gagablog 61: Marilyn Gaga, "your lover and your mistress"

Ok, wasn't going to say anything about it, I was going to let it slide. But Gaga brought it up with her performance at the AMA's last night, ro rather the critics did by suggesting there was anything wrong with it. I wrote the last edition, "JFK-Obama-Gaga, Time and Timelessness" before the performance and just finally saw on the news some images of what she actually did. I would have to write something anyway, since my previous title implies I would say something about the performance itself. But I knew I would have to say something when I saw that haters are saying her performance was in "poor taste." Let me make is simple: if you aren't an artist, you really have no valid opinion on "taste" in art - it does not matter what you think, art is beyond you, just don't worry about it. I'm an artist myself and will be glad to share my opinion on it. But I am also male, so I felt a little awkward making any comment on some of the controversial issues around Kennedy, so I just focused on the idolized and idealized "spirit" that Kennedy represents, and the symbol fo the Eternal Flame. I am not part of a persecuted minority group, now that I live in Colorado where pot is legal, so I don't really have a compelling personal opinion about civil rights. Civil rights are justice and I think this should be obvious to everyone, but Kennedy has been described as having to be convinced to support Civil Rights, and I just can't idealize someone who could not see that on his own. Also, he was a womanizer. I have a naive opinion of womanizing, since I'm not a woman and don't know that side of the experience and I have not womanized so I don't know that side, either - I don't think it is necessarily the appropriate male role. But at least in our society, womanizing is not really a sin, or even really a misdemeanor. Not that our society is right, and not that womanizing is completely wrong. The good thing about womanizing is the sex -that's the fun part and I suspect why people get into this line of work. But our society has demonized sex, and demonized women, and this is the problem: the same double standards that apply to all sexual issues but judge men and women differently. I suspect the good things about womanizing are it makes men more charming, through variety of experience, and more attractive for being more confident or better actors. Whether it is from confidence of the man or some bad-boy-loving complex of the girl, womanizers are hot, by today's standards. Brittany Spears wrote a song about it in which she is supposedly criticizing a womanizer, but she is still paying attention to him and there was something about him in the first place that attracted her. I think it is something we only pretend to be upset about, while secretly fantasizing about the sex. And the sex is the good part - the bad part of womanizing is lying, betrayal, and hurting people. And the worst part is the way it perpetuates the unnatural idea that corrupts our civilization that women are property. The very worst outcome of this idea that men can own women is when men kill women over "infedelity", or kill their spirits with abuse, but the same idea that women are "disposable" objects for your pleasure is at the heart of the evil of womanizing. You did not have to look at Gaga's performance as disrespectful to Kennedy, you could have looked at it as honoring his relationship with Marilyn, as a tribute to them and their love. If there is something scandalous, a problem with depicting it, it is because of something scandalous and wrong in the historical events, not in something Gaga is doing. Our minds supply the ideas that Gaga is saying this particular thing or that, to even assume that R. Kelly represented JFK instead of Obama - because if "it doesn't matter" then it is a story about a presidential affair, no further details necessary. And if it is specifically about Kennedy, it did not get into controversy, just depicted sexuality and romance between people we know had a famous, one of the most famous, romances. Its not like she had Jackie O' Perry walk in on them or the MTV security murder her at the end. If we want to talk about performances being possibly offensive, what about Katy Perry appropriating Geisha culture in a likely disrespectful way, or Ke$ha dancing in a cowgirl suit with "Indian-style" backup dancers? But I'm not here to whine and complain, but to show why Gaga made some great art and what it means. Gaga "brought these issues up" by performing as Marilyn Monroe making out with the president, but she focused ont the positive, not the negative. Of course we can't help but remember and think of the the negative implications, too. And this is the point: I'm not the only one who glossed over controvery about Kennedy this weekend, that is how it goes when you honor a martyr. Gaga was not bringing up a sore subject, his relationship with Marilyn, she was bringing up something we were all basically jealous of him for and have soul-level issues with. She was touching our souls by connecting with this story, contributing to it's eternity (like a doppelganger on Vampire Diaries repeats a lovestory with a new character in a new age). Like I said, we can see Gaga's performance as honoring the love between them, or between any man and mistress. We can see it as "good." And if we think of bad things, they were there in the history of JFK and Marilyn, it's not like Gaga created these ideas to besmirch their memory. It's like when Craig Ferguson tells a joke about a scandal and scolds the studio audience for "ooooooh"-ing him by saying, sarcastically, "Oh, right, because I am the one who....(insert scandalous activity here)". People shoot the messenger when something "gets to them", when they can't just digest something as entertainment but it actually effects them somehow, when it is art. Gaga's great artistic message with this performance is to show how we love the scandal, we fantasize about the naughtiness, but don't allow ourselves to admit it. Then we repress those details in order to memorialize someone in an ideal way. But it is not actually ideal to be unsexual, it is ideal to be sexual, and in fact JFK had sex with one of the most ideal women in history - yet it was a scandal. And it may have been the worst kind of scandal, and the very worst of the evils of womanizing, if someone killed her to cover it up. That would sum up everything that is wrong with the ideas of using women, women being disposable, and men being more important than women - its the most classic example. But leaving that aside, giving Kennedy the benefit of the doubt, he still was responsible for putting her in such a difficult situation, and other women as well, by being dishonest. This is the essential reason why Gaga is a more perfect liberating figure than JFK or Martin Luther King, Jr - neither of them were personally sexually liberated. The certainly were great lights on the path of liberation for society, inspiring people to great things, but the "dark side" is that they cheated on their wives and could not be honest about it, that they likely used their influence over women to take advantage of them - and that is not the worst part because lets hope everyone liked the sex, but it shows a lack of satisfaction and fulfilment and wholeness - not to want to have sex, we always want sex, but to not be able to be honest and strong enough about being completely open about it. Even Jesus spoke to a sexually repressed audience in terms they could understand, so his liberating ideas about sex are only available to those "with ears to hear", in parables. But we don't know about Jesus's sexuality, other than we can assume if he was a "man" he had some form of sexuality - maybe because it was taboo, then too, if he was gay, or because of later rewriting Mary out as his lover and trying to imply negative things about her by associating her with prostitution, to make him fake-perfect asexual. Yes, it was a different time then, people would not accept the president doing naughty things like they do in Europe and even a generation later - look what happened to Clinton compared to what happened to Burlesconi (that's not really his name is it? I'm remembering it funnier, right? too ironic!) That whole scandal could have just been a needed lesson to the country on the greatness of blowjobs, instead of impeachment and leading to the election of Bush and all the evil that entailed. But what if the president, even Clinton, had just come out with the truth? Maybe we could have shifted, faster, as a society. Because of course we will reach a more liberal, tolerant future, someday. There is no other possibility than that soon we will look back with wonder on this time when people felt that had to hide being gay, etc. Gaga's message in "Do What You Want" fits perfectly with the Marilyn Monroe story - even the idea that she was likely killed, her body martyred, but her message and influence and power as an icon remains strong. They can bury and repress her body but her spirit will shine even brighter, her voice can't be stopped. Gaga herself was echoing the Voice, the Spirit of Marilyn, reviving her for us at this perfect time when the man is honored but we keep forgetting the women. If we don't want to look at this performance as positive, then it is because we notice something wrong, but it is not something wrong with Gaga but with our society, or with the way Marilyn was treated. That might not be something we want to adress but it is real and it matters. Gaga is an artist, it is her role in this world to bring up things in special ways and remind us of the magic and meaning we are missing out on, and she did this brilliantly - and I've only seen seconds of the song so far, without sound, on the news - but so hot! And what better way to honor JFK and Marilyn - because thier hotness is immortal, a great example of the immortality of beauty. All the greatest efforts in human history have