Haven’t been on here in over a year. Do I have anything interesting to say now that I’m older? Wiser? We’ll see.

It’s raining. That pitter patter noise the drops make on the windows and the siding of my house are really comforting to me. This is an excellent day for napping, snuggling, or just curling up in a giant comforter so that only your head pokes out like a butterfly emerging from it’s cocoon. But you’re not emerging from anywhere. You’re snug as a button.      Benjamin Button.            Amazing film.           Holds a special place in my heart. I want an undying love like that. When they’re dancing on the bed listening to the Monkees or the Beatles, whichever it may be, I can’t remember, that scene in particular makes my heart flip. Young, attractive, no money , but not a care in the world. Just you and your one and only. Why can’t things stay perfect like that forever?

I haven’t been writing enough. Hmm, not good. Well lately i’ve just been thinking over my job situation. I just got a call from Express that I had an interview with a week or so ago but right now I’m working at New York & Company. The problem is that I’m not getting as many hours as I want and therefore not as much money as I need. Paying for care insurance and trying to save for my apartment next year is really going to put a cramp on my expenses for my social life. But then again, working 40 hours will do the same if I’m working till close because I’ll never get to see anyone. And by anyone I mean boy. Of course he’d be leaving when I finally get home. I thought we wouldn’t have to go through this again but I should have known, the world works against us. Le sigh. I have some thinking to do. Better ask my mama. She knows whats best.

The world is filled with two kinds of people; Lady Gaga, and everyone else. For those of you who are not familiar with Lady Gaga, (and Lord help me I don’t know how one couldn’t be) she is the latest and greatest pop singing, couture wearing, no holds barred performance giving sensation of the entertainment industry. Her name is on everyone’s lips and you can’t turn on the radio or television without hearing about Lady Gaga and her sequin bedazzled career. From the moment she burst onto the scene a few short years ago with her first number one single, ‘Just Dance’, this star has been pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a performer. The singer is known for dressing in bizarre get-ups from a headpiece of planets orbiting her skull to a red blanket of lace covering every inch of her body, including her face. Among her over the top outfits, she has gained recognition for putting on spectacularly ambitious and controversial shows, those of which include shooting fireworks from her bra and playing a piano that’s been lit on fire. So it’s no surprise that two Billboard Chart topping albums later, the video for her current song, ‘Telephone’, featuring Beyonce, has developed into a giant fuss between the artist and those that find it to be far too sexual and even dangerous for viewers to watch.

‘Telephone’ premiered on E! News on Thursday March 11 at 11:30 p.m. The nearly 10 minute video begins with her being thrown into jail, a continuance of where another one of her music videos for ‘Paparazzi’ had left off. It goes on to show Lady Gaga living the prison lifestyle, hanging out in the yard, watching fights, making out with girls, wearing sunglasses made of smoking cigarettes, all the, err, normal things that a prisoner would engage in. The song kicks in when Gaga gets a call from Beyonce letting her know that she’s going to bail her out. Gaga is then let out jail, after a dance sequence with her fellow bikini studded jail mates, and reunited with Beyonce, her murderous companion, so that they may go on to finish their job of killing the masses. The two, meant to embody Thelma and Louise, get the job done at a sweaty diner in the middle of nowhere by poisoning the patrons’ food. Once everyone has dropped dead onto their syrup and biscuits, the American flag clad duo enjoy another dance sequence before hopping back into their “Pussy Wagon” and speeding off into the sunset, hands interlocked tight together.

Since the premiere, the video has been circulating the internet and playing on MTV so Little Monsters (the name Gaga lovingly granted to all of her loyal followers) everywhere could get their Gaga fix. Unfortunately for Gaga though, not everyone is a Monster. Since the release of the video, there has been scrutiny aimed at Lady Gaga and her counterpart, Beyonce, for the explicit content of the video.

The most popular upset so far would have to be from the ladies on a recent Fox News debate that referred to Gaga’s video as “sado-masochist porn.” The newscaster opens the segment claiming that MTV had reportedly banned the video from airing, which according to MTV representatives isn’t true, stating that “MTV did not ban Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s ‘Telephone’ video — in fact, we premiered it on Friday, March 12, on-air and online at MTV.com, two days before this story was falsely reported.” The newscaster then invites Sandy Rios, the President of the Culture Campaign, onto the show to discuss just how “horrifying” this music video is.

