Katy Perry and Jake G?

 Crazy editing but admittedly, pretty fun :-)  I just don't get why they chose *that* song.
This could have worked with a different song.  One by Katy Perry instead.

The B!tch*s battle for a Gay Icon Status

I feel like there are so many artists who are struggling to be "recognized" as "THE" gay icon for new era in fag-friendly music.   While many of them can ALREADY be considered gay icons in their own way, there seems to be this desperate push marketing-wise to be "publicly acknowledged" as one.

I still believe in you, Gaga.

Lady Gaga made hyper-time hype with the lyrics of her often-compared-to-Madonna's-Express-Yourself song, "Born This Way" when it contained lyrics that were clearly a shout out to gay people everywhere.   Lines such as "Don't be a drag, just be a queen" and "No matter gay, straight, or bi,
Lesbian, transgendered life" were clearly a shout-out for people to see that this song was meant to be a new gay anthem.  While she may have never said it was meant to be one, her best buddy Elton John has and clearly the press has run away with that idea.  

Then she came out with her video:

Yes.  You've seen the video and you're probably wondering what the fuck was that all about.  Personally, I feel shafted.  Lady Gaga was genius when she did Poker Face and Bad Romance.   She was trendsetting when she made us love Paparazzi.  She slipped slightly backwards with Alejandro (which clearly was more Madonna than Gaga) but regained her footing with Telephone.  But this?  Heavenly Lord, she makes a song that sounds too much like Madonna, then makes a video that outright steals from David Bowie and Marilyn Manson and plays into the hands of all who want to make us think she's part of the Illuminati.  I just shook my head and told myself, Lady Gaga will survive this for sure.  But man, she wasted a chance to really make a mark that was truly hers.

Exactly what image are you supposed to portray anyway?

P!nk had her own torch-song to throw out there.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post, P!nk really succeeded in making a catchy dance-able tune.  The beat is very memorable and can easily weave into one's head when one ain't careful and the play with words is quite intriguing to say the least.  But what the lyrics shouts of is an ironic self-empowering through self-degradation (aka taking over the word) similar to how blacks can use the "n" word without it being so negatively degrading.  P!nk wants us to proudly think we are freaks who are just fine being "all on our own."  Confusing lyrics since the video shows a more "we stand together" image that I personally feel more favored towards.   So, P!nk, that was close but not quite what it could have been.

The ONLY innovative scene in her latest video.

Then there's Britney whose comeback is composed of a series of nicely dance floor dangerous tracks with a music video far more obsessed with harking the sponsors she has and pushing so desperately the idea she is THE NEW GAY ICON.  I do not recall when else did she ever have oh so obviously gay dancers with her before.  Her songs bring back the music we love from Britney (something Lady Gaga might want to learn to do very soon) but her styling seems just wrong considering how much weight she has still to work off the image she so desperately wants to sell.    And just in case you didn't get it, the die-hard fans have made a push to make her THE GAY ICON is shown in supposed surveys that were made to declare her as such.  Understandably, Britney had such a moment before.   I don't blame her for so wanting to be that again.   I wish her a lot of luck though.

Katy Perry knows how to have fun without losing who she is.

If there's one musician who has very neatly established herself as a gay icon without really trying, that would be Katy Perry.  She is beautiful without forcing it.  She is fun without being crass.  She is sassy and stylish without being schizophrenic.  And best yet, she has a song that has both lyrics and a visual message that are uplifting to anyone who has ever been discriminated against.  Her song Firework is such a positive celebration that it can apply to cancer survivors, people who have been targets of discrimination due to gender or race, and even people who simply feel they do not fit in.  The song isn't about needing to fight back or spitting at the face of other people for not being accepted.  It is about knowing deep inside of each one of us is a light that deserves to shine.



Her earlier songs such as "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot/Cold" were dance hits that nicely jived with the rainbow dance floor.  Her newer songs such as "California Girls" and "Teenage Dream" are finding audiences in both straight and gay crowds that are celebrating them together.  Katy Perry definitely has the upper hand now in becoming the next Gay Icon.  I only wonder if she can keep it up.

Yes dear.  Been that many years and you are still fabulous!