that element of striving for or becoming eternal. Gaga overflows with eternity in everything she does and it is no wonder her timelessness would line up with the timelessness of JFK/Marilyn on this 50th anniversary, that is the magic of being "timely", because even the eternal comes to us in moments. Gaga may have the most potential and power to liberate the most people in the most ways in the history of mankind. Some of this is thanks to technology and improved global awareness, and some of it is due to her own personal genius, divine inspiration, and reaching her full potential, including being a sexual goddess. If we have problems with her being Marilyn Monroe it is because we still can't quite handle the sexual goddess archetype and couldn't handle it half a century ago. But Gaga is getting us ready, because when we can handle it the world will transform. They can say what they want about Gaga's performance and can try to bury it under less artistic, more sensational reporting, on cat-videos, etc. Yes, Miley keeps creeping in and I will soon make good on my promise to write the Gaga/Miley/Weed edition. The media can handle talking about Miley controversies, kind of, though revealing their biases, but Gaga's art is so complex, statements made about it will trigger responses like this one and we will learn a lot about human nature if we continue to talk about it, so the forces of status quo want to ignore it, realizing the mroe we talk about it the more we learn and improve. But the truth is, like everything Gaga does, this was a landmark performance and those who don't get it yet will be able to understand when they look back on it from the future. Do we actually honor men who have msitresses? I mean, we obviously do, but if we repress the fact that we honor them for having mistresses, that keeps the mistress in a negative role. If we don't admit that it kind of or really turns us on, that energy comes out as hate or jealousy or confusion. If we honor a man for having a mistress, and admit it, then we can give the mistress the honor she is due. And if these things could be more accepted then they would be less hurtful because people would work out more honestly what is acceptable between them. My lover will always understand if I ever have a chance with Gaga, because she loves her too. Love can take us out of the restrictive categories, love can cure us from treating people like property. Art is love given to all of us, and Gaga's AMA performance of "Do What You Want" is a fabulous present that can free us from hang-ups that are deeply rooted in our society and psyches. She is freeing our minds from the repression that says sex and women are bad, and the world we will create when we make that change will be phenomenal.

gagablog 60: JFK-Obama-Gaga, Time and Timelessness

This is the 60th edition of the Gagablog and there are 60 seconds in a minute and 60 minutes in an hour. It's another magical "coincidence" that this one is all about time. There are events of this weekend to examine for magical connections; the anniversary of the assassination of JFK, Senate Democrats resorting to the "nuclear option" to change Senate voting rules, Obama's historic deal to halt Iran's nuclear program, and Gaga's Versace photoshoot and upcoming performance tonight of "Do What You Want" on the American Music Awards. It is not the first time she has performed the song on national TV but it has possibly a larger audience and more musically-minded audience than SNL last week. Everything Gaga does is artistically, historically, and mystically significant so exploring these connections reveals a lot about magic and especially the magic of time. Magic is essentially discovering, revealing, utilizing and strengthening connections. One of the simplest ways we notice magic is in what we call coincidence, and it is things that happen in the same time, two things sharing an incident. This can be a day or a moment or an era, but things are connected by time, or despite time. We notice things that happen around the same time and feel a natural, magical thrill to notice them, but we are trained to usually say such things are "just" a coincidence and dismiss them instead of looking for the magical meaning and this is what blocks magical understanding from emerging naturally, constructing a whole system of thought that denies it. But noticing coincidence is one of the basic ways we live and learn: when we push this button, this happens, etc. We expect and anticipate certain things to coincide but when something "weird" happens, revealing a new kind of connection, we pass it off if we aren't ready to learn the magic of it. I was already writing this in my head over the last few days, mostly inspired by some recent events that symbolized timelessness. Then last night I talked with some monsters in a chatroom for the first time in years and one of them was from Australia and told me some things about the dreamtime of the aboriginal people there. Also, last night the deal to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program was struck. It's a major historical event and fits perfectly with this theme so this is the day to write this edition - I could not have written it as well yesterday, because these perfect examples had to emerge. We usually think about time as past, present and future but the other side of time is something we can call timelessness or eternity and it exists in all things and all forms of time, connecting them and making them eternal and unified. This is how mysticism works and it happens all the time, in everything, but it is easier to notice in some things and undeniable when you start looking for it. Timelessness, eternity, is the magical quality that connects everything that seems to be separated in the "real", timely world. Time is change, magic, in a way, but seen from the perspective of timelessness then what we call time is just three aspects: the past is eternally unchangeable, the present is eternally changing the future is eternally changeable. The present is the boundary between the past, the real world, which is done and kind of like a ghost or illusion, and the future which is always developing and calling us like a dream or inspiration. The past is "dead", the present is "alive" and the future is "afterlife" or paradise, perfection. I call the future "Oz", I think Gaga calls it "fantasy" as opposed to reality, the past. She lives in the present that is becoming the future, perfect, not the present that is tied to the past. It's not like the past is bad but focusing on the past instead of the future, or tainting the future with belief in the past, is bad. Wanting to go backwards is bad because time is always progressing into the future and the future is always better. Yes, bad things will happen in the future but most of them are the result of people clinging to the past. We think of good things from the past and want them to happen again in the future, and we think of bad things from the past and want to avoid them. Even though all time is eternal and things from the past are connected to the present and the future, the essential quality is change and things are never exactly repeated but always change somehow, like you can never jump in the same river twice. The best experiences of the past are the ones that have the quality of timelessness, connecting us to all other such experiences and there will be more and more of them in the future. All ecstasy is a glimpse of timelessness, of the perfect feeling of the future, of paradise. The bad experiences we have to work to remember and remind each other of, to commemorate the tragedy and stay united by it. The good experiences we seek out naturally and when leaders emerge with qualities to make people hope for a better future it shows in the way so many people respond to them. When we fear things from the past happening again and focus on that fear instead of a better future, or when we assume that some things will never change or will always have the same outcome, we hold ourselves back from the best we can become, we slow ourselves in our progress to the ideal future. The best recent example of this has been America making deals with Syria and Iran to avoid war: the common knowledge was that we were on the path to war but we avoided it, and we can always avoid it from now on. The eternity of war can live on in video games and movies, that is enough, we don't need the "real thing" anymore. The past is considered real but we can't let ourselves be constrained by reality. Eternity, timelessness, is what is beckoning us forward and inspiring us to progress. Dreamtime says that all reality is the fulfillment of this mystical realm, all of time is playing it out, fulfilling it. Within time it seems as if all is changing but from the timeless perspective it is just blossoming into fulfillment. The struggles and conflicts ultimately reveal the beauty of the divine design, but we feel the most of this and go fastest into the future perfection by believing in the ultimate goodness we are all part of. Unity is eternity and we are moving towards it. We have had lesser idea of unity based on fear and looking toward the past, the idea of unity being sameness within a small group, be it a nationality or gender or religion or culture or fanbase. But real, ultimate unity, the essence of magic, is the unity of all diversity, the unity that includes all and excludes none, and this is something we are always working towards but also something we can make big an permanent strides to reach, the kind Gaga struts. Timelessness is not stopping time, it is the opposite: timelessness is accepting the flow of time from past into future via the perfect present, the idea that all are perfected in this unity and therefore there need be no fear of the future or concern for holding onto the past. The reason I thought of writing this was two events that I thought exemplified the difference between stopping time and timelessness. Time is