Gagablog 54: "Oz Magic: From Radio to Gaga", 95.7 "The Party" Finally plays Applause for Denver, Pinnochio becomes a real boy

The book I have been working on for two years is called "Oz Magic: From Radio to Gaga" and I just watched Gaga's performance on GMA of "GAGA of OZ" and I know I have to focus on that and write it now, this is the perfect time because it is all coming true just as I have been predicting. I keep saying that I will have to suspend the Gagablog to focus on it, I've mentioned it in the last few editions I know, but seeing that performance where Gaga literally recreates Oz makes me realize I have to do it now, with no more delay. The main reason I'm writing this last edition, well 54 makes a "full deck" but I have to give credit to the 1st Denver pop radio station to finally play "Applause", 95.7 "The Party", and give credit to Gaga, myself, and the whole "Oz Magic" idea that I will be explaining fully in the book but this is a perfect, beautiful, loving, wonderful, magical,artful exmple of. I've been "waiting", for over a month it seems, for the radio to play "Applause" here - I'm ashamed I was not requesting it, I've never requested songs before that I remember, but I wanted to see if Denver could surprise me and be cool and play it as soon as possible, without any help - much of my recent gagablogs have included this angst that they play anything besides Applause, it just got more offesnive every day it went on, and showed how far behind "the times" Denver is - I always felt that way, culturally, we are kind of far away from the centers of creativity, which is ironic and probably changing quickly since we are on the forefront of legal weed. And it just reminds you of that whole "crowd mentality" that Applause is kind of a criticism of, that people can't decide for themselves if something is cool or good until other people tell them - that condition shows the lack of artistic sentiment in the community. But I came to an important magical realization, how I have been magically "holding us up" myself, not just by not requesting "Applause" on the radio, but by not requesting Applause for myself by really putting my best art out there. That is the whole magical "secret" I've been constantly talking about in this gagablog, how things are magically reflected between different levels of experience, personal, social, artistic, worldwide, and how we can use this to discover things and to work and play and make magic. When I say I want applause for myself, I mean it like Gaga means it, I want to get my art out there so people can connect with it, connect to art, to each other, to magic, to Gaga- and make them happy, make us all happy. Now I know "this is the time" because it is all coming together, but it was always the time and in one magical way I've been holding this whole transformation up. This is how the transformation is taking place for me in these last few days. I've had a vacation from work and finally edited a fantasy adventure book I wrote and finished 7 years ago, "Wendy the Witch School Drop Out". I'm finally ready to self-pulish it, getting over the last ideas I had to go through a publisher and get apporoval, support, the go-ahead. I never really tried that because weird things would happen with any option I ever actually considered. I've decided to do what I kind of wanted to all along, go with the merit of the book and word of mouth if it is really good, self-published through Createspace. Well, the day I finally got most of it edited was 9-17-13, and this was also the 1st day I heard Applause on the radio. It was a great day all around, and we were on our way to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday celebration and I turned the radio and heard the final notes of applause, just the sounds for the hand getsures. Even though I did not hear the whole song, it was a glorious moment to know they finally played it. It may be like a month or two late, but thanks to 95.7 "The Party" Denver finally entered The Future, and I knew that obsessively listening for it was no longer in vain. Radioplay has a special significance for me, as evidenced by the title of my new book. Since they "won" the contest with the other pop station, I now have loyalty for 95.7 - I'm still checking the other station but the longer they fall behind the less I will even give them a chance. This is the principle of Applause I need to learn for myself - I have to do it, really do the stuff I believe in and follow my dreams,if I expect it to be recognized and become real. It just "so happened" that they finally played "Applause" on the same day I finally finished most of my edits for a book I've held hidden for 7 years. Even if it was only 6 notes that I heard, it was great and fantastic encouragement - I heard the whole song the next day on "The Party", confirming my faith in them. The thing about "Applause" is that only just now, writing these things in this context and order, did I think about that as "Applause" for me, for working on my book, almost finishing it. But I always expected "Applause" on the radio to mean two important things, appreciation for Gaga that she deserves for being so awesome, but also applause for Denver, for the radio station, for us, for getting to appreciate it, for recognizing it. I think that is how Applause, in