September 7th 2025:
Mayhem Ball Musing

Time: Naptime-slash-snacktime
Weather: Late summer weatherless weather
Listening To: LoveDrug by Lady Gaga
Moon: Full Moon in Pisces
Mood: Could be better; nostalgic
Gratitude: Creative expression, memory making, clean drinking water

On July 24th, 2025, a lifelong dream came true: I saw Lady Gaga perform live! This entry's all about my thoughts. Take my hand and come with to relive a night at the opera.

Some background first. In 2008, Lady Gaga was on the mind and mouths of millions, and often with a certain level of mockery, too. Much of the public did nawt know what to make of her. But this isn't the time nor place for a deep dive on the kaleidoscopic shifts surrounding Lady Gaga's image throughout the years––after all, we have a date at the opera house to attend!

Just know this. One fateful day, when I was 13 years old in every sense of the age and stuck in an orthodontist's chair, Poker Face warbled out from the office's crummy radio. And my first thought? "More music should sound like this."

That impression always stayed with me, single after single, album after album. Music still should sound like this, and thanks to Gaga, it does. Her third imperial era is a wonder for ears to behold! With how much I have loved her latest record, MAYHEM, I knew it was time. 17 years is a long time to adore an artist. So with a close friend at my side, the two of us made the pilgrimage.

Not gonna lie, I spent much of the concert being gagged over how short she is LMAO like of course I knew she was small, you can see it in pictures, but seeing it for myself was charming! She's fun-sized, a mighty mite!! This is all meant to be complimentary--I'm short too so I Get the grind.

Okay seriously now.

My wish is to bottle up my feelings about the concert and share it with you that way, to take a sip out of it yourselves. Or the opera, I should say. Even outside the set design, the show in many ways actually felt closer to a Theatrical Performance(tm) than a Typical Concert(tm). Much of this is due to the narrative created through the concert set. Of course, the song selection centered around MAYHEM's track list, but the order of performance, along with pieces from her previous albums, forms a story that's similar to a musical's structure. This direction is a wonderful compliment to MAYHEM's themes, and tbh themes present across her work. Lady Gaga has long been fascinated with duality, the darkness/ugliness/pain that's inherent in humanity, and how we must incorporate these qualities within ourselves for a more holistic sense of self.

Fame is also a theme that crops up frequently. Sometimes people can overlook that "fame" and "the celebrity" aren't always ideas meant to be taken literally in her music. Rather, they're concepts she abstracts into archetypes that everyone embodies at some point. Everyone has experienced notoriety to varying levels, even if it's at the level of high school cafeteria gossip. This is something explored in the concert, too.

You heard it hear first: Lady Gaga's discography will become a vital addition to philosophical discourse someday (kidding) (kinda) (trust).

Anyway, something else I admire about Lady Gaga is how she like. Fully gives herself over to her artistry. She never quits the bit. She's sooo committed to her performance, to the point where she's unafraid to be ugly or off-putting or unsettling. But it's because of this raw honesty that we as the audience are able to connect, but she doesn't sand off the rawness of being human!! Being unhinged in your art takes lots of bravery, but you're always rewarded for it by having something real. Life can be ugly, the world can be ugly! By expressing this, Gaga fosters an authentic connection with her audience despite the spectacle of the show.

Going back to the production, it took a lot of cues from rock and metal shows, and for the better tbh (Lady Gaga rock album when?). It gave haunted midnight mass, 300 year old red wine that may or may not be poisonous, paparazzi found at the scene of the crime, vestal virgin being buried alive in her cell because you're disallowed to kill her outright. It gave Pandemonium from Final Fantasy IX.

And all this hasn't even touched her talent yet! Obviously We Been Knew about her genius from recordings, but hearing it in-person is on another level. Actually god given. Her skill at modulating her voice with such ease is astounding; one second she's doing a death growl, and the next she's whipping out the classical chops. Highlights for me include the RELENTLESS first act, Perfect Celebrity, Disease, THE BAD ROMANCE FINALE!!! and so much more.

OH, and another dream come true: I wore lolita to see her!! Ahhhhh!! For the longest time I have been dead set on wearing old school lolita when I see her, and that happened! My coordinate was a variation of the Gobelin Dreams flatlay, with some tweaks and additions. I wanted to wear something high contrast to pay homage to the duality in MAYHEM's image, and this fit the bill! Also, let me say that sooo many people were dressed to the nines for the concert. Half the fun is seeing everyone's self-expression, creativity, and love. There's a lot of overlap in concerts and conventions in this way.

Just days after the concert, I turned 30. This was the perfect way to usher in this new decade of my life, by celebrating something that I loved as a child and continue to love into adulthood. It's like a culmination of sorts. Looking back over a month afterwards, it also excites me to image of what will be the next culmination--hopefully it's one surrounded by more love. Certainly, this is something to treasure forever!!

All in all, it's awesome to see Lady Gaga so back in her element, especially after the difficulties of this decade.

Here are some more pictures from the show, taken by my friend L. L has such an eye for photography--she knows how to get these stellar shots without being distracted from the actual performance! I'm so grateful she took these, haha. ;u; So we can relive it, and also for how potato-y my few pitiful attempts turned out.

WELL I'm not sure how to wrap up this entry other than saying THANK YOU for taking this trip back to the opera house. I hope it was as fun for you as it was for me! There's other things I want to catch you all up on, so talk to you soon!!

Love,
Sarah

August 21st, 2025: Catching up!

Time: Smack in the middle of the afternoon
Weather: Encroaching Heat
Listening To: The Night We Met by Lord Huron
Moon: Waxing Crescent in Leo
Mood: Alright! A bit fatigued...
Gratitude: Leading with love, the power of the human imagination, Lady Gaga's discography, Karkat/Terezi

Yikes, is it really the 21st of August? Long time, no write! I feel like I wrote a similar opener in my last diary entry, but alas, here we are.

Also like my previous entry, this won't be long either! It's mostly sake for of uploading this diary layout––which, as you can see, I'm doing a yearly one! While the seasonal ones are fun, they're going to be retired unless/until I feel like blogging more frequently about my life. Over the course of this year, I fell into a cycle where I wanted to write but it would be in-between seasons, so I felt like I had to wait to make a whole new layout, and by then the urge to journal would pass. So here we are! I wanted this diary to feel especially scrapbook-y and I think that comes across!

But anyway, I'm alive, yay! My summer turned out to be busier than expected. Not a bad thing by any means, but there's a lot to catch up on! Here are my current plans:

Look forward to it! I'm excited to start compiling these pieces, share them, and reconnect. But for now, I'll be back with another (more susbstantial) entry soon. Take care everyone!!

Love,
Sarah