So we relate to Gaga, we see the skit through her perspective - and if we know she is secretly the biggest star in the room, in all rooms, in the world, well, that makes us, somehow, secretly or magically, imagine ourselves, after we leave the genius bar, becoming the stars we were meant to be. I suppose this is why I get the impression this is a character from Gaga's past, pre-Gaga. I don't rememer what name she had.... But the whole effect is to make us think, secretly, "he does not know that is Lady Gaga. But I know that is Lady Gaga." This brings us into the story in the traditional way, we relate to a character, but the nature of it being Gaga, and what that means to our thoughts, subconscious, and social imprints, adds a whole new dimension. To see what I mean, imagine the skit without Gaga, with an actual "normal girl" acting the role, and you see how that tension and irony about geniuses disappears. This is why that theme is so important in the skit, because the "normal girl" who might secretly be the greatest superstar is the one we relate to, and it brings us closer to our own hidden superstar to see Gaga and say "that's me in this story." Of course the most magical moment of that skit is the end, when Gaga says she always thought people who wore elaborate outfits had somethng to hide. This is ironic and funny, another criticism about her from people who want to talk bad about her fashion art, but what makes it intense and magical is how she looks at us - looks at the "camera." At first, it looks like one of those rare moments when the actor looks at the camera to make that out-of-character connection with the audience. But those always only last a second. Gaga has that joke effect for the first second, "AM I talking about me?", but the way she holds it out starts to convey a whole different message. It is not accusing but it looks at us, and if we get around to asking ourselves the question, why do we dress the way WE do, to hide something? Or, if we DID dress more flambouyantly, more differently, would that be hiding something or revealing something? Maybe Gaga was holding that look to say: "I've got such a huge secret you can't even fathom it" but as someone who has seen that kind of look on people on LSD I think it is more likely a look of total oppenness and willingness to meet the consciousness of the person she is looking at. This reminds me of something I heard this morning on the "Up!" with Steve on MSNBC. They are talking about JFK and how he was the "television president" and won his debate with Nixon on TV, but not on radio - the same debate that people who heard the radio version thougth Nixon won, everyone who saw the TV version thougth Kennedy won, not because he was hotter. They said it was because he connected to the audience through the camera, that previous statesmen had only looked at the camera but Kennedy looked at the person watching, through the camera. The camera becomes alive, like art, connecting the people on either side. When Gaga made that face she did something unprecedented on TV, making that connection out of will and openness, with no agenda other than to connect as directlyas possible, through the medium of cameras and live TV. All of this results in us feeling connected to Gaga, even that we know her while others don't. But it also makes us wonder what we know, what we can know about her even if she is as open as she can possibly be, and also what we can really know about ourselves, or if we are avoiding each other and ourselves, truly, in order to hide in different uniforms. The only skit in which Gaga appears as "herself" is the cover songs album commercial, and while there are jokes about the other songs I don't remember any of them except one was instrumental and I had the impression the whole thing was to make the joke that Born This Way is Express Yourself. This is just a criticism of Gaga that she embraces with humor and it turned out really funny. It was nice that the salesguy asked if it even was a cover and said it was good, but the whole humor was that it was supposed to be bad. And a cover. Ironic. Gaga's voice is amazing here and in every performance. She is in on the joke that addresses one of the big criticisms of her, and she just overcomes it. The joke is that BTW would be considered a bad song because it is awesome, and that it is called a cover of Madonna. But by taking that criticism on with humor Gaga overcomes it and like other sterotypes against her that she magically dispells, that she is a bad influence or a fake genius, she gives us examples to relate to that reveal her true nature and ours as well. If we take ourselves too seriously, and try to stay who we are in identity that is formed in contrast to others, we are likely to focus on negative things about other people, to differentiate from them. But if we want to feel in common with others, and see differences as obstacles to overcome so we feel unity and acceptance, we look for the good things in each other. Gaga's whole career has been highlighted by controversy, and some who don't appreciate her could conclude she is being shocking just to get attention, but the truth is she brings up issues we need to deal with as a society and individuals. The end result is not to divide people but to help people overcome divisions and repression that have held us back for so long. I don't have as much to say about the acting school and parents at the talent show skits, other than Gaga was great in both roles. I loved the performance of "Do What You Want With My Body" and it made me want to be R. Kelly, though he didn't seem to do her ass justice when he had the chance - no one did! - though at the end they got prety close and it was pretty hot. Mostly it makes me want to make music and make a song with her myself someday... The community board skit had a bunch of freaks and Gaga asked if the couple knew who Marissa Tomei's character from "My Cousin Vinnie" was based on while looking just like her, implying