Lady Gaga SXSW 2014

Lady Gaga performed last night at South by Southwest 2014 and boy did she leave her mark all over that stage. Literally.

Long after the 1 hour-ish performance had finished I was still pondering about what I had just witnessed. To me, the whole thing was uncomfortable to watch. I love her don't get me wrong, but something just seemed off about the whole thing.

Opening her show with Aura while mounted upon a rotisserie was nothing out of the ordinary. Swooping over & under she sounded great as she usually does live. Her next 2 numbers, MANiCURE & Jewels N' Drugs, were much of the same but off the spit roast which was probably a relief for her back. Then shit got weird.

For one of her most rave-like songs Swine, Gaga introduced the audience to her friend Millie who she said was going to perform to us all. With Lady G donning an apron I was quite intrigued with what was about to happen. One verse in and nothing was going on. Millie was drinking and stumbling around the stage and I looked on perplexed. Then it happened. Millie finished her drink, put her fingers down her throat and vommed up the neon green liquid she had been drinking all over Gaga. I had no words. I didn't want to watch but I couldn't stop. For verse 2 they both mounted a mechanical swine as Millie downed another drink, a black one this time, and once again spewed it up. Thankfully the song ended shortly after and Millie got the boat both to my joy and to that of the audience as they didn't give her much of a cheer when she left.

Dope followed suit and once again Gaga belted out her emotional lyrics but not before she gave a speech about addiction and life. Unnecessary but sure look, this is it. Gaga loves a good spiel.

To change the pace and blend in a bit more with the Austin aesthetic, a country mix of Bad Romance was up next and to me it was a hot mess. The fiddle, which was performed by an Austin native named Ruby, just did not seem to mesh with the rest of the instruments and the whole thing sounded off; vocally and rhythmically. Gaga moved around the stage wide eyed and mouth churning. She must have popped a few blue ghosts beforehand.

Semi Precious Weapons and Lady Starlight, the 'original bad kids from the Lower East Side' joined herself on stage for an impromptu rendition of Monster for Life and honestly by this stage I didn't have a clue what was going on. Everyone looked awkward, puffing cigarettes and drinking cans. When panning the audience the camera picked up people few and far between who actually looked as though they were enjoying themselves.

Applause closed off the set but only because she was 'told' to sing it apparently. That's a great indication of how things are between herself and her team! The song was half-arsed and almost insulting to the audience with the lack of interest Gaga had in performing it while bumming cigarettes of her friends, a far cry from her MTV VMA performance of the same song only last year.

Surprisingly, Gypsy was the encore but apart from the Little Monsters who were crammed up against the barrier, I don't think the audience cared much.

The whole thing was just odd. There was a fluid grunge theme throughout and that would be good if that's who Lady Gaga was but it isn't. Or at least I didn't think it was. I'm all for artists evolving. I love the new Miley Cyrus and I am 100% behind her evolution. But this seems different. Slowly but surely Gaga's image has gotten darker and darker over the years however her music hasn't. If grunge is who she truly is then why wasn't ARTPOP that kind of record? This would have been the perfect opportunity to re-brand herself especially as she was out of the music scene for a good while. Come back with a bang and a new lease of life.

Throughout her set she blasted record labels, spoke against pop music and people who are living their lives through technology. Perhaps I'm just not artsy enough to appreciate it all. I liked her most during her Fame Monster era. Knowing her audience, dancing high-octane dance routines and singing pop music. I'm not saying I don't like her anymore, I do! I'm going to see her in October for The artRAVE Ball. I just feel as though she's lost. Her image and her musicality are completely disjointed.

I just hope she gets back to her old self again soon. Somewhere she's happy and comfortable to be and somewhere we're comfortable to watch her.

The Oscar Lowdown - 85th Annual Academy Awards.

The Academy Awards are among my favourite time of the year, the fashion, the red carpet, the backstage gossip & obviously, most importantly, the awards. The 85th Annual Academy Awards kept me thoroughly entertained throughout, albeit Seth MacFarlane's performance as host was mediocre.

I love Seth. I'm a huge fan of Family Guy & American Dad and him being host for the ceremony seemed like a great idea on paper, however when it came down it to it just wasn't all there. To me, it felt as though he was constantly constrained in what he was saying, and I know he probably was, but that's not Seth. He's honest, doesn't hold back and takes the risk with jokes others wouldn't. You could see moments when he would try and let this out i.e When talking about how young Quvenzhané Wallis (9) is he said, " Or in other words, it'll be 16 years until she's too old for Clooney ". Those are the moments he got a reaction from the audience. Laughter mixed with "Oh no he didn't!". Unfortunately, I just found him to be lackluster. There were some other great moments from him, but they were VT's or songs, such as 'We Saw Your Boobs' or his VT with Sally Field where he dressed up as a flying nun - literally. It was the actual script while presenting that was below par. I had high hopes, I thought he was going to be the Ricky Gervais of Oscar presenting but I'd be very surprised if he was asked back.

