Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Lady Gaga: All I hear is radio Blah blah

Whenever I hear about Lady Gaga or one or her songs, I think of a line from the Broadway musical, "Jelly's Last Jam" about the life of Jelly roll Morton.
"There was one messenger, who came to believe that the message was him..."
 Lady Gaga is, in my opinion, a living contradiction. Her in your face, no apologies, no retreat, reverberating rainbow persona has the appeal of a highway accident. Millions of people, whether they be fans or haters, are enthralled by the endless variations of fashion, performance, Pop-musical genre, and neo-futuristic sex appeal that Lady Gaga offers. Her outlandish public appearances can be likened to that of a Circus concession stand that sells nothing, but cotton candy in any color you choose. Her art becomes visual white noise that demands a higher ante with each ensuing performance. The inherent problem to Lady Gaga's vita d'arte is that her innovative product is lacking in originality. The Haus of Gaga is nothing more than a collage of pop-culture references and influence put together like 2 songs that have been "mashed" by the use of combining tracks and overdubbing vocals. When it comes to the end product of Lady Gaga's imagination, it is at best derivative of her interests and at worst, Pop-culture plagiarism on a grand scale.

A few nights ago Lady Gaga took on a alter ego called, Joey Calderone who looks like a conglomerate of Elvis, Danny Zucko, and Ralph Macchio with a fair attempt at a blue collar New York accent. She was totally committed to the part and from what I have seen and read, did not break character. Unfortunately, it all fell a bit flat and to quote the Bare naked ladies, "it's all be done before". Annie Lennox dressed up as an Elvis-like performer at an awards show back in 1984. Andy Kaufman, who could be considered one of the finest performance art comedians, invented Tony Clifton and obviously David Bowie became Ziggy Stardust in the early 70's.
 Lady Gaga has been a staunch supporter and outspoken advocate for the gay community, especially around the subject of equal/civil rights with same sex marriage as one of the key issues. Her dressing up as someone else, let alone a person of the opposite gender may have been an attempt at bringing to light the fact that we are all people despite our sexual orientation which is an admirable message that I personally agree with, but if it was also performance art, then it was an inarticulate attempt  that comes across as attention seeking. You don't convert the non-believers by slapping them in the face and you don't preach to the choir if you want to make headway in your cause célèbre.


Joey Calderone/Lady Gaga

Annie lennox in 1984

Tony Clifton/Andy Kaufman

Ziggy Stardust/David Bowie



Back when the Gaga/Beyonce song "Telephone" was released, all I heard about was how shockingly wonderful the video was. At first I refused to see it, but soon relented. Once again the entire video was packed with pop-culture cliches ranging from hardcore prison sexploitation to the obvious "Kill Bill" references complete with Pulp Fiction-esque dialogue and finished off with the glossy color pallate of a comic book graphic novel. Well, that was 10 minutes I won't get back. Who was this for other than her fans? Where is the innovation? Where is the originality?
All that I got from the video was that Lady Gaga is an ok dancer and isn't shy about showing off her...assets. That's not completely true. I understood the underlying messages that there are sub-cultures out there who are filled with people like the rest of us even if their interests differ from that of the the average Joe and Lady Gaga attempts to convey this message while also pushing the limits of what the main stream will accept . The problem is that she may be doing a disservice to the groups that she supports. Once again, those who are not cut from the Gaga cloth will in all likelihood, shun her performance, in whatever medium that may be, and blame the sub-culture that she is drawing attention to. Perhaps Lady Gaga is following in the footsteps of "John Doe" in the movie S3VEN by hitting them over the head with a hammer rather than tapping them on the shoulder. 
Video for "Telephone


A few months ago I was driving back from the grocery store and had the radio on (no I don't have an ipod dock in my Highlander) and heard the song, "Born this way" during the chorus. I didn't know at the time it was Lady Gaga, but with in seconds of listening I found myself humming the chorus to Madonna's, "Express yourself". Now before you say,

"Duhhhh. Barber!! That was in the news along time ago, you're not telling us anything we don't already know (unless of course, you don't know the song or any of the other references above, then I am so just shut the fuck up)."

Once I found out that this was the new Lady Gaga song, I chuckled to myself and said,

"Figures."

Once again, she was appropriating not only musical themes from Madonna, but the core of Madonna's style as well. There is the spoken word section much like in the song "Vogue" (Dietrich and DiMaggio...) as well as the aspect of both Madonna and Lady Gaga being in charge. You may have also noticed the obvious commentary on stereotypical gender roles in that Madonna is the CEO/slave driver of a pseudo factory, while Lady Gaga gives birth to a gun resembling a phallus that is evil. Men=Evil in the world.