general, magically, always works two ways, and why perfromers even tell the crowd to give themselves a round of it. It certainly relates to how often Gaga credits her fans and gives them her spotlight - the whole thing is that of course you Applaud something you love, that effects you and empowers you an inspires you, but being the one who is there to Applaud is a special honor in itself, which is the applause for you, for the audience, and how anything that can create applause makes everyone involved better for it. This was a very direct message from Gaga in her interview portion of GMA, but let me come to that in the story as it happened to me, magically. The other way my life has been reflecting this whole transformation process is because I found a copy of "Pinnocchio" at the thrift store about a week or two ago - "some of us just like to read" and you have to read the real, whole story - it's awesome. Like Oz it is a lot richer than what people know from the movie version. The important point to make about it is that Pinnochio is always saying he will do good and promising the blue fairy and others who protect him, but keeps getting distracted or giving into temptations and transgressing, getting into all sorts of trouble that should teach him his lesson. All the time I am thinking "I am glad I am not like that, so much anyway" but at the end I realized how I really have been that bad, that naughty of a wooden-headed, heartless marionette. I just finished the book, I finished reading it the same night I finished editing my book, last night, the day after hearing "Applause" in full on "The Party". I also checked my email that day and saw that Gaga had performed "GAGA of OZ" and I was kind of awestruck, not ready to watch it, but pretty sure it meant "I can't wait any longer". And I realized this last night, at the end of "Pinnocchio". This was also, by the way, the day I got off my crutches and just have a boot on from breaking my foot. At the end of the story, and sorry for spoiling anything for those who haven't read it, Pinnocchio finally does what he says he will do instead of just saying he will. He finally is reunited with his father, Geppetto, and is taking care of him by working hard, both on a farm and making baskets. He finally is happy and secure, doing his duty, when he finds out that his blue fairy mother, who he thinks is dead (again) is actually alive and he works twice as hard, makes twice as many baskets, to help her get better, too. The result of all of this, when she gets better, he is rewarded by becoming a real boy and having a much better life. It all comes together for him, finally, and he has both father and mother after being lost from his father and only coming close to reuintiing with him, and finding his fairy mother again and again but not managing to be true to what she tells him and stay with her. It struck me that this was a parallel for my life, for that particular moment and day - this magical transformation. I realized that my finally getting my book out there after 7 years is like finally doing my duty - being reuinted with my father, the creative energy and spirit of inspiration, art and magic. And all along I have had my own vision of the Goddess, secret even to me, then she was revealed in Gaga and for the last 5 years I have had her, like the blue fairy mother, as a constant reminder and supporter and helper to do my real work, to make my art and write my books - i have been obsessed with ideas for "Oz Magic; from Radio to Gaga" for over two years but haven't written much of it down, just re-arranged it in my head adding ideas, because I say "I don't have time". But while I have always been saying I will create and make my art and wrting and songs reality, and saying I love and worship Gaga and want to follow her and be the best me I can be, realize my gifts, in her example, I have been like Pinnochio and only saying it over and over, not doing it. Now I have finally caught up to a duty to my own art that I have neglected for 7 years, and gotten my adventure book ready. That is like making 8 baskets that Pinnochio makes to support his father once he finds him and starts doing his duty. But I realize, after "GAGA of OZ" that it is like my fairy mother is in the hopsital - not that she is ailing,she seems in the finest form ever, but realizing that while I have always been saying I will honor how she inspires me and encourages me by making my art, I realize now is the time to actually do it, now is the time I have caught up to my normal duty, to write for the World, and found I can even honor the most magical and special duty of all to my fairymother with the azure hair who appears to help me in so many transformations, and that means working twice as hard on my art as finally doing my "regular" artistic dity, making 16 baskets a day instead of just 8, as Pinnochio did, even though he had only just started really making baskets a little earlier. So I woke up this morning knowing that, having gotten my "Wendy" book ready after 7 years, getting that "out of the way" from weighing on my mind and needing to be done, using my vacation time and being laid up with crutches to catch up to that duty, that all I had to do was write this gagablog and give "The Party" and everyone credit for Applause - this goes billions of times over for