it's her. Then she got mad and said she was asking and I never saw that movie so I don't know what all the implications are - if she is the inspiration for the charatcer then she is as crazy as the rest? I always thought she was hot. I guess my impression wasjust that she could have been "the original", or playing at it, or coincidence, and it is left as a mystery - you decidde. The final skit was Gaga forgotten as an older lady in 2063. They covered the fantasies that haters have about Gaga: that she is a bad influence, fake, a rip-off just a character or just outfits. The other thing haters like to imagine is that she will be forgotten in time, which just won't happen. But Gaga was kind enough to let them have their fantasy and in the same way as the other misconceptions about her, overcome them with humor. Humor is art, it connects us in that special way where we feel at one with the performer, with the audience. Haters might delight in this fantasy, but the theme was hurtful tomonsters, except that the perposterousness of it made it funny - though i can see how this is something Gaga might actually fear in dark moments, and a way to expres that. But the jokes - that classic rock is One Direction and the Smiths are Jaden and Willow - I got excited when he said The Smiths since they are one of my favorite bands, but the implication is that great music will be forgotten in favor of worse, and that puts Gaga in the category of great music, in this fantasy world. But this is something we all experience as we grow older, young people now knowing old music anymore. Whether we lament the decline in music taste, or specifically reject the idea that Gaga will ever be forgotten, we relate to this skit. We should show our love to the artists of the world. Gaga asked recently why we only usually honor artists after they die, why we can't love them while they live? Gaga is beautiful and realistic as an older woman, between her hobble and her voice and her wig, and it makes us realize we will all hopefully get old some day and we should spend time remembering with the older people in our lives. There are millions of us monsters who dream of spending time with Gaga and many of our dreams come true, but if we are inspired by her to show love for the people we are near then we will learn this lesson, that everyone, not just superstars, wants to be remembered and we should spend time with each other sharing love and friendship. We can use the same lessons we learned about Gaga and apply them to ourselves, just as she was looking at us through the camera as rapturously as we looked back. Are we bad influences, fake, just acting out to get attention, trying to be a live through fashion and images? Or is there something artful, meaningful in it all that will connect us to each other, that will bring us together? Gaga's whole message is that we can bring out the best in ourselves and do the most for each other. We emulate her and it makes us better, more our true selves. We are Gaga, we are all Gaga and we notice it more the more we pay attention to it. And she is all of us - but there really is no separation and we just notice it more the closer we try to be to her, the more we focus on that. It's not trying to be just like her, it is following her example of being true to herself, and the only self we can be true to is our own. But it might as well be our best self, and when we realize that we pass judgement on others to avoid looking at ourselves and transforming, becoming better, then we can back out of that trap and only apply judgement to ourselves to get the best of what's in there out into the open to help the world. Gaga sets a perfect example of how to do this, and how to bring us together every step along the way. It seems unsettling to some because it is revolutionary, replacing a swine society with Oz, doing it "for the music not the bling". Its the opposite of what a lot of society is focused on, but as it overcomes the old ways people will see it is nothing to fear, just as many people saw through the stereotypes about Gaga based on fear by watching SNL last night. We can all relate to her a little better now, those of us who have loved her for years and those who are just begiining to love her, realizing it's okay, she's just like us, we all are. There are two major moments in Gaga's SNL show, besides the amazing songs: the look to the camera and the skit about her being forgotten. Every skit has the humor that it is Gaga doing it, and the jokes rely on an idea that we know Gaga deeper than the image and sterotype, they make us feel like we know her better and can relate to her. And we an, but at the same time that look asks a question and poses a challenge - how well do you know me, my secrets? How well can you know yourself? Can we, working together, somehow learn something about this self we share, this consciousness? Will the journey of discovery be through making our art, helping and applauding each other? The message is we can be like Gaga, she's just like us, we all have the divine within us and our own special way of finding it nad sharing it with the world. The other moment is the skit in 2063. As much as we can never believe that Gaga will be lonely or forgotten, we might believe that we, personally, will be able to be with her and that can't, likely, be true for everyone who wants to be with her. But there are other people, people who do live like Gaga fears in 2063, who don't have people remembering them whether they were famous or not. We have two duties from Gaga on SNL - to make our art and be true to ourselves, to the world in this discovery of ourself, and to spend time with each other and applaud each others art. Gaga, we will always love you and will honor you in our art, will always want to be with you whenever we can and when we can't will make the most of the people we can be close to, or who need someone. Thanks for inspiring us and motivating us to become the best of ourselves, you know what we need.