#2: Lady Gaga

You see new stars in the music world make their splash in the mainstream genres of country-western, rhythm and blues, rock, and hip hop. It would be quite amazing to see a musician from the offbeat fields like classical or jazz to have the highest number of views on youtube or dominate the iTunes sales. That is what makes Gaga’s accomplishments all the more spectacular. From the further offbeat world of electropop we are witnessing one of the most talented musicians to emerge on the scene in decades, with both commercial and artistic success.

How does Gaga command all this attention? It’s not just her outrageous costumes or her catchy lyrics. She has a talent for creating music that only a handful of people possess. Her sense of tempo and phrasing are unmatched. These are not things you can learn from a music teacher. You’re either born with it or develop it on your own. I can only think of one musician who has that same innate sense: Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. Even though their music styles and instrumentation are completely different, I swear I can hear faint echoes of Page’s influence throughout Gaga’s music.

Gaga’s singing voice can send me into orbit. She has a way of working the raspy lower tones in her voice in a manner that is reminiscent of John Lennon singing “Hard Day’s Night”. Her frequency range is impressive and dynamic range is awe-inspiring. She can sing in a soft, whispery doll’s breath or belt it out like an opera singer. To hear such a tiny woman blow her pipes in that manner can send a chill down my spine.

Gaga already has an impressive repertoire of songs she has written and recorded herself and also for others. Unlike many artists who have one or two good songs per album and a lot of filler, Gaga has had multiple hits off both the Fame and the Fame Monster.

Gaga is so talented she has several unreleased songs from earlier in career that are every bit as good as Poker Face or Bad Romance. These were leaked to the internet in various ways, mainly by a hacker who calls himself ‘Burim’. These songs, including “Wonderful”, “Retro Physical”, and “Fashion”, are some of my favorites. Here is “Captivated”, sung by a pre-famous brunet Gaga at a talent contest at NYU:

Gaga has made a connection with her fans in a way that has never been done before. She makes us feel like every one of her successes are our successes too. I have attended three monster balls and was floored. The woman knows how to perform. For a couple of hours you can forget about life’s problems and go completely bonkers with her.

So here she is, only two years after releasing her first album, bracketed at #2 between two of the greatest rock musicians ever.

My Blogue

Have nay been posting much of late. I will now resume the top 20 countdown of the best musicians of all time. Its been so long since I updated that we might need a reminder of where we left off and what the other rankings were:

3 John Bonham
4 John Lennon
5 Paul McCartney
6 Jimi Hendrix
7 Brian Jones
8 David Bowie
9 Elvis Presley
10 Robert Johnson
11 Hank Williams Sr
12 Patsy Cline
13 Nat King Cole
14 Cindy Wilson
15 Diana Ross
16 Johnny Cash
17 Brian Wilson
18 Willie Nelson
19 Mick Jagger
20 Paul Simon

Christopher Hitchens

Some of my favorite people are former marxists. Thomas Sowell for one. And another is Christopher Hitchens. Chris eventually came to the same conclusions that I have about the nature of the left:

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

Very true. And now we learn that sadly, Chris has contracted esophageal cancer. Let's hope that he defeats it, just like he has defeated the lunacy of the left.

Residents of Mumbai, India confined to homes for two days while 0bama visits

The leftists' god 0bama has always opposed freedom for most people. And while visiting India, he and his minions forced the residents of Mumbai to be locked in their houses for two days

During the two-day visit of the US president, while the lives of many reporters were on the fast track, the residents of south Mumbai were confined to their homes due to security arrangements. No wonder, they celebrated their ‘freedom’ after Barak Obama left the city
It may sound strange, but on Saturday and Sunday, lives of countless reporters as well as residents from south Mumbai were held 'hostage' by the establishment for making 'arrangements' for US president Barak Obama and Co. While our friends from the media were running from one place to another like there would be no news left for the next moment, the residents, particularly from Colaba (Mumbai's southern tip) were locked in their homes.

The dumbass thinks it was because he didn't get his message across.

I can't believe it. Pigs must be sprouting wings.

Barbara Billingsley: 1915 - 2010

Stupid Op-Ed of the Week

I always get a smile when I read someone who thinks they understand the writings and philosophy of Ayn Rand, and yet doesn't have a clue. This time, an Op-Ed written in the Christian Science Monitor written by Rand's fellow Russian Vladimir Shlapentokh betrays a near-complete ignorance of Rand:

But the ironic truth is that, among American authors over the past two centuries, it is impossible to find somebody who has so openly and consistently praised the American elite as Rand has. Rand created magnate protagonists like John Galt and Francisco d’Anconia who ran their industries and societies without paying heed to public opinion. Rand and her heroes hold ordinary people in great contempt. They would surely be appalled to see how the “everyday Americans” at tea party rallies have demanded that they (not the American nobility nor the Ivy League graduates) should have the decisive voice in American politics.