On a side note the beginning of the video reminds me of the fake commercial that Grace Jones' character stars in during the movie, "Boomerang"




I read quite a few articles on Lady Gaga in writing this blog entry. A few quotes of hers that stood out to me were from an interview that she gave to Rolling Stone back in 2009. She was describing her tour at the time:


The tour, which has been billed as the "first ever" pop-electro opera, is "very, very forward, very, very innovative," the singer insists. And that aesthetic, she explains, has been captured in the very design of the show.
"The theatrics and story elements are in the style of an opera. Imagine if you could take the sets of an opera, which are very grand and very beautiful, and put them through a pop-electro lens," she told Rolling Stone about the tour (Oct 22 2009)



Now, before I start ripping into this little nugget, I will have to say that it would be unfair to take these words and super impose my interpretation on them as if I know exactly what she is trying to articulate. I will have to tread lightly...
I feel as though these quotes highlight Lady Gaga's ignorance in her description of  "new", "innovative", or "style", whether that be visual or musical. What the hell is a Pop-electro opera and how is that new or innovative? The Who wrote "Tommy" in 1969 which was considered a Rock Opera. Rush wrote "2112" which was a concept album in that it had a storyline of sorts with musical themes to represent characters and aspects of their personalities. For God's sake, even Styxx did something similar in the early 80's on the album "Kilroy was here", with the ever popular song, Mr. Roboto.
 Now, to give you a little insight, if you haven't read any of my previous entries, I originally aspired to become an opera singer. Ultimately, I stopped as I felt that I was not good enough to pursue it, but in all my years of being involved in music, one way or another, I have come to know quite a bit about opera and what it is known for. One could say that it is very grand and beautiful, but the sets aren't really what opera is truly known for. Opera sets have only become important in that genre over the past 30 years as a result of the emphasis being placed on the visual aspect above everything else performance based. That doesn't mean that elaborate sets and costumes weren't around before that, but there was much more of a suspension of disbelief and the grand manner were byproducts of the wonderful sounds coming from the soloists, the orchestra and the large choruses which incidentally are being reduced in numbers due to financial problems (possibly because of the cost from those grand fucking sets).
I find it ironically disgusting that a pop-singer never mentions singing within the description of a Pop-opera performance. In the end, it's all about the singing when you are a singer, isn't it?
Sorry, what the hell was I thinking? A singer talking about singing, what are you insane?

One could say that Lady Gaga is an entertainer who wears many hats. One of those hats she claims to wear is that of a "Performance Artist" although I would say that she's more Shock Jock than artist. To me, performance artists can convey their point of view in strange and unorthodox manners that challenge the audience and often leave them uneasy. The artist may often use loud and confrontational avenues, as Lady Gaga does, but they have subtle and quiet techniques at their disposal as well. The audience becomes the canvas and the performance artist incorporates our senses to create a chiaroscuro of response like the painter uses a range of colors to create the illusion of depth and motion. It is this interplay of big and little variants that capture the audience's attention and hold it for the duration of the performance in order to express the artist's vision. If you only have 1 or 2 gears to shift between then the performance, no matter how grand, will be flat. Shock and awe are not, in my opinion, the end result of art in any form. Those are, but instruments in the overall design of the machine used to create a performance which apparently Lady Gaga is unaware of. As I stated earlier, most everything she does is over the top, in your face, knock you off your feet bright. The Haus of Gaga has the subtlety of a 12 inch cock sticking out of a glory hole in the men's restroom.

