GaGa Ooh La La

the shoes

Before this weekend, I was marginally GaGa obsessed.  Seeing her in concert this Friday cemented the obsession.  I flew out to Vegas to rendez vous with my Aunt Bev, Uncle Pat and various members of the Hooper clan for Lady Gaga's concert at the MGM grand.   Preparation for the weekend involved purchase of a spectacular pair of shoes and non-stop listening to GaGa CDs during my work commute this week.

with Bev and Jennie pre GaGa

I do have an actual museum visit to write about, but, if I didn't, the concert itself should have qualified based on the costumes in the crowd alone.  My shoes, lovely as they were, paled in comparison.  The concert itself with its elaborate stage show was amazing.   Best of all was the omnipresent message to be true to yourself...a message embraced by her fans if personal expression through dress is any indication.  Pictures from the show including some of the best costumes that we saw can be found at

http://ladyvirgin.com/gallery.php    under the Las Vegas (8/13) show date.

Fittingly, the current exhibit at the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art is 'Figuratively Speaking: A survey of the human fom'.  The exhibit explores how artists of different periods using various media show the individuality of their subjects.   Pieces ranged from more the more traditional - Degas' studies of dancers - to the unexpected - Yasumasa Morimura's Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo.  In the latter, the artist,  who is male and Japanese,  reconstructed one of Kahlo's self portraits using himself as the subject.   The whole show, since it focused on individuals, had a voyeuristic feel to me.  One of the best and most disturbing examples of this was Tony Oursler's video of a human eye showing the subject's reaction to a movie through the movement of his eye.  

Some favorites at the exhibit including Picasso's Woman with Beret, Vik Muniz's Boy with a Pipe and Nick Cave's Soundsuit, left me smiling and visually sated (at least until next weekend).  Vegas Baby, not just for gambling anymore.