Lady Gaga

I've written about Going Gaga, but this is a curious turn.... Republican Presidential Candidate Tim Pawlenty Goes Gaga. Is he becoming a "little monster"? Can anyone explain a Republican candidate for President of the United States providing ad lib supportive commentary on a pop superstar, known for her support of the gay community {e.g., marriage equality}, amidst the intense negotiations about our nation's debt ceiling? I think I know the answer. His "all time" favorite performer is Bruce Springsteen, but he asks his interviewers what their favoriate Lady Gaga song is, then launches…

Consider the realm of influence of Twitter itself, as a Twitterer - if there is such a term. Twitter just celebrated its "5th birthday." Who is the CMO? In just over five years, @Twitter has sent 1,056 Tweets, has 4,675,494 followers, and follows 436 (if you measure "Klout," that's a lot of Klout.) This evening's Tweet was all about Lady Gaga: This is no coincidence. Google, that other multi-billion dollar media giant, happened to air an exclusive interview yesterday with this diva of Pop {"Musicians@Google Presents: Google Goes Gaga"}: Such an intersection of popular culture, online…

Lady Gaga just announced to her close to 9 million Twitter followers that she has designed a "Prayer bracelet" to raise funds for Japan. What a brilliant way for a celebrity to raise funds for an important humanitarian project. Go "little monsters"! You can order one, or more, here. Why the connection to Japan? UPDATE MAR. 17: >$250,000 raised from Lady Gaga's bracelets! @ladygaga Lady Gaga Monsters: in just 48 hrs you've raised a quarter of a million dollars for Japan Relief. RT: http://bit.ly/f0aYwZ. It's important we help. X On Friday, along with a purchase link and photo of the…

Lady Gaga's new perfume - could it be an intersection of art, fashion, marketing, desire, pheromones, molecular biology? Perhaps. From The New York Times interview posted today, "Lady Gaga at Paris Fashion Week": Lady Gaga: It's a smell of many different things, I don't want to give too much away. But I do want to say that I took a sample of my own blood and extracted the molecular structure and the scent of that, and injected it into the perfume so it would smell like and feel like me. Fascinating - how does one "extract molecular structure" of blood and "inject" into the perfume? I am…

Source. Remember the "Goody-Gaga" effect per Prof. Boguski at Harvard? Well, here's an example of compelling art as a statement. What is art? What is the message? Maybe that's the point. Lady Gaga arrives at the Emmy Awards tonight in a giant egg, ready for "rebirth." A reference to "Born This Way"? A provocative way to garner attention? Is it necessary? These are all questions about how to define art, performance and how we define fame.

Let's face it. Communicating about science and medicine is hard. First, you have to grab attention - an incredible challenge in a 24 hour news cycle with provocative often meaningless sound bites and advertisements, all fine-tuned towards the psychology of the human animal. Messages directed to our appetites for food or sex, gossip, fear, loathing or mockery have proven to work well - really anything that can awaken the zombie within each of us that dampens our senses, stripping away a joie de vivre. It's like trying to have a serious, heart-felt conversation with someone in a subway…

This Halloween, Lady Gaga costumes were all the rage, but one fan has taken devotion to a whole new level. This fan, who has attended some 28 Lady Gaga concerts worldwide (so far!) and created an "adoring fan" website, happens to teach sociology and has developed a new sociology course, "Lady Gaga and the Sociology of Fame" at the University of South Carolina, as reported in The New York Times (Oct. 29). It is often said that the tenure system is founded in academic freedom, allowing instructors to teach subjects without constraint, hopefully with the students' best interests in mind.…

I've expounded on the principle of crank magnetism. Basically, crank magnetism is the tendency of cranks not to mind the crankery of other cranks, even if the two forms of crankery are mutually exclusive. But it's more than that. It's the tendency of a single crank to be attracted to several forms of crankery. We've seen it in creationists who are also attracted to "alternative medicine," in anti-vaccine loons who are also attracted to alternative medicine and various conspiracy theories, including "9/11 Truth." I've seen it in Holocaust deniers who are also attracted to both "alternative"…

My labmates and I love Lady Gaga. Like, love love love. Enough to make a parody fan video of Bad Romance. It is my pleasure to present to you "Lab Romance", a production of Hydrocalypse Industries. Enjoy! Lyrics after the jump! ø⸨°º¤ø⸸âø¤º°¨¸âø¤º°¨ ¨°º¤øâ¸LADYâø¤º°¨ âø¤º°¨ GAGA `°º¤ø¨°º¤ø⸸âø¤º°¨¸âø¤º°¨ ¨°º¤ø Music by Lady Gaga, lyrics by Tami Lieberman and Jake Wintermute, performed by Jake Wintermute, editing by me and Patrick Boyle, dancing by the Silver Lab. Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh! Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh! Caught in a lab romance…