Exercise 7: Angelina:Gaga's Alter- ego

The dry heat radiated of the stage walls. The floor was covered in what seemed like a dry seat, flowing and pouring over the stage and consuming the audience in a haze that produce an imagery seen. August in Chicago. Lollapalooza, again. Angelina sat on the back of the stage kicking the base as she swung her legs back and forth. The fans were there waiting beyond the curtain sipping beer, wine—booze and pot.

Two years earlier Angelina had just been part of a small performance on a side stage in the middle of the day. Back then before Lady Gaga was the IT name, an icon of the 21st century, Angelina had just been another small artists lucky enough to be performing at Lolla. She pulled a bottle to her mouth devouring the contents and throwing it toward the ground in the back. Her blond her streamed down her shoulders like a golden rocket taking off to find a home planet. The sun had started to frame the stage and the fans kept piling in. The hills to the sides of the stage beyond the VIP oasis’s were crowded with people and families trying to get a glimpse of Lady Gaga. She was dressed in a small silvery swimsuit and had red dripping down her face and neck. It was a statement about culture. About how women are subvert, but it was clouded. She was neither man nor women so had transcended gender into a sexless identity. Inside she was still Angeline, a girl from a small town in everyday America.

She got up and walked around the back of the stage. She stepped into the centerpiece the ragged fire- circle she’d raise from. Her legs folded over each other and she slumped forward in it hollowed out, shriveled and cold. It was going to be a long night the booze and the pot in the crowd swirled floating onto the stage. She was lost in a hazy, in the summer of 2008 setting up her own stage with little assistance from anyone else. she had come from nothing and become the symbol of a generation. A generation that seemed ilea defined lost in wars, money and sex. There was little left and people grew ever more bored. She was a sign of something.