There was nothing elitist about Rand. She believed in ability, not in privilege. She had no admiration for nobility, and deeply distrusted the ivy league elite. What she wanted above all was a limited government, a possibility that Shlapentokh and many of his fellow collectivists will not even consider. As for Rand's attitude towards everyday Americans, one paragraph from The Passion of Ayn Rand, a biography of Rand written by Barbara Branden, is particularly telling:

Two preview of the movie [The Fountainhead] were scheduled, one in Beverly Hills, the other in Hollywood Park, a working-class district. Henry Blanke [producer of the movie] hoped the studio would give the first preview in Beverly Hills. Ayn told him she wanted it to be in Hollywood Park, because that was where her real audience would be. It was in Hollywood Park. "I never saw so responsive an audience," she recalled. "They understood it all, and they applauded Roark's speech. After the previews, the top brass were gloating and delighted, they were sure it would be a big hit, and we had an enourmous celebration. The Beverly Hills audience was not quite as responsive or perceptive, although they liked it. That's why I like the common man." [pp 211-212]

Another ridiculous statement in the Op-Ed, totally unsupported by fact:

While tea partiers commend Rand as the champion of individualism, they conveniently forget that in her novels, the only people who seemed to benefit from her aim to protect individualism and the unlimited freedom of action were her Nietzschean tycoons. Indeed, Rand was fully indifferent to the workers in her novels, whom she described as primitive beings – “savages” in the words of Atlas’s steel mogul Hank Rearden, arguably one of Rand’s most beloved personages.

The character Hank Rearden never once referred to his workers as "savages" in the novel. He had the utmost respect for his employees, having worked his way up from being a mine worker as a boy.

There are many more nonfacts in the Op-Ed. Anyone who has read Rand will recognize that Shlapentokh does not understand her at all.

Retired Physics Professor: Global Warming is the Greatest and Most Successful Pseudoscientific Fraud

Harold Lewis, Emiritus Professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, recently resigned from the American Physical Society. Some excerpts from his letter:

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is.

Taylor is every bit as good live as she is in the studio.

I am finding myself quite smitten with Taylor Momsen and The Pretty Reckless. They are good.

John Bonham: May 31, 1948 - September 25, 1980

The greatest man to ever hold a drumstick in his hand left us 30 years ago today.

Taxpayers to Buffett: Get Over Your Stupidity

Anyone who has invested in stocks knows it is difficult to pick the future winners and losers. It either takes extraordinary skill or extraordinary luck. Warren Buffett earned a fortune by repeatedly investing in the right stocks through Berkshire Hathaway, an insurance company turned closed-end mutual fund. Many people assumed he must have a rare talent, so they dubbed him the 'Oracle of Omaha'.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that Buffett's fortune is due to just dumb luck. Out of the millions of people who invest in stocks, there are going to be a handful who get lucky, time after time. Warren has revealed himself to be incredibly stupid when it comes to politics and government policy.

Taxpayer anger against President Barack Obama and Congress is counterproductive because policy makers took measures including deficit spending to stimulate the economy, billionaire investor Warren Buffett told CNBC.

“Sentiment has turned very sour in the last three or four or five months,” the chairman and CEO of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said in an interview broadcast Thursday.
“I hope we get over it pretty soon, because it’s not productive,’’ Buffett said. “We will come back regardless of how people feel about Washington, but it is not helpful to have people as unhappy as they are about what’s going on in Washington.”

Warren, taxpayer anger against 0bama, Pelosi, Reid, & Co is very productive because it informs our elected officials of when they are doing stupid things like the stupid stimulus package, the federal nationalization of health care, and other lunacies that are planned including amnesty for illegal aliens and the restrictions on CO2 emissions.

Its called democracy, Warren. The people of the USA decide how the country is to be run. Not the political leaders and not the super-rich. We have every right to be angry. You need to get over it.

“The truth is we’re running a federal deficit that’s 9 percent of gross domestic product,” Buffett said. “That’s stimulative as all get out. It’s more stimulative than any policy we’ve followed since World War II.”

Is it really stimulative Warren? Then why aren't any jobs being created? How can you possibly take so much money out of the private sector and put it into ridiculous government programs and expect it to help the economy?

Warren, your hero 0bama is nothing more than a glib marxist with a messiah complex. He has no understanding of economics whatsoever and neither do you.

Sure You Want to Donate to Bono's "One Campaign"?

Singer Bono has a 'charity' called the One Campaign that supposedly fights poverty in the third world. Here is what they do with their donations:

The Bono nonprofit took in $14,993,873 in public donations in 2008, the latest year for which tax records are available.
Of that, $184,732 was distributed to three charities, according to the IRS filing.
Meanwhile, more than $8 million was spent on executive and employee salaries.

Among other things, One Campaign is worried about the nonexistent 'climate change' threat.

Camille Paglia Brainfarts in Sunday Times

I am normally an admirer of Camille Paglia's intellect and insights. In this stupid Op-Ed she displays neither. In one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard in my life:

Most of her worshippers seem to have had little or no contact with such powerful performers as Tina Turner or Janis Joplin, with their huge personalities and deep wells of passion.

Yeah, Camille. Gaga's fans haven't had much contact with Turner or Joplin. Tina Turner is 70 years old. Her last single that charted was in 1992. Janis Joplin died in 1970. Even many of the parents of Gaga's fans are too young to remember Joplin.

How chickenshit can you get, Camille? You're an American writing about another American. Why do you have to go to a UK paper to do it?