Here are some newish photos of Lady Gaga over the past few days. It’s a slow day and I just figured, hey, Gaga is doing all of these ensembles and wiglets for us, so we might as well give her some attention. I have to admit, the long-haired, pale-brown wig is probably my favorite thus far. I like when Gaga goes with a medium brown, and the length suits her face. As for these outfits… I don’t get why she needs huge sweater or black leather catsuits in AUGUST. It’s really not that cold in NYC. At all. Is this a drug thing? Or did she just want to wear her cute outfits and she didn’t care about the temperature?

As for the rest of Gaga’s shtick… well, now that proper critics have gotten a chance to watch her “Applause” video, everyone is like “So, she’s going to keep doing all of this derivative stuff, right?” Here’s a good article picking apart all of the “references” and “homages” Gaga made in “Applause”.

Other Gaga stuff… apparently, she’s behind a new “burqa swag” craze amongst the youth. Like, people want to wear burqas now that Gaga has made burqas “cool”. Gaga has also been tweeting a lot, of course, and trying to pump up her YouTube pageviews and iTunes downloads. I mean, you wouldn’t expect her to shill so hard at this point, but a lot of people do it so I guess it’s fine. Gaga also wrote an anti-bullying treatise on her Born This Way Foundation site:

I’ve said this to the fans time and time again, whether it be in person or in tweets, as well as the through the message and campaign of the Born This Way Foundation. My mother and I are passionate about tolerance, acceptance, and kindness, and I’ve made it a point early in my career to make it known that this is what I stand for as an artist.

While it may be difficult at times to hear the things that people say and write about me, or the nature of the industry that builds us up to tear us down, I feel the need to address you all here on behalf of the Born This Way Foundation.

Sending threats of any kind, using hateful or abusive language, and the provoking of others on the internet is not supported by me or anything that I stand for. What I’ve seen transpiring is wrong and upsetting to me, and I’ve made it very clear how I feel about equality and compassion.

I know how angry you feel sometimes, and I know that when they say things about me you feel that they are saying them about you as well. But music is about love, and is about sharing in the magic of theater. Although pop culture and society have become more negative and critical of the artist over the years, by engaging in this negativity you are allowing it to spread.

I ask you to take a pledge with me to continue the change toward positivity, and to recognize that this behavior is wrong. We are stronger than this. We know what we stand for, and what we stand for is bravery. I know this because what I see on the internet is not what I see at my shows. People deal with their insecurities in many different ways. The anonymous nature of social media has made it easy for many to vent their anger by bullying others with no recourse or accountability. But this is not a healthy way to handle your emotions.

This is exactly what my mother and I aim to teach with the Born This Way Foundation. Promoting skill building and mental health awareness that provides another outlet for your feelings. Put it in your art, put it in your music, put it in your creativity. Stop the Drama, Start the Music.

I also ask that Twitter and other social media platforms support this effort to monitor and control abusive and threatening language, as I don’t know that I am powerful enough to stop it myself. Please represent me and our community with the values we cherish and live by.

I love you.

[From the Born This Way Foundation site]

While I’m not the person who usually takes Gaga at face value, I’m taking her at face value one this one, sort of. I think the lunacy of her Little Monsters freaks her out sometimes, and she feels the need to come in as Mother Monster and tell her fans to settle the f—k down. Of course, she doesn’t always practice what she preaches here, but…? I don’t know. I think her fans can get pretty crazy and she’s trying to reel them in.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.