Hey! It’s Tony! This morning was one of the best times of my life. I was going out shopping for a cheap suit for a Haunted Mansion type photoshoot I wanted to do before Halloween and you’ll never guess who I ran into. Well, actually I guess you can guess who with the header. LADY GAGA. She was walking down the street in a plaid button up shirt, without makeup, without a wig and no pants! Surprise surprise! That’s the only way I noticed her. I walked up to her and told her I love her music and it inspires me a lot in the stories and photography I write. She thanked me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. She seemed in a hurry to get to her car, so I asked for a quick picture. She giggled and said “I don’t even have my starfish in!” I said, “Girl, it’s fine. Work Taylor’s button up.” She laughed for a good minute and asked me what I was doing today. I told her I was going shopping for a suit for a photoshoot. She asked me if I was a model and now I was laughing. I thanked her but told her no and that I just really loved photography. Then the magical moment arrives, “Would you like to come hang out with me for a while?” I was so shocked she would ask me this. I’m STILL shaking! I asked her if she was sure and she said “Of course! I might even need your help!” I got into her car with her and a few other people I didn’t recognize. One of them being Tara, she was really sweet as well. I sat between here and Gaga. She told me were were going to the set of her music video VENUS. I was so excited. I asked her if I could call my mother and ask tell her Gaga kidnapped me and she said sure. So I called my mom and actually told her Gaga kidnapped me and she started freaking out thinking I was actually kidnapped. I let Gaga talk to her for a few minutes to tell her which studio we were going to and when I should be home. The rest of the car ride was pretty silent. We had some coffee and sang a little tho. We listened to the radio and Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus came on and Lady Gaga did some singing for me. Still laughing at the fact she knew the all the words. It was only about a 15 minute ride until we got to the studio.
We got out of the car and went into the studio. I got a backstage pass to wear. We got in and there was a table of donuts and sweet rolls and orange juice. It was so tasty. She went ahead and got changed into a white dress, the one you see in the photo above. She then came up to me and told me she had an idea and to wait here. Honey, I wasn’t going anywhere. She came back a few minutes later with a normal digital camera. “I want you to take some pictures of whatever you like today, but you can only keep one picture. You can share it as much as you want or you can keep it to yourself. But only one picture!” she laughed and they called her over for make up. The first thing I took a picture of was the table full of donuts. Then I took a picture of the giant blinding screen screen. I took pics of and with the slapboard that had “Venus” written on it and other stuff too.
I sat down for a while and watched the chatter of the crew, a couple of them coming up to meet me and one guy asked me who I was, etc. I was talking to one guy about how long he’d work here and how he wishes to one day be an actor, but this is all he could do for now. He was called over by a group of men and they opened up a garage on the side. Behind that garage door was a HUGE giant seashell. So beautiful with tiny sparkles on them and a HUGE golden claw on top of it looking like it was going to pry the shell open. I hadn’t seen Gaga in around 30-40 minutes until she came out of her dressing room singing a song I hadn’t heard before. She saw me and started whistling instead. She came over to me and asked what I thought about the shell. I told her it was amazing. She agreed and said it was made by some french guy I can’t dare to remember. (I hope it was French.) She told me to take any pics I like of her shooting and she handed me a bottle water, smiled and patted me on the back. “LET’S GET THIS BIRTH GOING!” she yelled. Everyone started laughing. She climbed up into the shell, that was now open. “Action!” All of the sudden the music started, it was Venus. She started singing along.I started taking pictures and couldn’t help dance behind the set a little bit. The chorus is amazing. But the bridge is the most magical thing I’ve ever heard. It’s like having sex in space. That’s the best way I can describe it. I took some pictures and the one from the banner is during the bridge. She did the song several times, in different positions and different angles, etc. After this was all done, she had a little break.
"What did you think?" she asked me. I told her I loved it and that this was one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. She thanked me and we sat and talked for a bit. I asked her if I could ask her a couple questions and she agreed. Here are the following questions:
Q: What’s going to go on the green screen behind you during this part?
