Sneaker wave

Poor lonely blog! I have been spending too much time with Twitter and Tumblr, so I have neglected you!

Some of my energy this year has been invested in working on wellness, always a precarious balance for me. But I signed up for a phone coaching thingie through my employer's wellness program, and one of their people called unexpectedly tonight. As we talked, I was able to look back and recognize that I have made real changes, and my back pain has really diminished. Yay! It's kind of strange to have a conversation about your health with a total stranger who is working from a script, albeit unobtrusively, but it does give you a chance to say, "what are my goals? how am I doing? what is getting in the way, what is working?" without going to see a therapist.

So. Up until this past week, I felt as if I had been having an exceptionally good year.  Accompanying my daughter through her high school graduation, college acceptance, and moving out to start her studies has been such a wonderful journey. So many long-term plans, so many past uncertainties, so much joy.  I'm so happy to see her so happy. My goal has been to give her what was given to me: the opportunity to study without taking on debt. What was relatively easy for my family has now become a much more daunting enterprise for a middle-class family, but I'm grateful it is still within reach for us. I feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that I've been able to manage to meet whatever needs are left over after her talent and hard work helped her achieve her goals.

I also initiated some long overdue action to improve my working situation this year.  This, unfortuantely, has not come to fruition the way I had hoped, and I have been more disappointed than I expected to be. In fact, this weekend and in the past few days I have experienced one of the worst bouts of acute depression I can remember in many years. It seems to come out of nowhere, like one of those sneaker waves that makes the west coast beaches so dangerous. Never turn your back on the ocean, they say. So I did something I have often failed to do in the past: I reached out for help until I found it.



Could it be the energy of the so-called "monster moon", the full moon in Aries of Saturday night, that my horoscope warned me would be so hard for Scorpios?  I thought I was safe until Sunday night when I broke a toe. Bwah! But cosmic energy can also be channeled by intention: What will I choose to make of the message that I received today, an offer of support that I experienced as a threat?
 

Sunday morning Lady Gaga earworm

Major earworm alert!
When I first saw Lady Gaga perform on SYTYCD, I thought she was creative, albeit a little sharp through the first half, a little awkward with the props, a little "who expected to see her out in daylight?" very underground club. But she sang live, unlike many of the musical guests on STYCYD and I liked her creativity.

Now she has perfected her live performances to the point where she is in complete control of her persona, the sets, lighting, costumes, dancing, and the catchy disco/dance-pop sound she's going for.

After seeing her perform "Bad Romance" and "Speechless" (piano's on fire! yaahhh!) "Ra Ra oo la la, ga ga oo la la!" has been STUCK IN MY HEAD all week long, during class, over Thanksgiving, and this morning. As she starts out on her North American tour for "Fame Monsters" with Mark Kanemura as one of her dancers (yay, Mark!), I need to hand off this earworm to someone else, so looky here and listen up!


Every time she has performed the song on TV in the last few weeks, the costumes and sets are a little different: on Gossip Girl, on the Ellen show, on Leno (clip taken down).

Of course, the Gaga parodies are popping up like mushrooms! We have our Saturday night lip-syncing in homemade costumes in your living room version (awesome!), the rewrite as Rad Bromance version. And Barely Political adds Lord Gaga to the mix:


Earlier songs given the remake treatment for laughs include the clever Pokeman parody "Pokéface" of "Poker Face"; "Just Dance" is transformed into "No Pants" in homage to Lady Gaga's costume preferences, and we go to the level of meta-parody with the fan-stalker song "Paparazzi" turned into a Lady Gaga-inspired hymn to Michael Buckley, YouTube star of "What the Buck?"

She does not have the musical or emotional range of my beloved Annie Lennox, who also played with disco-synth and gender-bending in her performance and videos for many years, but Lady Gaga has a healthy sense of humor, and is so much more interesting to watch than most of the other big pop stars right now, as she proved on the AMAs where she was far more interesting than J-Lo, Shakira, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, and even Adam Lambert, who, sadly, did not entertain me.

Here is the awesome DJ Earworm's mashup tribute to Annie Lennox, made with her collaboration:

Annie Lennox, artist and activist

My admiration for Annie Lennox grew even greater when I saw her perform this song: no fancy costume, make-up, dancers, lights. Just her and the piano. She sings with artistry, but I always believe every word she sings.

"More manic Idols-on-phone zaniness, followed by more naked-eyed Bono earnestness, followed by a video of the wonderful Annie Lennox in Tanzania. Of all the people who appear on this show, she's one of the few who I can see doing this kind of thing when the show's not on. She accompanies four young boys on a trip to get tested for HIV, celebrates with them when they're negative, and horses around with them afterwards. She weeps as she talks about them -- not TV crying but actual hiccupping sobs. Then she takes the stage in Hollywood and performs "Many Rivers To Cross," and then the whole show shuts down and they send the Top 8 home and declare there will be no American Idol this year because of the shame."

Thus declareth the Television Without Pity recapper, and I concur.


Her website is called The House of Me, and it's a work in progress. Her work with SING to raise money and awareness about mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus in South Africa, and what needs to be done to alleviate suffering through access to drugs and care, as well as prevention, is of a piece with her earlier commitment to environmental and human rights work.

Annie, the Queen

Annie Lennox had the audience in the palm of her hand from the moment she walked on stage at the State Theater. She began her first set, mostly her solo work, with "No more I love yous" and then did a group of songs from Eurythmics days, but arranged for the piano and her voice. The long string of 80s hits were not neglected, but she ended the show with her Sing project to raise awareness about HIV/AIDs and its devastation in South Africa. She's the queen of performance--with a well-staged show: lights, bits from her amazing videos, her dancing and amazingly powerful and flexible voice. Even from far away, her eyes are incredibly expressive. I lost count of the standing ovations. She seemed sincerely moved by the love and energy the audience was giving to her.
Here are some of her amazing videos from over the years, before they hit it big;

Love is a Stranger

Song for a vampire

"Waiting in Vain"from Medusa

"The Gift"

Annie Lennox's new CD

I got a ticket for Annie Lennox on Oct 18. I won't say how much I paid to get one of the best seats in the house, but let's just call it my birthday present to myself. She has always been one of my favorite artists, from the poppy days of Eurythmics to her solo albums. As much as her voice, I love her visual creativity, her use of costumes, wigs, make-up, story-telling, characters. The new album is called Songs of Mass Destruction.
Here's the video for her new single "It's a dark road"