One Insane Week

So this is an update on last week's events; more specifically Monday's events, well and through Friday I suppose. So yes, most of the week.

Monday was when I had my interview with GaGa, which went relatively well. I was at Munich's Sofitel at 6:30 p.m., and met up with the people from Focus Online, who were doing a separate interview after mine. We were scheduled from 7:00 to 7:20, but didn't end up sticking up to that constraint. First, when we arrived we were taken up to her room, and I saw her leaving one room and going into another. But then her publicist from Universal told us we had to wait a bit so that she could get ready for the next interview.

So the people from Focus Online and I went down the hall a bit and chatted a while until we were called into the room. Then, Online set up all their equipment and I just sat and listened to people's conversations.

Finally, Lady GaGa entered and I sat opposite her with my tape recorder and notebook of questions. It was pretty cool to see her in person, but she definitely looks like she does in every picture of her. She was wearing a black shirt and black pants (that she made herself), black sparkled and bowed gloves, black sunglasses and bright pink heels. Also in her hair was her infamous "hair bow." (Photo by docjohnboy)

She has a very nice voice, kind of gravely and but also sexy. It's true. And I am saving my interview with her just because I can. My interview lasted ten minutes, and I asked her actually pretty basic questions, which later I was upset at myself for because I am sure she answered all of those a million times. It is hard to get her to say something out of the ordinary though because she is famous and has publicist. So, you know. Anyway, I think this is something that I will continuously have to work on, and I really need to concentrate on it because this was one of my biggest problems when I was in J-School. Dahhhhh. I've got to focus on what's NEWs, and not be content with all the same information everyone has heard before.

One of my favorite things she said was that she did so many shows while on tour with the New Kids on the Block so that she could pay for her extravagant stage performances. "Because I don't care about the money, I care only about the art," she said. Me too.

She also said " I really am Lady GaGa you know, it’s not like a made-up cartoon character that I put on every morning." Interesting.

But I found her to be a a bit different than I would expect a Pop star to be, and nice too. She knows a ton about music. She taught herself to play the piano by ear at the age of four, was singing at age 11 and was composing music at 13. She was also one of the 20 people in the world to get early acceptance into the Tisch School of the Arts. So she knows her stuff.


I also saw her perform at the DLD (Digital, Life, Design) Starnight. I thought she was really good. I thought it was a shame she didn't have an actual stage to perform on; she was level with the floor so not many people could see what was going on. I had to stand on a table. And I was one of the only people that knew the words to her songs, so I was singing my heart out. Haha. But her props are really cool, including her glowing disco stick, digital-screened metallic sunglasses and luminous disco glove. Also, her songs are broken up by short films, that star her but are very modern and artsy. I thought it was really good; I only wish I could have seen her and her dancers better.

Ok here is the story I wrote, not the original one with the whole interview but what I made it into after that:

American singer/songwriter Lady GaGa showed up to last week's DLD Starnight wearing a glittering electric glove not to fit in with the theme of DLD, but because the prop is fundamental to her "theatrical Pop" music style.
22-year-old Lady GaGa, referred to as "the future of Pop" by The New York Post, is known for her visual mulitmedia stage performances and multifaceted talent. Her debut album, "The Fame" has sold one million copies, with her single "Just Dance" topping the charts in the US, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
"I worked really hard. I played two shows a night for months and months, sometimes three shows, press all day and no sleep, and late nights, and designing all the clothes and the show... I actually did that many shows so that I could pay for the extravagant stage performances that I wanted to put on," Lady GaGa said.
Her name originates from the Queen classic "Radio Ga Ga." Lady GaGa's producer, Rob Fusari, used to call her Ga Ga in the studio, because "I have these very theatrical stage performances, very dramatic presence," she said.
Born in New York as Joanne Stefani Germanotta, GaGa started out learning the basics of music and has since worked her way up the music industry ladder.
"I've been a classically trained pianist since I was 4. I began to sing when I was around 11 and started to compose my own music when I was 13," GaGa said. She has written songs for Britney Spears as well as thePussycat Dolls, and is currently touring with the latter as part of their Doll Domination World Tour 2009.

This is what the story turned into after translation, thanks to Kerstin:

Um auf der begehrten „Starnight" des Innovations-Events DLD zu performen, bedarf es nichts weniger als der „Zukunft des Pop". So preist die „New York Post" Lady GaGa, die im Münchener Haus der Kunst mit elektronischem Glitzer-Handschuh und Disco-Zepter eine Multimeldia-Show hinlegte, dass dem Avantgarde-erfahrenen Publikum die Spucke wegblieb. „Theatralischen Pop" nennt die 22-jährige Newcomerin, mit der Single „Just Dance" Spitzenreiterin der Charts in den USA und England, ihre innovative Tour, für deren Songs, Texte und Kostüme sie verantwortlich zeichnet. So gaga die Lady sich gerne gibt, als Künstlerin wählte sie den klassisch braven Weg. Klavierstunden mit vier, Gesangsstudium mit 11 Jahren: ganz schön „old school"! bcm

There was a problem though, and I didn't realize it until it was brought to my attention by the Dokumention department, who checks every story for factual accuracy. They reported to me that she did not have Klavierstunden (piano lessons) but learned piano by ear. I did know this. Why did I not catch it. I should have asked Kerstin what this word meant, but if I had thought about it, I would have caught it. It's my fault. I wasn't paying enough attention to make sure that everything was right. On a similar note, Gesangsstudium (studying singing) is incorrect too, because in the beginning she was self-taught. I knew that too.

DAMMIT.

I was so mad at myself. Because I didn't really know the schedule of production day-to-day, I was told I would get a call from Doku but I never did. So during the Friday meeting, Stephan told me to go see them. And then I found out that those things were wrong. So then I had to go to the department that finalizes each page and tell them I needed to make corrections. I felt really bad because they had already sent in the page and now they had to get it back to fix it. I could tell that this was happening at a pretty late point in production, and I was stressing out quite a bit. Because those things were wrong, the ending didn't make sense. So Peter had to come and rewrite the ending. He did it extremely fast, but I felt like a dunce because I just stood there, because I couldn't rewrite it myself. I just kept saying "Sie hat sich alles selbst gemacht. Sie ist eine Autodidaktin." Yah, I think they got it.

But it's ok. It was my first article, so of course mistakes can happen. And I always learn something.

1. Ask better and unique questions to get better and unique answers.
   
2. Write for the GERMAN audience!
   
3. Pay attention during every step and make sure everything makes sense!

I am still mad at myself. Because that's me. I always want things to be perfect, and they almost never are.

But I am still excited that something with my name (well, bcm) is coming out in Focus tomorrow. Hazzah!



FURTHERMORE (yeow this is a long one), I attended the last day of the DLD Conference, and I found it to be very interesting. There I met Dr. Hubert Burda (who is the head of Hubert Burda Media, durrr), Marissa Mayer, vice president of Search Product and User Experience at Google, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and creator of Facebook. I also met the lovely Julia Allison, who is a weekly columnist in Time Out New York and co-founder of nonsociety.com. She's written for TONS of magazines, was the Editor-at-Large of Star Magazine and has made more than 350 on-air appearances for shows like CNN, MSNBC, Vh1, Fox, E!, CBS and NBC.





I liked meeting all of these people, but it also depresses me a little bit because they are my age (or YOUNGER) and have already done so much with their lives. I keep telling myself if I can just find that niche, it will happen.

Easier said then done.

But Julia told me something very useful: never take "no" for an answer, and always, ALWAYS portray confidence, even when you're not sure of yourself.

Two things I definitely have to work on... and I need to get crackin'...