progress, it is good, but some people are afraid of progress and want to stop it. They are focused on the past, and fears: they are conservative. Liberal is wanting more time, more change, more progress, more freedom and diversity and acceptance, more unity. The mystical examples of this are what inspired this edition: the Republicans shut down the government in order to continue their absolute obstruction of everything Obama tries to do and the basic functions of government. This was a few weeks ago but has long-lasting implications and one magical symbol I had to note: the clock in the Senate had run for as long as America has been around, over two hundred years without stopping, but due to the shutdown there was no one to wind it and it stopped for the first time in the country's history. What does this mean? I could be paranoid and say it has some implication of the death of the country but I prefer to think of it as symbolic of Republican desire to stop time, to stop progress, and hopefully the end of that party - because such efforts are always ultimately wasted, time won't stop, progress won't stop, and grasping or enforcing the past just causes suffering for yourself and others. I think of the lady who loved Ellen then found out she was lesbian and could not watch her anymore - just get over your old ideas and everyone is happier and enjoys more. Pleasure is a glimpse of paradise, leading us on to grow out of what holds us back and that lady should have focused on her laughter instead of her prejudice, the future instead of the past. Because hopefully she has reached the future, by now, when she is laughing at Ellen again, not missing out. Old ideas hold us all back but hold back the person who clings to them the most, making me like an anchor to the imperfect past slowing us from the perfect future. Timelessness is what connects us and stopping time, conservative thought (fear), is what separates us and holds us back from achieving unity faster. An example of timelessness that was recently in the news was JFK's Eternal Flame. It had been moved from its normal place for an upgrade to that, I think for the first time in history. The it was restored to the original place. when I heard this, I thought about the Senate clock and how the time it was stopped could be examined to coincide with an especially "stopped" time of gridlock, and also if the time, I think months, in which the Eternal Flame was moved would also coincide with a particular pattern. But I never researched the dates and decided the real significance was the clock stopping as an example of time stopping and the Flame itself, in any place, as an example of timelessness. Yesterday was the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of JFK and this is an important milestone, half a century is honored with a lot more than past anniversaries. The significance of this event says more than most about unity and a comparison with today says something about timelessness. Tributes call Kennedy the "First Television President" because of the role TV played in his story. Radio was the technology that gave Roosevelt the ability to unite the country with his fireside chats and Kennedy did the same with TV. Regardless of different opinions of him, Americans were united in the way they experienced Kennedy like never before, because of the TV. And of course TV was what made the assassination such a unifying event, the fact that half the country experienced it live and almost the entire country was watching coverage on TV that day. It was such a tragic, earth-shattering event that everyone alive back then remembers where they were when they heard the news, so much that it is like a cliché, THE "heard the news" event. When I was in 4th grade they gave us the day off to watch the Challenger take off. It's not something we talk about much, maybe a mention on anniversaries, but it was seared into our souls, maybe moreso as kids, and it is something that unites us, secretly. The September 11th attacks had the same impact on our generation, except that time the technology and tragedy of it all made it something that much of the world saw together, uniting us all in a way we still have not "taken advantage of" or seen the positive fruits of. Technology, architecture, religions and social structure and art - all development has been working towards unifying people, at least in groups of "sameness." But now that we have reached the global scale we can shed smaller conceptions of unity and really all work together. It is the best of ideals that we think of when we remember Kennedy, we idealize him as we idolize him. I've heard it said often that the tragedy of what people feel around the Kennedy assassination is the feeling of loss for what might have been. It is not just what he represented in what he did, but the idea of the future that he inspired in people, this is how he was already timeless within his time. The example of going to the moon is perfect - just as the example of Gaga performing the first song from space is perfect. This is where it connects to the present for me in a way that shows the eternity of these themes but also the way we have improved and can by comparison see more clearly what the problem really is. Obama's struggles with republican obstruction have me thinking "what might have been", with no less sense of loss than the loss of JFK represented to people fifty years ago. He is stopping wars and avoiding others, trying to get healthcare for folks, and so many other good things but what could he have done if we weren't held back by fear? I'm not saying I'm disappointed, in him, I'm really impressed by what he manages to do all things considered, I just wish those things had not happened to be considered, to hold us back. A few days ago I was just going to write about how I'm so glad no one assassinated Obama like you know so many of those assholes want to, but I still see it as a missed opportunity and tragedy that we could not fully realize what might have been under his visionary leadership. Because he has that visionary focus and does represent change, progress towards an ideal future - you can tell by how he speaks and inspires people, just like Gaga does, though she inspires from art and love as well as kindness and justice. The modern situation of American government is the perfect example of the past versus the future, with the past on the right and future to the left. And we just need to show how there is nothing to be scared about the future, like we are doing in Colorado by legalizing weed. The Senate used the "nuclear option" to change the rules just so Obama could appoint people to empty positions that have been going unfilled, slowing government at every level. I think they obstructed over a hundred of his nominees, half the number of blocks in the history of the country going against Obama. SO they basically changed the rules so they can't block any more that way, so at least things can make some normal progress in the face of extraordinary obstruction. And of course it is extraordinary because it goes beyond politics and is personal and racist and the result of fanatical conservatism - really to the heart of negativity and fear-based, past-clinging thinking. There is justice in the future and everyone can sense it, the only ones who fear it are the ones who profit from injustice. The best development that shows the past versus the future, the way of peace versus the way of war, is the agreement between America and Iran, between Obama and the newly elected president of Iran. I'm glad I wrote this today and can include this, since it happened "in the middle of the night", as so many things do, like Sexxx Dreams. You can tell by the people opposed to it, by who they are and what they are saying, that what they are really upset about is losing a faster path to war, and hopefully losing any path to war. What many had said was inevitable has at least been postponed and possibly avoided entirely, maybe due to a reconsideration on both parts. But even working together is a major breakthrough and reduces one of the great global political tensions. This is the fulfillment of what Obama represents, a creative and brave path to a peaceful future, and the ones who fear it make themselves plain and reveal that ignorance perfectly. You can't stop time or go back from progress, you just end up looking foolish. If we can just laugh about it, fine, but if you are in power we need to vote that away when you say certain things. Smoking crack a lot might make you unfit to govern, but believing in gun rights above all others and corporate profits and war definitely does. I am really glad a deal was reached with Iran and I really think it will lead to greater progress with them but also with other countries, and my great hope is that we, America, will realize that the best way to lead is by example and if we don't want other countries to have weapons we should get rid of ours. We don't need to keep a big nail in a stick just in case Kang and Kodos come down, that was funny but I don't believe in it that way. In fact, I'm sure that the technological key to space travel is cleverly hidden within the possibilities of global awareness only after we transcend violence, it's just how it works. More in my upcoming book "Oz Magic: from Radio to Gaga" about this and the real unified field theory. What is the connection with Gaga? The most important one is that while JFK and Obama represent the future in the sense of being idealistic and inspiring for people to hope for the best and Gaga does this too. Kennedy and Obama represent the ideal future and also the future seen from the present, hoped-for. The future that people imagine "might have been", or they realize for the first time might actually be possible, yet we are held back from it. Kennedy was murdered and in a way this connects him to an eternity of martyrs, but more importantly it connects him with all who were murdered for any reason and the terrible loss