A: Different things off and on, I can’t spill much, but it’s very colorful.
Q: What inspired the song Venus?
A: A lot of things inspired Venus, actually. I wrote this song when I was first thinking up ARTPOP. I actually thought of it when I went back home to be with family after surgery. I had to lay in bed for days and days. I have a book shelf next to my bed, in arms reach, and I grabbed one of the books I loved as a child. It was some book about the ocean. It had lots of photos and graphics of all types of sea creatures. I hadn’t looked in this book sense I was very little, so I pulled up Youtube and started looking up the animals in the book. There are animals in the ocean that can change colors, flash and do all sorta of things to stay alive and a light went off in my head. This is what I’ve been doing as Gaga. I’ve been dressing up, wearing plastic horns and everything to protect who I really am because I was nervous and scared that people wouldn’t like me for who I am and I needed to survive. So with ARTPOP I want to take all those crazy colors, all those designs and throw them into and album, that will help me survive.
Q: What’s your favorite movie you’ve seen in the last couple of years?
A: Hmm. My favorite movie…. oh! My favorite movie would be the new rendition of the Great Gatsby. It’s so beautifully directed and the actors are marvelous. Thanks for asking that, that reminds me I need to call Baz (the director) up.
Q: Are you and him friends?
A: I’ve met him a couple times and was going to be on the soundtrack for the film, however that never came to play due to schedule conflicts with ARTPOP.
Q: Will we ever hear this song?
A: You definitely will.
Q: There are rumors going around that you’d have ARTPOP 2? Is that true?
A: It was the plan to have two discs with the one album, 24 songs total. But we’ve put some of those songs on the APP that’ll you will be able to stream and download.
Those were all the questions I got to ask her before she was called back on set. She asked me which picture I wanted and she told me she’d email it to me as soon as she could. She thanked me for coming and hanging out with her, but that she was gonna film a new scene in the studio next door, but that I wouldn’t be able to come in due to someone else being there. She gave me a big kiss on the cheek and we walked out of the little room we were in. The shell was being rolled out the garage and the donuts had been replaced with pizza. She gave me one last hug and thanked me for coming again. She told me to take a box or two of pizza with me. I did. Then she was rushed off to the next studio. The driver that drove us here drove me back to my car and we talked about Gaga the entire time and listened to the radio. I got back to my car and my phone dinged. New email! It was the photo with a note from gaga.
"Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today. It was a pleasure to meet you! You’re so handsome! Are you sure you’re not a model??? I hope you have a great rest of the day and find your suit! Send me the pics when you finish them! I’d love to see them
xoxo
L.G.”
I teared up and couldn’t believe that any of this was real. I’d like to thank Gaga so much for what she did for me today! It was quite the experience! I love you so much Gaga! Thanks for all you do, never change!
-Tony!
Hmm. My favorite movie…. oh! My favorite movie would be the new rendition of the Great Gatsby. It’s so beautifully directed and the actors are marvelous. Thanks for asking that, that reminds me I need to call Baz (the director) up.
She went ahead and got changed into a white dress, the one you see in the photo above.
That pictures looks totally fake.
Quote:
Hmm. My favorite movie…. oh! My favorite movie would be the new rendition of the Great Gatsby. It’s so beautifully directed and the actors are marvelous. Thanks for asking that, that reminds me I need to call Baz (the director) up. [...] I’ve met him a couple times and was going to be on the soundtrack for the film, however that never came to play due to schedule conflicts with ARTPOP.
As if! That's not the way she answers and if she had really wanted to be part of it she would have recorded a song. I doubt "schedule conflicts" would be an excuse for her.
Quote:
It was the plan to have two discs with the one album, 24 songs total. But we’ve put some of those songs on the APP that’ll you will be able to stream and download.
It was kinda a rhetorical question 