all you monsters tweeting it and requesting it and talking about it, trending it. All I had to do was write this, and publish my storybook while really starting on "Oz Magic: From Radio to Gaga." I knew I had to do it now, today, since having that realization last night that like Pinnocchio I can finally do my duty to my fairy mother, and also knowing via email that Gaga had performed something called "GAGA of OZ". We have really good kinds of bud right now and we were getting ready to write and my wife played the "Applause" video, out of the blue, though the song has been constantly stuck in my head for weeks and I love it. It had over 56 million views this morning, too - Applause to/for/from everyone! Then I asked her to go ahead and pull up "GAGA of OZ" and we watched it backward, the interview first then the performance, but I can't say enough how it was a dream come true, how it was everything I have been imagining, prediciting, and hoping for, like Gaga reaching out to me specifically and saying "Yes! You got it right, do it now, write!" It was the most amazing thing, most amazing coincidence, and so Gaga because even though I kind of knew, and really hoped it would really be something like that, she just fulfilled and blew away all my expectations and was perfect and amazing. Add I feel like I have been holding this secret how Gaga is making Oz real for all of us, waiting to write it in this book, and now I know that the time is really now, Gaga has taken us into the future and into Oz and it is just up to us to understand it and make it come true for more people. I know my role in this and always have but now is my time to act. This is how I will put my hands up and make them touch - not only by giving her my Applause, my artistic response, and showing I am with her, but by reaching out, creating things myself, touching the world with art that others might be inspired by and appluad themselves. When I actualy do my work instead of talking about it, I will become a Real Boy and have all I have been dreaming of. Now is the time to do it and I will conclude by saying that once again Gaga said it best, in her interview about "GAGA of OZ" on GMA, and the performance itself - it is all about using your talents, going for it and following your real dreams, "even if", especially if, those are to make art, to follow art on its magical Yellow Brick Road, the Glitter Way. Gaga tells us, passionately, that we can do this and is living the example of how it can be done - she is making this world a real Oz and we can all do parts to do that. My part is to explain it further in a book, and make art and songs about it, but the time for the book is now. I've always believed in myself, in Oz, in Gaga, in magic and art and love, and I'm ready to put it all together for others to read. Now the "GAGA of OZ" performance is like both a love letter of encouragement and a challenge to me - of course these magical ideas about Oz are true and are what Gaga is revealing, as I have always suspected, and she is saying "you are right, go for it!" or "meet me, show me your teeth!" - as she has always been saying but I've been a silly, a marionnette. And she is also saying "I'm making it so obvious that if you don't do it now, someone else will." I've been somewhat reluctant to even talk about this, to even name the book, for fear someone else would steal the idea and do it before I "had time." But now I know the time is now, I have to be working on this double-time because it is all coming true, Gaga is "taking" us to Oz, truly making us into our true selves, revealing our true, magical, Ozzite selves. It's time for me to stop predicting and start making it happen, in my way, so thank you for putting up with all this teasing preliminaries and my getting ditracted from my greatest duty for years, but now I'm ready to bring it all together and become a real boy. I see the magical parallel of the strange moment when Pinnocchio, the boy, wonders what became of the puppet he used to be, and Geppetto points out the wooden puppet propped up, its legs folded beneath it. That seems to be a parallel to two things in my room right now. One is my crutches I don't need anymore, that I used for the last time before having this transformation where I will really do my work. They are like the puppet I left behind, the old self who was lazy and only talking about it, not doing it nearly enough. The other thing that is like that puppet, my old self, left behind is this gagablog. Yes, it is a good record of who I was like Pinnochio is a good story about his troubles before he became real, just like the Wizard of Oz is a great story about getting to Oz the first time and making that transformation. But then, like Gaga made the dream come true with "GAGA of OZ", there is realizing we are there, the family is reuinited now that we've rescued the father by finally being dutiful and redicovered the fairy by finally living up to the love she gives us, and now it is just time to do it, to make the art out of the sure bliss of knowing we are supported and loved. And while much of it has been focused on Syria and wishing for a magical surprise that turned things around, I'm pleased to say that it may be late-seeming but actually happened, finally, hopefully. The reason I have to write "Oz Magic: From Radio to