I happen to find this entire dispute to be completely hilarious, mostly because it’s completely inaccurate. Despite the fact that I, myself, am a Little Monster, I can’t help but notice the innate abilities that this woman has for making herself sound like a pompous hack. Within the first minutes of Rios opening her mouth she begins to project a slew of lies regarding aspects of the video. She says, “…We have to speculate on whether she has a male member or not and whether it’s been cut off or not…” Excuse my bluntness but, what the hell is this lady talking about? I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she’s referring to the scene in which Lady Gaga is stripped down to her stockings and thrown into her jail cell. Once inside, Gaga proceeds to jump onto the bars, spreading her legs open revealing a blurred spot where her “private area” would have been. The controversy has been going on for some time now that Lady Gaga may or may not have male genitalia and this was her way of leaving the audience scratching their heads and keeping them wondering. In no way is it insinuated that she has had a body part chopped off. And then to add to the ridiculousness of the statement, Rios finishes that sentence saying that “…and then we’ve got Beyonce and Gaga, gay, lesbian lovers? I mean, it’s disgusting.” Once again, not correct. As I mentioned earlier, the duo was meant to evoke a feel for Thelma and Louise, who in that famous film, murder people, just as Gaga and Beyonce do in this video. They were not, nor are Lady Gaga and Beyonce, meant to be sexual partners; they’re meant to be partners in crime. My favorite part of this statement though is that Rios has the audacity to call homosexual relationships “disgusting.” In this day and age you’re hard-pressed to find a person that still considers gays and lesbians to be taboo. Although there are still people that don’t agree with this certain lifestyle, it’s certainly not okay to bash an entire community of individuals on national television for simply living their life. It is incredible how exaggerated Rios’ views of the music video are throughout the segment, calling it “poison for the minds of our kids.” She stomps out the idea of any and all artistic value that Lady Gaga and Beyonce had hoped to portray to their audience.

All of the backlash aimed at Lady Gaga has forced her to speak up about her video and the accusations made against her for being a bad influence. Taken from the website of Perez Hilton, celebrity blogger, Gaga says, “There are transsexual women and transgender women and suddenly it becomes poisonous and something else because there are some people in this world that believe being gay is a choice. It’s not a choice, we’re born this way. That’s why for me this video is groundbreaking because it has one foot in the art community and one foot in the commercial world.” Spoken with respectable dignity, Gaga is trying to make a point, just like in many of her other songs, performances, and videos.

Now I’m going to take off my bubble dress and bow made of hair so we can explore the other side to this story. In spite of the fact that Rios’ views may have been awfully contrived and over the top, she did have a right to express how she felt about the video. The video is highly sexual and has a storyline based around violence. The actors and performers are scantily clad and there is use of foul language.

But when you really think about it, this begins to sound a lot like a hip hop video, most of which include half naked women grinding their behinds on men that are rhyming about guns and murder while including a disturbing four letter word in between every sentence. Who’s to say all of these videos shouldn’t be banned as well? And to explore the issue even further, we can take it back to the ‘80s when Madonna reigned supreme in her cone bra hitting on a statue of Jesus and Michael Jackson moon walking all over town as a zombie on his way to harass his high school girlfriend during a nearly 14 minute video. These people are now hailed as the king and queen of pop, and at the time, their antics and breakthroughs were also looked at as controversial and perverse.

The main idea of this video, however, was not just to shock and awe but to provide the viewer with insight. Lady Gaga told E! News, “What I really wanted to do with this video is take a decidedly pop song, which on the surface has a quite shallow meaning, and turn it into something deeper. The idea that America is full of young people that are inundated with information and technology and turn it into something that was more of a commentary on the kind of country that we are.” According to different sources, from bloggers and fans to the director of the video, Jonas Akerlund, many of the themes explored in the video were portrayed through metaphor. Some of these include: imprisoned identity (Gaga in prison trying to break away from her old self, played by her real-life sister in the video, Natalie Germanotta), the telephone as an extension of people (it appears numerous times in the video as it’s meant to be used and also as a hair accessory, as part of the body), and rebelling against American culture (the murders in the diner followed by the dance sequence where everyone is wearing the flag). Aside from telling this story, Akerlund didn’t want the viewer to take it all too seriously. “You don’t have to be so deep about things. For me music videos are about entertaining and bringing out the music and the artist,” he said.

This is what makes everyone take a step back and really consider what Lady Gaga and Beyonce have presented us with. Was it an overtly sexual video meant to shake the masses to their very core with sights of murder and homosexuality? Or was it an exploration of the way America acts as a society, overindulging and turning the good in bad? Should we fear for what the world will become in the future because our youth are watching this video now and will grow up to rule our nation? Or should we just sit back and enjoy 10 minutes of quirky dancing, gut belting crescendos, and off the wall makeup and outfits all in the great name of entertainment? You be the judge.