Now, I was taught that if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all. That old adage doesn't really apply to this blog entry as I haven't said anything all that mean about Lady Gaga or her fans, but just for those who may disagree...
 ...I think that the overall message of what Lady Gaga's music and performances convey is positive which can't be said for most. She is a strong supporter of gay rights which is a sad commentary on the part of society that doesn't view the subject of same sex marriage as a civil rights issue. Lady Gaga has a lot of balls to go out and do that voodoo that she do. I think it is a necessity that we have performers along her lines in every generation, whether they be original and innovative or derivative and a rehash of times gone by. As Hippocrates said, "Ars longa, vita brevis (translated into art lasts forever, but artists die and are forgotten). If there is one reason why I would applaud Lady Gaga it would be that she helps to fill a void in the area of confrontation in Pop-culture which is mostly devoid of critical thinking, even if she muddies the waters.
For me, Lady Gaga is like a chocolate statue. Sweet and ornate on the outside, but hollow on the inside. Her musical compositions are like that of a Beatles tribute band that writes the songs they think John, Paul, George, and Ringo would've written had they stayed together. It doesn't even offer some interesting musical twist as a band like The White Stripes' rock inspired riffs or Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" (which when I heard it made me think I was listening to a Beatle's remake that I had been previously  unaware of.).
 Lady Gaga's songs not only sound like cheap rip offs of the Glam Dance Pop 80's Bohemian Techno New Age Underground Club Kid scene, but they almost plagarize the musical composition that they admire, which can also be said of her fashions which vary between Madonna, Boy George, Cher, David Bowie, Courtney Love and so on. She consumes that which  influences her and then refashions it into a dress comparable  to "Buffalo Bill" from the movie Silence of the Lambs. She works tirelessly at hiding who she really is behind artistic mediums. It brings to mind the sun glass wearing Michael Jackson of 1983 who was deathly afraid to talk more than a few broken sentences. As we now know, he shunned his appearance and wished to reconstruct, literally and figuratively, himself into a new person. I wonder if Lady Gaga even knows who she is anymore or if she ever did.


Sunday, August 28, 2011

My poker history 2009 Part 2

If I was playing like a lion in March, then I was definitely being showered in April as my rungood continued. I started off the month playing .50-1 and dabbled a little bit in NL10. How hard could NLHE be? After a few days of breakeven no-limit, I pushed the idea to the side and finally started to add some
1-2 FR LHE tables in to the mix with some nice success. My plan was to play my regular preflop game, but to be ultra aggressive postflop so the LAG/TAG and MMTers knew not to push me around. Since I was knew to the stakes, many of the regular players respected my raises and the fish did what they normally do, regardless of how much the bet is. I didn't play many SNGs as I wanted to give most all of my attention to moving up and playing cash games. My wife was entering the last trimester of her pregnancy and I knew that there would be little time for poker when the twins were born.
 I started to get a bit cocky with the quick success at 1-2 and tried some HU LHE as well (there is a side note story to this which I plan on devoting one entire blog entry to as it is an interesting memory for me.), with a tough introduction as I lost a little over 60 BBs in 20 minutes. Nevertheless in, my graph was steadily climbing as I won over $400 running at a touch below 3BB/100. I had visions of 2/4 and possible 3/6 tables dancing in my head for May as poker was an EZ game.

May was a little bit of a different story and a sign of times to come. My poker graph looked like a mountain range that fortunately contained one extra peak than valley to keep me in the black $110 with a winrate of a disappointing .58BB/100 over the course of 9,000ish hands. The players at 1-2 were catching on to me. June was basically the same as May except that my poker playing basically stopped after the first calendar week. My wife was scheduled for a C-section and there was a lot to do to make sure that everything was ready.
 We had a night nurse hired to help 3-4 nights a week for the first month which was going to cost a pretty penny and the little time I would have when all of the kids were sleeping could not be for poker. I wish that I had decided to completely take time off from poker even when things calmed a little because I came back to early in July. I only played a little over 2,500ish hands and lost over $200 at a clip of  -5.61BB/100/.
Another unfortunate experience away from poker was that I had shingles. I was obviously stressed with the expectations of twins, while being with my then 2 year old son and getting the house ready for the change. My wife was working up to the week before her delivery and if you put that all together with a sprinkle of insane family members, you get a rundown immune system which opens you up to shingles. I took some time off and moved back down in stakes just until I felt my head was more clear and I knew that I could be focused.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

