The Glorious Gaga

It's going to be hard to find a canine angle for this post, except that I fed them an early dinner and left them all at home last night to go into Charlottesville to see Lady Gaga. Some people have expressed surprise upon learning that I'm a Gaga fan. I don't listen to radio (does anyone?) and I haven't been to the bars much in years so I'm not a follower of pop music. I'm pretty comfortable in my little musical niche where Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmylou Harris, and very few others provide the soundtrack for my life.

That's my real life. However, I also have a Second Life, (a computer sim world) where I am an avatar named Sparky who still frequents gay clubs. (Sparky has three dogs--a rottie named Tackle, a hound named Leroy, a GSD named Diesel, and a pet polar bear named Fairbanks.) It was in Second Life that I became acquainted with Lady Gaga's music about a year ago.

I became a fan of the music before I ever saw her over-the-top persona and it's probably a good thing I did or I would have given her one incredulous "WTF?!" and moved on. But she has some real talent under all that and has penned some great dance music and some actual lyrics.

As if that wasn't enough, she is extremely gay-friendly, and has managed to piss off most of the christian reich, so you know I gotta love her. Last night (during "Teeth")she introduced one of her dancers, Michael, saying that he loves the girls, and he also loves the boys, adding that Michael is like Jesus, he loves everyone. She also promoted her favorite charity, an organization helping GLBT (Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Transgendered) youth who are homeless because they were rejected by their families after coming out. (Yes, that still happens.) She has also spoken out in favor of marriage equality, and against the U.S. military's anti-gay discriminatory policy.

There's a lot to love about Gaga even if you don't like her look or her music, but come on, Bad Romance is a helluva good song. Sparky likes it.