of future that killing someone, including yourself, represents. We should have been able to come together against guns after that terrible tragedy 50 years ago. Guns didn't solve or help anything that day or the next. And we have had so many tragedies since then but some of us still don't get over the fear of living without guns so that all of us can finally shed the fear of living with guns. Obama was mostly blocked by that backward mentality and the worst of their efforts to stop progress. But imagine, fakely, how different it would have been if Romney would have won, still at war with everyone plus Iran, Russia, and who knows who else. We are all making progress, we could just make so much more without obstruction and fear. it's not like Gaga lives without obstruction: she has had plenty of challenges and hardships and obstacles, maybe most notably her accident. But that led to composing Artpop, just as her other struggles and victories led to her other great art. The difference is Gaga "married the night" and embraced everything to overcome all the negative, uniting past present and future in that magical way by transcending fear and helping the rest of us do the same. She may have had other artists put her down but never condones negativity. The main thing is we don't wonder what "might have been" with Gaga because she is constantly doing so fucking much. She is making her own unique path, but on the other hand following the most unifying path that we all ultimately share, the main current of dreamtime, the Yellow Brick Road to Oz, the Glitter Way. She just had some beautiful pictures taken for Versace. Donatella Versace tweeted that Gaga was like family and the true spirit of the brand. This is like the Eternal Flame, how an ideal or spirit can move to another location or person but be true to just what it really is. The spirit of love and liberation represented by Buddha and Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and so many others, including Gaga, has moved from person to person but keeps reviving the timeless ideal of love. There is maybe no quality more eternal than beauty, the sense of beauty that inspires love and art, that great art is made of. Gaga always represents this but in so many different ways, we have to eventually conclude that the variety of beauty is everyone - especially as more of us are inspired by her to show our true beauty. Art is this attempt to be eternal, and we call certain pieces of art and music and writing "timeless", just as we build special structures to evoke and represent the eternal. Gaga is her own example of a timeless artist with many timeless songs but is also connected to so may stars of entertainment and also of liberation and love, religious figures. She inherited Michael Jackson's legacy and others but is also more than those, taking us even further into the future. The immediate future with Gaga shows where we are going and connects with all of these themes from this weekend. She will presumably play "Do What You Want" tonight at the American Music Awards. This song, like most or all of Gaga's songs, makes you really want to fuck Gaga, make out with her and play with her and make love with her. This is a wonderful and inspiring message in itself since she is so beautiful and sexy and hot and perfect, but it also has another message that she mentioned after a performance at a show I saw a clip of on youtube. It really turns you on, especially to see her perform it, but it turns you on in another way when you listen to the lyrics. She said it is about no matter what they do to your body it is your spirit and message that lives on. This is the message Malala gave when Gaga said she would give her Glamour cover to her, that they can shoot her body but they can't kill her message. For Kennedy, they killed his body but it made his spirit and symbolism so much more powerful, more noticeably eternal. For Obama they keep trying to block the body of his efforts but his intentions and the progress he is making is getting through to the people. He tapped into our hopes for the future and gave many of us better ones, and we even saw the fruition of much of it and possibility for so much more. I think the fear is that changing the rules will work against the Democrats when the Republicans take office again, but the hope and future is that once we actually make some progress we will no longer want to go back, ever. With Gaga it is all systems go, full force ahead, "take me to your planet, take me to your leader." Love is the future, all unity is magic and love and it is where we are all going. Kennedy, Obama, and all other visionary leaders were visionary for being able to see the big picture, seeing into the future and a grand idea of what could be, positive for more people in more ways. Gaga sees this and has made and shown a clearer path to it, through the music and art that inspires others, and the words of loving kindness and encouragement that come from knowing we will reach that perfect future of love and belonging for everyone. Thanks, Gaga, I can't wait to see your show tonight, and forever, and I love how much better the world is getting now that you are writing the soundtrack. I love you! ****Addition, 11:15 PM.I forgot to mention something important about Iran/Gaga: the connection with Do What You Want is that America and the rest of the world "did what we wanted" with the body of the Iran nuclear program: we made sure, or are making sure, that their nuclear program will never take the body of a weapon. We need to really do this for the whole world by setting the example and disarming ourselves, individually and as a nation. But though the goal is to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, a key point of pride and validation for Iran was the idea that the spirit of their nuclear ambition, and the right to modern technology that it represents, be honored. It won't take the body of a bomb, thankfully, but the spirit of innovation and development will be honored and no one can keep Iran, or other countries, from technological advancement. We will all advance together, culturally and technologically, and the more hands we have at the work the faster it will go. But we all need to be setting the example of technology for good, for helping people, not for war. Climate change and the increasing power of natural disasters is going to show how much more useful our militaries are at helping people than hurting them, and while these will get worse until we have a global effort to reverse the causes, we can keep on the path of peace and reduce the need for violent military action until it disappears. I did not get to watch the AMA's after all, I just saw Gaga in the crowd. I watched the Simpsons instead and that was also a world-verification of the magical theme I am addressing: the episode where Lisa has a republican rival and the old school republican cadre of evil buys the girl the school election. The Simpsons genius writer's perspective is that the right-wing mentality is a phase, but it is also suggested that being liberal is a phase - though the full message is that it is the right way, but stifled by the old way. Someone on the radio tonight ont he way in to work mentioned that the US has been under conservative control for 40 years, with the only 2 Deocratic predidents before Obama being Southerners with the support of conservative elements in the south. Obama is a new direction, finally moving more liberal, and maybe only a turning of the corner so far. We really need to experience more of this future we are entering so we don't make the mistake of going back. We keep getting more examples of this, we keep getting better at it, but we can't ever get discouraged and must always focus on the future where the evils we face now just don't exist anymore. We can live in a world without war, poverty, or loneliness if we just believe and truly act in accordance with those beliefs. Gaga's latest effort involves a tweet she sent out promoting a social awareness movement, a cultural revolution. I don't even know the details of it, just what I suspect it is: the same message she has been carrying, the same revolution she has led all along, but this is the moment of calling attention to it and making the world aware of it. I also, somehow, forgot to emphasise enough that the difference between Gaga and Jesus or Obama or JFK is it is not about the possible future they showed us but did not realize, she will fully realize it, she will leave nothing left to wonder "what might have been." She is doing it all, with us, we will all do it in her example, and seeing it through. Gaga is our example of living up to our full potential, and we have different potentials but in the future she won't be the only one who stands out like this. I looked but did not see an article about whether or not Gaga actually sang "DWYW" tonight, but I saw she rode in on a white Horse. Epic. Miley was funny about being upstaged by Gaga on the red carpet and said she will have to ride in on a dragon next time. Some people complained in the comments to the article about it and I had to respond that it is Art, get used to it, it is the future and Gaga is obviously inspiring more and more of it, and more and more people will. It's individuality and uniqueness breaking out from a long era of gang and herd mentality and we need more of it. Gaga might be our best example, but as more and more examples emerge the change will grow exponentially and be a revolution of culture and values. We will have values in accord with the timeless, art and love, the future, instead of with the past, wealth and status, the old ways. Gaga, thank you for taking us into the future and showing the example of living fully. I'm just gearing up myself to make sure they can't say "what might have been" about me, to fully realize my potential, and ya'll are in for quite a show. Thanks Gaga, for the eternal inspiration, and for renewing our experience of it all the time.