My poker history 2009 Part 1

2009 was the first year that I felt more confident in my poker game, especially when it came to LHE. I had been playing .50-1 online and knew that I was a winning player over a long enough sample size. I had built my online bankroll up to the point where I had a good amount of cushion for the next level up at 1-2 if I felt confident in the jump. Normally you want between 250-500 BBs at the stake you're normally at, depending on your winrate, your standard deviation, as well as your playing styles (and how it may effect the first 2 factors). I knew that moving up in limits would be obligatory as I had been playing .50-1 for 6 months with some success. My plan was to see how the first few months of 2009 went at .50-1 and then re access in March. That quickly went out the window as basically had a winrate of about 1 BB/100 over the course of 17,000 hands. I had opened up my preflop game a little, but wasn't totally confident in the adjustment to a hyper aggressive stake like 1-2 was in 2009. I had gotten to know quite a few of the regular .50-1 FR grinders on Pokerstars over the last 6 months and many of them were MMTers (a.k.a Mass Multi tables). When I would normally be playing 3-5 tables at once, they were playing anywhere from 16 all the way up to 30 tables. In addition to using Poker Tracker 3 (PT3) or HEM (Holdem Manager) poker software, they also had programs like Table Ninja(tm) and Hot keys so that they could play each table and not time out during a hand. There were alot of MMTers playing 1-2 FR LHE on Pokerstars at this time. The main reason was a thing called Supernova status. It has changed since 2009, but MMTers were basically looking to make a small profit if possible playing LHE, but accruing VPPs to use for cash back bonuses. If they hit their goals and maintained their Supernova status, they could make over $100,000 dollars, unless of course they lost a ton actually playing. One player that I had a lot of experience with posted a thread for this in the uLHE forums on 2+2.
Do you know Tyler Durden?

 This strong competition was a big concern to me with regard to moving up in limits. Many veteran 2+2 posters like playing against MMTers because they had flaws in their game due to the fact that they were playing so many tables at once and you could see a pattern of play over and over again. I actually had some success against Mr. Durden when I played against him in 2009 because his strategy became so apparent and once could sit on his immediate left and exploit him. Anyways...
 I had was playing alot of hands early in the year which was a luxury given to me for 2 main reasons. My son who was 1 1/2 years old at the time, was taking long afternoon naps which would give me 2-3 hours of free time which I used primarily to play poker. 2 hours of 4 tables at 60 hands an hour would be 450-500 hands a day which was twice as much per day as a live poker grinder in the casinos. The other big reason, or I should say reasons was the fact that my wife was pregnant with twin boys. Once they were born, I knew that my time would evaporate for at least 2 months if not longer. It would take a while for all 3 kids to be in a sleeping pattern that may allow me some time to play poker once again and even then it may not be my A game. Possibly not even my C game.
 As I said before, the first 2 months of 2009 didn't go exactly as I had hoped, results wise. That was until March rolled in like a lion, but in my case, a good roaring lion. Perhaps, I was the lion, roaring and marching into March...oh never mind, it went fucking good ok?
 I one $337 in that month and had a winrate of 3.10 BB/100 over the course of 11,000ish hands. I was stoked to say the least. Another moneymaker in that month was some 180 man SNG (sit N gos) that I played. I won another $310 playing those with a 3rd place finish and a 2nd which was quite profitable.
March '09 had been the most profitable tournament month for me in my online poker playing up to that time. At the end of 2008  I had discovered these multi table SNGs which didn't have a 3,000+ player pool and could be much easier to make money while not risking anything due to the fact that Pokerstars allowed you to earn Tournament dollars that you could use instead of your bankroll. There was really no downside.
After having such a huge month, dollar wise, I decided that April would be the time to take the plunge into the waters of 1-2 FR LHE on Stars. It's funny when something like "run good" follows along with you as things become more difficult, but leaves your side in the times when it seems most simple. I crushed the 1-2 tables (when I played them) in April '09 running over 3.0BB/100, but was almost breakeven at .50-1 at the same time. I took in over $500 in cash game play and added another $50 in the one SNG that I placed in that month. In March, my profits were enough to have 300 BBs at 1-2 and added to my April profits I was rolled for 2/4 if I wanted to take a shot. Of course I didn't as I am a curmedgeon at heart and would not want to risk losing what I had worked so hard for...

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Coming to you live in God's Country.

So I decided to learn how to play Backgammon a few days ago. I saw a Hoyle's rules book in the beach house where I am staying and took a break from kid duty to read the rules. There was a backgammon set, but I didn't have anyone to play with, so I downloaded a droid application and went on to play over 200 games at different skill levels. This may be the next thing I become hooked on, unless I try Baccarat, which I could possibly try out in Vegas next month. I have a pretty basic idea of Backgammon strategy and I am torn between going online and looking up advanced strategies or just taking this game as a chance to learn something without any external help, beyond the basic things I have read.
I haven't had much time for live poker for the past 3 weeks which is a bit dis concerning given that my last 2 sessions were terrible as far as results go. I am itching to have another live session before I go to Vegas next month, partially so I don't get too rusty with respect to live play as well as the fact that I don't plan on playing poker 24/7 for the few days I am there. This trip to Vegas is going to be with 5 other guys and will pretty much be a "bachelor party" of sorts in their minds, while I will be hopefully relaxing a majority of the time whilst always with drink hand. I'd like to play some NLHE as I have only played LHE in Vegas the 5 times I've been there. My friends are looking forward to "Sin City", if you get my meaning, and I have a different mind set at the moment. Being a stay at home dad, I want to time to myself to wake up whenever I like and do whatever it is I want while on vacation. I am not looking to get a happy ending or put $1 bills in G-strings so when the group goes off to those activities, that will be my best chance to go and play poker. I am also looking forward to having a nice cigar and some scotch at Casa Fuente.


