Last week I found the time to watch
Lady Gaga
Inside the Outside.
Such an appropriate title.
I was riveted from the first frame by this fascinating,
controversial, and brilliant artist.
Too often we judge too quickly.
Her look is definitely jarring and her demeanor irreverent but that is only a fraction of the
equation that is
Lady Gaga.
Shocking? yes.
Vulgar? yes.
Artistic genius? Also yes.
This was an impressively insightful and moving interview with an extremely provocative singer/songwriter. An interview with compelling revelations of the compassionate, human and surprisingly traditional sides of this multi-layered artist.
As she spoke, poetry flowed.
I was so impressed that I grabbed a pen and began furiously writing down some of her most memorable thoughts.
These were among my favorites for their insight into the inside of this woman that is so often demonized by eyes that only look as far as her flamboyant outside.
On her musical roots -
"Don't spoon feed me The Beatles, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Led Zeplin and Elton John and expect me not to turn out this way".
"I would spend hours listening to music in front of the mirror in my mother's pearls. In her fake pearls. I didn't care what they were. I wasn't a little girl in that mirror. I was Whitney Houston in The Body Guard. I was Gloria Estefan on stage. I was whomever I wanted to be."
Explaining where her inspiration comes from -
"I always wanted to be a pop singer. I would work endlessly toward this experience with music, with song writing, with performance art. (working toward) how I could bridge fashion, technology and pop culture into one performance and make it commercial... I never backed down."
On her fans -
"The fans changed my life. The fans are the thing you can't learn. They were the instrument in the music nobody taught me about.
On herself-
"I define my own fame.
I define my own existence.
I define my own identity.
I define my own beauty for myself.
No one can define who you are."
"I am a perpetual underdog".
On bullying -
"I think it didn't sink in with me, how bullying affected me until later. I knew that it affected me deeply but it wasn't until later that I realized how much it affected me and that it was still very present. It took me to know my fans and see similar struggles in them to access that wound in myself. The fans have been a key to my heart, unlocking things about myself I didn't want to hassle or deal with or address - that make me a "gooder" song writer".
On being Italian -
"I believe in ghosts and bad luck. I am Italian".
On her jacket -
"My leather jacket is like my Dorothy slippers".
On NYC, the city she refers to as her husband -
"All the neon signs popping out of the sky.
All the darkness lifting into florescent colors.
All the dirt turning into gold dust and rainbows.
The way I see New York City?
It's so other worldly.
It's this neon Roy Liechtenstein look at life".
Inspired.
A short segment from
MTV's
Outside the Inside.
Fan or not, it is a fascinating peek into the vulnerable artist that is Lady Gaga.
xoxo,
P