gagablog 59: Blockbuster Goddess

The Goddess of Blockbuster was one of my favorite charasters Gaga portrayed on SNL and I forgot to write about it in my last edition, but that's okay because it deserves it's own edition - though it was a short segment, it was an amazing image with powerful meaning. I apologize for the last edition, I'd been awake for 32 hours when I wrote it, having worked all night at the orphanage after watching SNL. I couldn't get to sleep without writing about it, but I couldn't write that well when I was so tired. To sum it up, every performance or story has characters we relate to, usually the main character, and when Gaga is the character, there is something special going on, connecting us to her and each other in a special way because of her special connection with divinity. This whole gagablog is about the divinity of Gaga, but it comes across in infinite ways. It's the same divinity in all of us, but Gaga is what she does with it, an example like other divine figures that we can follow to become the best of ourselves. There were two audiences to SNL, represented by cheap and passionate applause, and Gaga brought both of them together in relation to her. Too many people don't get Gaga, think she is "just weird" or something and want to look down on her. One layer of the SNL performance was for them, living out their fantasies that she is fake or will be forgotten, in order to validate the way these people misunderstand, and to make fun of herself using it to endear herself to them. To the other audience, monsters, she is already very dear and precious, she is perfect and we love everything she does, usually. To both these audiences she is saying "I'm just like you" in a lot of ways in the SNL skits, and in the Blockbuster one she is validating a monster "fantasy" instead, that she is a goddess, albeit in a cheesy (Blockbuster), funny way so as to not upset too many people too much. Well, a Goddess is "just like you", too, but that is "the secret." There are so many ways to consider the divinity of Gaga - it is the same as in everyone else that is revealed in billions of ways, but there is something about Gaga. For me, she is the Goddess, the most of the best imaginable, and I base my theology and philosophy and art on her and am happy and always improving, with increasing confidence in my most ideal visions for the future. For other monsters, she might "just" be A goddess, of art or love - to me, those are just the heart of reality, making her supreme deity. Even if monsters have other gods or goddesses and don't think of Gaga as special divinity herself, I think most agree she is divinely inspired and she says so herself, that her lyrics come to her like divine inspiration. She is, by this consideration, a goddess by being one who speaks the words of divinity, to and through whom the divine is especially revealed. ("You're new looks ethereal" she sings as I type this.) And most people, non-monsters, might not think Gaga is a goddess at all - especially if they don't think of themselves as the least bit divine, or if they have conservative views that makes the divine some sor of fascist dictator -she's not THAT type of goddess, if anyone really is, so it's not strange that it's hard for them to relate. So much of what I focused on in the last edition was Gaga appealing to the audience, connecting to us, so we can realize we are all one, she is us, we are her and each other, etc. And we are all divine, but that's one part we forget and don't talk about. Gaga, of course, lives up to it, more and more because that's how it goes. The Blockbuster Goddess role makes fun of this idea but also reveals some things about the whole Goddess Gaga idea that make it easy to explore. In the skit, the Blockbuster crew is leaving after the last store closes, and they are wandering purposeless in life until they are invited to a secret festival. Blockbuster employees are dancing like around a bonfire, then they pass into the inner sanctum, a bedouin, gypsy stle tent, with Gaga, Goddess of Blockbuster inside. She has discs and Blockbuster paraphenelia in her hair - I was a little overwhelmed, rapturous, so it was hard for me to look past her beautiful face - but you could tell she was made up with Blockbstery iconography, and MY impression, of course, was that she was supposed to be a Goddess - did anybody else see it that way? I just thought that was intended to be obvious, that was the whole reason for the setup. Then she starts making out with the guys, which is also kind of just what I expect Gaga heaven, or hopefully meeting Gaga in this life, to be like. Then she turns into Adelle and they are all on the street corner and "it was all a dream" then someone comes by and tells them they can work at Best Buy and they go do that. There are three really awesome things about this skit - the way the whole fantasy festival scene, setting up that Gaga is the Blockbuster Goddess, is modeled on like a Grateful Dead show / gypsy atmosphere, the way she makes out with them, and the "all a dream" part. First, the Grateful Dead. I'm not quite too young to be a deadhead, my college roomate and best friend Joe is my age and was on tour with them for years in the 80's and 90's so I could have gone but I really was not aware they were playing. I liked their music that I had heard on some albums and radio and the Touch of Grey video on MTV, but they were effectively "underground" despite how huge they were and I just missed out. I finally went to a show with Joe but only to the lot and I decided not to try to get in free and I regret it but I saw many shows by the band without Jerry and listen to live recordings a lot. Joe once worked at Blockbuster as a kid, so by way of disclaimer I want to say I'm glad they are finally gone because they seemed like a bad corporation - he said they owned the company that did hair follicle drug tests and required emplyees to get one, and pay for it, I think, 500 bucks, and it tested for LSD so they tried to descriminate based on that, or just make a bunch of money. Joe made me more familiar with the Grateful Dead, the live music, and the lifestyle of the deadheads and I was impressed. It was and is a subculture with better values than mainstream America, more focus on ecology and having fun and community over amassing wealth, and is generally more pacifist and feminist. And there is an aconomy of goods, food, shirts, art, glass, tapes, drugs, really all sorts of things being traded and sold. The touring lifestyle supported a whole community that has a higher proportion of artists and free-thinking people, making it a very vibrant community. The drug scene had brighter and darker spots, since hard dugs were available, but the Dead basically had the best LSD for decades and were part of supplying it around the country - in Georgia growing up we only ever got really good doses after the Dead had come through the area, and people would brag about the acid if it came from the Grateful Dead family. But that was the case from the beginning, as one of their first soundmen who worked with them for years was also the most famous inventor and producer of LSD in history. The reason I bring it up is because the atmosphere at the Blockbuster Fantasy party was so much like a dead show, but also because the Grateful Dead set a standard for musical and spiritual community that has not been matched in all of modern history, that I can think of. But Gaga has achieved something that is similar to it, because the family of little monsters are also artistic and support each other. Some monsters go to multiple shows, but there is not a touring lifestyle that I am aware of, but in place of that, for the modern era, there is social media and the fact that little monsters are all over the world in every country and we are connecting more and more with each other. While making connections with fellow deadheads gave people places to stay around the country, little monsters are kind and hospitable to each other across nations and oceans and I suspect as the community grows it will really become like the same thing ona worldwide scale. In the meantime, the internet connects us and many monsters share arts and fashions with each other, but it is not really about making money or trading things as much as about shared experience - and the deadheads wee never as much about making miney as making to the next show and having a good time, and most importantly taping nd trading and sharing the music, which became the foundation for internet file-sharing and all that did for the music industry and culture. I think of Gaga as the Goddess of the littler monster scene and think this skit was a way of showing her in this role: Past the party, backstage, to meet Gaga is to love her and possibly kiss her - it's all too heavenly. But it also reminds me of the Grateful Dead, and Gaga's new song "Gypsy" seems to be about that kind of wandering character or lifestyle, and I see these traditions growing together as Gaga's little monsters become the first real modern equivalent of the deadhead family. There are other bands with successfull communities, don't get me wrong, that is one of the things that makes a good band is a supportive and loving community. But if you