A new addition to the Oscars format was the Jaws cut-off music. When the winning speeches are going that little bit too long, the orchestra begins to play the famous 'Jaws' sequence which I think is genius & adds humor to the proceedings as opposed to just the winners being ushered of the stage, which can sometimes come across quite rudely. You can see the Jaws music in operation here. Sorry about the quality, YouTube's finest I could find.

50 Years of James Bond was celebrated last night with Halle Berry leading the tribute which was marvelous. The montage which was played looked back at all those who starred in that famous role from Sean Connery to Pierce Brosnan to the current Mr. Craig. The speculation was confirmed when a glistening Dame Shirley Bassey was revealed, who performed a stellar performance of her hit 'Goldfinger'. Giving the spring chickens a run for their money, Dame Shirley proved she's still got 'It' at 76. You can watch her performance in this link. Once again, YouTube's finest.

For the first time ever, The Academy Awards had a theme last night and this year it was 'Music in the Movies', so it was no surprise when the musicals came out in force to 'Give'em the old, razzle dazzle'.
Catherine Zeta-Jones kicked off the musical section with the Chicago hit 'All that Jazz'. Although she was entertaining and looks amazing for her age, I would have liked for her to have sang fully live throughout. I know there is no confirmation she didn't, just from what I saw, she started live and as soon as the dancing began is was straight to 'click play'. Jennifer Hudson was next. Always the star, JHud killed it with her rendition of 'And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going'. Flawless, emotional and most importantly, live. To no one's surprise the cast of Les Misérables finished off the proceedings. With a collection of songs from the musical including 'Suddenly' & 'One Day More' they showed everyone why they deserved their 8 nominations. You can catch the musical numbers here. Thank you Perez!

The much anticipated return of Adele didn't disappoint. Belting out her Oscar winning 'Best Original Song' Skyfall, she looked and sounded every inch the star that she is, much deserving of the standing ovation she received. I mean really, who doesn't like Adele?! Watch Skyfall.

The memorial part of the proceedings is always a tear-jerker and last night was no exception. Barbra Steisand came out to perform 'The Way We Were', music by the late, great, Marvin Henlisch who was remembered last night after dying last August. It was Barbra's first time back at The Oscars since 1977.

Then came the three big ones. The awards everyone was waiting for. Best Actor, Best Actress & Best Picture. Best Actor went to the ever-dashing, ever so humble, Daniel Day-Lewis for his portrayal as Lincoln in Steven Spielberg movie with the same title. Reports say Daniel is now planning a 5 year sabbatical to live out country life on his Wicklow farm and I don't think anyone is more deserving of the break than the 3 time Academy Award winner.
Jennifer Lawrence walked away with Best Actress but not before taking a fall on her way up to receive the award. Being the witty woman that she is, when she got to the mic, first thing she said was, 'You're all just standing 'cause you feel bad I fell'. With such a charm and way about her, Jennifer is going to go onto great things and I believe this is just the first of many Academy Awards for the star. You can see JLaw's fall here. Oh the magic of gif's.
Michelle Obama made a cameo to help Jack Nicholson present best picture. I hadn't heard anything about this so it came as a pleasant surprise. That Michelle just loves her some air time! She announced the winner in a link from the White House to to very deserving, Argo.
Ben Affleck was emotional beyond words but he still thanked those who he could. His wife, the lovely Jennifer Garner, looked on with love and there was such joy in her eyes for her husband. Ben ended with a phrase that I believe is one many people will be quoting for a long, long time to come, " And it doesn't matter how you get knocked down in life because that's going to happen. All that matters is you gotta get back up ".
I don't think anyone could have ended the speech better themselves.

For one last hurrah, Kristin Chenoweth joined host Seth MacFarlane for an 'Ode to the Losers' song which I found very tongue-in-cheek but was a nice ending to the show.

Before the awards I predicted who I thought was going to win what and you can find my predictions in my blog post here. I don't think 17/24 is that bad? The full list of winners are below.

Winners.

Best Picture: Argo
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway
Best Animated Feature Film: Brave
Best Cinematography: Life of Pi
Best Costume Design: Anna Keranina
Best Director: Ang Lee - Life of Pi
Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary Short: Inocente
Best Film Editing: Argo
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Les Misérables
Best Music - Original Score: Life of Pi
Best Music - Original Song: Adele - Skyfall
Best Production Design: Lincoln
Best Short Film - Animated: Paperman
Best Short Film - Live Action: Curfew
Best Sound Editing: Skyfall/Zero Dark Thirty
Best Sound Mixing: Les Misérables
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay: Argo
Best Writing - Original Screenplay: Django Unchained

Thanks for reading & I hope you enjoyed watching as much as I did or at least you enjoyed reading my summary of events.

Adios!