As IF Times

link What happened to Lady Gaga? | New York Post.

The reason that the product of many artists is so revered and timeless is because their works were often poignant reflections of the particular zeitgeist of their era.  Through their respective media, they brilliantly capture and convey their observations and perceptions.  It was the resonance with the audience that would determine the timelessness of their work.  The medium didn’t matter; painting, sculpture, literature or music.  While we know that many works of art were commissioned by patrons during their time, most ‘true’ art has no real correlation with financial value…at least not at the outset.  It’s a fair guess that nobody commissioned Pablo Picasso to create cubist paintings for financial gain.  In fact, when the patron first saw the result, he probably refused to pay.

With the passage of time, the appreciation of high artistic expression has been driven by those who have been  mysteriously appointed as arbiters of value.  Today, works of art are sold through Sotheby’s and Christie’s  for tens of millions of dollars or more because essentially, somebody convinced somebody else of their value.  Music of course is a general exception to this.  If it doesn’t catch on with the masses, its value is truly only esoteric.  Music isn’t better because it costs more.  As far as other forms of high artistic expression, the general public wouldn’t know a Cezanne from a Monet.  Or Walt Whitman from Walt Disney.  The masses are happy with their velvet Elvis’ and their paintings of bulldogs playing poker.

Interestingly, there is an attempt to transplant the high art model into the pop culture business. In the world of pop culture, what passes as artistic is usually overwhelmed by what is marketable and profitable.  No one went broke capitalizing on the very brief lives of teeny pop stars.  From the David Cassidys and Leif Garrets of yesterday to the Taylor Swifts and Justin Biebers of today, the teeny girl demographic will always be a dependable source of pop star mania.  Of course, in order to market the young phenoms, at the very least, they need to have some semblance of talent, however  limited that might be.  The fact is, much of the reason that pop stars become pop stars is because of promotion, not unlike the art auction racket.  Once they begin to market that boy band “A” is the flavor of the day, then the public believes it and the process becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.   If any art or talent is truly involved, it’s a happy coincidence.  Come to think of it, that’s how politics works.  Hmm.

In the case of Lady Gaga, her ascension to pop culture icon status is truly a mystery.  Bereft of any vocal or observable entertainment talent, her shtick seems to be dressing as if her outfits were picked by seeing eye dogs or designed by 3 year olds in art class.  Full credit to her team of promoters, over the past 3 years or so, she has managed to place herself front and center in the pop culture business.   This is exhibit “A” of what happens when entertainment is pursued as a marketing exercise rather than as artistic expression, (Exhibit B being Miley Cyrus).   It’s hard to imagine that years from now, people will listen to a classic Gaga track and then say “hey that’s good, play it again!”

So the question posed in the linked article is, what happened to Lady Gaga, as if some great talent has disappeared.   Nothing has happened to Lady Gaga.  It’s more likely the audience has moved on.  In the absence of talent, the shelf life of weird can only last so long.  Unlike in the high art world, it’s much harder to convince the plain folk that a sow’s ear is a silk purse.  Sometimes weird is just weird.

link MSNBC yanks Baldwin show for two weeks over gay slur.

MSNBC, which by they way actually stands for Misogynists Spewing Nonsense and Buffoonery Channel, have found a line over which even they won’t dare cross.  For over a decade and most recently with increasing venom,  the uber left network’s business model was to disparage in the most unhinged terms,  conservatives of all types and particularly conservative women.  In the case of Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachman, it was a two-fer as the puerile minds at that network spewed their taunts like pimply drunk frat boys hurling at their first college party.

Martin Bashir, soon to be fitted for the same suit with the long arms that tie at the back once worn by the deposed Keith Olbermann, was forced to retract and apologize for a particularly vile comment against Sarah Palin recently.  We won’t repeat the comment here, but here’s some free advice for his wife or girlfriend or partner.  Let’s just say that if a flock of seagulls flies over head, keep mouths closed.  His suggestion for Palin was so vile, even Taliban viewers tweeted their disgust.  Still, he did not receive any sanction from the network.

As for the distinguished actor Alec Baldwin, whose ratings for his new show on that network are so abysmal that it should be named 30 viewers, his big crime was…to heave a gay slur.  This is the guy who goes all Rob Ford on his daughter and TV reporters threatening violence to them but is only censored when he publicly utters a gay epithet.  As is the case with many actors, his ability to put together cogent thoughts and have intelligent discourse disappears if there is no script to follow.  So instead of the articulate characters he portrays, his vocabulary is revealed as somewhat more street. For this vile transgression, he was suspended for two weeks from the show.   Insult the women all you want, but not the girly men.

So now, there’s another word to be censored from common use, henceforth only to be referred to as the ‘f’ word.   That of course joins the ‘n’ word, the ‘c’ word but not to be confused with the other ‘f’ word.  As time goes on, this reference may even be too offensive and people will have to resort to hand gestures in place of those letters.

Like rap videos, MSNBC is devoid of any real content, it has become the Miley Cyrus of the news and information business.  It’s shock TV.  It’s the same tribal beat of misogynist and violent views over and over again masquerading as free speech and liberal thought.   Interestingly, two of these newly offensive letters are found on MSNBC’s call sign.  If we wind up getting the other letters banned, we may have to call it ***** , or the asterisk network.  Of course, for ease of discussion, it will simply be referred to as the ass network.