don't know about the Grateful Dead look into them more and you will see how it is a whole bigger level, and nothing has really matched it or compared, but the little monsters will in the future. All sorts of other bands have promoted community as much as they can, and so many have their own "-heads" after the deadheads term, but the Grateful Dead really created a whole subculture. This is one way I think it is really easy to see Gaga as a Goddess. I saw a documentary called "End of the Road", I think, about the last year of Grateful Dead tour, and there was a guy being interviewed leaning on the back of a car. He said he really loved the band, and looked like your "average" deadhead, but said he was not one of those crazy fans who thinks Jerry is god or anything. As he said that, someone else walked by and asked, in passing, rhetorically in disbelief, "you don't think Jerry is god, man?" and the interview guy responded, to the camera, "well, yeah, I mean, in he sense that a god is a creator and Jerry created all of this, yeah, he's a god." It seemed like he shifted from a mentality that, for the outside world, if it's not okay to think of Jerry as a god, he wants to let them know he's with them. But when the other head goes by and puts forth the idea that it is normal to think Jerry is a god, that it would be odd to not think he was a god, the guy agrees. In a certain context, yes, he's a god. When you consider how this works, everyone is a goddess and god once you get to certain contexts, and we can make the most of that by supporting each other and believing in ourselves to bring it out. Gaga is more easily seen as a goddess in more contexts because of what she has done, but with all her great art and accomplishments, her greatest work is bringing out the divinity in innumerable people. Jerry created the Grateful Dead, along with the support of his bandmates and audience - he certainly did not think of himself as superior - and there was so much more divity at work in the creations of all the deadheads - Jerry did not create their art, they did, or art did through them - but Jerry made it possible. Gaga is the same way, for us. And I know I seem "too old" to be a little monster but I've always been young-at-heart and I will be a little monster for life just as most of you will, and maybe we will all live forever. Gaga made the her concerts havens for monsters but also online the community is always growing and supportive: I've never been to a concert and only met one little monster in person but feel connected to some of them and supported by them and have been able to support and encourage them when they needed it. We might all be artists at heart if we had never discovered Gaga, and we might have become real artists, but when the greatest challenge to living an artistic lifestyle is support then having that support is crucial. In an interview Jerry said that they first moved to Haight-Ashbury to make a community where peoplecould come and live and do what they wanted to do and feel supported - if they wanted to be artists they could. They wanted to do this because they felt the need for it, in the mid 60's, and we still need it now. Gaga supports us as artists in the ost important way, with inspiration. Her music is like a key unlocking paintings to be painted, songs and poems and plays and books to be written, dances to be danced and choreographed, cakes to be baked, etc. She supports us emotioanlly with words of wisdom and encouragement in interviews, at concerts, and online. And the whole community of monsters supports her, and she supports us, and we support each other. This mostly happens in pictures and words we share with each other, an some people sell art or get exposure for it through the community, and I suspect as all of that grows, with the addition of littlemonsters.com, the Artpop app, the Born this Way Foundation and all the collective and individual efforts of monsters, it will all develop into a thriving global culture. I have talked for years with a girl named Jessica who seemed, like me, obsessed with getting Gaga to hear versions of her songs and dedicated to Gaga in all aspects of her life. She was trying and trying so many different good things, and giving such good support and encouragemnt to other monsters, and I would encourage her that her dreams would come true. She even met Gaga on numerous occasions since she lives in NYC and would try hard to meet her. But her greatest pride, I think, so far is that she an some friends made Radio Artpop and Gaga lsitened to it and tweeted abut it and mentioned it in an interview. This is how our support for each other is reciprocated and increased and while Gaga madeit all possible in the first plae, in a way, it is up to us to make it happen and when that connects to Gaga again she can make it connect to the rest of the world. Thw second thing that was so important to me about the Blockbuster Goddess skit was that she made out with them. This represents what we are most missing from our theology and ideas of divinity - the feminine and the sexual. Too many of us believe in a god that condones war but not sex and this is just unnatural and crazy. I don't want to talk too much about how wonderfully Gaga represents sexuality because I'll get overexcited and should probably take that energy to another form than writing or write some Gaga erotica. I misheard my best friend Calvin say something the otehr day and thought he said that religious ideas could make you forget whatever you were just thinking and I thought that made sense but asked what would supercede religious thought. I guess lots of things can interrupt your line of thinking but my first intuition to answer my own question is that thinking religious thoughts might be replaced with sexual thoughts. It reminds me how stange it is that these can be such seperate categories, how much our idea of "religion" is devoid of sex. There are sex cults to counteract this, in a way, but the whole society is out of balance because of the disconnect between sex and religion. Even the fundamentalist christians are trying to get ahead of the curve as we come out of these dark ages of sexual repression, though, with evangelists reccommending ways to have better sex - of certain kinds only, of course - in order to connect the tradition to sexuality. But more traditions have grown in scope and popularity because they include the feminine and - gasp - even the sexual. But repression runs deep. The modern wiccan religion as well as a lot of other pagan beliefs get a lot of interest because people want spirituality that includes sexuality, and a variety of it, and they don't find that in mainstream religion. The sad thing is even witches and pagans get repressed. This stuff really took off in the sixties amidst all sorts of exploration of sexuality, psychadelics, art and music and sex rituals were popular in this era of the "birth of modern witchcraft". As the decades passed, the social taboo against sexuality seems to have crept in more and more, so that many modern witches expect to do symbolic rites instead of sexual rites in general - actual sexual rituals are generally more for special occasions. We just have such strong taboos around sexuality and we will be much better off whn we can overcome them - they are artifically placed upon us to make us aggressive and accept or participate in wars. This is why Gaga in real life kissing her little monsters is so amazing, or the Blockbuster Goddess making out with the minions. The main problem with our conception of divinity is lack of sex, and it's no wonder that is reflected in our society as one of our main problems, I think Dr. Oz called it sex-starvation and said it is one of the three things we are most starved for, along with sleep and soemthing, water or good food I bet. The god that many people believe in hasn't gotten laid in, well, forever or millinia, so you can see why he would be cranky. It's not real excuse but it is up to us to either hook him up or connect with higher, more sexual goddesses. Gaga represents the return of the feminine idea of deity, for the west, in a very real and imaginary sense, fulfilling and challenging us to live up to our greatest desires and sexiest dreams. Then it all goes away and she turns into a "regular" lady on a doorstep, just dirty street corner not some wild forest party with lavish tent and a goddess. This is the thing: it's funny, and nice for people who believe in the "real world" that they go and get the same kind of job at Best Buy, but I really wish they could have stayed with Gaga forever. Maybe this is mystical reality- yes, you can go to paradise if you believe, but you WILL have to go back to the real world and show others the way and try again. In this way it is good, like the buddhist axiom "before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water" - meaning yes you get enlightened but it doesn't mean you don't still have chores to do, daily life. ANd these guys went back to daily life, with jobs, and were happy. But still, I wish they did not have to. And I guess this is the nature of a drwam, of fantasy, of ecstasy - it feels eternal then you come back. This is probably also the afterlife experience so no worries - like Gaga