oops

Yay.

This. This is why I love the state I live in. I'm not a very political person, but I am socially conscious enough to recognize a grave injustice against civil rights when I see it. Just because you were born after the 60s and you live in America doesn't mean you're not surrounded by institutionalized prejudice. I'm so glad we fixed it, and I'm so glad I saw it. I <3 NY.

PS favorite tweet of the evening:

In defense of Mama Monster

It is an occasion few and far between when I come back to this blog, but when I do, it's to say something I mean. I was going to come back to speak up for Sammi, then Ronnie, and then I dove off the GW bridge because of both of them and an NYC fireboat rescued me.

But this is to speak out for "Born This Way," Lady Gaga's triumphant, flamboyant, and unabashed return to the airwaves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4a8QtvOkBQ

Gaga hyped up "Born This Way" so much that I was sick of it before it came out. I thought her countdown on Facebook was pretentious and stupid, and I wanted little to do with the single. But it's kind of like Gaga's my long lost cousin. I met her once and briefly long ago on the Lower East Side outside Rockwood Music Hall, shaking her hand as she stood with brunette hair, in a sequined bikini and a hair band t-shirt, holding a cigarette in her other hand, and now I feel an obligation to lovingly watch and adore her. So I listened to "Born This Way" while simultaneously nodding during an unrelated conversation with my boyfriend. I was bored by the song, but I bought it out of duty.

Then I listened to it at the gym. I was motivated to stay on the elliptical for another 20 minutes. And I listened to it on the way home, and I listened to it on the way to dinner.

"Born This Way" is, like so many media outlets are wont to claim, exactly like "Express Yourself."* It's empowering and adrenaline-pumping. It makes me feel like I am the most precious person in the room, and that's OK by me. It actually reminds me of Michael Jackson's "Black or White," or like George Michael's "Freedom '90," but who gives a shit? It's a good. fucking. song.

Forget the unsightly horns and the disturbing facial prosthetics. Forget her self-righteous presence. Forget the cringe-worthy latex costumes. Gaga is an artist and she writes songs you can't help but celebrate. Are they the best songs I've ever heard? No. They won't beat "Like a Rolling Stone" in a genius competition. But god damn if they don't make me feel positively amazing about myself.

Paws up, Mama Monster. I'm pre-ordering the new album.

*When I YouTubed this, there was a sidebar ad for "Born This Way." Coincidence?

Babe

The billionth revival of my blog, and yes, it's another Mad Men post. I just want to say: the finale tonight was ah. may. zeeng. Smart, beautifully paced, and didn't leave me destructively sad. But best of all, it ended on easily one of the most endearing and wonderful songs ever written:

• I Got You Babe by Sonny & Cher

More Sonny & Cher music on iLike

What I said to my step father, with whom I was watching this with, is this: I always love being surprised by Mad Men's soundtrack. This season, when both "Satisfaction" and "Do You Want to Know a Secret" played, I thought they were anomalies. You know, because I was alive and culturally aware in the 60's and I know these things. But when I begin to hear songs like that - modern songs that my parents grew up with - it turns this masterpiece of a show into the organic story that it is. It isn't stuck in one year, with one problem. It grows and evolves, and it acknowledges that there's a world outside itself that is changing with it. I thoroughly enjoy those delightful reminders. Because you think you know Don and the world of Sterling Cooper - this buttoned-up, slicked-hair utopia, filled with 1950s optimism - but then you see (nay, hear), what they're surrounded by. Young girls screaming at boybands. Stupid kids watching Bandstand. A hippie culture that's really just a pill all too easily swallowed.

Silver Fox

Roger Sterling could sell a ketchup popsicle to a lady in white gloves. And I'm buying.

Read it!

You guys! Today I started my Project Fattylegs. Please follow it on Parvin's blog!

I love you. :)

Biggest Loser

Parvin and I have joined awesome forces, and by that I mean the awesome force of Parvin has asked me to write an entry for her awesome force of a blog. It's actually going to be the greatest column in the world, wherein I document a rigorous and committed weight-loss regimen. Please follow it, because this time I intend to take it incredibly seriously (which means you need to stop expecting me to get drunk with you... MOM!) and your attention and enthusiasm is 80% of my motivation. Also, Parvin is the best blogger ever, so there's even more in it for you when you read her endearing posts.

Do it, fucker, or monsters will eat your brains.