Maybe someday, among these a true Gay Icon shall emerge.  Someone who can actually have the right to be compared to Kylie who has for year after year after year remained fabulous and flirty and uplifting without effort.  Considering everything that has happened both to her and to the music industry, Kylie remains an impeccable true Gay Icon and a Diva whose music celebrates love in all its forms and colors.  Even her recent hits like "Get Outta My Way" are more uplifting than aggressive, and that what I personally feel establishes her as a true Gay Icon.   The struggle to be accepted and welcomed as who we are will never be won with aggression.  It can only be won when those who hate us learn that love can never be overcome.

Love. Just Celebrate It.

Can't be Valentine's day without the naysayers.

The Valentine's Day weekend has begun! 

With Mubarak finally stepping down from his throne (about time), Lady Gaga finally releasing her latest song (too Express Yourself for me.  I rather stick to Kylie and Katy), and everyone all around the world celebrating their relationships (or their singlehood) the world seems to be a little bit brighter today.  Amidst the rising gas prices, strange weather shifts and the continued breeding of horrible people, it is nice to know that good things do still happen.   Great things too, although one has to learn to have an eye for them nowadays.  With so much media pushing the misconception that things worth celebrating always need hype and pomp, there seem to be less and less people out there who know how to appreciate the simple good things in life.  Like, why should love only be celebrated on Valentine's day?  Why not make every day a chance to extol the fact you are able to do everything you can, whether it be spend hours surfing the net and chatting with your friends, or minutes watching your favorite shows, or days having the leisure freedom of choosing what to eat, or months of knowing you have a roof over your head.  A common adage others bring up is to think about how many people out there are not as lucky.  I personally feel that's a negative reason to celebrate.  Instead, I'd simply embrace the joys, small or simple or grand, as they are.  There's no need to compare them.  There's no need to rank them.

But if you don't celebrate them, who else will?

Everything that could have happened, happens to lead to this moment.

Do you really want someone out there to tell you to be happy you have a job?  A couch?  Or the freedom to download all your favorite porn for free?  Do you really need to splurge your partner's money on expensive things just to feel special?  Do you really need to wait for someone you love to pass away before you tell them how important they are to you?  The addiction for grander, bigger things is very dangerous.  It blinds one to seeing why everything has its worth.  It confuses one to ignore how special everything is.  In a world where there may be an infinite number of factors that can change what can happen at a given moment, can you not see how special it is that something actually is going well for you?  At the smallest scale, it may have been a matter of choice.  But that choice can be affected by so many other factors; the weather affecting your mood, the people around you influencing your views, the political climate preventing you from thinking about that choice, hell, even the planetary physics of the Earth not chancing upon a massive extinction level event causing body out there as it speeds out there at almost 30 kilometers per second.  All these things, these variables, these yes and nos, all these rippled down to the perfect sequence that lead you to the moment you were to make a choice.  Can you not see how spectacularly miraculous every single decision you make actually is?  How wonderfully-impossible-yet-actually-coming-to-pass every event in your life actually is?

But if everything is celebrated, what becomes special?

Think bigger.  If life itself is special, why stop celebrating it?

yeah, they really should come out already.

Valentine's day is a nice reminder that love, too, needs to be celebrated.  Yes, strangely enough people do forget to hold love as special.  Whether it be the lure of selfish lust, or the boredom born from lack of true communication, love sadly does die sometimes.  So Valentine's day is a good way to nudge us back on track and remember that it isn't so bad to actually do actions that show you care about someone.   And all those naysayers who think Valentine's day is just a marketing hype thing, well, they are right.  Valentine's day is more marketing now than not.  But why waste your energy shooting down the idea of celebrating love?

What day ISN'T a day where marketing tries to hype it up?

Why not simply celebrate it without falling prey to buying the most expensive bouquet of overly priced flowers?  Why not share the happiness of love without expecting imported chocolates?  Why shoot down the celebration just because you do not want to foot the bill?

My partner and I are having a Valentine's Day weekend.  While we celebrate every single day with the joy of being gay geeks who are passionately in love, we are making this a weekend where we can be shamelessly campily sweet.  Yes, we might be already that most of the day, and in some ways that is the irony of it all - that for us the Valentine's Day weekend does not seem to be that different - what will make it different is something that I will have to leave off the record for now.

:-)

Happy Valentine's day everyone.
To love.

Awww pig.

To real love.