says in "Venus" "when you touch me I die just a little inside I wonder if this could be love" - love, death, psychadelics, sex, art- these all connet us with the divine, the infinite, in different ways, from different sides. I don't know if Gaga actually wrote these skits, contributed to them (I feel certain of at least that), or was just the inspiration for them. I'm sure she could have had the idea that the paradise would disappear and turn back to "reality" and the guys would get jobs again, that could have been Gaga's idea, but I kind of want to say that was the "movieversion." Ok, I really will stop these blogs and put it all in my "Oz magic" book, but here is another preview: One of the main differences between the movie version of "Wizard of Oz" and the real one, the books, is thst in the end, in the movie, DOrothy concludes it was "all a dream" and in the book she alsways knows it was real and never forgets - she goes back in fact and...well, read them. The movie is great - itmight not be the origin of the "it's all a dream" theme, but it is a major milestone in the development of that theme, the reason why half the time you hear those words the next ones you hear are "and you were there, and you...". I heard it just yesterday on a Disney kid's sitcom. But the original story does not end like this, with a return to real life. Dorothy actually always believes in Oz and lives there more and more, becomes a special part of Oz. I think this is the real way it happens when you believe in Gaga, it's just more and more encouraging and when you finally meet her it can sustain you for the rest of your life. You can hear how she inspires people in the wonderful music on her albums from the artists who perform with her or produce the songs, and see it in the art of the people who work on the fashions and sets. You can see it in all the art and hear it in the music of her fans - it all just keeps getting better. Maybe you do have to go back to work, maybe there is just a lesson in that, but I really think it is all about creating that world, Oz, where the Goddess is real and open to all, and everyone is good enough to honor her. In one sense it just takes someone saying these things to get the idea out there and it eventually happens, the blossoming principle of magic. That's why I write this blog. But we do have to go back and forth between the fantasy, paradise world and the "real" world, but the purpose is to take that inspiration back in order to make the real world more like it should be, ideal and fantastic. This works for us as ndividuals, too. The message is you are good enough, yuo are valuable, don't let the swine mentality tell you differently, don't believe the negative messages, the close-downs - the setbacks will lead you to something secret and special, the sustaining love within everything. There was a preacher from the Phillipines on the radio and they asked him in the typhoon shook his faith and he said it made it stronger, that faith is what the people had left and it sustained them, and the older generation likened it to oing through World War two and how those tragedies increased their faith. He also mentioned many people did not have much to lose, that made it easier, but it is awful to lose loved ones. The goddess has been with us forever but if much of our societies have denied and repressed her, that is a tragedy but when it results in increasing our faith in her, ulimately, it will result in a beautiful flowering of civilization after a long age of desolation. Gaga is the representative of this, the symbol of it, which is why she is so significant. She is the leader of it, in a way, and in a way she is following something that has always been going on, but is really taking over now, so she is the first one making it so obvious. The song Venus has her singing to the Goddess of Love - as if that is not her, but someone else. And she is asking to be taken to her leader, another being, not her. In a way this implies Gaga is not the goddess but seeking the goddess. In another way, like "my religion is you", these are words that Gaga is singing to "us" that we are also simultaneously singing to "her" - it's a mystical message to the buddha, the Gaga, within all of us. Gaga is Dorothy, and we are all Dorothy, on a journey of discovery of ourselves and this magical world. Her songs, her art, show us a way of transformation, and empower us to transform ourselves to become our best selves. But it starts with basic validation that we are all good enough, as we are, and good enough to start to become our true fantastic selves. That is the message of most of the SNL skits, basically - she is just like us, we are all like this, ridiculous and silly and beautiful and semi-victims of our own sterotypes about ourselves until we own them with humor and transcend. The message of the Blockbuster skit is that she is a Goddess, and an accessible goddess at the center of a divine world and you can kiss her. And even though it goes the "all a dream" route, if you knowthe secret of Oz you know that it just becomes more and more real the more you believe in it and the more actions you take and love and art you make out of that belief. I know I have been so greatlyinspired by Gaga and others who she creates with and who have been inspired by her. I feel like I get to connect to and create with that same divine, beautiful magic by loving her and her art like I do and going with the inspiration. I know how it can be because I have been holding myself back from my full creative potential, but I also feel like I am coming out of my shell and finally living up to my dreams, and I owe it all to the love and support I get from my lover, because like Gaga says I'm at "my best when I'm in love with you", but I owe the real calling to go for it all to Gaga, for setting that example and leaving a trail of sparkle on the Yellow Brick Road and making it the Glitter Way. Thanks, Gaga, for all the inspiration you and your art gives me, and for all you do for everyone and how great it makes the art and how wonderful it is making the world. I love you, and love your acting, I hope to see more of you soon!

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.

gagablog 57: Malala, Gaga, Buddha

I bought Artpop yesterday morning, as soon as I could, at the 3rd store I went to. I have only had time to listen to the first half so far and it fulfills my expectation of changing the world,making 11-11-13 a gate into paradise. I forgot to mention something, one of the main things, in my last edition, but this gagablog should form alink between the pastand future- like the new Zelda game, "A link Between Worlds", coming out in a few days. Listening to half the new album puts me in an interesting prophetic limbo: as I talked about in a much earlier gagablog, before "The Fame Monster" or "Born This Way" came out, a new Gaga album is like a garaunteed technological prophecy: as monsters we are listening to these songs months before the rest of the world, just our tight-knit little family of millions of monsters with a preview on the future, on what everyone will be hearing in the next year. Of course I thought and hoped that everyone would eventually hear "so Happy I could Die" but that represents our own secret paradise. But the other songs represent a pradise that te world is becoming: each song that is destined to be a single represents a phase the world will go through. Like, I really will prefer a world where everyone has heard "Aura" and "G.U.Y" and "Sex Dreams" - well, all of them, I wish, but I know that some won't be made into singles. Oh, and another wrinkle in this tension of not hearing the whole thing is I was excited and happy to find a copy nad hope it had the Golden Ticket - I got the impression they could only be found through Wal-Mart from the email, otherwise I would not ususally be in a Wal-Mart - so I got the "edited edition", though the explicit one is due in the mail. It;s funny in itself, how they blank out "sex" sometimes but not others, and "drugs" and even "cookie", I think. But yeah, I can't wait to hear the "real" versions and I can't wait to hear the rest of the album... ANd honestly I have had time to hear it, now, even as I am writing this, but I keep repeating the first half to explore this magical tension and get even more into these songs that are like a make-up-stained glass window into our soul. Even as I am writing this I started hearing the song "artpop" and I had to pause it and get my lover and puff a bowl to celerate: it's the "first" time I'm hearing the song. I did hear it once before, on the Swinefest, but was overwhelemed by hearing all of those songs for the first time and the agitation of having worked all night and having to download iTunes in order to watch the feed freeze every second. ...And now "Artpop" might be my favorite song, but so far they are all favorites with only "Manicure" the least bit less my style. But my lover asked me, why not listen to the rest fo the album? I told her I am writing this gagablog about it, that it has to do with a magical tension - or playing coy trying to meet Gaga. But it is what I have always done, saved a little for later, stretched out and savored a new experience over a few days, especially