Gaga" is because there is the whole world of OZ, and other characters, in the 16 or 17 other books after "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". I have been living the magical priciples I've discoverd in them and then I have been seeing them fulfilled and realized in the world around me and lately especially in Gaga. I know we are all going to become more aware of it, Gaga is revealing it, but I know I have s epcial undertsnding from being focused on it so long. I know I have a way of bringing the ideas of Oz, art, technology, magic, and Gaga together in a way that will really help people and increase their enjoyment of this transformative time. Now is the time to do it and of course, as always, Gaga says it best and simplest in her interview, so please watch that and take it to heart - we can all live best, in Oz, if we live by following Art. It is magic, it is real and it becomes real when we believe and follow where it leads - this is the essence of what I call "Oz Magic". So far we are mostly afraid to live for art, for magic, because there is just a lack of love felt in the world, but Gaga shows us how to make up for that and show love more, too. I'm coining the term "Oz Magic" but I think it is something mystically created that has always existed, is basically the purest magic which is also love and art, and took on a special form through L. Frank Baum writing the Oz books - they were like a prediction or vision of something emerging, and Gaga is the actual emergence, though it will take place in all of us, all over the world, in our hearts. It's like love waking up all over the world, it is magic and it is real and it is all specially predicted and described by things in the Oz stories. I'm not even sure how much Gaga knows about the other stories of Oz, but it is all truly coming from the same place of fairy magic that has been true forever, though misunderstood in many different ways. I hope I can contribute that special part to increase understanding and show how this journey to Oz, Gagaism and being little monsters, is not only a legitimate spiritual path, since I got my degree in religions and can really see that aspet of it, but that it is one of the best paths that really connects things from all over the world and throughout human history because of the ability to include and encourage everything. Gaga really says it well and it is a key secret we need in the world, to honor diversity and encourage everyone to explore and go for their unique gifts, then when we are all doing the best of being who we really are, bravely without fear of judgement or meanness, we will really have the world that is perfect for having the best of everyone working together. I have always called this Oz and been waiting for us, using new technology like "magic" and rediscovering and using all other kinds of magic, that all of this will come together. I see now that, thanks to Gaga, the Oz part won't be a secret anymore and I love Oz so much I am so happy she will bring it back more than any spin-off movie, because people will look at it magically, artistically, and rediscover what I have been looking forward to talking about for years- and I know all of this will be making it come true more and more, until we are all truly in paradise, in Oz as I call it. I'm ready to go for it, to do my part, like "The Party" finally earned Applause for Denver and made us cool. I encourage everyone else to do their part too, to discover their true art and or magic and go for it, follow it. I will now take Gaga's advice, both general to everyone to go for it and what I feel is magically a personal signal to me, to really go for it, as the smell of delicious weed puntuates the air as my lover opens the jar as I type this. It's time to "make it real loud", to really go for it - and the way I misunderstood it before, "make it real - NOW!" is also true, and I'm going to really go for it, focus, and by becoming a real boy show the world how my belief is true, that Oz is real and we can live there, it can be here, and Gaga is the purest example of how. I love you so much, Gaga, and monsters, for making this all happen, for making all my dreams come true. I will now do my own part to make it real, and I hope it makes you happy, makes Gaga happy, and takes us to Oz, and earns the honor of Applause, helping connect us all with art, magic and love. Thank you, Gaga - as Dorothy, as the Witches, as the Apple Tree, as the Wizard, as Ozma (sssssshhhhh! all will be revealed!) - you create all the Applause and all this love is for you, it will all come together and transform the whole world just as you have transformed yourself by following it and show us how we can do the same. We love you, Gaga, thanks for making Oz real and we are with you, doing our parts to make the journey and make it real for the whole world, to reveal how full the world is of love and art and magic. Paws up, you showed us how to be brave, ignited the courage and love and intelligence we always but had left hidden, like the Wizard or Good Witch within us, and showed us how to be home, to ultimately make our home with you in Oz! (I need to finsih that Wizard of Oz themed Gaga song i wrote a year or so ago, right before I finally finsished "Made me a Monster" - I think it was a different attempt to finish it....)