Lady Gaygay

Tonight I saw Lady Gaga in concert. It was spectacular, in the sense that it was a spectacle. She's a high-energy entertainer and a talented singer.

I think my recent foray into the academics of business atop years of reviewing concerts as part of my newspaper career make me semi-cynical about concerts like this. I can see the factory working behind each calculated thing she says, does, sings and wears. Example: She's unabashedly embracing gay-icon status. Her upcoming album will be called "Born This Way"; she recently Tweeted urging the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell; she explicitly made gay references throughout her concert, including a short speech about DADT and a charity she supports to help homeless gays, there was guy-on-guy action on stage ... She even said, "As you all know, little monsters, I am a big supporter of gay rights," so it's not like I'm reading minds here. I'm gay and think this is all swell on one hand, but really I don't process it as, "Oh, this lady supports gays, how nice," I process it as, "Oh, this lady's handlers are implementing a carefully crafted marketing strategy to target an underserved segment, how nice." Anyway, great concert. Wonderful costumes, set design, theatrics and so on.

Today began as any other Thursday at the gym, where I realized how much I've internalized my education when I began wondering how I could best use the additional capacity acquired through the ridding of 550 pesky calories. Would I gain the most utility from enjoying the somewhat nebulous sense of accomplishment that I have improved my health, or that I lost perhaps a fraction of a pound? Or would I prefer to use this as permission to guiltlessly shovel 550 calories of food (or, perhaps better yet, booze) into my fat face? Then again, do I ever really feel guilty about what I eat or drink? I'm not even sure what might amount to 550 calories. A piece of chocolate banana cake? A serving of mac & cheese? What am I, a nutritionist all of a sudden?

The show was the end of a long day and the start of a busy weekend. If I can muster the strength, I am supposed to attend an all-day boot camp Friday for second-year students considering consulting. I have a great deal of work to do, however, so we'll see how I feel in the morning.