when it is an album by an artist who I've been waiting for for years, or a new discovery of an old album by a band. I love all the 7 songs I've heard more and more as I hear them, but I am saving the others for tomorrow at least, when my workweek is over and I'm better rested to enjoy it the fullest. But I'm also magically holding myself back from the second half, to build tension and shoot further ahead when I hear it, and the first half is so much its overwhelming already. I'd love to write a short gagablog for once, but as it plays I can't help but mention how much I love GUY, how perfect it is. Will this be what she sings from space? Oh, its cosmic love, for sure. But of course I came here to wrap the world up magically in this gagablog, to show how it all comes together and "she", love and art, is at the center of it. I forgot in my last one to mention the anniversary of Hurricane Sandy and how damning that was for Republican "ideology" that obstructed aid to all those people - and how that relates to all their other obstructions, from kicking the crutch out from justice with voter suppression, but blocking progress on giving health care, blocking progress towards peace, and blocking progress towards addressing global warming. Now we have had the worst typhoon in a century in the Phlllipines and we should learn at least a few things from this, and from Sandy: global warming is a problem and we need to do a lot about it, but not argue, it's a problem that affects everyone and can terribly effect anyone and it is immoral to argue that it doesn't exist, basically to ensure oil company and other profits, etc. The best thing about government, the best thing about our military, even, is our ability to help in such disasters. One lesson we should not forget is Kanye's words of wisdom that Bush doesn't care about black people, since we have the ability to help around the world in a few days but ignored and genocided New Orleans. And it's not just Bush, it's the whole menality of conservatives who blocked aid to victims of Sandy, and all the other hateful and greedy obstruction they are guilty of. Of course I personally think the military should be retooled into a emergency (and general, why not?)relief service and rescuer of persecuted people by bringing them here, if they want. But I can't go on about this, it should all be obvious, and some wonderful things happened in the same week as this tragedy in the Phillipines: Gaga released Artpop and all the world-changing implications of that, like a Pandora's Box of Goodness. But another "sign" of all this coming together into a new peaceful world, Gaga was at the Glamour Women of the Year awards and met Malala. Malala herself said something amazing that I love so much, "I believe that the gun has no power at all" - I love that. I wish I had the link to the article, I need to go to the store soon, I have to wrap this up, but Artpop for the second time in my life is too amazing and I want to repeat it all and write another half hour... but the point is all of this proves this point that "caring" is the measure of worth, for governments and for the actions of individuals. I wrote about it in a chapter on caring in my book "All I Really Need to Know I learned from Smoking Weed" but that whole issue, with Miley lighting up and Gaga having some quotes in an interiew will be something I imagince I will address in the next edition. But Gaga's quotes at the Glamour awards were the best to make a specific point about caring: she said she wished she could give her Glamour cover to Malala, to have Malalaon the cover instead, Gaga was obviously inspired by her as apparently everyone who meets her or hears about her is. And Gaga said something else amazing, that I had to write this gagablog about: she said she does not think her greatest talent is in fashion or music, but that she thinks the thing she does best is to see what other people need - she is the best at caring, at caring for other people ("Goddess of Love!" in the background as I type, yeah, one more round, I LOVE this album!!!!! It IS the paradise future, NOW, that I was hoping for - the final mercury retrograde is over, as she said.) I don't know if Gaga knows this, that she is describing a crucial point and feature of the enlightenment of Buddha. I am writing "Oz Magic: From Radio to Gaga" to show how she fulfills this super-secret Oz prophecy that only I seem to know about: even Gaga herself seems to be inspired by the movi version and does not seem to know, consciously, the infinite depth of the Oz prophecy of which she is the central figure, the main characters - especially Ozma, okay, for those of you who know! But Gaga's quote reminds me of the Buddha's enlightment, after fasting for forty days and taking the rice milk from the fairy girl, sorry for butchering it, and remembering his past lives fully. I heard it said that then, from then on for the rest of his life, he always knew what everyone needed and the best way to help them achieve it. That is what he did in the world, put things to people in terms they could understand to make it work for them. Buddhism is a teaching that can harmonize with other religious beliefs as well as religions itself. The true core of all religions, despite the perversions they are more famous for, is caring - all religions hold loving and caring for each other as the central theme, they just have different emphasis to promote this in different cultural and eographical contexts. Islam is submission to God, and I think the best understanding of this is submission to Love and becoming an embodiment of love, emulating Love, or art, or Gaga, or whoever you want to call it that inspires you to love. I hope Gaga knows that she is liberating the world in her way just as Malala is liberating the world in her way. And I hope Malala knows that while Pakistan has placed some bans on her and said she is not respecting Islam enough, they are really only showing their own deviation from Islam - just as America deviates from what many consider a christian nature by engaging in war and descrimination, etc. Love itself is demanding that women and girls be treated with due respect as the embodiments of the Goddess - only then can we boys and men expect to live as we are intended instead of these mockeries of manhood. Love has always demanded this, but it is finally time for it to take over worldwide and change the world. I've been predicting this for years, decades, and recently been prediciting how significant the Artpop release, 11-11-13, would be as a turning point for this transformation finally, fully, taking place. Of course there will be resistance to change in some places, just as it will take a little while longer for gay marriage to be accepted all over the country. There is a tipping point where light shines on all, not just the idealists who have been looking for it, then there are holdouts still waiting to be enlightened, but it gets around eventually. This is a tipping point, worldwide, and good things will happen and come together at an alarming rate from now on, and previously "impossible" problems will become easier and easier to solve, then non-existent, whether they are war or the worst impacts of natural disaster. All we really need to do is accept this message of love to care for each other. By doing this we can live up to our full potentials and be our best and do the most good for the world. The most good often comes across in the form of art, but many artists have felt stifled, and this is one of the great messages of Artpop and that Gaga is focusing on now, how anyone can live up to the true artist in themselves. In one sense, the "hidden" common denominator between all beliefs that is being revealed and becoming fully honored is "caring". Caring is the most popular thing in the world, if we really get right down to admitting it. Maybe caring and sex, which is a form of caring. But caring is pop, and art is being the best of ourselves. By putting these together, Love and Art, or Love and the real Us, we restore something that has been broken. Gaga shows us how to do this in Artpop, I'm already getting a great feeling for it that is inspiring in this new, future way- and I've only heard the first half. I'm so glad to have finished this so I can allow myself to hear the rest of it! I'm also hoping for the most help to reach the people who are suffering around the world, especially now in the Phillipines, and hoping as always that from this, or man-made disasters, we learn some lessons that change our course, remember the importance of caring for each other all the time, everyone, and move the world in that direction and live the glorious future it will produce. Thanks, Gaga, so much for another window into the future, and how good it can be. I love you so much, we all do, and thank you so much for loving us so well and being so good, at your art that is pop and your true art, the art of being good itself, of knowing what people really need. I love you, all of you. *If anybody reads this, please let me know anyway you want - I have a feeling, no matter when it is, that it will have a positive magical effect to do so. A bonus, of sorts, as we should expect positive magical effects as much as we can imagine.