The online poker front has been going rather well in August. I have mostly been playing NLHE .02-.04, albeit at the shallow tables, which means a maximum buy-in of 50 BBs. I plan on playing the 100 BB max tables as soon as my online BR gets to $80 which will be 20 buyins. my current online BR is at a little over $71, which $32 of that has been winnings in August, not including rake back. I haven't been posting much strategy in the 2+2 forums, but I have a goal of starting to frequent the micro full ring forums as of September 1st if my BR is at $80. I know, I know. This is all very exciting. Perhaps that is why I have so many followers so far. It is rather interesting to think that I started my online bankroll, post Black Friday, with only .39 that I got on Cake Poker from trading in Gold cards from 2008. I've won a total of $55 since BF and the rake back helped me early on.

It strange to think of how much money I put into online poker, or should I say lost, back in 2005 before I ran good. It's also strange to think how I have built a uber-nano stakes BR with nothing in the past 4 months. When I get back home, my first blog goal is to begin the 2nd part of my poker journey which starts up in 2008. Regardless of what happened before, I look at that year as when I truly began to learn about playing LHE. I like to glorify the pre-UIGEA online poker times of 2004-2006, but I really enjoyed 2008-2010 when it comes to my own development and results. I am no where near being a finished product when it comes to poker and probably never will, but it seemed like the golden years to me. Kind of like Baseball in the 50's and 60's while the pre UIGEA days were like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.
Well, I will leave you with that for now and hope to hear from someone soon, especially with any suggestions on any of the subjects in my posts. Have fun, the summer is almost coming to an end.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Some more updates

I hope all is well with everyone. Things are going alright with my online challenge. Things were pretty tough for the first 3/4 of July as I got cold decked and dominated rather often, but then saw a some run good the last week which put me in the black. My bankroll is now up to $30 and hopefully I will be able to make it $50 by September 1st.
I mentioned before that I had my 2nd straight losing session at NLHE live poker a little over a week ago. I had been playing for close to 4 hours and knew that I would be leaving soon. I was down close to $150 at the time as I had seen a couple of big hands not improve or face alot of aggression which forced me to fold when I picked up Ace of spades and Queen of spades in early position. A poor player under the gun (UTG) limped for $2 and I raised to $15. all folded to the button who cold called, the small blind cold called, and then the first player who limped called the raise.
Now, AQ suited is a good preflop hand, but it's not that great against 3 other players. The flop comes down Q clubs, Q diamonds, 6 clubs. I have trip queens on a flush draw board. 2 players check to me and I bet $35 in to a $62 pot, which was a mistake at the time. I misread the board at first and didn't see the flush draw and bet 1/2 the pot which was too small. The button calls, the SB calls, and the player UTG reraises to $100, I quickly reraise all-in and the button goes into the tank which means that he has the nut flush draw most likely. The button finally folds, the SB folds and the UTG player sighs and calls. He has me covered by $20 and he flips over Q8s which puts him far behind me. He needs to hit a 6 for a split pot or an 8 to win. I am an 80% favorite to win the entire pot. This in my opinion, was a horribly played hand by the under the gun player. He limps with a weak Queen high suited gapper. Once I raise from early position and have 2 other callers, he should fold. He is easily dominated, even if he does hit top pair and will most likely be getting his money in behind if he does flop a flush draw and even then, there may be another better flush draw out there.
This villain had just sat down about 20 minutes earlier and had been stacked his first hand. to give you an idea of how poor this player was, he limped in late position with 56s and flopped top pair on a 6 4 4 flush draw flop. He bet out and I called with an overpair to the board. The SB check raised and this player reraised all-in with only top pair and a weak kicker. He ended up losing $100 on his first hand.
Back to the Q Q 6 hand. The turn card was a 6 which made it a split pot with one card left and of course I wouldn't be telling you this if it weren't for the river being an 8. That's poker.

I am looking forward to having another shot at the fish in my local casino and I only hope that things go my way if I get in to a situation as the one above. Have fun and I will talk to you soon.